Commodore Amiga 500/600 PSU Repair

Amiga 500/600 (PSU) PowerSupply #1

Defect:

• Short-circuit and the fuse blows.

Replace parts:

• 1 x Transistor NPN 2SC3679.

Amiga 500/600 (PSU) PowerSupply #2

Defect:

• Short-circuit and the fuse blows.

Replace parts:

• 1 x Transistor NPN BU508A.

Amiga 500/600 (PSU) PowerSupply #3

Defect:

• Short-circuit and the fuse blows.
• The PCB is half broken.
• Some components have suffered of too much heat.
• The locking pins of the cover are broken.
• Dirty and Yellowed.

I don’t made the repair. I recovered what might come in handy.

Gallery:

The Gotek is a USB Floppy Drive emulator very cheap, you can buy it from eBay at €24.00 €20.00 including the shipping cost.

Let’s start by saying that this Floppy Disk Emulator with the original firmware is totally useless for our purpose, like to connect it to an Amiga and in the near future to a Atari ST or Amstrad CPC. The new firmware written by Herve Messinger replaces the original firmware, to do this you need a simple converter from USB to TTL Serial Interface to program the STM32 ARM Cortex MCU.

I would add this thing; this Floppy Drive Emulator is not absolutely comparable to the HXC Floppy Emulator of Jean-François DEL NERO (Jeff) where in addition to supporting dozens of Floppy Formats/Hardware and the Firmware is in development from several years but it’s a nice and inexpensive alternative.

For more information, firmware and programming tool you need to go here the official blog of Herve Messinger.

Video:

source: cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com

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

Titles:

• Battle for Normandy 101% +D
• Bubble Escape 2K +1D
• Harrier Attack HS &D
• Maze Dash +3
• Blob Preview V3 +1
• Maze Dash +4MH
• Magic Duel [Doreco Party Edition]
• Bellringer III V1.5 +4HFD [pal/ntsc]
• Scuba Dive HS &D
• Gnom [norwegian]
• Amazon 100% +5EF [pal/ntsc]
• Commando Arcade
• Wild West Seymour +2DPG +PIC +SOL +MAP
• Steinberg Pro-16 Plus, Version 2.4
• Star Lifter HS
• Denga +2
• Maze of the Mummy Preview +6
• Faster Than Light Preview +2
• Labyrinth (Commodore Disc) +
• Fuse &MHD

Download: All Games in One Archive (2750)

source: csdb.dk

Gallery:

Commodore SX64 Keyboard Fixed.

Defect:

• Some keys works and some not.

Work done:

• Cleaning with a “Contact Cleaner” to remove the oxidation of gold contacts under the membrane.
• Cleaning all keys.
• Cleaning the keyboard case (inside/outside).

Gallery:

Replacement NiCd Battery of a Commodore SR4190R Calculator.

Defect:

• Battery Leaks.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 3 x NiCd Rechargeable Batteries 1.2v.

Gallery:

Commodore SX64 (USA/NTSC) Repair.

Defect:

• Black screen and then noise of a misaligned drive (don’t read anything).

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x 906114 PLA (UE4)

Other things:

• Aligned the Floppy Drive using the original copy of the Free Spirit Software Drive Alignment.
• Removed the broken switch to disable the write protection and disconnected a LED on the front side of the SX64.
• Connected the sensor wires cut.
• Cleaning the Floppy Drive.

The HxC Floppy Drive Emulator is a software and hardware system created by jfdn aka Jeff.

The aim of this project is to replace the floppy disk drive by an electronic device emulating the floppy disk drive (list of supported Computer/Hardware).

There are two differents emulators:

• A USB version which allows to connect the floppy disk drive interface of the computer to a PC via a USB cable.
• A SDCARD version which allows to emulate floppy disks which images are stored in a SDCARD.

Release notes for the HxCFloppyEmulator software v2.0.22.0:

• GUI – Track viewer window : New viewer mode -> Disk surface view mode.
• Raw loader :  UKNC Russian computer support added.
• New Writer : BMP file (Disk/circular layout) -> Disk layout can now be exported into a BMP file (for disk analysis) !
• libhxcfe : Correction of the UTF8 path support in some loaders/writers.
• New Loader : SPS CT Raw file format support added. (NOTE : No flakey bits support for the moment !)
• libhxcfe : Generic flux stream analyzer enhanced.
• Disk Browser : ADFLib fseek corrected.

Download:

• HxCFloppyEmulator v2.0.22.0 (1345)

source: hxc2001.free.fr lotharek.pl

Apple IIc Rom v4 Upgrade & Repair.

Defect:

• The second RAM in the auxiliary memory is faulty.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x RAM 4264 (ARD1)

Upgrade:

• Apple IIc ROM upgraded to the latest version V4 (MON)

Download:

• Apple IIc v4 ROM + Installation Manual (1410)

This is a test done for a dear friend to check if the Acorn Archimedes A420/I is working properly. The RGB scart cable is homemade by me to connect to a Commodore 1085S monitor.

