Lets build an RGBtoHDMI adaptor for the Amiga 500
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- I've finally got myself one of those RGBtoHDMI adaptors for the Amiga 500 but rather than make it simple I thought I'd by a kit and try to assemble it myself. The perfect opportunity for for some fine pitch SMD soldering practise.
Link to github - github.com/c0p...
Should anyone want you can download the HDMI bracket stl file here - www.thingivers...
Follow CRG on Twitter - / yt_crg
a tip .. put solder on the pads first with flux then put the components on there and heat them up with again lots of flux works like a charm
"I could just buy one, But where is the fun in that?" Hah love this guy :)
They are not tweezers. They are a heat sink, for when you are soldering delicate components that don't like getting hot.
I also have a plastic set which may be better although I think I'll look for a better set. Any recommendations?
@@CRG Pay a bit more and get some stainless steel tweezers, they don't take solder. Ifixit do some nice ones for about £5.
Thanks, I'll take a look.
The mod looks great. By the way I loved SOTB. As you said the music is mint
me awful soldering skill. You give me the kick to try as well!
I have an RCA (Composite) to HDMI (upscaler) --- seems OK on the CD32 but
(tiled background) Workbench (A600) looks blurry.
SCART to HDMI convertor on the way.
The Scart to HDMI does a great job for what it is, I've done a video on it before. I still use one down the TV end of the cave for connecting most of the consoles to the HDMI TV.
your 3d printed shell is quite an elegant solution, but maybe you could have gone mini hdmi to mini hdmi for an even smaller (and better looking) shell?
Yep that would also be an option. The shell I created is on thingiverse. Shouldn't be too hard for someone to shrink it a bit to suit mini hdmi.
You should try building an A500++ or a Re-Amiga 1200.
You never know what projects I might have lined up 😜
Nice challenging video, by the way which game that plays the music at the end of this video?
During the outro sequence at the very end? That's the music from the Amiga game "A Prehistoric Tale".
Well done man. I wouldn't even attempt to do small work like this without magnification. Speaking of which, definitely get yourself some of those weird magnifying goggles. The magnification (and resting the lower ball of your hand on the table) not only magnifies the image, it also somehow increases precision of your hands. It's crazy how fast the mind can adapt to having more control, as long as your vision is equally zoomed in on the handled object.
Secondly, maybe diy a little steady-hold to prevent tiny parts from tombstoning / sticking to the soldering tip. The best example i can give what this looks like is a welders helper, or "grasshopper", just a lot smaller, and with a medium sized needle on the end instead of a nail. Instead of a grasshopper, you could also fixate parts with kapton tape, or even bluetac works in a pinch.
That said; there's a boatload of advice in this comment section that is a lot better than mine, but yeah this is what works for me.
Hoping these tricks help with the TF card mate, would love to see you tackle that. Awesome bit of kit!
Thanks for the advice, it always appreciated.
I've looked at those goggles before, the type of thing Adrian has over in his basement? They might be a good investment in the first instance before a microscope. I did try using the magnifying glass when doing the other parts off camera but each time you knock it everything goes out of focus. The goggles might solve that issue.
I'm ordering up parts for an 8MB fast ram card, I think that's the next logical step before moving onto a big build like the TF accelerator.
another trick to stop tombstoning is to use solder paste, its a paste that is sticky and holds the smd in place. in the 80s I used to repair and solder multilayer circuit boards that had SMDs and that stuff was magic, it usually comes in a syringe so is easy to apply
Hi bud do not feel bad at this as l am green as grass when it came to me doing a similar job get yourself a cheap microscope they are around £30:00 good vid
Thanks, I'll take a look for microscopes.
Without a microscope, these are soldering one tiny blurry blob to a larger blob for me.
Off camera I was using the magnifying glass to help but a microscope would be a great investment.
Love the way you routed the HDMI cable. Will you release your 3D design for the HDMI holder? That clip might break pretty easily, but maybe putting some double sided tape on the back and top may help too. But I'd love to try this when I finally get around to doing this mod for my A500, and would love to try your 3D printed enclosure for the HDMI cable.
