Permanently mounting Vampire V2 in A600?

[voyager_1701e]

Hi All,

I'm lucky to have received a Vampire V2 for both my A600 and my A500.

The A500 version is working well. I did change the 68000 socket for machine pins prior to installing the V2. So far so good....however the A500 keyboard is another frustrating matter (keys not working!)

I'm having alot of trouble with the V2 in my A600. It randomly freezes, and quite soon after booting. It has the latest core. I have done numerous things to try fix it, such as re-flowing the 68000 cpu and the CPU socket on the V2. Of course I have cleaned the pins on the CPU and the V2 socket numerous times with Iso-Alcohol and also using an enhancer product supposedly that helps on electrical contacts. The V2 has been installed bare in the machine, no RAM expansion, no HDD...just a floppy and WB3.1 disk...all to no avail....and yes its been recapped!

I will note that previously the A600 worked fine with an ACA020. The V2 board hadn't always stayed well seated, but after playing around with it alot I've got that mostly under control. If I apply constant pressure to the V2 above the 68k...it improves stability significantly. All this leads me to the conclusion its probably not an A600 hardware or V2 issue...but a good connection issue.

I had thought of the removing the 68k and soldering the male PLCC "plug" to the A600 board rather than using the "plug over the 68k" method, as the connection is still not perfect. The male PLCC are available, quite expensive though, and the one I found is 15mm tall, so maybe would cause clearance issues inside the case.

Ideally I want to permanently connect the V2 to the A600 (I.E solder it on). I am confident enough that if I could find a method, I could still reverse it if I wanted to. I could wire pin by pin...but that is very tedious, very messy and risks lifting the 68k pads off the board.

Any thoughts?

[seb132]

I like the male PLCC plug solution... very clean. A quick google search didn't have me the impression they were vey tall...
I will probably go this way myself and have such a plug welded by a competent person.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Toryglen-boy]

Originally Posted by voyager_1701e

Hi All,

I'm lucky to have received a Vampire V2 for both my A600 and my A500.

The A500 version is working well. I did change the 68000 socket for machine pins prior to installing the V2. So far so good....however the A500 keyboard is another frustrating matter (keys not working!)

I'm having alot of trouble with the V2 in my A600. It randomly freezes, and quite soon after booting. It has the latest core. I have done numerous things to try fix it, such as re-flowing the 68000 cpu and the CPU socket on the V2. Of course I have cleaned the pins on the CPU and the V2 socket numerous times with Iso-Alcohol and also using an enhancer product supposedly that helps on electrical contacts. The V2 has been installed bare in the machine, no RAM expansion, no HDD...just a floppy and WB3.1 disk...all to no avail....and yes its been recapped!

I will note that previously the A600 worked fine with an ACA020. The V2 board hadn't always stayed well seated, but after playing around with it alot I've got that mostly under control. If I apply constant pressure to the V2 above the 68k...it improves stability significantly. All this leads me to the conclusion its probably not an A600 hardware or V2 issue...but a good connection issue.

I had thought of the removing the 68k and soldering the male PLCC "plug" to the A600 board rather than using the "plug over the 68k" method, as the connection is still not perfect. The male PLCC are available, quite expensive though, and the one I found is 15mm tall, so maybe would cause clearance issues inside the case.

Ideally I want to permanently connect the V2 to the A600 (I.E solder it on). I am confident enough that if I could find a method, I could still reverse it if I wanted to. I could wire pin by pin...but that is very tedious, very messy and risks lifting the 68k pads off the board.

Any thoughts?

Hi, I'm in Canberra, and am having the same issues. It's like it cant make up its mind if it wants to be stable or not, i had a Furia EC020 in there, and it was rock solid, well after the fiasco that was FFS and cheap CF Cards, but its rock solid, and a great little performer, and the socket on the Furia is so different, it makes a very tight "snap" when it fits over, and its rock solid, you can easily pick the Amiga up by the Furia, if its installed correctly. The socket on the V2 appears to be "ok", but its nowhere near as snug a fit as other accelerators, and when the A600 has been used for a while, and is cooling down, sometimes the V2 can make this huge "CRACK!!" sound, like snapping plastic. I am getting issues like, random crashes, random lockups, i had one time where the mouse moved, but i couldn't click on the icons! graphic corruption, black screen while game music carries on, and if i am honest, all manner of issues with WHDLoad. Its a completely stock install of 3.1, and things like FBlit are disabled, but I have gotten to the point, where the V2 has been removed, an the Furia put back in its place, and suddenly, everything is right in the world again.

I'm not trying to hate the V2, far from it, its just ... not as usable as other accelerators. hopefully G3 will fix some issues.

[grond]

Are you using the little blocks and screws that came with the v600?

[Toryglen-boy]

Originally Posted by grond

Are you using the little blocks and screws that came with the v600?

yes, dont worry, it still works!!!

[trixster]

I've no idea what your soldering skills are like... but i think this is a one-way trip to a broken A600/Vampire.

[voyager_1701e]

Actually removing the A600 68k and/or the V2 CPU socket is relatively straightforward with a rework station - with due care there isn't too much risk (for me anyway). Luckily the pitch on the pins isn't so small

I most certainly do use the little blocks too, without them and in normal use the system is completely unusable. I think some others may have problems also - even with the little blocks. The difference between relatively stable and totally in-stable must be less than 1mm in movement in the connection between the CPU and the CPU Socket.

The male socket that i have found is 15mm tall - ATM this is likely the route Ill consider as the most likely. I just haven't had the time to work on the A600...Ive played a little with the A500 and V2, so far very happy with that one...but Ive got 2 partially faulty A500 keyboards ruining my fun DOH!

[apex]

2 screws, 2 spacers.

[Toryglen-boy]

i took my A600 apart, and bolted the V2 on i with a little screwdriver and torque bolt thingo.

much more stable now