A4000: Installing Indivision AGA mk2

Hey peepz, long time no see, but I had a really good excuse :)
On 26th of May my lovely daughter was born and for that matter I was fully devoted to her and my wife :)
I'm really happy that everything worked out just fine, and that a new girly Amigan was born.

Anywayz... this weekend I found some time between her sleeps to tinker my lovely A4000 and my newly acquired Indivision AGA mk2 (for A4000/CD32).
Many have already made some reviews and troubleshoots via the known forums but here I will present my own POV.

So, this is what the package includes

The screw that was provided to secure the GND cable to the Indivision was a bit bigger than the hole so I secured the GND cable to the already mounted screw with plastic stand. Kinda weird though.
In order to mount Indivision to Ratte's auto switch you need all of these adapters LOL!

Well, until I make a custom cable (20pin to 10pin) I thought of mounting all this huge combo  on the right side of the custom Fan.

Ok that was the first part. This was what the installed Indivision looks like (sorry for the dark photo, I forgot to put the flash on). The bend ribbon was put that way in order for the Voodoo custom fan not to touch it :)

And that was the assembly again of the Grex with Voodoo...

...and the rest of the PCI cards :)

Powering up the Amiga showed the new Individual Computers logo on the top left of the screen.

If you see correctly you'll see that there are some vertical bars which are annoying! While searching a1k.org Ratte mentioned this as well, and with a custom cable that he made, the bars disappeared. Apparently all these adapters tend to kinda screw the signal a bit. Soon I'll fix that as well :)

Just before I close this article I'll present some differences between Indivision mk1 and Indivision mk2 using SysInfo program on it's native resolution.

Indivision AGA mk1 (SysInfo screen)

Indivision AGA mk2 (SysInfo screen)

Indivision AGA mk1 (SysInfo detail)

Indivision AGA mk2 (SysInfo detail)

As you can see (and if you put aside the vertical bars) it looks really good and the resolution seems to have a better scaling than the previous version!
Here's hopin' for future and better core releases along with new Indivision Config tool!

Stay tuned :)

A600: Picasso96 via Indivision ECS!

Hey peepz,

Busy weeks those have been but I was around the usual forums checking around and testing new stuff.

The previous weeks were exciting cause Symplex (Lutz D.) created an pseudo RTG driver that uses Indivision ECS via Picasso96 RTG system for our beloved Amigas!
What started as a joke on 1st of April evolved pretty quickly into something really nice with great potential :)

As we exchange PMs with Symplex on a1k.org, I was testing thoroughly the driver and it's update versions supplying photos and videos along with info to try help him out understand what was going on with my system.

The initial versions didn't work on my system, but after some updates... yesterday the newest driver worked on my System as well \o/

I made a quick video to share with other people over Amibay/EAB and A1K.org which you can check as well bellow

After some requests from Amibay, I thought of trying this driver under my heavy modified ClassicWB 3.1 Full installation. I was certain that the system would be really slow cause ClassicWB is by default more heavy than a stock 3.1 installation due to many patches and Scalos. I had to try though :)

You can check from the video below a test of mine using my own installation to a clone CF.

As I thought, speed isn't that great, but it's not as bad as I'd thought it would be! Really impressive stuff tbh :)

To be able to understand the difference between speeds between this beta driver and my current stable 800x600@8 installation using Ratte's SuperPlus driver you can check the video below

Awesome work Symplex mate. I hope this driver will get more advanced and more quick overtime \o/

A600: Trying 800x600 resolution & setting up ClassicWB 3.1

Hi my fellow Amigans,

Some days ago, I saw with surprise Ratte's post over A.org about a new Beta firmware from Jens for Indivision ECS and his new version of SuperPlus driver that didn't have the alert box!

I immediately downloaded the appropriate files and after flashing my Indivision ECS with the new version 1.10 and copying the SuperPlus driver over my Devs:Monitors/ drawer it was time to test teh beast :)

Well the results were more than outstanding!!!

I just couldn't believe how awesome it is to have an ECS mode filling the entire screen of my LCD Monitor without the need of overscan stuff!!!

Only problem is that the 800x600 mode with 16 colors on ECS system having an ClassicWB 3.9 installation... despite my numerous of optimizations, wasn't so much enjoyfull.
Whatever I have tried, the ECS chipset is really slow comparing to AGA :(

That was time for desperate measures then... Hopefully Bloodwych's new ClassicWB packs versions gave me the morale boost I needed to start installing everything from scratch! LOL

This time I decided NOT only to not use OS3.9 as a base but only 3.1, but ALSO to not install the latest and more heavy ClassicWB 3.1 versions like AdvSp and Adv.
Instead I decided to go with the ClassicWB 3.1 Full version which has the MagicWB look and feel.

