Amiga A590 and mods?

bugsymalone666 · 23 November 2014, 19:36

I have just bought an Amiga A590 with power supply on ebay cheap, apparently for spares/not working, my immediate thought is probably a 20 year old power pack, but I have to wait for it to arrive yet!

This aside I was wondering what could be done to mod the thing?

I have been looking into DIY memory upgrades and IDE68K but wondered if they worked with the A590 fitted?

I came accross a 512mb CF card earlier and thought its the perfect candidate for my Amiga, with the 590 though I understand the interface is scsi and XTIDE rather than ATIDE.

I wondered what can be done with the unit? are there any DIY adaptors that can be build ? seems that scsi to IDE are available but hideously expensive!

I wondered if there is anything in the realm of DIY available.

I think I may have in a box somewhere an old 400mb scsi hard drive and I also have a 640mb monster (I mean monster it takes up 2x 5.25" drive bays and has its own double case to suit!) however I am not confident on this, I used to have some scsi stuff but not much.

I presume any Scsi external CD rom would work with the external port?

Yulquen74 · 24 November 2014, 10:57

A number of things can be done with the A590, but as you mentioned, some can be costly.

I have done the following with mine:

- Replaced the DMAC chip V1 to a V2 (some come with V2, but usually you need to take a V2 from an A2091 controller).
- Installed a Guru ROM adapter (simple diy PCB with a PLD and a PROM). Requires DMAC V2.
Guru ROM is generally used for better speed and compatibility with bigger drives, but original V7 ROMs
is also an improvement.
- Installed an Acard SCSI to IDE adapter. Costly, as mentioned.
- Installed a Kingspec IDE SSD disk into the Acard adapter. RSCP speed about 3200 KB/s.
- Rewired the A590 to get power from the A500, and converted a PC power supply to power the A500.
- Installed a toggle-switch to be able to disable the A590 when using kick 1.2 and such

In addition, I have an external Teac CDR55S CD writer connected to the back of the A590 in its own
cabinet. Also powered from the PC power supply. Using CacheCDFS i AmigaOS, and MakeCD for CD writing (works even at 7MHz).
Works absolutely fine.

Regarding memory, I disabled the 2 MB of RAM inside the A590, and built a RAM expansion for the CPU socket just slightly bigger than the socket itself with 12MB SRAM available. Somewhat expensive RAM chips, Kipper has really cheap 8MB memory upgrades.

Since the A590 is an autoconfig device, any other memory/IDE expansions installed into the CPU socket must be non autoconfig. On mine, the system detects the 1,7MB ranger mem, which the A590 DMA's to. The rest of the memory is added to the system using
addmem. I think Kippers 8MB memory expansions can be ordered as non autoconfig.

This should answer some of your questions.

bugsymalone666 · 24 November 2014, 13:46

I guess you kind of confirmed some of my fears about what I might be getting into.

I have been looking at some projects online where a guy built a scsi to PCMCIA interface, I thought that might be quite useful, looking at how big the A590 is I thought it would make a good home for some custom upgrades.

Although I have already taken my Amiga apart, done a 1mb chip mem mod and fitted a raspberry Pi to replace the primary diskdrive, I thought I'd like to have a way to do upgrades without taking the main think to bits all the time.

I also figured for the price, its got a proper edge connector which I dont think you can get from anywhere easily anymore ( I found 100pin but not 86pin).

So I figured I may be able to build an IDE68K fairly easily, wondered if I could connect that to the edge connector rather than building it to go under the chip, at least in the A590 it would have the room and power.

I guess I been looking at Kipper2k mods, been thinking of building some DIY ones but wanted to house them externally.

the A590 kind of does the same thing I guess, but comes up a little expensive for some of the mods. I guess its nice to have a scsi interface when you can get the bits.

Merlin · 24 November 2014, 16:23

You could try a SCSI to SCA SCSI adapter and fit a server hard drive. The multi-adapters are cheap and server hard drives are plentiful.