It needs a little further refinement but yes I'll release it once I've tweaked things. The screw hole needs moved slightly and I was considering making it a bit thicker on the right side (looking at rear) to help stabilise it.
A ribbon HDMI cable with removable plugs may have been another option, but ribbon cables are so fragile…
i can draw pictures and paint them on Amigas (ive been painting since) 2003 on winuae Amiga emulators... thanks...................
Would you now say that SMD soldering is difficult, but it's easier than it looks and with patience, a clear work space and preparation you'll quickly get used to it? That's how it looked on the video at least.
It is difficult but I think with the right tools, space and patience it can be done easily enough. Like anything with practise it will get even easier over time (or at least I hope it will).
While it looks like it only took a few minutes to assemble in the video in total it maybe took an hour. A fair bit of this time was going over each pin one at a time to check for shorts and making sure it was all connected properly.
I do think a small project like this is a good starting point though. The 0.65mm pitch is a bit daunting at first but if I can do it then anyone can. Just double check your work before powering it up.
@@CRG I've not done a lot of it, but I've done a little and that's what I've found so far. Dr A recommended these tiny little (22 quid!!) tweezers that helped, but I wonder if the ones you were using were also good because of the reversed mechanism.
Great vid and yes to 8mb
Curved tip makes drag soldering way easier!
Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a go and see how I get on.
Use a chizel end solder tip for drag soldering. I don't see the point of using 0603 and 0.5 pitch SMD components for this board. Surely the extra couple of mm's by using 1208 and 1mm pitch components is not going to make much of difference to the size of the PCB. I can understand if the PCB was for a modern mobile phone or smart watch.
but the picture in the video shows the Amiga boot screen which doesnt fill the whole (entire) screen though? it leaves out the sides it dont look right thanks.....................
The HDMI standard doesn't support separate audio feed only wish someone would get a SPDIF injection working so you don't have to have multiple cables on the back of the machine.
Yes the game sucks. I like the game tough! Prince of Persia is another must-have. Play both games until you beat them! Do it once. It can be done. I do know of two games that I cannot beat at all ever no way: Battletoads / Double Dragon SNES - because it's just cheap garbage...and Pulstar Neo-Geo - you died because you hadn't yet learned and memorized that pattern - it can be done, you KNOW it was you and not the game, it IS really that hard, but in the best way possible.
IPC J-STD-001 CIS here.
I wouldn't do that kind of work without a microscope.
I like this, this is neat. I think I'll get one for my Checkmate Plus case that I am eventually going to put an A500 in. (yeah, a project that has been on the backburner for a few years as I need to fix the board, corrosion... no, not battery, water corrosion from the looks of things).
That 3d printed housing at the end of the video, it looks like you designed it to fit that exact HDMI cable specifically. and not just any HDMI cable. Could post a link to that cable?
pre solder the board points first, then the components just slide into place. good job otherwise!!
You only want to tin one pad, not both - else it's near impossible to get it flat unless you're using hot air
Thanks for the tips, noted for future projects.
I have the same Scart Box and i can tell you that the Picture will be even sharper if you connect it directly to the screen. The Box do some things with the Picture and adds lag. for example it convert 50hz to 60hz and that is not good if your screen can 50hz. The Lag of the Adapter is exactly 1 Frame, so if there is more, than the screen (HDMI optimization...) or something between adds lag.
And you did a good job, I like it that you show the problems with soldering tiny parts, because others usually do a fast forward at those sections, but when I see you problems, I can learn something. So thank you for showing not only a perfect ending :-)
17:10 is there room for pistorm. are you going replace all chips on amiga to have RPI something lol. still only one RPI is enought emulate full amiga. why need buy yet again something same when allready have these outside machine
If you tin the pads first (with a bit of flux) and then add the components with a touch more flux/solder you can do the drag the soldering iron along. Also works great for caps.
Thanks for the tip. I would use this method for SMD caps, it just never crossed my mind to try it on these parts but I'll give it a go.
