My A1000 setup, from zero to HERO!

[EzdineG]

As a child in 1985 I dreamed of what it would be like to own one of those new Amiga 1000s. Not only were the capabilities of the time amazing, but there's just something about the look of that machine with it's 1080 monitor sitting on top that seems timeless to me.

Fast forward 33 years, and I've finally made that dream come true. There's a little work to be done first, though.

Problem 1: My 1084 monitor is ill.
The first issue is that the power switch is "stuck" on. Pressing the power button doesn't do anything; the monitor can only be turned off by removing power at the outlet. After contacting this guy here for a replacement switch, all is now as it should be!

Here is the recipient of the transplant switch:

Nice and clean (the switch, anyway!)

The next problem is that the monitor "POPS", loses color and has an unstable image until it warms up. After a good perusal of the circuit board, I found that this fat b*stard had long since blown and needed to be replaced:

This guy stank like rancid fish when he was desoldered. I couldn't find an exact match, and apparently neither could Console 5. Good riddance.

The neck board had a few busted caps on it, too:

This is when I decided to go ahead and replace all of the capacitors at once..

I had a really hard time finding a replacement for the big capacitor above, so I purchased a complete recapping kit from Console 5, which you can see here. Note that Console 5 substituted this very capacitor, so I'd say it's probably difficult to source an exact match.

Once the set arrived, it took about two and a half hours to get all of the capacitors replaced. The area stank pretty bad for the next day or so, but we're okay now! I also had to touch up the solder joints on several of the leads below the transformer, as there were noticeable cracks in a few of them. Desoldering the shields was somewhat of a pain in the ass, too.

... to be continued.

[EzdineG]

Next I had to reassemble the Amiga 1000 that I was working on here.

Computers without an IDE LED are a NO GO for me.
According to the diagram for the IDE68K, there are pins to run an IDE LED. I'll route them to the front and tuck away the floppy drive's LED connector since I can already tell when THAT things running!

Made a connector for this and cut wire to the perfect length.

Origami like a boss!
My original goal was for everything I did to this machine to be reversible, and part of keeping that promise is to make sure the parts that came out went back in. I used a Y splitter for the floppy's power for my IDE->SD adapter, and I wasn't about to leave out the RF shield so the fight continued!

I spent longer than I'd like to admit bending the will of these ribbon cables.

But it was worth it!

Ah, that nice stock look!

.. to be continued.

[EzdineG]

That brings me to the end result; 7 mhz of unadulterated bliss.

I set up the now perfectly working 1084 + Amiga 1000 combo in the dining area so my son could and I could party like it's 1985.

We had hours of fun just playing with the "SAY" program in Workbench. We harassed the dogs, each other and mostly my wife. My computer called her a few times with some choice words and we laughed hysterically.

Good times! I hope he remembers them as fondly as I do!

I don't have any photos of how I originally received this A1000, but I do have one from when I was disassembling the keyboard for cleaning. I'll attach it here to give you an idea of what I was working with:

Ugh

Here's a link to a short, quick video of the machine in action:
https://youtu.be/87Q6kuQohvg

P.S. Eric send me your spare expansion cover.

[intric8]

My god! You are a miracle worker, man. Seeing you fix your monitor made my heart sing.

One of my 1080's literally just died last night, and I fear that stuff is way over my head. I had a drink to it last night, before deciding what to do next.

I've contacted Ray Carlsen. He's a bit of a hike from my house (2 hours in one direction) but it's probably worth the drive when I can find the time. I'm tempted to crack open the case and see if I notice anything really obvious.

Now that my stock 1000 is on a rack I can pop the case and get that daughter board figured out this weekend. I'm on it, man!

[icbrkr]

I just realized he lives less than 2 hours from me... and can fix monitors.. and I have an attic full of monitors

[intric8]

P.S. Eric send me your spare expansion cover.

Dude, I seem to recall flipping my 3D printed cover triumphantly into a trashcan after putting the OEM version on. But that could be just a fantasy I put in my head as I hated it so much. :geek:

But let me look around. I may have actually put it on a shelf. I'm sending you a package tomorrow, and if I find it - it's yours. But it might be gone.

[Zippy Zapp]

Nice Job on the refurb, especially the 1084. I have one that I also had to replace the switch. I found some on eBay a few years back that are not an exact match but they fit and work perfectly. My next task for that monitor is to d a full recap. it seems to have a fine picture but with nothing connected to it, the screen seems to flash a little if the brightness is up. I don't remember it doing this back when it was new.

Was it a pain to get the board out for recapping? I am confident in my soldering and recapping skills and although I have recapped a lot of LCDs, computers, power supplies and other electronics, I have never recapped a CRT and don't want to jack it (or myself) up. I also have a philips RGB that I want to recap too.

Also, when you said you couldn't find a match for the big fat cap, were you talking about dimensions or specs on the caps?

[EzdineG]

P.S. Eric send me your spare expansion cover.

Dude, I seem to recall flipping my 3D printed cover triumphantly into a trashcan after putting the OEM version on. But that could be just a fantasy I put in my head as I hated it so much. :geek:

But let me look around. I may have actually put it on a shelf. I'm sending you a package tomorrow, and if I find it - it's yours. But it might be gone.

No worries! If you can't find it I can always order a 3D printed one like yours from the link in your thread.

[EzdineG]

Was it a pain to get the board out for recapping? I am confident in my soldering and recapping skills and although I have recapped a lot of LCDs, computers, power supplies and other electronics, I have never recapped a CRT and don't want to jack it (or myself) up. I also have a philips RGB that I want to recap too.

Thanks! If you notice the situation getting better when the monitor warms, you've probably got some bad caps. The only real "pain" was getting two of the shields off with caps hidden behind them. They're soldered to the ground plane, so you'll have to turn up the heat on the soldering iron for those parts. Fortunately the circuit board is incredibly simple, so you can easily repair any damage you might do if you get impatient *cough* like me *cough*.

Also, when you said you couldn't find a match for the big fat cap, were you talking about dimensions or specs on the caps?

All of the caps are easy to find barring that big one (C109) that was blown in my second image. I couldn't find the same exact voltage / uf rating as the original; it's an oddball. I linked in the message above to console 5 where I purchased the recap kit. It was cheap and arrived quick, and they'd found an alternative for the big cap that works perfectly fine in my 1084.

[Zippy Zapp]

Cool, thanks! I checked out the link and it is a 220 uF 200v cap and they say you can sub it for a 330 or 470 uF. I always thought that it was safe to go up in voltage but not change the uF rating. I guess that is not a hard and fast rule. It is hard to tell but usually those large caps are snap-in terminal. Digikey has the exact cap if that is the case:

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... ND/3929811

They also have the regular terminal version too. I am not sure why they need to sub it. This one is rated for 10000 Hrs @ 105°C, which isnt too bad.

I'll have to open up my 1084 and see what it has. My recap backlog is killing me right now, heh. I have another 1200 to do, a Mac IIsi, a PC Engine Duo and a Sega CD with some bad caps. Ugh. It would be cool to be able to work on this stuff full time or part time with my regular job because I rather enjoy it compared to the IT work I do everyday, heh.