September was a very exciting month at SAUG as we had a bunch of new members join us for the meeting. The Amiga scene is thriving in the Sydney area and our meeting space was at capacity as we got together to share our progress with our projects.
Ross generously donated some Amiga magazines that he had rescued to the club and it was great to see some of them in mint condition. They are a great piece of history as Amiga magazines were at one point the most profitable magazines in countries like the UK & Australia thanks to the rabid demand for new software by users, high sale price and advertising from retailers.
Stephen was able to rescue a mint looking Amiga 1000 and it is now in safe hands as he diligently begins to restore and upgrade it to its full potential. He also scored am Australian made Proton Microelectronics Amiga RAM board which he is working to get operational again.
Craig brought along a C64 setup which he is repairing along with his nice new desoldering station. Stephen was kind enough to assist Craig with removing an IC from the C64 motherboard and give him a tutorial on desoldering.
Geoff brought along an Amiga A2000 board, the version that was designed by Commodore GmbH of West Germany before the B2000 designed in the US head office was launched. This was a real treat to see as they are exceptionally rare in Australia. Geoff has currently done some repairs to the motherboard traces and in the process of bringing it back to life. It will be very exciting when it does!
Phil, one of our new members brought along a late model A500 with the Individual Computers ACA500plus. It was fantastic to see how much versatility this accelerator brings to the A500, totally transforming the experience compared to a stock machine.
Comments
Mark McDougall says
I recently joined the group and hope to make it to a meeting in the near future. A bit hard with a young family, but I can only try.
Reading the report reminds me I have an A3000 with battery damage that needs to be repaired. I haven't power-on the machine in years but from memory it did actually boot up OK. I did remove the battery at the time and treat the damage as best I could but some traces were destroyed. Everything is packed away as I build my man cave but hopefully I can bring it along to a future meeting!
Years back I produced a PCB for a PS/2 mouse from a design on the net. Antiquated by today's standards but works well, including scroll wheel. I have a handful of fully assembled boards - happy to bring them along for members that don't currently have a PS/2 solution.
Ross Vumbaca says
Hi Mark,
If you get a chance to bring your machine to a meeting sometime, we'd be happy to discuss and diagnose any issues with your A3000 in person. Hope to see you soon!