Archive

Archive for the ‘Projects / Repairs’ Category

Sound comparison: Micro SwinSID vs SID 8580

November 9th, 2010 No comments

These are some Sid examples which i have recorded from a Commodore 64 with the SwinSID installed. You can Download the original Sid track in .sid file format and the SwinSID in .ogg file format (High Quality), so you can compare the musics.

  • The Alibi by Thomas E. Petersen (Laxity) 1989 Maniacs of Noise- SID (6581)
  • The Alibi by Thomas E. Petersen (Laxity) 1989 Maniacs of Noise- SWINSID
  • Albino Human by Alexander Rotzsch (Fanta) 2006 Fanta – SID (8580)
  • Albino Human by Alexander Rotzsch (Fanta) 2006 Fanta – SWINSID

Some Sid tracks play perfectly others need some emulation fixes.

Micro SwinSID KIT – Assembling and Testing

November 8th, 2010 No comments
Testing Micro SwinSID

Micro SwinSID KIT by Peter Sieg:

Certainly you can’t expect perfect emulation, but we are very close, the audio is much more clean than the original SID chip, if the project continues on this road we will arrive very soon on the perfect emulation.

Micro SwinSID (SwinSID88) is a hardware replacement for legendary SID sound chip which was placed in every Commodore C64 computer.

This project is based on the microcontroller ATMEGA88PU from Atmel and the emulation code is written by Swinkels. The first version of the pcb (prototype) was made by Crisp.

For more information and price visit the forum64.de.

Aoyue 474A+ Desolder and Test – C64 Motherboard

October 20th, 2010 2 comments

I wanted to try my new desoldering station Aoyue 474A+ with the motherboard of the Commodore 64, i have unsoldered all chip and i have added a socket. It works so good and is so fast.

Amiga 2000 PAL REV4.5 Kick v2.05 & 4MB of FastRAM Upgrade

October 5th, 2010 No comments

I continue to upgrade my Amiga 2000 PAL REV 4.5. I have upgraded the Kick Rom and added my Vector A2000i zorro Card with 4MB of fast memory.

Amiga 2000 PAL REV4.5 Battery & 1MB ChipRAM Upgrade

September 30th, 2010 No comments

I have decided to upgrade my Amiga 2000 PAL REV 4.5 for get 1MB of chip ram. I also took advantage of this update to install a new battery for the system clock. Amiga 2000 PAL REV 4.5 Fat Agnus 8372A Installation:

  • Install a new Fat Agnus 8372A or 8375 (8375 R1)
  • Look for jumper J101 beside the power connector to the motherboard. Change it to the opposite position. (photo)
  • Look for trace J500 at the back of the machine near the Cia’s (8520′s). It’s a jumper trace that you will have to cut with a razor blade. (photo)
  • Look for trace J102 near the Fat Agnus (8372A). It’s a jumper trace that you will have to cut with a razor blade. (photo)

source: amiga-hardware.com amigahardware.mariomisic.de amiga.org

New Dual Sid project by Tomi Malinen *updated*

September 30th, 2010 2 comments

from C64scene homepage:

Tomi Malinen is currently developing a dual SID board, although there are other solutions available for your C64 this one is interesting because of the ability to use either 6581 or 8580 as SID #2 no matter the board revision.

This means that you can play games with 6581 sound from the first channel and 8580 sound from the second.

Other features of the dual SID board are:

  • Small board, only about 40mm x 50mm.
  • SID #2 address jumper selectable between D400, D420, D500, DE00, DF00.
  • MSSIAH-compatibility at DE00.
  • Full game compatibility with double mono setting at D400.

Installation requires soldering, two wires attach to the cartridge port and two have to be soldered to the Kernal IC. When the SID #2 is mapped to D400, D420, D500 the wires to the cartridge port are not used.

Photo of both protypes installed:

source: c64scene.com lemon64.com

Fixed the SIO2SD Firmware Crash

August 1st, 2010 No comments

My SIO2SD interface is dead (without any valid reason) after 2-3 hours of playing demos/games.

I have tried to reprogramming the firmware with a STK500 USB ISP Programmer and the tools AVRDUDE and it has worked perfectly.

Atari 130 XE (Keyboard Fixed)

July 11th, 2010 No comments

The functions keys (Start / Option / Select / Reset..) of my Atari 130 XE not making good contact, i have fixed this problem with a good clean-up and graphite of a pencil.

Homebrew Joystick Adapter for Apple IIc

June 5th, 2010 No comments

This is a Joystick Adapter for Apple IIc, with this adapter you can use the Apple ][ Plus Joystick.

Joystick Adapter Pinouts:

Some fixes for the Acorn Electron Data Recorder ALF03

May 9th, 2010 1 comment

Some fixes for the Electron Data Recorder ALF03.

  • Fixed the output Audio.
  • Replace the belt.
  • Clean the tape head and fix the Azimuth.
  • Fixed the Powersupply cable.
  • Self made RGB Cable.
  • Self made Data Recorder Cable (DIN 7 PINs).

Click here for my Acorn Electron computer.

My homebrew C2N232 Interface

March 20th, 2010 No comments
Marko Mäkelä's C2N232 interface

Autopsy:

This is my homebrew C2N232 Interface.

from Marko Mäkelä’s homepage:

The C2N232 is a small RS-232 interface that can be plugged to the cassette port of an 8-bit Commodore computer:

  • PET series: 2001, 3000 series, 4000 series, 8000 series, 200 series
  • PET-II series: CBM 500, 600 or 700 series (P500 or the B series)
  • Commodore VC-20, VIC-20 or VIC-1001
  • Commodore 64, 4064, 64c or 64G
  • Commodore 128, 128D or 128DCR
  • Commodore 264 series: 16, 116, plus/4 or 232

source: Marko Mäkelä’s Homepage

Powersupply Adaptor for CPC 6128 with External Floppy Drive 3½

March 13th, 2010 2 comments

My homebrew Powersupply adaptor for Amstrad CPC 6128 with a External Floppy Drive 3½.

source: cpcwiki.eu jrp king homepage kjthacker.f2s.com

Amstrad (Schneider) CPC 6128 Parados Rom v1.1

March 12th, 2010 No comments
Parados v1.1 Screenshot

Parados Installation Photo Gallery:

ParaDOS is 16kB ROM that replaces the AmsDOS. Allows to use double-sided floppy disks and some more disk formats.

source: grimware.org

Apple IIc – Apple Disk Transfer ProDOS

March 10th, 2010 3 comments
APPLE ][ Serial Cable & Serial USB Adapter

Foto review of the Serial cable and Transfer program:

ADTPro may be used to transfer Apple diskette/disk images in DOS or ProDOS/SOS format.

The Apple client side happens to run under ProDOS or SOS, but it is perfectly capable of reading or writing Apple DOS (or Pascal, or CP/M, or…) diskettes.

source: adtpro.sourceforge.net

Amstrad CPC Powersupply adaptor & RGB (Audio) Scart Cable

February 13th, 2010 No comments

My homebrew Powersupply adaptor & RGB/Audio Scart cable for Amstrad CPC 464/6128.

source: cpcwiki.eu jrp king homepage kjthacker.f2s.com