Excellent result Jan, the Amiga looks beautiful again thanks to your great work. I always enjoy seeing you do your magic on these machines, and breathing new life into them once again....fantastic stuff!!
Jan, really love your videos. Each time I come to watch a new one, I immediately hit "thumbs up" because I know that it's going to be a quality and enjoyable one. Thanks for all of the hard work you put into your interesting content!
Part one made me take my 1987 A500 apart and start to clean it. Then I used the sun to get the colour back into the shell and cleaned the keyboard like you. Now I just have to fix a couple of cracks in the case, and see if she starts up. Cheers for the videos.
Oh hey, what a perfect video to watch while work on my current project, making a bracket to mount a power supply in my Apple II clone! I took the opportunity while watching your video to try out some plastic cement too, and it worked really well! It wasn't a specific plastic cement product, it was actually product sold as "pipe cleaner", used to prepare PVC drainage pipe before using that coloured PVC pipe cement. However it does seem to work pretty well on ABS (I'm making the bracket out out "styrene" sheets used for model-making, which is basically ABS). The only downside is that it smells pretty strongly of chemicals, to the point where it stings my eyes if I get too close. I think I'll have to set up a fan next time I use the stuff.
This was extremely satisfying to watch. As it happens, I also have an Amiga 500 sitting here that is waiting for a recapping and some retrobrite - the keys look especially bad, they are almost a dark brown. The machine works basically, which I found extremely surprising. It was an ebay find from a couple years back and I only recently got around to finally taking stock or the machine’s state and ordering parts. The NiCd battery on the RAM expander had just started leaking but I think I caught it in time. Hopefully next weekend I will be able to get started. Looking forward to it after watching this video ❤
@@SuperVstech Not even in stores. I don't think they were as common here in the US as in the UK and Europe . Ironically since I enjoy videos of of them being repaired so much, early computers weren't a part of my life back then. I didn't know anyone that had one
That is so strange. 2007 we had 8.5 feet of water in our house for a week (just the roof visible from the air). All my computers, amiga 500, 1200, ect ect were disposed of during the months long cleanup. I miss them to this day.
When you use the plastic weld solvent type very liquid glue in model making you actually put the two parts you are gluing together, maybe be using tape, and then apply the glue on the non visible side. Capillary action draws it in to the joint where it melts and welds the plastic,
That "full spectrum" grow light is purple because that's the most efficient for growing plants. If a light contains the full spectrum (of visible light) it would appear white. Plants' leaves appear green to us because they reflect, not absorb, green light, and if you're trying to transfer energy to a plant with light, it's inefficient to waste about a third of that energy on light the plant can't absorb, so grow lights are just red and blue lights, which won't bleed into a useless band of the spectrum for plants. For retrobrighting, you should be able to use just an ordinary visible white light, since peroxide probably doesn't care what colour hits it. If you want to grow tomatoes (or some more clandestine herb) indoors at home, a purple light is great. If you have a grow light to use on retrobrighting, that's fine, you're not wasting any energy there, but if people are new to it and shopping for gear, I don't think shopping for a grow light is necessary. The most important thing is the intensity of the light. A little 5W worklight won't cut the mustard.
I have this idea for a possible solution against these aging and brittle cases... Would it be possible to add an extremely thin layer of this epoxy two component glue to the inside surface? That would possible stiffen off the case. I am thinking about half or quater of millimeter thick layer.
It’s UHU Plast Special, German brand Model making plastic weld glue. Super glue is completely different but might work well for those kinds of cracks, too.
Hey Jan Really love watching you make these ancient machines work again; so satisfying (o: Is there any good reason you don't use a powered screwdriver?
I like to have "full control" when working on these old machines because the plastic is often brittle. I didn't really think about using a powered screwdriver for the retro stuff for that reason.
Well fair enough; it just seems like it would save you a lot of time and perhaps from carpal tunnel syndrome down the line. It's not a few screws in, say, that keyboard ..
