Les Railton's (Phipscube) Super A1200 Part 1
I have always said there are 2 Amiga projects that have totally blown me away, 1 was the A1200 fitted into an A600 case, the other is this amazing A1200 by Les Railton (Phipscube) the attention to detail and the work invovled are staggering, but enought fom me lets see what Les has achieved :) ......
"So i've been busy beavering away for the last 4 months gathering parts for my A1200 Desktop and now i've decided to share what i've been doing and what I plan to do in time. To start with I wanted to try and hack a slimline slot loading DVD drive into my A1200 and mount a 2.5" HDD underneath it, Its taken a fair bit of effort to accomplish but i've finally managed, and today I was happily pushing a CD into the back of my A1200 and it went in and was detected fine... I ejected... it came out.. and didn't scratch! Mission accomplished!
Here's my list of bits to put into my A1200D (and somehow make it all fit) with a current status:- DVD/HDD - Installed, finished! I made a custom IDE cable by hand that curls around nicely, it also powers the DVD drive through a FDD power connector wired to the +5V and Ground wires of the 44 pin IDE cable.
Blizzard PPC - Coming soon from Stachu100, I bought one of his modded units with 060 @ 66Mhz (or 60 if the BVPPC doesn't play well) and PPC @ 330Mhz - Currently on its way, should be with me within the next week or so (Rubbing hands vigorously and cackling!) (Update - Is here and installed)
BVision PPC - I've had this a while but can't do much with it yet Not tested either so hope it works when I plug it into my BPPC!! Will eventually have output to an auto switcher. I will mount a fan to the top of the case above the BVPPC to cool it down. (Update: - its DOA so need a new one)
2 X 128MB SIMM's - For BPPC. Marked as 60ns but was told they may run ok at 50ns... lets see... (Update - They work at 66MHz!): -
Indivision AGA 1200 - Installed and working fine, will eventually have the output going to an automatic video switcher along with BVPPC (Stedy is very kindly currently designing an auto switcher for native/RTG on a request I made to him). For now the VGA connector is hanging out the rear and flopping around
IDE Fix Express - Installed, but hanging around loose inside the case. Will possibly mount this on top of the Indivision. My DVD and HDD are connected to it on Primary channel as Master and Slave. The Express adapter had been modified so that the DVD drive fit ok over the top. I moved the express jumpers underneath and removed the 10 pin header and hard soldered the ribbon cable underneath too. (Update: - Mounted working great!)
4 Way clock port expander (thanks DJBase!) - I need to get my BVision mounted first before I install this properly, but I have soldered the ROM link directly to my mainboard to avoid rising my ROM chips. (Update: - Installed, but no devices attached yet): -
Subway USB - hanging out the back at the moment, will at some point mount inside and connect to the expander.
Delfina Soundcard - Haven't got this working yet as it seems to be incomaptible with my temporary Accelerator (An M-Tec 1230/28 RTC). My machine simply doesn't boot at all when plugged in. If I take out the accelerator it boots but of course then my system fails with lack of RAM. I'm waiting for my BPPC to arrive from Stachu100 and hope it works better with that. I eventually plan to have this mounted inside under the keyboard and connected to the clock port expander. (Update: - did a quick plug in test on expander with BPPC. Machine booted, so thats good): -
USB to CF adapter - Will mount this above my PCMCIA and cut a slot, will connect to one of the subway ports. USB to Ethernet - small cheapo Ethernet adapter that will connect to one of the subway ports - Plan to have it next to VGA port out the rear expansion port.
2 x USB ports - coming straight from the subway to the exterior of the case, possibly right hand side with hole cut (A600 Joystick port style)
2 X PSX joypad adapters - Plug into the 9 pin D at rear and allow playing with standard PSX pads, Playing Project X has hit a new level of awesome!
All this is powered by a Goliath PSU (Update: - Dumped the Goliath and corrently have a 360W adapted ATX PSU). But I do also plan at some point to hack a mATX psu into an A600 or 1200 PSU casing. I had ideas to put a Pico PSU in the Amiga, but I don't think it will fit, and possibly wont have enough juice to power all this - Hence I gave up with that idea Lots of other little tweaks - For example, I have replaced all caps, and made a power extension from power connector to Floppy connector and floppy drive. Software wise I have AmigaSYS4 AGA currently installed with OS3.9, but I recently bought OS 4 from Coze and plan to install that too. The first game I will run is of course Wipeout 2097, and make a video! (cheers ddni) My HDD is partitioned thus: - 900MB OS 3.9 - SFS 3.1 GB - ready for OS 4 - SFS 75GB - Programs - SFS. Plenty of space for whatever!
Next to do I will try and mount the Delfina and Subway, then add a 2cm fan in place of the modulator (hole needs extending). I also need to cut out some strip board to mount 2 USB ports onto and a piece for the back expansion port to hold the Video switcher circuit and the VGA/ Ethernet ports. I've also ordered 3 x 40mm 11dB Fans that I will try and mount along the top grill of the case. Here is my handmade IDE cable, it runs around the Indivision to reduce heat buildup between HDD and Indi.
But I have been busy with other bits too, Mainly, I managed to get my 128MB SIMMs installed! and they are running at 66MHz! Took a few small tweak hacks to get them to fit physically but all is good. And I figured out how to put images into the message body! so enjoy better quality photos from now here's my cut down Floppy Bracket: -
And BPPC Heatsink clip: -
Just fits: -
And along the back: -
Here they are together! Beastly! :-
And they work: -
whichamiga, just to show all the juicy details : -
And here are some more pics of my project... The rear exhaust fan is in, providing much needed heat release from the HDD and indivision.
I've also made my custom back plate for VGA and Ethernet.
The blank part of the board will one day hold an auto video switching circuit for BVision and Indi outputs. the small Ethernet adapter will connect to my Subway at some point.
The Compact Flash card reader is in too.
The card fits nicely.
USB ports in as well!
Bit of glue for them and they are solid.
Floppy installed ok ontop.
Did some major modding to my delfina so it fits under my keyboard.
It squeezes in over the DVD cables.
From the other side next to the BPPC. a fair bit of space between it and the BPPC.
Looking under the keyboard there is plenty of space! a good 2mm!
With the keyboard resting comfortably.
This is only part 1, I will post up part 2 in a few weeks time :)
a huge thank you to Les for letting me post this (cheers mate!)