Gallery:

The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers’ first general purpose home computer to be based on their own ARM architecture. Using a RISC design with a 32-bit CPU (26-bit addressing), at its launch in June 1987, the Archimedes was stated as running at 4 MIPS, with a claim of 18 MIPS during tests. The name is commonly used to describe any of Acorn’s contemporary designs based on the same architecture, even where Acorn did not include Archimedes in the official name.

The first models were released in June 1987, as the 300 and 400 series. The 400 series included 4 expansion slots (although a two slot backplane could be added to the 300 series as an official upgrade, and third parties produced their own 4 slot backplanes) and an ST506 controller for an internal hard drive. Both models included the Arthur operating system operating system (later replaced by RISC OS as a paid-for upgrade), BBC BASIC programming language and an emulator for Acorn’s earlier BBC Micro, and were mounted in two-part cases with a small central unit, monitor on top, and a separate keyboard and three-button mouse. All models featured onboard 8 channel stereo sound and were capable of displaying 256 colours on screen.

Four models were initially released with different amounts of memory, the A305, A310, A410 and A440. The 540 was unveiled in September 1990, and included higher speed SCSI and provision for connecting Genlock devices. The 300 and 400 were followed by a number of machines with minor changes and upgrades.

source: wikipedia

Commodore CBM/PET 3032 Motherboard Repair.

Defect:

• Garbled screen and then “Illegal Quantity Error” message or 31 Bytes free

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x NE555 (A2)
• Replaced 2 x Unstable RAM 4116 (I2/I3)
• Replaced 1 x 74LS153 (E4)

Atari Disk Drive 1050 #1

Defect:

• SIO bus unresponsive.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x LM3086N (U1)

Atari Disk Drive 1050 #2

Defect:

• SIO bus unresponsive + no reset cycle of the Disk drive on poweron.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x RAM-I/O-Timer (RIOT) 6532 (U7)

Autopsy Apple IIgs / Keyboard (A2S6000W):

1234►

Autopsy Apple 3.5 Drive (A9M0106):

Autopsy Apple 5.25 Drive (A9M0107):

12►

Autopsy Apple IIgs Mouse (A9M0331):

Autopsy Apple IIgs RGB Monitor (A2M6014Z):

The Apple IIGS (stylized as IIGS) is the fifth and most powerful model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The “GS” in the name stands for Graphics and Sound, referring to its enhanced multimedia capabilities, especially its state-of-the-art sound and music synthesis, which greatly surpassed previous models of the line and most contemporary machines like the Macintosh and IBM PC.

The machine was a radical departure from any previous Apple II, with its true 16-bit architecture, increased processing speed, direct access to megabytes of RAM, wavetable music synthesizer, graphical user interface, and mouse. While still maintaining full backwards compatibility with earlier Apple II models, it blended the Apple II and aspects of Macintosh technology into one. Keeping with Apple’s “Apple II Forever” slogan of the time, the IIGS set forth a promising future and evolutionary advancement of the Apple II line, but Apple paid it relatively little attention as the company increasingly focused on the Macintosh platform.

The Apple IIGS was the first computer produced by Apple to use a color graphical user interface, as well as the “Platinum” (light grey) color scheme and the Apple Desktop Bus interface for keyboards, mice, and other input devices. It was also the first personal computer to come with a built-in “wavetable” sample-based synthesizer chip, utilizing technology from Ensoniq. The machine outsold all other Apple products, including the Macintosh, during its first year in production.

Apple IIgs booting from Iomega Zip Drive:

source: wikipedia

This a special edition of the Commodore C64, celebrating the 1.000.000th sale of the C64 in Germany. This is one of the most desirable Commodore items. There are about 300 golden Commodore C64 produced. The numbers from 1.000.000 until 1.000.100 were for the staff of the Commodore factory Braunschweig.

The rest was given to hard- en software companies, magazine-publishers and distributors. The C64 is a computer system with a keyboard, external power-supply and a motherboard. On the motherboard you will find a MOS 6510 processor, RAM / ROM memory, MOS 6569 VIC-II video chip, MOS 6581 SID sound chip and twice a MOS 6526 CIA. PAL version.

source: ebay.de richardlagendijk.nl

Autopsy:

The biggest drawback to the Sinclair ZX-81 or Timex Sinclair 1000 computer is its tiny membrane keyboard.

The Memotech keyboard is the solution to this. With its full stroke keys and standard size, it makes entering data and interacting with programs, so much easier. The bus connector had a Memopak I/F keyboard buffer on it so you could type at a natural pace and the Sinclair could keep up with you.

In most cases this keyboard worked right out of the box, but in some cases with older memory packs, you would need to be sure to place the keyboard last in your chain of accessories plugged into the computer’s bus connector and set the dip switches on the keyboard to “slave”.

The membrane keyboard itself is not disabled while the ZX81 Keyboard is connected and either can be utilized for data input… this makes multiplayer, simultaneous play, much easier as each opponent can use their own keyboard as a controller.

source: geekvintage.com

Gallery:

Commodore 64 Shiny Blue (Professional Painting). Many thanks to my friend Damiano Colombari (Manosoft)