Wireless networking in AmigaOS 4.1 with Vonets Wireless Bridge

Posted on June 5, 2025 by erkorh

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..

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:

Connect the Vonets wireless bridge to a PC. Connect both USB and ethernet so it gets power and can be found by the computer.
On the Vonets adapter: Green light should come up (that is the ethernet port), blue light should come up (that is WIFI).
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.
Go to Chrome and type in the IP adress as specified on the device to connect to the Vonets bridge.
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.
Change password of device and save.
Go to main panel and scan for SSIDs.
Chose SSID, type in password and save.
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

Posted on May 24, 2025 by erkorh

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.

PicoWyfy WIFI adapter for the Amiga

Posted on May 16, 2025 by erkorh

PicoWyfy means wifi for the Amiga hooked up to the clock port!

I just got a PicoWyfy and has spent a day playing around with it in my Amiga 1200. I am very happy with this device as it has helped me get my Amiga 1200 online and onto my network at home.

The PicoWyfy is a “wireless network interface controller” and it connects to the clock port on the Amiga (either on the motherboard or on a Zorro card or other clock port solutions). Read more about PicoWyfy here, you will also find instructions on how to get one there.

Wireless networking has been a possibility on the A1200 and A600 for a long time on the PCMCIA port. I got a NetGear MA401 for this purpose years ago, but the though of having an ugly PCMCIA card sticking out of the side of my Amiga 1200 meant I never bothered to install and configure it. I would rather just put all my files I wanted to transfer on a CF card on my PC and put the CF card in a PCMCIA to CF converter making it easy to copy files of off the CF card to the Amiga HDD.

In comparison with PCMCIA solutions the PicoWyfy is placed on the clock port, so it is fully internal. As you can see on the images, the PicoWyfy is based on a Raspberry Pi Pico W.

Installing PicoWyfy in my Amiga 1200

PicoWyfy installed on the Solas that is installed on the A1200 clock port

Installing the PicoWyfy in an A1200 was very simple. If you are reading this, chances are that you already know about the clock port in the Amiga 1200 and what to take care of when mounting hardware here. So no point in going through that. If not, I will eat my hat.

My Amiga 1200 already had a Solas RGB LED Amiga controller inside it that was placed on the clock port. The Solas has a clock port expander integrated into it, so installation was as simple as putting the PicoWyfy on one of the free clock ports on the Solas (and configuring the PicoWyfy for that clock port address). Where to put the actual clock on the Solas is another issue I will have to figure out in the future as the PicoWyfy takes up space for it.

Overview of my Amiga 1200 with PicoWyfy installed

As the A1200 case is plastic, there wont be any signal strenght problems. If you wonder what I have in my (main) Amiga 1200, specs are listed below:

ReAmiga 1200 1.5 motherboard
Indivision AGA MK3
TerribleFire 1260 @ 100Mhz / 128MB
FlashROM
Solas RGB LED controller
LED adapter (so that TF1260 IDE activity is seen on the case LEDs)
Buffered CF interface / 4GB CF
MicroniK 1.76 MB floppy drive
And finally, the latest addition: PicoWyfy

Setting up the software and drivers for PicoWyfy

Picowyfyctl is the program that can control the PicoWyfy on the Amiga

Installation of the PicoWyfy is straight forward. All you have to do is put some files in the right places in the Workbench drawer. Then it is possible to run the program picowyfyctl to scan for wireless networks, connect or disconnect to wireless networks and to view status of the PicoWyfy. There is no GUI here but it is so simple to configure you wont need one.

Running a scan on the PicoWyfy to find wireless networks to connect to

In the picture above I have run a scan to look for wireless networks to connect to in my area. I can see my WIFI network here so thats what I am going to connect to.

Connecting to a wireless network on the Amiga 1200

Here I am connecting PicoWyfy to my home network and as you can see, the connection attempt was successful! I have also removed my WIFI password, if you must know it is “12345679abcd”.

Testing a browser online on the Amiga 1200

Off course I have to test the connection by browsing the information super highway in an ooooooold version of Aweb, if you type something wrong in the URL field it goes to Altavista by default. How nostalgic. As the modern web runs on HTTPS the browsing session was very limited, but I think it is possible to set up HTTPS in some way or another. Possibly would need to investigate this.

