Date: December 19th 2006

Subject 01: Collection Advent Calendar : Amiga 2000
Subject 02: Compaq III II - Still no joy
Subject 03: MiniMig - Clone Wars

Entry 0019: Blogs: 3

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C-A-R ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 19

Hi

There are good days collecting and there are what I call
very excellent days collecting. This particular day was
absolutely marvellous... Read on.

I won an A3000T off Ebay which I was somewhat amazed
to acquire for just £320. I felt sorry for the guy
cus he could not understand why so few folk bid. I
believe it was fate as I had had such bad luck with
my other A3000T. Anyway, a fellow Amigan on one of
the other groups heard that I was travelling to 
Stoke which was dangerously close to my native Walsall
and I was tempted with an A2000 if I would detour
back into the Black Country... This I did and had
what I can only say was a truly memorable day
in the good company of Midlanders...

And so today's little trinket is the Amiga 2000
with a twist.. And a pretty fast one at that...

First up though some images of the A3000T.. cool.

The A3000T had known battery failure but it hadn't leaked onto
the motherboard. I managed to very successfully remove the
battery and retrieve the A3000T from serious damage.

I travelled on from Stoke to Birmingham and found myself
back on home turf and again slipping into the customary
brummy style accent... 

I was greeted at the door by a small girl who simply
grabbed my hand and dragged me into the house. We sat
with her brother playing Noddy on this 2000 whilst
we waited for Dad to return. Strange that I had never
met Dave, though through the communication on the 
groups I felt we were best of pals. The day just
flew by and I couldn't help feel that the family
were losing a good friend in the Amiga that day.
Dave's pride and joy was the A2000 with GVP accelerator
and scan doubler card. He also gave me another
2000 with bridgeboard.. Honestly, the generosity
of the Amiga community shines like no other. I really
was the happiest man alive that day. Saying that, I
couldn't help but feel a touch sad, cus both the
guys I met that day were true Amigans who loved their
Amiga, but determined it was time to move on. And
so I treasure all the machines I received that day
with special fondness.

The A2000 was kitted out with GVP G-Force 030 and that
very special flicker-fixer and scandoubler board based 
on the Amber chip found in the A3000. 


scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

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Hi

With much expectation the Compaq Portable III number two
arrived today, but sadly has the same problem i.e. the
lights flash constantly but no power to the machine and
the screen is dead. You may recall that the other Compaq
that I got a few weeks ago literally 'blew' when I switched
it on. Remarkably it kept running for a while then died.
The orange screen with the large IBM standard on it simply
faded and disappeared. Sad really. I have been on the
net regarding the fault, and while there are plenty of
other posts on similar failings, there is no mention of this
symptom, yet both these machines are the same. The manual
is no better. You can download the manual but this only
talks of diagnostic disks. It also says that if you have
no beep or cursor the motherboard is blown. What I struggle
with is how the machine ran for half an hour with full
system working if the motherboard had collapsed. More
likely it could be the PSU. Dunno. These flashing lights
are really puzzling.

The second unit cost just a £1 so I will take this apart.
The computer museum show how to undertake this operation
and the images are very useful.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/doc.asp?c=1065

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos.asp?t=1&c=1064&st=1

Image courtesy of Obsolete Technology Homepage

The manual also says you need a couple of special screwdrivers
to work with the screen. Pretty typical of Compaq this. I 
have two very old desktop Compaqs, both of which broke,
and I got to say the way the kit clipped together was
very very awkward. Anyway more on this subject no doubt
when I update the gallery pages.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

Hi

Micromart has a further article this week on the Amiga
clones and carries this wonderful image of the MiniMig

Image scanned from Micro Mart

The thrust of the article is about is about the point
of undertaking this development and the uses the 
board can be put to

[ quote ]

The MiniMig and especially the Clone A do, however, have
a possible future not only for the Amiga hobbyists. 
Obviously, the classic Amiga technologies don`t really 
have a place anymore in the arena of desktop computing
( well, unless you want to scroll something properly
anyway ) but it's interesting to note that there is a 
big gap in the industry... The first obvious use for
an Amiga clone which contains all the technology from
the Amiga chipset 680x0 series processor is as an
Amiga-in-a-joystick type product similar to the 
C64DTV joystick, and possibly upgrade a lot of kids
toys....

[ end quote ]

The article goes on to discuss the applications that
TV is essential and where the Amiga would succeed..

I for one will be watching this development with much
interest. I never was a great believer in the new
machines, and always felt that developing down the
classic route would be more successful. Lets see
what happens.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com