Two things/questions: 1. Isn't the glue you're using actually just acetone? That would desolve the plastic the same way you're explaining. I've been using it for printers in the past, with good result. 2. Regarding retrobrighting, I know this is a controversial subject. But I have always just been using sunlight. Putting an Amiga 500 in high sunlight for a few days (in Denmark), has been turning a very yellow Amiga into an Amiga looking like new. Which experiences do you have with that? Some people thinks it will make the plastic more fragile. This is not my experience. Been doing it for a few years now. Using just sunlight, makes me think it is better, both for the Amiga and the environment. Haven't tried with chemicals (yet), but using sunlight does the job for me :-)
One problem with retrobrightening keycaps: They are pad-printed, print protected by a transparent coating. Hydrogenperoxide is agressive to the coating. If you retrobrightening for to long, the print can litteraly swim away. Actually this does not have to be a bad thing. If you have a high resolution scan and print the labels with dysub ink on transfer paper, you can reprint the keycaps with a better method than original done. You might even do this intentionally, if you scanned a german keyboard and want to convert to an italian for example. Or the other way around. Also you might want to reprint a Pi400 this way, if you want Amiga Keys. I use the thermal retrobrightening method: Keys in a box with hydrogenperoxide, 3.5h in the oven @65°C. Works quite well. As the hydrogenperoxide decomposes, it is not reusable this way - it is more agressive this way. But still a second go might be needed with fresh hydrogenperoxide. But a second round this way always result in letter soop at least on some keys.
I know you applied WD-40 to just the springs, but I avoid using that in any of my electronics work and just use contact cleaner. It works just as well and doesn't have the things in WD-40 that can cause plastic rot. I know you just applied it to the springs, but those springs do come in contact with different plastic parts. You're probably fine here, but it is something to be aware of with what WD-40 can do to plastic.
What would you think about a light application of a silicon based lube? Sort of like a gun polishing cloth. That's nothing more than a lint free rag impregnated with silicon polish. But they're cheap and put a super super light coat of lube on the items. I've never had an issue with any plastics personally with that... but take that with a grain of salt.
Europeans tend to use the AZERTY layout while civilised people use the QWERTY layout. It goes back as far the Bosch first world war teletypes of the day trying to troll the Tommy's as some form of early encryption mechanism. This was expanded on during the second world war with the Enigma that also used the confounded AZERTY keyboard.
@@Drew-DastardlyAZERTY layout is mainly used in France, for Germany it is QWERTZ where basically only the location of Y and Z have swapped places (there is a good Wikipedia page on QWERTZ usage) P.S: You might also have confused the location of the civilized vs uncivilized world in the same way :D
Have you ever tried sunbrighting with you grow lamp? I know that sunbringhting works (at least it worked on my breadbin C64 :P ), but I'm curious if grow lamp could replace sun.
The exact one I use is no longer available unfortunately but I linked some similar models in the video description (they should technically work the same as far as I can tell)!
I don’t want to advocate drinking alcohol on my channel either. :) (It really is a local alcohol free beer, Jever Fun. I don’t drink a lot of alcohol generally except for the occasional party).
That retro brighting turned out really well, I always fear the use of cream having seen some awful streaking in video's. When I do it I use a big tank (basically a super sized one of the boxes you did the key caps in), but need to get a grow lamp, was using UV string lights but they were not so good. Jan, could you point out what grow light you used please on ebay or wherever you got it from. Thanks..
I just use submersion in 30vol hydrogen peroxide liquid sat under 2x generic 30W LED UV lamps from Amazon. The box is lined with reflective insulating bubble wrap. I get great results.
It winds me up how people have to demonstrate how leet they are by not putting the RF shielding back. Screw all of the people in the area that might want to use a radio, eh?
leave the electronics and just transplant it to a pc floppy drive, with any luck connectors would be the same and mechanism is the same in most cases anyway
It’s a matter of taste I guess! I just love the moment I put it all together again and it looks nearly as good as new (even if the yellowing usually returns after some time).
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Excellent result Jan, the Amiga looks beautiful again thanks to your great work. I always enjoy seeing you do your magic on these machines, and breathing new life into them once again....fantastic stuff!!
