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tastemakerChuck

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:37 pm

Hey all!

I am new here and new to Amigas. I had a C64 in the 80s that I remember with great fondness, and I recently caught the retro bug and bought a barebone Amiga 2000 with a rev 6.2 motherboard. It seems like there has been a great deal of activity in the accelerator and FPGA space these days. So I am throwing my extreme noobness at your generous feet and hoping to get some good advice before I start shopping and throwing money at this new interest. :)

A couple of restoration questions: Should I have the motherboard serviced/recapped at all? I think it's pretty original, the gentleman I bought it from said he had changed the battery and cleaned it (with vinegar, maybe?)... It does look pretty clean but I am wondering if some sort of preventative maintenance is called for in terms of battery and capacitor and who you might recommend to do that kind of work.

In terms of the casing, what are my best options for cleaning and getting rid of yellowing? not sure how discolored this is since I haven't seen another 2000 in the flesh, but I think this picture is fairly accurate representation.
a2000_caseKBmouse_w.jpg
For upgrades: it seems like some sort of modern accelerator board is the best call, so either a Terrible Fire 530 or something in that family or I wait for a Vampire 500 V2+ or something else?

I don't have a CRT so I am looking at an Amiga video to VGA adapter and a monitor that will that that output, unless I can find a graphic card or get the Vampire with it's HDMI solution.

How about networking? how do I get this classic onto the internet?

The board currently has a 2.04 ROM, should I upgrade it to 2.05 or 3.1 or something else?

Thank you in advance for all of your help. If I have overlooked something please suggest that too!

User avatar
tastemakerChuck

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:40 pm

And here is a picture of the motherboard:
a2000_mbFull_w.jpg

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:11 pm

Oh man! Where to start. I could sit down and have a few beers with you and talk to you all night long about this.

I'm also a huge A2000 nut. My 2000 is my daily driver, followed close behind by my various A1000 obsessions. I won't be able to answer all of your questions right this minute, but let me try and take the conversation up a level, if possible.

What do you personally plan on doing with the machine? Games? Software (word processors, graphics, etc.)? BBSing? Making music ... Other? And maybe you're not even sure yet, which is OK.

If I was in your shoes, (and I was once) I'd first ponder what you hope to use the machine for.

Since the battery is removed and the machine is totally functional, you're in REALLY good shape. The Amiga 2000 is not known for capacitor issues like some of the other models. I'd not worry about any kind of preventative maintenance in that regard at this stage.

As for the case, the Amiga 2000 was created off-white with that nice hot chocolate brown face. Your box looks good in the picture. Your keyboard (not the keys) seems to be a little yellow, but it's not awful. I'd start with user Mattsoft's favorite "KrudKutter" which eats dirt and grease, but is safe on plastic as a place to start. On everything. I've seen him turn some really nasty stuff into sparkly and holy goodness with that stuff.

So. What to do...

Here's what I personally do, with the caveat that everyone is different and it's a journey for you do discover. I spend a ton of my time using software of the era. As such, I use KS 1.3 and Workbench 1.3 almost exclusively. I have purchased a Kickstart switch for my 2000 to allow me to flip over to 2.04, but haven't installed it yet (no rush). Some of the older software will break running 2.0. Just will. But if you aren't planning on using any old software, perhaps that doesn't matter. I have a few programs that are actually 2.0 specific (a text editor and a terminal program). So, a switcher might be in your future - again, depending on what you plan to do. There's a really good chance you may not need to do anything! I'd encourage you to use the machine, and start to address problems as you see them along the way rather than attacking everything up front before you know what your preferences are.

I also use an internal SCSI hard drive to auto-boot Workbench when I fire it up (does your machine have a hard drive?). This is hands down one of the best upgrades you can make to a 2000, and there's plenty of room to do it. It also usually comes with a bit of RAM, too, depending on the card you choose.

If you're thinking you want to play games from the 80's or early 90's, a HDD and some RAM is a great place to start. Most games won't need an accelerator, but some certainly benefit from it. Will chat more later, but those are my initial thoughts right off the top.

If you're more the programmer type, or 3D modeler, or music tracker mixer... it really just all depends.

User avatar
Tectron
Indiana

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:17 pm

Retro man cave has a great video about the gbs 8220 scan doubler, I have the gbs8200 variant and its great for the price.

A plipbox parallel port network adapter is going to be the cheapest route, unfortunately there isnt any open source zorro II network interfaces (that I'm aware of).

User avatar
tastemakerChuck

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 4:17 pm

Thank you for the replies!

My use will be general computing, learning Amiga OS as well as tinkering with the hardware... hardware is definitely an interest of mine and I like the ideal of making some modern upgrades since so much is being done in this area in the last few years especially it seems. I would like to do general things, like web, email, IRC, word processing, as well as retro-gaming and yes, some BBS exploring too. (I actually ran a small BBS on my C64 back in the day!... though I don't remember much about it other than getting in trouble over some high phone bills one month)...