20:23 i never cut holes original parts. that is like 2000 bucks in year 3000. if not drill hole lol. your grand....childrens get angry fining this on storage. oh its amiga they sell these on google bid website. yes google will rule all soon lol
Buy an LCD microscope. It may things a lot easier and fairly not expensive at all.
I wonder if this one has a SPDIF injection point that would let you inject digital audio into the HDMI signal.
did Amiga 500's ever have internal hard drives or hacked hard drives?? thanks............ i saw one in a magazine from 1992 i think or 1993 thanks...................... also about floppy drives - are all floppy drives the same ? both 720k 880k 800k and 400k and 1.44 mb and 1.76 mb etc? thanks..............
There was never an official internal hard drive although I'm sure people did build their own expansions and "hack" them in there. The proper way to add a HDD back in the day was with the use of a side car like an A590. The floppy drives are all double density, the Amiga floppy file system allows 880k of data on it. I think only the later big box machines could make use of high density disks.
I use a framemeister but this solution looks fantastic, thanks for vid
kapton tape helps keep the threw holes clear.
You noticed the hole I blocked, well spotted. It was easy cleared with the wick but kapton tape sounds like a good idea for future builds. Thanks for the tip.
can any1 buy a brand new Amiga 500? apart from the A500 Mini? thanks............................ i was looking to buy an Amiga 500 for my programming etc thanks........................
You could buy a new case, new keyboard, and new motherboard but it would be using a recovered chipset. The floppy drive would also be used but you could have a new PSU. Expensive way to do it though. Easier to just buy a used 500 on eBay etc.
Good to see an average mortal like me trying SMD soldering.
Try to get I microscope when doing this, pin are so small
Kudos to you sir for even attempting it with an iron, far easier with hot air.
But that doesn't fix the 15kHz problem? So the monitor has to support the 15kHz mode anyway?
No the HDMI output is at 720 or 1080p and 50 or 60hz i.e. its dependant on how you setup the Pi's output. The original RGB output on the back of the Amiga remains 15khz.
Hey, great video. I’m looking to do exactly the same thing. You mention you bought it as a kit, can you tell me where you got it from please?
I bought it off one of the guys that sells them assembled, just asked him if he would make up a kit for me.
Maybe try some of the resellers on the likes of Facebook.
Very good work and very helpful, I planning to do the same project soon, do you have a link for you stl HDMI adapter case?
Just uploaded it to thingiverse. You can get it here - www.thingiverse.com/thing:5182182
I may order one of these and try it with hot air and solder paste.
Please can I ask where you purchased the hdmi cable from ive been trying to find a small cable
The cable came from ebay. I just searched for mini hdmi to hdmi.
But... why doesn't the Amiga fill the monitor screen?
It's because this is a pal machine. In some games the Amiga just doesn't fill the height of the screen when running at 50hz.
Fantastic video, I’m going to do mine today! Can you use the RGB port at the same time?
Don't see why you couldn't use both at the same time. The signals are routed through to the rgb port anyway.
Well done! BTW, maybe a mini-hdmi connector would fit directly into the hole.
Thanks, that was actually my first thought but the hole is just to tight. A micro HDMI cable might fit though.
Since I found your channel, I've been loving the content! This video makes me want to try the same thing since I got my own Amiga 500 a few months ago. I just need to get it sorted out with the dark green band across the the top of the screen and the rest being completely black. Would that be caused by Paula being dead at the same time as the RAM?
Thanks for the kind words.
Your fault could be related to chip ram or possibly agnus. Have a feel over the ram chips to make sure none are getting overly hot. Do all the usual too, check voltages etc. Good luck getting it going.