Wie immer war es unterhaltsam und eine Bildungsreise! Du hast super gemacht! Danke Dir!
Jan, really love your videos. Each time I come to watch a new one, I immediately hit "thumbs up" because I know that it's going to be a quality and enjoyable one. Thanks for all of the hard work you put into your interesting content!
Part one made me take my 1987 A500 apart and start to clean it. Then I used the sun to get the colour back into the shell and cleaned the keyboard like you. Now I just have to fix a couple of cracks in the case, and see if she starts up. Cheers for the videos.
Fantastic result Jan. lovely to see another one saved. Cheers Graham
Oh hey, what a perfect video to watch while work on my current project, making a bracket to mount a power supply in my Apple II clone!
I took the opportunity while watching your video to try out some plastic cement too, and it worked really well! It wasn't a specific plastic cement product, it was actually product sold as "pipe cleaner", used to prepare PVC drainage pipe before using that coloured PVC pipe cement. However it does seem to work pretty well on ABS (I'm making the bracket out out "styrene" sheets used for model-making, which is basically ABS).
The only downside is that it smells pretty strongly of chemicals, to the point where it stings my eyes if I get too close. I think I'll have to set up a fan next time I use the stuff.
Good job on the restoration Jan. Thank you for your repeated excellent content.
Great Video Jan, The end result was fantastic.
This was extremely satisfying to watch. As it happens, I also have an Amiga 500 sitting here that is waiting for a recapping and some retrobrite - the keys look especially bad, they are almost a dark brown. The machine works basically, which I found extremely surprising. It was an ebay find from a couple years back and I only recently got around to finally taking stock or the machine’s state and ordering parts. The NiCd battery on the RAM expander had just started leaking but I think I caught it in time. Hopefully next weekend I will be able to get started. Looking forward to it after watching this video ❤
Great video! Very nicely done Jan!
Top work, as usual, Jan!
Great job Jan. Thankx for sharing with us. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands
Thank you! :)
beautiful. thanks Jan!
Danke Jan
yeah there it is - part 2 !
E impeccabile.Jan sei il migliore !
The switch and hole is really handy for a rom switcher between 1.3 and 2
Another successful story! Thanks Jan.
great resurrection Jan!
Awesome job! You really overhauled that Amiga well, A+++ Would recommend to a friend.
I am still waiting for the day I come across one of these in a thrift store for a ridiculously low price.
That’s getting rare unfortunately but I wish you the best of luck anyway! 🤞
@@JanBeta Despite being 60, I don't think I've ever seen an Amiga in person period.
@@marctorres7182 I think that nowadays one must be lucky with relatives who still have an Amiga.
At least, this is what happened to me.
@@marctorres7182 wow, really? Not even in stores?
@@SuperVstech Not even in stores. I don't think they were as common here in the US as in the UK and Europe . Ironically since I enjoy videos of of them being repaired so much, early computers weren't a part of my life back then. I didn't know anyone that had one
Great video, well done rescuing that old Amiga 😍
Fantastic result, looks like new again :)
Thank you so much!
love this, and yes, it was entertaining and informative - like all your vids. Great session. thanks
Very good video and thank you very much Jan
Keep the videos coming
That is so strange. 2007 we had 8.5 feet of water in our house for a week (just the roof visible from the air). All my computers, amiga 500, 1200, ect ect were disposed of during the months long cleanup. I miss them to this day.
When you use the plastic weld solvent type very liquid glue in model making you actually put the two parts you are gluing together, maybe be using tape, and then apply the glue on the non visible side. Capillary action draws it in to the joint where it melts and welds the plastic,
Great stuff Jan! Another survivor brought back to life. :)
Thanks! Super happy with how this one turned out! :)
Very nice work, Jan! TOP! 👍👍
Beautiful!!!
