Texas Instruments TI-99/4A – Alpha Lock Joystick Fix.

This mod fix the problem of the alpha-lock key that need to be up or down when you are using joysticks.

The instructions for the Alpha-Lock Joystick Fix can be found here

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A – CPU Overclocked at 3.58mhz

This project allows you to increase the speed of your console from 3mhz to 3.58mhz. It might not sound like a big increase but this is a 20% increase in speed and it is easily noticable.

The instructions for the CPU Overclock modding can be found here

Gallery:

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A – Internal TMS5220 Speech Synthesizer.

The instructions for the internal assembly of the TMS5220 Speech Synthesizer can be found here

Gallery of the works that have been made:

It could be better!

I had severals problems with the free space inside the TI-99/4a, maybe i have put too many things … but everything works perfectly :D

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A – 32k Internal Expansion Memory + Status LED + Reset.

Works that have been made:

• 32k Internal Expansion Memory.
• Switch for disable the Expansion Memory.
• Reset Pushbutton switch.
• Bi-Color LEDs to display the status of the internal memory expansion 32k. (ON = Green / OFF = Red)
• Replaced the resistor for the LED from 2.2k to 220 ohms.

Gallery of the works that have been made:

It could be better!

I had severals problems with the free space inside the TI-99/4a, i had to remove one side of the metal part, the biggest problem is the internal 32k expansion which is not very well done, there is no a way to secure it inside … but everything works perfectly :D

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A – F18a (FPGA Based TMS9918A) Installation.

Works that have been made:

• Installation of the F18a and removal the tape connector to make a opening for the vga connector.
• The metal cover is no longer used.
• RCA 2 DIN Homebrew Adapter to use the audio output after installing the F18a on the TI-99/4a.

Gallery of the works that have been made:

What is DiagROM?

DiagROM is a diagnostic tool for the amiga computers.

And it is to be used on defective machines, trying to help no-boot situations etc.

You simply replace the Kickstart roms in the Amiga with the DiagROM. and when poweron. your Amiga will start a diagnostic software. It will try to dump info on the serialport (and actual menus etc aswell) while also trying on the screen.

Updatehistory:

• 2016-10-22: Fixed bugs in new Chipmemdetection that made it not detect any chipmem if there was missing/Broken chipmem in the beginning. Added errorhandling in the startprocess, so it can show on serialport if there was a exceptionerror. also will show colorcodes on screen.  done some smaller bigfixes. Will bump versionnumber and this will be the stable version.  It will take a while until next stable version is bumped. Need to do floppy, serial, paralell tests etc before that will happen. but you always have the daily version.
• 2016-10-12: New Chipmem detection now handles shadowram so it should stop detecting memory instead of giving false 2MB Chip. IF no Chipmem avaible and machine can detect fastmem (NON autoconfig. more or less only A3000/4000 motherboardmem) it will now start using fastmem only. (screen flickers in different colors instead of printing text, nullmodem only) Fixed addresserrorbugs at CIA and joystickport tests on machines with 68000CPU. also should have correct CIA timing on slow machines. IF fastmemshadowram is detected during memorytests, test will exit.  MANUAL test have a option to disable that test.
• 2016-10-07: LONG time no updates.  Familystuff.  Anyway. decided to do a total redo of initcode especially chipmemdetection. Detection is slower, but progress is printed on serialport so you can see address checked and if failure (in the beginning of the detection)  you will see what it wrote and what is read to help debugging of chipmemproblems. Screen should flicker in green while detecting.        drawback is that some tests (cia and joyport tests) now generates an addresserror. Will have a look of that.

Download: DiagoROM v0.8 Stable (1038)

source: diagrom.com

The Vampire 600 V2 is the newest and the fastest accelerator available for your Commodore Amiga 600.  There is nothing on the market that can compete with its performance and price. It is intended to be used as an educational tool to allow users to be able to learn programming for the 68K series of CPU’s and see the capability of todays powerful FPGA’s.

This is not the final product as there will be constant impovements to the board and core and new programming instructions are being continually added.

Main Features:

• 128MB Fastmem RAM.
• Digital video output (HDMI).
• SD card for HDD storage.
• 64 bit core, full 32 bit compatibility.
• Directly update core from the Amiga without need for external programmer.
• FPU and 16 bit Audio is planned for future updates.

Gallery of the installation and testing:

12►

Video Vampire A600 V2 Unboxing/Testing (sorry only in Italian language)

source: apollo-accelerators.com kipper2k.com

Repair Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) 1 of 6

Asserted defect:

• Sometimes works, sometimes not, check solder.

Fix:

I state now that this Commodore 64 has been socketed.

