Aca500plus and questions about memory

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hi!


    I have been considering Aca500plus purchase and I have some questions. I have Amiga 500 rev 6a with fat Agnus. I have installed 1 MB chip hack and I have 1,5 MB slow/ranger mem with Gary adapter mod.


    I have heard that Gary mod is not compatible, so I should remove that, is that correct?


    Also, should I undo 1 MB chip mod or does it matter?


    Can I leave normal 512 k slow mem trapdoor expansion installed?


    I have rgb2hdmi installed. Does it work with Aca?


    And lastly, does anyone have suggestions for good case? I do not have 3d printer so it must be complete.

    I can't answer most of your questions, but I can address two of them:

    • RGB2HDMI works just fine with the ACA500plus
    • I have a Plexilaser case for my ACA500plus and it's lovely. Google "Plexilaser ACA500+" and translate from German if necessary.
    Quote from Goingdown

    I have heard that Gary mod is not compatible, so I should remove that, is that correct?

    correct. You have plenty of RAM on the ACA500plus, and it's even faster than the ranger-mem that this Gary-Mod-kind-of-expansion offers.


    Quote from Goingdown

    Also, should I undo 1 MB chip mod or does it matter?

    Can stay in.

    Quote from Goingdown

    Can I leave normal 512 k slow mem trapdoor expansion installed?

    That depends on the 1M Chip hack type. Some are using the trapdoor expansion, and others are populating the empty RAM spaces on the main board. If you have the latter, then the trapdoor expansion must be switched off, so it only acts as a realtime clock.


    If you haven't populated the empty RAM chip spaces on the main board, then the trapdoor expansion must stay in as-is, because in that case, it's the second half of chip mem.


    If you aren't sure, please post some pictures of your open computer and we'll figure out what to change and what can stay.


    Jens

    Well, expansion I have is this: (link to an expansion that I designed in an a1k.org thread removed).


    It provides either 512 kb of chipmem or slowmem, and 1,5 mb of slowmem. Installation required to cut jp2 jumper from motherboard and soldering one cable from there to Gary adapter. It can be easily undone.


    But because the chip hack required the cable to go to Gary adapter and I need to remove it, I am not sure if it can be used as plain additional 512 kb chipmem, so safest would be to remove whole thing? But then I would miss the 1 MB chipmem I now have?

    So, I probably should check if I can disable 1,5 MB of slow/ranger mem, and leave chip expansion as is?

    Quote from Goingdown

    It can be easily undone.

    Please do so. The Gary adapter should be removed, otherwise the memory map of the host machine is not what the ACA500plus expects.


    Quote from Goingdown

    But because the chip hack required the cable to go to Gary adapter and I need to remove it, I am not sure if it can be used as plain additional 512 kb chipmem, so safest would be to remove whole thing?

    I'm sure you can use it as a plain 512k expansion with a small hack (tie the wires that connect the expansion and the Gary adapter to GND).

    Quote from Goingdown

    But then I would miss the 1 MB chipmem I now have?

    The ACA500plus can turn the 512k trapdoor expansion into chip ram without the need for motherboard modifications. All it takes is an ECS Agnus, and that's installed on the Rev. 6 Amigas by default. Just put the solder-jumper back into it's original position.



    Jens