That "full spectrum" grow light is purple because that's the most efficient for growing plants. If a light contains the full spectrum (of visible light) it would appear white. Plants' leaves appear green to us because they reflect, not absorb, green light, and if you're trying to transfer energy to a plant with light, it's inefficient to waste about a third of that energy on light the plant can't absorb, so grow lights are just red and blue lights, which won't bleed into a useless band of the spectrum for plants. For retrobrighting, you should be able to use just an ordinary visible white light, since peroxide probably doesn't care what colour hits it. If you want to grow tomatoes (or some more clandestine herb) indoors at home, a purple light is great. If you have a grow light to use on retrobrighting, that's fine, you're not wasting any energy there, but if people are new to it and shopping for gear, I don't think shopping for a grow light is necessary. The most important thing is the intensity of the light. A little 5W worklight won't cut the mustard.
Cheers!!
A500 saved from The Flood? I knew Amigas were old, but I didn't know they were that old!
There was a flood in the north-western parts of Germany in 2021.
Man with grow-light drinks alcohol free beer. Hmmm...
Thanks for another great vídeo, jan
Good Job again!! Cheers🍻
Evaporust is a wonderful product.
The plastic container you put the keycaps in may be blocking some of the light to the keys.
Yeah the grey keys need far less treatment. I give them about 50% and handle them separately
For caps you should 3d print holder, thats it easier.
Great video, wish i still had my A500.
I have this idea for a possible solution against these aging and brittle cases...
Would it be possible to add an extremely thin layer of this epoxy two component glue to the inside surface? That would possible stiffen off the case. I am thinking about half or quater of millimeter thick layer.
huh, growlight works? I need to try that
Hi Jan, thanks for another set of interesting videos! What is the glue you used on the case - is it regular super-glue or?
It’s UHU Plast Special, German brand Model making plastic weld glue. Super glue is completely different but might work well for those kinds of cracks, too.
Hey Jan
Really love watching you make these ancient machines work again; so satisfying (o:
Is there any good reason you don't use a powered screwdriver?
I like to have "full control" when working on these old machines because the plastic is often brittle. I didn't really think about using a powered screwdriver for the retro stuff for that reason.
Well fair enough; it just seems like it would save you a lot of time and perhaps from carpal tunnel syndrome down the line. It's not a few screws in, say, that keyboard ..
Two things/questions:
1. Isn't the glue you're using actually just acetone? That would desolve the plastic the same way you're explaining. I've been using it for printers in the past, with good result.
2. Regarding retrobrighting, I know this is a controversial subject. But I have always just been using sunlight. Putting an Amiga 500 in high sunlight for a few days (in Denmark), has been turning a very yellow Amiga into an Amiga looking like new. Which experiences do you have with that? Some people thinks it will make the plastic more fragile. This is not my experience. Been doing it for a few years now. Using just sunlight, makes me think it is better, both for the Amiga and the environment. Haven't tried with chemicals (yet), but using sunlight does the job for me :-)
But sunlight is the cause of the yellow/brown blight to begin with!
hi there could you please tell me and maybe provide a link to the scart converter you use on your amiga videos please
One problem with retrobrightening keycaps: They are pad-printed, print protected by a transparent coating. Hydrogenperoxide is agressive to the coating. If you retrobrightening for to long, the print can litteraly swim away.
Actually this does not have to be a bad thing. If you have a high resolution scan and print the labels with dysub ink on transfer paper, you can reprint the keycaps with a better method than original done.
You might even do this intentionally, if you scanned a german keyboard and want to convert to an italian for example. Or the other way around.
Also you might want to reprint a Pi400 this way, if you want Amiga Keys.
I use the thermal retrobrightening method: Keys in a box with hydrogenperoxide, 3.5h in the oven @65°C. Works quite well. As the hydrogenperoxide decomposes, it is not reusable this way - it is more agressive this way. But still a second go might be needed with fresh hydrogenperoxide. But a second round this way always result in letter soop at least on some keys.
Yep, I had this happen when I over-retrobrighted my Atari 520ST.
Great Video 😃
I know you applied WD-40 to just the springs, but I avoid using that in any of my electronics work and just use contact cleaner. It works just as well and doesn't have the things in WD-40 that can cause plastic rot. I know you just applied it to the springs, but those springs do come in contact with different plastic parts. You're probably fine here, but it is something to be aware of with what WD-40 can do to plastic.
