Why doesn't this A590 work with this Amiga 500 Plus?

Рет қаралды 4,965

Күн бұрын

When Richard reached out on the CRG discord looking for help with his supposedly good working A590 side car, well, its one thing I've never had the chance to work with until now so I was more than happy to do so.
A bit of an odd one because the A590 was sold as working and the Amiga itself certainly works fine, so why don't they work together?
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Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:24 What's in the box
01:02 Closer look at the edge connector
01:48 Letter
05:01 Reviewing the previous work
07:13 Restoring the edge connector
09:10 Testing the 500 first
10:42 First test with the A590
14:15 Testing and upgrading the ROMs
20:17 Does the A590 work?
22:16 Why doesn't it work on Richards A500+
23:50 Another test
25:46 Modifying the A590 to draw power from the A500
28:45 Does it work?
29:53 SD to SCSI
34:17 Conclusion

Пікірлер: 75

@larsenmats 9 ай бұрын

Thanks for the video. Yeah, It's rare to see degraded edge connectors like that on A500/A500 + machines. Nice work. Now the owner can happily enjoy some fast ram and hard drive on his A500 + 😊

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

Yeah its certainly the first time I've seen that edge connector go bad. It was like the corrosion got under the gold plating and delaminated it but hopefully that's it sorted now. The only thing the owner needs to add really is a bit more chip ram and he's got a nice 500+.

@alanhaynes4576 9 ай бұрын

Good job and I found it very helpful, thanks.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.

@retrorter89 17 күн бұрын

Good Job ! That's an early model A590 (No Power or Activity LED's soldered onboard) you also need to check what revision of SCSI Chip you are running (WD33C93A) - early revisions had bugs, I think you need version 8 if I remember correctly

@artursmihelsons415 8 ай бұрын

Great job and excellent video! 👍 About memory IC's - for reading You can select similar model from different manufacturers, basic thing is that pinouts are compatible, but for programming it's better to select exactly because programming voltage may differ from brand to brand.. Same part EPROM from one manufacturer needs 12V programming voltage, other 13,5V and older ones needs 21V.. This is how I killed AMD flash memory at programming, just by selecting other brand and after srew up I find it out.. 😂 After that, I'm always read datasheet before programming and always selecting closest profile.. 😉

@CRG 8 ай бұрын

Thanks for the tip. I've noticed before that one chip I had wouldn't program until I increased the voltage so this explains it. I'll be more careful in the future.

@force4200 9 ай бұрын

I have the same sketshy eprom uv eraser ;) nice video keep up the good work mate

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

It is super sketchy, probably should rewire it to make it safer but its only sparingly used and only for a few minutes at a time. Glad you enjoyed the video 👍

@fu1r4 9 ай бұрын

My Amiga 500+ power supply was able to run two SupraDrive with memory and two 3.5" HDD. There was two jumpers on the SupraDrive to select power from the Amiga or external power.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

No such option on the 590 but it certainly sounds like you had a killer system.

@Ragnar8504 8 ай бұрын

Yup, I used mine to power a 3.5" HDD and a CD-ROM drive for a while. I don't think I even had a power supply for the Supra. The A590 on the other hand I don't have the slightest memory. Might have come with its own power supply but I don't think I actually used that beyond powering it up once or twice and checking the contents of the 20 MB hard drive that was in there - WB 1.3 and not much else.

@ddniUK 9 ай бұрын

Interesting video. Many thanks :)

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

Thanks glad you enjoyed it.

@2009numan 9 ай бұрын

Gold is one of the least reactive elements on the Periodic Table. It doesn't react with oxygen, so it never rusts or corrodes.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

yeah its not the gold that corroded but the battery corrosion had gotten beneath the gold, between that and the copper and was causing the connectivity issues.

@Drew-Dastardly 9 ай бұрын

Yeah, try telling that to my aqua regia electrolyte battery 😉

@LaserFur 9 ай бұрын

Tin coatings on the other connector can tarnish gold by adding a thin layer of tin oxide. I am also wondering if it would be good to add dialectic grease to the connections. I use the Aluminum antioxidant on some connections, but for a card edge connector it's slight conductivity might be a issue.

@noggin73 9 ай бұрын

Nice one! The BlueSCSI v2 is pretty awesome. I have one in my A4000. I'm working on adding WIFI support (needs a Pico-W) but it's not easy! The audio on this video seems a bit low?

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

I'd love to get myself a bluescsi for my 2000, just need to get a scsi card for it first! Apologies for the audio, I've changed some of my equipment lately so will be sure to boost the levels a bit for the next one.

@johnwiesen4440 9 ай бұрын

A very nice video. I got a ACA 500+ to use as it gives me a hard drive using a CF card and a faster CPU and some more RAM.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

Thanks. The aca is a nice card but there is something to be said for the old side cars as well.

@andy4670 Ай бұрын

Great work. I'm looking to replace the faulty 20mb XT drive in my A590 with a BlueSCSI v2. Could you supply the v7 ROMs or do you know where they can be sourced from?

@weepingscorpion8739 9 ай бұрын

Always nice to see Amiga stuff. I know I talk about my A500 that's still not been transplanted into a Checkmate case but having found out about the A590 and the GVB or GB8 hard drive options, I'm really considering getting a 2nd A500 and see if I can find one of these drives. Because as nice as the Checkmate case is, there's something about the wedge shape that's appealing to me. Also, great choice on Pinball Dreams. I can definitely see myself booting that game or Pinball Fantasies and then just listen to the MOD files and not actually play the game.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

The music in the pinball games is fantastic. There are a few games that I often start just to hear the music, Shadow of the Beast is a good example. I think the music is the only reason anyone would start that game 😂 I really enjoyed tinkering with the A590 on this one, it genuinely was the first time I'd got the chance to use one. Would love to get one for myself at some point but like anything Amiga they are always just going up in price.

@weepingscorpion8739 9 ай бұрын

@@CRG Yeah, prices for Amiga peripherals is crazy. And well... I honestly don't find the music in Shadow of the Beast to be that good... so I don't think that game will see much gameplay from me period :D Lotus III however that's a different story.

@mikegravgaard340 9 ай бұрын

@@CRGWhat about the parallax scrolling and multiple different layers of the background? The art work is very good. Shadow of the beast 2 was better but difficult even with Roger's ten pints...

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

@@weepingscorpion8739 The shadow of the beast sound track is awesome 😂, but then again I like my synth type stuff and it certainly ticks that box. Lotus II out of that series springs to mind first for me when I'm thinking music but 3 is good as well.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

@@mikegravgaard340yep I'll absolutely give you that, the graphics look amazing and the parallax is very good. Just never much enjoyed the gameplay.

@SidebandSamurai 8 ай бұрын

@36:12 looks like National semi conductor logo on that chip.

@spitzspitzer6117 9 ай бұрын

Hi CRG. Great vid as always. One question, what's the programmer model for "bios" You are using there?

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

It's a TL866 II Plus. I got mine from aliexpress but there is also a newer black model available which supports more ics.

@spitzspitzer6117 9 ай бұрын

@@CRG Cheers! Waiting for more YT material from You, it's always a great retro-show!

@fu1r4 9 ай бұрын

Hold both mouse buttons at power on and you can select boot device. Then you don't need to wait for the A590. 😁

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

Yep that would work too.

@mikegravgaard340 9 ай бұрын

Silly question but have you considered doing the 14MHz speed hack? Also the Guru ROM change?

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

Not at all a silly question. I did consider the 14mhz mod but ultimately left it as it's not my A590 and I didn't want to mess with it too much. Must admit I'm not aware of the guru mod, what does that do?

@josephphillips9243 8 ай бұрын

Thank you enjoyed the troubleshooting and this video. Can I ask you two questions, the first was abut the EPROM eraser. What were you concerned about with that? The second question is what wire did you use for the 12 volt? I am confused about what wire to use for a simple point to point connection, a 5v connection and a 12v connection. I hope you can help clear that up.

