I built my Alicia 1200 last month. It was time to decide what case to use. Alicia 1200 is an Amiga 1200 clone in a Mini-ITX form factor so it was only natural to try and find a suitable ITX case to mount it in. It is difficult to chose a case when you don’t know future configurations of the machine. I am expecting to add a CPU card in it but do not expect it to grow that much in height. Thats why I went looking for a low Mini-ITX case.
Alicia 1200 motherboard mounted inside a Morex 557 Mini-ITX case
I chose to install the motherboard in a Morex 557 Mini ITX case. It is small case just slightly longer and wider than a 17 x 17 cm Mini-ITX motherboard. In these kind of cases you have to use a Pico PSU with an external adapter. Where I am from a genuine Pico PSU is quite costly but I was happy to find a reseller in EU who had genuine Pico PSUs for a very reasonable sum of money. I got two, one for the Alicia and one for the Denise in case I would need a better Pico PSU for it in the future instead of the cheap knock off.
120w Pico-PSU is powering the Alicia 1200
The Pico PSU sits very tight against the case but it fits with a millimetre to spare!
Morex 557 Mini-ITX case
I don’t think you can find a smaller size case than this and that is why I like Mini-ITX. The case is also well ventilated, perfect for passive cooling.
Two Morex 557 cases, one for my Alicia 1200 and one for my Sam440ep OS4 machine
I already knew about this case since I use it for my Sam440ep. Maybe I will get a third one for my Denise.
Find the missing chip on the ZZ9000AX Amiga sound card
I wrote about the troubles I had with the ZZ9000AX soundcard for the ZZ9000 graphics board in a post a year ago. No matter what I tried I got a horrible distorted sound from Paula if Paula output was routed through the ZZ9000AX. That was just half the story, the other half was the insane bus noise the card picked up. I was not alone with this problem as I heard quite a few who had the same disappointed stories to tell about their ZZ9000AX Amiga sound cards. One chap I know called the card “an utterly terrible piece of sh*t hardware“.
An intense discussion with the creator of this card followed where it was concluded that the problem could not be confirmed, a pointer to the schematics of the card was offered – An electronics enginering degree was however not offered. Maybe then I could have found the error myself.
Patience rewards those who wait, that is something every Amiga user knows about, it is just a matter of time before Amiga will take over the computers of the world and become the no.1 computer again.. oh wait its not 1998 anymore back to the ZZ9000AX and 2025…
Good bye…
So I was hanging out in a Discord and noticed rumors about the ZZ9000AX now performing fine by doing a simple hardware modification to it. Apparently, removing the chip U4 from the ZZ9000AX would fix the insane sh*t quality (mildly speaking) output from the card. After further investigations it was brought up that this groundbreaking news was communicated on an IRC channel (yes, it is 2025) for the Amiga community to pick up on (why not post it on usegroups next time?).
I could barely keep my hand off my soldering iron – In 5 minutes the chip was removed from my ZZ9000AX never to be seen again. If the card failed in the process I could always retire it in the round archive (meaning, in the garbage where I had been tempted to put the card to rest for more than a year).
Would it work or not!?!?!
In the middle of a brutal 90 min Amiga module testing session with my A4000TX running ZZ9000/ZZ9000AX
IT WORKS!!!!!!! The distortion and heavy background noise is gone.
But I can still hear some bus noise in the background when opening drawers, in comparison with how it was before, this is something I can live with.
Alicia is an Amiga 1200 clone in the popular Mini-ITX form factor. It is a nice DIY project you can buy as a semi built PCB. As I had previously built a couple of Denise A500+ clones, building the Alicia 1200 was a no-brainer and I think I was not alone in that thought as the interest around it has been great! Read more about the project here.
I remember when the Mini-ITX form factor was released around the new millennium, it was a really exciting time in PC hardware and watching it grow and become an established platform has been a pleasure to see.
To be able to see, build and own Amiga systems in the same form factor with real Amiga chips is amazing!
Denise, Alicias little sister
Denise A500+ ITX with TF536, Denise NIC, Mini Graka, Indivision ECS v3
I have not written a lot about Denise, the A500+ clone, here on my blog even though I have wanted to do that for some time. I “blame” my interest in this “wallet busting” hobby on this specific project YOLO. So expect a better post later sometimes.
However, I think it could be interesting to show off my Denise build before moving on to the Alicia 1200.
