What next? Newbie alert... - Page 4

marm · 07 February 2018, 13:02

Ah the highs and lows of A500 ownership.

I've got the day off today! I decided to treat myself to A WHOLE DAY of tracking on the Amiga. Made a cup of tea, turned the Amiga on... nothing on the screen.

I've tried turning it off and on a few times and its behaviour has varied. Removed all the peripherals in case any was causing an issue. Generally the power LED blinks, although once it just lit up and made some funny little clicking sounds from around the flloppy drive. Generally it's silent, the monitor is blank and the power LED blinks.

I pulled the trapdoor RAM out to see if that made a difference. It still won't boot up but the LED seemed to blink more slowly.

Opened it up, made sure all the chips were seated firmly. No change.

Opened up the PSU to check for obvious damage, then measured the voltage on the pins. All seems well.

Any ideas? At this stage I'm tempted to just buy a reconditioned A1200 off of eBay...unless anyone has anything for sale on here. I know I want to keep on going with Amiga music, and sooner or later I'll probably want to upgrade anyway. Maybe now's the time...

marm · 13 February 2018, 19:31

Ha!

I now have two working Amigas. Bought an A1200 off eBay. Plugged it in to my monitor, and it did the same thing. Flashing power LED.

Plugged it in to the TV downstairs and it worked.

Took my monitor cable apart. Maybe the earth wire was shorting against another connector, not sure, but wrapped some PVC tape around it, and tried again and all was well.

Am a bit embarrassed, a frustrating course of events, but all's well that ends well.

Have bought a CF card for the 1200 and am planning to use it as my music machine. I probably would have ended up getting one in the end anyway... it seems to work a bit better than the A500 especially the floppy drive. The A500 may come in handy as a spare, could use it for extra channels of Paula, or maybe I'll just let the kids play with it... We'll see...

daxb · 13 February 2018, 20:05

You can use A500 and A1200 for this: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...ghlight=pt1210

marm · 13 February 2018, 20:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by daxb

You can use A500 and A1200 for this: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...ghlight=pt1210

Cool.

MikeyG · 14 February 2018, 21:40

Just caught up with your thread marm. What a journey! and sounds very familiar the up and downs of this. It pays to walk away from it sometimes and things don't go to plan when you do get the time, but it sounds like you have a nice amiga collection going now. The A1200 is a beauty of a machine and will serve you well in making music and anything else. CompactFlash adapter to PCMCIA is now open to you and rather than hunting around for working CF cards, I highly recommend SD to CF Type I Adapter to go with PCMCIA Adapter. http://amzn.eu/aj2vrri
It works surprisingly well for a adapter within an adapter

marm · 16 February 2018, 17:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeyG

Just caught up with your thread marm. What a journey! and sounds very familiar the up and downs of this. It pays to walk away from it sometimes and things don't go to plan when you do get the time, but it sounds like you have a nice amiga collection going now. The A1200 is a beauty of a machine and will serve you well in making music and anything else. CompactFlash adapter to PCMCIA is now open to you and rather than hunting around for working CF cards, I highly recommend SD to CF Type I Adapter to go with PCMCIA Adapter. http://amzn.eu/aj2vrri
It works surprisingly well for a adapter within an adapter

I already bought one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Workb...6/122915801580 as I needed Workbench too. Not sure what's happened to the price - I paid about £20.

You're right re walking away...and coming back... but impatience got the better of me. Anyway, I've just made a space for the machine/monitor in the studio (put the PC away and a new shelf up) and am about to try installing the CF card in the A1200. Actually I'm so pushed for space that the A1200 is advantageous compared to the A500 just because it's smaller. I even considered an A600 but I think the keyboard layout would be a pain.

Wish me luck!

marm · 16 February 2018, 22:05

It's all working!

The CF card with workbench on it, the monitor, the Gotek drive, a USB trackball connected via a "Jerry" adapter (works brilliantly) and I've even got MIDI working properly in Octamed.

Crappy mobile phone picture, but it's an A1200, in my shed studio, making music. Very cool. Love Octamed. Love the Amiga.

ajk · 17 February 2018, 07:14

Very nice

daxb · 17 February 2018, 12:11

Not much space left to use A1200+A500 for do 24h mixing stuff. Where is the fog machine and flashlight?!

marm · 20 February 2018, 20:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by daxb

Not much space left to use A1200+A500 for do 24h mixing stuff. Where is the fog machine and flashlight?!

