My A1200D Project

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Small tweak time.

My System started showing the wrong date and time at boot up so I suspected the Lithium battery on the BPPC. Lo and behold it was only 2.5V, which isn't quite enough for reliable operation.

So I needed to replace it.... but I decided to mod it a little at the same time: -

Here's the offender

Its soldered in so I removed it

Whats this? A use for the big hole the original fan left!

I added a few small drops of super glue to hold it in, then wired into the original battery holes

Ignore the CR2032, it should be an ML2032 or VL2032. (the original Batt is a VL2020, RECHARGEABLE! I didn't notice the "VL")

There ya go!

 

[johnim]

nice little idea there mate

 

[fitzsteve]

Lol Les you're just nutz

But I love it, great haxz as always

 

[r0jaws]

Nice one, although I don't think mine has read the right time since I got it.
Is that a rechargeable replacement? Also, is the mark by the solder point on the left indicating positive?
I really must get round to doing this, and beefing up my cooling in line with what you have done, but I have so much else on. I will have to make time.

 

[Phipscube]

Cheers Guys, I thought how annoying it is to change the batt! (basically had to strip the old girl half down to get the PPC and BV out) So decided to make life easier in future.... granted it might not be for another 10 years or so but hey!

Phil, The purple wire is positive and I did mark it on the board too

And Good job you mentioned Rechargeable! I'd forgot! HA! well I need to source a Rechargeable VL2032 or similar to put in there instead of the standard CR lithium So ignore the last photo!

(Good job i'd not powered her up lastnight to check)

Edit: -

Just ordered an ML2032

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maxell-ML..._Batteries&hash=item255a921dfe#ht_2091wt_1163

Thanks again Phil for mentioning this! PHEW! I was going to fire up the Amiga lastnight and didn't due to feeling tired out after dealing with the kids, just plonked out in front of the TV instead! How lucky!

I owe you one of these :beer:

 

[r0jaws]

You're welcome buddy, I couldn't see a resistor/ diode so thought I'd better check.

 

[johnim]

so you need a diode if replacing with non rechargable as i was going to replace my 1230/1260 blizzard ones

 

[r0jaws]

Yes, have a look HERE, Justin asked the same question.

 

[johnim]

thanks phil

 

[Phipscube]

I've seen the diode mod used before its a good way to use inexpensive CR2032 I'd like to still use a rechargeable though (I was just so absent minded yesterday! note to self, don't mod when tired!). TBH, I didn't plan that mod, it just annoyed me that I had to strip the computer to get the battery out! probably a bit overkill, I could have just bought an exact replacement VL2020 and soldered it in for another 10 years of service, I just got whacky!

 

[johnim]

hi les found these buy 2 and get 1 free too
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180766661687?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#shId

 

[Phipscube]

Yeah I saw them John, cheers though mate! I ended up plumping for a slightly more expensive branded Maxell

 

[Phipscube]

I've been tweaking still. Here's a few pics from the last month or so: -

It's time to replace the caps on BVPPC. 3 here..

Done!

4 on top

Sorted. 5 106 caps and 2 107 caps to do BV.

I'm Adding 2 fans to BV and ditching my case fans. this is so I can run the machine with the lid off for longer than 10 mins, without fear of frying the Permedia 2 chip.

Fixed on with 2mm screws and a small dollop or super glue at the base of each sat in the heat sink. Cut and routed both wires to a header.

I took off the express mode jumpers as sometimes the machine would boot with an exclaimer saying that express mode was off. I suspected the jumpers, and since I wont ever run in non-express I decided to hard solder. No problems now I also cleaned up the board a bit and applied some lacquer.

I got a new PLCC socket for my Indivision from Cosmos. Sometimes my system would have no screen from cold boot. This better quality connector should hopefully solve the problem.

Taken off the plastic bits with a dremel

here's the old socket (in all its sanded-down-from-new glory)

Out ya come old chap

I added a spacer to help with connecting IDE cables to the IDEFIX. This will stop the Indi popping off when I apply pressure.

The new socket is on now. You can see how the spacer helps here. (The Ide Fix express is on top).

Finished off with a bit of a clean and laquer

Now to replace the caps on BPPC.

Off they come on one side.

And new ones added.

Fan and heatsink off PPC some are under that. But there is also one under the oscillators.

Oscillators off too. Here's a zoom out view. (Notice I have the correct ML2032 Rechargeable Batt now too)

If you look closely, I have a job with the two caps near the glued on nuts. they are half covered in glue

No probs, here's most of the other side done....

But I looked between the pins of the 060 and saw what looked like more caps, after Cosmos confirmed there are 3 more there, I took off the 060 and lo behold!

New ones in As you can see, Oscillators, heatsinks and fan are back on. all in all for non SCSI its 33 106 caps and 5 107 caps. you need 5 more 106 for SCSI.

So there are my tweaks gathered together. I have a few more to do too. Little things i've noticed that are a bit annoying. So hopefully they refine this beast even more

Thanks for looking!

 

[Cosmos]

- Super ! Good capacitors installed !!

Small 10uF are from Avx
and big 100uF from Kemet

 

[Phipscube]

And thank you Cosmos for supplying these very good quality capacitors to me

 

[r0jaws]

Truly impressive work Les.
I love the way you casually mention "popping off" the unsocketed 060 CPU as if you were merely moving an inconvenient pack of sausages out of the way in your fridge!

 

[Phipscube]

HAHA! I did mention it a bit trivially. It was quite time consuming in reality. I had to REALLY concentrate hard near the SIMM socket too, its literally half a mm away from meltosimm on that last row of pins. Ultra concentration! These photos do make it look all wish wooosh though. The Desolder machine at work is an old beast (Weller), but it works great. I had the 060 out in about 20 mins. The whole caps replacement took around 1.5 hours on the BPPC.

I didn't REALLY need to replace the caps, well, I think I made up in my head that I could see some screen bleed so decided to do it. Afterwards I discovered that its probably the monitor i'm using is on the blink!

It was good fun though! I also found out how the CPU had been doing under the wacky Heatsink and fan combo... Very well! The arctic silver was still as it should be (not hard and dry) and the connection to the copper plate was sticktastically perfect! The CPU top was a nice colour, no signs of overheat. So yea, an all round fun and satisfying job

 

[fitzsteve]

Les you're Nuts

In a good way

 

[Phipscube]

Hehe! Ta Steve!

 

[Phipscube]

Ok, I've had a bit of a scare over on eab. A user named 8bitbubsy is suggesting i've got possible heat damage on my BPPC board He circled the area thus: -

The light green patch in the middle.

Now i'm wondering what to do. I'd like a few more opinions on this.

Its possible that the "damage" is caused by the CPU, it seems to be inline with the position of the copper plate under the 060. Looking at my 060 when it was out, the copper plate looked great and showed no signs of the type of excessive heat that could cause damage to a PCB, Especially since the plate rests 4mm above! This card has certainly not ever run with the 060 above 68 deg C since I owned it. And back then that was only for period of time. Now its been running around 60 Deg C since putting heatsink and PPC fan on (blowing air across it).

So it may be possible that this happened with the original CPU and owner, I THINK the board used to be an 040/160MHz PPC.

I hope maybe Stanis, Cosmos and some other guys that have experience with repairing many PPC boards may be able to comment.

Is this heat damage?
Is it a common fault with the BPPC?
Should I start to worry?
What should I do to prevent further damage if it is?