But browsing the web wont be my main activity on the A1200 other than browsing Aminet – Having access to Aminet directly from the Amiga 1200 is such a luxury!

Adding lines to user-startup to connect to a wireless network on startup

I should mention that I use Roadshow as the TCP/IP stack. It is a great modern TCP/IP stack for the Amiga. Once everything was working I wanted my A1200 to connect to the wireless network automatically at startup. To do that it was as simple as adding the line: “picowyfyctl connect ssid key quiet” before the TCP/IP stack was called in s:user-startup.

Trying out the program AmiSpeedTest to find out how fast the network is

So lets test how quick the card is on my system. There is a piece of software on Aminet called AmiSpeedTest you can use for this. Here is the URL.

So here is the test done. To be honest here I dont have a clue how good or bad these results are. Downloading stuff from Aminet is fast though so I am happy. Will test some transfers between my workstation and A1200 in the future also.

Average download speed was 4509 kb/s and average upload speed was 4259 kb/s

Roadie, a GUI for the TCP/IP stack Roadshow

Before I close off I also want to quickly introduce Roadie, it is a GUI for Roadshow you can find on Aminet. It has come in handy when testing the PicoWyfy and I think this one will go into the default toolbox on all my Amigas. Find Roadie on Aminet.

And here we are after a reboot of the Amiga 1200. There is no sign of it but my A1200 is connected to my wireless network at home!

Conclusion

I am very happy with the PicoWyfy, its a great addition to my A1200 and to be honest I would like to equip all my Amiga computers in the fleet with one or a card with similar functionality. Great work everyone involved in this project! Highly recommended!

Typically I like to use wired network, but as the years has passed I think wireless networking is perfectly fine. Even for non mobile computers.

I dont run WIFI on my main desktop workstation, but for everything else, why not, one less ugly Cat 6 cable to pull out everytime one wants to hook up something to the internet.

The reason for wanting to connect an Amiga to the internet or a LAN is primary just to move files to the Amiga. But I have some future plans of having all files centralized on a main server and then sync that share with my Amigas. That way I have multiple backups of my Data folder on all my Amigas while I have a central location that I primary update.

Amiga 2000 EATX

Posted on April 27, 2025 by erkorh

I just finished the last touches on my Amiga 2000 EATX build. The Amiga 2000 EATX is a clone of the Amiga 2000 motherboard in an extended ATX format. That means it will fit inside most ATX tower cases that can swallow a larger EATX format (or in this case can be hacked to accept EATX motherboards). You can read more about the A2000 EATX here.

I like to modernise the Amiga systems I have so I look forward installing an Amiga in a generic PC tower, with that said, I actually think the original Commodore Amiga 2000 case was awesome. It was an easy case to open up to have access to the slots, it was also a good looking case and the de facto professional Amiga to have back in the day.

I like to think that the A2000 EATX continues that professional legacy of the Amiga 2000 by modernising it and making it more accessible and user friendly.

Building an Amiga 2000 EATX motherboard

My Amiga 2000 EATX in about 85% built state.

As you can see on the picture, most of the features of a genuine Commodore Amiga 2000 is present on the A2000 EATX motherboard.

Although the motherboard above is in a half finished state above we can see there are space for five Zorro 2 slots, three ISA slots (one less than on a real A2000), the CPU slot and the video slot. Also note the ATX power and space for all custom chips from an Amiga.

I used the chipset from an Amiga 500 and then got a Bluster chip (Buster clone). I also took the vidiot from a broken A500. It is possible to run both 8375 and 8372. I did not have an 8375 so I used an 8372 instead. Having the option to chose between 8375 and 8372 is awesome – 8375 is more difficult to find and more expensive. There is also provision for a PCB to generate the tick signal. I do not have that on this build but if needed could be added.

The most difficult part to solder on this project is the chip memory which is very fine pitched (if unexperienced). There are also two diodes (IIRC) that have tiny solder pads, other than that it is very straight forward.

Here is the backside of the motherboard.

I also want to shine a light onto the documentation around this project. The amount of documentation on the project website is extensive and very well done. There is also a Discord where one can ask questions if one gets stuck.

Chosing a case for the A2000 EATX motherboard

The specific chassi I am using for this project is called the IT-2812 Business by Inter-Tech. Here is a link to the exact chassi. I did extensive research before ordering it so I was sure the extended ATX motherboard would be able to fit inside it. I was prepared to mod the case to get it to fit which I eventually had to do.

