Again available for sale the interface C64SD v2.0 Infinity by Manosoft.

This gallery shows some stages of repairing the Commodore CBM 610.

Defects found on the Commodore CBM 610:

• Random raster lines on the screen.

Components replaced:

• 2 x 74LS245
• 1 x 74S32
• 1 x 74S05
• 1 X 74LS14
• 2 x Capacitor 22uf 10v
• 2 x Capacitor 1uf 50v

I have passed three weeks of suffering for repairing this CBM 610. The finding of the fault is not has been easy, the key component of the failure was the IC 74S05 (U96) followed by the other components.

Autopsy:

123►

You can use any power supply with 6v / 1.5 amp with the polarity described below:

Polarity is positive + on the outside or barrel and negative - on the inside or tip

from Wikipedia and The National Valve Museum homepage:

The Sinclair TV80, also known as the Flat Screen Pocket TV or FTV1, was a pocket television launched by Sinclair Research in 1984. Unlike Sinclair’s earlier attempts at a portable television, the TV80 used a flat CRT with a side-mounted electron gun instead of a conventional CRT; the picture was made to appear larger than it was by the use of a Fresnel lens.

The set has a 2 in. screen, measures 5= x 3= x 1< in. and weighs 9= oz. A special Polaroid flat battery that provides 15 hours’ operation has been produced to power it — there’s also a mains adaptor. The set itself goes on sale at #79.95, with the 6V Polaroid lithium batteries in packs of three at #9.95 per pack and the adaptor at #7.95, all prices inclusive of VAT, postage and packing. Normal retail and export sales are expected to start during the first half of 1984. Sir Clive Sinclair predicts sales rising to a million or more a year worldwide, and speaks of the set ‘achieving for television what the transistor radio did for wireless, creating a new one-per-person product’.

The set has some interesting technical features. It is for example a multi-standard receiver with automatic switching between most UHF standards worldwide except for France. Most of the circuitry is contained within a single ic that uses innovative digital techniques to monitor the vision and sound signals and adjust the circuitry automatically to suit the transmission standard. The ic was jointly developed by Ferranti and Sinclair Research and is being produced by Ferranti. Manufacture of the flat-screen tube (the gun is mounted to one side and the phosphor is deposited on the rear section of the viewing part) has been subcontracted to Timex in Dundee, using Sinclair designed and owned automatic plant. Assembly of the sets has been subcontracted to Thorn.

Apart from the tube and the ic, the main electronic items consist of the video output transistor, line and field output stages, the tube power supply generator and the tuner. The latter measures just 31 x 23 x 11 mm and uses hybrid microminiature components with advanced surface mounting. It’s output is at 230 MHz, which has been chosen to avoid image frequency problems in the UHF band.

It was a commercial failure, and did not recoup the £4m it cost to develop; only 15,000 units were sold. New Scientist warned that the technology used by the device would be short-lived, in view of the liquid crystal display technology being developed by Casio.

Download: Service Manual Sinclair FTV1 & FTV2 (2354)

Video:

source: wikipedia r-type.org

Finally i have found a small CRT Color TV with Composite input and an External RF Antenna input. This is a very useful in my lab where the free space is always a problem.

Autopsy:

12►

Tomasz “Tebe” Biela has released an update of the program Graph2Font v3.9.8.7.

This project began many years ago as a simple graphics converter for Atari but over the years the features are significantly increased. The converter runs under Windows.

Download:

• Graph2Font v3.9.8.7 (Full) (1246)
• Graph2Font v3.9.8.7 (Lite) (1283)

source: g2f.atari8.info

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

Titles:

• Voltage +4EF 101% [pal/ntsc]
• Grey Seas, Grey Skies &GD
• Ultimate Quest: Catacomb
• Tic-Tac-Toe 2013
• Tic-Tac-Toe 2013 Crack
• CBM Asteroids Preview +
• