Amiga 1000 FAQ
This document is a FAQ on the original Amiga, the A1000. This
machine is very old but still very capable. Here you will find
information on making this Amiga great again. The emphasis here is
hardware, although some software aspects will be dealt with also.
If you have any information to add or correct please e-mail it
to me webmaster@basil.u-net.com
Q. Can I use A500 style side-bus expansions, with my
A1000?
Yes the connectors are exactly the same. However the unit will
be the wrong way round, with its ports at the front. The unit may
also prevent access to the mouse and joy stick ports.
Q. How can I accelerate my A1000?
You can use any A500 side-bus accelerators and any boards which
fit in the 68000 socket. A 68010 or some of the smaller
accelerators will definitely fit, however some of the larger boards
may not easily fit in the A1000's case.
Q. How can I plug standard printers and modems in the
A1000's non-standard ports?
The pin outs are different, but I'm told that a simple gender
changer will work.
Q. How can I use EHB (extra halfbrite)
mode
I assume by replacing the Denise with a newer version. You will
have to use the 8362R8 OCS Denise as the Super Denise requires the
ECS Agnus.
Q. What are the pinouts for the A1000's
keyboard?
The A1000's keyboard has a RJ12 jack, with the following pin
outs:
1 +5V DC Viewed looking straight on into
2 (I)/ O Keyboard clock socket. RJ12 connector. Female.
3 I / O Keyboard data
4 Ground _
_| |_
__| |__
| |
| |
| |
|__|_|_|_|__|
1 2 3 4
Q. What are the pin outs for the TV Modulator
port?
_________
1. N.C. / U \
2. Gnd. / 8 7 \
3. Left audio out. | |
4. Composite video out. | 3 6 1 |
5. Gnd. \ /
6. N.C. \ 5 4 /
7. +12 V. \ 2 /
8. Right audio out. -------
Alternatively the standard A520 type modulator can be used in the
RGB video port.
Q. What modifications need to be made to the A1000
mother board?
For reliable operation, the following should be done:
- The daughter board needs to have its PAL chips wired together
to the mother board ground and a wire to the expansion bus to the
power supply ground connector. In worst cases, two of the PAL chips
must be replaced with faster one's.
- Connect the pin #10's (ground) of the four PAL's together on
the daughter board with heavy wire. Apparently the signal ground
path is strange and creates unreliable logic signals to U6J, U6K,
U6L, and U6N. If you want a better connection, wire the mother
board and daughter board grounds together.
- The composite video of the Amiga A1000 needs color correction.
Your red, greens, and blues may not look correct. The modification
is simple; just remove resistor R140; located on the rear-left of
the motherboard. On some A1000's, R140 will have to be replaced
with a 470K ohm resistor instead.
Q. Can Zorro II cards be used with the A1000?
The side-bus (Zorro I?) can be adapted. See AddZorroIIslot.lha
and 2000slot.lha
on the Aminet.
Q. How can OS 2.x+ be used with my A1000?
If you have the RAM, you could softkick 2.x using Skick or a
similar tool and then reclaim the KICK WOM 256K for system use,
using a utility on Fish Disk 105, called AddKickMem or reset31a.lha
on the Aminet. Alternatively try the following hacks:
Also some American companies are still selling Kickstart Daughter
board replacements with ROM sockets.
Q. How can the A1000 mother board be modified so that
low pass audio filter can be turned off to get higher fidelity
sound?
See a1000filterfix.lha on the Aminet.
Q. Can the A520 modulator be used with the A1000 (or
A4000)?
Yes, it plugs straight into the RGB port.
Q. Is there an updated driver for the Phoenix board's
SCSI?
Yes,
a software driver (not an eprom image) is available. It requires
Kickstart 2.04 or better.
BACK
|
