I've just been given a rev 6a a500 with 0.5mb 'trilogic' trapdoor expansion (Trilogic were a local Yorkshire computer shop - they also made the 'expert cartridge' for the c64). This is the 2nd a500 I've owned, my first one was back in the 80's - no idea what happened to it.
Anyhow, after recapping the a500 & the expansion (1 cap on that!) I've now eradicated the random guru's that were occurring. I can now boot from most of the floppies that I've been loaned which are mainly old cover disks, so of limited use. Feels good to have resurrected the old girl.
The keyboard has some non functional columns of keys 'f3,4,r,f,v' & '(,9,6,3,.'. A quick look over the membrane shows no obvious breaks, but a prior owner spilled some coffee into the keypad so I've given that a good clean out. I've got a rigid membrane on order so hopefully that will solve the issue.
An RGDB2HDI & RPi Zero are also in the post - I'm using an HDMI upscaler at the moment but the quality is pretty poor. I've also got a gotek coming so I can at least mount some adf's and do something half useful
The Kickstart roms are 1.3, but I have a TL866 & adaptor so will most likely buy a 3.1.4 license and burn some roms to maximise hardware compatibility - I may also put a rom switcher in so I can revert to the 1.3 roms if needed.
I'd like to add IDE, a modest speed improvement, 8mb fast ram, and potentially 1mb chip/1mb slow (or 2mb chip??) - but am not sure which is the best way to go/what mix of addons will achieve the best result. This is the main reason that I've joined Amibay, to have a good look around and see what might best fit my needs. A suggestion on another forum was an ACA500+, but although that looks great I need any addons to be inside the a500 case.
I'd be very grateful of some guidance - including if I need to post a general 'advice wanted' thread in a more suitable place.
Ben
Anyhow, after recapping the a500 & the expansion (1 cap on that!) I've now eradicated the random guru's that were occurring. I can now boot from most of the floppies that I've been loaned which are mainly old cover disks, so of limited use. Feels good to have resurrected the old girl.
The keyboard has some non functional columns of keys 'f3,4,r,f,v' & '(,9,6,3,.'. A quick look over the membrane shows no obvious breaks, but a prior owner spilled some coffee into the keypad so I've given that a good clean out. I've got a rigid membrane on order so hopefully that will solve the issue.
An RGDB2HDI & RPi Zero are also in the post - I'm using an HDMI upscaler at the moment but the quality is pretty poor. I've also got a gotek coming so I can at least mount some adf's and do something half useful
The Kickstart roms are 1.3, but I have a TL866 & adaptor so will most likely buy a 3.1.4 license and burn some roms to maximise hardware compatibility - I may also put a rom switcher in so I can revert to the 1.3 roms if needed.
I'd like to add IDE, a modest speed improvement, 8mb fast ram, and potentially 1mb chip/1mb slow (or 2mb chip??) - but am not sure which is the best way to go/what mix of addons will achieve the best result. This is the main reason that I've joined Amibay, to have a good look around and see what might best fit my needs. A suggestion on another forum was an ACA500+, but although that looks great I need any addons to be inside the a500 case.
I'd be very grateful of some guidance - including if I need to post a general 'advice wanted' thread in a more suitable place.
Ben
