Upgrading The Worlds Newest Amiga - The A500++ (3/4)

[@RMCRetro]

Update: CD is now working thanks to your suggestions. Updating from Kickstart 3.10 to 3.1.4 was the key!

[@richardisaacs567]

You need to pin this response to the top or else you're going to get heaps more CD connection suggestions :-) (like mine)

[@davidwright9166]

so those of us who don't have that version, then what? Something in the upgrade of 3.1.4 fixes or automatically configures something right? If we knew what it did, could do manually in other versions I assume

[@RetroPanic]

Interested in your findings!!!

[@jakedeeboy]

This is great to hear. I appear to be one step behind you new with my build and the CD was my next step. Are you using it with the Buddha and which IDE to SATA do you recommend or does it not make much difference?

[@RMCRetro]

@@jakedeeboy I'm using it with the final adapter shown (with the two black capacitors on it) and the jumper set to slave. This is then on a two channel cable direct to the Vampire IDE port. In the longer term I might experiment with the Buddha as you can get more speed out of your CF or SD card if it's the only thing on the channel, but it's plenty fast enough for me as is for now.

[@nicwilson58]

WOW, my old Sysinfo program from a very long time ago is still being used. Seeing this put a huge smile on my face :)

[@ArthurQuantize]

This is the first time since the early 90s that A. I wanted an Amiga more than anything I could think about and B. I'd thought about taking a soldering iron out to realise what you could achieve by modifying the Amiga. Things have seriously moved on in massive strides since the standard mods. Thank you for making this series of videos, they're a breath of fresh air 👍

[@ArcticFox63]

This is amazing. The kind of dream Amiga that every Amiga kid wanted back in the day.

[@RMCRetro]

Links links links, roll up and get your links from this video for all the useful things you might want for your own project: 🛠 Get your free 2 week SkillShare Premium trial here: skl.sh/retromancave 🛠 Buy an A500++ PCB: Rob is the man who makes the 500++ PCB, you can buy one by emailing him on [e-mail] 🛠 Get the Checkmate Case: Email [e-mail] with the subject "Checkmate Request" to purchase. 🛠 Kai's red RAM board and other projects can be found here: github.com/kr239 Or you can buy it from PCBWay to make here: www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Amiga_500__DRAM_Replacement_Board.html 🛠 Check out Simulant Keyboards: simulant.uk/input/ 🛠 The Vampire can be found at www.apollo-accelerators.com/ Neil - RMC

[@Nevakonaza.]

Loving this series so far, I've never had the pleasure of actually using or even seeing an Amiga but to see a pretty much brand new one been built here is amazing!

[@angieandretti]

I'm a retro PC gal. I've never owned nor even used an Amiga, but I can tell this creation is truly a thing of beauty! Slotting modern daughter boards into CPU, RAM, and keyboard controller sockets - how cool is that!! The eclectic mix of old and new tech is right up my alley, and I'm really impressed with how many mods are available for these machines - using modern technology. Amigas must have really been something special to have this kind of community following today!

[@martinh4982]

I'm glad RMC is here to make these projects. If I tried anything like this I'd end up with a bin full of expensive components!

[@abc-ni9uw]

Hahaha hahaha ha me too 😂😂😂

[@mac_thor]

I had the same problem with IDE to Sata boards with my Amiga 2000, Buddha IDE and a SSD drive. I got it all to work using AmigaOS 3.1.4 (ROM + OS). You can also write the AmigaOS 3.1.4 ROM into the Vampire using tools available on their web-site. Use the A500 version of the "unsplit_unswapped" ROM available with your 3.1.4 licence from the Hyperion web-site. I would try that first to get the CD drive to work.

[@RMCRetro]

Hmmmm interesting thank you. I have a 3.1.4 ROM here so I can legally slap that on the Vampire and see what happens. Thank you for the tip!

[@yukisaitou5004]

This is the answer right here, vanilla AmigaOS 3.1 only supports SCSI CD drives because it lacks an ATAPI driver.

[@thorham1346]

@@yukisaitou5004 Just use IdeFix.

[@draggonhedd]

For the CDROM drive use a slot loader one from an old CRT imac or an old G4 powerbook. Theyre already IDE and in the same form factor.

