Amiga 500 Musings...

gklinger · 22 August 2008, 06:55

At my girlfriend's behest I decided to sort out some of the Amiga hardware that has been piling up around here. The first thing I went after was my pile of Amiga 500s. I tested them out (three worked, two are dead) so I cracked open the working ones to find out what I have.

The first one has an old rev. 3 board with KS 1.3 and nothing interesting (not even a 501) so I set it aside.

The second one was much more interesting. It has a rev. 5 board that someone has upgraded to a Fat Agnus 8372A. They also upgraded the CPU to a 68010 and put in a 2.04 KS ROM. Last but not least it has an AdRAM 540 with the little daughtercard that sits in the Gary socket and the wire soldered to the board. Very nice.

The last one is a rev. 6 board with 512K and a Supra RAM expander. I have some extra RAM sitting around so I'm thinking about adding another 512K to the board tomorrow. What I'm wondering is whether I should move the 68010, 2.04 KS ROM and AdRAM 540 over to make the best 500 I can make with what I have on hand. Opinions?

The other thing I was thinking about is the keyboard. I've got two that have two As and one with a C= and an A. Which one do you think is more desirable? I kind of like the one with the C= and the A because it's different than all my other Amigas.

gklinger · 22 August 2008, 08:09

Forgive my following up my own post. I decided to read the manual for the AdRAM 540 (first time for everything) and I came across this:

"Note: If you have a revision 6 motherboard, have added RAM chips to it, and made the jumper modifications to have one meg of chip RAM on the board, you will need to undo this."

It seems that my idea of upgrading my rev. 6 board to 1MB chip RAM and adding the AdRAM 540 is a no-go. I really want to upgrade the rev. 6 to 1MB chip RAM because I've never done it before so the AdRAM will have to stay with the rev. 5 board.

I went digging through my box of bits and discovered that I have another KS 2.04 ROM and another 68010 (!) so there's no need to move those over either. I've got a Supra 500XP that I recently upgraded to 8MB and a 4GB HD so I guess I'll attach that to the 500 with the rev. 6 board. I've got another 500XP that isn't working right now so that's another thing I'll have to deal with eventually. If I can get it working I'll attach it to the 500 with the rev. 5 board. What's funny is that I have no idea what I'm going to do with these things. I guess I'll offer them up on AmiBay at some point.

Sorry if this is all boring as hell to you guys but I'm having lots of fun. I should have pulled these out ages ago!

Jope · 22 August 2008, 12:47

The one with the C= and A is the best keyboard in my opinion. :-)

I still need one more, but I think I'm getting one soon.

JackTheKnife · 03 December 2008, 17:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by gklinger

Forgive my following up my own post. I decided to read the manual for the AdRAM 540

Is it possible to do a copy of that manual? I have got A500 with ICD AdRAM 540 on board, but WB shows me only 1MB (I have all U1-U35 SIMM slots full). Any idea what can be wrong? I have A500 (mobo ver.5), Kickstart 1.3 and WB 1.2. Thanks!

rkauer · 03 December 2008, 17:59

I second Jope's opnion: the Cherry keyboard is rare and really nice to use.

The only problem is if it fails: no replacement.

BTW: do you want to part of one of the keyboards? I have 3 Amigas here without keyboards. :-\

chiark · 03 December 2008, 18:56

agreed. My original 500 had the chickenhead key and red LED...

Nice work, good to see you going through it all

woody.cool · 09 December 2008, 16:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiark

agreed. My original 500 had the chickenhead key and red LED...

I also have one of these A500's with C= key and red power LED.
It also had KS 1.2 ROM

22 August 2008, 06:55	#1
gklinger Vegetable Lasagna Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Toronto, CANADA Age: 54 Posts: 711	Amiga 500 Musings... At my girlfriend's behest I decided to sort out some of the Amiga hardware that has been piling up around here. The first thing I went after was my pile of Amiga 500s. I tested them out (three worked, two are dead) so I cracked open the working ones to find out what I have. The first one has an old rev. 3 board with KS 1.3 and nothing interesting (not even a 501) so I set it aside. The second one was much more interesting. It has a rev. 5 board that someone has upgraded to a Fat Agnus 8372A. They also upgraded the CPU to a 68010 and put in a 2.04 KS ROM. Last but not least it has an AdRAM 540 with the little daughtercard that sits in the Gary socket and the wire soldered to the board. Very nice. The last one is a rev. 6 board with 512K and a Supra RAM expander. I have some extra RAM sitting around so I'm thinking about adding another 512K to the board tomorrow. What I'm wondering is whether I should move the 68010, 2.04 KS ROM and AdRAM 540 over to make the best 500 I can make with what I have on hand. Opinions? The other thing I was thinking about is the keyboard. I've got two that have two As and one with a C= and an A. Which one do you think is more desirable? I kind of like the one with the C= and the A because it's different than all my other Amigas.

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22 August 2008, 08:09	#2
gklinger Vegetable Lasagna Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Toronto, CANADA Age: 54 Posts: 711	Forgive my following up my own post. I decided to read the manual for the AdRAM 540 (first time for everything) and I came across this: "Note: If you have a revision 6 motherboard, have added RAM chips to it, and made the jumper modifications to have one meg of chip RAM on the board, you will need to undo this." It seems that my idea of upgrading my rev. 6 board to 1MB chip RAM and adding the AdRAM 540 is a no-go. I really want to upgrade the rev. 6 to 1MB chip RAM because I've never done it before so the AdRAM will have to stay with the rev. 5 board. I went digging through my box of bits and discovered that I have another KS 2.04 ROM and another 68010 (!) so there's no need to move those over either. I've got a Supra 500XP that I recently upgraded to 8MB and a 4GB HD so I guess I'll attach that to the 500 with the rev. 6 board. I've got another 500XP that isn't working right now so that's another thing I'll have to deal with eventually. If I can get it working I'll attach it to the 500 with the rev. 5 board. What's funny is that I have no idea what I'm going to do with these things. I guess I'll offer them up on AmiBay at some point. Sorry if this is all boring as hell to you guys but I'm having lots of fun. I should have pulled these out ages ago!

22 August 2008, 12:47	#3
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,862	The one with the C= and A is the best keyboard in my opinion. :-) I still need one more, but I think I'm getting one soon.

03 December 2008, 17:59	#5
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 58 Posts: 3,482	I second Jope's opnion: the Cherry keyboard is rare and really nice to use. The only problem is if it fails: no replacement. BTW: do you want to part of one of the keyboards? I have 3 Amigas here without keyboards. :-\

03 December 2008, 18:56	#6
chiark Needs a life Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: England Posts: 1,707	agreed. My original 500 had the chickenhead key and red LED... Nice work, good to see you going through it all

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