The Denise is an Amiga 500+ clone in Mini-ITX form factor, it has all the regular chips the A500+ has and also two “dumb” (as in no Buster) Zorro 2 slots. The PCB is jam packed but everything is beautifully laid out on the board.
Point I wanted to make was that this has been a very stable Amiga and it is awesome to have an Amiga with a small graphics board, scandoubler, NIC and 030/HDD in a standardized small form factor – That it is Mini-ITX is just icing on the cake.
To think this kind of hardware was A2000 territory yesterday is crazy. Anyway, let’s move on to the Alicia…
Approaching the Alicia 1200 Amiga 1200 clone build, what have I gotten myself into?!
Alicia 1200 is a small PCB and most of the stuff for the build fits in this small box!
Alicia 1200 is a kit, so one have to build it oneself. I have built a few Amiga kits myself previously so I did not expect any problem with the Alicia build. I usually build my projects from scratch, but in this case it came pre-mounted with all the passives and some common chips. This saved a ton of time.
Lets talk PLCC sockets and chips
I decided to build my Alicia without PLCC sockets. I have a technique that works really well for soldering PLCC sockets without removing the inner part of the socket. In my experience soldering PLCC chips directly to the PCB makes for a more secure connection and eliminates any potential contact issue. I feel hot chips such as Paula, Lisa and Alice runs cooler when soldered directly to the PCB. I do have a few Amiga motherboards with full PLCC sockets for testing purposes.
Soldering the PLCC chips might be difficult if you are not used to doing them. I solder the PLCC chips with a relatively large hoof tip. Not saying the hoof tip is the definitive success factor, it is probably from doing a LOT of PLCC chip soldering.
Difficult to find parts
Most parts for the Alicia 1200 can be taken from an Amiga 1200 or can be found on Ebay, Amibay or from the “usual” places.
You will need the full Amiga 1200 chipset, including Motorola 68020, Budgie and A1200 Gayle. You will need an ADV101 or VP101 but you wont need the keyboard MPU. Memory can be taken from an Amiga 1200 too (but pay attention, some revisions come with incompatible memory that physically won’t fit). If you want to run the RTC you need a clock chip.
A 23 pin video connector is not needed and in fact can not be used, instead Alicia uses a regular VGA socket, so you have to make your own RGB cable if you plan to use it with SCART f.e. Though you will need a PCMCIA connector, but that can also be take from an A1200 motherboard (hot air is your friend).
Everything else can be ordered from Mouser or Digikey.
So lets get the soldering iron warm…
Budgie and Motorola 68020 are done, drag soldering is your friend!
The first parts I soldered was the Budgie and the Motorola 020 CPU, they are both surface mounted chips and where desoldered from an Amiga 1200 motherboard. I actually did not know if they worked or not, but as they are mounted in a good position on the motherboard I could always desolder them and replace them if they failed to work.
Lets add some memory
SOJ40 memory is soldered to the Alicia 1200 motherboard, flux is your friend in this case
You may have built a ReAmiga 1200 and struggled with the memory, I have. It is difficult to do a good job when the chips sit so tight together. I am not a fan of using hot air to solder them. Thankfully on the Alicia 1200 the memory chips are generously spaced leaving plenty of space for my preferred hoof tip making this task very enjoyable and leaving a nice result.
Lets add some PLCC chips
First PLCC chip, Gayle, is soldered to the PCB, only six more to do!
Now its time for some PLCC chips. I have nailed the technique for soldering PLCC chips. But the challenge is getting them aligned correct on the solder pads so the joints form a straight line. I got successful with the first chip at the top left, Gayle.
All Amiga chips are now soldered to the board. But there are still plenty to do.
Here are all the PLCC chips soldered to the Alicia 1200 PCB. I think this was around 4 hours of work in total. No idea if it works and no way of testing it yet. Let’s hope it works.
And lets add some ports and connectors
Almost ready for the first test run, what if it does not work!
I am not alone when I say there is an universal curse around BOM orders. It is an unofficial rule more than an exception that it is derigeur to miss to order some small part or important part. In this case, it was a small chip on the bottom of the PCB and the ATX power socket.
