These are my two Commodore PET 2001-8C (Chiclet). They are two different models, below i will list the differences.

On the left:

• Different front Label.
• PET Motherboard ASSY 320132
• Different Copyright Label on motherboard (1978)
• Uses the 2114 ram ic for the Main memory and for the Video ram.
• CRT tube with green phosphor.
• The transformer, the big electrolytic capacitor and the power connector are different.
• Datassette Motherboard ASSY 320275-B (1978)

On the right:

• Different front Label.
• Motherboard ASSY 320008
• Different Copyright Label on motherboard (1977)
• Uses the MOS 6550 ram ic for the Main memory and for the Video ram.
• CRT tube with white phosphor.
• The transformer, the big electrolytic capacitor and the power connector are different.
• Datassette Motherboard ASSY 320109.E (1977)

This Commodore PET 2001-8C also includes a homemade Power Amplifier to hear the sound of some games that use the pin CB2 of the User Port as audio output.

Also is included a reset button and two mini-led (Red / Green) that display the data (Save / Load) when using the tape recorder.

Some photos of the Commodore PET 2001-8C:

Copyright label on the motherboard:

Some photos of the repairing and cleaning:

Commodore PET 2001 (Chicklet) Repair datassette.

Defects:

• Doesn’t load any more.

Repair:

• Replace motor.
• Replace belt.
• Azimuth adjustment.

Thanks to Manosoft for the spare parts (white datassette, the same model of the black one)

Commodore PET 2001 (Chicklet) Repair.

Defects:

• Wrong chars on the screen.
• Memory problems.

Repair:

• Replaced all MOS 6550 main ram with an 6550 Ram Adapter by xAD & Manosoft (only 2 x MOS 6550 was faults)
• Replaced 1 x MOS 6550 Video Ram with a spare one from the main ram.

Video of Galaxy Invaders with Sounds:

from Wikipedia homepage:

The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home/personal computer produced in 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.

Read more…

Hi all, like one year ago Manosoft amazes us again, this time he did a great job of merging the ITS TAP Player module with the C64SD and from this merger comes the Princess, an interface with both previously released interfaces.
The Princess interface is elegant as only Manosoft can do, the box color has changed and is a white sand that matches perfectly with the whole 8-bit Commodore Home Computer series.

In addition to the color were also added new controls and visual led. Below the instructions of each command on the front/back side of the Princess interface.

Front side:

• [1] Play/Stop switch for TAP file.
• [2] Reset button.
• [3] Disc Change button. (down/autoswap.lst)
• [4] LED:
  • Yellow – Virtual Motor of the Tape.
  • White – Reading.
  • Red – General Error.
  • Green – Power.
• [5] Floppy Drive Connector (IEC) Computer side.
• [6] Connector Cassette side Computer
• [7] Auxiliary Power 9v.

Back side:

• [1] SD Card slot.
• [2] Red Button – Setpoint tap file / (up/autoswap.lst)
• [3] Dip Switch for selecting the Floppy drive Device (SD2IEC).
• [4] Audio volume (monitor function) TAP Player.
• [5] Mini DIN 8-pin connector to be connected to the tape port of the Commodore 264 series.
• [6] Auxiliary Power 9v.
• [7] Pass-through Floppy Drive Connector (IEC)
• [8] Pass-through Tape connector to use with a Datasette 1530 or 1531 with a another adapter.

Like the previous C64SD v2.0 interface, the Princess has a pass-through connector for the cassette recorder and one for the Floppy Disk Drive.

I don’t forget to speak about the nice addition, a small Piezo Speaker to hear the sound of the bytes that are loaded with the TAP Player and also a nice “beep” that warn if the interface on power up working correctly.

Damiano alias “Manosoft” is a good manufacturer of 8 Bit peripherals and also a great friend. I take the opportunity of this article to greet Damiano and congratulate for this new interface for the 8-bit Commodore Home Computer series.

Soon will be available on the Manosoft website two new software packages (C64 and AIO)

“AIO” is an innovative system that will allow the creation of the SD Card of 4GB or higher in a few minutes from an image file created ad hoc.