23 November 2014, 19:36	#1
bugsymalone666 Amiga baby yeah! Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Basingstoke Posts: 108	Amiga A590 and mods? I have just bought an Amiga A590 with power supply on ebay cheap, apparently for spares/not working, my immediate thought is probably a 20 year old power pack, but I have to wait for it to arrive yet! This aside I was wondering what could be done to mod the thing? I have been looking into DIY memory upgrades and IDE68K but wondered if they worked with the A590 fitted? I came accross a 512mb CF card earlier and thought its the perfect candidate for my Amiga, with the 590 though I understand the interface is scsi and XTIDE rather than ATIDE. I wondered what can be done with the unit? are there any DIY adaptors that can be build ? seems that scsi to IDE are available but hideously expensive! I wondered if there is anything in the realm of DIY available. I think I may have in a box somewhere an old 400mb scsi hard drive and I also have a 640mb monster (I mean monster it takes up 2x 5.25" drive bays and has its own double case to suit!) however I am not confident on this, I used to have some scsi stuff but not much. I presume any Scsi external CD rom would work with the external port?

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24 November 2014, 10:57	#2
Yulquen74 Registered User Join Date: May 2013 Location: Kleppe / Norway Posts: 258	A number of things can be done with the A590, but as you mentioned, some can be costly. I have done the following with mine: - Replaced the DMAC chip V1 to a V2 (some come with V2, but usually you need to take a V2 from an A2091 controller). - Installed a Guru ROM adapter (simple diy PCB with a PLD and a PROM). Requires DMAC V2. Guru ROM is generally used for better speed and compatibility with bigger drives, but original V7 ROMs is also an improvement. - Installed an Acard SCSI to IDE adapter. Costly, as mentioned. - Installed a Kingspec IDE SSD disk into the Acard adapter. RSCP speed about 3200 KB/s. - Rewired the A590 to get power from the A500, and converted a PC power supply to power the A500. - Installed a toggle-switch to be able to disable the A590 when using kick 1.2 and such In addition, I have an external Teac CDR55S CD writer connected to the back of the A590 in its own cabinet. Also powered from the PC power supply. Using CacheCDFS i AmigaOS, and MakeCD for CD writing (works even at 7MHz). Works absolutely fine. Regarding memory, I disabled the 2 MB of RAM inside the A590, and built a RAM expansion for the CPU socket just slightly bigger than the socket itself with 12MB SRAM available. Somewhat expensive RAM chips, Kipper has really cheap 8MB memory upgrades. Since the A590 is an autoconfig device, any other memory/IDE expansions installed into the CPU socket must be non autoconfig. On mine, the system detects the 1,7MB ranger mem, which the A590 DMA's to. The rest of the memory is added to the system using addmem. I think Kippers 8MB memory expansions can be ordered as non autoconfig. This should answer some of your questions.

24 November 2014, 13:46	#3
bugsymalone666 Amiga baby yeah! Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Basingstoke Posts: 108	I guess you kind of confirmed some of my fears about what I might be getting into. I have been looking at some projects online where a guy built a scsi to PCMCIA interface, I thought that might be quite useful, looking at how big the A590 is I thought it would make a good home for some custom upgrades. Although I have already taken my Amiga apart, done a 1mb chip mem mod and fitted a raspberry Pi to replace the primary diskdrive, I thought I'd like to have a way to do upgrades without taking the main think to bits all the time. I also figured for the price, its got a proper edge connector which I dont think you can get from anywhere easily anymore ( I found 100pin but not 86pin). So I figured I may be able to build an IDE68K fairly easily, wondered if I could connect that to the edge connector rather than building it to go under the chip, at least in the A590 it would have the room and power. I guess I been looking at Kipper2k mods, been thinking of building some DIY ones but wanted to house them externally. the A590 kind of does the same thing I guess, but comes up a little expensive for some of the mods. I guess its nice to have a scsi interface when you can get the bits.

24 November 2014, 16:23	#4
Merlin AmiBay MegaMod Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manchester, UK Age: 62 Posts: 1,163	You could try a SCSI to SCA SCSI adapter and fit a server hard drive. The multi-adapters are cheap and server hard drives are plentiful.

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