My Custom A600...

mfilos · 13 April 2010, 09:33

My Custom A600...

Hi guys, I thought of sharing my A600 project as I did with my A1200D PPC one. One page with all the upgrades would be nice instead I thought

The A600 was my favorite (my means of appearence and size) Amiga in my childhood but I was never able to get one with my pocketmoney... After many many years I got one and was able to get even an M-Tec 630 with 4MB RAM. Was a true beast but sadly the lack of more RAM was always an issue plus with a hungry A1200D PPC project eager to continue, I sold it

Some years after and kinda feeling bad for giving my baby, I decided to get one more A600 (part by part to be less expensive) just for the fun part of it.
I managed to get an 1.5rev mobo for 15euro, one pretty neat case for 7euro and a clean keyboard with 7euro also. As a summary was 29euro for complete A600 without PSU and Floppy (which I already had) so I thought it was ok

I spend a large amount of time into cleaning the case since it was pretty dirty but almost white. Keyboard was perfect but also dirty. Dismantled all keys and washed them one by one! (What a sh*ty proccedure lol). In the end, it was well worth it! (pics soon).

For the hardware part I really wanted an Apollo since 2005, but being unable to find I thought of waiting for a 2nd or 3rd batch of A608... so I just ordered an A603+Indivision ECS for feeling a bit l33t :P
When I was in easter vacation (and because one colleague wake me early in the morning to support him in a harware issue) I couldn't sleep so I thought of checking the forums+eBay for my casual searches...
...THEN SUDDENLY it hit me!
An Apollo 630@40MHz+FPU+Original Box+Manual tested and working for 160euro BIN??? WTF?
I made a 15second check on seller+feedback and bought it faster than a speeding bullet!
Ofc I contacted seller for some pics and Tracking ID... and everything was just fine...

After a long waiting week (shippment from Spain to Greece) it arrived yesterday! W00h00!

Ok... enough for long talk (sorry for keep ya waiting lol). Time for teh hackery!
First of all I'd like to thank Christian Krenner for the inspiration and wonderfull how-to's on his so many years website http://www.amiga600.de

Ok first of all... A603 doesn't fit right with Apollo 630 not to mention Indivision ECS = NOT AT ALL

Image taken from Christian's website since I forgot to shoot mine

Only way to fit without bending the Apollo's right side... is by cutting A603's top left pin from the 48pin socket, putting another 48pin socket on top, and bridging the pin under the A603 with the pin from the upper socket.

Since I couldn't find localy an 48pin socket but only 40pin ones (round gold ones) I cut the remaining 8pins from another 40pin socket LOL (sorry but it was the best I could do)

Ok, 1st step done... On the Apollo now... :S
The jumpers that Apollo has for WAIT state and Enabling/Disabling the RAM had to be removed since they can't fit with Indivision ECS (VGA header is on the way), so carefully the left:

...and YES! Now it fits like a glove!

Image taken from Christian's website since I forgot to shoot mine

...to be continued...

mfilos · 13 April 2010, 09:33

...continued...

Some more photos from different angles:

Pretty awesome stuff!
Powering on and testing was 100% succesfull so I went with installing OS3.9 with help of my A1200's 4way buffered interface+CF Adapter+Slim DVD-RW... Thanks sistah. Of course I also putted the usual outstanding copper VGA heatsinks I always use and some other temporary heatsink to the 030 (he will get a fan also don't worry)

Everything went smoothly without even much heat (odd), and now I installed OS3.9 BB3@640x512@8 colors. It's pretty fast a neat
Tried for fun HighGfx 1024x768 as shown in Christian's website... but 4colors seem ugly, but the worst part... is that they whole experience SUX bigtime. Everything is so slow that I thought of starting smoking... hahahah!

That's about it for now...

I'm waiting some more parts like Mika's custom angled CF adapter for everything to fit just fine, and some other things

Stay tuned and I'll keep the updates to this thread as I do on the other one for my custom A1200D PPC

Cheers

Cammy · 13 April 2010, 10:50

Wow, your A600 is a masterpiece, you've gone to so much effort and come up with such a perfect result. Unfortunately all Super High Resolution screenmodes are slow on ECS, but soon there will be an update for the Indivision to allow you to use a 800x600 screen with 16 colours, and I think you've got the perfect system to run such a screenmode on. It should run about the same speed as a High Res Interlaced screen.

I can't wait to see more, I'm totally envious

mfilos · 13 April 2010, 11:03

Thanks a lot Moya! I didn't know about the 800x600! that would be very nice indeed!

