ACA500plus - power supply and PAL/NTSC questions

[Busta Uppa]

Hello all! I plan to upgrade my Amiga 500 with an ACA500plus, and want to make sure I have everything I need.

What I currently have:

• Amiga 500, motherboard Rev 5
• original power supply
• 512K trapdoor RAM (with "cell" style battery, which I think is the safe one?)
• Gotek, connected via external 3.5" floppy drive housing
• DF0/DF1 selector toggle switch for the Gotek
• RGB SCART video cable hooked up to a RetroTink 5X-Pro

Preliminary research has directed me to the c64psu website for the power supply. I've got my eye on the the "Boost" model for Amiga, which speficially mentions the ACA in the description along with features like ripple reduction and 5v fine-tuning. Is that a good one to go for, or would anyone recommend something else?

Feature-wise, I am especially interested in PAL/NTSC selection. I grew up with an NTSC Amiga, so plenty of games ran slightly too fast and had the bottom of the screen (often with crucial HUD elements) cut off. If I can finally get this stuff looking/sounding as it was intended, that would be amazing. So I'm not sure if the stock ACA500plus handles this, or if there's more I would need... looking around the Individual Computers website, I see the ECS Agnus 1MB and ACE2b go into the PAL/NTSC features, but not sure if one or both of these is required.

The ESC Agnus is one I see come up a lot, but it's not clear to me how it interacts with the ACA500plus. I've seen references to the ACA providing an alternative/easier installation method for the ECS Agnus; on other pages I've seen it implied that the ACA renders the whole thing redundant?

Anyway thanks for any tips or recommendations you can give. As mentioned, I am most interested in the PAL/NTSC stuff, but I'm open to other items that would improve the overall experience as well. Just trying to solidify my shopping list here so I can get everything in one go and reduce shipping costs to the U.S.

Cheers!

[r.cade]

To be able to switch to PAL on an NTSC Amiga 500 (or use 1MB of chip RAM) you have to have an 8372A fat Agnus chip (or some models of 8375). You can wire up a physical switch to one of the pins, or switch it in software after that. The ACA will not do anything for this feature if you have an 8370 chip.

[gurth]

I have a 8372A in my PAL machine.
I added it so I could support 1mb of chip ram.
Once installed my machine always booted up in NTSC mode.
I could from my ACA500plus menu force then machine back into PAL.
I eventually disconnected a pin on the 8372A so the machine always booted into PAL by default.

[dreadnought]

I've been using my ACA500+ with some normal laptop (I think) PSU, which came with my Amiga when I bought it, and it's been working just fine. So I suppose the stuff they write on that c64psu website is a lot of sales talk, especially seeing as I don't recall icomp stating some special power requirements for ACA on their website.

[Daedalus]

The crowd behind that website talk a lot of pointless waffle about their PSUs - accusing others of cloning their units and all sorts of other nonsense that puts me right off them.

IComp have their own views on PSUs - if any of their products don't work properly, the first thing to be mentioned is that your PSU isn't suitable, with the only suitable PSU being the one they sell themselves, naturally.

One point that IComp are very happy to lecture about is the original Commodore spec, and specifically the ripple requirements. Interestingly, the C64PSU units use a Meanwell module as their core which does not meet the Commodore ripple requirements. Aside from the fact that most original PSUs won't meet that spec these days either due to age, you could say that by not meeting this ripple spec, the C64PSUs don't meet the manufacturer's requirements for the ACA500+.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

IComp have their own views on PSUs - if any of their products don't work properly, the first thing to be mentioned is that your PSU isn't suitable, with the only suitable PSU being the one they sell themselves, naturally.

Really? That sounds nasty, seeing as there is absolutely no mention of that possibility on the ACA500+ product page.

[Busta Uppa]

Thanks everyone! Okay so I checked, and I do indeed have the 8370 Fat Agnus chip. So I will buy an 8372a and make the switch. Looks like a delicate operation, but I have used a chip puller before on the Even CIA chip (to install the DF0/DF1 selector switch), so I think I can swing it.

What I'm not sure about then is the ACE2b. Do I still need that for PAL/NTSC switching if I'm getting the ACA500plus?

btw, I did some testing with other PAL signals just to make sure my display can handle it. Tried a PAL game for Nintendo 64 through a Retrotink scaler, and confirmed that my monitor was indeed taking a 50Hz signal! Didn't wanna get too far down the rabbit hole before testing that, haha.

And interesting comments on the power supplies. If the icomp folks themselves are touting the specs of the original PSU, perhaps I should at least see how mine performs before replacing it. I just don't want to be putting strain on my original hardware, if the symptoms of inadequate power aren't obvious to my inexperienced eyes

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Busta Uppa

What I'm not sure about then is the ACE2b. Do I still need that for PAL/NTSC switching if I'm getting the ACA500plus?

I don't think so, I don't have it and was able to switch PAL/NTSC in ACA's startup menu. I guess what it does is that it might make more games playable, seeing as some do need 2MB Chip ram (though I'm no expert on that so somebody else might perhaps explain better).

[HardStep]

I’m currently in North America and to get past the Pal/NTCS drag with getting an Indivision ECS scandoubler and Ace2b in addition to Aca500+ as well.
Originally had OCS Agnus so instead of getting an ECS one which is needed for switching between Pal and NTSC I went all the way to 2mb, not to be sorry later on and wanting more of chip ram.
Got a Xsurf500 network card too, so my A500 can even do Youtube now haha.
I’m running mine off Keelog PSU and have no issues. Internals are probably the same Meanwells in most of the new ones.
Aca500plus CF card slots support SD card adapters too.
Mine is rock solid and fun, makes me swear looking at the clock shutting it off past 12am lol. So much more to do and games to llay but no time. Didn’t we have all of the time in the world back when Amigas were our main machines.

[Busta Uppa]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

I don't think so, I don't have it and was able to switch PAL/NTSC in ACA's startup menu. I guess what it does is that it might make more games playable, seeing as some do need 2MB Chip ram (though I'm no expert on that so somebody else might perhaps explain better).

Originally Posted by HardStep

I’m currently in North America and to get past the Pal/NTCS drag with getting an Indivision ECS scandoubler and Ace2b in addition to Aca500+ as well.
Originally had OCS Agnus so instead of getting an ECS one which is needed for switching between Pal and NTSC I went all the way to 2mb, not to be sorry later on and wanting more of chip ram.
Got a Xsurf500 network card too, so my A500 can even do Youtube now haha.
I’m running mine off Keelog PSU and have no issues. Internals are probably the same Meanwells in most of the new ones.
Aca500plus CF card slots support SD card adapters too.
Mine is rock solid and fun, makes me swear looking at the clock shutting it off past 12am lol. So much more to do and games to llay but no time. Didn’t we have all of the time in the world back when Amigas were our main machines.

Thanks, this is all helping me understand the distinction more now. So the ACA500plus just needs an ECS Agnus to work with (for the PAL/NTSC switching)... the ACE2B can be thought of as a ChipRAM extender that happens to use an ECS Agnus, so it's like getting a bonus upgrade if I was planning on replacing my Agnus anyway. Or, I could forego the extra chipRAM and simply swap my 8370 for an 8372A chip.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I get the gist of it now!

And wow, amazing pics HardStep! Thanks for sharing!