A1200: Re-modding everything from scratch!

Saturday at last... and after many shity days @ work... Time was up for tinkering teh Beast!

I don't remember mentioning that after so much time building that A1200... I never tried the Audio. Since I got a new 22" LCD/TV I thought of trying it.
For my horror I realised that ALL audio sounded like crap!!! Damn, caps apparently hitted my 1B mobo as well

Well after my first reaction... I thought... Oh well. Every obstacle is for the better so I thought of switching the mobo for my spare A1200 with 1D.4 mobo.
After checking the spare mobo for sound quality... Everything worked like a charm so it was time to take everything OFF!!!
I gotta admit. It was a shity procedure not to mention how weird it felt taking everything apart after all this effort!

Changing the mobo gave me lotsa thoughts of making my MOD even better since I wanted:
- To change the position of PicoPSU + Ian's ATX Adapter.
- To change the position of Ratte's Auto Swich
- To soldered Clockport Expander signal cables instead of extra Kickstart socket and
- To get an extra Audio Cable under mobo for future Audio Mixer and Delfina

LET'S START:

First as usual I had to remove the Composite connector, TV Modulator, Power Plug and move a capacitor that blocked the way of mine (lol).
Soldering Clockport's Expander signal cables, along with Power Cables was an easy task done many times. I also soldered the extra cable for audio.
I also thought of insulating the soldering with some duct tape just for safety




Yep, everything was just fine. I also insulated the place where the modulator+power plug for safety. Clockport Expander feels good now and you can also see the capacitor that was moved to give me some space





Now it was time to Dremel my a$$ off
First of all I used my friend Keropi's custom Power plug Inox Backplate, and Dremeled a VGA backplate to fit the place I wanted it.
I also Dremeled the lower metal Backplate of A1200 in the modulator position in order for the VGA backplate to fit.
Everything was glued into place and voila!




Now for the hard part... Dremeling A1200's case for VGA plug to fit! That was painful
I also decided to put a custom PS/2 keyboard connector into Composite's place since I always wanted to have it there for as long I modded my miggy and couldn't have the keyboard ribbon in. Everything fitted like a glove and felt really good for the effort.




Time to put the components back in place...
Ratte's Switch (including cabling to U8 for switch signal+Manua swich), EZkey PS/2 Adapter, Floppy terminator connector. You can also see the Extra Audio cable connector that is near the Audio RCAs.




And yes... time for the heavy machinery to be placed.
BPPC, BVision, Idefix Express, Indivision AGA, along with correct and easy to put cabling (not to mess with me later)



Now it was the most difficult part of the day, since I decided I wanted to mount PicoPSU+Ian's adapter where the end of the ex-Floppy ended.
Since in the past I have Dremeled Ian's Adapter+PicoPSU ATX connector... I decided I had to desolder BOTH connectors and mount PicoPSU directly to the adapter. That was really... really... irritating!
At least it worked and felt a lot better than before.




If you saw correctly... you must have noticed the NEW switch for Manual Switching Ratte's Auto Switch. Why anyone would wanna do that? Because Ratte's Switch only operates with a program under OS3.x
What about MorphOS, or AmigaOS4.x or DebianPPC?... That's why
I didn't like the classic little switch, so I bought a better one



OK... just for a quickie now, you can see the "End of the Day" full update on my A1200 with A LOT MORE TO COME in the following days.
You can clearly see the new layout, with almost everything mounted.
You can also notice that the CF adapter that was under DVD-RW (with OS4.x and Debian PPC) is now over PCMCIA (where case will be Dremeled for CF being able to be removed when needed)



Things missing so far are:

• Subway,
• Fan for PicoPSU,
• Delfina

Many things need to be done, but at least I was sooo glad I made such a progress in one day! Time for me to enjoy some wine

I hope you'll like it.

Soon more to come.

A1200: Idefix Express mod + more

I thought of updating some pictures of progress since the last YouTube videos don't show the inside pr0n!