@CRG 8 ай бұрын

Glad to hear you enjoyed the video. The EPROM eraser is very cheaply put together, the wiring inside it is very thin and some of the solder work is a bit sketchy. There is also the issue that the UV light produces ozone which isn't the best thing to be sitting next to . I might make it the subject of a mini video and try and sort some of the issues it has. For the 5v and 12v cabling I just used some spare wire cut off an old AT power supply that had failed. Probably a little heavy for this case but better looking at it than for it as they say. The red wire was 5v, the yellow wire 12v. I'd imagine its 18 AWG or 0.75mm.

@josephphillips9243 8 ай бұрын

@@CRG Thanks for responding. Had no idea about the ozone. A short video would be great. Lots of these around so always nice to see thoughts of those that use it.

@Tjuwantjutju 9 ай бұрын

Words makes youtube happy. ❤

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

Comments make me happy 🙂

@Numfuddle 9 ай бұрын

Could one theoretically re-plate the connector via chemical plating or electroplating and get a new gold coating on there?

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

I suppose you could but I'm sure it would be a costly process.

@mrkitty777 9 ай бұрын

SilverChloride is very easy

@YogSothoth1969 9 ай бұрын

As always great work Glen! Btw: you really need to check Elite Dangerous Odyssey, the game play is actually very Thargoid focused... o7 Cmdr 🙂

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. It's been a long time since I've played Elite, maybe I should splash out and buy Odyssey.

@YogSothoth1969 9 ай бұрын

I really like Odyssey, it is very atmospheric and it developed quite nice 🙂

@2009numan 9 ай бұрын

gold actually never corrodes

@mrkitty777 9 ай бұрын

Except in Kingswater

@mikedefoy 9 ай бұрын

If the SD solution is available for the computer, other than a bump in RAM why attach it to the A590? Am I missing something here, Glen?

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

The A500 itself doesn't have any native ability to connect a hard drive. The A590 is a hard drive side car expansion. The BlueSCSI is replacing the old xt drive that was attached to it originally.

@mikegravgaard340 9 ай бұрын

Fred, Wilma and the party mix? 😮

@mikegravgaard340 9 ай бұрын

Why did this go unnoticed? Fred and Wilma are the two LEDs. The A590 is referred to as The Party Mix. Like for example the Amiga 500 is referred to as,Rock Lobster. I suspect there is a B52 song called The Party Mix.

@mikegravgaard340 9 ай бұрын

B52's had an album called Party mix. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l7d6aNWTnMu-YJ8.htmlsi=9bGP7dRxNWnqsE53

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

It didn't go unnoticed I just didn't have a clue what you were talking about 😂. But now I get it and it was a great reference. Nice to see commodore sticking with the B52s theme, I wonder who the fan was?

@mikegravgaard340 9 ай бұрын

Grrr (or George Robbins).

@gsestream 9 ай бұрын

doing all properly from the start would prevent any duplicate "work required"

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

but if I fixed it first time then the video would have been very short.

@gsestream 9 ай бұрын

well would you have to work if all was fully done already@@CRG

@gsestream 9 ай бұрын

yes I just explained why the current "mutual work agreement" society model is failed@@CRG

@gsestream 9 ай бұрын

I hate wasted work@@CRG

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

@@gsestream true but then there wouldn't have been any video at all 😅. I know what you mean but I think it would be easy to overlook the edge connector and there is nothing to say the corrosion on it hasn't gotten worse since it was originally looked at.

@ManOleg38 9 ай бұрын

Using tin soldering for a sliding contact is a very bad idea.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

What would you have done differently?

@ManOleg38 9 ай бұрын

@@CRG Wired connection.

@Ragnar8504 8 ай бұрын

@@ManOleg38 You mean you'd have wired the A590 permanently to the Amiga board? The idea behind this design is that you can easily swap the sidecar extensions so I don't think that would be a good idea.

@ManOleg38 8 ай бұрын

@@Ragnar8504 That is not an idea. That was an assumption that it can be work. But it does not. It is wrong-fail tech design.

@paulklasmann1218 9 ай бұрын

The gold itself wont corrode, but the gold is plated over nickel/copper which will corrode.

@CRG 9 ай бұрын

I maybe didn't represent it properly in the video but that's essentially what happened. The copper underneath has corroded, the gold plate had lifted and started flaking off.

@paulklasmann1218 9 ай бұрын

@@CRG I jumped the gun a bit, I wrote that before you mentioned it.