Cheers and stay tuned for more

gulliver · 13 April 2010, 19:29

Excellent project my friend!

8bitbubsy · 14 April 2010, 04:32

Very nice for sure

It's great when mods turn out good, it makes more quality to the result, thus you'll be more gentle with it in the future. If you do a lousy mod, you'll maybe end up being rough to any further mods... At least that's my philosophy

mfilos · 16 April 2010, 08:49

One more update:

Mika's custom angled CF to IDE adapter arrived 2 days ago so I had to get some more photos.

I just love how nice is aligned with the Apollo! Since I won't need any CD-ROM solution to this Amiga (at least for now lol) I thought that this was a clean and nice solution.

Soon to come:
- Modification to the Apollo for extra juice and stability

alexh · 16 April 2010, 10:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfilos

Ok first of all... A603 doesn't fit right with Apollo 630 not to mention Indivision ECS = NOT AT ALL

That just shows how crap "Individual computing" are when it comes to planning. 2 minutes thought and a few community requests and they could have had the dimensions of the A620, A630 and laid out the PCB ever so slightly different.

What you need now is a HXC SD Floppy Disk Emulator to replace the mechanical disk drive which no longer physically fits.

mfilos · 16 April 2010, 11:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

That just shows how crap "Individual computing" are when it comes to planning. 2 minutes thought and a few community requests and they could have had the dimensions of the A620, A630 and laid out the PCB ever so slightly different.

What you need now is a HXC SD Floppy Disk Emulator to replace the mechanical disk drive which no longer physically fits.

Well apparently "IC" made it compatible with as many models they could (to minimize cost and extra designs) plus his canceled ACA630... It would be great for floppy fitting though.

1st thought was fiting an slim floppy (from rack cases) mount in Ian's floppy adapter but also that doesn't fit after measuring.
2nd thought was using an external drive as DF0 (after changing the SEL0 with SEL1 internaly between CN11 and U8)... but I also didn't like the idea of external things...
The only thing that fits is the HxC SD Floppy emulator that I have already ordered

I just hope the removable blue backlit LCD will be okeish in the miggy

lol

We'll see...

alexh · 16 April 2010, 11:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfilos

I just hope the removable blue backlit LCD will be okeish in the miggy

They are working on a default boot image which allows disk selection using the TV instead of needing the LCD panel.

stachu100 · 16 April 2010, 12:16

Excellent mod mfilos my friend :-)

Now you just lacking built-in LCD monitor.
Something like this (in Polish, sorry, but pictures don't require any comments I think):

http://www.ppa.pl/graffiti/index.php...dkategoria=193

http://www.ppa.pl/i.jeszcze.kilka.uj...;graffiti.html

mfilos · 16 April 2010, 12:25

Hahaha yeah my friend Stanislaw I know about that projects some time now. Fact is that I have a 2.5" or 3" LCD monitor that gets only composite input... It's funny and works just fine, but you clearly can't do much stuff except from understanding that you are in Workbench lol
If someone could feed this tiny screen with rgb instead of composite it would be a lot better. I kinda doubt it though since it was an El'Cheapo 15euro monitor

stachu100 · 16 April 2010, 12:27

I agree, even 5" LCD's are too small to read system fonts :-)
Just fun, no practical use.

Edit:
But if LCD from modern palmtops could be used (for example 800x400 native resolution or so) the system fonts will be well visible.
And such LCD would be very useful.

mfilos · 17 April 2010, 12:56

Ok, one more update since AT LAST it's Saturday and I got time for some hackery!

First of all, I made a quick PCB for stabilizing the Apollo plus putting a mini 2pin socket for the external power when it arrives (PicoPSU+Adapter on the way! lol) along with the 100μF Electrolytic capacitor + 100nf Ceramic capacitor.
Since Mika's adapter is very close on the left, I couldn't make a left "attached to PCB" solution with all the components soldered since it would interfere with the adapter. So, I just made a 2-wire extension from the Apollo to the mini PCB and attached it (temporarily) with some drops of hotglue on the Apollo until I find a better spot to put it.
(Don't scream, it's very easy to remove - I tested it lol)

Next step was putting at last the VGA connector to a better spot. Hmmm what should we remove... Oh I know! The sh**y unwanted TV-Modulator!
Ok away it went and after some Dremeling on the metal backplate plus the A600's case ready it was.

Pretty neat huh? I couldn't believe how neat also would have been, putting the rest of the cable under Mika's adapter! Man it rox!

And one last photo of the complete and ready setup (...for now...) that was tested and works like a charm!

