Amiga 500+ Gotek OLED and 2MB Memory Expansion Install

[@amigairelandpodcast9426]

My friend's A500+ was always that beige colour back in the 90s. My 1200 is the same colour and only from watching your video I realised how badly it needs attention! Good luck w the final steps.

[@johnrogers-thorn6504]

Great stuff buddy, thanks. I love watching old tech repair vids. I used to own different variations of the Atari pc's, the ST 520 and ST 1040; never did own an Amiga though.

[@CRG]

I always had the Amiga and only because that's what my friends had first. I've not used an ST since my Uncle loaned me his back in the 90s, it was just before I got the Amiga. I do have my own ST on a shelf, you might see it in the background of some videos, but it needs looking at. Power supply is blown and I need to get a video cable. Really should pull it down and do a video on it.

[@MrMurphyprecht]

I used to sell them buddy and they were definitely light beige

[@davefarquhar8230]

And yes, the A500 is a beige color, same as a C-128 or 64C. The 1200 is noticeably whiter than an A500.

[@CRG]

I should have mentioned in the video but when reassembling I noticed under the old warranty sticker the case is slightly lighter. Still not sure I'd retro brighten it though, there is very little in it.

[@brostenen]

Late 500's and 500+'s (8a and 8a.1 revisions) tend not to yellow as fast as early 500's. My 500 (8a.1) have not yellowed at all. My 600 have slightly, especially keycaps.

[@davefarquhar8230]

Snipping out the battery on my recently acquired A500's A501 memory expansion was on my list of things to do this weekend. I went and did it. The battery looked fine, but after I took it out, it clearly had leaked. It didn't damage anything important as best I can tell, but yes, if you have a pristine Amiga, get that battery out.

[@CRG]

Yep definitely get those old batteries out. Seen a picture of another 500+ earlier on one of the fb groups and it's well eaten by the leaking varta.

[@Billingelad1]

Loving the speedball soundtrack in the background, love the video and the tutorial...quality video dude...👍

[@TheBlueWiresStudio]

And right after, The First Samurai

[@Mind-your-own-beeswax]

Ah State of the Art. Loved that demo and Technological Death. For the gotek that looks like a right faff on to be honest. Fine if your good at soldering which I’m not 😂😂

[@dean8553]

Did you figure out how to mount the extension board on the A500? I have seen this fitted on an Amiga 1200 and it was mounted to the top part of the case using the case leds board. It's a shame there's no fitting instructions included for both an A500, 600 and 1200.

[@CRG]

No I never did sort this, really should though now that I have the 3D printer. If I get time I'll design a bracket and share it on thingiverse.

[@wiewiorpl]

A500/A500+ was greyish-beige, a600 and a1200 was white

[@methanoid]

Hey did you still have those two feet for the 500+ ? I'm missing one!!

[@CRG]

They are here somewhere, if I can find them ill drop you a message.

[@methanoid]

@@CRG good man, thanks

[@uberdude2555]

What's going on with the power and floppy light, it looks like they have been installed upside down? Is that normal in early models of the A500 Plus, otherwise the power light should be green, and the floppy access light orange, like the A1200.

[@CRG]

On the 500+ (and 500) the lights are part of the keyboard so can't be installed upside down. My last 500 also used this colour scheme as red for power and green for floppy. Commodore seemed to change this when they introduced the 1200/600 machines. That's not saying there isn't 500s out there with a different arrangent to their leds, it's just my experience.

[@uberdude2555]

@@CRG It must be because it's a really early A500 plus, or the keyboard was once swapped over. The original OCS A500 had a red power light, green floppy, and red caps lock. When the A5OO plus was introduced, this layout was at least at some point changed to the familiar colour scheme we see on the A600, and 1200 including green Caps lock. The A500 Plus (Cartoon classics pack) was my first Amiga, so by Christmas 91 they were using the new layout. I have 5 A500 + units in my collection, all with that configuration, so it's just very odd seeing an A500+ with the old layout. :)

[@CRG]

@@uberdude2555 it's possible the keyboard was swapped by someone previously. It was a spare repair machine from ebay all be it, it did work. Not sure if there is anything I can do to confirm if it's the original keyboard or not. I'll maybe look and see if there are any dates on it.

