A500+ Upgrades - Where to start?

[Mogsy]

I'm after a bit of advice regarding upgrading my A500+.

Basically I'm wanting to upgrade it to make it even better.

Currently it has a 1MB memory expansion card and an A530 Turbo with 1MB memory and 80MB HD.

The A500+ has Kickstart 2.0 (37.175 I think).

I'm thinking of acquiring an FPU for the A530 as that empty socket just doesn't seem right. I'd like to get my hands on 2 x 4MB simms as well. Maybe a 4GB CF card for it too, but that would mean a SCSI to IDE converter and they're pretty steep on price I believe.

I know the simple choice would be to get an A1200 and pimp that, but I've had this A500+ for over 20 years and I'm not really wanting to retire the old girl just yet.

Can anyone inspire me, please?

[source]

Get an indivisionECS flicker fixer. I think it is well worth the price. As for other add ons it depends on what you want to do with it. Just playing games or actually using it for graphics etc. First and formost check the Battery remove it if is still there. the barrel batteries do tend to leak and damage the Mobo. The battery is only for the clock. some people don't care if the computer keeps time or not, but if you do, you can get a coin cell adaptor from Amigakit. I personally use a cordless phone battery. you can attach longer wires to keep the battery away from the Mobo.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Mogsy

I'm after a bit of advice regarding upgrading my A500+.

Basically I'm wanting to upgrade it to make it even better.

Currently it has a 1MB memory expansion card and an A530 Turbo with 1MB memory and 80MB HD.

The A500+ has Kickstart 2.0 (37.175 I think).

I'm thinking of acquiring an FPU for the A530 as that empty socket just doesn't seem right. I'd like to get my hands on 2 x 4MB simms as well. Maybe a 4GB CF card for it too, but that would mean a SCSI to IDE converter and they're pretty steep on price I believe.

I'd look for something like the IDE68k board which is an IDE interface that sits in the 68k CPU socket. I'm not sure it will work with the A530 though. It cannot be bought as new anymore, but they are being sold used from time to time. For the memory, kipper2k on this board sells an 8MB RAM upgrade which will also fit into the CPU socket. Also not compatible with the A530 I think.

Regarding an FPU, you only need it if you're going to do 3D rendering or similar. If you're into gaming, there are practically no games that can use the FPU.

You can also wait for the Zeus68k project which will have a 50 MHz CPU, IDE controller, 8 MB RAM and lots of other fun stuff and also plugs in the CPU socket. Don't expect it to be cheap though.

The cheapest solution might be to find some bigger SCSI HDD which will work with the A530. I'm not sure how expensive the memory for it will be though.

[fitzsteve]

Hi,

I bought 8mb Ram for my GVP530 from Amibay from a german seller, I'm not sure if he has anymore but I can check. I paid €50 inc shipping and it arrived today after only a few days, I'm yet to test it but sure it will be fine. It worked out at just over £40 after PayPal conversion which I thought was quite expensive but I'm a sucker for fully pimping out my items, I also have a 68882 FPU to slot in mine

I have seen this site too:

http://www.gvp-m.com/pricejapan.html

But I don't know if the items are still available, you'd have to check.

I tested two SCSI-IDE adapters and couldn't get them to work with a CF card but I didn't do much testing and I know others have been able to use a CF card.

At the moment I have a 1gb SCSI HDD, it's noisy as feck but works well, I have a slimmer SCSI HDD to try that should be a bit quieter.

Working 50pin SCSI HDD's can be tricky to get hold of now but someone might be able to help you out!

Amibay is a good place for buying Amiga stuff

Good luck with your project - here's a link to my project thread:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=36764

Steve.

[Mogsy]

Originally Posted by source

Get an indivisionECS flicker fixer. I think it is well worth the price. As for other add ons it depends on what you want to do with it. Just playing games or actually using it for graphics etc. First and formost check the Battery remove it if is still there. the barrel batteries do tend to leak and damage the Mobo. The battery is only for the clock. some people don't care if the computer keeps time or not, but if you do, you can get a coin cell adaptor from Amigakit. I personally use a cordless phone battery. you can attach longer wires to keep the battery away from the Mobo.

I'm currently using a scart lead with an LCD TV and it seems ok. The flicker fixer allows use on a VGA PC monitor doesn't it?

The battery seems in great condition at the moment, no signs of leaking at all. I may invest in a button battery conversion.

