I found a CDTV!

I'm sort of a vintage computer collector, but amigas have been a big hole in my collection... until now! I literally found a CDTV in the dumpster behind a bar (don't ask...), I suspect it was being used for karaoke. The remote doesn't work but the CD drive seems fine and the unit is in great condition! None of the accessories (keyboard/mouse/floppy etc) were anywhere to be seen however.

I have no experience whatsoever with Amigas at all so this is somewhat of an uphill struggle, but my plan is to get this working like an Amiga 500. I have pretty much no money but lots of free time and PCB etching skills, so I figure I'll build most of the stuff I need. I just need a sanity check on all of my plans, since I have no amiga-specific experience but a reasonable amount of general computer/electronic experience.

First off I guess I need keyboard support. Amiga keyboards are expensive on ebay so I'll just make a ps2-to-amiga adapter. I'm going to use the one supplied with the EPIC-1.3 pic programmer since I have lots of PIC16f84 lying around - http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/epic13 - obviously with different pinout for the CDTV. Does this sound reasonable?

Next is mouse/joystick support. Looking around it seems nobody has a cheap brickette so I guess it's gunna be a case of adding standard 9-pin ports (like : http://web.archive.org/web/199902091...-joystick.html ) then building a ps2-to-amiga adapter (like : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=66443 , again because I have a lot of PIC16F84s lying around). Again, does this sound like a reasonable course of action?

Next comes the thorny issue of kickstart upgrades, I'm told that the CDTV can accept 3.10 provided the expansion roms are updated also. This means I need 3x new EPROMS. I have no experience programming EPROMS of any type. Are ROM programmers easy to build or would I be better getting someone else to do this for me?

Finally I think adding a SCSI hard drive would be the icing on the cake. I've missed the amibay bulk CDTV SCSI interface order by a matter of weeks ( http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=50703 - d'oh!) but I can easily etch the dual-sided board myself. All I need to know is if any version of the 33C93 controller will work - I see various different versions of WD33C93, AM33C93 for sale on ebay - I take it they're all equivalent?

[DonAmiga]

Hello and Welcome

Great find with your cdtv you can get replacement remote from Amigakit http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=296 they use to sell cdtv remote's as well but can't see them! Maybe send them an email?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by yerma

Looking around it seems nobody has a cheap brickette

They are available NOS at about £25. Is that too much?

NOS CDTV remotes are available in practically every Amiga shop for about £10. Where they came from (i.e. there have to be many times more remotes than there are CDTV's!!) I don't know but I've got about 4 here still in the wrapping.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=296

Woo, homemade PS2 keyboard adapter is working great!

[DDNI]

Nice find! Where is Cockland? Any where near Manchester?

Within easy commuting distance

Added mouse/joystick ports and built a PS2 mouse adapter. It boots into workbench from a CD just fine!

[TheBoss]

Nice find and congrats on saving that Amiga CDTV!

[Vot]

Lucky bastard.

I'm still hoping one day I trip over an a4000 with 060 and ppc while talking a walk in the park.

What do you think my chances are?

[supaduper]

Originally Posted by Vot

Lucky bastard.

I'm still hoping one day I trip over an a4000 with 060 and ppc while talking a walk in the park.

What do you think my chances are?

Some & Fat !!