[@simonRTJ]

Now that's a GREAT idea.

[@TheMalMeninga]

This looks brilliant - hopefully you get the CD issues sorted for the next episode!

[@Alex-gi7sm]

Amazing what you are doing here! Looking back to the old Amiga years, no one could ever imagine that this was possible and that ever a group of people would reach such a high level of customization. Especially in terms of the quality of everything. From my point of view, this is not only a typical diy thing. This is like real development here. Furthermore, this Amiga deserves the same kind of care regarding the operating system. That would be the next logical step. You would be the person who should take care of the project. If not you, who else?

[@MM-gt8cg]

Wow. This is the Amiga of dreams. I can’t wait for part 4. Incredible stuff Neil. Even the music at 16:00 evokes memories of something rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the past

[@Robo10q]

You may have started with a Vampire card, but you ended up building quite the monster--congratulations Dr Frankenstein!

[@10MARC]

Fantastic! My Vampire should be here in a few months, and I am very excited to make my A500 a modern machine in my Checkmate.

[@tiannaumann]

If you've ordered it from the main Apollo site, try 2 years, if at all.

[@10MARC]

@@tiannaumann I have generally heard just a few months once you express interest. Thousands have been sold and it has only been out a bit over two years

[@VladoT]

Around 1990 my father wanted to buy me my first computer so he could not decide what to do: Buy me a cheaper Amiga or to go the more expensive PC route. At the end the PC won but I always asked myself what it would happen if he bought me an Amiga instead 😀 And now after watching your videos I decided to build my first Amiga almost 30 years later! Great video series by the way.

[@zoezebra4013]

Thanks very much for your Amiga videos and also for clarifying Vampire card purpose. I was HUGE Amiga fan over many years back in the days, my last one was quite decent A1200 config in tower case with Blizzard IV card, multiple HDDs, genlock, sampler, ISDN modem with Internet, but that was looong time ago and I'm certainly not up to date with the latest stuff despite taking occasional look at Amiga news (when I'm bored). Vampire was one of those that always puzzled me! ps. that A500++ board is amazing and your work ins very inspiring. Congrats and keep it up! :-)

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

Ah, ISDN, and how the Baby Bells totally screwed it up over here in 'Murica. To think my Atari 1040STf was compatible with ISDN in 1986 - and was even a selectable option for configuring the RS232 port - but PacBell didn't even start getting serious with rolling out residential ISDN service until about 1998 when most of the industry was already promoting DSL and cable modem services as superior - and cheaper - successors arriving "shortly".

[@DubiousEngineering]

Epic work Neil... I especially liked the double sided Velcro to reduce vibrations from the SD card platen when it spins up! :)

[@RMCRetro]

That's my top tip Howard. Gotta dampen those SD spins!

[@franklincerpico7702]

Your channel is so fun to watch here at work.

[@HoboVibingToMusic]

RMC: 2 different screws pair. Every subscriber: Amiga keyboard clicking intensifies.

[@soberjedi42]

Words can't express how much I love this case. I know that it used to be somewhat of a thing to towerize an A1200, but I never liked the look of them as they all looked like a regular PC after. All the Amiga style was gone. This looks like an Amiga. The A3000 design basis is clear, and the A1000 garage is a nice finishing touch, call back to my A1000, my first computer ever.

[@AdiSneakerFreak]

I could watch this series all day long Neil, absolutely fantastic. Take care. Steve

[@GadgetUK164]

Great stuff! The Vampire is amazing! I've used the exact same wireless keyboard adapter in the A2000 upgrades I've done.

[@Lurker1979]

I am always amazed at what new things people make old computers do. Like making new mods or new software or other addons etc.

[@BrunoFonsecaPT]

This is why I love the Amiga. Watching these videos is just mesmerizing. Love them

[@EsotericArctos]

You made me laugh when you said about absorbing vibrations when the SD Card spins up :). This has been an amazing journey. It is more than just a build. Looking forward to part 4.

