Author Archives: erkorh

ReAmiga 3000 post test run follow up

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ReAmiga 3000 setup for a test run

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!

C’est la vie…

Motorola MC68040RC25 CPU (02E42K)

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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).

DIP to PLCC Amiga chip adapters

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DIP to PLCC adapters for Amiga computer chips

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Then solder the PLCC socket, use flux to make sure solder does not short legs outs.

Good luck!

A4000+ Alice motherboard

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This is an A4000+ Alice PCB, it is an Amiga 4000D CR replica motherboard and it was created by the talented Hese who has made some awesome Amiga clones and hardware available to the community. If you are interested in buying an Alice A4000+ PCB, check out this thread on AmiBay (not sure you can still get one though but maybe one shows up second hand).

This was supposed to be my summer project of 2025 and I could not resist to share it on my blog even though it is not 100% finished yet. It took me about 2-2.5 months to reach this state as I was in no hurry during the summer to finish it. It is almost finished, just missing the DB slots, battery holder, two sockets and an electrolytic capacitor. Oh and all the custom chips off course, but I have a full A4000 chipset sans Buster and Ramsey…

A full socket Amiga 4000D motherboard build

The reason I did a full socket built was that I was thinking it could come in handy if I would need to test custom chips in the future. One of my A4000TX motherboards was built with sockets, but I did a bad job, cutting out the center sections from the sockets before soldering them. So I want to convert the A4000TX to soldered custom chips and have this one as my primary testing station (or primary A4000D motherboard, nothing is static in this hobby).

The other reason I did a full socket build was that there are quite a few projects around where users are looking into cloning the custom chips. Most of these solutions are using a PLCC plug that mounts in a PLCC socket, so if everything goes as it should go, perhaps we can have full custom Amiga chip clones in the near future! Woops, better sell your stash of Buster 11 while you still can get 150+ euro for them!

On schedule and rocking + two more weeks!!!!

The A4000CR is an interesting motherboard as it is slightly different than previous revisions of the A4000D motherboard. There is a 030 on the PCB and the chip memory is already soldered to the PCB, thus it only has four memory slots in comparison with previous revisions of the motherboard that had 5. So if it comes without a 030 CPU board and with one less SIMM socket, there is some money to be saved, thus CR.

Once this project is fully finished, I then have a beautiful red Acill A4000D motherboard to build, perhaps my next summer project?

Can’t wait to fire up this beautiful blue Amiga 4000D motherboard in a month or two and give it a test run.

A2386SX – Amiga PC bridgeboard replica

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A beautiful replica of the A2386SX PC bridgeboard by Commodore.

This is an amazing replica of the Commodore A2386SX PC bridgeboard, you can find out more about the project here. There is also a discussion forum about the card on the German A1K forum (just use auto translate in your browser if you dont speak German).

Background

The A2386SX was the best PC bridgeboard Commodore made for the Amiga, it was based on a 386 CPU, could be expanded to 8 MB and enabled you to transform an Amiga in a multi CPU system that could run tasks in parallell on both CPUs, one in Amiga Workbench and the other in MS-DOS on the bridgeboard – at the same time. You could for example hop in to MS-DOS and run your programs and then multitask back to Workbench while programs where running in both environments.

This is a beautiful replica of the A2386SX PC bridgeboard by Commodore.

I got my PCB late in Q1 after contemplating if it was even possible for me to build this card at all. Building it was not the problem. The main problem was finding all the parts and programming some of the chips. But I quickly came to realization that it was actually possible to locate almost all the parts if I pulled the trigger at the right moment since some of the rare parts this build required was disappearing fast on Ebay.

My main goal of running the card is to have access to multi channel module players such as Cubic Player and to be able to play PC modules in MS-DOS with a Sound Blaster 16. I would also like to dive into some old MS-DOS applications I used to use 30 years ago and play some old DOS game or two. But the main attraction is PC music without having to get a separate PC just for that.

Some notes on parts and building the A2386SX project

The A2386SX was an old card so it uses ZIP ram instead of SIMM modules as does the replica

There are some very rare parts required for the A2386SX bridgeboard. The rarest chips are the two socketed PLCC84 Commodore chips and the PC chipset in the middle of the card.

