GVP A530 Restoration Project

WonkeyDonkey

WonkeyDonkey

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AmiBayer
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Hi all,

So as some of you will have seen in the forum, I have started a project to restore a GVP A530 to her former glory. Ive always been a fan of the Amigas, in particular the 500 and 500+, so the A530 was the natural choice, and is in my opinion the best accelerator out there for the 500's.

I obtained this unit from ebay some time ago, from a seller who I believe is in the forums here. Shes works ok electrically and arrived as described by the seller, but I wasn't happy with her overall. This is more about me being a bit of a perfectionist than anything else, and not a criticism of the original seller.

So now, we can get straight into it. Here comes the first lot of pics :

GVP0.JPG

First pic of her stripped down and laid bare. And yes, there is an additional toggle switch included in the pic. I have spared you from the considerable amount of dust and crap that had built up between the baseplate and the PCB.

GVP1.JPG

Baseplate inside...

GVP2.JPG

And then from the outside. Its in good condition overall, but the pics above are after I have spent several hours carefully buffing by hand using a wadding polish. Its starting to get the mirror effect which looks good, but the rust or whatever it is in the bottom of the grain effect metal just wont come out despite all the buffing. The overall finish then is ok, but not good enough for my liking. Will have to do something else about that...

GVP3.JPG

Front side of the PCB. Not bad condition overall. This is after I have cleaned it up using a can of spray PCB cleaner, a soft toothbrush and a bit of time. Ive also cleaned the CPU/FPU sockets and reseated them after a clean up using the wadding polish on the top of the CPU and FPU. The CPU is a MC68030RC33B and the FPU is an XC68882RC50A. I have plans for these also...

The cabling on the power connector feels hard and brittle. That just wont do for me...

The oscillator chip is a 40Mhz part and is in good shape.

GVP4.JPG

And the back of the PCB. Again, cleaned with PCB spray and a soft toothbrush, she has come up well. No signs of any breaks in the soldering on either side of the board. Thats good!

GVP5.JPG

The memory slots on the PCB. They look ok but the lugs at either side that hold the simms in place are broken. These will need replacing...

GVP6.JPG

Now to the external cover. This is in fair condition. No yellowing or signs of damage, and the labels are undamaged too. Just given a quick clean with a mild detergent for now.

GVP7.JPG

Inside the cover. Needs a bit more cleaning here. I have removed the fan as it was making a terrible noise and didnt seem to be shifting much air either.

GVP8.JPG

The other bits from inside. 2 x 4Mb GVP simms cleaned up nicely with the PCB cleaner. The SCSI cable feels hard and brittle, so that will get replaced. The brass pins for mounting the hard drive are actually motherboard standoffs that screw in from underneath the baseplate and help to secure the PCB also. The side cover shield is a bit messy but that will soon cleanup I reckon.

GVP9.jpg

The 4.3Gb Quantum LPS hard drive. This works, but is very old. Ive decided not to keep this as it is noisy and well past its service life. I just dont trust it enough to use in a production system so it will have to go and an alternative will need to be found.

So overall, not bad so far, but still not good enough for my standards.

More updates to follow.....

:)
 
As a suggestion, you can replace the SCSI drive for one of those SCSI CF readers: they intend to be external (or at least externally accessible), but they can manage most types of flash cards (CF & SD, mainly).

You can buy one from Mechware for not much. Silent operation, low power consumption. I think this device will use as much space as a common SCSI HD, but not much more.
 
Yep, I have one of those already. Not suitable for this project though unfortunately.

Its a really nice unit as well, but when placed inside these it doesnt fit too well at all. Ive even removed the PCB from its case and done it that way, but the length of it is an issue as well by the time the plugs are connected to the rear. It also fouls the front panel switch too. When the CF card is inserted, it makes it just too long.

I could probably force it in there at a push but its not the way I would like to do it.

Ive eyed up something else which will fit far better and looking into it now :)

As to the reader you have mentioned though, I can highly recommend them as fully working for an Amiga solution if anyone else is looking.

:)
 
Next stage complete. I now have in my possession the replacement processors :

CPU : MC68030RC40B

FPU : MC68882RC40A

GVP11.JPG

These will allow this unit to run at its full potential speed.
 
Next up is the new disk system. Ive already decided against a mechanical disk because of both noise and reliability issues.

I had already bought a SCSI Card Reader from a4000t.com. This works well when connected up, but there are 2 issues I had with it for this particular project. First of all because it is a full card reader, it has 5 slots for the different card types. When booting from a CF card, it polls each of the card connectors which introduces a small but noticable delay in boot time.

Second, the size of the unit with cabling attached and the CF card protruding from the other end, it is simply too long to sit comfortably inside the A530 case. I tried removing the PCB from its casing, but still the problem exists.

The card reader pcb :

GVP12.jpg

And the other side :

GVP13.JPG

So, a new idea was needed for this. You may have read in various forums including AmiBay, of a device call the AztecMonster. This is a SCSI device that hosts a CF card only and is much smaller than the full size one above.

Ive done an initial test with this and it works perfectly and boots up much faster too.

There are actually 2 models; the AztecMonster as a 3 1/2 inch disk replacement, and the PowerMonster which is similar but a replacement for a 2 1/2 inch drive.

Here you can see the AztecMonster up close and its much smaller size; notice also the holes in the pcb; these match up correctly to the mounting posts inside the A530 unit, and there is also an additional activity LED connector :

GVP14.jpg

Finally, a decent CF card to use as the system drive. Having read up on these, I was split between Transcend and SanDisk Extreme. Both have really good reports and have been confirmed to work in these type of setups for the Amiga. In the end I went for the SanDisk Extreme. I ordered this from an authorised SanDisk Reseller. I found several reports of these cards being sold on the other bay, that were cheap fake copies and very poor quality.

This is the original SanDisk Extreme, and passes all of the validation tests to prove its authenticity. I sent for the 4Gb model :

GVP15.JPG

As mentioned earlier, it works flawlessly in the AztecMonster, a really nice pairing.

The restoration continues...
 
Next step now completed !

The metal plate that forms the base of the unit; I spent a fair while buffing this initially with wadding polish, but the result just wasnt good enough. Pics of that :

GVP1.JPG

GVP2.JPG

So I decided to go for a more professional finish. I researched several companies on the web for this next step and very pleased with the result. The plate was sent away to a specialist company to be chemically dipped and stripped, followed by a nice new coat of chrome plating to brighten her up.

The outside view :

GVP16.JPG

And now the inside :

GVP17.jpg

Note the small dirty patch in the corner inside. This was a small but very hardened plastic patch of some kind; not quite sure what it was for. Completely impossible for me to remove. It was eventually removed by the chemical process but has left a small dirty spot. Not bothered about that though.

The overall finish looks truly amazing and much better than the pics above; I can safely say I could shave in this baby. She looks well smart now!

The project continues...
 
Ok, so some more bits I have now sourced.

A brand spanking SCSI cable from amigakit.com :

GVP18.JPG

A replacement controller chip; this is version 4.15. Quite grubby looking but will do the job just fine :

GVP19.JPG

One of the bits Im really looking forward to; the GVP PC286 bridgeboard :

GVP20.JPG

Getting closer to completion now :)
 
Next stage now complete.

The pcb for this has been sent away to one of our resident soldering gurus, Bad_ad84.

He has attached a brand new molex plug and wires to replace the old somewhat brittle one. He has also replaced the external 25 pin socket with a brand new one as well. The work on the pcb itself is now complete.

Continuation of the visual goodies then; first of all the new wiring :

GVP22.JPG

And the shiny new rear socket :

GVP23.JPG
 
Now the reassembly can begin bit by bit.

So far I have the newly chromed baseplate, the restored and cleaned pcb, a new shielding layer I cut to match the inside of the baseplate (I used an old A500 plastic shield for this and simply cut it to fit), the new disk assembly, and the PC286 emulator board.

With all these bits assembled its starting to take shape again :

GVP24.jpg

GVP25.JPG

The new processors are also in there. Ive also attached the AztecMonster pcb and the main pcb itself with some nice rounded cap nuts.

:)

The only part I've not been able to find for this project so far is the co-processor for the PC286 board. The manual states this should be an Intel 80C287-12; apparently the 12 at the end represents the speed of it. There are a few available on ebay, but the fastest Ive been able to find is a 10 Mhz one i.e 80c287-10. Not sure if this would be suitable or not.

Any suggestions as to whether it would be suitable or not, please post away :cool:
 
Wow this is a true labour of love right here!

I suspect the A500 / A500+ you plumb this up to is going to have some serious grooming done to it as well!
 
Zetr0 said:
Wow this is a true labour of love right here!

I suspect the A500 / A500+ you plumb this up to is going to have some serious grooming done to it as well!
Click to expand...

Yep, its a 500+ I have to hook it up with. Ive been quietly gathering several parts for this too, and although it will be getting a fair amount of work done, it will be finished to a similar standard too.

While Im on, I want to say a big thanks to Adam (Bad_ad84) for his help and input too. He is a really friendly guy and will I can thoroughly recommend his work in respect of the soldering stuff. He has also burnt me a couple of new rom chips for it too, which are much better than i had previously.

:thumbsup:
 
This makes me miss GVP. They made quality hardware and when DCE took over it wasnt the same.

Lovely restoration. Like the 286 addon too :)
 
Methanoid said:
This makes me miss GVP. They made quality hardware and when DCE took over it wasnt the same.

Lovely restoration. Like the 286 addon too :)
Click to expand...

The 286 would be perfect if I could find a co-pro for it. Cant get one anywhere so far but I keep looking.
 
That first one is the wrong speed.

As for the others, I might try him. I dont see one listed there mind you.
 
Methanoid said:
This makes me miss GVP. They made quality hardware and when DCE took over it wasnt the same.
Click to expand...

Hmm... confusing with Phase5 perhaps? I don't think DCE ever produced any GVP stuff, GVP-M still occasionally do, though.
 
@wonkey Donkey

what co-pro are you looking for?


I collect processors and co-pro's too so what you looking for exactly?

I am sure if I can I would like to dontate it to your restoration project - just promise to take super-hires-jaw-dropping-hardware-pr0n pictures =)
 
Intel 80C287-12

I have sent him a link to an AMD -12. Dont know if he wants to go AMD, but it should be the same really.
 
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