You can make out where I had to cut the case to make the motherboard (and CPU/Zorro cards) fit the case

While it looks great and fits the motherboard, after some extensive case cutting, I do not recommend this case at all since it is made of very thin sheet metal. While thin sheet metal is great for modding, it also makes for a seriously flimsy case (I bet its more flimsy than a MicroniK plastic A1200 tower).

Modding the case involved cutting off sections from the front of the chassis. While these modifications was simple, it was difficult to do it without access to power tools. So it does not have that professional look.

But as a proof of concept, it is possible to fit an EATX motherboard inside a regular ATX case (this case was not meant to be used for EATX boards). Although I have to be careful when inserting Zorro cards since there is no support for the front most part of the case, there is nothing to screw it down into. I will probably find a sturdier case in the future.

What kind of hardware to put into the Amiga 2000 clone?

What use is a bunch of Zorro slots if there are no hardware attached to them. Amiga 2000, no matter if it is a clone or the real deal , is a workstation so it has to have some muscles packed into it. Here is what is plugged into them and the other slots at the moment.

n2630 CPU card

The author of the Amiga 2000 EATX motherboard has designed a turbo card for the A2000 also, it is the n2630 and is a 030 50 Mhz based turbo card with IDE and a CF slot on board. You can also fit an FPU and various amounts of fast mem. I think this card is a nice compliment to the A2000 EATX and it was a no brainer to go with this card. I just wish I went for 256 MB fast memory instead of 128. Maybe next time…

I do wish there would be a DIY 060 card for the Amiga 2000 CPU slot. 030 is fine, but a fast 040 or 060 is better once you have gotten used to it (if you wish to stay in real 68k land).

Prelude replica sound card

Prelude replica Zorro 2 16-bit sound card with Mpegit module attached to it

I had an extra Prelude replica that I had built so that card went into this build. It has the MpegIt addon added to it making it possible to play MP3s fine on a lowly 030 Amiga.

A500-Graka graphics card

There is a Matze graphics card running in the computer. I think this is a nice card to run in a Zorro 2 based Amiga.

Multivision 2000 scandoubler

And then for scandoubling duties I have an old classic piece of hi-end Amiga hardware, the 3-state MultiVision 2000 scandoubler for the A2000. It is running great in the A2000 EATX and produces a nice image on my TFT.

Other bits

I have a Zorro-LAN-IDE card that will go into this case once I have a bracket made for it. There is also a 80 mm Noctua fan at the back that is mated with an old Zalman fan mate I had in my stash to quiten it down.

Finishing touches, the ATX backplate

I found the file to print the ATX backplate on a1k.org. So I sent it to JLC to get it printed.

And here it is installed. Instantly makes the Amiga 2000 EATX looks better from the backside.

Conclusion

I am very happy with the Amiga 2000 EATX. It was a great experience to build it and I have had a lot of fun seting up the whole system. I also thoroughly enjoy using it!

This is not my main Amiga but I use it a lot during testing of Zorro cards. It has proved to be very reliable and a great addition to my stable of Amigas. I would not mind running it as a daily driver if it had a faster CPU.

ReAmiga 3000 motherboard is fully built and tested

Posted on April 15, 2025 by erkorh

I had an old Amiga 3000 in my stash that I got in a trade years ago. It was traded to me as fully working but never worked no matter what I did. When the ReAmiga 3000 project became known I wanted to save the broken A3000 by building up a ReAmiga 3000 motherboard with the parts from the broken Amiga 3000.

I did not have the soldering skills 15 years ago to do that, but today is a different time (and maybe I was better off 15 years ago with just one A1200 instead of a fleet of Amiga replicas today lol) – So the broken Amiga 3000, or at least what was left of it has gotten a new lease on its life!

Find out more about the ReAmiga project here.

I have already started soldering in stuff that I should have waited with, as usual it is difficult to wait for the right parts to arrive at the post office before starting the project properly.

So this is how it started out. This time I started off with a motherboard with all passives already mounted which saved a ton of time. Interestingly though, I found one error where the BOM specified a tantal capacitor, a regular ceramic cap was placed instead. It was an easy fix once I found a suitable component to replace it with!