Stay tuned...

fitzsteve · 17 April 2010, 13:04

Looking good mate

stachu100 · 17 April 2010, 13:46

Apart from extensive upgade I must admit that everything is CLEAN :-)
Very nice my friend!

cosmicfrog · 17 April 2010, 13:59

yummy can I have 1 plz, hehehehehhe

A600 ribbits dude

8bitbubsy · 17 April 2010, 16:27

Yep, this is a great mod indeed! And that VGA connector mod is amazing. Better than mine (A1200).
I am very envious

rkauer · 17 April 2010, 16:28

@Mario: is the accelerator stable now?

mfilos · 17 April 2010, 17:05

One little update (and since I told temporarily in the previous post)...

The mini PCB that I putted to just test the stability is now removed, and the 2xCapacitors+Power header is attached on the Apollo without extension.
It took a bit of patience but I think it's just fine and very steady (it doesn't move at all).

@All
Thanks for your kind words! I really appreciate it.

@Rogerio
Yeah my friend. Your advices are always precious! He's pretty stable. No lockup for as long as I tried him. I think it will be lotsa better when the PicoPSU (80W) comes and gets installed giving him the extra juice needed. Atm the voltage in the Apollo is 4.89V.

13 April 2010, 09:33	#1
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	My Custom A600... My Custom A600... Hi guys, I thought of sharing my A600 project as I did with my A1200D PPC one. One page with all the upgrades would be nice instead I thought The A600 was my favorite (my means of appearence and size) Amiga in my childhood but I was never able to get one with my pocketmoney... After many many years I got one and was able to get even an M-Tec 630 with 4MB RAM. Was a true beast but sadly the lack of more RAM was always an issue plus with a hungry A1200D PPC project eager to continue, I sold it Some years after and kinda feeling bad for giving my baby, I decided to get one more A600 (part by part to be less expensive) just for the fun part of it. I managed to get an 1.5rev mobo for 15euro, one pretty neat case for 7euro and a clean keyboard with 7euro also. As a summary was 29euro for complete A600 without PSU and Floppy (which I already had) so I thought it was ok I spend a large amount of time into cleaning the case since it was pretty dirty but almost white. Keyboard was perfect but also dirty. Dismantled all keys and washed them one by one! (What a shty proccedure lol). In the end, it was well worth it! (pics soon). For the hardware part I really wanted an Apollo since 2005, but being unable to find I thought of waiting for a 2nd or 3rd batch of A608... so I just ordered an A603+Indivision ECS for feeling a bit l33t :P When I was in easter vacation (and because one colleague wake me early in the morning to support him in a harware issue) I couldn't sleep so I thought of checking the forums+eBay for my casual searches... ...THEN SUDDENLY it hit me! An Apollo 630@40MHz+FPU+Original Box+Manual tested and working for 160euro BIN??? WTF? I made a 15second check on seller+feedback and bought it faster than a speeding bullet! Ofc I contacted seller for some pics and Tracking ID... and everything was just fine... After a long waiting week (shippment from Spain to Greece) it arrived yesterday! W00h00! Ok... enough for long talk (sorry for keep ya waiting lol). Time for teh hackery! First of all I'd like to thank Christian Krenner for the inspiration and wonderfull how-to's on his so many years website http://www.amiga600.de Ok first of all... A603 doesn't fit right with Apollo 630 not to mention Indivision ECS = NOT AT ALL Image taken from Christian's website since I forgot to shoot mine* Only way to fit without bending the Apollo's right side... is by cutting A603's top left pin from the 48pin socket, putting another 48pin socket on top, and bridging the pin under the A603 with the pin from the upper socket. Since I couldn't find localy an 48pin socket but only 40pin ones (round gold ones) I cut the remaining 8pins from another 40pin socket LOL (sorry but it was the best I could do) Ok, 1st step done... On the Apollo now... :S The jumpers that Apollo has for WAIT state and Enabling/Disabling the RAM had to be removed since they can't fit with Indivision ECS (VGA header is on the way), so carefully the left: ...and YES! Now it fits like a glove! Image taken from Christian's website since I forgot to shoot mine ...to be continued... Last edited by mfilos; 13 April 2010 at 11:30.

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13 April 2010, 10:50	#3
Cammy Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 39 Posts: 1,198	Wow, your A600 is a masterpiece, you've gone to so much effort and come up with such a perfect result. Unfortunately all Super High Resolution screenmodes are slow on ECS, but soon there will be an update for the Indivision to allow you to use a 800x600 screen with 16 colours, and I think you've got the perfect system to run such a screenmode on. It should run about the same speed as a High Res Interlaced screen. I can't wait to see more, I'm totally envious

13 April 2010, 11:03	#4
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	Thanks a lot Moya! I didn't know about the 800x600! that would be very nice indeed! Cheers and stay tuned for more

13 April 2010, 19:29	#5
gulliver BoingBagged Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: The South of nowhere Age: 46 Posts: 2,358	Excellent project my friend!

