ATTACHING A SIDECAR IBM CLONE TO YOUR A500 

                       by Steve Rothenberger 


   There is a way to have cheap IBM compatibility for the Amiga 500. I
   have done this and it works perfectly. The answer is to use the
   Sidecar, designed for the Amiga 1000. Recently a lot of mail order
   companies have been selling these for about $400 [Ed: or even $299].
   The unit includes a 5 1/4" drive, will take IBM expansion cards and
   what's more, provides access to IBM clone hard drives which are at
   least half the price and can be partitioned between the Amiga and
   Sidecar to any required configuration.  OK, how is it done?

    The sidecar is connected to the Amiga via the 86 pin Local Bus found
   on the left side of the A500. WARNING - pin 1 is located at the top
   front of the Sidecar and A1000's 86 pin connectors, but is located at
   the top rear of the A500's.  This leaves you 3 options:

    1/ You can turn the sidecar around so that the front is facing out the
   back ( with the sidecar still the right way up ) and directly connect
   it to the A500. The A500 would need to be elevated an inch or so.

    2/ A very short ribbon cable could be connected to a 43 way double
   sided edge connector ( 0.1 inch pitch ) each end, one male and one
   female. Unfortunately the sidecar will still need to be turned
   backwards but the A500 won't need to be elevated. Apparently the
   timing signal from the A500 is upset if the cable is too long. Nothing
   will be damaged but you will just get a screen full of random
   character's. I tried a length of 1.5 feet with no success, however I
   was told a length of a few inches would work.

    3/ For a little more money and time this is the neatest method and
   works perfectly. The entire workings of the A500, except the keyboard
   are placed in a cabinet with some slots, which is directly connected to
   the side of the A500 ( the sidecar is the right way round with the
   A500 motherboard backwards inside the cabinet ). This is all much
   simpler than it sounds and it's very handy having all the peripheral
   ports facing the front instead of the back. With my model the disk
   drive is bolted to the motherboard and all is encased in a metal cover
   so transferring to the cabinet is not messy.  Just be sure to have a
   slot in the front of the cabinet for the ports, one in the left side
   for the drive and one in the right side for the 86 pin local bus
   connector. Now put the A500 case back together with the keyboard in
   position. I have extended my keyboard connector with a 1 meter ribbon
   cable.  Without confusing anybody, pin 20 on the A500 local bus is
   different from pin 20 on the A1000 local bus but causes no problems
   whatsoever, just connect pin for pin.

    A500 - PIN 20 = NO CONNECT
    A1000 - PIN 20 = / PALOPE
   I hope this will be of help.  Thanks to Harvey Riddle for his help.