Here is the original Amiga 3000 motherboard which acted as a donor card

The components I used from my broken Amiga 3000 was all the custom chips (more on that later), the special memory chips for the scandoubler and some odd pieces here and there such as the trim pot, power socket, disable switch for the scandoubler and the stacked female 25 pin port.

Most of this stuff can actually be found new. But I usually like to keep some parts from donor Amigas in new builds not just the custom chips for some weird reason.

Believe it or not, I actually used the same KEL connector for the CPU board that was soldered to the broken A3000. It was a painful experience desoldering it as it is soldered with 200 pins to the motherboard.

I also wanted to save the two edge card connectors for the daughterboard, desoldering them was a major hassle since the ground plane is very strong on the A3000. Instead I ordered replacements from AliExpress because they where extremely difficult to desolder.

Chipset gave me a surprise

As is de rigeur when building an Amiga replica, there are always some kind of surprises no matter how much prepping one does.

There are some very expensive chips on the Amiga 3000. First is the Amber chip which is part of the scandoubler/flickerfixer area of the A3000. Then there is the DMAC chip, both chips costs a ton of money to source if replacements are needed.

I did not know if these chips where working before starting the build and I was not prepared to pay 250-450+ euros for replacements if they did not work. Luckily, once I had the board fully built, I can now confirm they are working just fine!

But surprised I was, the Ramsey chip was broken. My ReAmiga 3000 would not start with my original Ramsey chip installed. Luckily I had a NOS Ramsey 07 chip in my stash that worked fine as a replacement.

And as lucky as I was, the same day, I noticed that a Buster 11 was offered for sale on a local website meaning I could skip the Buster 7 I had from the broken A3000. As it was offered on a local trading website I got it muuuch cheaper than from Ebay.

But…. I know what you are thinking, Super DMAC 02 and Ramsey 07, that is a recipe for trouble.

Lets find out if Ramsey 07 plays well with my revision 02 of the Super DMAC. I will just have to find out once system is fully up and running with Workbench installed. Then I will be able to do some stress testing. If problems occur, I will need to track down a Super DMAC replica.

Next steps….

Now all I am waiting for is a replica A3000D case to be available and I will order one in black ASAP. I am also doing a daughter board for it which I will post about later in the year here.

Amiga custom chip Alice cooling

Posted on March 12, 2025 by erkorh

Alice is the graphics chip in the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000. It runs hot. The main board acts as a heatsink for the chip so it is not really nesesarry to add a heatsink to the chip. But to help it out with some additional cooling anyways I placed four 3 mm tall heatsinks on Alice (on thermal tape). It still hits 50 degrees, but if I remember correctly, it runs slightly cooler.

Solas RGB LED controller board for Amiga

Posted on March 6, 2025 by erkorh

Solas installed in my ReAmiga 1200, it is the blue board to the left of the floppy drive

I have recently been playing around with the highly sought after Solas. The Solas is an RGB LED controller for the Amiga, it also has some other interesting functions. Solas connects to the Amiga on the clock port and can control two LED strips. Solas has also the ability to control fan speed and measure temps. It is also a clock port multiplier!

While I am not very interested in RGB lightning in computers typically the difference here is that the RGB lights can react to the sound the Amiga is putting out. When playing a module you can see the LED strip jumping to the beat of the music. How nice!

I enjoy playing modules on the Amiga and all kind of graphical visualizers for module players are all kinds of awesome. The more the better – I have been thinking of hooking up external VU meters for many years but to have them integrated into the Amiga is much better!

Before we contionue – If you are interested in the Solas board I highly suggest visiting the official Amiga Solas website and ordering one now! These days, good things come in small batches in the world of Amiga and if you dont hop on the train before it has left the station, sometimes it never comes back.

Building the Solas LED controller

I like building hardware myself so I asked if I could get the Solas as a kit, which I could. I also got a second Solas already built, it is a long story why and I wont write it down here to bore anyone. Lets just say, resistors can go bad sometimes and sometimes it can be good to have an oscilloscope in your toolbox (I dont have one).

Here is the Solas in kit form. A nice mix of through hole parts and surface mount components. Also note all the cables for the temp sensors and power cable.

Front side of Solas Amiga RGB LED controller PCB

The square space if for the chip that needs to be programmed. You can also see all through holes for pin headers and clock ports. The manual comes in really handy here in understanding how everything is tied together.

