English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Is the Vampire for A1200 something for me?

DarrenHD · 06 April 2021, 21:48

I am in the process of finishing up my Vampire V1200 installation into my Escom Amiga 1200. It has been quite a bit of work to fit the Ethernet adapter and HDMI. And I'm still having trouble with the HDD LED - getting that to work through the normal Amiga 1200 LEDs.

You have to buy a very specific ethernet module, ribbon cable, and flat or smaller HDMI cable, then a special 3D printed part to fit it in the blank hole and fit it all inside the cramped space. It's certainly doable, and the finished product is great. The instructions on the Vampire wiki are pretty good. You have to follow them very closely. It's easy to order the wrong type of ethernet module or ribbon cable.

HDD LED is another issue where some of the 44-pin IDE to SD adapters won't give you proper LED output (it will be solid). There are relatively easy fixes for this but it does require some soldering. And I've found that not all CF or SD to IDE adapters are working in the V1200. It seems to be picky.

So if you want a plug and play accelerator maybe the Vampire is not the best choice IF you need ethernet and HDMI out nice and clean out of the A1200 case. (Note: you probably can do ethernet using the PCMCIA slot, but it may be slower, not sure).

Otherwise, the Vampire is fantastic for Speed and RTG, and the pre-made distros like Coffin are amazing. It will not disappoint and once you have it all setup it's basically the fastest closest thing you can get to a real 68k amiga. It will blow away any 060 accelerator for speed.

06 April 2021, 21:48	#18
DarrenHD Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: London / Canada Posts: 781	I am in the process of finishing up my Vampire V1200 installation into my Escom Amiga 1200. It has been quite a bit of work to fit the Ethernet adapter and HDMI. And I'm still having trouble with the HDD LED - getting that to work through the normal Amiga 1200 LEDs. You have to buy a very specific ethernet module, ribbon cable, and flat or smaller HDMI cable, then a special 3D printed part to fit it in the blank hole and fit it all inside the cramped space. It's certainly doable, and the finished product is great. The instructions on the Vampire wiki are pretty good. You have to follow them very closely. It's easy to order the wrong type of ethernet module or ribbon cable. HDD LED is another issue where some of the 44-pin IDE to SD adapters won't give you proper LED output (it will be solid). There are relatively easy fixes for this but it does require some soldering. And I've found that not all CF or SD to IDE adapters are working in the V1200. It seems to be picky. So if you want a plug and play accelerator maybe the Vampire is not the best choice IF you need ethernet and HDMI out nice and clean out of the A1200 case. (Note: you probably can do ethernet using the PCMCIA slot, but it may be slower, not sure). Otherwise, the Vampire is fantastic for Speed and RTG, and the pre-made distros like Coffin are amazing. It will not disappoint and once you have it all setup it's basically the fastest closest thing you can get to a real 68k amiga. It will blow away any 060 accelerator for speed.