home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- POWER CORD TO RUN A HD INSIDE THE 500 CASE, AND A SOLDER-PAD PAL SWITCH
- IN FULL DRAWING DETAIL........
-
-
- Here are a couple of hacks I have done on my machine. I figure everyone
- knows about the 1MB of Chip Memory hack already, so I ignored that. As for
- the PAL switch, everyone told me I would have to pull out my Agnus chip.
- Well, after ruining one Agnus, I noted the solder pads to the left of the
- Agnus socket, tried a multitester on it, and surprise, surprise.
-
- If you have a PAL Amiga, you will have to cut the trace between the two
- pads highlighted in the illustration. Be VERY careful doing this, and be
- sure you blow all residue out of the case BEFORE reconnecting power!
-
- As far as where you can put the switch physically, I have mine about 1/2
- inch above the DEL and HELP keys, a little farther to the right side.
- I cut a hole in the case to exactly fit the switch housing, and punched
- small holes in the sides to put the retaining screws in. This barely left
- enough room under the switch to run the wires out, and as it sits right
- above a chip, I covered the bottom of the switch with electrical tape
- securely to ensure no contact points.
-
- The switch itself does NOTHING except at boot-up, so if you put it in
- and boot up, then flip it back and forth trying to change modes, don't
- worry. Nothing is wrong, you just have to reboot after flipping the switch.
-
- As for the power cord, I did this so I could install a hard drive in the
- case of my Amiga without having to buy the $45 install kit from ICD that
- gives you the power cord and brackets. I was using a 3-1/2" drive in the
- case, in the back left corner near the video port. I had to warp the case
- slightly to fit the drive it, but hey, it fit, and I was the only person
- I knew of with a 3-1/2" IDE drive -plus- the original floppy drive
- together in the case.
-
- DISCLAIMER:
-
- General altogether disclaimer applies. If you take it upon yourself to
- do these hacks, you are taking full responsibility for performing the
- work, and I will NOT be held responsible for any goofs you might make,
- or for any damage to your system due to performing these hacks. I do not
- warranty this information to be correct, but I will stipulate that to
- the best of my knowledge the above information is all correct. I ran
- my A500 with these hacks for about a year.
-
- I will note one thing: It may be a wise idea to invest in a heavy duty
- power supply if you intend to use the AD-IDE (or other) interface and
- leave the floppy drive intact; I never had any problems with over-
- consumption of power, but this doesn't mean that you won't of course.
-
- Contact me with errors or suggestions to this at:
-
- hazen@athena.cs.uga.edu
-
-
- -Mark
-
- (January 8th, 1993)
-