Programing the PIC microchip on the Solas

I thought I could program the Solas with my RPI. I have successfully managed to program many projects that uses Xilinx CPLDs with the RPI but was not successful in this case. So I got a cheap Pickit programmer. It is not visible in the image above though but worked fine – setting up the Pickit programmer with the correct software and settings was a nightmare though.

So here is the little PCB finally fully built and installed in the A1200. As it connects to the clock port it is very important that it is fitted correctly on the bottom pins. If you use a cable and mount it wrong way, expect card to break. Why would you mount it on a cable? Say you have an Amiga 1200 tower, it might be better to mount it on a cable so that a Zorro 2 or Mediator backplane can be fitted in the tower. Mounting Solas on a cable is also relevant if you have a clock port in a big box Amiga through a Zorro card.

Next steps, connecting all the cables to Solas and Amiga 1200

Installing and adding cables to Solas in an Amiga 1200

The manual is very good at explaining how you hook up all the cables, it is slightly confusing doing this without consulting the manual trying to figure it out yourself so in this case the manual is a must read (lol). In the image above, there is a small PCB that sits under the upper Kickstart chip and hooks up to the Solas with two wires. That is for activating the other clock ports on the Solas (IIRC).

How to connect sound output into Solas on a ReAmiga 1200?

Pin header for mono sound input to the Solas on the ReAmiga 1200 v1.5

Since I was using a ReAmiga 1200 and not a Commodore made Amiga 1200 there is one difference that needs to be taken care of. On a genuine Commodore Amiga 1200, you can pick up mono sound from the modulator. But the ReAmiga 1200 does not have a RF modulator and is missing the mono output there. On later ReAmiga 1200 (I have v 1.5) there is space for a pin header close to the keyboard MPU chip where you can pick up mono sound (see image above where I have soldered on one pin header to the motherboard). Also note the place above and to the right of the pin header where you have to add a 10uf ceramic capacitor. I have not added the capacitor on the picture above.

To get the Solas to react to sound input I also had to place a 10k resistor inline with the cable connected to the pin header and to the Solas board. After that, everything worked fine!

So here you can the full setup. Unfortunately it looks a bit messy with the Indivision, CF adapter and all the cables all over the place. It is possible to clean it up a bit, but for testing purposes this was fine. You can also see where I placed the RGB LED strip. I ended up super gluing the LED strip to the case because the sticky backside was not sticky enough. I routed the cable from the Indivision MK3 under the Solas board, made it look much cleaner and works fine.

RGB LED strip is mounted to the underside of the upper Amiga 1200 case

Closeup of where the RGB LED strip is mounted. Even though it is mounted upside down in a solid black case it works fine and you can clearly see the light the LEDs are emitting when they are lit.

SolasControl – Software to control Solas

Use SolasControl to configure the Solas board in the Amiga

Solas comes with a great MUI based program that lets you configure Solas. The way this works is that you configure Solas, then you save your settings to the Flash on the Solas. That means that Solas will work with software that fully takes control of the Amiga.

SolasControl is an easy to use program, in the image above I have configured Solas to show a solid green light when the Amiga 1200 is idle. It looks like this:

Solas configured to show a solid green color when the A1200 is idle

Solas styles and events

As you can see on the image of SolasControl, you can set the level of brightness for the LED and in the highest strength the LEDs are very bright. I usually do not run the LEDs at the highest brightness.

Styles you can chose from in SolasControl

A static color is a bit boring. There are many styles you can chose from, my favorite is a rainbow scroll with a low brightness setting when idle. See the video below to see an example of it where I chosed blue and red as colors for the scroll.

Speed, colors, brightness and size depending on style chosed can be configured to ones preferences.

There are in total five types you can set the Solas to react to, Idle, Floppy access, HDD access, PCMCIA access and Audio. Idle just means when Solas is idle (when the other types are not active). Audio is when there is audio output and floppy/HDD and PCMCIA is when there are activity on these devices.

I like to run Star Trek Viewer for HDD Access, its a nice effect when accessing the HDD. I also as said before run Rainbow Scroll with a low brightness setting when idle. And finally, the pièce de résistance, audio. I like Level Meter (VU) for audio!

RGB LEDs reacting to Amiga sound

Playing a module in HippoPlayer on the A1200 and watching the RGB LEDs react to sound

I want to point out that I usually run a little more fancy Workbench (even on this non GFX board AGA only Amiga 1200 WB 3.1), but in this case I toned it down a lot to clarify images.

