From: oahvenla@silver-surfer.cs.hut.fi (Osma Ahvenlampi)
Subject: Re: Assorted questions
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, CS lab
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 21:35:04 GMT

In <I-AMIGA%92100914453292@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU> BARNETTJ@SNYSYRV1.BITNET writes

 (other questions deleted)
>2) Is there a way to take the keyboard of an Amiga 500 and make it detatchable
>   such that there is more space to work with on a desk?

Well, of course. Buy a couple of meters shielded 8 wire cable and 8 pin DIN
connectors (male&female) (or whatever you want...), open up your A500, solder 
off the cable from the keyboard and the new cable on it, solder the connectors
on both cables and there you have it. This is no joke. I have done it. In fact,
I have done it to three A500s. Works like a charm, as you might expect from a
simple hack like this. You don't have to worry too much about heating something
on your KB, it takes a LOT of heating to break something in it. Of course, if
you haven't done anything even remotely like it before, forget it, or get some
experienced help. I won't take any responsibility if you manage to burn
something.
The only problem with this approach is that you won't have a case for the
keyboard and it's in an awkward position without one. One way to fix this is
to take a A500 case, if you can get one, saw the back off and put your KB
in it. Possibly the easiest, if you find a that case. A friend of mine I did
one of the extension cables for did this to the original casing. I haven't
done it to mine, although my A500 is in a PC case nowadays, as I would like
to have it, if I want to put everything back like it was some day.

>3) What palatte settings are people using to minimize flicker on
>   their RGBI monitors on an Amiga 500 without flicker fixer?

Something with as low contrast as you can possibly use. Also NTSC mode helps,
if you can live with the loss of resolution. Also, those antiglare shields
one sees in old terminals sometimes help, if you can find them. Also, using
polarized sunglasses helps. On some monitors, dropping the brightness as well
as contrast helps.

>5) Silly but....Has anyone found a less clutersome way of setting up their
>   Amiga 500 with their external disk drive(s)/Harddrive and the
>   rats nest of wires which exude from its case than pieces all over the
>   desk?

I mentioned this already. PC casing. Get a BIG case, preferably a tower one,
some AT cases from around '87 are also big enough. It needs to be able to house
a full-sized MB (A500 MB is a bit smaller than these), and it helps, if there's
lots of room vertically (if a desktop), so you can get your harddisk controller
easily in. Besides getting all that wiring off your table you get a power 
supply that can handle everything you can imagine, as the supplies in these
big babies are also major, at least 180 watts.. Biggest problems in this are:
 A) Power. A500 power connector is definitely a major disaster, practically
the only place you can find one is a A500 power supply. And the power has to 
be fed through that, as there's some shielding circuitry I wouldn't bypass.
 B) Expansion port. Similarily, the 86 pin expansion connector is a nightmare.
You're lucky if you can find it. The card side you'll just have to make
yourself. This has to be done, or you won't be able to connect your hard drive.

This needs a bit of experimenting, and is recommended only for those with some
electronics experience and a little daring... It's not too hard, but fumbling
in the right (or wrong) place can destroy your computer.. I did it in one
night, and I'm no hardware artist. My experience is only from making simple
hacks, a lot of cables and some little electronic toys from instructions.
As before, I won't pay for your broken Amiga or any other computer/equipment.

If you have any questions about these or any other related things, feel free
to mail me. I'll be happy to help, if I can.
--
Osma Ahvenlampi  -  oahvenla@niksula.cs.hut.fi
My opinions are mine, and though someone else may share them, that's not my
fault. You may freely agree or disagree with me, I don't much care.