Some questions about an A570

[Jim]

Hello Alec,
I hope you find me here because I moved from the MarketPlace to get some mysterys solved.
You said that I might have problems using CD disks on a plain vanilla A500...
But I don't recall having any problems like that.
So I dug back into my memory and tried to remember what I had in the 1990s. And I remember that I has something skinny plugged into the left side of my machine , and it was only about an inch wide - and it's shape followed the contours of my A500.
I have absolutely no idea what it was. But I looked around on the InterNet and found a picture that looks pretty close to what is in my fading memory.... It looked like this

[Jim]

The example that I found is a SupraTurbo28
But I don't know what my one was called, I have forgotten the specifics.
But now that I think about it - perhaps it had a plastic panel on the left side of it that come off, so that you could daisy-chain a A570 on to it (?)
Could this be possible /

[zipper]

Or Apollo 520.

I think they both had a passthru.

[Jim]

Hello Zipper,
I'm not familiar with the Apollo 520.
I will have to look it up.
Meanwhile I have been searching for other skinny ones and found yet another one - it's called the SupraRam 500RX



. . And then I found a manual for the ST28 , and on page 6 I see



So I am managing to answer some of my own questions, I think.

[Jim]

And to Reply to Alex,
I have been pondering over what you said about the the 570 having a PSU that was 220 volts - and that I could use a Canadian version of a A500 brick instead .
I am still trying to get my head around that !
Are you saying that an English 570 and a Canadian 570 are more or less the same thing ? and the only difference is the power supply ???
Well , if this is correct.........
I just had a blinding flash of the bloody obvious !
Could you just tell me a wee bit more about that bit - I can't believe it but if it's right then that changes everything.

[roy bates]

as far as i know any sidecar attachment for the 500/+ is the same apart from the power supply.

[Jim]

Well now , I have to ask
What about computers ?
I mean, is an English Amiga the same as a Canadian Amiga... and the only difference is the Power Source ?
What would happen if I bought an A1200 from this forum and brought it here to Canada, and plugged in a 110 volt PSU ?
Would the insides get fried ? Would all the capacitors melt or burn up ?
Would nothing happen, due to lack of enough power... or what ?
I don't know, I'm not an electrician, so I don't know if this is a silly question to ask.
I just wanted to know because I have been looking for a 1200 for more than 6 months now.
But they seem to be very scarce here in Canada... I can't find one.
I have come across 3 or 4 A500 models , but no A1200s.
Meanwhile, I have passed up about a dozen opportunities to grab a 1200 on Ebay.co.uk and web-sites like Amigakit etc.
What would happen if I plugged a Canadian power source into a British computer ?

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Jim

I mean, is an English Amiga the same as a Canadian Amiga... and the only difference is the Power Source ?

English and Canadian Amigas are the same regarding the DC voltage and power requirements. The difference between the English and Canadian PSUs is the AC mains voltage requirement.

However, the English Amigas use a PAL (625 lines, 50FPS) display and Canadian use an NTSC (525 lines, 60FPS) display, AFAIK. So there are differences in the display drivers.

Whether this can be satisfactorily resolved by using NTSC screen preferences on a PAL machine, I'm not sure, but other Canadian members here should be able to answer that for you.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by Jim

Well now , I have to ask
What about computers ?
I mean, is an English Amiga the same as a Canadian Amiga... and the only difference is the Power Source ?
What would happen if I bought an A1200 from this forum and brought it here to Canada, and plugged in a 110 volt PSU ?
Would the insides get fried ? Would all the capacitors melt or burn up ?
Would nothing happen, due to lack of enough power... or what ?
I don't know, I'm not an electrician, so I don't know if this is a silly question to ask.
I just wanted to know because I have been looking for a 1200 for more than 6 months now.
But they seem to be very scarce here in Canada... I can't find one.
I have come across 3 or 4 A500 models , but no A1200s.
Meanwhile, I have passed up about a dozen opportunities to grab a 1200 on Ebay.co.uk and web-sites like Amigakit etc.
What would happen if I plugged a Canadian power source into a British computer ?

i'll try to explain this as simply as i possibly can.

the difference would be between ntsc and pal output.oh and slightly different cpu speed due to the main oscilator.
you might have trouble using a pal machine on a ntsc tv.

as for the power supplys, your talking about the power supply input voltage/frequency at the mains end the outputs are the same voltages but depending on the supply in question the amps on the output stage is different depending on model.
in other words nothing unexpected would happen.

hows that?

EDIT: looks like prowler explained the same thing a slightly different way

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Jim

You said that I might have problems using CD disks on a plain vanilla A500... But I don't recall having any problems like that.

Booting CD's no. Running the majority of the applications on the CD's yes.

Originally Posted by Jim

So I dug back into my memory and tried to remember what I had in the 1990s. And I remember that I has something skinny plugged into the left side of my machine

It could have been a memory upgrade with a pass through but even if it was 1 out of 3 applications probably didn't work because you didn't have an accelerator.

[Jim]

To Prowler and Roy Bates,
Thank you for the explanation... I think I get it now.
I had a look at the back of my 'Brick' and it says
INPUT 117 v and OUTPUT 5v
So now I see that the Amiga doesn't need 117 volts to run it - it just needs about 5
So the power supply steps it down to what the computer needs to allow it to operate.
Is that right ?

As I said before , I am not an electrician, but sometimes I pick up little bits of info from here and there, that helps me to understand (a little bit)

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by prowler

Whether this can be satisfactorily resolved by using NTSC screen preferences on a PAL machine, I'm not sure, but other Canadian members here should be able to answer that for you.

Apparently North American TV's rarely support the PAL colour system. Setting an Amiga to PAL or NTSC does not change the colour system, just the refresh rate.

[Jim]

Hello Alex,
thank you for your reply.
But this reply leaves me a bit puzzled...
The part where you say ".......because you didn't have an accelerator."

But that 1-inch wide gizmo that I was using IS an accelerator.
In my search for details , I found it on a Web-site called the Big Book of Amiga Hardware.
And in the Navigation column, I clicked on A500 Accelerators
and it was the last item on the bottom of page 2. - Here's a picture:

[Jim]

Hello Hewitson,
thank you for your input , every bit of imformation is important to me.
But I have to tell you , I am not watching the display on a TV set.
I have a Comodore Amiga 1084S

[Jim]

Now that there's a pause in the conversation, I'd like to get back to something I mentioned before.
Here is something that really annoys me.
From time to time , Amigakit gets a batch of Amigas from somewhere, and strips them down - fixes them - and builds them back up like new.
and offers them up for sale.
Basically I think this is a wonderful endeavour.
And I am so envious of the Amiga buyers in England.



I was just having a look throughall of the Options and clicking through the menus and looking at all the extra goodies that they can install, to suit your preferences.
I noticed that they can even set it up with a North American PSU
But what's the point, when below that , you see that the only versions they offer is PAL for the UK, Europe and Australia...
This just serves to get me all excited for a minute, until I read the last line, that tells me that I can't get one.
What a disapointment

[Jope]

Why is PAL such a big deal for you guys?

- get a Commodore 1084, 1942, 1950 or 1960 (or some other model) and use RGB
- get a Sony PVM or BVM monitor and use RGB
- get a scandoubler and use an SVGA monitor

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Jim

But this reply leaves me a bit puzzled... The part where you say ".......because you didn't have an accelerator." But that 1-inch wide gizmo that I was using IS an accelerator.

Not an accelerator of any consequence. It is a faster 16-bit 68000. Lots of programs on Amiga Magazine Cover CD's require a 32-bit 680x0, a 68020 or greater.

Unless you have one of these Supra things in your attic, don't waste your time with them. You'll probably never find one today cheap and there is no way to know if it works with an A570

[roy bates]

i was waiting for someone to say you could use a converted atx supply to feed it all.

alexh is right,alot of the software on coverdisc cd's were for the 1200 and up with better cpu's.and more memory alot of the time.

[Jim]

Hello Alex, thanks for your explanation
I hope you don't think I am arguing with you, if I keep on harping about the same question. It's just that I am trying to recall what I had before, but my memory is too hazy to remember properly.
But don't give up on me, because with every posting - I learn something I didn't know before.
I would say that you are much smarter than me , so I value everything that you can tell me.
I must say, that what gets me muddled in my mind is that, at some point I got rid of my old A500 and bought an A1200.
And when I think back about what I had and what I did with it... well I have difficulty with figuring which system I was using, when I try to remember what I was doing with it
Perhaps it would be better if I could just forget about what I used to do in 1990, and focus on what I've got today.

[roy bates]

what system do you have at the moment.