picked up the A500 yesterday

[jvdbossc]

Yesterday I picked up an Amiga 500, it has 2.1 roms, so I will build in a rom switcher with the 1.X and 3.1 rom.

It had a nice bonus:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1218

I am afraid however the hard disk is a gonner, it times out. (with that age is normal)

My unit has exact the same casing, exept it has a power led (red extra). It looks, looking at the rom screen it supports 8 devices and it has an external connector, looking like a print port.

It is heavy and bulky, it is not wise to move the A500 around with this connected.

What would be the cheapest solution to get it going? SCSCI hardware, old stuff are easy to find here. (administrators who take stuff home etc..)

How is this type of scsci called?

Should I look for a convertor to ide, or look for old server hardware to use on it? I have some scsci drives at home, but I think they are called ultra wide scsci.

 

[Zetr0]

@jvdbossc

you have quite an interesting bit of kit

• SCSI 2 controller
• FAS216 controller IC
• uses polled I/O, not DMA transfer
• autoboot ROM - autoboots even under Kickstart 1.2
• version 2.2 and below does not support streamers and is not RDB compatible
• 50 pin internal header
• DB25 external SCSI connector
• place for a 3.5" hard disk inside the case
• disable switch
• connects to side expansion port, no passthrough connector
• A-Max II and Medusa drivers

• MacroSystem version (1991)
• two 30 pin SIP sockets for up to 8 MB RAM
• accepts 1 or 4 MB SIPs in pair

I have high-lighted in colour some interesting features -

1. This card uses a PIO (Programed Input/Output) Polled Interupt
Unfortunately this is slower, much slower than DMA, and will use CPU cycles. but hey... its a hardrive!

2. Autobooting under KS1.2 is not common
Hence pretty damn cool!

3. RDB is a standard these days,
if you want to transfer drives between a PC and Amiga your AMIGA hardware will need to support RDB. Some Amiga Disk Programs will not work without RDB, so check your revision

4. There are two PCB versions of this card,
One version has SIP sockets (2x 30pin row of socket hearders) where as the other has 2x 30pin SIMM sockets.

The good news is that you can replace the SIPP sockets for SIMMS very easly, standard 30 pin SIP's and 30 Pin SIMM's are directly physically/electrically compatible.

If you need some 30pin SIMM sockets I have a couple I can send =)

Now here is a link to the software thanks to amiga.resource.cx

A nice find, I hope you get the time to make a picture blog of setting it all up. =)

 

[imnogeek]

There are SCSI converters around and they do not cost much. The chances are you would want 68 pin for your drives to 50 pin in the case

see here for a reference to SCSI connectors http://www.cablestogo.com/resources/scsi.asp

you would also need to set the ID on your drive to 0-7 (use the same as the origional drive)

Gary

 

[jvdbossc]

ok

ok

Will post some pics, first pics will be the 4000d finishing (I bought the mediator) and cable to fit in an atx psu. (dislike the sound of the psu, and I do not wan't to mess with a psu, know adding some extra ventilation holes and a resitor or etc might..)

Also ordered some case badges for the 4000 to cover some mispraed painting:shhh: and might just ad a badge over the front switch

For 30 euro's A500,hd, extra mem, all in yes it is a bargain. Not sure that I need more memory on this system, since the A4000 is in the same room and there is already a small ram card in the A500. Have somewhere a bridgeboard for A500 (kcs) that delivers also 1 meg to the amiga.

There are already some A500 pictures in the post here everytime you get something new

Will first have a look for a scsci convertor piece then.

Will open the scsci enclosure and takes some pics of it in detail, maybe there is something in, like a rom that might be interesting to others to upgrade or so..

---------- Post added at 14:59 ---------- Previous post was at 14:35 ----------

http://www.shopwiki.nl/_Intern+verloop+50-pins+(Male)+->+HPCN68+(Female)

will have a look at the disk in the weekend

thanks for the help ofcourse

 

[Zetr0]

@jvdbossc

I figure I can help you with your hardware adventure =)


1. you can convert SCSI to IDE, so you get the power of SCSI and the cheapness of IDE

For 13 euro's (+ 6 euros Postage) you can get a SCSI to IDE bridge (click image for BIN ebay.be)


2. 50pin to 68pin SCA adapter -

for 4 euro's (+ 1.50 euros Postage) - (eBay.be BIN)

perhaps the best (in sense of cheapest)
Multi SCSI adapter 50-68 and 80 $1 + ($3 pnp to belgium) (BIN ebay.com)

3. SCSI Harddrives

The controller you have will be limmited, I would suspect that the maximum it would be able to use is 2GB of store, however you might get a little lucky and get away with a bigger unit

4GB SCSI 68 U2Wide €5.59 + €15PnP (click for BIN ebay.be)

you should be able to find some good buys on fleabay, just watch the postage as it can really put some options out the window.

Theres no harm in getting a big drive and only being able to use a small portion of it... but I wouldn't want to get anything thats larger than 9GB to only be able to use 2 GB of it.

4. SCSI Cable

for €6 (inc postage) 50pin internal SCSI cable (BIN ebay.be)

Although I could prolly post a cable to you for about 4 euros lol!

Anyway, i do hope that ramble helps.

 

[jvdbossc]

ok

ok

many thanks, will order two, this is possible right? 8 devices?

thought it was more expensive, so was looking for scsci devices, but anyway being able to use ide means being able to use flash, having the inpression that flash works quicker on amiga..

many txs, happy newyear.

 

[rkauer]

Seven! The 8th device is the controller itself. Terminators don't count as devices, BTW.

 

[TheCorfiot]

I always thought that the max devices on the SCSI Bus were 7 including the controller taking up one of those seven..oh:

Dear oh Dear
TC :shhh:

 

[jvdbossc]

first look inside

first look inside

I had a first look at it inside, when opening the case, i noticed the red led was an store mod, the cable came loose, looking at the color of the solder, it was not soldered properly. This is not a prob, I can do this myself so...

Some pics with the memory:

Last pic with the A500 with still the dust on it.

http://yfrog.com/3djvb4062jx

 

[chain]

I always thought that the max devices on the SCSI Bus were 7 including the controller taking up one of those seven..oh:

Dear oh Dear
TC :shhh:

it starts counting from zero