Originally Posted by demolition

I'd look for something like the IDE68k board which is an IDE interface that sits in the 68k CPU socket. I'm not sure it will work with the A530 though. It cannot be bought as new anymore, but they are being sold used from time to time. For the memory, kipper2k on this board sells an 8MB RAM upgrade which will also fit into the CPU socket. Also not compatible with the A530 I think.

Regarding an FPU, you only need it if you're going to do 3D rendering or similar. If you're into gaming, there are practically no games that can use the FPU.

You can also wait for the Zeus68k project which will have a 50 MHz CPU, IDE controller, 8 MB RAM and lots of other fun stuff and also plugs in the CPU socket. Don't expect it to be cheap though.

The cheapest solution might be to find some bigger SCSI HDD which will work with the A530. I'm not sure how expensive the memory for it will be though.

Hmm, I'd really love to keep the A530 in operation. I've seen the 8MB boards kipper2k does, very interesting indeed.

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Hi,

I bought 8mb Ram for my GVP530 from Amibay from a german seller, I'm not sure if he has anymore but I can check. I paid €50 inc shipping and it arrived today after only a few days, I'm yet to test it but sure it will be fine. It worked out at just over £40 after PayPal conversion which I thought was quite expensive but I'm a sucker for fully pimping out my items, I also have a 68882 FPU to slot in mine

I have seen this site too:

http://www.gvp-m.com/pricejapan.html

But I don't know if the items are still available, you'd have to check.

I tested two SCSI-IDE adapters and couldn't get them to work with a CF card but I didn't do much testing and I know others have been able to use a CF card.

At the moment I have a 1gb SCSI HDD, it's noisy as feck but works well, I have a slimmer SCSI HDD to try that should be a bit quieter.

Working 50pin SCSI HDD's can be tricky to get hold of now but someone might be able to help you out!

Amibay is a good place for buying Amiga stuff

Good luck with your project - here's a link to my project thread:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=36764

Steve.

I just can't resist putting an FPU in there. I like things to be fully upgraded, simply for the reason that the can be....

[Mogsy]

Just a quick update to say that thanks to fitzsteve, my A530 is now rocking along with a full 8MB of RAM. Wayhay!

I have also ordered a 68030RC50C CPU for it along with a 50MHz oscillator, but have been advised to leave it at 40MHz due to system instability at 50MHz. Ahh well, at least theres an MMU on the chip.

Next will be a 68882 FPU and a larger HD.

The A530 makes quite a racket. I initally thought it was the HD, which can be noisy, but it seems to be the cooling fan. I'll see if I can dig out a quicker alternative.

[k4lmp]

Why not use one of MechWare's SCSI card readers for a HD? I have several of them I use as HDs, and they work great. I use CF cards for HDs, and I use various other cards supported by the reader for file transfer between Amigas and PCs. The cool thing is the devices are hot swappable, so, for example if I use a SD card formatted, as, say DH3, I can plug it in with the Amiga running, and it pops up, just like inserting a floppy. Here is a link to the reader.

http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?ma...roducts_id=180

[Mogsy]

That looks pretty cool and would be nice if it worked in the A530. I'd probably have to dismantle it to make it fit inside.

[k4lmp]

I have an A500 HD8 on mine, and just ran a long SCSI cable and power cable out the side where it plugs into the A500, and laid the SCSI reader on top of my A500 HD8. That way I can change the CF card, or whatever, anytime. It doesn't look bad at all. I use these on all my Amigas, as well as some servers I have that use SCSI. They work great.

[Mogsy]

Hmm, just went to Mechwares site and the card readers are sold out

[Mogsy]

I finally managed to get my PC talking to the Amiga last night!

I made up a null modem cable and used Amiga Explorer and once I had the settings right I was able to transfer files.

I'm slowly getting closer to running WHDLoad.

Now to find a replacement for the teeny weeny 80MB drive in my A530...

[Mogsy]

Next thing I'd like to do is fit a PS/2 or USB port to the A500+ so I can use an optical mouse. I don't really fancy shelling out £20+ on a ready made adapter so I'd like to make my own.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some wiring schematics, please?

I've had a search around the forum but can't really find much.

[demolition]

I built this one and it's working fine for me with a Logitech optical mouse:
http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/ps2m

[Mogsy]

Many thanks for the link. But I don't have any way to program the PIC chip and the devpic link seems to be broken..