Old friends /2

Two small updates on the Amiga restoration project.

First: it seems there’s no simple way to get a flatscreen TV to display an Amiga video output in color, so I got myself an A520 modulator from eBay. Not for the modulator part, of course, but for its ability to produce color composite output.

Second: my old friend Marcello let me borrow his A500. We were hoping it was still working (he hasn’t tried turning it on since 1998) and in that case I could use it to ADFize my floppies and if the mobos are compatible to swap chips with mine as a rough component tester. Well, turns out it’s not only in almost perfect working condition (only the FDD button is missing, but it turns on and boots from floppy disks) but almost identical to mine, being a rev. 6a mobo with Big Agnus (8372A). The keyboard is slightly different (LEDs are red for power and green floppy instead of green and yellow, and the floppy is clickier than mine), but it’s definitely the same sub model, albeit produced one year before.

I’m gonna run some tests this weekend.

Old friends

Finally got my hands on my Amiga 500 that had been stored in my parents garage for the last 23 years or so.

I bought this amazing machine back on January 2 1991 from a reseller who also was a hardware engineer specializing in Amiga accessories. With it I got a Philips CMxxxx 14″ monitor with SCART input (the unbadged version of the CBM 1084S), a DB23 to SCART cable, and a NEC P20 printer. Oh, and a Hardital RAM expansion with RTC. Hardital was the name of the reseller/manufacturer, entirely run by an engineer whose pieces of hardware weren’t exactly of the highest quality, but cheap enough for a 16yo whose passion wasn’t weel seen by his parents (remember Springsteen’s “goddammit guitar” intro to “Growin’ up” in the Live 75-85 album? At my home, it was the goddammit computer. And yes, there was a goddammit guitar as well. But I digress.).

The Philips monitor blew up after a couple years and I got a Philips TV to replace it. I kept using this machine until 1994, when I inherited my first DOS machine, a 2Mb RAM, 60Mb HDD 386SX 1992 laptop that belonged to my grand-uncle, and stopped using the A500 altogether.

I did and learned many things with the A500. C. BASIC. A68k. Hacks – software and hardware. First experiments with an audio digitizer – self built, connected to parallel port, at a ridiculous sample rate, mono only – but hearing Freddie Mercury singing “We are the Champions” from a file, albeit full of jitter because of how bad I was (am) at soldering, sent shivers down my spine back in 1992. I was the guy who published the high school magazine. Published means I typed it (often with a little help from my friends), pageset with a painfully slow software using my single floppy drive, and preprinted it on Postscript files which then I transferred to DOS floppies and printed to a friend’s dad Postscript printer. Tough times.

Sometime between 1997 and 2000 I tried to power the Amiga back on to recover some data (mostly said high school magazine’s stuff) but got stuck on a color error code – can’t remember which one, might have been red/purple – some years later I managed to save the data using a Windows software and two FDU and never thought of the machine again.

After toying for some months with the idea of getting my hands on the machine again, I finally did a trip to my parents garage today and found the machine still in its original box. Disks are long gone but some manuals I still have them.

I didn’t remember I had swapped the original mouse with a Boeder aftermarket one but as soon as I saw it I remembered it was because the ball on the original one had become so slick it didn’t move the rollers anymore. Screws are missing everywhere – I did some experiments with hardware from time to time, including a funny modification on the FDU flat cable that was supposed to make some sound in case of disk writes – if I remember correctly the original circuit was for a LED but somehow I decided I could put a buzzer instead. I was young and stupid.

There’s a LOGICA board as well to supply the machine with 512Kb Kickstart (2.04 37.175, unlicensed so to speak); it has a couple jumpers to set the motherboard release and the ROM default.

Well, unsurprisingly the machine doesn’t work: it powers up but the power LED stays half-lit. I have lost the SCART cable somewhere so I can only use the composite mono output and thus can’t see the color check, but I don’t think the color really changes and this could mean a fried CPU, CIA or ROM (as the color changes are a routine in ROM). Given that the LOGICA board has a wire that should be put on the ODD CIA pin #8 this is highly possible. I only tried putting the original 1.3 ROM back in its socket removing the ROM board but since nothing has changed I should try putting the board back in changing the jumpers to force using the other kickstart.

Getting a 520 also would be good, or a way to feed color signal from the RGB port into a digital TV…

More to follow.

The thing that amazes me the most is that the box is intact.

With all its polystyrene and stuff.

Trapdoor RTC/RAM expansion removed, this is it. Notice the hack on the FDD cable and the ROM piggyboard.

Close up of the piggy board. The blue wire was supposed to go on pin 8 of the odd CIA, so that you can switch ROM by pressing both mouse keys while powering on.

Better light, worse focus.