Commodore PET 8296-D

Commodore PET 8296-D

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home/personal computer produced from 1977 by Commodore International. A top-seller in the Canadian and United States educational markets, it was Commodore’s first full-featured computer, and formed the basis for their entire 8-bit product line.

The PET 2001 was announced at the Winter CES in January 1977 and the first 100 units were shipped later that year in October. However, the PET was back-ordered for months and to ease deliveries, early in 1978 Commodore decided to cancel the 4 kB version.

Although the machine was fairly successful, there were frequent complaints about the tiny calculator-like keyboard, often referred to as a “chiclet keyboard” because the keys resembled the gum candy. This was addressed in upgraded “dash N” and “dash B” versions of the 2001, which put the cassette tape recorder outside the case, and included a much larger keyboard with a full stroke motion. Internally a newer motherboard was used, along with an upgrade from static RAM to dynamic RAM and 8, 16, or 32 KB, known as the 2001-N-8, 2001-N-16 or 2001-N-32, respectively.

Sales of the newer machines were strong, and Commodore then introduced the models to Europe. The result was the CBM 3000 series (‘CBM’ standing for Commodore Business Machines), which included the 3008, 3016 and 3032 models. Like the 2001-N-8, the 3008 was quickly dropped.

The final version of what could be thought of as the “classic” PET was the PET 4000 series. This was essentially the later model 2000 series, but with a larger black-and-green monitor and a newer version of Commodore’s BASIC programming language.

Commodore tried to update the PET line with a new redesign called the CBM-II series (also known as the B series). These were not as successful and were ultimately abandoned. However, due to demand, the original PET machines were revived and the CBM-II case style was retained. These were known as the SK’s (due to the separated keyboard). They also had a swivel monitor. Originally, standard 8032 boards were retrofitted into these cases. Later the SK models got a new mainboard that already included the 64 kB extension directly on the board and were sold as 8296 or, with a built-in 8250 dual disk drive, as 8296-D.

source: wikipedia

  1. wfking
    December 11th, 2011 at 12:08 | #1

    Beautiful computer. But the keyboard in your photos is for the CBM 710/720, and not for the 8296-D.

  2. December 11th, 2011 at 14:28 | #2

    @wfking

    You have absolutely right! a detail that i have missed.

  3. Freud
    January 26th, 2013 at 00:23 | #3

    Ciao, non è che quando hai aperto il monitor hai anche segnato i valori degli elettrolitici? Grazie.

  4. January 26th, 2013 at 10:12 | #4

    @Freud

    Ciao, hai provato a vedere se uno dei schemi disponibili qui:

    http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/schematics/computers/pet/8032/index.html

    corrisponde al monitor dell’8296-D ? altrimenti potrei aprirlo e segnare i condensatori, ma devi avere pazienza.

  5. Freud
    January 27th, 2013 at 06:06 | #5

    Ho confrontato i due layout con le tue foto e sono diversi. Senza impegno, se e quando puoi segnarli mi fai un gran favore. Grazie ancora.

  6. March 5th, 2014 at 08:22 | #6

    hi,

    i have a little problem and just feel free to ask, sorry if i’m not supposed to do so !
    i see you own a CBM 710 Keyboard !!
    I own a complete CBM 710 with keyboard but somewhere in time someone thought is was intelligent to cut the keyboard wire.

    So my goal is to reconnect my keyboad in the right way to the computer.
    Can help me by providing some pictures or shematics ??

    Kind regards

  7. March 5th, 2014 at 18:02 | #7

    @8bitman

    Hi,

    The keyboard matrix of the CMB 710 keyboard is not compatible with the 8296-D

    I have replaced the 710 keyboard with a 8032-SK keyboard, that works perfectly.

    Look here:

    http://www.nightfallcrew.com/11/03/2013/commodore-cbm-8032-sk-keyboard-before-and-after-cleaning/

  8. March 7th, 2014 at 02:31 | #8

    hi xAD,

    I own a CBM710 with his keyboard. but the wiring was cut.
    in picture 5/15 6/15 You have a keyboard CBM710.

    I know I’m asking a lot but would it be possible to have a picture of the connector and the wiring on both sides of the cable.

    kind regards,

  9. Lasse Reinstroem
    May 15th, 2018 at 05:39 | #9

    Nice computer and when i remember right, then the secondary-school in which i was from 1984 to 1988, had those PET 8296-D computers in the informatik (computer science) classroom. I am not 100 percent sure, cause it`s such a long time ago and i only had informatik one year back in the time, but when i look at the computer cases and the monitors with the blue green lettering then i am sure that it was Commodore PET computers. Funny thing was, nearly half of the school class had either a C-64 or a Atari-800 at home which had much better graphics at that time. But nevertheless, the PET`s are nice computers, especially for retro collectors and not cheap here in Germany when you want to buy one.

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