Getting Amiga 1200 up and running

[Areinu]

I recently got my hand back on my old Amiga 1200, which was at my parents house for good 15 years. I've plugged it in and it powers up, but that's all I can currently tell - the lights are blinking. I have no way to connect it to any screen right now to confirm, since
1) I have no cables with it
2) I have no screens able to use anything but HDMI or thunderbirds

I've already taken steps to get screen going. I got myself cable that takes Amiga RGB input and goes SCART way, and OSSC scaler, which I heard works find with this signal. I want OSSC also for my old consoles so even if A1200 will not be fully operational I will still get use of that.

Now, the Amiga 1200 I have seems to be modded into tower setup (since I haven't found info about it having official tower release). I can see on the board that it is A1200 rev. 1D3.

Here's photo of how it looks inside: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ahu_hXzsGJH4ocJp3httkAHcoJvvHA

It seems to have PS/2 keyboard port added in. At least it looks like PS/2 keyboard port. Honestly I don't remember what I used back then, but can I expect PS/2 keyboards to work? What about USB => PS/2 coverters for newer keyboard? Or do I have to buy something specific? The PS/2 port is the one next to extension slots, connected by long cable.

As for mouse/joystick I currently cannot find any good priced original mouse, as much as I would like to use it for the feel of childhood. I've seen JERRY+ adapters online, they seem to work with most USB mouses, which will have to do for now. Not sure about joysticks - is there something special I should look for?

I also am pretty sure I will need new Workbench because I didn't manage to get any of my old discs. I can see something called Workbench 3.1.4 Hyperion being sold online on 6 floppys. Is that the one to go for?

Also last thing I will need is hard drive. From what I understand nowadays the hip thing to do is to get hard drive to SD adapter and use that with some small SD card (4 gigs or so, right?).

Is that be everything I need, or is there some obvious thing I'm forgetting about? Is there something I should be aware when trying to get everything running? I've been reading around, but really it's hard to put everything together in my head until I get all equipment and start working on it.

[musojon74]

A top priority is the recap Make sure bad caps haven't leaked and trashed any traces / vias / etc.

[fxgogo]

Welcome to the wonderful world of amiga restoration. I am at the beginnings myself with a 1200 and 500.

I would suggest getting a visual indicator of the system working on a screen.

Definitely get one of the SD adapters to have a hard drive on.

The 3.1.4 OS is a fairly new release that updates the classic kickstart and workbench. I have it myself, but I would suggest getting everything working with what you have first before embarking on that journey.

Amiga Forver has a few ways you can get the Amiga OS discs.

[R4M]

If you get 3.1.4. from Hyperion, you do not have to worry about the 4GB limit. If you buy it from the right store, you'll also get new ROMs. A lot of current keyboards still are PS/2 compatible. Just buy any which says so, an adapter should be included.
Another way to get all Workbench versions up to 3.1 is to buy Amiga Forever. But then you need a gotek or another way to move the images to physical floppies.

[Areinu]

I should have my SCART output cable by the end of the week, and with that I might be able to get video out to something. Not my current TV, but I've got some ideas.

I'm not sure how I would be getting about moving data from Amiga Forever to real Amiga. They offer windows installers and ability to burn DVDs, which are not really helpful. Do I use the Amiga Forever files to plug them into WinUAE and then move the image on SD card which would then be used on my real Amiga?

@musojon74 Oooh, I didn't know about recapping. I watched the video of someone going trough the whole process and it doesn't look that hard, but I'm pretty scared of doing any soldering on such old device. I think first I'll try to see if I have video output and the thing works. If it does I will know that I broke it after recapping.

Edit: Thanks for claryfing Amiga Forever way. I've seen gotek drives online and they are very cheap, so that might be a way to go. Although Hyperion would be cheaper than Gotek + Amiga Forever from the prices I see. But first I'll have to confirm whenever my drive works. If it does I'll know I can go Hyperion route.

[R4M]

If you have an IDE to SD adapter, you can do the install using WinUAE. A gotek is a good investment though, since almost all software comes in adf images. You have to get a displaymod and the rotarymod, if you want to have fun using the gotek. See https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Hardware-Mods . And make sure to get the right type (SFR prefix).

[musojon74]

@musojon74 Oooh, I didn't know about recapping. I watched the video of someone going trough the whole process and it doesn't look that hard, but I'm pretty scared of doing any soldering on such old device. I think first I'll try to see if I have video output and the thing works. If it does I will know that I broke it after recapping.


Yeah, unfortunately the a1200, a600 and cd32 (and 4000?) have caps which leak after this long, they were not as good as the caps on other machines. Although most could do with being done now, it's more urgent on the above models due to leakage causing damage to stuff.

[cosmo]

I've recently completed the journey you're starting!

But I wanted to recover all my kids' artwork, stories etc and play all the old games still sitting on my A1200. My destination was everything loaded into FS-UAE on Linux. This recap thing? Now I've rescued the data I may try it. Looking at the file dates, my A1200 hadn't been used for 20 years.

