what weighs you down?

I upgraded my A500 Agnus to allow NTCS/PAL switching (my machine is NTSC originally) as well as allow 1MB Chip RAM, and I modified trapdoor pins to make trapdoor memory become Chip RAM. I now have 1MB Chip RAM.

I don't plan on any more changes to that machine, instead I want to build an Amiga from scratch, that is reproduce chip functionality out of various common PLDs.

I refuse to recognize depression as a thing, but you should become worried when you have a hobby you enjoy and you want to do it, but when the time comes you don't feel like it. That's when you know you're in trouble. If you're working on your thing then it's not too bad.

mrau wrote:

what weighs you down?

You know.... Just life in general. Having Aspergers syndrome my self, having a daughter with ADD and Asperger in severe degree and a son with ADHD and infantil autism. Their mother gotten schlerose. My girlfriend have schitzofrenia. Me, having to do everything at home, cooking, doing laundry, going to the shops, cleaning. You know. The average stuff in life. The thing is, that 100% of people, getting diagnosed with Aspergers as an adult, gets depression at least once in life. Just the basic stuff in life.

r00tb33r wrote:

I refuse to recognize depression as a thing

It is all too real, and yes, it is not a thing. It is a condition. I was in luck, as these sort of conditions, can take many years to recover from.

r00tb33r wrote:

I want to build an Amiga from scratch, that is reproduce chip functionality out of various common PLDs.

Well.... It will look like this here below....

brostenen wrote:

Well.... It will look like this here below.... […]
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r00tb33r wrote:

I want to build an Amiga from scratch, that is reproduce chip functionality out of various common PLDs.

Well.... It will look like this here below....

Integration, more complex PLDs. It might look like one of those wire wrap boards before I get a PCB made, but yes, it will be busier than any production Amiga made.

r00tb33r wrote:

brostenen wrote:

Well.... It will look like this here below.... […]
Show full quote

r00tb33r wrote:

I want to build an Amiga from scratch, that is reproduce chip functionality out of various common PLDs.

Well.... It will look like this here below....

Integration, more complex PLDs. It might look like one of those wire wrap boards before I get a PCB made, but yes, it will be busier than any production Amiga made.

I am a bit confused here. Why not just buy an Amiga500++ board. One of them reproduction ones. All you need is the custom chips them self. As they are not produced anymore. That way you can solder and build a brand spanking new a500 Plus machine.

brostenen wrote:

mrau wrote:

what weighs you down?

You know.... Just life in general. Having Aspergers syndrome my self, having a daughter with ADD and Asperger in severe degree and a son with ADHD and infantil autism. Their mother gotten schlerose. My girlfriend have schitzofrenia. Me, having to do everything at home, cooking, doing laundry, going to the shops, cleaning. You know. The average stuff in life. The thing is, that 100% of people, getting diagnosed with Aspergers as an adult, gets depression at least once in life. Just the basic stuff in life.

i wish for you and family to beat the odds

mrau wrote:

what weighs you down?

I guess he realized Amiga is dead and Commodore is no longer ;]

PS: Yeeeeah.... I couldn't resist ;d not that I don't know what depression is and what it does to people (I was/am dealing with it myself). Also it's not that something has to weigh down people - depression is mostly related to chemical imbalance in your brain - you can have 'perfect' life with no serious problems at all and have a depression because of your predispositions or lifestyle which is not good for you. And vice versa - you can have a sh*t load of problems and don't have it at all.

brostenen wrote:

I am a bit confused here. Why not just buy an Amiga500++ board. One of them reproduction ones. All you need is the custom chips them self. As they are not produced anymore. That way you can solder and build a brand spanking new a500 Plus machine.

Why would I need another A500? I've already got two.

The point of the project is to re-create Amiga architecture in a homebrew fashion using CPLDs, MCUs, etc, and using none of the original custom chips. I also don't aim for 100% software compatibility. Because I want to run my bus faster than 7MHz (hoping to reach 18MHz) I will also have to forego EPROM and Flash equivalents and replace it with SRAM and a loader MCU that will hold RESET and initialize it at boot time. It will be M68000 based, as I want to maintain the 16-bit bus for design elegance and simplicity. I do anticipate including an IDE controller. The video circuit will be natively VGA-like in terms of signal timings, with modes with and without scandoubling. It will be Franken-ECS, not AGA, but also having more features than plain ECS. Those are just some of the features of the design.

Anyway, you don't to "get" it. I just like working with PLDs. 😎

brostenen wrote:

mrau wrote:

what weighs you down?

You know.... Just life in general. Having Aspergers syndrome my self, having a daughter with ADD and Asperger in severe degree and a son with ADHD and infantil autism. Their mother gotten schlerose. My girlfriend have schitzofrenia. Me, having to do everything at home, cooking, doing laundry, going to the shops, cleaning. You know. The average stuff in life. The thing is, that 100% of people, getting diagnosed with Aspergers as an adult, gets depression at least once in life. Just the basic stuff in life.