In the image above I play a module in HippoPlayer, I have also configured Solas to show Level Meter when sound is playing. And I think it looks fabulous!

This is actually why I think the Solas is so exciting since I wanted a hardware device like this for the Amiga for a long time. I remember looking for similar types of hardware on AliExpress more than 15 years ago that could be added to a 5.25 bracket back when I had an Amiga 1200 tower. But this is so much better since it can be configured on the Amiga!

What about controlling fans and measuring temps with the Solas?

Solas comes with two sensors you can place where you want to. I placed one on my Indivision (as it runs very hot) and the other on Alice as it also runs hot. It is possible to add a cable between TerribleFire 1260 and Solas to measure 060 temps, but I have not had time to do that yet, but thats on the todo list.

The fan control function is very interesting particularly if using the Solas in a big box Amiga with many Zorro cards and hot CPUs. I think this is a nice alternative to CPLDIcy.

Usefulness of more than one clock port?

There are exciting developments in the Amiga hardware world where some users have created clock port based WIFI cards for the Amiga. There are sound cards for the clock port and USB cards. So having more than one clock port can actually be usefull – who knows what type of hardware will be released for it in the future. Having a couple extra feels great for the future.

Solas and big box Amiga computers

It is possible to add a clock port to a big box Amiga with Zorro slots through an old Buddha card, ZORRO-IDE-LAN-CP card and many other cards. That makes it possible to run Solas in an A2000, A3000 or A4000.

There is also this exciting ISA card that functions as a carrier for the Solas. As you probably already know, ISA slots in an Amiga are totally passive, meant to be used for PC bridgeboards or TBC cards. so the Solas ISA carrier only provides power to the Solas. It has some useful pin headers though.

Mounting the Solas to the ISA carrier board needs a slightly modified Solas card. One also needs to figure out how to connect sound to the Solas. I figured out that I can take it from pin headers on the ZZ9000 graphics card I am running in my Amiga 4000TX.

How I got sound input into the Solas from the ZZ9000

So here is how I hooked up sound input from the ZZ9000 graphics card to the Solas. Unfortunately the picture is a bit grainy but you get the point, L/R goes into the Solas ISA carrier. Also, it is a temporary cable as only two wires are needed.

Here is how the Solas is connected to the clock port of the Zorro-LAN-IDE card

And here is how the Solas is connected to the clock port on the Zorro-LAN-IDE card.

Keep in mind though if you have maxed out your Amiga expansion slots (we are all Amiga snobs left in this hobby right?) this sandwich of the carrier card and the Solas can be difficult to fit as it takes up more height than a regular card – And even more height with the cables connected to it!

I should also show you the LED setup I am running, I am running two LED strips on the inner sides of the front of the case. It looks awesome when playing tunes.

Final thoughs

As you can probably tell, I have only positive things to say about Solas. Highly recommended! I also think the Solas board is one of the greatest hardware developments for the Amiga in recent years (together with PiStorm and open hardware such as BFG and TF series of cards). Great work everybody involved with it 👍

68060 rev. 6 71E41J tested and successfully overclocked to 100MHz in my Amiga 1200

Posted on February 24, 2025 by erkorh

I bought a 68060 revision 6 (71E41J) recently for a very good price. The rev. 6 CPU can usually do a really good overclock, often reaching 100MHz or more, which makes them very sought after and sometimes fakes are offered as the genuine version of the CPU. As I was already running an 060 in my Amiga 1200 I was not sure if it was worth swapping CPUs to gain more megaherts. The rev. 5 68060 I was running could do a 66MHz overclock but ran very hot. And a 50MHz 060 is not a slow CPU (in the world of Amiga).

Swapping 68060 CPUs in my Amiga 1200

I decided to swap CPUs because I wanted to test performance of an Amiga without a graphics card but with a fast CPU and high resolutions (like HighGFX and highres laced). Luckily removing the CPU was not a difficult task, prying on the corners of the socket it was out in less than 5 minutes ready to go into another one of my systems. Once the rev. 6 CPU was inserted into the Terrible Fire 1260 I was eager to do a test. Sure enough, it did not complain anything running at 100MHz!! (keep in mind I had a heatsink on the CPU when doing tests). Next time I will try 106MHz!!

Is there actually a noticeable difference between a 50 and a 100 MHz 68060?