First up, I found an old scrap TV with a scart connection.

Second, the 60MB hard drive was dead. I bought a 40GB 2.5 inch hard drive for 5UKP and loaded up from my collection of 200 floppy disks. Floppy drive was failing - wouldn't read disks unless they were write-protected - go figure!

Taking the HD out to connect to the Linux laptop via a 2UKP adaptor, my Linux kernel couldn't mount the Amiga partition even after pointing it to the correct offset. Solution was to "dd" part of the disk back and forth to a file and load that into FS-UAE meaning I could transfer each way.

The point of my post is it cost very little to get all my games into FS-UAE "arcade" which looks great. I got Dpaint and Wordworth installed - I'm going to convert the kids' stuff to standard PC format and send them the files.

[Areinu]

So here's little update:
* Today I got my RGB => Scart Adapter. OSSC is on its way from UK. Should be here next week, best case scenario - on Monday.

If I want to test video output until then there's only one non-HDMI device I found I have. My dell 24 p2416d monitor has VGA input (which I forgot about completely) which I could use with SCART to VGA adapter... But I heard amiga outputs very specific video signal and that it probably won't work anyway so I'll just wait for OSSC.

* I looked into input adapter

And from what I see the JERRY I saw before is now replaced by TOM rev2, which I can purchase from it's creator directly. There is also Ry? MK2, but people report mouse issues and lower compatibility here - http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=88711
The best one seems to be HID2Ami which looks like great piece of hardware, but next shipment of premade ones might or might not happen so I'm skipping this one, since I don't think I can make one on my own.

If the video output will work I'll get myself Tom Rev. 2. I hope it will work with one of my arcade stick as a joystick (they report to PC as regular joysticks when I set them to PC mode so they might be fine). That's almost like having real joystick. As for mouse and keyboard I have some lying around which might work. Best case scenario My Logitech mouse+kb might work - some do if this list is to be believed: http://electronica4u.com/docs/tom_to...devices_en.txt

Maybe someone knows if Logitech Unifying receiver hardware works with Tom Rev2?

* The keyboard

While Tom supports keyboards they are supported as joysticks, so I still don't know what kind of keyboard should I eventually get to have actual keyboard working on my A1200!

* I've played around with the OS on WinUAE to remind myself how everything work on dry run

I've spent pretty much whole day yesterday playing with the emulator and went trough pretty much whole guide here: http://guide.abime.net/home3.htm

From what I understand I can just use use WinUAE with SD card reader. Add that SD drive to WinUAE as DH0, install workbench and everything there, and then plug that SD card trough adapter as hard drive to my Amiga and all should work, right? WinUAE should be configured to Amiga1200 same as I have, so there shouldn't be any compability issues.

Here I have some questions about using some of those things on real amiga 1200. I'm 100% sure I do not have any video accelerator currently, and I'm 80% sure I don't have any memory expansion, just base A1200. From what I understand that means Picasso96 won't work with my Amiga(needs accelerator) and WHDload won't work (needs memory expansion)? Or should I expect both to somewhat work? If so what video mode do I choose when installing Picasso96? (obviously not uaegfx )

[R4M]

Using the same SD card on WinUAE and A1200 should work. (I don't run WinUAE in Windows, so I can't tell). You should select no RTG Graphics Card. This way, the AGA custom chips will be used, just as in a stock A1200. You do not need a Picasso driver for AGA. I think the main problem without a memory expansion will be the buffer size, that the operation system will use for your SD card. I would try to work with only a single smallish partition at the beginning, say maybe 100MB (which was already a lot at that time).

[Areinu]

With settings on WinUAE for emulating plain A1200 the memory is enough to support the partitions that I made on my SD. Worst case scenario I can just do it again, doesn't take much time now when I know how to do that.

As for memory expansion...
I plan to get myself 8MB fast expansion. It can be gotten under 100$ and at least in WinUAE it makes world of difference. Should be enough for anything I will ever throw at my amiga, I guess.

From what I understand the only ways to get higher than that is much-out-of-my-budget blizzard or radeon with PCI slot mediator... And both would be overkill, since I just want to run games of my childhood and demos etc. without hassle of swapping disks and faster load times

Edit: I found there's accelerator ACA1223n, which has much more memory and other goodies and is probably much better choice, but they are taking vacations now due to summer

Edit2: Acutally are there any accelerators for amiga 1200 being sold anywhere? I've looked in many stores, amibay, ebays etc. and I only found those very expensive ones.

[fxgogo]

I luckily have an ACA 1223n with my 1200, but it is not working at the moment with the 3.1.4 OS update. Got to get back on it. Accellerators from my limited research are expensive. There seems to be no way around it.

I am looking to do a dual setup, with a real Amiga, and an accelerated emulated Amiga. Both will share a common network drive of some sort. Not planned out yet, but that is the idea.

