A1200D BPPC Project

[Retrofan]

Hi:
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EDIT (March, 26): Due to the results I'm getting with this mod I've thought that instead of telling about my noob condition, I better start with this video:
[ Show youtube player ] ..... Lol

If you are a girl, maybe I should use my ring instead (joking) [ Show youtube player ]
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Edit: This is a video of my BPPC when I bought it: [ Show youtube player ]

This too: [ Show youtube player ]

This is a Blizzard PPC 060@66MHz PPC@330MHz with SCSI from Stachu, the top of the series.
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Welcome to the newbie mod thread ...

This will be a different thread, as I've never ever have used a Blizzard PPC or a BVision, and still I haven't turn on the Amiga with them.

The last time I tried to install a Delfina I fried it . Thanks Jens for repairing it for free, but you won't be so happy when you'll see what I've done with it...

Well... now that I've introduced myself in this new world, I'll tell you what I'm going to do: I'm going to boot my Amiga with a lot of things attached that I've never used, including an Acard. Now I'm only waiting for a custom made BPPC scsi cable from Amigakit.

Feel free to tell me all that I've done wrong, as I have no idea of what I'm doing jojo...Well, that's just to relieve some weight I've got over my shoulders waiting to boot it for the first time

Where do I start? Well I'll show some photos:

The Idefix adapter:
I cutted the pins with a chinese dremel and taked out the plastic to have less height:


The Delfina:
I cutted it all a little (sorry Jens), soldered a new cap on the right, as the existing doesn't have it's pins large enough, plastic on pins out, and used some copper plates I had:




The BVision:
I'm using 3 fans, copper shims over and under it. The fan on the left has some Dynamat over it 'cause the clock port expander rests over it:


Rear part with tape over the copper shims:



The BPPC:
First I changed it's original copper plate in the cooler for a thicker one, around 1mm. I filed the place where it goes, and later I polished it with a Dremel till I had a mirror surface:


Later I put some Artic Silver 5 under it.
This is how it looks finally:


This is the rear part of the BPPC, with two fans. I glued an aluminium plate over one of them, as it keeps touching the plastic where it goes in the Amiga (I'll show how later:


This is the other side. I'm using a 30x10mm fan that I had to modify. I'm using 5volts Yeah Racing fans, that are supossed to give more air flow than any (and more noisy, of course): EDIT: I've changed that fan for an 8mm height one, as it seemed 10mm was too much (the original is 6,5).


EDIT. If you've noticed, my idea is to have it as the best cooled Amiga; highest air flow, a lot of fans (but none near the outside), copper plates everywhere, black sheilding as long as I've could retain, and the idea is to avoid too much noise using the Dynamat.

This is what I was telling about how the fan keeps under the Amiga. The good it has is that it keeps the BPPC in it's place without holding down:


I have to say that I've already tried the fans that don't connect to the BPPC or BVision using a battery. The fan almost hided with the plastic runs too.

This is how it looks closed:


To have enough power I soldered a couple of cables to the PSU connector under the mobo:

[8bitbubsy]

More!!!!!!

[fitzsteve]

Nice work retrofan

[Retrofan]

I did the Audio Mixer that Phipscube did in his mod, but I'm not going to use it:




I will connect the Delfina this way:


this is how it's going to be working (jeje... or not):



I've put some Dynamat:


I had previously done an internal Cd/Dvd drive with a bezel made with the plastic of an spare Amiga trapdoor (old photo):


And I've got a lateral Cf Hd slot:


This is what I've got under the floppy:


These are the USB connectors:


I won't have much room to connect the Blizzard Scsi cable to the Acard, so I've modified the floppy supports, and my 128mb ram is very short.



I realiced a trick to cover the cables using a silicone gun, that is to use later a hot air gun:

[netagra]

Beautiful!!!

[Retrofan]

Thanks for the good words , but I'm still not sure if all will explode or something when I'll try to boot it all. Anyway, when I will receive the last cable I will recheck all the conections.