Ofc that installation needed a lot of alterations which were done after spending a lot of time with it. Those were the following:

• Reduce the number of colors to 8, based on MagicWB colors on Scalos
• Install fonts and reconfigure Workbench and DOpus based on these fonts.
• Convert some demo Backdrops to 640x512 and 800x600 to 8 color format based on MagicWB palette
• Change ALL the iconset of ClassicWB Full since it's based on SmallMagic iconset made for 640x256 PAL resolutions that seem really streched on Hi-Laced or 800x600 ones. That was ONE HECK of a painful procedure since it was made One-By-One!... not for the faint hearted for sure. :S
• Custom recolored and altered SilverBlue skin by Rebel (check white titlebar) in order to match better with the 3.1 look and the MagicWB colors.
• and finally, a system of mine couldn't be called a system, without some custom Kickstart magic loaded via ACAtune. It contains modules from Kickstart 3.9 along with some other stuff  like HRTMon, and newer SCSI.device 44.2 from Doobrey to be able to support my 16GB CF card and big Work (10GB) partition :)

Here you can see a screenshot from the main Workbench screen once system is booting.

This is the primary partition OS3.1 along with it's contents

This is the  Programs drawer which you can see every single change of icons that I made!

And last but not least, same procedure also in Prefs as well :)

Just for getting a better view, I'm attaching a YouTube video of my A600 booting so you can check the response time and quickness :)

I really love my A600 now... Many stuff to setup yet like Subway, MAS-Player etc... but I'm not in a hurry.

Stay tuned \o/

A600: A604 received! Case change and more

Yesterday I received the wonderful A604 Chip RAM Expansion from AmigaKit.
What an awesome designed product! It's so small comparing it with the A603 and offers a lot more things.

• 2x clockports (instead of 1)
• Custom clockport extender 2nd clockport for mounting Subway (special driver required)
• The second clockport reaches a 60% higher transfer speed than the first, which makes Subway a lot faster!
• Angled Indivision ECS socket that makes Indivision ECS co-exist along with the floppy!
• All the usual stuff like 1MB Chip RAM to max out A600's Chip RAM to 2MB total, and RTC.

Getting a new A604 also gave me appetite to re-case my A600 into a spare that I had which was more white (near mint) and didn't have any cut on the case. Keeping the floppy on the case was a nice thing to have.




My spare A600 is really awesome but required removing of the TV Modulator and a good mobo bath!!!
Modulator was an easy task to remove (done it 4-5 times in the past) and a good bath is always nice for my Amiga mobos :)

This time I decided NOT to remove the stock power connector since I got some time ago a nice PSU from MechWare.



Since I wanted to minize the cutting on the new case I decided that except from the replacement of the TV Modulator with the VGA connector for the Indivision ECS, I'd also make a small hole for the Kickstart switch (that simultaneously disables ACA on Kickstart 1.3).





You can check the internal mod of both the VGA connector and Kickstart switch that gets it's +5V from a nearby resistor and Ground from the nearby RGB's connector ground :)



As you may have seen I'm using Mika's angled CF2IDE adapter since for the time being I didn't want to make a hole above PCMCIA (waiting kipper2k's rev.2 CF2IDE adapter in the following days since I had issues with his rev.1 in my previous setup).

You can check some photos of the so far re-casing. I really loved the way that Indivision ECS's cable can go under Indivision and Subway making it look really clean:





Looking good doesn't it? The mods are looking a lot cleaner without the extra cabling that existed in my previous mod. Only need to see now where am I gonna put the USB headers, although I will use for sure the headers I used on my A1200 as well.

Just before I close this post, I thought it'd be nice to include 2 more photos of the A600 in use... Enjoy :)

A600: Testing ADoom 1.4 with Indivision ECS

Since my friend Zetr0 asked on EAB, I'm sharing a test video of my A600 testing the new version of ADoom 1.4 (with Indivision ECS support)...

Enjoy

A600: ACA630@30MHz + HxC rev.B --> rev.C mod

I thought of making a small update since from the last time, I have now the new ACA630@30MHz replacing my old Apollo 630@40MHz

Yep it's a piece of art and fits like a glove along with the other hardware that co-existed!




Good thing is that the extra socket I putted in the past for raising a bit the Indivision ECS (hacked in A603) for the Apollo to co-exist is a lot better since without it... mounting the clockport cable would be difficult!