[@uberdude2555]

@@CRG It's probably difficult to tell, but knowing Commodore they likely just used up their old A500 keyboard stocks on the first production run of the A500+, rather than going through the bother to rework them. Anyway love your channel, also from N.Ireland.

[@mark12358]

Nice A500+ in very good condition! Not a single A500Plus left the factory with that keyboard; Commodore changed the color scheme since the last rev.5 batches in 1988/89. All the rev.6a have the newer Green/Amber leds. This is a user personalization as a previous owner just swapped that keyboard with an older one, for the sake to have that lovely color scheme. I did the same for one of my A500+.

[@brostenen]

The big dilemma.... Buy accelerator in order to use WHD-Loader, or go with Gotek+ADF-Files..... Opening wallet. Hmmm... Accelerators are nice, yet are they totally requiret?

[@CRG]

To be honest I've got my 1200s and CD32 with accelerators and hard drives. I think for this machine it will be nice just to leave it with the modest memory expansion and the gotek.

[@brostenen]

@@CRG Nice choice.

[@DevilbyMoonlight]

colour is correct

[@Harp00nX]

If you remove that expansion what effect will cutting that trace have afterwards on the Amiga? it was obviously a connected trace for a reason to begin with, will you have to restore it?

[@CRG]

If you remove it you jut get a grey screen, no boot so yes it would require fixing the trace or patching a wire. The other method is to lift pin 2 of U34. That might be easier to put back down but you also run the risk of breaking it off. For me though this expansion isn't moving so I'm happy to cut the trace.

[@Harp00nX]

I suspected that would be the case, it's amazing how much hardware has been hacked into these things over the years lol

[@Nukle0n]

might be a bit harder but I would've just desoldered and pulled that chip leg out instead of permanently damaging the board. But it's ultimately a minor thing that can be fixed with a bodge wire.

[@CRG]

@@Nukle0n well as I noted above the expansion isn't going anywhere but yes in hindsight the perfect solution probably would of been to remove one of the chips, fit a socket and leave that 1 pin out.

[@lukassteinbrink322]

Shouldn't an A500plus be able to accept 1MB chip RAM extensions without modifications?

[@CRG]

It does yes but this expansion has 2MB on it so a total of 3MB of ram in the machine. The mod gives you the 2MB chip and 1MB slow. Without the mod you just get the 2MB chip ram.

[@stevenross-watt8640]

@@CRG For someone who just wants to play regular A500 style games,is there any benefit of adding either the 1mb ram (easy version of your upgrade) or going full out like you did and making the extra 2mb available? Plan is to use a gotek. Thx

[@CRG]

@@stevenross-watt8640 upgrading to 1mb total memory is more or less essential. The majority of games will look for that. Going further to 2mb is nice to have but only some games will make use of the additional ram. Hope that helps 👍

[@phreapersoonlijk]

Epoxy > super glue

[@CRG]

Yeah epoxy would be a better solution, certainly stronger.

[@IanTester]

1:00 Spurs and repurs?

[@stevenross-watt8640]

haha - that struck me as well. The accent really nailed it. All in good jest.

[@danielson9579]

What is the model number of that monitor please.

[@CRG]

Its a Dell Ultrasharp 20", I'll try to get you the actual model number later. Do note that the Amiga is connected via a GBS8200 scan doubler. This monitor does not support 15khz.

[@garyhart6421]

A500 is defo... beige compared to the A600 or 1200.

[@CRG]

Thanks for letting me know

[@Harp00nX]

@@CRG Models weren't white until the 600 and 1200 the rest were all off white.

[@Kyusoath]

the cpu can fall out. a few knocks, upside down, thermal shrinking and expanding, seen it many times. It is just friction fit.

[@godslayer1415]

yeah no

[@Krslaurent]

I can no longer play games in ADF since there are all games in whdload !!!!