So...
In the following picture you can see the ready PicoPSU in Ian's adapter but now trimmed and glued to the custom base along with a 25mm Fan that blows air into PicoPSU's extra copper heatsinks
You can also see DJBase's S-VHS adapter insulated with a tube.



Next picture shows the removal of the embedded connector pins on Idedix Express adapter (in both Idefix+Express adapter) and soldered with a ribbon cable underneath. Aye, the height of the connectors was a definite NO if I wanted the Slim IDE DVD-RW mounted inside the miggy



On the next image, you can clearly see the ACard SCSI to IDE Bridge glued where the Floppy rested and next to the custom Power connectors. Power lines where soldered under the ACard due to height limitations of the original molex power connector.
Underneath there is a an IDE 40pin extension cable that connects to the CF2IDE adapter. In the picture the Floppy Terminator is shown as well along with Ratte's awesome auto AGA/RTG switch.



After receiving an 14cm 44pin cable from AmigaKit, I decided it's time for Idefix Express to gain it's permanent position just above Indivision AGA.
Idefix was hotglued in a custom plastic base and then in some spot over Indivision in order to be able to be removed whenever needed!
You can also see in the top right corner the EZkey PS/2 adapter for all my keyboard needs all this time that the miggy doesn't have it's keyboard attached





Yep!... Slim DVD-RW + CF2IDE adapter + 4GB CF (including OS4.0+Debian PPC) fitted like a glove!!!
That was a long time waiting relief and after powering up and realising that everything worked like a charm... a large smile took place upon my face!



Just before closing tonight's update, take a last look from the side where you can see how tight everything resides in there! WTF... I really can't understand why the fok I decided to go through all that shiz but... if you check my previous post... you will see that the actual photo was 100% implemented as my design was.



That's all for tonight, more updates soon to come.

A1200: ACard installation + more

These days I've been working almost every night on my beloved A1200 so I'd though of a little more update to my Blog

So far I made the following:

• Removed UMON (AGA/RTG switch) that I had with a manual switch
• Removed Jumpers plus Fast 10 pin header from Idefix Express Gayle Adapter plus the Fast 10pin header from Idefix Express Adapter since they were messing with the height of the internal DVD-RW. Ofc these were replaced by a ribbon soldered underneath of both PCBs.
• Installed my spare EZkey that I had after removing some component sockets that would never be used (since they were messing with my BVision) and soldered it with an ultra cool custom PS2 plug that will be installed on the right side (next to USB plug). You can't imagine how convenient is having an external keyboard for messing in the OS while the internal keyboard is not installed. Since space exists... why not?
• Installed (Finaly!) the ACard (next to my custom power lines). I couldn't believe how perfect it fitted along with an IDE Male-->Female extension cable that I bought in the past. BPPC's SCSI to 50pin M cable mounted also just fine in a custom 3cm 50pin F-F into ACard's socket and everything works perfectly!

I'm attaching a quick video that I took (this time from my Cybershot) showing the auto switching of Ratte's outstanding switch plus some SysInfo drive speed tests on both ACard+Idefix Express after my mods

--------- Video missing here. Will upload again and re-link ---------

If you watch it carefully (around 15-18 secs of the video) you will see that the DVD-RW+CF2IDE adapter that connects to Idefix Express is shown upside down and you'll see that the CF has a weird angle...
Nope I'm not crazy... I did that on purpose since when Idefix will move, and DVD-RW will mount the CF2IDE+CF was giving me a height that wasn't appropriate. That way I managed with an free angle, to be able to stuff CF2IDE under the DVD-RW and just before PicoPSU!!!
Don't laugh with the design. I just took a pic from BBOAH and used paint to just show you how I thought to implement it



Now I'm waiting now a 44pin cable extension from AmigaKit for moving Idefix Express in order to install permanently the internal DVD-RW+CF2IDE adapter. Next steps will be mounting Ratte's switch along with the power connector in a nice custom metal backplate (with the help of Keropi). I'm also waiting a nice 3way (on-off-on) switch from eBay for mounting it in the old UMON's switch position (in case manual switching is required for OS4.0, MOS and Debian).

Soon more to come with some better quality pictures