Since I had some time off today I thought of making the extra mod in my beloved HxC SD Floppy Emulator in order for me to be able to also "Write" instead of only "Reading" floppy images.
The mod exists in Jeff's Release notes (that can be downloaded with the new firmware from his website) and consists of 4xResistors, 1xCapacitor and 1xMicrochip.

Well since finding the microchip was a pain in the butt to find locally I ordered it from eBay so while waiting for it to arrive... I used a socket instead to finish my mod





Cool isn't it

OK here are now all put-up together



And to finish this post...

Here's some photos of the case (semi) closed and WB up and running.
1st pic is a ClassicWB AdvSp installation (DH0@PFS3) while 2nd pic is a OS3.9 (DH1@PFS3) installation. Both reside in 2 different partitions in the CF drive selectable via Early Startup Menu.




Well for a old ECS machine... I'm pretty well proud!

I'd like to thank d0pefish and Cammy for sharing some info and ideas that helped me a lot!

Cheers and more to come soon

A600: It has began :)

Hi guys, I thought of sharing my A600 project as I did with my A1200D PPC one.
The A600 was my favorite (my means of appearence and size) Amiga in my childhood but I was never able to get one with my pocketmoney... After many many years I got one and was able to get even an M-Tec 630 with 4MB RAM. Was a true beast but sadly the lack of more RAM was always an issue plus with a hungry A1200D PPC project eager to continue, I sold it

Some years after and kinda feeling bad for giving my baby, I decided to get one more A600 (part by part to be less expensive) just for the fun part of it.
I managed to get an 1.5rev mobo for 15euro, one pretty neat case for 7euro and a clean keyboard with 7euro also. As a summary was 29euro for complete A600 without PSU and Floppy (which I already had) so I thought it was ok
I spend a large amount of time into cleaning the case since it was pretty dirty but almost white. Keyboard was perfect but also dirty. Dismantled all keys and washed them one by one! (What a sh*ty proccedure lol). In the end, it was well worth it! (pics soon).

For the hardware part I really wanted an Apollo since 2005, but being unable to find I thought of waiting for a 2nd or 3rd batch of A608... so I just ordered an A603+Indivision ECS for feeling a bit l33t
When I was in easter vacation (and because one colleague wake me early in the morning to support him in a harware issue) I couldn't sleep so I thought of checking the forums+eBay for my casual searches...
...THEN SUDDENLY it hit me!
An Apollo 630@40MHz+FPU+Original Box+Manual tested and working for 160euro BIN??? WTF?
I made a 15second check on seller+feedback and bought it faster than a speeding bullet!

Ofc I contacted seller for some pics and Tracking ID... and everything was just fine...



After a long waiting week (shippment from Spain to Greece) it arrived yesterday! W00h00!




Ok... enough for long talk (sorry for keep ya waiting lol). Time for teh hackery!
First of all I'd like to thank Christian Krenner for the inspiration and wonderfull how-to's on his so many years website http://www.amiga600.de

Ok first of all... A603 doesn't fit right with Apollo 630 not to mention Indivision ECS = NOT AT ALL


Image taken from Christian's website since I forgot to shoot mine


Only way to fit without bending the Apollo's right side... is by cutting A603's top left pin from the 48pin socket, putting another 48pin socket on top, and bridging the pin under the A603 with the pin from the upper socket.




Since I couldn't find localy an 48pin socket but only 40pin ones (round gold ones) I cut the remaining 8pins from another 40pin socket LOL (sorry but it was the best I could do)




Ok, 1st step done... On the Apollo now... :S
The jumpers that Apollo has for WAIT state and Enabling/Disabling the RAM had to be removed since they can't fit with Indivision ECS (VGA header is on the way), so carefully the left:




...and YES! Now it fits like a glove!


Image taken from Christian's website since I forgot to shoot mine


Some more photos from different angles:




Pretty awesome stuff!
Powering on and testing was 100% succesfull so I went with installing OS3.9 with help of my A1200's 4way buffered interface+CF Adapter+Slim DVD-RW... Thanks sistah. Of course I also putted the usual outstanding copper VGA heatsinks I always use and some other temporary heatsink to the 030 (he will get a fan also don't worry)




Everything went smoothly without even much heat (odd), and now I installed OS3.9 BB3@640x512@8 colors. It's pretty fast and neat
Tried for fun HighGfx 1024x768 as shown in Christian's website... but 4colors seem ugly, but the worst part... is that they whole experience SUX bigtime. Everything is so slow that I thought of starting smoking... hahahah!

That's about it for now...

I'm waiting some more parts like Mika's custom angled CF adapter for everything to fit just fine, and some other things