Classicamiga Forum Retro Edition
Thread: New Kickstart ROM Switcher (Automatic)
amigakit.com 15:15 28th January 2010
We have just manufactured a new batch of automatic Kickstart ROM switchers for the Amiga 500, 500+, 600, 1500, 2000 and CDTV:

The Kickstart ROMs are selected by holding down reset (Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga keys) for 5 seconds. No case modification or cutting/soldering required. No manual switches required.

Direct product link:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=947

We ship worldwide.
[Reply]
Harrison 00:51 29th January 2010
Very nice, and a good price too. I'm very tempted, especially as it is auto and doesn't need manual switching.
[Reply]
amigakit.com 21:03 29th January 2010
For you... free shipping ;-)
[Reply]
Harrison 16:45 26th May 2010
I've just purchased one of these for my A600 and it arrived today.

Nice neat design and a fairly long ribbon cable. I've just tested it with a 3.1 and 1.3 roms fitted and it works perfectly.

When powered up the system boots from the Rom in the right-hand rom socket on the device, but hold the reset key combination down for 5 seconds and it auto switches to the other rom, so when you release the reset it boots using that rom. It also remembers which rom it is current switched to if you perform a quick reset of less than 5 seconds, which is very useful.

It also has 2 status LEDs on the board. One green and one red. As standard, booting from cold and using the default rom the green led is lit, but switching roms also switches to the red LED, so you can instantly see which is currently in use.

To fit this unit into the A600 I wanted to retain the top motherboard shielding. I began seeing if the ribbon cable would reach up through the IDE slot and out over the shielding but it wasn't quite long enough. So instead I dremelled a square hole in the top shielding, so it looks like the precut hole for kickstart rom access on an A1200. So now the rom socket on the motherboard is accessible without a need to remove the shield and the rom switcher ribbon cable can come directly out through the top.

The final thing I want to do is mount the switcher at the back left of the case and to work out a way to make the status LEDs visible from the outside of the case. I have some ideas for this.

This is a great solution for a rom switcher and probably the best design I've seen so far. Much better than requiring a manual switch to swap roms, and it works with kickstart 1.3 roms in the A600, which some other switchers have problems with.

So now I have my A600 able to switch instantly between 1.3 and 3.1, with ClassicWB GAAE installed on a 6GB HDD (formatted to 4GB FFS) with WHDLoad for gaming via 3.1. And the 1.3 rom as a fall back for games that won't run under 3.1. And the system has 2MB chip + 2MB Fast. All in all a great all round ECS gaming Amiga now.

One final addition I want to make to this A600 is to swap the HDD for a 4GB CF card. I've got the CF card to IDE adapter and am just waiting for the CF card to arrive to do this. Then it will be complete.

I will post some pictures once I've secured the switcher in place inside the case and modded the case to show the status LEDs.
[Reply]
ArcadeGuru 18:35 26th May 2010
I have one of these for my Amiga 500 and it works a treat
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