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primitivefunction

Posted Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:22 am

Yeah, I can’t imagine doing much with 256k only.

Thanks for sharing those images A10001986. I wasn’t aware of Speechtoy (just googled it - looks similar to the Say program). Interesting stuff. BTW this video has a nice run down of the 2 demo disks mentioned - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi09cHyO3r4&t=351s

I actually don’t mind the look of the folder for the floppy disks but you’re right, that German leaflet looks like a bit of an afterthought!

One more question, does your A1000 have the Commodore branding on the front of the machine? And did it come in the US Amiga box with the glossy photos etc.? From what I understand the earliest ‘pseudo-PAL’ machines with the daughterboard (that your friends probably had) had no Commodore logo and came in the American style box and the later single-board PAL machines had the Commodore logo and came in a different style box.

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A10001986
1986

Posted Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:54 am

My A1000 has the Commodore logo on the front. It came in a mere red-blue-white box, not those beautiful glossy ones.

I am pretty sure my friends' A1000s also had the logo, but I'd need to reconfirm that. Edit: No, they had no logo. However, what I know for certain is that they came in glossy boxes.

You are correct in your assumption about the daughter board. The pseudo-PAL machines all had one (ie they were identical with the US machines, apart from power supply and Agnus chip type - http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/a1000,2 ). Later PAL machines, like mine, came without daughter board and had a PAL-suitable oscillator and a PAL CVBS converter ( http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/a1000,5 ).

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primitivefunction

Posted Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:23 am

Ah, makes sense.

Here in Australia I don't think we ever got the glossy boxes, just the boring white ones with the red and blue printing.

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A10001986
1986

Posted Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:32 am

While we are at it, also interesting are 1) various versions of the 1081 crt that came bundled, and 2) the keyboard.

1) My friends' 1081 had only one speaker, ie they were mono. Mine, although visually identical, had two speakers, ie stereo. Otherwise we didn't notice any difference. In most databases the 1081 is known as being "mono" only.

2) The keyboard what came with mine had the American layout. However, later Commodore delivered that keyboard with stickers for german umlauts, and even later keyboards with two additional keys and umlauts printed on the keys themselves. The same probably goes for other languages. And all that basically within one year - 1986 - as in March 1987 the 500 and 2000 were launched...

Question: Is Australia on 240V or 220V? If 240V, was there a specific 240V power supply?

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primitivefunction

Posted Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:07 am

Australia is 240. The power supply on my PAL A1000 is 220 - 240v, so probably the same PSU they used in Europe.
A1000lg_005.jpg
I didn’t realise there was a stereo 1081. That might be quite a rarity you have. I wonder if there are also different model 1080s with mono and stereo sound. Commodore’s monitor line up was all over the map - look at how many flavours of 1084s there were!

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A10001986
1986

Posted Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:24 pm

Reason for asking was that my PSU says "220v", not "220-240v". Does the sticker on the PSU itself mention 240v?

I don't have 1081 anymore. It had the usual soldering issues (it needed slight slaps sometimes :) ) and I sold it when I got my Phoenix+A2320.

PS: that bottom looks incredibly white and clean...

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primitivefunction

Posted Wed Jun 06, 2018 1:18 am

A10001986 wrote:Reason for asking was that my PSU says "220v", not "220-240v". Does the sticker on the PSU itself mention 240v?
Ah, that I’m not sure of. Its been a while since I’ve had it open (I had to replace the fan last year as the old one was getting a bit noisy). Currently its sitting underneath my new A1000 while I find a new place to store it! Next time I have the top off it, I’ll take a photo of the PSU.
A1000lg_006.jpg

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Jun 06, 2018 9:07 am

I had to replace the fan last year as the old one was getting a bit noisy
OK now that's interesting. I'm very curious as to which fan you used as the replacement?

I've been working on a side-project for A1000 fans off and on for the past 2 months. I actually located the original fan with the exact same specs as when the A1000 was made. That fan is still being made by the original company.