Would I be able to detect any difference between a 50MHz 060 and a 100MHz 060 or would it only be noticeable in a benchmark program?

I was not too sure – When I had overclocked my 060 in my Amiga 4000TX from 50 to 100MHz I could feel that icons loaded faster, drawers just popped up, Workbench was just smoother and more responsive. But I was not sure if it was my imagination or reality.

With that said, I was surprised that my 100% non scientific mean of measuring the difference between a 50 and a 100MHz CPU in the following AGA Amiga Workbench screenmodes highres, highres laced, HighGFX @ 1024×768 (all screen modes in 64 colors) proved that there really was a difference!

Workbench had become even faster and more responsive. Running 3.1 with the stock Commodore 4 color icons, icons did not load anymore, they just popped up, almost all at once, drawers opened up instantly. The system speed by at such a high rate I had only witnessed something like this in WinUAE. What an amazing experience!

I changed background colors to 256 colors and could sense little to no slowdown from a 64 color screenmode. Sure, I have to test this more, but the early results are great, this is what base level Amiga should be like! Lets bring on 200MHz 060 (lets crowd fund it lol).

Cooling problems

Before I permanently run this computer at 100MHz I have to figure out a good cooling solution for the CPU. This rev.6 68060 runs cooler than the old rev. 5 I had in it before. But overclocking it makes it run slightly hotter. I suspect its above 50 degrees but not more than 60. I have some ideas on how to cool it down but will have to sleep on the ideas a little more before I pull the trigger on the stuff I need to build one..

Terrible Fire TF1260 CPLD cooling

Posted on February 23, 2025 by erkorh

I have a Terrible Fire TF1260 in my Amiga 1200. I used to have an Apollo 1240 upgraded to 060 in it and was very happy with that card (despise what other said about the card, it was very stable for me). Time marches on though and the TF1260 started to look more and more impressive, so I built one last year. The TF1260 supports overclocking by software. One comment I read was that the chances of a good overclock improved if you put heatsinks on the two CPLD chips.

Keep in mind that I had a heatsink on the 060 when doing overclocking tests. But the space between the 060 and keyboard is so tight it was very difficult finding a heatsink in my stash that would fit with the keyboard installed. I have actually not solved this yet, thus I just focused on the CPLDs and will try to solve the 060 heatsink some other day, until then it will run at 50Mhz.

The problem with the CPLD cooler is that the right CPLD need a short heatsink if you want to run a compact flash adapter over it. As you can get an impressive speed boost for the CF card by using the IDE port on the TF1260 this was off course something I would need to consider.

I had ordered these 18x18x20mm heatsinks for this exact CPLD before. The left one is the original form and the right one is the heatsink cut down and modified. I dont like to do fabricating as it gets so messy and difficult to get good results with hand tools. I will probably order a new heatsink in the correct height in the future.

Here I am test fitting the heatsink.

And here it is secured to the chip. I use a thermal pad from AlphaCool that I cut to fit myself. The thermal pad from AlphaCool is somewhat thicker than what you usually get when you order heatsinks from Aliexpress. The thicknes is 0.5 mm, the thermal pad is also softer and more gooier than regular flat thermal pad. Once secured with the AlphaCool thermal tape, these pads wont go anywhere, they are secured very firmly. I highly recommend these AlphaCool thermal tape and would use them even on the 060 with a large heatsink without no problem or worry that the heatsink would fall off (even if mounted vertical!)

So here we are, everything fits now. But to use the IDE port on the TF1260 I need to burn a custom Kickstart with ehide.device, more on that when I will get to it.

And about finding a solution for cooling down the 060? I have not got a clue, I will probably need to cut down a thin copper plate and place a heatsink on it offsett from the CPU. Not ideal, but better than nothing. A small heatpipe cooler leading heat to fins over the top of the cards close to the floppy drive would be ideal, but prototyping a cooler like that would take weeks and lots of money. I will see what I will come up with.

Practice makes you perfect (when building an Amiga motherboard)

Posted on February 20, 2025 by erkorh

Motorola 68030 25Mhz on the A3000D motherboard (ReAmiga 3000 SMC version)

I am working on a ReAmiga 3000 motherboard. I am in no rush to finish it, taking it really slow ordering one set of parts at a time. Last week I got the 68030 so I decided to solder it on the motherboard this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to do a test drive before Q1 is over!