Hehe

it's compact but it's mine. And I can make noise at 3am without upsetting anyone. Setup and equipment is in a bit of a state of flux but settling down, I hope. Been having fun down there, anyway!

oundfire99 · 18 October 2018, 19:27

I am still with the A500 but got a lead for an external floppy drive to run alongside my Gotek. I am too running Octamed with samplers. I hope this solves some issues I am having... Love your photos BTW ...

oundfire99 · 18 October 2018, 20:26

I should have mentioned the external floppy is a PC floppy drive https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-exter...72.m2749.l2649

marm · 01 November 2018, 21:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by oundfire99

I am still with the A500 but got a lead for an external floppy drive to run alongside my Gotek. I am too running Octamed with samplers. I hope this solves some issues I am having... Love your photos BTW ...

Cool, haven't been doing much with it recently but gonna get back into it this winter. Setup has come on quite a bit since that pic above... Will post some pics up.

Also been thinking about the possibility of using the amiga as a sampler. Seems like it might be a bit of a dead end though... maybe I'll have a better play with the Technosound Turbo Sampler software.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69757

07 February 2018, 13:02	#61
marm Registered User Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: London Posts: 66	Ah the highs and lows of A500 ownership. I've got the day off today! I decided to treat myself to A WHOLE DAY of tracking on the Amiga. Made a cup of tea, turned the Amiga on... nothing on the screen. I've tried turning it off and on a few times and its behaviour has varied. Removed all the peripherals in case any was causing an issue. Generally the power LED blinks, although once it just lit up and made some funny little clicking sounds from around the flloppy drive. Generally it's silent, the monitor is blank and the power LED blinks. I pulled the trapdoor RAM out to see if that made a difference. It still won't boot up but the LED seemed to blink more slowly. Opened it up, made sure all the chips were seated firmly. No change. Opened up the PSU to check for obvious damage, then measured the voltage on the pins. All seems well. Any ideas? At this stage I'm tempted to just buy a reconditioned A1200 off of eBay...unless anyone has anything for sale on here. I know I want to keep on going with Amiga music, and sooner or later I'll probably want to upgrade anyway. Maybe now's the time... Last edited by marm; 07 February 2018 at 14:00.

16 February 2018, 22:05	#67
marm Registered User Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: London Posts: 66	It's all working! The CF card with workbench on it, the monitor, the Gotek drive, a USB trackball connected via a "Jerry" adapter (works brilliantly) and I've even got MIDI working properly in Octamed. Crappy mobile phone picture, but it's an A1200, in my shed studio, making music. Very cool. Love Octamed. Love the Amiga. Attached Thumbnails

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13 February 2018, 19:31	#62
marm Registered User Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: London Posts: 66	Ha! I now have two working Amigas. Bought an A1200 off eBay. Plugged it in to my monitor, and it did the same thing. Flashing power LED. Plugged it in to the TV downstairs and it worked. Took my monitor cable apart. Maybe the earth wire was shorting against another connector, not sure, but wrapped some PVC tape around it, and tried again and all was well. Am a bit embarrassed, a frustrating course of events, but all's well that ends well. Have bought a CF card for the 1200 and am planning to use it as my music machine. I probably would have ended up getting one in the end anyway... it seems to work a bit better than the A500 especially the floppy drive. The A500 may come in handy as a spare, could use it for extra channels of Paula, or maybe I'll just let the kids play with it... We'll see...

13 February 2018, 20:05	#63
daxb Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 3,303	You can use A500 and A1200 for this: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...ghlight=pt1210

14 February 2018, 21:40	#65
MikeyG Registered User Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: UK Posts: 109	Just caught up with your thread marm. What a journey! and sounds very familiar the up and downs of this. It pays to walk away from it sometimes and things don't go to plan when you do get the time, but it sounds like you have a nice amiga collection going now. The A1200 is a beauty of a machine and will serve you well in making music and anything else. CompactFlash adapter to PCMCIA is now open to you and rather than hunting around for working CF cards, I highly recommend SD to CF Type I Adapter to go with PCMCIA Adapter. http://amzn.eu/aj2vrri It works surprisingly well for a adapter within an adapter

17 February 2018, 07:14	#68
ajk Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 1,341	Very nice

17 February 2018, 12:11	#69
daxb Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 3,303	Not much space left to use A1200+A500 for do 24h mixing stuff. Where is the fog machine and flashlight?!

18 October 2018, 19:27	#71
oundfire99 Registered User Join Date: May 2018 Location: Norwich Posts: 60	I am still with the A500 but got a lead for an external floppy drive to run alongside my Gotek. I am too running Octamed with samplers. I hope this solves some issues I am having... Love your photos BTW ...

18 October 2018, 20:26	#72
oundfire99 Registered User Join Date: May 2018 Location: Norwich Posts: 60	I should have mentioned the external floppy is a PC floppy drive https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-exter...72.m2749.l2649

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