Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!milton!madsax
From: madsax@milton.acs.washington.edu (Mark A. DeLoura)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: (A) Amy 500 -> 2000?
Message-ID: <1701@milton.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 2 Feb 90 04:54:33 GMT
References: <633@xdos.UUCP>
Reply-To: madsax@milton.acs.washington.edu (Mark A. DeLoura)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 32

In article <633@xdos.UUCP> doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt) writes:
>(A) This is just the musings of (an obviously too-) idle mind, but...
>has anyone ever made a "poor man's 2000" out of a 500? I.e. stick
>the board in a big box, extend the bus, add some expansion card
>connectors, etc, maybe even some XT/AT slots...Is there anything that
>would definitely get in the way of this working?
>
>I'm not planning to *do* this, I'm just curious. Obviously the result
>wouldn't be exactly the same as a 2000, but it seems it'd give 90% of
>the benefits -- the internal expansion. And boxes/connectors/power supplies
>can be had quite cheaply by determined "starving student" types who
>can't afford a real 2000. Support nightmare, of course.


Well....
I have a Pacific Peripherals subsystem (2 Zorro IIs and an external drive
plugging into the 500's bus), so I thought it would be pretty neat if I 
could put all my pieces into a big box and make a portable keyboard.
I bought some oak, built a nice case, used plexiglass for the front of 
the case...I even mounted a fan in the side of it.  I also got mostly
done building the keyboard case -- I gave it a 7 foot long cable.  :)
I got the whole thing working inside the case (even the modem!) except
for my second "internal" drive.  Turns out I did a dumb thing and 
shorted out my drive.

In any case, being a very novice electronics hacker, it seemed fairly
easy even to me to make the 500 fit in a 2000-style case.  Making it
look *good* is another matter all together.  Lots and lots of wires...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Mark A. DeLoura            Consultant, University Computing Services
  madsax@milton.u.washington.edu           University of Washington