CD32. If money was no problem - what upgrades would you do?

[JasonS]

I grew up with Amigas, still got my A500 and A1200 in original condition. My grandfather was always on the cutting edge of computing and his last non-intel computer was a CD32 which had a keyboard and mouse, and I <think> a hard drive.

20 years after his death I’ve finally tracked down his CD32 in a box in my folks’ loft. Found the unit itself, plus the PS2 keyboard and Goliath power supply. The expansion port cover is missing and he’d cut a corner off the CD drive cover I think to open fully with some expansion hardware mounted - but whatever expansion he had is nowhere to be found. He definitely would have been booting it to workbench so I presume he had an IDE hard drive in there.

I want to make it usable as a “modern” A1200 - just as a vanity project for nostalgia gaming.

So - over to the community. What are your dream upgrades if you had unlimited money?

Obviously I’m going to recap it, and I’ll build a new power supply out of a modern efficient ATX supply. I’m thinking the TF330 with IDE (CF) riser. Maybe a DB9 to USB converter for the mouse.

Anything else you would do?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/29771177099 ... 6kQAvD_BwE

[alexh]

I'd pay Claude & Michael from PiSTorm team to add multi-master support so we could have a working PiSTorm32 for CD32.

You said money no object.

Other than that.. TF360?

[JasonS]

Yeah I looked at the TF360 - obviously an 060 is nice but I think it may be overkill for what is essentially a vanity project for me which I’ll use only occasionally.

[Higgy]

On my setup, if money was no object it would be:

Indivision or Warpvision for HDMI output.
An original Amiga keyboard.

(A TF card and riser are minimum upgrades, and really make the CD32 a cracking usable Amiga).

[JasonS]

Talk to me about the ‘original Amiga keyboard’ - was there an actual Amiga PS2 keyboard..?

If that is the case, I wonder if I have one - I’m not at home at the moment but I need to check the ‘grandfather box’ as it’s quite possible the fat black PS2 keyboard that was with his CD32 is such a thing.

*edit to add - do you mean the big-box Amiga keyboards were compatible with the CD32? I thought they were DIN rather than PS2 but I may be wrong.

[Higgy]

There is an Aux port on the CD32. Which you can plug in a keyboard (not PS/2 directly).

Your grandad you said had an Expansion (you said it had not been found, a SX-1 or SX32 maybe?) that a keyboard could have been plugged into, otherwise it might be a Keyboard+adaptor that connects into the Aux port.

There are 2 things: the connector size and communication protocol. Amiga and PS/2 communication are not compatible without a gadget.
Amiga models do use DIN and miniDIN (or PS/2 looking) But it is not PS/2 communication.
(I can't picture the CD32 Aux port right now, but the A4000 is a small PS/2 looking connector - I have a A500 keyboard in a case connected to my A4000, because it did not come with one).

Once you find the keyboard it will be easy to see if it is an original Amiga (very cool) or a PC one which needs (or has connected) an adaptor.

[matt020]

Yeah I looked at the TF360 - obviously an 060 is nice but I think it may be overkill for what is essentially a vanity project for me which I’ll use only occasionally.

"If money was no problem - what upgrades would you do?"

[JasonS]

"If money was no problem - what upgrades would you do?"

That is a fair point well made.

[alexh]

The CD32 did not have an official keyboard from CBM. There were 3rd party keyboards at the time but are extremely rare. They were grey rather than black.

1_2798.jpg

Talk to me about the ‘original Amiga keyboard’ - was there an actual Amiga PS2 keyboard..?

No but the A4000 keyboards has a MiniDIN connector that is compatible with the CD32 AUX port. (A2000/A3000 keyboards can be made compatible with DIN->MiniDIN passive adapter).

*edit to add - do you mean the big-box Amiga keyboards were compatible with the CD32? I thought they were DIN rather than PS2 but I may be wrong.

Even though CD32 AUX connector looks like a PS2 it isn't. You cannot use PC keyboard directly with CD32.

Some CD32 risers for TF328/330/360 have PS2 keyboard socket and a PIC controller to convert to Amiga protocol.

You can get some nice looking PS2 keyboard in CD32 colours (unfortunately they seem to have sold out of UK layout)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004294259686.html

[JasonS]

So the mystery deepens. The keyboard that was in the box with the CD32 is one of the old DIN5 - but it was very clearly used with an Amiga as it has my grandfather's handwritten Amiga key labels on.

The CD32 is missing its expansion cover, and as I said, the CD lid has been modified (with side snips, it looks like) to open fully with some expansion hardware in place. Whatever that expansion was, it's nowhere to be found now.

Now, I know for sure that my grandfather had an A500, an A1200, and the CD32 - he never had a bigbox amiga, so this keyboard <must> have been used with one of the three other amigas. And he was a power user (video editing mostly, and I still have his A500 genlock somewhere), so he would have definitely had the CD32 with keyboard and mouse, and been running workbench on it - he wasn't really a gamer at all.

I'd be really interested in guesses as to how he had this thing set up!

As for me, I think I've settled on getting the mrgo0se TF330 with Kipper2k riser (with PS2), and a USB>Amiga mouse converter.

ExpansionPort.jpg

Keyboard.jpg