Conference hydra::amiga_v1

3278.0. "Hardware & software questions...." by MLNAD2::CAPOZZI () Wed Jan 03 1990 07:20

Hello to all of you,

    	Below you will found few novice questions. Can same body there help me ?
	I am really new entry with AMIGA a500 and I have bayed it just last 
	Christmas. It, at the beginning, was only for my children but now I am
	thinking also for myself because it seems to be really nice.
	The configuration that I have is 512kb and one drive and Wb v1.3, but 
	since last night I found it really poor.
	Same body here in Milan (Italy) told me that it is possible to upgrate 
	it with more 512kb over the mother board. This is done modifying the
	hardware and mounting extra memory chips. The total cost of the work is
	around $210. Now let me start with the questions:
		- Is possible to do this hardware modification by myself ?
		- If yes who can help me with explanation how to do it and using
		  what ?
		- Who can help me telling which hardware is required ?
		- Who can help me with simple picture of the operation that 
		  should be performed ?

	Next step....
	I have at home a Decmate II with floppies (5 1/2) and probably I am
	wrong and crazy but I would like to know if is it possible to add this
	or other IBM floppies to the AMIGA a500. I am asking this because in 
	Milan one AMIGA floppy cost to me around $210 and I have Decmate with floppies
	doing nothing.
	If this is possible can some body tell me how ?

	Next step....
	Through this note file I found that is possible to unload AMIGA SW but
	unfortunately I do not know how it is possible.
	I can explain better my situation and so you can help me even with same
	good idea.
	I can have a IBM compatible pc in the office where I can copy the SW 
	over but I do not know how is possible to unpack the software and where
	is possible to found the software for AMIGA pack/unpack and VMS also.
	In more details how can I unpack the following files and using what ?
	Where the unpack software for AMIGA and VMS for the following files 
	can be found ?

		. filenames.ZOO  
		. filenames.ARC
		. filenames.KBD
		. filenames.WRP
		. filenames.UUE
		. filenames.LZH
		. filenames.SHAR
		. filenames.PAK
		.................

Any reply and comment to my crazy questions is welcome and I would thanks in
advance to them
/Pietro

Welcome to the club. I can offer a little advice.

Adding an extra 512k to an Amiga 500 is very easy. You buy an expansion
memory option from Commodore (some other companies make them also) and
insert it in the place provided in the bottom of the Amiga. The installation
takes about five minutes. You do not need to know about mother boards,
memory chips, or modifying hardware. It just plugs in to give you a total
1 meg of memory, that is immediately recognized by the Amiga software. 

If you need more memory than that, there are other options that involve
internal expansion boards that add up to 2 megs and cancel your warrantee.
If you plan to add a hard drive, a cleaner solution is to add a hard drive 
package that allows memory expansion in the controller/drive box.

I am no expert on drives, but I suspect you will spend a lot of time
trying to get a Decmate floppy to work with the Amiga. Unless you really
like hardware and sofware hacking, you may be better off taking a second 
job doing something you like until you save the $210. The Amiga is much 
easier to use with two drives. 

As for downloading and unpacking software available on the net, you will
have to look through this notes conference. The information is here, often
under notes with the keywords or titles "download" or "zoo" or "net". Some
information is probably available in notes that refer to the popular
terminal emulators VLT and Smokey VT200. All the tools are available on the
net. Look at notes with titles such as "new uploads" to find the net archives.
Most have multiple directories so look for directory names like [.tools] 
or [.net]. You may be amazed at how much software is available. I am!

Good luck,
Dave

Thanks Dave,

	I am starting to read the topics in this notes file. As you suggest and
	I am sure that it will take to me really long time. Does not matter, I
	believe to found interesting thinks.
 Thanks and happy new year.
/Pietro