[@charlesjmouse]

Lovely! On the HDD activity light front you can tap that directly off the IDE connector, especially as there's power on the 44pin version: -Pin39 (/ACTIVITY) -> A suitable LED -> 150R Resistor (depends on LED type and required brightness) -> Pin41/42 (+5v)...and you're done. -The 'CD' Drive is trickier and I have to admit I've had occasions where a particular combination of hardware just wouldn't work even though there should be no reason... ...my '060 A1200 has a working IDE slot-loading DVD-writer inside the case. Initially I couldn't get the darn thing to work and in the end traced the issue to my accelerated IDE interface. I replaced it with a passive motherboard IDE splitter that was much slower but allowed a CF adapter and said slot-loader to both work. (Boot drive eventually moved to the Blizzard 060's SCSI with yet another adapter... ...anyway I suspect the 'magic sauce' was to have as little conversion in the chain as possible as my slot-loader has a uIDE interface on it, so only needed a passive adapter to fit the 44pin cable. Um, I realise slimline slot-loaders that are IDE rather than SATA are going to be hard to find. I hope that helps. :-) PS An Amithlon episode might be a fun, especially if you put it up against you lovely new A500++ for comparison. PPS See if you can find a (preferably boxed) Coleco ADAM to play with - a far, far better machine than history might suggest and these days it's quirks just make it all the more interesting - I imported one a couple of years back and it's still my favorite to tinker with among many machines.

[@MrSteveESQ]

Would be interested in a build series using a stand-alone Vampire (or similar) for us less extravagant cave dwellers.

[@IanC14]

Is that out yet?

[@IanDunbar1]

@@IanC14 My understanding is that some were released at Amiga34, but it's effectively in "public beta".

[@shelby3822]

Almost dropped my tea at the sight of mismatched screws

[@RMCRetro]

Careful now

[@WiggysanWiggysan]

Brilliant series this one *RMC* . Already looking forward to the next part.

[@curiousottman]

This channel never ceases to impress. I decided to become a Patreon to help support future videos.

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you so much for your support!

[@marcoschincaglia]

*Amiga:* how much ram can I have? *RMC:* yes

[@MrMatte1983]

Hello, I've only really gotten into the retro scene recently and I just wanted to say thank you! I love your videos :-) That's a fantastic project build, btw! Very inspiring!

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you that's really lovely to hear. Good luck in your own retro adventures

[@shelby3822]

Never owned an Amiga yet can't wait for pt 4

[@TiberiusWallace]

Looks great! Btw, most folk don't realise this and it's handy as hell - that logitech keyboard will run on one battery. It loses range slightly but that's it.

[@SledgeFox]

This is incredible! Thank you very much!

[@andycraig7734]

I love it when a plan comes together.

[@brostenen]

I hate to fly... 😁

[@mark12358]

Great! Finding a new video of RMC after coming home, ready to be watched!

[@dixonbainbridge923]

Very very cool man. Had a 500 as a kid, loved it so much, yellowed and knackered but so so awesome, none of my friends had one though which sucked.

[@danielson9579]

Can you have 2meg chip ram and would an ide cdrw with out the need for an sata connector say an old cdrw from a laptop work as a slave on the ide port or on the zorro card as master or cable select using idefix 99 software?

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Your shock and awe reminds me of of the first time I setup and ran Windows 3.1 on DosBox

[@LeeTennant90]

Brilliant video, can't wait for next one in the series. Wish they did a version of that Vampire card for my Atari STe.

[@thorham1346]

It does just plug into the 68000 socket...

[@powerzx]

I would made some mounting/holder for SD-Adapter, instead of velcro. For your problem with CD/DVD check if your adapter has slave/master/cable select jumper at IDE side. You can try to use SATA to USB adapter and connect it to Vampire.

[@RobUttley]

Brilliant, inspiring video. Loved it. Thanks for doing this!

[@otopico]

This series has made me wish I still had my Amiga 1000. Great work.

[@MrFixiit]

i think with those adapter cards you need to set the board to slave i believe the startek ones have that option

[@francoisfritz198]

your A500++ become a real workstation, amazing

[@IrwinCespedes]

Pure computational magic on this project!

[@thisnthat3530]

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, but I'd suggest wiring the HDD LED between 5V(+) and 39(-) of the IDE connector via a 220 ohm resistor. Assuming the SD adapter drives the LED pin this should work.