What would you think about a light application of a silicon based lube? Sort of like a gun polishing cloth. That's nothing more than a lint free rag impregnated with silicon polish. But they're cheap and put a super super light coat of lube on the items. I've never had an issue with any plastics personally with that... but take that with a grain of salt.
Did you exchange the Z and Y positions on the keyboard, or is that how it is supposed to be with that layout?
German keyboard layout is like that
Europeans tend to use the AZERTY layout while civilised people use the QWERTY layout. It goes back as far the Bosch first world war teletypes of the day trying to troll the Tommy's as some form of early encryption mechanism. This was expanded on during the second world war with the Enigma that also used the confounded AZERTY keyboard.
@@Drew-DastardlyAZERTY layout is mainly used in France, for Germany it is QWERTZ where basically only the location of Y and Z have swapped places (there is a good Wikipedia page on QWERTZ usage) P.S: You might also have confused the location of the civilized vs uncivilized world in the same way :D
Have you ever tried sunbrighting with you grow lamp? I know that sunbringhting works (at least it worked on my breadbin C64 :P ), but I'm curious if grow lamp could replace sun.
is this 500's ram expansion wired to be chip ram? so its 1mb chip or is it 512kb chip ram + 512kb regular ram
Another one saved, well, apart form the floppy drive, but they can't all be saved, even when they've not suffered flood damage... :D
Great channel what model and number is the grow light ? I am thinking of buing one :)
The exact one I use is no longer available unfortunately but I linked some similar models in the video description (they should technically work the same as far as I can tell)!
@@JanBeta Great thanks :)
If the glue dissolves the plastics, how do you contain it in a plastic bottle?
The bottle is nylon (I think) which isn’t affected by the glue (which works on ABS, PE and some other plastics).
"This is an alcohol-free beer." - Nice save. Wouldn't want sponsors pulling out.
I don’t want to advocate drinking alcohol on my channel either. :) (It really is a local alcohol free beer, Jever Fun. I don’t drink a lot of alcohol generally except for the occasional party).
@@JanBeta Don't worry, I'm just joking. I can see that "alkoholfrei" on the label.
Totally agree. Today the non alcoholic beers are quite good actually. I drink for the taste, not to get drunk. Great restoration by the way
Skål! from Sweden :-) (Is it only a northern German thing due to being close to the Nordic countries?)
That retro brighting turned out really well, I always fear the use of cream having seen some awful streaking in video's. When I do it I use a big tank (basically a super sized one of the boxes you did the key caps in), but need to get a grow lamp, was using UV string lights but they were not so good. Jan, could you point out what grow light you used please on ebay or wherever you got it from. Thanks..
I just use submersion in 30vol hydrogen peroxide liquid sat under 2x generic 30W LED UV lamps from Amazon. The box is lined with reflective insulating bubble wrap. I get great results.
@@Daz5Daz Cheers for that..
Why don't you attach a switch to the edge of the memory expansion card that way worst case you just have to flip it over to turn it off
Great video series. Wrote you a message in Patreon. Take care, JL Antwerp. 😊
It winds me up how people have to demonstrate how leet they are by not putting the RF shielding back. Screw all of the people in the area that might want to use a radio, eh?
I like your videos
magic. wish I'd never got rid of mines.
It is supposed to be summer 🤣.People who live in cold mountainous lands know what does this sentence mean.😁
leave the electronics and just transplant it to a pc floppy drive, with any luck connectors would be the same and mechanism is the same in most cases anyway
That might work if I use the same brand, good idea. I might even still have an Amiga drive with broken electronics somewhere.
Honestly I wouldn't bother retrobrighting the case. It's an old hardware. Slight yellowing is like patina.
It’s a matter of taste I guess! I just love the moment I put it all together again and it looks nearly as good as new (even if the yellowing usually returns after some time).
DOOD!
this video could've been 34 minutes shorter.
Sorry I forced you to watch!