The work done is not bad but was better clean up the remaining flux around the pcb pads, the eye wants its part.

The defect occurred twice on 55 switching on and off (i counted them)

In one of these two times i have noticed the problem that was missing the CPU Output Clock on the solder side pad. I redid the solder and fixed the socket pin and everything worked again.

I also noticed that one of the eight RAM it was warmer than the other, but working, i have decided to replace it. I don’t exclude that this operation has only fixed one of the problems, the other might to be the power supply that i don’t have.

I have twisted several times the PCB on itself, i dropped down at least 10 times on the table and leave power on for four hours, now i  can exclude solder problems.

In the photos you will see a PLA 906114 (U17) that for some bizarre reason have solder it on the socket, really curious.

Gallery of the repair:

Repair Commodore 64 (ASSY 250425) 2 of 6

Asserted defect:

• Black Screen.

Defects found:

• Missing the Composite Video Signal.
• Black Screen.
• Missing Audio.

Repair:

• Replaced 1 x MOS 8701 Clock Generator (U31)
• Replaced and Socketed 1 x MOS 906114 PLA (U17)
• Replaced 1 x MOS 6581 SID (U18)

Gallery of the repair:

Repair Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) 3 of 6

Asserted defect:

• Black Screen.

Defects found:

• Black/Garbage Screen.

Repair:

• Replaced and Socketed 1 x MOS 906114 PLA (U17)

Gallery of the repair:

Read more…

PPI Super Sketch for Texas Instruments TI-99 Repair.

Defect:

• The cartridge is not recognized by the TI-99/4A.

Repair:

• Replaced 1 x 74LS139 (U1)
• Replaced 1 x 74LS30 (U2)

Note:

The repair of the Super Sketch cartridge was quite simple, in the first time i thought a problem of the ROM but instead the failure was the two IC U1 and U2, which should do the work of the Bank Switching.

To remove the two IC i have preferred to cut the pins and then remove each pin because i know very well this type of PCB and also lowering the temperature there is a risk that the pitches come off.

Gallery of the repair:

Some new games or tools (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups.

Titles:

• Collapse +20D
• Carrier-Bourne Fighter Simulation &D
• ALI V4 [german]
• The Pirates of the Dark Waters V2
• Dare Devil Denis +2DG
• Slavia 2 Deluxe
• Tasiemiec
• Rise and Shine Professor Miggles
• Dog
• Lumberjack
• Zombie Massacre
• Princess Saver 2000
• Valentine’s Day Shopping Simulator
• Bonkey Kong
• Goblin
• Granny’s Teeth
• Stareggs +4DGH
• Goblin +
• Bonkey Kong +
• Zombie Massacre +2H
• Freebooter Preview
• Exodus Preview
• Lumberjack +
• Lumberjack +1H
• Dog +
• Rise and Shine Professor Miggles +
• Granny’s Teeth +5D
• Antarctica
• Winky Blinky +
• Watschinator
• Super Ski
• I Ate the Purple Berries
• M4573R84G3L5
• :10
• $#!7
• Dropout
• Attack of the Mutant Cabbages +
• Picross +
• I Am the Flashing C64 Cursor +D
• Picross
• Firefighter Jenny
• I Am the Flashing C64 Cursor
• Super Ski +3
• Winky Blinky
• Attack of the Mutant Cabbages
• Granny’s Teeth [post compo version]
• Pour Le Merite +2D [seuck]
• Sylphwyrm +2D [seuck]
• Hack Attack Preview +D
• Firefighter Jenny +3
• Dropout 64 +D
• Granny’s Teeth +4
• Red Baron 3000 Preview
• Snafu’64
• Baker Street Detective +DGW
• 4K Game Collection 64K CRT
• Granny’s Teeth +5HD
• Charlie Chaplin Preview
• Colon +1TD
• Ninja Massacre +4DGPF
• Hack Attack +D
• Atlantian Preview
• Maelstrom +D

Download: All Games in One Archive (3636)

source: csdb.dk

The Commodore Monitor 1960 may have been made by Daewoo (Korea) or a Taiwan company, or may be an OEMed Panasonic Panasync. The tube is made by Hitachi/Panasonic.

There has been some debate over whether it is a true multisync or a trisync monitor. Reports have been provided that indicate it can handle Super72 screen modes at about 23 kHz, and the manual says it can sync up to 38 kHz. It may be a sort of hybrid, with a wide “window” in the 15.75 kHz to 31.5 kHz range.

Gallery:

Download: Commodore 1960 Service Manual (1306)

source: bigbookofamigahardware.com

Assembly and Replacement of the old DualSID with the MixSID.