As you can see I've retained as much shielding as I've could, painting it black, as that color likes to dissipate some hot.

[prowler]

Hi Retrofan,

Well mate, you've done some marvellous work on this hardware for sure, but are you really going to power it up for the first time with all that lot plugged in?

That sounds a bit risky to me, not to mention the troubleshooting nightmare that will ensue if it should then fail to boot, or even - God forbid - it should actually explode!

Why ever have you chosen not to test it at every stage of the build process? After all, remember what happened to the Delfina!

[Retrofan]

What do you want me to disconnect? I'll need the Acard to use the HD.

Ok, I will disconnect the clockport expander (subway and delfina) first, and will leave Cd drive, BPPC, Acard and BVision.

I've got a copied DH0 from a working BPPC+BVision installed in a CF HD.

EDIT: Well, really I don't need the Acard if I use the Idefix.

EDIT: I've plugged the Cf Hd directly to the mb, and having the BPPC only, it doesn't boot.

[mfilos]

You started a bit backwards mate.
First you start with the system running just fine, then begin with the mods one by one to be able to troubleshoot any possible issues that may rise. I seen many times shity issues that made me wanna smack my head to the wall
Full modding from scratch will be a nightmare to troubleshoot and won't be possible to know where a problem exists to be able to fix it.

Good luck though mate, it's a nice mod nontheless

[Retrofan]

I've started from the beginning, mate. Just mb, HD and BPPC.

EDIT:It seems I've got a problem with my Cf Hd. I've got a message with the BPPC and with the ACA (another Amiga) of "No disk present in device DH0". Can it be because I made the partitions using PFS3? Well, I don't think so, but what's clear is that that Cf has a problem as it isn't recogniced even with the ACA in another Amiga-

EDIT:
Yes, it's the Cf HD, as if I use the ones I'm using with the ACA in the other Amiga, I've get them starting, although then they ask for the missing Fast ATA controller that I use in it.

But I don't want to start from the beginning. I will try to fix the Cf that was working with BPPC and BVision. Will try with PFSDoctor, as it has to be fault of PFS3.

EDIT: I'm going to setup the Cf with SFS.


EDIT: I don't understand anything. I've been trying with the Sandisk 16Gb Cf Hd I installed with the copy of a working BPPC and nothing. Black screen for minutes, warm boot and nothing again. I've tried with another Sandisk 16Gb Cf Hd with CWB39 and nothing. And now I take a 4Gb Kingston one with CWBAdvSP and... IT BOOTS!!?? How can it be?

[orange]

um, have you checked the maxtransfer and mask?
are you using the same pfs3 version?
perhaps its the infamous 4Gb limit.. though it should still boot

iirc, there was some DOS util that 'converts' removable to fixed media, maybe you need that

[Retrofan]

Well I had left this project for some months without touching it, but today I was bored and have connected it again. I've installed the Cd drive, Idefix express, the Subway and the Delfina with the BPPC and my 4Gb Cf with CWB Advance Special (I'm not going to use the ACard still).

Well... it works!!. I've tried the subway with Poseidon and the USB ports work, and I've tried changing AHI to use the Delfina and I can listen music, but only with the outputs of the Amiga. I can't hear anything if I use the ones I connected to the Delfina.

But now the problem is with the BVision. If I connect it, it doesn't bt.

Any ideas? (And remember I have never used before a BPPC or a BVision).

Well... I haven't installed any driver yet... I have to read a little.

[Retrofan]

Stan has told me to look for the volts, and that the correct reading should be not less than +4,8V, and that if it's bellow +4,65V card will not work for sure.
Well, I've got 4,35volts in the cap near the regulator and in the regulator itself. I've disconnected the fan there, but now it only rises to 4,38volts.

Any idea of how to have more volts there?

EDIT: Well, Stan is here so I've received an answer inmediately. The thing is that I've disconnected the cable that I use to run two fans and when I was going to measure the volts there (that cable is connected to the floppy connector in the mb from the Psu connector), then the Amiga has shown the options in the screen, so it seems it was working. Now I believe I will connect as Stan said two cables from the Psu connector to the BVision directly.