First test run of Alicia 1200
It is difficult to see, but there is a blue Indivision MK3 mounted on the Alice chip
Once I got the missing parts I was eager to try Alicia 1200 out and see if it was working. And it was here I stumbled upon a problem, I did not have a suitable screen or RGB-SCART cable to test it. I thought I could use a 23 pin to VGA converter and hook up my old RGB-SCART cable with a 23 pin connector, but it did not work. Fearing that I had to do a full desolder of the custom chipset with another chipset to iron out the broken chip I instead opted for my backup solution instead: using my Indivision MK3 that I had in my Amiga 1200 so I could get HDMI output.
Update: I have since built a VGA to SCART cable according to the instructions in the manual and I recommend everyone to do that to test that the port is working.
And it works!!
Testing AGA chipset with DiagRom
DiagROM boots and all tests checked out fine! The image above does not do justice to the image quality of the Indivision MK3, I was almost ready to fork out cash for a second one! This is a beautiful hardware combo if you want AGA only.
Sound played fine on the Alicia 1200 when testing channels in DiagROM. I think the sound circuit is the same on the Alicia 1200 as on the Denise as i recognice a few of the parts here. I would descibe the sound on the Denise as slightly tinny, metallic or a bit more clean than a regular Amiga 500 or Amiga 1200, it is an interesting attribute of these motherboards and adds another dimension to the sound output of the Amiga. Cant wait to try it out with the Sound Enhancer.
Lets finalize the Alicia 1200 build
Alicia 1200 fully built!
Once Alicia 1200 was fully tested I could go ahead and add the final connectors including the PCMCIA slot (that I cut down to make it shorter since it sticks out a lot).
So let’s end this post with some features that Alicia 1200 has that a genuine Amiga 1200 does not have. First it has a real time clock. Then it has a video slot on top left side. There are no devices to connect here today, but there are rumors of scandoublers and other exciting stuff. Lets see what the future holds. I have suggested a 3DFX card numerous times lol.
The Alicia 1200 Tornado slot CPU slot adapter.
The larger slot is the Tornado slot, as you can see on the image above it is converted into the Amiga 1200 slot. Hopefully someone will release a direct mount CPU card for the Alicia 1200, if not, we can just use the converter above and run our TF1260s or PiStorms or whatever will be available directly on that.
Next steps!
Let me follow up in the future what case I will chose and what CPU card I will use. I am leaning towards PiStorm, but the beauty of a 060 in this little system is very tempting, almost too tempting to resist. And with the way the CPU card is mounted, there is plenty of space to run a badass heatsink over the 060 unlike in an Amiga 1200… you can be sure I will follow it up here in the future!
Just finished the last bit on the AmiGUS I built this weekend. I don’t have an USB blaster so wont be able to program it yet… if it works I will build two more for my self and have two PCBs for sale.
My Alicia is ready for a test run, but I am missing two key parts, one IC I forgot to order and the ATX PSU connector. Hopefully it works because its going to be a challenge replacing some of the chips if not.
There was a new update to AmigaOS 4.1 Final edition released recently, Update 3 for AmigaOS 4.1. I run AmigaOS 4.1 on an old Sam440ep and thought it could be a good idea to run an update updating it from 2 to 3.
Installing AmigaOS 4.1 Update 3
The update is shown in AmiUpdate once you log into the updater.
Runing the AmigaOS 4.1 FE update 3 installation
Once the update is downloaded it goes into an installation dialoge. Both the download and the installation went smooth and quick. I did not bother to do a backup before doing the installation.
Installation was successful and now i am runing Update 3 on my Sam440ep
After a reboot I was greeted with a new title bar text, it says “Final Edition Update 3” now. There is also an AmigaGuide in sys: that goes through all the changes.
Most changes seems to be technical of nature but I did find the system to feel a bit snappier and quicker in use (or maybe that was just my imagination). I also think I read somewhere that network speed has been improved. As I have the slowest next gen systems, that is good info! Read more about improvements and changes here.
Conclusion
It was nice to see an update for AmigaOS 4 being released, hopefully we will see more updates in the future and also new high end cheap hardware to run it on.
I also wanted to do a quick test of the AmigaOS 4 port of VIM, and here it is in full glory and running great:
Here is my test setup: Acill A4000D motherboard with ReA3630 and two BFG9060 cards including Firestorm PCI daughterboard, Multifix-AGA and a replica A4000D case
I had two summer projects this year that I recently finished. One was an Acill A4000D replica motherboard and the other was a Hese made A4000+ Alice A4000D CR motherboard replica. You could say two brothas from different mothas or something…
Both motherboards worked fine when doing basic test runs, however they both failed to run with a BFG9060. All I got when running them with a BFG9060 060 CPU card was a black screen.
