Amiga 3000 salvage
Hi Everyone, I have a donated Amiga 3000 that I'd like to get working for my classroom. Damage is way beyond my own ability to repair or learn to repair and probably more than could be done during a typical workshop. Looks like at least one exploded battery perhaps decades ago and all sorts of other issues, most likely including recapping. I just can't bring myself to recycle it, so I'm hoping to get it professionally restored. Any recommendations for people who might do such a thing in the NJ, NY, CT tri-state area? I wont say money is no object, but I'm happy to pay a reasonable fee. Thanks, -Adam
Any recommendations for people who might do such a thing in the NJ, NY, CT tri-state area? I wont say money is no object, but I'm happy to pay a reasonable fee.
I need a 3000 recapped also, so I'm following this thread. -- Steven Toth - Kernel Labs http://www.kernellabs.com
Recapping a 3000 is relatively easy. Battery corrosion repair is not. I've done a lot of repair on boards like this, and depending on the level of corrosion, it may be too far gone. That said, the Amiga stuff is well enough documented that it's possible to make things work that you wouldn't think could be fixed, simply by virtue of being able to know where the traces were supposed to go before they got eaten. Having fixed lots of Amiga and Macintosh boards in various states of damage - you'd be surprised what can be salvaged. But, then, sometimes things are just too far gone to be practical. Battery corrosion sucks to deal with due to the way it alters the solder and makes it so difficult to work with. -Ian On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 8:56 AM, Steven Toth via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Any recommendations for people who might do such a thing in the NJ, NY, CT tri-state area? I wont say money is no object, but I'm happy to pay a reasonable fee.
I need a 3000 recapped also, so I'm following this thread.
-- Steven Toth - Kernel Labs http://www.kernellabs.com
Battery corrosion is one of those things that "can usually be repaired" given enough time and patience. Generally speaking, that makes it unrealistic to offer as a repair service. It might make some sense if you enjoy doing it as a hobby or a personal challenge but the hours invested may easily outweigh the value of the board. It can quickly become a losing proposition for the board repair service. However, it's entirely possible that you'll find someone willing to take it on as a challenge. :) My other hobby is restoring old pinball and arcade machines. A lot of the vendors that offer repair services on game boards flatly refuse to touch anything with corrosion. It's just too risky, you never know if you will find the issue or if your repairs will be solid. Again, no biggie if it's your personal machine, but it really matters when it's a paid gig for a customer (who may be expecting a warranty or customer service). I've also done a lot of surface mount board recapping, specific to older Macintoshes, some older PCs and their video cards, and a very small amount of work on the Amiga stuff. All of it is a very similar process to Amiga, it's the same technology. That cap work and associated board clean-up is usually a relatively easy process. Sometimes a trace will vaporize or something that makes it a bit more complex/fun (if you are into that sort of thing). I'm personally hesitant to offer my repair skills as a service as I know how disorganized I can be. I'd get inundated and overwhelmed (even with a small amount of repair work) or lose interest in doing it. I've also got plenty of my own stuff to work on. It's just that I know me and how I am about things. :) I also worry about my personal time, I have a lot of hobbies and am involved in a lot of things. I know that turn-around time wouldn't be my strength. I do participate in the VCF workshops as that's a dedicated time where I can spend working on this stuff, but I get you... It might be too much for one workshop. I have considered doing swap services, where I have a fully repaired/working and tested board IN STOCK and just swap them with non-working then repair those as time allows. I think this way would be much easier to manage as you aren't under the gun to get things done. Nobody is waiting for you to repair something. If you get stumped or whatever on a particular repair, no biggie. The pinball and arcade people that I've seen offering board swaps generally refuse to do so if the incoming/non-working board has any physical damage or corrosion though. They don't want to get a board in that can't be rotated back out. Anyway, all of my ranting aside... Can you post some pictures of the damage so we can weigh in with our collective "expert" opinions? See ya! -Todd On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 10:02 AM Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Recapping a 3000 is relatively easy. Battery corrosion repair is not. I've done a lot of repair on boards like this, and depending on the level of corrosion, it may be too far gone. That said, the Amiga stuff is well enough documented that it's possible to make things work that you wouldn't think could be fixed, simply by virtue of being able to know where the traces were supposed to go before they got eaten.
Having fixed lots of Amiga and Macintosh boards in various states of damage - you'd be surprised what can be salvaged. But, then, sometimes things are just too far gone to be practical. Battery corrosion sucks to deal with due to the way it alters the solder and makes it so difficult to work with.
-Ian
On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 8:56 AM, Steven Toth via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Any recommendations for people who might do such a thing in the NJ, NY, CT tri-state area? I wont say money is no object, but I'm happy to pay a reasonable fee.
I need a 3000 recapped also, so I'm following this thread.
-- Steven Toth - Kernel Labs http://www.kernellabs.com
Recapping a 3000 is relatively easy. Battery corrosion repair is not. I've done a lot of repair on boards like this, and depending on the level of corrosion, it may be too far gone. That said, the Amiga stuff is well enough documented that it's possible to make things work that you wouldn't think could be fixed, simply by virtue of being able to know where the traces were supposed to go before they got eaten.
What I think needs to be done is re-layout of the Amiga 3000 motherboard. Populate it with SMD commons, then sockets for the customs. Keep it close to 1:1 with the original just no lithium battery. I was at the premiere of the Viva La Amiga documentary at Magfest and talked to Dave Haynie a bit about this. A3000 is a 4 layer PCB with 2 layers just being power/ground. Are the schematics out for the A3000? I assume so.
Thanks to everyone both on and off list who have replied. Here are some pictures: http://ceos.io/amiga/ Maybe not as bad as I thought. Maybe worse! Software is my game. ;) Looking forward to everyone's thoughts and a thank you to everyone for taking their time out to even look. Best wishes, -Adam On 1/11/2017 10:00 AM, Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Recapping a 3000 is relatively easy. Battery corrosion repair is not. I've done a lot of repair on boards like this, and depending on the level of corrosion, it may be too far gone. That said, the Amiga stuff is well enough documented that it's possible to make things work that you wouldn't think could be fixed, simply by virtue of being able to know where the traces were supposed to go before they got eaten.
Having fixed lots of Amiga and Macintosh boards in various states of damage - you'd be surprised what can be salvaged. But, then, sometimes things are just too far gone to be practical. Battery corrosion sucks to deal with due to the way it alters the solder and makes it so difficult to work with.
-Ian
On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 8:56 AM, Steven Toth via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Any recommendations for people who might do such a thing in the NJ, NY, CT tri-state area? I wont say money is no object, but I'm happy to pay a reasonable fee. I need a 3000 recapped also, so I'm following this thread.
-- Steven Toth - Kernel Labs http://www.kernellabs.com
participants (5)
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Adam Michlin -
Ethan -
Ian Primus -
Steven Toth -
Todd George