The Commodore chips (MOS 5718 and the chip besides it) can be taken from 2088 and 2286 Bridgeboards (they are the same), they might pop up on eBay, but consider that a miracle if they show up. I got my chips from a cheap 2088 that I bought second hand last year. Did not know what to do with that card at the time, but it was too cheap to pass up on and I am glad that I got it now.

The PC chipset should in theory be easy to find online, but so far, I have only been able to locate one of the chips. The other chip needs to be ordered in bulk from a specialist in rare chips and is costly. I thought it was possible to find an old motherboard and desolder them from there, if you find a motherboard that has them – consider that a miracle!

Then we have other obscure chips such as the floppy controller, programmable chips (that needs a special vintage programmer or someone with better skills than me in understanding how to program them with a modern device) – not really a problem to find them.

ZIP Memory can be found from obscure part specialists (remember you need two types of memory). The CPU is available on eBay, but if you want the faster 486 that is compatible with the card, good luck, as said, miracles can happen!

A difficult to find item is the capacitor networks, you can cheat and use adaptors instead. I wonder if those are needed if you wont use a floppy drive with it though.

Bracket was sourced from another enthusiast who ordered a batch. 646 was taken from my donor A3000.

Full socket build

I did a full socket build, thinking it would make it easy to error check or replace chips. And if by miracle I would build a second card I will be able to test the chips before building it.

486 CPU instead of 386 CPU

So while this is a 386 bridgeboard it uses a 486. I did some research earlier this year when I built my card, unfortunately I have forgotten the exact details, but it is possible to use a special 486 CPU on the board as they are the same physical size. I think what is most important is that the voltage level is the same as the 386 that it is supposed to use and you need to fiidle with the BIOS.

This mod works on the original Commodore A2386SX card also. This is a nobrainer for me since I grew up on 486 PCs.

Failed test run and successful test run!

So after having received more than 10+ packages containing parts for this build from around the world and a the main passives from Mouser I decided to finally build it up. How exciting!

I was really looking forwards doing the first test run after I got the programmed chips back from a friend in the hobby who could program them. But disaster happened – Bummer – The first test run failed – the card refused to run!

Most of my projects I build usually run fine on the first go, if there are any errors it is usually a bad solder joint on a surface mounted component, a dirty board or something that is missing.

In this case I knew I would never figure it out myself, especially after visually inspecting it 10 times, So I sent it off to another friend in the hobby to get it checked.

Turned out that I had used the wrong memory (I had used the memory from my donor Amiga 3000) and there was some small difference between the type of ZIP mem I used and the one that worked with the card. There was also an error in the BOM that has since been updated where bussed resistor nets where specified instead of isolated (or was it vice versa).

Once I received the card with the correct memory and resistors I did another test run and could confirm the card to be fully running!

Next steps

I probably did not realise how much work it would be to set this card up so thats why I will do it after summer. But the plan is to get MS-DOS 6.22 up and running with Windows 3.1. I will run an ISA graphics card and an ISA sound card and will also try to run the HDD off a partition on the Amiga HDD. But as it stands now the A2386SX is fully working and ready to take its place in the big box Amiga that will be its home in the future.

Would also love to build a second card, hopefully there will be an up to date model with chips replaced with CPLDs in the future!

Multifix AGA purple PCB build

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Multifix AGA in purple PCB color

Here are five beautiful Multifix AGA purple PCBs. The Multifix AGA is a great Amiga scandoubler and flicker fixer. I will build two of these and sell the remaining cards once the built cards are tested, or do I build them all for myself (lol).

I plan to use them in the upcoming AmigaPCI (I will for sure build one once it is fully developed) and in my A4000T.

Wireless networking in AmigaOS 4.1 with Vonets Wireless Bridge

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A Sam440EP with Vonets VAP11G-300 ethernet to WIFI bridge

Finally got my Sam440EP that is running AmigaOS 4.1 online with no ethernet cable, wireless, with a Vonets WIFI bridge, no more ethernet cable!!

Currently, I dont have a permanent place for my Sam440EP on my desk at home. That will change in the future. But for now, whenever I want to use it, I set it up on my desk. Since it is a tiny computer, that is not really a problem as its very portable.

But having to run a long ethernet cable between the SAM440EP and the main ethernet switch is such a hassle.

