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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

RetroMan Upgrades A500+ With V2 and A1500

Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
24 Oct 2019 17:36


Part 3
EXTERNAL LINK 

Part 1:  Unboxing the Checkmate 1500+ Case: EXTERNAL LINK  Part 2:  Building the A500++ : EXTERNAL LINK  Part 3:  Upgrading the A500++: This Video!
Part 4:  What can this thing do?: coming soon

● Description
The Commodore Amiga is a computer close to the hearts of many retro computer fans, but as time goes on the Amigas are dying, not least because of the dreaded Varta battery leak so common in the A500+.  Today we upgrade the A500++ with some modern upgrades fitting of the build including the Vampire V2 FPGA board, USB keyboard and SD Card storage.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
24 Oct 2019 23:58


Other than the A500++ MB (mine is fine so I see no reason to go through the hell of soldering that much!!) this is pretty much exactly what I am planning to do with my A500+V500 2.2.

Bit concerned about the CD Rom drive not working. I was really hoping to get that going... I wonder if he's running into a master/slave issue?

Really wish they made SD card adapters that are panel mount. I HATE CF...


Todd H

Posts 27
25 Oct 2019 00:26


I have my A1200 mounted in a black Checkmate case and it's an awesome piece of kit. Some of our solutions are similar as far as mounting ports. I have a thread over at amiga.org documenting my progress.
 
EXTERNAL LINK   

I've been out of the Amiga scene since the 90s so I'm having to relearn a lot of things. I'm almost done but as I customize my 1200 with various add-ons the case is getting cramped and I'm starting to wonder if mounting a V4 in the case may be a better plan in the long run. I was waiting patiently for the Vampire for the 1200, which is what brought me back to the scene, but the allure of the V4 may prove to be too much.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
25 Oct 2019 00:39


To each their own obviously but putting such a small MB (V4) inside a case that big seems a bit crazy to me. Just my personal opinion of course. Do what you want!


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
25 Oct 2019 12:18


There Is other face of the problem: beside a1500, that is not yet publicly avail, there are no other cases made to fit v4+DVD+hdd/ssd.

I advise use of idefix99. And proper slave set for CD/DVD.

  Small cute cases are great for people who use v4 + card.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
25 Oct 2019 14:04


Funny when I asked about ide Fix on the v2 I was told it wasn’t needed.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
25 Oct 2019 14:32


Mike Kopack wrote:

    Funny when I asked about ide Fix on the v2 I was told it wasn’t needed.
   

   
My bad. I messed hw and sw.
I mean EIDE 99 interfrace
EXTERNAL LINK 
    Its not needed nor required as Vamps IDE is better then A600/A1200 onboard, but IDEFix has a few tricks in sleeve:
   
    - Using 1 IDE connector to fit two or even up to four devices, leaving onboard V4 smaller one alone for card connector and offering even more: SSD, additional small HDD, Catweasel IDE to bring floppy, ZIP drive you name it.
    - Giving better software AllegroCDFS solution for AmigaOS then included,
    EXTERNAL LINK 
Idefix software is also not needed, but could be  bringing CD32 out of box compatibility on V4/GOLD3
    EXTERNAL LINK   
    Worth of investment, for me.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
25 Oct 2019 14:37


Ah. Well I just got the Vesalia CD-ROM ide kit and was planning on hooking it up to either my v2 or V4 (when it comes). It has idefix in the kit along with a cf reader and 3 connector ide cable.

posts 8