Amiga 4000D motherboard in shiny red
Anyway, as usual building them up was pure pleasure from start to finish. I even enjoyed desoldering the Acill A4000D motherboard from a few passives and pin headers someone else had a false start with. I mean, off course you want a full set of pin headers soldered to your 400+ small parts PCB (not really).
As good as it was looking it failed to run with the BFG9060. It was working fine with the A3630 CPU board I built earlier this year, but not with the 060 card. That reminded me that I had the same problem with my Alice A4000D motherboard a couple of weeks ago.
A4000+ Alice motherboard during assembly phase
The Alice A4000D has an 030 CPU on the motherboard so it does not need a CPU card. It was working fine with the on board 030.
Here is the A4000+ Alice motherboard during the testing phase inside the A4000D case
I got the suggestion to try a new delay line as that could be the problem the CPU card failed to run. As the A3630 has exactly the same CPU as the one mounted on the motherboard, it is difficult to say if the A3630 was running or not.
Testing the A4000D motherboard + BFG9060 with a PicoPSU
If you are in this hobby you have to grow a passion for trying all hardware combinations to find the solution. In this case, the reason for the Amiga 4000 getting a black screen when running a BFG9060 was the PSU as everything seemed to run fine with another PSU than the SFX one I had in the A4000D case.
I changed the SFX PSU that previously was working fine with the EXACT hardware setup I am running here (but different Amiga 4000 motherboard) with a small ITX PSU and suddenly DiagROM worked fine and detected the 060 CPU.
This lead me to believe that maybe the PSU was not pushed too hard as some ATX PSUs fail to run if there is a tiny load on them (or something like that). So I decided to do a final test by adding some cards to my A4000D and try the SFX PSU again.
Unfortunately it did not start with the SFX PSU and 060 card even if I loaded the machine with all Zorro slots filled, including adding an old 3.5″ harddrive.
So next step is to get a new SFX PSU. But at least I know I have to working motherboards!
You may have seen my previous post where I did a test run on my ReAmiga 3000 that I finished earlier this year. If not, check out my post about my ReA3000 that I built in April here.
While I did do a test run in DiagROM previously I did not have a daugherboard for it so I just whent through the usual tests (successfully) and called it a day. This time I did a more comprehensive test session where I tested a Amiga 3000 daughterboard, a BFG9060, a GottaGoFaZt3r 256MB Z3 memory card, programmed and replaced the logic chips and also replaced some ICs that I had to use adapters for previously.
Amiga 3000 daughterboard
Front of the Matze Amiga 3000 DB
While my ReAmiga 3000 started up fine in DiagROM it failed to run with a Kickstart rom. I was puzzled about this since it was running fine in DiagROM. No matter what I tried I ended up with a black screen. Problem was solved by adding the daughtercard. Now Kickstart boot screen came up.
Backside of the Matze A3000DB, here is where the I2C circuit resides
I am using a Matze A3000DB, more info on it here. This is just like a regular Amiga 3000 daughterboard but it also has I2C functionality so you can monitor temps. More info about I2C here, the added functionality is based on that project. So to be honest, I have not really fully understood I2C, perhaps I will do a deep dive in the future. I have an CPLDICY card I built last year and its neat to see temps. I am thinking this could be interesting to monitor if running a tight A3000 case with bad cooling.
Another note, this is a version of the Matze A3000DB with some added functions by kavanoz & CDH, see more here about this specific version of the daughterboard.
A GottaGoFaZt3r 256MB Z3 memory card was inserted and it was detected by DiagROM.
ReAmiga3000 + BFG9060 test, success?
The low profile heatsink/fan on the BFG9060 blows in the wrong direction, another thing to fix in the future…
Recently I built an A4000D that failed to run with a CPU card. That motivated me to test my older builds with a CPU card to make sure they work properly with a faster CPU. The only issue I had was to figure out how to jumper the motherboard, then it was smooth sailings.
68060 is detected in DiagROM (as is fast ram)
DiagROM identified the 060 and also the fast ram. Now I need to do a 6 hour fish render and stability will be tested (something to do for the future).