Howdy. What is your SCART to HDMI scaler model? Can you recommend it? I'm swamped in unknown choices. Looking to be able to output a standard Amiga RGB signal, and HDMI signal IN, to HDMI out (or possibly VGA, DVI, or others). Maybe recommend your 23 pin cable as well. My brain is scrambled looking at options for weeks. I thought, maybe just ask someone who has it figured out. ;)
Its one of the RGB Scart to HDMI boxes from the likes of amazon. I don't think there is a brand as such, they are all made in China but its the square box type. It works fine for me. Some people say it introduces lag but I've got another one at my TV with all my consoles going through it via switch boxes and we had many a games session without issue. The video output from it isn't as clear as the likes of an OSSC, there is a little noise in it, but in a fast moving game you'll never see it, or I don't anyway. I would recommend it but I'd also recommend paying a little extra and getting it from amazon so its easier to return if you're not happy. Link to the one I'm currently using - www.amazon.co.uk/LiNKFOR-Converter-Adapter-Supports-Headphone-Scart-HDMI/dp/B078JJMR5J
As for the Amiga RGB cable its hard to look past retro computer shack on eBay. Might be a couple of £ more expensive but the cables are the best quality you'll get. www.ebay.co.uk/str/retrocomputershack
@@CRG thank you so much for the helpful response. Square box made on China was funny response. Lol. Everything is. The link was most helpful. I have a CDTV and A3000T awaiting resurrection. I’m finding a lot of 4:3 monitors cheap. Bought one fir under $5 at Goodwill and it’s awesome. VGA only though. But with an adapter it looks, well, VGA. DVI from HDMI would be nicer. Thank you!
A customer saw my HEAVILY modded C=64 and 1541 - and he gave me an A500. My shop has repaired six Commodore and Amiga machines so far. I do not market for that. I will be rebuilding this A500, building chip testers and a power supply and doing some mods once I learn what is available and possible and figure out what I want to do. This mod is a must. Any other recommendations would be appreciated. Gotek drive seems a must. I do love using actual floppies, though. An internal scsi to SD card mod would be nice as well - if it can do what I suspect for me. (I've never USED an Amiga!)
There are loads of options, you could look at one of the tf accelerators, I'd go for the tf536 personally. It'll add ram, faster CPU and an ide header. But if you want to keep it more original you can add individual expansions like I ended up doing in this machine. It now has the gottagofastram and ide68k boards. I have videos on them if you're interested. At the other end of spectrum there is the vampire or pistorm which will give you a massive performance boost although with rtg graphics.
But if you just want to play some games, the rgbtohdmi will give you the best picture, a gotek will sort the difficulties that floppies bring and 1mb ram is a minimum so make sure you have an expansion in the trap door.
@@CRG tf536 + gotek looks to be the mods here. I do have a 1mB card in the trap door already. THANKS!
Why not add a link to the chip lifter?
I'm only half way through the video but your flux definitely doesn't seem to be helping much. I've only done this a couple of times but the flux I used helped it all just find the pins. Maybe time to try some other brand.
I've got some chipquik flux which seems to be the go to brand for SMD soldering. Hopefully going to build the second one tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.
@@CRG I'm no certainly no expert and I've only done it maybe twice. I just remember the flux making things a lot easier. Glad it worked though. That's the main thing, right? Nice little design for the output too, impressive!
I have a hard time overlooking the fact that you're using a tiny computer arguably more powerful than the one into which it's being plugged, only to use it purely as a dedicated video converter. It's a wild, wild world, man! Great video, though!
A blind man on a galloping horse would never see those blobs 😊 Sorry, I don't mean that at all. I think you did a great job. I have tried to work with surface mount components and ended up breaking the device I was trying to fix. I will have to think hard before I attempt it again. Cheers from a leftie. 😊👍
That's a common saying around our way, made me smile :) As for trying SMD soldering again all I can say is if I can do it then anyone can.
@@CRG I have Irish ancestry, must be in the gene pool 😊
great video
Thanks
Nicely done; I just watched Jan Beta's videos on this, and his was pre-assembled so didn't give an indication of the potential difficulty. As far as SOTB goes, I only played it once, on an - ahem! - backup disk, and I hated it. Glad I didn't buy it, like I did so many other 'flashy graphics' games. An expensive way to buy blank disks back then!
I think your soldering was veru good for a first time. About as good as anyone could hope for.
Thanks, I've got a few more bigger soldering projects on the pipeline. Hopefully I'm getting better at it.
@@CRG Gotta Go Fastram one looked even nicer than this actually as good as anyone with vast experience in smd soldering I have seen on youtube.
