Amiga 500 ACA500

Discussions for the Commodore Amiga
User avatar
iced_nine
Member
Member
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 8:27 pm
Location: Central Florida USA
Contact:

Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by iced_nine »

Looking forward to getting this soon...

http://amigastore.eu/en/226-aca500.html


Commodore 64/Amiga 500 Enthusiast
User avatar
yaztromo
Member
Member
Posts: 292
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2014 8:42 pm
Location: South Yorkshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by yaztromo »

Looks sweet. Makes owning an A500 at least bearable now ;)

I'm hoping to get an ACA1232/40mhz soon. Haven't been able to justify buying it yet since my 8mb Fast RAM expansion seems to get the job done for most needs.
sm3
Member
Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 11:30 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by sm3 »

I purchased one of these from Amigakit. It works great and allows me to transfer my ADFs to floppy via CF card. My biggest gripe is that it doesn't work with the rev 5 boards like they state. Fortunately I had a rev 6A and that is the one it works with.

I'm still trying to figure out how to make a Workbench 1.3 hard drive image on it though. I ordered it with EasyADF and Workbench 3.1 pre-installed. Although it did require the use of some real 3.1 floppies the first time I started it up.
Syrax
Member
Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:45 am
Location: Edmonton, AB
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by Syrax »

Recently bought an Amiga 500. Looking forward to eventually buying one of these. I have couple of concerns. First, I have read that the 1 meg onboard, (2 megs total with the 500's memory), is insufficient to work with image files. Is this true? The last thing I want is to buy a 1200 accelerator to add a little more memory.
Does the ACA really take over the computer. Can you no longer use the computers rom? (in my case 1.3).
Another thought is will the ACA evolve further?
sm3
Member
Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 11:30 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by sm3 »

Hi, I just got my ACA500 recently as well so can't answer all your questions.

I do believe the ACA500 has 2 MB of RAM. Also, you don't need to use the Kickstart 3.1 or 1.3 versions that is comes with in flash memory. You can still use the versions on the Amiga 500 if you choose to. In my case, I have a real 1.3 Kickstart in my Amiga 500 and then have the 3.1 on the ACA500 that I use with Workbench 3.1 and the boot drive CF card.

You can get the full 2 MB of fast ram from the ACA500 if you disable the "MapROM" function (saves 512k). By doing that, you can only use whatever real Kickstart version you have built into the Amiga 500. Then of course it will still use the chip ram you have on the Amiga with a trap door (if you have one).

Personally, I only use my Workbench 3.1 to make real floppies from ADFs.

I don't know anything about image file editing, so can't answer that question. I'm still learning about the Amiga 500 myself.
Syrax
Member
Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:45 am
Location: Edmonton, AB
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by Syrax »

Thanks for your input. I am either going for the aca500 or also considering this: http://kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/ the 8mb expansion board. The nice thing about the aca though, is you can transfer files from the pc, so I really think that is the way to go.
sm3
Member
Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 11:30 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by sm3 »

Yeah, that was my main goal as well, transferring ADFs to real floppies. One thing to keep in mind if you go with the ACA 500 and purchase the pre-installed 3.1 boot drive is that it does require Workbench 3.1 disks (or ADFs) to get started. I suppose if you know how, you can work with the CF image in WinUAE, but as I'm new to the Amiga world, that is beyond me at the moment.

There is another option as well, the HxC floppy emulator. I had already purchased one from Lotharek to use on my Atari 800 and TRS-80. It has the added bonus of being able to work with the A500 as well! You could just load up your ADFs on the SD card and then use them instead of real floppy disks. I went that route to get my ACA500 working before I purchased the real floppies with 3.1 on them from eBay. I downloaded the Workbench 3.1 ADFs, opened the case of the 500 and plugged up my HxC. The one I purchased was made for external use. After I installed Workbench 3.1 on the ACA500, I just removed the HxC and buttoned up the A500. Then I went back to creating real floppies. I actually prefer to use real disks.
User avatar
iced_nine
Member
Member
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 8:27 pm
Location: Central Florida USA
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by iced_nine »

Yeah, that was my main goal as well, transferring ADFs to real floppies.
One of the main reasons I am getting it, however, I still like being able to use real floppies for nostalgia reasons and I enjoy hearing the click of the drive every time I pop one in. :mrgreen:

EDIT: I may have to wait to receive this as Christmas gift from my wife this year due to unforeseen 'stuff' with my kids! LOL...
Commodore 64/Amiga 500 Enthusiast
Syrax
Member
Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:45 am
Location: Edmonton, AB
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by Syrax »

iced_nine wrote:
Yeah, that was my main goal as well, transferring ADFs to real floppies.
One of the main reasons I am getting it, however, I still like being able to use real floppies for nostalgia reasons and I enjoy hearing the click of the drive every time I pop one in. :mrgreen:

EDIT: I may have to wait to receive this as Christmas gift from my wife this year due to unforeseen 'stuff' with my kids! LOL...
I have spent too much lately. I might go this route temporarily:
http://adfsender.stoeggl.com/adfsendert ... thods.html

Amigakit has null modem cables on for a good price.
sm3
Member
Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 11:30 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Amiga 500 ACA500

Post by sm3 »

Syrax wrote: I have spent too much lately. I might go this route temporarily:
http://adfsender.stoeggl.com/adfsendert ... thods.html

Amigakit has null modem cables on for a good price.
I know what you mean, I've probably spent more than I should have myself. They make it so easy too. I received the ACA500 from the UK in a couple of days due to special shipping with FedEx that they had for it. I wanted to pick up one of their dust covers, maybe I'll order a null modem cable as well.
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests