User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:34 pm

Over the past couple of months I've really enjoyed, nay - fallen in love, with my Amiga 1000. I really do feel like I got so lucky finding it and winning it (for only $150 complete in-box). Coupled with Paul Rickards' Wifi modem, it's a permanent part of my desk right now.
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Sure it was really dirty, but after cleaning up the keyboard and the inside of the computer, it looks damned near pristine. I can't stop looking at it and using it. It has become my number one terminal for accessing BBSes, bypassing both my 2000 and C64.

It's just so great to pull my chair up to to my desk, slide out the keyboard from its little garage, and just start using it like it was 1986 again. Everything just works and so far I'm really happy with my minor upgrades.

First I got the front 256KB RAM upgrade that, frankly, Commodore should have just sold with the 1000. It's really kind of silly that they didn't (and it should have been a permanent part of the machine, not some removable bit of kit. You know?) That brought it up to a bare-bones level of awesome. My 1000 came with an expansion board of 512K of RAM on the side, too. So I actually had 1MB pretty quickly. But it wasn't a full 1MB, not really. The machine would eat up a small portion of that.

And then I lucked into a Microbotics Starboard 2MB expansion. I wasn't able to get it to work with the other 512, so I removed that and just started using the Microbotics - which had me around 2.5MB total. Not too shabby at all. The 1000 works and plays great at this level alone.

There are really only three missing pieces (for me) for my 1000 to be complete.

First, I want to somehow some way get a RTC (real-time clock). Second, I want an external hard drive. And third, I'd like the potential for a mild accelerator on the rare occasion when I might need one. In my personal opinion, playing Starflight, Wing Commander, flight sims, etc. and some other heavy-duty games that rock by default can rock just a tiny bit more with a mildly goosed CPU.

This past week I received in my possession a DKB Insider card.
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I have yet to install it, but upon inspection I was baffled by the lack of an obvious battery for the RTC.

After reaching out on a few different Amiga groups, I was informed that the little chip you see in the picture above that is sitting on top of another chip is where the RTC lives, and the batteries (there are actually two!) are embedded inside their little plastic coffin.

After much research, I determined that I'm not likely going to be hacking the "Dallas Smartwatch RTC DS1216" to replace the batteries. That's just a bit above my pay grade. But I have discovered that there may be pin-for-pin replacements for the clock. TBD on that.

I hope to put the board in the 1000 this week and at least enjoy the additional 1MB of internal fast RAM. At that stage, I should be hovering around 3.5MB of RAM, which for a 1000 would be like ... well, it's hard to imagine. It'll be awesome.

But my real-time clock... Ugh, what an ordeal.

Last month I stumbled across an ancient piece of kit made back in the day from C-Ltd called the Timesaver. The Timesaver is a little external board made back in 1987 that (gasp!) used a replaceable coin battery attached to a real-time clock chip.
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Interestingly, it is supposed to be placed between your keyboard and the Amiga. To do this you need a phone handset cable, because the Amiga 1000 keyboard uses this strange kind of cabling. I couldn't tell if it needed RJ9 plugs or RJ10. I ordered both from Amazon, as they aren't expensive at all. But I had to wait for them to arrive from China which took weeks.
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I tried the RJ10 cable with the keyboard before attaching the device and it worked perfectly. I was able to open up the Shell and type away no problem. On my device's case I can see there is an "A" for Amiga, and "K" for keyboard. I hooked up the cords to their respective ports and turned on the computer.

Not only did the Timesaver not seem to work at all, neither did my keyboard. And wow - the Timesaver was putting out some serious heat!

I tried the RJ9 cables to the same effect and fiddled with everything I could think of. It just never worked. Bummer. I do know that there were two versions made, and I wonder if mine was made for German keyboards which had a different clock rate. But I feel like even if that was so the keyboard itself should still work. And it doesn't. Not when the TImesaver is plugged in.

I also received a Dataflyer 1000, which is a very sturdy external hard drive for the 1000 that can be equipped with a boat load of RAM. I got it today and was immediately impressed with the build. But it, too, never came to life. Not at all. In fact, it would freeze the boot-up process when plugged into the expansion port. Essentially after Kickstart loads it hangs and never asks for Workbench. Even after pulling the RAM expansion from the Dataflyer, it still prevented the 1000 from booting. Bummer #2.
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The Dataflyer 1000 is a very attractive external hard drive option, if it works.

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So, my searches continue. And after talking to Jens at Individual Computers, I will not be buying an ACA 500+ any time soon. I'll be waiting for future products (I can't explain why, but let's just say the ACA was designed for the 500 and not the 1000 but that's not the end of the story).

Sometimes things simply don't work. But that's no reason to give up. Not to mention, a friend of mine is sending me a small internal accelerator board called the AdSpeed, which I should receive this weekend. It'll give the 1000's 7Mhz the ability to double its power to 14Mhz. It hasn't been used in years, but we'll see how it goes! <3

User avatar
mattsoft

Posted Wed Sep 20, 2017 11:29 pm

Bummer about the HD and clock. It sounds like you're convinced against the ACA500+, but it really does work quite well on the 1000. A few months back, Jens mentioned that the only reason he is saying to not use it in your 1000 is that he doesn't want to deal with fielding questions about an unsupported configuration, and that the card would not damage the 1000.