[Areinu]

Hmm, that sounds like something quite interesting. One Amiga in two places.

I've decided just to get 8MB memory. I will keep an eye on accelerators and maybe buy one if I can, but it's not top priority.

I'm also skipping gotek (for now). Since getting data to amiga trough WinUAE works pretty well for now.

I also asked around and one of my friends is experienced with soldering and as hardware geek willing to help me with recapping so that also will happen.

Everything is wrapping up nicely!

[Areinu]

Well... Good news and bad news.

Good news: I got OSSC, hooked it to amiga and saw this:


I also managed to connect my HDD to that, but for now I'm getting guru meditation

[Areinu]

Hi again!

So my Amiga 1200 works perfectly fine now. I have audio, video output, no glitches, everything is fine. I have mouse and joystick connected. SD as hard drive. Everything is fine! I even got myself Gotek with rotary and display mods.

There is only one problem!

I have no keyboard. I bought an adapter that was connected to my PCB and allowed to use USB keyboard, but it burned down. Fortunatelly it did, not my amiga PCB... I tried to get the replacement but the seller went silent.

I don't remember at all what kind of keyboard I used with my amiga 1200, nor what port did I use to connect it. When I look trough ebay etc. for "amiga 1200 keyboard" all I end up are replacement parts mostly. Any suggestions what I could use?

[tech3475]

Originally Posted by Areinu

Hi again!

So my Amiga 1200 works perfectly fine now. I have audio, video output, no glitches, everything is fine. I have mouse and joystick connected. SD as hard drive. Everything is fine! I even got myself Gotek with rotary and display mods.

There is only one problem!

I have no keyboard. I bought an adapter that was connected to my PCB and allowed to use USB keyboard, but it burned down. Fortunatelly it did, not my amiga PCB... I tried to get the replacement but the seller went silent.

I don't remember at all what kind of keyboard I used with my amiga 1200, nor what port did I use to connect it. When I look trough ebay etc. for "amiga 1200 keyboard" all I end up are replacement parts mostly. Any suggestions what I could use?

Not sure what you mean.

The original Amiga keyboard uses a custom flat flex cable which connects to an internal ZIF connector or there are adapters like the SUM 1200 or PC Key 1200.

I personally have a SUM 1200 which goes over the controller chip.

[nogginthenog]

I think all Amiga keyboards are mostly compatible. I used an A2000 keyboard on my (misplaced) A500 but I don't remember how I wired it up. Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga didn't work but that's not the end of the world (and can be worked around in AmigaOS).

A4000/A3000 keyboards use the same plug as PS/2 but it's not compatible. A2000 keyboards use a large DIN socket but you can use an adapter (I have one, I think it's a regular PS/2 to AT).

Ideally you need a A2000 (with adapter)/A3000/A4000 keyboard. Or an A1200 keyboard for the original box.

[Hedeon]

Originally Posted by nogginthenog

A4000/A3000 keyboards use the same plug as PS/2 but it's not compatible. A2000 keyboards use a large DIN socket but you can use an adapter (I have one, I think it's a regular PS/2 to AT).

Ideally you need a A2000 (with adapter)/A3000/A4000 keyboard. Or an A1200 keyboard for the original box.

A3000(T)/A4000T are DIN. At least on my systems. I am actually using an A2000 keyboard for those. The A4000D has the PS/2.

[Daedalus]

Yep, all Amiga keyboards use the same protocol to communicate with the computer, just with a variety of connector. What makes the A600 and A1200 different is that the keyboard controller is on the motherboard, not in the keyboard itself, hence the membrane connection. But the signals between the controller and the rest of the machine are the same, and a simple adaptor can be built that intercepts these signals at the keyboard controller or the CIA to allow an A600 or A1200 to use an external Amiga keyboard.

Big-box Amigas (other than the A1000) use either DIN (like AT PCs) or mini-DIN (like PS/2 PCs), but can easily be converted between the formats with a cheap PC adaptor (for example), allowing an A2000/3000 keyboard to be used on an A4000 and CD32.

[Areinu]

So, I meant that I have tower-modded A1200 without any keyboard (internal or external) nor a connector that I could use. I have some DIN port soldered to one part of the PCB. It's possible that it's a keyboard port. Maybe. I don't know how to check.

If you look at this photo: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ahu_hXzsGJH4ocJp3httkAHcoJvvHA - the DIN port is on the left, with very small PCB, and connected by the green-yellow-black-white-red cable to something insterted into main PCB of my A1200. It seems to look similar to PC Key 1200 all in all. So maybe I can just buy one of those DIM amiga keyboards? (it's not PS/2, it's a bit bigger, but looks similar).

I bought adapter similar to SUM 1200 about a month ago from electronica4you. It worked for about two hours then it burned down. I really was scared that my amiga did break, but it was only adapter. I've returned it, but then seller went silent until today. Finally returned my money so I can buy something else. SUM 1200 would be cool, if I can find it with proper shipping costs.