Lol! I've been testing ones that I've built up with SotB as well! Looks like you've been on quite a journey and glad it finally worked out for you.
A lot of stressful work :)
Did you have any not working? I tried two so far and the image isn't stable but badly distorted. Did you see that on any you built?
@@XXXXXX-dy5fs if they were built correctly there should be no distortion. However it's very easy to get a pin not soldered correctly in a crucial place and that kills the picture. If you are getting instability then I'd re flow all the SMD IC's
I have been soldering smaller and smaller SMT components in electronics prototypes for over 20 years now and all I can say is that you should be proud of your effort here. Patient and precise, you got it just right.
Your skills will develop quickly and the only thing you could do to improve the toolset is get tweezers with a finer point.
I think you can get chip clue that would let you stick the parts to the board before soldering.
Hello Sir. Where did you buy these Kits. I'm also iterested for 8 MB kit ?
As I recall I bought the kit for this from a guy on discord who just at that time selling them. I'm not aware of anywhere currently selling kits for this or the 8MB ram expansion but they should be available from the usual Amiga resellers. Certainly the RGBtoHDMI.
Which Discord Channel you found that guy? @@CRG
From memory I think it was RMCs discord.@@defragment418
I feel like this would have been an ideal scenario to use a PCB Holder like Mark Fixes Stuff uses in a lot of his videos.
I got for my A500+ a Indivision ECS V2 long before this came out its nice but costs. The best thing I found with it is I have put the Denise chip away as it is not used, and it is VGA.
Those indivision boards always look cool but their price out me off. This little setup is very affordable and very easy to get going, well, so long as you're not building it yourself 😂.
Well, you didn't select the easiest project to start with, did you ? :)
Honestly, you're doing quite well for a first-timer, and without a microscope / magnification, and with a camera in the way, it looks quite good.
Tombstoning (the components rising) is quite normal, so no worries there. you fixed it well.
Now, for the next time you do this. Try soldering one of the pads first. Then slide the component into the solder as you heat the solder again. That will be a lot easier, and experience makes it even better.
And then you splurge on a microscope and all that. And wonder how the HE** you did it without the microscope before. (seriously, I can't do it without anymore)
That's how I would do smd caps, solder one pad then slid the cap into place. Never occurred to me to try it with these parts.
This was my first small scale soldering project and my first new build project, it was nerve wrecking to be honest 😂.
A microscope would be a nice addition although I think I'll keep practising first. Next project, other than the 2nd board, will be a ram expansion I think.
Nice Pi video
Kudos here. My eye sight wouldn't allow me to do stuff with such tiny bits. Back to the subject of CMS: I thought this was done with an oven?
I think professionally this type of work is done with solder paste and an oven but for the keen amateur a soldering iron and some shake hands can get the job done too :)
Great video again. Pistorm next?
Got one on order just waiting patiently for an update.
@@CRG You going to put it in the 1200? An interesting thing to do would be to try it with a Pi4 , it would fly - hardware mods would be necessary though :) ( maybe just a GPIO extender??)
It'll be going into the A500+. I've been keeping a close eye on the development of it. Currently it can't be used with the 1200 but there is a trapdoor version in the works. Equally the released version is only compatible with the Pi3A so you're looking at speeds of about 15mips. I've seen photos of a development version working with the Pi4 and its knocking on 50-60mips which is impressive. Either way though you will not find a cheaper accelerator.
@@CRG Yes , I will keep an eye on it, and if a pi4 version is on the cards, I'll be swopping out my EC1221 for one. :)
Does it have a flickerfixer?
The RGBtoHDMI outputs a standard 1080p (or whatever you set the pi output to) HDMI signal.
Good job on getting that done with the tools you have! A few pointers. It would have been easier to use paste and a heat nozzle for the small stuff. If you absolutely have to use an iron, a few tips. Your tweezers are far too big. Your flux is also too thick, liquid flux is easier here. Also, once the smaller 0603/0402 sized components (your resistors and capacitors) are placed, you really don't need to hold it while soldering. Surface tension will usually pull it into place. Holding is why they were raised. It can also result in a cold joint if you move the component while the joint is cooling. The tips of the tweezers are also a giant heat sink.