It's a very unusual fan that blows at a fairly low rate, which is also why the machine is virtually silent under normal conditions (unlike the 2000). And the fan is in a very sturdy metal housing - everything is exactly identical.

It also costs a staggering $70.

I then found another fan that only cost $18, which I bought. It's only "problem" is that it blows 2-3x harder than the stock fan. Everything else is a perfect match. But it does create more decibels.

As such, EDzineG said we could add a resistor to the fan would would chop it's output down. But that's where things stopped as I don't know which resistor I should use to do that.

What did you wind up doing?

Last thing on this for the moment. Many of the A1000 fans over time begin to generate a "clunking" noise. It's a very common problem (3 of my 5 do this). The fan still works and blows air, but it sounds like someone flicking a wooden leg to a stool back there. If you remove the fan, on the inside there is a little hole. In theory, if you can inject a small amount of petroleum oil into that hole, it can work its way into the bearings and remove that noisy fan issue entirely and post-pone a replacement for a long time.

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primitivefunction

Posted Thu Jun 07, 2018 1:42 am

intric8 wrote:Last thing on this for the moment. Many of the A1000 fans over time begin to generate a "clunking" noise. It's a very common problem (3 of my 5 do this). The fan still works and blows air, but it sounds like someone flicking a wooden leg to a stool back there. If you remove the fan, on the inside there is a little hole. In theory, if you can inject a small amount of petroleum oil into that hole, it can work its way into the bearings and remove that noisy fan issue entirely and post-pone a replacement for a long time.
Yes, thats exactly the noise this fan was making. I didn’t know about injecting oil into the hole but definitely something to try for next time!

So my fan experience was as follows:

The noise coming out of this thing was getting too much to bear, and it would come and go. Sometimes it would be almost silent and then it would start to rattle up again after 10 mins or so of use.

There was a fellow on amibay selling NOS 220v 1000 power supplies for a reasonable price. After a couple of months of my messages going unanswered I gave up on that and started to look for a fan replacement. As you mentioned not the easiest thing in the world to find!

I eventually handed it off to a member of our local user group who is also a very good tech. He found a suitable (inexpensive) 8cm fan but I don’t remember the brand/model. When I see him next I’ll ask him about it. But you’re absolutely right you need a resistor in there to lower its output. Once again my tech did this for me, so I will quiz him on which value resistor he used. Otherwise I’ll open the case and take some photos of everything to show how it was done (I don’t like to open the case too often because those little plastic clips have a habit of breaking off after a while).

That’s fantastic that you were able to locate the original fan manufacturer. Is it ETRI or something like that? Like everything in the 1000, they used quality parts. $70 seems like a lot but it could be worse.

Even though I generally don’t really like fans at all, the A1000 fan is tolerable - it just sort of sounds like really quiet airconditioning. One of the reasons I probably wouldn’t use an A2000 for my daily driver is the fan noise. Some people don’t seem to mind the noise, but I really like quiet computers!

User avatar
A10001986
1986

Posted Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:39 pm

primitivefunction wrote:There was a fellow on amibay selling NOS 220v 1000 power supplies for a reasonable price. After a couple of months of my messages going unanswered I gave up on that and started to look for a fan replacement.
I bought two of those from him, but it was quite an odyssey. He took the money and then stopped responding to all kinds of attempts to contact him. I found him on Facebook, where he publicly kept posting stuff, but messages went unanswered. e-mail - no avail. Amibay messages - no avail.

After two or so months he wrote back, rambling about a fire in his office or home and that he had no time do deal with me in the meantime. (But yeah, there is always time to post "funny" stuff on Facebook.)

What an oddball. Borderline.

The PSUs are great, however. (I had them recapped immediately, just to make sure.)

PS: I searched quite a bit for replacement fans in those two months of writing off my money - the 120V is indeed still made and available at some places on the net, but the 220V I could not find anywhere.





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