TheA500 - My little hardware mod - Extra USB Ports and SD card reader

[tover999]

Hello, I'm new here and just wanted to show my approach to making TheA500-Mini a little bit better and have some fun on the way .

First I took an old USB2 SD card reader, that I still had lying around, removed the plug and soldered a cable with a plug to it. I had to cut 3 USB-cables until i found one, that actually had data lines .

Then I used my "chinese dremel shaped object" to create an highly precise opening, for the SD-Cards and notched out some of the cases stiffening elements to make room for the reader.

I put the reader back into its plastic case and mounted it in place with some epoxy putty.

Since USBs are rare little creatures on TheA500 Mini, I found this nice small package of a 4xUsb-Hub, that even has an seperate 5V-In, which I didn't connect for now.
https://www.digitus.info/en/products...ader/da-70217/
I had hoped it would even be small enough to go out the back of the case, but that was a long shot, and depite the really compact form factor, there were a few milimeters missing.

Anyways ... I cut the data lines of USB2 on the A500 mainboard and bent the pins up.

Then I used the rest of the cable I used for the SD card reader and soldered the hub directly to the USB2 on the mainboard. Luckily the little cable/plug I removed from the Hub was just the right lenght to reconnect the disconnected data-lines to one output of the Hub, so that the original USB2 on the back of the case is still usable.

Then it was time again to butcher the nice A500 case for the 2 new USB-ports on the side. I put the hub back in it's original case, which i slightly chopped, so that the new ports can pertrude the side of the A500. I then again used epoxy putty to mount it in place. To close the A500-Case I had to remove/relocate one of the metal weights and cut one of its mounting studs in the lower part of the case. I simply used double sided tape to fix the weight nearby, where ist was not in the way of things.

And that was that :-). Quick and dirty, fully functional. I am aware, that all that could have been made nicer and more neatly ... especially the epoxy mounting and my very basic soldering skills ... but all in all I am happy with the results.

I even printed out some "disk labels" for my SD-cards/adapters .

EDIT: Forgot to mention, that the SD card reader is simply plugged into one of the "inner" Hub-ports.

I hope someone finds this interesting or even inspiring to do something similar or better.

And if i failed to put this post to the correct forum, feel free to move it.

cheers
tobi

[Tigerskunk]

Nice stuff, mate...

[solarmon]

Wow! That is fantastic!

Nice work!

[gizmomelb]

nicely done!

[Shaggy]

Thats really cool. I may do something like this to my A500.

[AJCopland]

That is brilliant! One thing that the A500Mini can really benefit from is extra ports. Great work

[btp]

Looks neat and tidy!

[HappyKool]

Good Work

[RichL]

Very good.

[Havie]

Nice idea - keeps things nice and neat without loads of wires everywhere!

[Bleugh]

Awesome mod :-)

[tover999]

Thank you all for your kind words! I'm glad you liked my mod.

Today while perusing the old internet looking for some new interesting TheA500 stuff, I stumbled accross a Facebook post by some "Gary Homes" https://www.facebook.com/groups/2092...2524601333157/ who copied the entirety of my post above and repostet it on Facebook, claiming it was his . I am lost for words and simply cannot believe, what sad lowlives are crawling on the surface of our planet ...

[zx80]

Originally Posted by tover999

Today while perusing the old internet looking for some new interesting TheA500 stuff, I stumbled accross a Facebook post by some "Gary Homes" who copied the entirety of my post above and repostet it on Facebook, claiming it was his . I am lost for words and simply cannot believe, what sad lowlives are crawling on the surface of our planet ...

Unfortunately there are some nuts out there in the Amiga world taking others work and sell it as their product in the internet, or claim it was their work or idea at all. It‘s really sad to see such nuts silently killing what we love and do for profit or their own reputation. Don‘t bother too much and be proud of the mods you‘ve done to your A500 Mini. Keep up the great work and enjoy what you do.