In order to be able to use my Amiga 1000 with a modern LCD television,
I needed an S-Video interface
The easiest way for me to achieve this is to buy a Neobitz board from www.Neobitz.com
In my case, I purchased the kit which means it was cheaper, but I have to assemble it myself
With years of soldering experience, this was a cinch and the hardest part was soldering on the main integrated circuit which was surface mounted.
However, this was not difficult as the board already had a coding of solder on the pads and the only thing I had to do is line up and heat each leg one at a time.
After that, the rest of the parts were very easy to just slide into the holes, solder from the backside, and chop the leftover bits off with some wire cutters.
The next step was to disassemble the Amiga 1000
I've already removed the main screws from the bottom, now I just have to lift off the case.
There's a large metal RF shield covering the entire motherboard. It's not difficult to remove and only requires removing a few screws
The next step was to make the appropriate holes on the Amiga 1000's case. I decided to place them right above the main video connector and I also decided to bring out the Neobitz composite video since I felt it slightly better than the Amiga 1000's built-in composite video.
So that meant making two holes. First, I start by marking the slots and then I select a drill bit that matches the size of the holes I need.
I tape a piece of tissue paper down inside to collect any plastic shavings. I do start with a smaller drill bit and work my way up to the larger one. This is a safety measure that prevents me from accidentally cracking the case of the Amiga 1000.
In case the larger bit managed to grab too much plastic at once.
I double check the hole of the composite video and continue to drill up the larger the hole for the S-Video jack but as I don't have the exact size of the bit I have to do the final cut with a knife.
Once I'm sure it fits, I line up the S-Video jack on the outside of the case to drill the screw holes. First, I do one and screw it into place then I do the next.
This ensures that the holes will line up. Once I'm done I remove the tissue.
Next, I go ahead and install both ports and tight them down.
Here's the Neobitz board with all the wires attached and ready to be mounted into the Amiga. Now it's time to solder the wires to the various parts inside the machine.
You can see in this diagram where I'll be connecting the wires to get the signals I need. For ground I used an unused ground pad on the motherboard.
And then I solder the remaining wires into place. First I add some extra solder to the legs in these resistors. Then I attached the wires.
For testing, I just place the board on some cardboard to insulate it. I'll find a better place to mount it later.
In order to replace the RF shield it was necessary to cut a piece of it off with the dremel. Afterwards, it fit right into place just fine.
After reassembling the machine, it was time to get started with the LCD monitor. The monitor seems huge for the Amiga 1000 but actually weights less than the original 1084 monitor that was used with it.
As you can see, it works. It's difficult to show you how sharp it looks because cameras do not take good video of LCD screens.
However, I can show you some sample pictures I took with the video capture card using the S-Video connection to compare it to the composite video.
Since most of you will be watching this in a low resolution web format, I'll zoom in the picture so that you can see the fine details.
Here's a picture coming from the Amiga's built in composite video. Now let's show you that same picture taken to the S-Video connector. What an amazing difference!
Let's look again, here's the composite and here's the S-Video. Let's try a different screen like this one from a terminal program.
This is the composite version, which is barely readable. Now look at S-Video version. So with a simple add-on my Amiga 1000 can now be used with any modern televisions and still give me a picture comparable to that of the original RGB monitor that was used.
Now I can enjoy playing some games and be able to read anything too.