Chain & Zetr0 Pr0n

[Loedown]

I have finally finished the A2000, it's been recapped, the audio output has been modified and it's been reassembled. I need to mildly modify the upper case so that it can be closed and some other small cosmetics like cable ties.



The mainboard before anything was done



All caps fitted and new audio back panel connection



The capacitors under the GVP '030 as they had to be before they were done



Caps under the accelerator, all laid out flat so as not to interfere with it, note this picture was taken before I'd cleaned up the flux



The modified case to take the new 430W PC PSU (Thermaltake )



The external plate with the new audio connections before it was connected to the mainboard



Fully reassembled front view, front CF card is just a spare, DH0 / DH2 are on the back CF card. The small switch is the on / off switch which runs into the harness made by Amigamaniac



Top view of the mess, it has 3 metres of SCSI cable, it's more a test bed than a dedicated machine, so I need to be able to plug in anything or modify it at the drop of a hat



The GVP '030 Combo card with custom heatsink and 16 Mb ram, the heatsink is stuck on using proper thermal conductive tape, go searching on Fleabay if you want any, it's not expensive



Full rear view showing PC PSU, main CF card, custom audio solution and X-Surf network card



Front view of the rear CF card and AEW7720 adapter, this shot is specially for Chain



Rear view of the same thing



My rather vanilla WB screen, output is through Toastscan adapter.


Tips and tricks;

The mainboard is a rev 6.2, all caps are silk screened correctly, be careful, measuring some of the caps to ground is dangerous because the Amiga uses negative voltages and in these cases the + side of the capacitor is actually on the ground rail.

When you finish replacing all the caps, sit the whole mainboard down on a solid surface and press in every socketed chip, as you turn the board back and forth to remove the caps, you unwittingly can loosen the chips in their sockets as the board has a reasonable amount of flex due to its size.

Hot tipped iron is the key, the board is thick and several of the ground rails are fairly large and need plenty of heat to melt without pulling the entire barrel of any solder hole out of the board. I used an 800 degree farenheit tip, 437 celcius from memory, in all cases this was good without damaging any pads or holes.

While you're replacing the caps, have a good look over all the other joints for any signs of cracking, if you've gone to the trouble of pulling it out in the first place, you may as well do this too.

All the capacitors are good quality, either being Hitano or Nichicon, if I still have the A2000 in another 20 years, I may have to do this again.

It's not really evident, but marking all the old caps before you start makes life easier, you know what's been already changed as you go along.

When Dremeling the case, it's imperative to ensure that every small bit of metal shard be cleaned out of the case to avoid any strange problems afterwards, I used a paintbrush.

Polarity on the capacitors and getting it right are absolute, if in doubt refer back to the schematics, exactly what I did for some of the 22uF 35volt parts, they're around the serial circuit mostly and don't have a connection to ground directly.

[Zetr0]

This is beautiful

my sincere thanks =)


Hardware Pr0n on a Saturday!?!?!? suits me sir!

[coze]

when I first saw the title I thought those two were caught in the act ? LOL

great A2000 hardware pron there loe, thanks !

[Philophus]

Very nice! The a2000 is an underated machine in my opinion...i might have to source one after seeing this post.

[coze]

having a look at the pics, I think you got some of the caps legs much too close to each other. you wouldn't like your caps to cross legs accidently you know, so I'ld advise to orient them so that legs can't be crossed even if the cap is pulled/twisted hard ...

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by coze

having a look at the pics, I think you got some of the caps legs much too close to each other. you wouldn't like your caps to cross legs accidently you know, so I'ld advise to orient them so that legs can't be crossed even if the cap is pulled/twisted hard ...

I thought the same thing from the image, but it's just the angle, I absolutely made sure to bend the legs with pliers, but always keeping at least 2 - 2.5 mm distance between them. In doing it the way it's been done, it ensures that the accelerator card can't accidently hit them and break them.

[Cosmos]

Where is the socket 42 for the Kickstart 3.9.1 ?

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by Cosmos

Where is the socket 42 for the Kickstart 3.9.1 ?

I run 3.1, it does me just fine

[Chain]

Originally Posted by Loedown

Front view of the rear CF card and AEW7720 adapter, this shot is specially for Chain

Thats it, it fits perfectly! Thanks!

[squidbass]

Nurse! The towels!

[Fingerlickin_B]

Dude, that is NICE!

PZ.