[@2j4ez]

I had similar issues when I upgraded my a1200 years a go with a £3 parallel cd rom drive I took out the parallel socket and just run a IDE cable thro the whole in the CD caddy . the amiga would see the drive but couldn't use it. think I mounted the cdfs in DEVS startup folder but it was years ago I done it. hope you get the CD issue sorted

[@CaptainDangeax]

And for your hard drive LED, pin 39 of IDE port going to ground: You may solve this issue with a pair of 1N4148 diode. Anode of Led left alone from +5V with a resistor. One 1N4148 to the motherboard led activity. One 1N4148 to the IDE pin 39. I added hd leds to a sun blade 100 with this information.

[@RMCRetro]

Excellent thank you for the tip

[@destruction74]

Cool background music, and great video as always!

[@nicmonberg5974]

Original XB has same issue with some of those sata-ide adapters also worth trying 80pin ide cable this can sometimes help.

[@quantumfoam42]

Fantastic build! I'm excited about the standalone Vampire. I've been waiting to see how the FPGA boards develop over time before getting one, since it is very difficult indeed to find an original Amiga in the United States, much less one in working condition for a reasonable price. I've only had the Amiga experience through emulation, and I'd love to finally explore the whole Amiga world.

[@sirgwaine2695]

Wow I am in Awe, what an amazing build sir .... I need to clean up my drool.

[@MrTommyboy357]

Great video, nice build 😀!

[@tonysansom]

I love this series!

[@grantwagner6781]

Thanks for sharing this series! Also, I love that game three was Metal Slug!

[@odisseaskipriotis]

Excellent video! Very good job!

[@PintzAmigaGameNight]

Also the vampire was a excellent upgrade we also did the sd adapter exstention to our 500 case we wanna move it to a checkmate case on day. Just remember vampire doesn't work with some auto config card i was surprised the Buda worked

[@preferredimage]

14:30 regarding CD drive. Try an IDE CD/DVD drive if you have one. rule out the drive and converters. then a different sata drive. it could be the drive itself has an issue like a dirty lens or faulty laser.

[@Lucasrainford]

Being a ex Amiga owner from '88 and fanboy this looks to me like Amiga heaven in a box! Great vid Neil, been following this, yeah you deffo need one of those Simulant KB, that would look the bollocks! oh and a 1084 monitor, maybe? If yer gonna show off the new card wirh some games in the next episode, please show us a bit of Frontier, cheers :)

[@RETROCENGO]

Brilliant video, congrats with the vampire. Would have been great if that ramboard was 2MB instead of 1MB. 2MB chipram is the best part of the A500plus board/chips😉

[@MegaManNeo]

I don't know much about Amigas but I love seeing people like you expanding on the original hardware. I'd probably grab my breadbin C64 that's equipped with a keyrah V2H and a Raspberry Pi 3B+ to use it as USB keyboard. OH AND VERY IMPORTANT - trying to get a gray screen.

[@techteststutorialsHD]

This is stunning!

[@yomynameisstewy]

Very fascinating video.

[@janwiersma1449]

nice to see you place the LG cdrom drive insiddddde. i have the same offcource but not tested it in place. was wondering because these drives have their own little front panel also.

[@mykalimba]

17:10 I believe that all of those games (Doom, Quake, Alone in the Dark) were originally designed as software-rendered only products, without support for any 3D hardware acceleration.

[@digiowl9599]

Quake was right at the cusp of the GPU era, and quickly got support for OpenGL and 3DFX's Glide API. Hell, even Half-Life can be run in software mode. The Quake series didn't require a GPU until Quake3 i think.

[@Rip-Van-Tinkle]

Love it man! I have a Vampire 1200 pre ordered which I'm really looking forward to getting at some point. Re the optical drive... I went through no less than 9 cd ROM drives when I built my Checkmate build, before I found a compatible drive. Though mine were IDE drives, the point is the same, they can be really fussy about make and model of drive... so it's possible another drive may do the job. I look forward to part 4!

[@mykalimba]

8:08 The mismatched screws don't bother me as much as using a small flat-bladed screwdriver to drive Phillips head screws does!