On the Commodore 64 side was also written a new program called “MENU” with some utilities like the initialization of the SD Card for the Princess C64SD v3.0 interface.

The development of the TAP Player firmware with the SD2IEC protocol has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of Hawui1 promoter and developer of the ITS Module and some other things.

The Princess C64SD v3.0 interface will be available for sale in the next months on the Manosoft site.

Princess C64SD v3.0 Video Preview:

Gallery:

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This is a disk interface system made by Micro Peripherals Ltd which was later badged by Sinclair as their “official” disc system.

It used its own software (written by Richard Miller) and did not conform to the QJump “FLP” system used by most companies at the time (it used the name FDK to access the disk drives). The fact that the device name was not “FLP” put a lot of users off. The unit does not support direct sector access.

The interface had an 8K onboard EPROM providing the device driver and toolkit extensions, which included:

• DGET – Load sector into an array
• DPUT – Save an array to a sector
• MSET, FSET – Toggle microdrive emulation mode
• VSET – Rename the disk device (the interface normally uses the drive name FDK rather than the FLP used by most other QL disk systems)

Plus several other extensions similar to those in other disk interfaces, and some utility programs such as a disk and memory editor were supplied on disk.

The interface was supplied with either one, or a pair of DSDD 720KB drives, the first of which took its power from an external transformer via a 6-way power connector, and the second took its power from the DC output of the first drive via a 5-way connector, plus a ribbon connector from one drive to the other.

The interface had switch-selectable options via a series of jumpers to format single or double sided, and 3ms or 6ms track to track time. Another jumper could be set to make the QL boot from an ‘mdv’ named disk.

Powersupply Pinout:

Download:

• Micro Peripherals Floppy Disk Interface Manual (1519)
• Micro Peripherals Ltd Floppy Interface ROM v5.3 (Italian) (1328)

source: rwapadventures.com

Gallery:

Thanks to Paolo Pascolo and Carlo Pascolo (founder of Co.r.el) i have received more information about this interface.

This interface was designed and distributed by Co.r.el in Italy and assembled by Asem or Computer Control, two Italian companies.

This is a small article of an old Italian magazine (MCmicrocomputer) where they speak of what are sold under the name Co.r.el (see picture)

This interface is a converter from IEEE-488 Bus to RS-232 to be use with the Watanabe plotter, the data are send via a device number from the Commodore PET (CBM).

Gallery:

The Palladium game distributed under Magnavox licensed offers 4 ball games, 2 shooting games and 2 car games,  all games are in color. The core chip is the TMS-1965 from Texas Instruments.

The paddles can be moved vertically with the sliders found on each controllers. There are also two “speed-up” buttons on the controllers.

Gallery:

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The Sharp MZ-2500 (SuperMZ) series was launched on the Japan market in 1985, the computers in this series all used a Z80B processor running at 6MHz. They included a data recorder and at least one 3.5 internal floppy disk drive, as well as a YM2203 FM sound chip, hardware scrolling, and a palette of 256 colors (upgradable to 4096) and it takes from 2 to 8 seconds to define P.C.G (user generated characters, similar to sprites).

This makes them among the most powerful 8-bit machines ever released for home use. Some models are also compatible with the MZ-80B and MZ-2000.

Sharp MZ-2500 (SuperMZ) Advertising:

Sharp MZ-2500 (SuperMZ) RGB cable pinout:

This cable provides an RGB video signal from a Sharp MZ-2500 to a SCART television set, which is the highest quality signal achievable from your Sharp MZ-2500.

I thank Fabio Bovelacci (Frater Sinister) for the donation.