I definitely want to clean it well and make it shine, I am pretty picky about aesthetics. I think i'll have to take the keyboard apart and check that out, it looks like there is some corrosion between the keys as well as general grimy-ness. Though it looks and feels pretty good to type on.

I haven't even powered it on myself yet as I need to get a working monitor/cable situation sorted out, but that's fine.

I'm curious to see what the PSU sounds like, I might have to look at replacing the fan if it terms out to be a noisy one.

It has two floppy drives but no HDD at the moment. It has kickstart 2.04 rom and I have 2.04 disks.

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 4:30 pm

Very cool.

For BBSing, which is still a 'thing' to this day, although people use their retro machines to telnet into BBSes (hosted on original hardware for the most part) via WiFi modems on the serial port, or some fancy TCPser setups. I try to dial in every 1-2 days. I have a couple of places I and some here hit regularly. It really is total bliss.

For internet/email? I use my modern machines for that. I have seen folks do this using OS 3.1, 3.9 and 4+ but, and again this is all about personal preference, I keep those distractions off my Amigas. Surfing the web with some of options out there can be kind of painful unless you're hitting sites like this one (with no ads) and you avoid the Games Library so as to not download images, etc.

Sounds like a CRT/LCD monitor is your first real need. Here's a big list, but have you looked at the NEC 1970NX? It's the proper aspect ratio and you can find them on Ebay in the $40-$50 range (watch out for insidious shipping charges). If you're really into aesthetics, though, the siren call for an C= monitor will be strong. I know, I have 3. ;) And in those cases, local finds are usually the best way to go. Are you in the USA?

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EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 4:58 pm

That is a very nice system!

I wouldn't worry about capping it. The 500/1000/2000 don't really have issues with capacitors leaking, but some do suffer from the VARTA batteries destroying the board. Looks like the previous owner took care of that for you though.

I don't think you'll be able to get the floppy drives to match the color of the case with any level of Retrobrighting, so I'd probably leave that be. That would honestly be the only thing that bothered me about the color. Your keyboard is in excellent condition, too. I certainly don't think it's necessary here.

As for acceleration, I'd go for a TF530. Versions with more RAM will be coming soon, and some work is ongoing to activate the SPI port for cheap networking, etc. in the future. This would also provide you a nice IDE controller to attach a CF card to. Some enterprising types have even made a cpu slot adapter to mount it vertically like a real A2000 accelerator.

Anyways, always good to hear from other Amigans!

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:03 pm

I Am re recent returnee to the Amiga world, in your original image you show a barrel battery still on the motherboard has that been removed? if not get that wee thing off of there! your motherboard doesn't seem to corroded around there but those things are the devil!

In regards to the color yours is in great shape! and with it being a 6.2 revision motherboard MAY have the ECS chipset, not the older OCS chipset that previous generations of A2k came with, 2.04 ROMs are I believe standard on the 6.x revision motherboard version of the A2000, my 6.3 rev A2000 came with the 2.04 ROMs as well.

I would suggest getting a few upgrades if you want to make it your go-to Amiga:

1) an A2052 2MB RAM card which can be had off Ebay for about $35, it will fit into the Zorro II slots on your motherboard and provide you with an additional 2Mb fast ram.

A2091 SCSI controller (try to get one with 7.0 ROMs and rev 8.0 SCSI Chip - they bring a large improvement to the read/drive speed and such of drives) these boards you can get with 0-2MB of additional fast ram!

An accelerator is honestly not needed right away!

As for the monitor Intric8 gave a great list! don't be tempted if you see other models with slightly similar names - I bought an NEC 1960NXi and i'm reduced to using Interlaced 4 color mode!

Welcome to Amiga Love!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:07 pm

in your original image you show a barrel battery still on the motherboard
OMG I didn't even look at that. It's true. Maybe it's a replacement? Which means your clock would save time, but man.. out of pure philosophical principal I'd get that off of there and use the (awesome) coin battery replacement that you can pick up from AmigaKit. That's a good weekend project right there and worth every minute of your time. Good catch, Leigh.

User avatar
tastemakerChuck

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:10 pm

@intric8: yes, I am in the US. and yes, getting some sort of monitor is definitely a priority :) ... is the KrudKutter you mentioned just the name brand you can buy on Amazon or hardware store? "all-purpose"?

@EzdineG: thank you! yes, the TF530 definitely sounds like a good place to start. I ordered one of those 90 degree adapters from a gentleman in Europe, but I haven't ordered the actual accelerator board yet... it looks like the rev2 boards are set and pretty stable and the rev 3 still in development? building one of these might be beyond my total noob solder skills, are there any pros in the US assembling these?

@Tectron: thank you for the suggestions, I will check those out





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