[@Nukle0n]

Really who doesn't have a handful of Philips #1 drivers?

[@RMCRetro]

😬I may have done that on purpose to identify those with level 2 OCD

[@mykalimba]

@@RMCRetro Here I am!! ✋

[@brostenen]

I have had issues with drives and drivers in my 500-desktop convertion. I have noticed that it will give issues, if I set the master slave drives attached on the wrong spot on the ribbon cable. And most of the times, I can not boot with the use of specific CF card dongles or DOM modules. I personally think it is a drive speed timing issue. I have seen it on 486 VLB class computers as well, back in 1995. If you can boot yet can not get it to work with IDE-Fix, then try the AmiCD driver. (I think it is named that on Aminet). As far as I remember, then it is version 1.15 that I am using.

[@matthewhathaway964]

I had a similar problem using those adapters. I got it working by using a 80 pin cable instead of the standard 40 pin cable.

[@Tr6e9nT]

The screws, THE SCREWS!!! Greetings from the states. Suggestion, check the DVD drive in a different machine, I.E. make sure the drive actually works. Get to a new know good, break the problem in half. Great series of videos.

[@Harp00nX]

Well done on your improved manual reading skills :D

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you sir

[@XMaximvsPayneX]

Awesome, i love Your Amiga-Videos - please more Next Gen Amiga-Stuff!

[@benlawrence7527]

Wow that is amazing. I was really young when the amiga was about my older sister had one, I remember she used to let me play street fighter on it.... I must say you have done a fantastic job.

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks Ben

[@witeshade]

Aren't quite a few of the interesting effects you can do with the copper and blitter and all that stuff tied in with following the scanlines of the output? How does that work with the hdmi output of the vampire?

[@RMCRetro]

This is something we can explore in the final part. With the V2 core classic Amiga software still comes out of the RGB so that remains unchanged. Quite how it works in V3 when its merged I don't know. There's a lot to explore, and I hope we will see a lot more also now V4 has been released

[@davidste60]

it's emulation (ducks dramatically...).

[@ProtekNickz]

The hdmi cut out was kinda arghhhh but then you did the screws differently and I nearly died :S, but you fixed it few!!!!, great work by the way :).

[@wayland7150]

I use a hand nibbler tool. Much easier and neater than sawing and filing.

[@MrLukealbanese]

Excellent vid. My thoughts are that the CD drive itself is faulty, perhaps the laser is dead? If you plug the keyboard dongle into the USB port on the internal adapter, then you will have a free usb port to use on the Amiga!! Finally you should add a cheap ethernet port to the Vampire and get online!!!

[@Cybolic]

With my Checkmate case in the post and my LG GS40N ready to be used I'm really looking forward to seeing your solution to the CDROM problem! I'm still a bit stuck on whether to use my modern Samsung monitor or if I should hunt down a nice CRT monitor; what are the connection options on the Vampire V2 (which I'm still considering) and does it do pass-through of the Amiga's video-signal? In short, what would you recommend?

[@johnwillis767]

Great video Neil, I have Amiga 500 ++ motherboard just got to build it now. Looking forward for the next video, has for the cd rom drive could be a master slave problem

[@SullySadface]

That workbench theme is unsettling

[@vic20kid8]

Fantastic video, love the new Amiga build

[@alex76gr]

This is a dream machine. Way to go!

[@eterenostalgia5088]

Here Italy, this new case for Amiga 500 remember the "Micronik case for Amiga 1200 and 4000" ESCOM time year 1996 !!!

[@antjarvis]

I love the Vampire card, hands down the best new Amiga development in years. I totally agree, ver2 core is where I like to run it. It lets me run the Video Toaster, which is VERY fussy about using the Amiga's custom chips and timings etc.

[@skilletpan5674]

@RetroManCave I've had little luck over the years in regards to IDE to SATA/SATA to IDE converters. I highly suggest you use an IDE to usb approach (or sata to IDE). That vampire has a usb port on it? Can you load some driver thing on the vampire to read the cdrom from the usb port instead of IDE? It also should be much faster if it's USB 2 or 3. The trick with the ide to USB adapter is to find an adapter that uses 5v or what ever your PSU uses so you can power it from your PC. Otherwise you'll need to have a power brick going. I've been using IDE to USB for a 15 years in most of my PCs. I haven't had a dedicated CD/DVD rom in about 15 years.