Anyway, my goal has been to try stuff any expansion INSIDE the 1000 while remaining on real hardware. This means I'd like to get away from the ACA500+ dangling from the side, and avoid the whole Vampire thing. I love the pure look of 1000 all buttoned up. So...I did see this: http://amigastore.eu/en/597-wicher-500i ... rator.html -- it's a mild accelerator (20MHz), 8MB fast, and an IDE expansion. It's designed for the 500, but looks like it MIGHT fit the 1000. I could not get anything conclusive from the manufacturer or interwebs, but it was only $150 so I just bought one. I'll report back once it's here...

User avatar
LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:52 am

I like the look of that Wicher 500i! And having a 2.5" drive option means I can probably bash a small CF card into my A500, install Workbench onto that, and be able to use my 500 not just for games, but maybe even some other purposes like music and art creation. :)

After all, the Amiga is meant to make it possible, right? ;)

I'm going to order one on my next paycheck!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:24 am

mattsoft:
It sounds like you're convinced against the ACA500+, but it really does work quite well on the 1000.
I'm not against the ACA500 permanently, just right now at this moment in time. I may get one and have it as a future-proof solution for the future. But after talking to Jens last week, I realize that there is a potential for very cool upgrades - non-destructive ones like the ACA500, which I prefer - that will designed specifically for the 1000.

I'm paraphrasing, and don't quote me here, but if Jens were to make a similar board for the 1000, he would make it vertical, face forward and be right-side up. That sounds just lovely, and it would be based on almost the same exact tech as the ACA500. Now, if I had my way, I'd ask that there be a config file somewhere that I could set that said, "Just boot 1.3 only and don't ask me when I turn on the machine." And maybe some special keystrokes, a reset switch or software could be used to get to the options menu. Don't make me see that every single time I turn on the machine. Just boot up to Workbench if there isn't anything in df0:. To get really fancy, treat it like the 1200. Hold down 2 mouse buttons during boot to get to the config screen. Otherwise, boot as normal. You know what I mean?

I guess I'm really picky.

mattsoft:
Anyway, my goal has been to try stuff any expansion INSIDE the 1000 while remaining on real hardware. This means I'd like to get away from the ACA500+ dangling from the side, and avoid the whole Vampire thing.
I completely agree with this sentiment. The Amiga 1000 is a sight to behold. I'd rather not have Borg tech hanging out of it, especially if it wasn't really designed for it. It looks weird for a reason even if the underlying tech is bad ass.

I also have this admittedly strange nostalgia for expansion tech that was designed BITD. That stuff still works most of the time, and it looks and feels right to me. I have a pretty large collection of disk software in the original boxes, and I simply love using it when it is required. My drives all work flawlessly (knock on wood) and damn - I just love that sound. I really do.

mattsoft:
So...I did see this -- it's a mild accelerator (20MHz), 8MB fast, and an IDE expansion. It's designed for the 500, but looks like it MIGHT fit the 1000. I could not get anything conclusive from the manufacturer or interwebs, but it was only $150 so I just bought one. I'll report back once it's here...
Holy crap, if that fits and actually works - that would be amazing. I'd be down for that! I wonder if you can disable the upgraded CPU if you run into any compatibility issues? There seems to be surprisingly very little written about that board anywhere. Odd.

Matt, that option sounds very, very cool to me. Let us know how it pans out. I'm going to poke around on YouTube and see if anyone over there has ever tried this with a 1000. I guess the good news is, assuming you've got a 500, you could always migrate this out of the 1000 and to a 500 if things don't fit. But man, if it does...

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:27 am

Hm.. the recommended Kickstart is 3.1. Doesn't mean 1.3 won't work, but I wonder why he's got that rec?

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Sep 21, 2017 10:29 am

@mattsoft, I've asked around and the key concern with that board in particular seems to be the CPU location.

The CPU, as you already know, is underneath the floppy drive. The Wicher board seems to have its CPU location in an orientation which would need it to go underneath the floppy. So there may be issues there.

I wonder if there is such a thing as a CPU cable, that would allow one to use cabling to make that connection rather than fixed extender legs...?

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:20 pm

@mattsoft check this out.
With this you can build your own 68000 cpu extension cable. It is usefull if you want to fit various accelerators in your A500/A1000/CDTV.
Dude. This might work.

User avatar
mattsoft

Posted Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:06 am

intric8 wrote:@mattsoft, I've asked around and the key concern with that board in particular seems to be the CPU location.

The CPU, as you already know, is underneath the floppy drive. The Wicher board seems to have its CPU location in an orientation which would need it to go underneath the floppy. So there may be issues there.

I wonder if there is such a thing as a CPU cable, that would allow one to use cabling to make that connection rather than fixed extender legs...?
I designed and manufactured an offset PCB for this very purpose. Just waiting for header pins to arrive and I can begin soldering. Hopefully I can have that fitted and tested before the board arrives. Fingers-crossed!

User avatar
mattsoft

Posted Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:08 am

intric8 wrote: I'm paraphrasing, and don't quote me here, but if Jens were to make a similar board for the 1000, he would make it vertical, face forward and be right-side up.
Jens has been talking about this design for 2 years, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:52 am

I know it's been quieter around the forum lately. It hasn't been for a lack of effort, though. I've been deep in hardware projects (like the ones above). And, typically when they fail I don't post about them.

I had another experience this weekend that went this route, unfortunately. I have one last Hail Mary pass to throw tonight. If it doesn't work out I'll post about it here. But if it does work out (fingers crossed into ghastly pretzels) I hope to put a fully-fledged happy post together very soon.





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