14 April 2010, 04:32	#6
8bitbubsy Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Norway Posts: 1,719	Very nice for sure It's great when mods turn out good, it makes more quality to the result, thus you'll be more gentle with it in the future. If you do a lousy mod, you'll maybe end up being rough to any further mods... At least that's my philosophy

16 April 2010, 08:49	#7
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	One more update: Mika's custom angled CF to IDE adapter arrived 2 days ago so I had to get some more photos. I just love how nice is aligned with the Apollo! Since I won't need any CD-ROM solution to this Amiga (at least for now lol) I thought that this was a clean and nice solution. Soon to come: - Modification to the Apollo for extra juice and stability

16 April 2010, 12:16	#11
stachu100 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Poland Posts: 339	Excellent mod mfilos my friend :-) Now you just lacking built-in LCD monitor. Something like this (in Polish, sorry, but pictures don't require any comments I think): http://www.ppa.pl/graffiti/index.php...dkategoria=193 http://www.ppa.pl/i.jeszcze.kilka.uj...;graffiti.html

16 April 2010, 12:25	#12
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	Hahaha yeah my friend Stanislaw I know about that projects some time now. Fact is that I have a 2.5" or 3" LCD monitor that gets only composite input... It's funny and works just fine, but you clearly can't do much stuff except from understanding that you are in Workbench lol If someone could feed this tiny screen with rgb instead of composite it would be a lot better. I kinda doubt it though since it was an El'Cheapo 15euro monitor

16 April 2010, 12:27	#13
stachu100 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Poland Posts: 339	I agree, even 5" LCD's are too small to read system fonts :-) Just fun, no practical use. Edit: But if LCD from modern palmtops could be used (for example 800x400 native resolution or so) the system fonts will be well visible. And such LCD would be very useful.

17 April 2010, 12:56	#14
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	Ok, one more update since AT LAST it's Saturday and I got time for some hackery! First of all, I made a quick PCB for stabilizing the Apollo plus putting a mini 2pin socket for the external power when it arrives (PicoPSU+Adapter on the way! lol) along with the 100μF Electrolytic capacitor + 100nf Ceramic capacitor. Since Mika's adapter is very close on the left, I couldn't make a left "attached to PCB" solution with all the components soldered since it would interfere with the adapter. So, I just made a 2-wire extension from the Apollo to the mini PCB and attached it (temporarily) with some drops of hotglue on the Apollo until I find a better spot to put it. (Don't scream, it's very easy to remove - I tested it lol) Next step was putting at last the VGA connector to a better spot. Hmmm what should we remove... Oh I know! The sh**y unwanted TV-Modulator! Ok away it went and after some Dremeling on the metal backplate plus the A600's case ready it was. Pretty neat huh? I couldn't believe how neat also would have been, putting the rest of the cable under Mika's adapter! Man it rox! And one last photo of the complete and ready setup (...for now...) that was tested and works like a charm! Stay tuned...

17 April 2010, 13:04	#15
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 44 Posts: 6,685	Looking good mate

17 April 2010, 13:46	#16
stachu100 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Poland Posts: 339	Apart from extensive upgade I must admit that everything is CLEAN :-) Very nice my friend!

17 April 2010, 13:59	#17
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	yummy can I have 1 plz, hehehehehhe A600 ribbits dude

17 April 2010, 16:27	#18
8bitbubsy Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Norway Posts: 1,719	Yep, this is a great mod indeed! And that VGA connector mod is amazing. Better than mine (A1200). I am very envious

17 April 2010, 16:28	#19
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 58 Posts: 3,482	@Mario: is the accelerator stable now?

17 April 2010, 17:05	#20
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	One little update (and since I told temporarily in the previous post)... The mini PCB that I putted to just test the stability is now removed, and the 2xCapacitors+Power header is attached on the Apollo without extension. It took a bit of patience but I think it's just fine and very steady (it doesn't move at all). @All Thanks for your kind words! I really appreciate it. @Rogerio Yeah my friend. Your advices are always precious! He's pretty stable. No lockup for as long as I tried him. I think it will be lotsa better when the PicoPSU (80W) comes and gets installed giving him the extra juice needed. Atm the voltage in the Apollo is 4.89V.

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