The X-Philes (2nd Revision)/The X-Philes Number 1 (1995).iso/xphiles/hardware/tower500.lzh/500tower.txt

Text File | 1991-11-25 | 5KB | 100 lines

  So your interested in putting an Amiga 500 into a tower case.
It's a lot of work no matter how you go about it. Make sure that
a 500T is what you want before you start. The two reasons I wanted
one was, one I didn't want all the wires devices etc all around
my desk like the old 64 days. Second I'm trying to get into
programing and wanted two computers sitting on my desk without
the two cases.
  If you are reading this then you are responcible for any
mistakes, accidents, or dammages made while building this project.
Don't blame me for any damage caused by this project. If you need
more help you can contact me threw the Amiga echo with a message
for Reid Smith or for a faster responce at The Hackers Guild BBS
(618)-997-2591. I'm usually collect mail every day there.

  First thing remove the 500 MB from it's case. Before you do
anything else go looking for a tower case. I done this by taking
my board with me to a local (friend) dealer. We removed the outer
casing of his towers and set the board against the side of the
case. Set the board against the tower with the chips facing
toward the inside of the case on the other side of where the
IBM Mother Board usually set. The ports point toward the back
of the case and the expantion (edge card connector) points up.
Size it up and see if it will fit and what has to be done. I
used a MIDI tower because I wanted it to sit on my desk top.
That's the reason that the power supply had to be moved up
1.5 inchs. MAKE SURE THE BOARD WILL FIT BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING
ELSE! Size it up and pay attention to the drive bays. There
should be atleast 1/4" inside the tower case.

  After you choose a case the next thing is to desolder-remove
the power supply plugin, and the B/W composite port from the 500s
mother board. I done this to save a little cutting.
  Take the 500 MB and sit it up against the tower like you want
it installed just like you did at the dealers. Mark the top and
bottom of the board on the tower and draw the line from the side
around to the back. You now have a up-down position for the MB on
the back of the case.
  Lay the tower on the side where your going to install the board.
Find a piece of card board that is the same width as the "metal"
the tower is made of (aprox 1/16"). Lay the card board down at
the back of the tower then put the 500 MB solder side down on
top of the card board with the ports touching the back of the
tower.
  LOOK AT THE PICTURE TOWER-BACK
   Now make a mark at the top of the monitor port 23 pin
socket (figure 3), one at the bottom of the serial port, one
at the top of the external disk drive port (figure 1), and one
at the bottom of the joystick port (figure 4). Next draw a line
down the side of all ports from the monitor to the joystick
ports that is aprox 1/16 of an inch above the ports.
   Stand the tower on it's face and measure from the line
that you just drew over the width of the port and make another
line. When this is done take a straight edge and make the 2
ovals from the marks that you just made. See the picture called
SLOT. This is not a template but just a ruff idea of what
the two slots should look like.
  At this time don't worry about the holes that the cables
screw into because when the slots are cut and your able to
stick the board threw the slots you can cut smaller slots
inside the long slot for the screws. After the long slot is
cut you should have 4 of the cable screw holes covered.
  I used a drill and a 1/4 inch bit to drill 3 starting holes
which I made into a slot by moving the drill back and forth.
Then put my hack saw blade threw the slot and fixed it to
the hack saw. Cut the slots and then bent the excess metal
back and forth untill it broke off. After the two slots are
cut and your able to stick the 500 MBs ports threw the slots
then cut the two small slots for the cable screw studs.
  When this is done you will see two holes on the 500 MB
that are sticking over the drive bays. Push the board tight
against the back of the case and make a mark threw the holes
on the drive bays. Now remove the MB and drill the bolting
holes. Insert bolts thew the drive bays outward and put nuts
on them to take up the space where the ram chips are setting
against the drive bays. This gives you a stud for the MB holes
to slip over. Next reinsert the cable studs in the 4 slot-holes
in back. This will mount the port side of the board. I used
washers on the other studs to get the spacing right.

  Ok if you got this far the rest is down hill. The internal
drive won't work (too tall and no face plate) unless you can
find a 5.25 case that mounts a 3.5 drive and use the upper
bay. I removed my external drive (df1:) and it fit perfectly
in one of the lower 3.5 bays. A new cable will have to be
made to connect it to the MB and the 3.5 drive. The ends and
cable can be picked up at Radio Shack.
  I used the ADide controller and a 40 meg IDE 3.5 hard drive.
The 68000 socket and controller sets aprox 1/4" inside of the
drive bays.
  Read the file on wiring up a IBM power supply included with
this file. I've also included the information to add an external
keyboard and some other interesting helpfull files.

  Good luck and you never see that heart breaking smoke that
comes with mistakes made while hacking hardware.


Reid Smith