My A500+ progress so far.

[Mogsy]

Hey all,

It's been a few months since I signed up and all's I can say is I've found nothing but help from lots of people. Thanks!

Anyways, I thought I'd make a quick thread regarding the progress of my A500+ upgrades.

I was bought this Amiga for Christmas in the early 90's when I was a wee nipper and the following year I received the A530 Turbo

The Amiga is a rev 8a.1 with 1MB RAM and a 1MB upgrade and 2.04 Kickstart. The A530 Turbo had 1MB RAM and a 80MB HD and 68EC030 @ 40MHz when it was new.

Shortly before I joined here I dusted the Amiga off to test (with the intention of selling ) and many childhood memories came flooding back and I found I simply could not part with the fantastic machine!

Mods so far to the Amiga are:

• Fitted 3.1 KS ROM
• Swapped keyboard with faulty keys
• Removed battery

Mods so far to the A530 Turbo are:

• 4.3GB HD
• 4.15 ROM
• 8MB RAM
• Full 68030RC50 CPU (my intentions was to change the crystal and up the speed to a full 50MHz, but I was advised against this in case I damage it).

I have installed WB 3.1, WHDLoad and Amiga Explorer so I'm pretty much set regarding gaming and transfers from PC (which are painfully slow!).

Mods to come:

• PS2 mouse port
• Flicker fixer
• Replacement internal floppy (I'm having some read errors and have purchased a floppy cleaning disk, so will try that when it arrives).
• Maybe install a better version of Workbench. Would I be able to use OS 3.5 or 3.9 with my specs? If not, what would you suggest in place of WB 3.1?
• FPU for A530 Turbo
• Not sure what else....Any ideas?

Here's a couple of pics, for those that like to see them, lol.





Thanks for looking.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Mogsy

I have installed WB 3.1, WHDLoad and Amiga Explorer so I'm pretty much set regarding gaming and transfers from PC (which are painfully slow!).

• Maybe install a better version of Workbench. Would I be able to use OS 3.5 or 3.9 with my specs? If not, what would you suggest in place of WB 3.1?
• Not sure what else....Any ideas?

Nice machine there. Also had a 500+ back in the 90s.

I'd recommend you try a ClassicWB version (ADV or ADVSP). It is using Scalos, which is much more usable than WB.
http://classicwb.abime.net/

I think 3.5 should also run nicely on it.

Regarding other ideas, maybe some retrobrighting? The 500+ is looking a little yellow next to that A530.

[Mogsy]

Thanks.

I'll have a crack at 3.5. Funnily enough, I think I'll have to, as shortly after posting this thread the Amiga started popping up disk validation errors and the Games drive was showing as 0% free. I've tried to run disksalv but the Amiga keeps hanging.

I've been thinking about retrobrighting. Will look into it more.

[demolition]

Are you using FFS? I'd consider using PFS instead since FFS cannot handle errors very well. You'll also get significantly better performance.

Of course, if the HDD is crashing, then no file system will make up for it..

[Mogsy]

The HD itself seems fine. I believe I'm using FFS. Where on earth do I select PFS?

[demolition]

You can get PFS3 from here:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/pfs3aio.lha

You have to use this file system when you partition the HDD using HDToolBox.

And here's a guide on how to install it:
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=831346&postcount=14

[Mogsy]

Thanks. I've not had much luck using HDToolbox though as it never detects my HD. I have to use GVP FastPrep.

[demolition]

From what I can find, you need to change one of the HDToolBox tooltypes to:
SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=gvpscsi.device

It is normally set to scsi.device. This is why it can't find anything.

[Mogsy]

*slaps head*

Thanks. I'll give that a go!

[Mogsy]

I've managed to reformat the drive using winuae and have used pfs3.

Now to sort out OS 3.5...If I can find a copy.

[Mogsy]

I think I'll just go for ClassicWB ADVSP for now and see how I get on.

[Lockon]

Perhaps you could replace HDD with some more recent storage solution. I got rid of it few years ago by getting SCSI-to-IDE bridge, IDE-to-CF adapter and a decent CF card. That made separate power brick a total surplus; A530 gets power from A500 itself (simple mod). From that point on, you can shoot for A500 clockport adapter and Subway USB. Poseidon USB stack works OK on v3.9 and Scalos (been there, done that). With a help of DLINK DUB-100 USB-to-ETHERNET bridge, good old Rev5 A500 got TCP/IP stack and went online. Slow, unusable even for fun stuff, but good enough for clearing a bet pot placed with guys at work (250 euros in total).

[Mogsy]

I like the look of that. Not too much space taken up either. Do you have more details on the SCSI to IDE bridge and power mod?

[Lockon]

Of course.

For bridge, this might shed some light:
http://www.acard.com/english/fb01-pr..._idno=6&ino=43

Dunno about price, I got used one off eBay for $50, right now that might go for double or more. For power mod, you need soldering kit and 2x 20cm wires to form bypass from main power relay at the back of A530 to the 2 discrete pins set at edge connector.

Currently I'm away from home so it may take a while to disassemble the unit and get a shot of board with exposed hack.
Here comes another pic from starting phase of A530 modding.

[Mogsy]

Thanks for the info and thanks again for bringing the clockport adapter and subway usb to my attention. They're definately being purchased on payday! I take it the clockport adapter doesn't interfere with the A530 Turbo?

The bridge is unfortunately expensive...

[breech]

Check out the PCD-50B from mechware.

SCSI -> PCMCIA (also memstick/SD/MMC/CF/SM)

I'm using it in my a590 and loving it.

[Lockon]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acard-AEC-77...item3ccf45a0fa

Clockport is fine with A530. It fits well even with Indivison ECS onboard, or 2x Indies one of top of other for 'dual head' workbench. The only issue I got was second clockport connector which is located at lower part of clockport PCB. It is few milimeters away from metal bottom of A500 keyboard when set into place. You can put some hot glue over those 2 rows of pins, just to avoid shorts.
Subway will give you some post-boot usable support for USB keyboard, mouse and flash (FAT) drives. Performance wise, clockport adapter is limited to 1MBps in general. Ethernet is too slow, I got FTP as low as with 35KBps just because Poseidon drivers were not 'optimized' for the weird combo od A500 clockport on one end and usb-to-eth bridge on other end. Maybe the latest v4.4 drivers fixed that, dunno.

Few years ago I talked with one A530 owner who was involved in HW design of other Amiga peripherals and he told me that this clockport/subway/bridge route is not a cool solution. He proposed a design of network interface which would be connected to port expanison inside A530, there where you should put GVP286 board. It seems that all important signals are already there, there is a plenty of space for a vertically mounted card. When I asked him who would provide driver support, he said that it won't be a problem since drivers already exist; solution should be based on some Realtek chipset which is well known within the range of known Amiga network adapters.