Sounds like you could teach Marvin the Paranoid Android a thing or two about life. Heavy shit, and massive kudos for remaining even minimally functional with all that going on around you. If that mad project helps keep you going, so much the better. It's crazy - and cool 😀

mrau wrote:

i wish for you and family to beat the odds

Thanks. Well... We are working towards a better life. 😀

HanJammer wrote:

mrau wrote:

what weighs you down?

I guess he realized Amiga is dead and Commodore is no longer ;]

PS: Yeeeeah.... I couldn't resist ;d not that I don't know what depression is and what it does to people (I was/am dealing with it myself). Also it's not that something has to weigh down people - depression is mostly related to chemical imbalance in your brain - you can have 'perfect' life with no serious problems at all and have a depression because of your predispositions or lifestyle which is not good for you. And vice versa - you can have a sh*t load of problems and don't have it at all.

I got prescription on some strong vitamin-d and some folic acid. And it actually helps a bit. Mostly working with stuff, have helped me a lot. Yet depression makes you kind of do stuff and decide stuff, that you normally wont do. And when you come out the other way, you automatically think what the heck was I thinking.

Hey man, take care, life can be a bitch sometimes and you can feel backed against a corner. Focus on what makes you feel creative and happy, it helps.

r00tb33r wrote:

Why would I need another A500? I've already got two. […]
Show full quote

brostenen wrote:

I am a bit confused here. Why not just buy an Amiga500++ board. One of them reproduction ones. All you need is the custom chips them self. As they are not produced anymore. That way you can solder and build a brand spanking new a500 Plus machine.

Why would I need another A500? I've already got two.

The point of the project is to re-create Amiga architecture in a homebrew fashion using CPLDs, MCUs, etc, and using none of the original custom chips. I also don't aim for 100% software compatibility. Because I want to run my bus faster than 7MHz (hoping to reach 18MHz) I will also have to forego EPROM and Flash equivalents and replace it with SRAM and a loader MCU that will hold RESET and initialize it at boot time. It will be M68000 based, as I want to maintain the 16-bit bus for design elegance and simplicity. I do anticipate including an IDE controller. The video circuit will be natively VGA-like in terms of signal timings, with modes with and without scandoubling. It will be Franken-ECS, not AGA, but also having more features than plain ECS. Those are just some of the features of the design.

Anyway, you don't to "get" it. I just like working with PLDs. 😎

That will be hard. I mean really hard. And why not have a third Amiga? I have 4 of them already, and I am planning to get at least two more. I have enough PC's and C64's as it is right now (one Breadbin, one Model-C, one 286, four 486's, one Pentium1 and one Pentium3)

dionb wrote:

brostenen wrote:

mrau wrote:

what weighs you down?

You know.... Just life in general. Having Aspergers syndrome my self, having a daughter with ADD and Asperger in severe degree and a son with ADHD and infantil autism. Their mother gotten schlerose. My girlfriend have schitzofrenia. Me, having to do everything at home, cooking, doing laundry, going to the shops, cleaning. You know. The average stuff in life. The thing is, that 100% of people, getting diagnosed with Aspergers as an adult, gets depression at least once in life. Just the basic stuff in life.

Sounds like you could teach Marvin the Paranoid Android a thing or two about life. Heavy shit, and massive kudos for remaining even minimally functional with all that going on around you. If that mad project helps keep you going, so much the better. It's crazy - and cool 😀

Thanks...
Well... Yup it is a franken-Miggy for sure. The aim with the machine, is to create something that are a fusion between a 500 and an 2000. Same kind of horse power, yet tons of features. What it is missing right now, is a scandoubler and boot selector. I might get OS 3.1.4 for it, instead of the 2.0 yet I think it will be overkill as the CD-Rom drive are working in Workbench as of now. Finally I am in the process of making my own custom homemade Amiga keyboard, were I am repurposing an old a500 keyboard inside the case of a dead Keytronik AT keyboard. This however involves me getting some more plastic to build up stuff. And I need to get some wire and an old school DIN plug. So far I have done this below....

Garrett W wrote:

Hey man, take care, life can be a bitch sometimes and you can feel backed against a corner. Focus on what makes you feel creative and happy, it helps.

Yup, spot on.... A number of years ago, I used to shut my self out from the world for a couple of days, just painting on canvas. That was before I got diagnosed at the age of 39. So I have always managed to cope with shit that I have gone through in life.

Tough row to hoe, dude. Keep on top of it and take care of it so you can keep doing everything else like this project!

I used to think I had Asperger's, but then I found out I was actually just Slav.
Whatever you do, don't take the pills.