74FCT646 chip replacement
SOIC-24 to DIP adapters are the red mini PCBs. Also notice the original Commodore logic chips
If you look at the BOM for the ReAmiga 3000 you can see that Chucky recommends replacing the 74F646S with 74FCT646. Currently 74FCT646 can only be found in SOIC-24 from Mouser and Digikey and not in DIP so you need a SOIC-24 to DIP adapter to use them. While the adapter worked fine I just felt it would look better to run DIP chips instead. I had an UTsource order going for my A2386SX order in the pipeline so I added eleven 74FCT646 chips to that order from UTsource. Why 11 when the A3000 only needs 9? Well two of them is going to my A2386SX boards.
No more SOIC-24 adapters for a cleaner look!
The 74F646S chips actually runs hot, especially when there is 9 of them, that is something I noticed when using them from my donor machine. So it was a nobrainer to replace them with cooler running chips.
As I put in sockets for all the 74FCT646 chip adapters I am thinking of removing the sockets in the future and solder the chips directly to the motherboard for an even cleaner look. The ground plane in an A3000 is brutal though, not sure I wanna wrestle with this board desoldering stuff again. Desoldering the KEL 200 pin CPU slot was a nightmare.
Programmed and replaced logic chips
There are four logic chips on the Amiga 3000. About 15 years ago I had the oppportunity to buy a broken Amiga 3000 cheap because it had a broken display output. Turned out it was because one of the logic chips was broken, so it was an easy fix to just replace one of the chips with a new one.
So to future proof this ReAmiga 3000 build I replaced the logic chips I got from the donor A3000 with modern alternatives and got the JEDEC files to program them with from here.
Next step
I hope I can find a case for this build, they are difficult to come by but occasionally you can find one. Actually wish I had one now as I would like to set it up to a running system!
I got this Motorola 68040 25MHz CPU recently for a great price. It was too cheap not to buy. Interestingly, it is a later generation of the chip, manufactured in 1995 (or later). The 68040 is famous for being a hot chip. I remember that too well from running one in my Amiga 4000D I had back in 1998. But these later generations are made with a smaller manufacturer process, 0.65 micron vs 0.8 micron, so it should run cooler than the CPU on that crazy hot running Commodore 3640 CPU card I had.
I have not decided what to do with the 68040 CPU yet, for example, I have an old Apollo 1260 sans CPU that I could convert back to an 1240 and sell for 1999 euro on Amibay. While that is tempting, I think I would want to run this one in one of my big box Amigas instead as I am curious if it is overclockable and how hot it runs. I am also curious if the performance from the 040 CPU would be satisfying.
One irritating thing is that it has this silly flat and round aluminium heatsink glued on to it. Tried to remove it but it is bonded to it and wont move a micron. I was thinking of prying it off with a chisel and sledgehammer but got the idea to use fishing line or dental floss instead. No matter what option I take this pathetic heatsink will be removed one way or another and be replaced with a bad-ass P1 cooler with a Noctua fan. Maybe I have to spend a week grinding it off with my trusty Dremel from 1997 (hope not).
I have had these DIP to PLCC adapter kits in my stash for quite a while, today I finally gave in and built them. They are usefull if you want to use PLCC Amiga CIA chips instead of DIP CIA chips and for using an PLCC Motorola 68000 CPU instead of a more common DIP 68000.
Commodore Amiga 8520 CIA PLCC to DIP adapter
These 8520 PLCC to DIP adapters has just been washed after being built.
Amiga 600, 1200 and 4000 uses PLCC 8520 CIA chips, these chips can be used on Amiga 500, 2000 and Amiga 3000 (I guess on the A1000 too) with a DIP to PLCC adapter. In my experience it is actually cheaper to get a real DIP 8520 instead of using an adapter and a PLCC CIA for Amiga computers that can use them as they are a bit more expensive on the market. But if you are like me and have a stash of 100 PLCC CIA chips then you gotta do what you gotta do (obvious joke).
Motorola 68000 PLCC to DIP adapter
PLCC 68000 CPU is not that common but it is used in the Amiga 600 (and IIRC in the Atari ST). You can run one in an Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000 with a DIP to PLCC adapter. Why would you want to run a PLCC 68k CPU instead of the DIP Motorola 68000 CPU? No idea, but it looks cool.
Build tips for PLCC to DIP adapters
Do the pinstrip first by soldering two legs on each side only and making sure the pinstrip is straight, you can also fit the pinstrips in a socket. Then solder down all the legs.
Cut off the upper pins that will sit under the PLCC socket with a sharp cutting tool. Cut them off as close to the PCB as possible.
Then solder the PLCC socket, use flux to make sure solder does not short legs outs.