For the IC's use a hoof-tip, copious amounts of liquid flux and drag solder a'la Louis Rossman. Avoid giant blobs if at all possible. You just have to remember that solder will want to stay on a single pad thanks to surface tension unless you have too much. You did a creditable job though. Practice makes perfect, so keep plugging away at it.
Thanks for the tips it's very much appreciated. I'm really happy to have gotten this working and I do want to keep practising, makes perfect as they say. I've got some better flux and will take a look for some better tweezers.
Where'd you buy your kit from?
I got it from one of the guys that's sells them built, just asked if I could get it in kit form.
Great project,
Where is the STL for the HDMI connector ?
I'm sure you meant to say "will you be open sourcing that design" rather than to demand it 🤣
If you take a look in the github I linked in the description I think all the info is in there.
sorry, it should not be misunderstood, unfortunately I can not find the STL for the HDMI holder.
Is there somewhere to download ?
I have an alternative to the hdmi solution. It is non invasive. www.prusaprinters.org/prints/63688-rgbtohdmi-adapter-housing-for-amiga-500
"But...they're ON there." Exactly. Good work.
Great video. I have the PCB and parts on hard to build one of these boards but I have been holding off due to my tired old eyes. Even with a head mounted magnifier I don't think I can get in close enough. It didn't seem that long ago that I could read the labels on integrated circuits or the numbering on a D9 connector with ease! 🙂
Sorry for the late reply.
If I can built it, trust me, anyone can :) Good lux and good solder is about the best tips I can give, makes all the difference. I do admit though find my eyes straining after working on things so small and even with magnification.
I've got a few more Amiga based soldering projects coming up, 8mb fast ram, IDE adapter and a couple of accelerators so I need to get my practise in. Don't want to attempt the accelerators until I'm more comfortable with fine pitch SMD.
@@CRG As I type I am looking at a completed Amiga HDMI adapter! It took a steady hand and and plenty of flux, but it's together and ready to test. Waiting for the arrival of a RPiZero to finish it up.
That's great, congrats on getting it built.
I actually spent the day building an 8mb fast ram board, the GottaGoFastRAM board. There will be a video although it'll be next week.
This is so cool. Do they also act as scan-doublers, and let you have access to the other screen modes of the Amiga?
Not a scan doubler per say as this is outputting a digital signal (hdmi) but it does work with any screen modes I've thrown at it so far.
Can you make these for re-sell? :D
Sorry but I wouldn't have time to make them. There are various online retailers selling them though. RetroPassion for example has them in stock.
@@CRG I'lll check out the usual places, and RP ofc. Thanks man, I can tell it's a labour intensive job!!!
Bravo,sir Much better than I could have done. How sensitive are these components to heat?
I'm sure with too much heat for too long there is a chance of damaging it. I was working at about 350°C and everything seemed to survive OK. The new solder I got melts at a far lower temp though so can reduce that a fair bit.
You may want to fix the typo in the thumbnail (adpator) 😉
Well spotted, yep I'll have to fix that!
Massive kudos for trying this without a microscope :D
Thanks, as I start to do more of this stuff a microscope will be on the shopping list.
@@CRG It really does make it so much easier. I'm really impressed that you pulled this off.
I rediscovered the Amiga about a year ago and I've gone down the same path. Did this board back in January. It was a real pain until I borrowed a microscope from a friend. Would like to buy one but I haven't really got the space (takes up 75cm x 75cm).
Great vid. Brave man, my soldering is never gonna get to that. 8mb board sounds fun, please do it!
If I can do it anyone can, I'm looking at the parts for the 8mb ram boards this morning but I'll maybe leave it a few weeks before jumping in. Have a couple of other things to cover first.
@@CRG I'm PiStorming :-)
I'm hoping to get there soon.
Excellent video as always. Love to see more like this.
I definitely want to do more and I think a ram board will be the next project.
Nicely done!
Thanks