Amiga 600 Rack mount Case

[Spacemonkey]

This is story of moving my Amiga 600 into a custom made case with i managed to pick up for a tenner (£10). Looks like it was original used by RS components.

Hardware
Amiga 600 V1.5 recapped, TV turner removed
3.1 ROM
A604N + RTC
Indivision ECS scandoubler
Gotek with Hxc firmware + LCD Mod
Dual IDE port
16GB mSATA to 44 pin adaptor
4GB Compact Flash Card
PCMCIA Etherlink 3C568D
PicoPSU 90 watt
Ian stedman PicoPSU Adaptor
Rys MKII Amiga USB Adaptor
SUM USB Keyboard Adaptor


A600 in original case



CASE

The case came with 2 extension cable to mount the mouse\joystick ports at the rear.



An extra hole was drill to allow for the PicoPSU power connector to be mount at the rear

The power is to be supplied direct to the motherboard. I plan to power the floppy drive and Compact Flash card reader directly from the PicoPSU.


Yes i know the soldering is not the best just hope there is no burning smell when i power it up.



The stand-off mounts are just drilled in the base of the case and fixed in place with JD Weld (Other products are available)





Network Port

I plan to use one of the rear ports for a RJ45 Ethernet port, looks like a small amount of work to widen the hole and screw holes don't match up.


Front Panel
The plan is to replace the front with a new custom panel, created with front panel designer 5.0


First draft


Current

[Spacemonkey]

First power when well no burning electrical smell & green power LED on.



Small issue with securing the PicoPSU the second mount point is a mm out of alignment. Todays handy tip don't use a handheld electric drill.







Another small issue is that the Indivision ECS scandoubler drops 2-4 mm at the rear, need a way to support the rear

[Spacemonkey]

Small update this week

Finalised the Gotek location





Another small lesson don't apply 5v to the gnd on an LCD it will break it.



must remember to Triple check the wiring. (thanks to AmiAms for the Gotek-LCD-mod-Diagram)



luckily it was only the display unit which was damaged as it still loads floppy images



Just waiting on a new Compact Flash to IDE adaptor and then some minor changes to the front panel to allow for the LED

[Spacemonkey]

This week the postman delivered a few more parts

Replacement LED for the Power, floppy & disk, these will be mounted in the front panel. 2 Yellow 1 RED



Part: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/indicators/7894502/

Network Cable for 3COM 3C589D
Its a 3rd party replacement
QVS CPN-3C10T

The real downside its a real tight fit and requires the motherboard to be semi removed to get the card in and out.








IDE Compact Flash
It works but not in the Amiga and when a Compact flash card is inserted it required extreme effort to remove, So all in all cheap Chinese rubbish.



Gotek Display now works

[Spacemonkey]

I've made some changes to the front panel design to cater for the edge of the case screw holes and the gotek board which would affect to mounting of the Keyboard usb. The biggest worry is going to be mounting the Compact flash on PCB standoffs and aligning to the panel hole.

Final Design


Gotek Location


Case

[Spacemonkey]

As the new front panel is in transit from Germany, I decided to start updating the outside of the case by respraying it black





Toying with the idea of cutting a hole for the network cable so that is not forced against the case.

[Spacemonkey]

Christmas has come early

[eXeler0]

impressive work, man
How much does a custom panel like that cost?

Skickat från min LG-H850 via Tapatalk

[Spacemonkey]

Around 75 euro, i'll add an attachment of template at the weekend, i hoping all the hole are ok

[Spacemonkey]

Finally got to look at the new panel and the case and there are a few problems,some minor and some really bad problems

Problems

• Switches for the Gotek are M6 (5mm) but don't allow for the 0.75mm thread
• Front panel is too high due to the LCD display screws resting on the front lip
• The nuts for the power switch and the LED's catch on the edge of the case
• The Keyboard and usb port are a little to close so the screws catch.
• The screw holds for the attaching the front panel don't line up.

Problems







General

[Spacemonkey]

Ok, after a lot of swearing, a drill and a Dremel, the panel is now fitted.

At the front and back of the case is about a 3-4 mm lip which I've cut to allow for the LCD screws and HDD LED. The same goes for the lid a small lip which was catching on the top screws.

For the Gotek switches i'm looking at adding tapping a thread.



I do have a weird issue in the floppy LED stay on.

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by Spacemonkey

I do have a weird issue in the floppy LED stay on.

Normally an indicator of the floppy cable plugged in backwards.

Looks great. I assume you have a rack to mount this in? :-)

[Spacemonkey]

Originally Posted by nogginthenog

Normally an indicator of the floppy cable plugged in backwards.

Looks great. I assume you have a rack to mount this in? :-)

Thanks i'll double check the cable at the weekend.

No its going under the glass monitor stand in to photo

[nogginthenog]

Ah, it's not a full size rack case. They are huge :-)

[Spacemonkey]

Originally Posted by nogginthenog

Ah, it's not a full size rack case. They are huge :-)

No is standard 1U case it just fits nicely under the glass stand.

[Spacemonkey]

Mount the new Syba SD-CF-IDE-A card as the old one had the power connector at the front.



(IT Dog Nibbler helping)

Add a couple of feet to the adapter to keep it away from the motherboard



The issue now, the 16GB M-SATA and Adapter conflicts with the new CF Adapter as it doesn't have a Master\Slave. Swapped on for and other CF with a 4GB card

The KA60 Dual port (2.5"/3.5") IDE adapter should set the first port as master.

The other worry is that the KA60 may catch on a Vampire.

[Spacemonkey]

Not much progress this weekend. Only managed to tap a thread (M6 x 1.0) to allow the buttons to be fitted.

[Spacemonkey]

GOTEK LCD MK III
Due to a number of issues with the previous boards, poor connections etc I've remade the LCD circuit board again

MKII


New and improved MK III

[Spacemonkey]

General tidy up

• Replaced the original D-Sub 9 pin port extender cable with shorter cables and new adapters.
• Mounted the Gotek to the case
• New longer VGA cable to fit in the case rear D-Sub panel
• Added HDMI D-Sub Panel adapter (For the Vampire)
• Added Lycom ST-173-7 mSATA SSD to 2.5" IDE
• USB to Panel mount

Lycom ST-173-7

FEATURES

• Convert Full Size mSATA SSD to 44Pin 2.5” High Performance, No Noise, Low Power IDE SSD
• Supports SATA I, SATA II and SATA III (6Gbps) mSATA SSD
• Latch type mSATA connector on board, no need the screw for the retention of mSATA SSD
• 100% Compatible with 2.5” IDE drive mechanical spec
• 48 bits LBA can Break Capacity-Limit to Support mSATA SSD max 144,115,188GB
• Compliant with Serial ATA 2.6
• Jumper setting support IDE Master, Slave and Cable Select Modes
• Tag Command Queuing (Max 32 entries)
• ATA/ATAPI PIO mode data transfer
• ATA/ATAPI UDMA data transfer rate of 150, 133, 100, 66, 44, 33, 25, 16.7 MB/s
• ATA/ATAPI-7 Streaming feature set
• Transparent to the operating system and no driver required
• Supports any OS like Windows, Mac and Linux
• Includes 7mm height 2.5 “ drive metal frame with 8 mounting holes and 4 HDD screws
• Dimension of PCBA with 2.5” frame : 98mm x 69.85mm x 7mm
• Fully RoHS compliant

[Spacemonkey]

Looks like i'm busy this weekend