Hi everybody,

I`ve been toying with the idea of resurecting some Amigas to have a bit of fun playing old games and showing my kids what old computers were like.

I`ve hit a few issues though.

The old A500+ had the leaking battery but I`ve soldered in a replacement cr2030 and checked out the damage, it seems to be fine now.

My dads old A1200 seems to have a few dead keys on the keyboard though. What the best way to go about sorting a keyboard. They seem to be very expensive on eBay!

My only amiga mouse seems to be totally dead too. At first I though it might have been the CIA's but then I realised that it's totally dead on both Amigas. I`ve ordered an Amiga-USB Mouse adapter, do these work OK?


Frank.

@CaptainFrank

brush the a1200's keyboard very carefully and take out the broken keys and put them back in.
Can help sometimes. The Amiga 1200 is a very different computer experience than the A500 +, especially with an HD or a CF card.

_________________
Amiga 500+,
Pi 3b+ and Amiga os 3.10
Amikit XE usb Stick
Powerbook 17" and MorphOS 3.13
PowerMac G5 2.3 MP and MorphOS 3.13
Sam 460 with Amiga os 4.1 and checkmate 1500
www.sitedesign.be

@CaptainFrank

Hi Frank and welcome back!

You should consider getting both motherboards recapped. It’s not very expensive, the process involves removing specific capacitiors which will eventually leak over time (even without use). You can do it yourself if you’re handy with a soldering iron - packs of reliable replacement caps are available from less than £10 up to £25-30.

Replacement mice are available, I bought a laser-mouse from Amigakit with a DB9 pin, great and cheap. There are tank-mouse conversion kits to replace the mouse ball mechanism with an optical reader, keeping the tank shell.

There’s a lot of screws to undo in a 1200 keyboard but it’s worth it to check / test it. Pay special attention when you remove the keys, there are at least two “smaller” size springs behind some keys, the rest use the same size, make note as you go.

I’ve bought replacement keys which were supplied with plunger and spring - check you are getting these as not all are supplied with them.

Replacement membranes for keyboards are available, I got mine for £25 IIRC on Amibay, works perfectly.

Replacement (genuine) keyboards for all models of Amiga are rarer than Unicorns blood as reflected in the prices.

It’s possible to purchase keyboard adaptors which allow PS2 (round connector) or USB keyboards to be connected to your Amiga. Takes more space but it’s an option.

Some great resources for Amiga out there and loads of Amigans happy to help - just ask.

Roy

@CaptainFrank

I recently recovered my old Amiga 500 rev5 motherboard with newly purchased PSU and it's working again after 28 years. I used my old Amiga's external floppy drive to replace the internal floppy drive.

I use to own an Amiga 3000/030/882 at 25Mhz machine which is traded for classic Pentium 150 Mhz.

I remove the clock battery from A501 expansion card. I'm buying parts for it.

Last edited by Hammer on 13-Jul-2020 at 01:35 AM.
Last edited by Hammer on 11-Jul-2020 at 02:42 PM.

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Ryzen 9 7900X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB
Amiga 1200 (Rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32lite/RPi 4B 4GB/Emu68)
Amiga 500 (Rev 6A, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 3a/Emu68)

@CaptainFrank

If you do not want to get a keyboard (and they are sold at ludicrous prices at times on ebay), there are replacement membranes for the 1200 keyboards - both a hard membrane and more traditional flexible one can be bought for around £30-40.

These can be found on amibay, ebay and various retro websites.

If it is only the keys themselves at fault and not related to the membrane, it could simply be the carbon connective layer on the stem which has degraded. This can be replaced again from online stores or some hardware stores may carry a suitable replacement that could need to be cut down.

There are some youtube videos from people like Jan Beta (C128 KB repair) that have done keyboard repairs including replacement carbon pads.

Last edited by _Steve_ on 12-Jul-2020 at 04:20 PM.

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Test sig (new)

@CaptainFrank

Hi and have a great time by sticking round here!

_________________
Amiga 1200 + WARP 1260 + AmigaOS 3.2

@CaptainFrank

Doug from Dynamic Computing has a video blog at 10marc.com and covered the hard keyboard membrane a few weeks ago. Check him out at 10marc.com on youtube.

Welcome back, by the way

Fred

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Fred Booth
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A500, A600, A1200 c/w Mediator and 030
AmigaOne and OS4.1
Mac LCII, G4 Powermac running OSX + Amigakit and MorphOS 3.0
Dell Mini 10 Netbook running IcAros and AmigaForever+Amikit+AmigaSys
2006 Macb

@CaptainFrank

A500+ Sounds like you are on top of that.

A1200 keyboard could be a dodgy ribbon connector. I had a similar problem recently. More likely you have had the computer leant up against its keys or have had stuff stacked on it. I also had a similar problem with an Amstrad which had had books stacked on it. I eventually got every key working but I had to completely take apart and clean every connector and also make sure the main board wasn't bent.

Mouse is busted. Just get another. Or open it up and clean out all the grunge from inside. There are little wheels and spindles that can get dislodged if you place a heavy weight on the ball, if thats the kind of mouse you have. Worth taking it apart and reseating the spindles.

Be very careful with keyboard ribbons and make sure you lift the white plastic clip before removing the ribbon. Make sure it is true horizontal and not inserted at a slight angle.