Donated item:

• 1 x Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k
• 1 x Sinclair ZX Spectrum + PSU (50% Boxed)
• 1 x Sinclair Thermal Printer
• 1 x Sinclair ZX Interface 1
• 4 x Sinclair Microdrive Boxed
• 1 x Interface Midi Master for Amiga 500/2000
• 1 x Vic-20 Cartridge VIC-1941 (Number Nabber / Shape Grabber)
• 1 x Vic-20 Cartridge VIC-1922 (Cosmic Cruncher)
• 1 x Harey Alien Invaders Handheld game
• 4 x IC Motorola 68000
• 1 x IC MOS 5719 (Amiga Gary)
• 2 x IC CGS 5719 (Amiga Gary)
• 3 x IC CGS 8362 (Amiga Super Denise)
• 1 x IC CGS 8364 (Amiga Paula)
• 2 x IC MOS 8364 (Amiga Paula)
• 5 x IC CGS 8520 (Amiga CIA)
• 1 x IC MOS 8520 (Amiga CIA)
• 2 x IC Amiga Kickstart ROM v1.3

Gallery:

Commodore 16 ASSY 251789-01 REV B Empty PCB

Gallery:

Commodore VIC-20 ASSY 251040-01 Empty PCB.

I have to thank my friend Andrea S. for having warned me that he had seen a Commodore VIC-20 near the trash loot.

Short gallery:

I start to saying how much i hate repairing psu switching, one of the most boring things second only to the repair of CRT Monitor, at least for me.

However this repair was made. The failure is almost certainly caused by a copious spillage of electrolyte (conductive fluid usually formed from a salt solution or acid which is located inside of the electrolytic capacitors) and a dangerous test if the machine works again after the electrolyte was leaking over the pcb.

The moral of the story is easy to figure out, a short circuit has made several deaths, a good portion of the Primary (PWM) and Secondary.

The components that have been replaced are the following:

• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 3300µF 16v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1000µF 25v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 2200µF 35v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1000µF 100v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 330µF 160v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 47µF 25v 85°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 10µF 100v 85°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 22µF 25v 85°
• 1 x Sanken Hybrid Voltage Reculator Module STR 53041
• 1 x Photocoupler TLP 541G
• 1 x Overcurrent Protection Elements ICP N10
• 1 x Transistor C1815GR
• 1 x Transistor DTC114 ESA (C114 ESA)

After 1 week i have decided to replace also all capacitors of the power supply section of the computer.

Components replaced:

• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 3300µF 25v 105°
• 3 x Electrolytic Capacitor 5600µF 10v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 2200µF 10v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 330µF 35v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1000µF 16v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 470µF 25v 105°
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1µF 50v 105°

Gallery of the repair:

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Chinook Technology RAM 4000: All 4 banks filled for a total of 4Mb.

Gallery:

Apple IIgs Memory Expansion Card. This card has 4 memory banks with a total capacity up to 4Mb (only two banks is presently populated for a total of 2Mb).

The ram that are used for this expansion memory are DRAM HY51C1000LS-10/KM41C1000AP-10.

First of all, I must thank my dear friend Andrea for helping me financially to purchase this interface (one of the last pieces of the third batch).

Unboxing R&D Automation CFFA3000:

This is a CompactFlash / USB flash drive interface for Apple II family of computers.

Specifications:

• Support 1 to 13 partitions under ProDOS and GS/OS, and 2 virtual floppy drives
• Virtual Floppy image support allows the use of almost any non-copy-protected floppy disk image, including .dsk, .2mg, and .nib files. Note: .nib files of protected floppies will not work with the CFFA3000
• Allows storage of thousands of floppy and smartport disk images
• User configurable partition count
• Boot from either device and any partition
• Allow booting from Dos3.3, Pascal, CPM, Contiki, ProDOS or GS/OS directly from the Interface card (for a floppy-less system)
• Configurable as a CFFA smart port controller (i.e. a mass storage device) or as a floppy controller, or both. When configured as both, requires 2 slots in your Apple II, one for the physical card, and one for the virtual floppy controller.
• Hardware supports DMA, although v1.0 software does not currently support DMA. Future support is planned, but not guaranteed.

Apple IIgs through the GBS 8200 v4:

Apple IIgs through the GBS 8200 v4 (display scalar board) to a VGA Monitor.

The cable that i have made takes from the Video Connector of the Apple IIgs the 12v voltage for the GBS 8200.

Schematics:

Video Demostration of CFFA3000 through the GBS 8200:

source: CFFA3000 Homepage