[fitzsteve]

Better PSU is probably what you need. I see you already soldered leads to connect power to FDD connector.

The ones Amigakit supply are Wintech and seem to be perfect for Amiga application, 100% stable on my BPPC setups

Steve.

[Retrofan]

Thanks a lot fitzsteve (and Stan by PM). Yes you're true. I will look for that PSU right now.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Thanks a lot fitzsteve (and Stan by PM). Yes you're true. I will look for that PSU right now.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=866

There ya go!

As I say I use this with my BPPC and BVision and its 100% stable, I don't even need the Mod for PSU to FDD

The same PSU (without the moidification) is running my Mediator setup, 5 PCI cards, BPPC, Subway USB, 2x DVDRW, FDD, etc

Steve.

[Retrofan]

Oh, sorry, I was PMesaging you with that link. So... ok I'll go for it.

EDIT: I was thinking and talking with Stan why if I have 5,1volts in my 150watts PSU

I don't have enough in the Amiga, and thinking if a shorter cable from the PSU to the Amiga would avoid some cable resistance to have more volts there.... Or is it just a question of watts as I'm using a BPPC, a BVision, a DVD drive, an Idefix Express, a Subway, a Delfina and 6 fans? For what fitzsteve uses it seems that...

ANOTHER EDIT: I've got to say that I'm very happy that it seems to go on it's way. I have a new Clockport expander in it's box, but I've left the one I had before, and I've became a little lazy to be changing anything now. I hope the new PSU will be all that I need to get the BVision working and to install OS4.1 in a new Cf HD. Surely I will leave the ACard for a long time stopped.

[prowler]

Hi Retrofan, I have just received your PM.

Originally Posted by Retrofan

I was thinking and talking with Stan why if I have 5,1volts in my 150watts PSU, I don't have enough in the Amiga, and thinking if a shorter cable from the PSU to the Amiga would avoid some cable resistance to have more volts there...

I don't think that the cable can possibly be responsible for dropping the 0.75V to give you only 4.35V on the 5V DC rail in your Amiga. If it was, it would have to be dissipating a fair amount of power and would be getting very warm.

It's far more likely that you have a bad connection where the PSU plugs into the Amiga's PSU socket. (These pins are waggled a great deal when connecting/disconnectring the PSU from the Amiga, and this can loosen and weaken the solder joints on the motherboard. You should check them first, IMHO.)

[Retrofan]

Yes, I should. I'm worried for what Stan told me and thinking if I can have a lack of volts with the new Psu too. He told me "I think you will have the same problem.
Sorry, but long wires and A1200 power connector will cause exactly the same problem that you have now..."

But I don't want to be taking out the sheilding now, so I will wait to try with the new PSU.

EDIT: I believe it's really a matter of the PSU. The Amiga boots with the BVision if I disconnect the cd, the subway and the fans, and sometimes leaving the Cd. If I have it all connected I don't get light in the cd drive even, if I disconnect fans and subway I get light on the cd, but the Amiga doesn't boot with the BVision.

Originally Posted by prowler

Hi Retrofan, I have just received your PM.



I don't think that the cable can possibly be responsible for dropping the 0.75V to give you only 4.35V on the 5V DC rail in your Amiga. If it was, it would have to be dissipating a fair amount of power and would be getting very warm.

It's far more likely that you have a bad connection where the PSU plugs into the Amiga's PSU socket. (These pins are waggled a great deal when connecting/disconnectring the PSU from the Amiga, and this can loosen and weaken the solder joints on the motherboard. You should check them first, IMHO.)

[orange]

I think cable could be problem, it wasn't designed for so much power. I would use separate cables for cdrom and floppy connector (from same psu, ofc).
it wouldn't look as good, though.
anyway, you can always check the resistivity with multimeter. then calculate amperes, and see if its realistic power consumption.