Unlike the DualSID i had to replace the two electrolytic capacitors (see picture) because the PCB of the MixSID is much more big and the two capacitors hinders the right installation of the PCB in the SID socket.

For the technical specifications of MixSID go here

Gallery:

source: henning-bekel.de

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Changelog:

• Reworked the in-game hook code again, squeezing out a couple more CPU cycles – compatibility improved further
• BS-X: new bsx page file by LuigiBlood!
  • contains a proper channel map, notably fixes Fuurai no Shiren: Surara o
  • sukue and most likely more games
  • enables a great number of town features
• BS-X: better detection for script-type ROMs (e.g. various magazines)
• Cx4 SKIP instruction timing sped up a bit. Core felt a bit too slow. (this is a makeshift “fix” until I implement the proper Cx4 instruction timing I recently figured out)
• Fixes:
  • fixed occasional black screen after soft reset (L+R+Select+Start)
  • in-game hook memory area visibility quirks fixed in various situations, notably fixes BS Kirby no Omochabako: Pinball
  • BS-X: fix PSRAM corruption on SNES WRAM writes, fixes a number of games, notably BS Kirby no Omochabako: Pinball (tough one)
  • PPU2 H/V count odd/even read flag is reset on ROM load, this fixes games that depend on it when run after games that leave it in a dirty state – notably audio glitches and freezes in Super Punch-Out when run after Fuurai no Shiren.
  • SPC Player: Fixed a long-standing transfer corruption bug that occurred because the original bulk transfer routine didn’t account for CPU stalls by HDMA (which is abundant in the sd2snes menu). This fixes occasionally missing instruments, corrupted samples etc.
  • fixed an occasional deadlock on bootup where the menu would hang at the “Loading…” screen.
  • fixed hard freeze when selecting a file immediately after disabling the “Hide file extensions” option
  • fixed persistent hard freeze in recent games list handling when running games with long path names (> ~120 characters)
  • revert DAC I2S timing to pre-v0.1.7c behaviour, hopefully reducing audio glitches for sd2snes Rev.G units
  • fixed corrupted file list display after playing an SPC file with a scrolled file name
• Cosmetic changes:
  • “Loading” window is replaced by status bar notification to be less
  • disruptive with very short load times
  • configuration settings no longer have the wrong color when changed

Download:

• SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7d (859)
• SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7d (Sources) (831)
• SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7d (Changelog) (886)

source: sd2snes.de

The ‘Ultimate II+’ is a storage solution for your Commodore C64/C128(D) home computer or in stand-alone mode for C16/Plus4/VIC-20 and so on.

This cartridge implements a ‘real’ 1541 Diskdrive for Commodore computers and with a simple press on one of the buttons, a menu will pop-up on the Commodore screen, allowing the user to view the USB storage content, and ‘mount’ .d64 or .g64 images into the Floppy Drive.

These are the most important differences from the previous version of the cartridge (1541 Ultimate-II)

• No more MicroSD! (… that needs to be pushed in with something sharp, could fall into the case, … etc)
• More USB ports (… one to compensate for the lost SD, and just one bonus: 3 in total)
• IEC connector moved (… further back to facilitate use on some C128 models)
• Integrated Ethernet (… no more need for an external USB2LAN adapter, and a smaller step to CS8900A compatibility)
• Dual Flash (… no more worry that a software bug or upgrade failure leads to a bricked device)
• Integrated Speaker (… who connects a speaker set to the audio jack for hearing drive sounds??)
• External power supply connector with auto-switch over circuit (… for stand alone mode, and to lower the demand on the power supply of the C64)
• Improved Audio (… audio codec, 24 bit/96 kHz*, for sampled sounds and SID emulation)
• Improved Tape connector (… no more custom board and able that snaps in on the bottom, but standard USB 3.0 cable)
• Improved power supply circuits (… for some reason they seemed to break down relatively often)
• Slightly bigger and faster FPGA, as to control the new features.

Gallery:

source: 1541ultimate.net facebook.com

A new version of the firmware for the interface Ultimate II+ is released. This version runs ONLY on the Ultimate II+ cartridge.

Ultimate-II+ fixes: 3.0c rev 423:

• Fixed speaker disable
• Fixed G64 loading
• Fixed IEC for use with JiffyDOS and single byte fetches
• Increased output volume on codec output
• Auto audio / REU select for MOD player (yet to do for SID player)

How to update?

• Browse to the U2P firmware file on the USB storage and run it from the context menu.

Download: Ultimate-II+ Firmware v3.0c rev 423 (1077)

source: facebook.com 1541ultimate.net