[@alatnet]

For the cd issue it boils down to these areas: 1. CD Drive is faulty. 2. SATA Slim to SATA is faulty. 3. SATA to IDE is faulty. Test each stage to see what is wrong.

[@gamepad3173]

once I start my amiga 500 build it's going to be centered around an original Amiga 500 among a few other upgrades I wanna do as well including the Vampire mod.

[@JamesUKE92]

Excuse my ignorance of Amiga architecture, but does the vampire clock increase affect the system busses and therefore signal integrity on the pcb or push the custom chipset beyond their limits?

[@RMCRetro]

It does not, in just the same way that CPU accelerators of the time don't either. The custom chips run in parallel at their own speed

[@SkyCharger001]

Getting the DVD-rom drive to work: I've had similar problems in the past where it turned out that my then-current computer simply didn't have the means to support the SATA revision the hard-drive I had just bought used and the only SATA expansion cards available that supported the then-new revision were soft controllers that merely provided the sockets but not the signaling logic (leaving that to the on-board controller)

[@CatsMeowPaw]

An A500 with a CPU much faster than any 68060? That's pure madness. I love it.

[@dennisp.2147]

Look for a slot loading IDE CD-RW or DVD drive from a late 90's early 2000's laptop. There's always trouble when you try and adapt SATA. The manufacturers don't always follow the guidelines when developing the firmware.

[@_Matthias_0815]

Well, that looks like it has enough power under the hood, to blow any "competition" out of the water. I can't wait to see the next episode in the series. But this beautiful machine begs to be in a live stream too. I have a silly suggestion. Back in the day there were games, wich were specifically written for 512Kb of Ram only.Any additional Ram would make the game crash. That is why trap door memory expansions came with a wired switch, to turn the expansion off. Could you do test some of those games, to see if the Vampire can handle them, with it's vast ammount of Ram? Thank you for those great videos and congratulations to this dream machine.

[@RMCRetro]

Sure do you have a specific game in mind? I've been working through my WHDload folder with no issues so far other than an occasional game that runs a little too fast. Operation Wolf seems to run too quickly for example, but there is an option to enable "Turtle mode" in the OS which sets it to 68000 speeds to help with this

[@_Matthias_0815]

I know it was defenitly a thing, but I forgot wich games it were, I had to do the procedure on. But it defenitly existed. Maybe it had to do with the Chipram to Fastram ratio, I don't know. I'll try to ask around, maybe I can gather a few game titles this way. But you should defenitly try out some games, wich are incredibly demanding on stock systems. Like for example Alien Breed 3D II-The Killing Grounds, Breathless, and History Line(a WW1 spin off of Battle Isle).

[@_Matthias_0815]

Hello Sir. I asked arond, and somebody mentioned the game ARCHON, wich he could never get to run on a stock Amiga 2000. Maybe that is a start?

[@ericblenner-hassett3945]

I had issues with similar sata to IDE and had to check if the board was master or slave and if tne IDE did the MFM/RLL trick of swapping ground lines for accessing the 'other ' drive. So, check on a PC if it shows up as IDE 0 or 1 first, it should be 0.

[@yorgle]

I've got one of those microsd extenders for a project and it doesn't handle disk changes. the switch in the main device thinks the sd card is always in, since it's detecting that end of the extension cable, which is always plugged in. just be aware of that. :)

[@RMCRetro]

I'm not sure Workbench would hot swap so it would need to be a powered off change. Good to know for PC builds though thank you

[@Drez01]

Wish you put the sd card extension in the second expansion bay with the floppy faceplate 🧐

[@Rockythefishman]

I need a vampire ! Really enjoying this series

[@stevencarlson5422]

That’s cool it doesn’t even seem like it’s old looks very modern os I like it

[@danielgreen878]

not sure if you've tried it or investigated for your cd drive issues, but don't ide drives have a master/slave setting (remember the pain from the 90s) which needs to be set?