Its not 1999 anymore and WIFI is great these days! So I went looking for a wireless solution for hooking up my next gen Amiga to the home network.

Finding a solution is a bit tricky though. After having spent a couple of evenings researching the topic I decided to order a supposedly supported card by AmigaOS 4.1, only to have it be cancelled by the seller. Disapointed but also relieved because I did not fully expected the card to work – I Instead opted for an ethernet to WIFI bridge.

Thinking, if that works, I could get a second and hook up my A4000TX to the home WIFI network with one also since there is no WIFI card for Zorro Amigas..

Vonets wireless bridge – VAP11G-300

There are a couple of nice solutions for wireless bridges these days and the prices has gone way down since last time I was in the market (2005). The Vonets Wireless Bridge that I got from AliExpress cost around 20 euro.

Setting up the Vonets wireless bridge on the Amiga

Test setup during initial setup of WIFI on the SAM440EP

Setting up the Vonets VAP11G-300 WIFI bridge reminded me why I chose not to go down the network admin/sysadmin route back in my university years. Or it reminded me of how much simple everything these days usually are to set up.

Surprised I was, it did actually come with a real manual (something I did not expect from cheap China stuff)!. However the manual was a bit poor in quality and clarity, I think it was better if it did not come with one.

Anyways, just so that I wont forget how to set it up, here is how to set up the Vonets wireless bridge to be a WIFI bridge for ethernet:

  1. Connect the Vonets wireless bridge to a PC. Connect both USB and ethernet so it gets power and can be found by the computer.
  2. On the Vonets adapter: Green light should come up (that is the ethernet port), blue light should come up (that is WIFI).
  3. Disable wireless on the computer if active. Else you wont be able to log into the bridge. Make sure ethernet is active and not disabled.
  4. Go to Chrome and type in the IP adress as specified on the device to connect to the Vonets bridge.
  5. Disable AP functionality of device and click save (if you dont want to use it as an AP). Device defaults to both an AP and a bridge if not.
  6. Change password of device and save.
  7. Go to main panel and scan for SSIDs.
  8. Chose SSID, type in password and save.
  9. Reboot Vonets device

It wont be possible to setup the device again on the IP number after rebooting the device. If you need to configure it again you need to reset it with the little button on it.

Once rebooted it should now be possible to browse the web on the PC where the Vonets wireless bridge acts as a bridge.

In theory it will work with any device that has an ethernet port. Read on…

Troubleshooting the Vonets VAP11G-300 WIFI bridge

So this is where the fun began (or not if you belong to the ones who do not see sysadmin/network admin tasks as a fun).

At first it did not work at all on my Sam. But it worked fine on my workstation.

I then figured out that if I changed the internet settings in AmigaOS 4.1 in Prefs and saved the new configuration the internet came to life! I thought I had solved it but as soon as I rebooted or restarted AmigaOS 4.1 then network access dissappeard.

I suspected the problem was that I had to configure the Sam to use a static IP, but that was not it either. However I got to familarize myself with subnet masks and ip ranges again, how much fun!

Back of the Sam440EP to illustrate how the Vonets WIFI bridge is set up

Soon I found the problem!

The Vonets adapter takes power from the USB port, the USB port on the Sam is disabled during startup (or delayed) so once Workbench is loaded the network has not fully been initialized. It takes a bit of time for the Vonets adapter to fully start, I suspect it must be running a minimal OS that handles all backend tasks. Which explains why restarting the network works. But until the network in AmigaOS4 is restarted, the network is down.

I decided to run it internally by routing the ethernet cable into the case

I quickly tried to come up with a solution, the solution was to run the adapter from 5v from the internal PSU. And that lead me to wonder if it was possible to place it inside the case too. I could route the ethernet cable through the hole for the VGA port on the Sam backplate.

The Vonets adapter is placed under the SSD on the left side of the motherboard

The Vonets WIFI bridge was placed under the SSD on the Sam440EP motherboard. There are no components on that side of the motherboard so no chips will get cooked as the Vonets adapter heats up a bit and I was worried that I would introduce more heat to the system.

Browsing the web on an Amiga is currently not a fun experience, lets hope a modern browser (and modern hardware is released!)

Would it work, yes it did. The Morex 557 case that the Sam440 is mounted in has mesh sides so signals from the WIFI bridge passes through the case fine (and also aid in ventilation of the setup).

Summary

All in all I am pleased with the setup and will order a second one for my Amiga 4000TX, and my A1200 is already running WIFI with the PicoWyfy. While I am pleased with the setup, much has happened with the web in 15 years. I remember browsing the web back in 2009 on my Pegasos 2 and having a great experience. But the modern web is built on JS and needs SSL. There is no way this 533Mhz system would keep up even if there was a modern browser. While the main goal was not to browse the web but to enable file transfers between fileserver and the Amiga on the local network, I would not mind browsing the modern web on it if there was a modern browser and more up to date hardware.

Some Amiga activities from the week

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Donor Amiga 1200

This Amiga 1200 was painted in an unusual color (and paint).

I won an Amiga 1200 on a local auction website. I put in a max bid but surprisingly it got sold for cheaper than I anticipated. I think it was for a couple of reasons. First the case was painted in a weird cement like textured paint, more on that later, secondly it was sold as-is and not working. I have heard of a new Mini-ITX AGA A1200 clone being developed so this broken A1200 will be the donor for that future project (if the chips works).

The value in this computer (for me) lies in its chips. I am mainly interested in Alice, Lisa, the two CIA chips and the Paula. I am also interested in the memory chips as those can be used on various projects. There is some value in the 23-pin video socket also.

I did some math and took a gamble on both winning the Amiga 1200 and on the chips working. As the CIA chips, the paula and Alice has been socketed, that is a clear sign someone has messed inside this A1200 before. Could both be good news or bad news as sockets can be the reason for the computer not working.

Anyways, here is how I calculated the value:

  • Alice: 100-135 euro
  • Lisa: 20-35 euro
  • CIA (2x): 35-80 euro
  • Paula: 25-35 euro
  • Memory (4x): 10 euro
  • 23-pin D-SUB: 10-20 euro

Total min: 200 euro
Total max: 315 euro

Note, I am not calculating this on Analogic prices!

Lets hope the chips are working, will test them later in the year as the motherboard has been cleaned and is archived in my Amiga hardware stash now.

And the reason why i dont count any value in the case: it was sadly painted in this horrible “paint” that gave me a terrible itch in my fingers for two hours after touching it for a few minutes. I will probably throw it away in the trash since I suspect the paint is toxic.

Changing memory chips on a GottaGoFaZt3r

Removing memory chips from the GottaGoFaZt3r Zorro 3 Amiga memory card

I built two GottaGoFaZt3r Zorro 3 memory cards late last year, only one card worked. The other refused to work, it still showed up as “working” in my Amiga 4000TX but the memory was nowhere to be seen. I got the recommendation to check for errors in the memory chips one by one. Instead of doing that I got four new chips instead from a reliable source.

I removed the memory chips with a hot air station. Then I cleaned the pads and soldered on the new memory chips.

Soldering new memory chips on the GottaGoFaZt3r Zorro 3 Amiga memory card

And once all chips was replaced the card finally worked 100%.

Both cards are built as 256 MB cards. 256 MB might seem like a lot of fast mem in an Amiga but it is actually very usable. I run a bit more buffers on my partition than a stock HDD setup so that consumes some of the fast mem. But the main usage is off course to have a large RAM disk (as there are already 128 MB on the turbo card).

And here is a pic from sunny Stockholm today!

Amiga 3000 daughter card

And finally all parts for my ReAmiga 3000 build is now soldered with the daughter board being finished. It still needs to be flashed, but that will happen another day!

MouSTer 3D printed shell

I have used a MouSTer USB mouse adapter with a wireless mouse on my Amiga for 3-4 years and I have been very happy with the adapter. Only thing I was not happy with was the heat shrink tubing that was used as the shell. It looked so cheap.

I was surprised to find a 3D printable shell for it online. I ordered one to be printed on JLC (in resin). I got a couple of warnings that the walls was too thin and may not be able to be printed. But all worked out better than I anticipated!

It looks so much better with the 3D printed shell.

The fit is perfect. I just superglued the two halves together, there are no user servicable parts on the MouSTer so no point in making it possible to open the case again.

I dont remember exactly where I found the files but you should probably be able to find them here if you search for them.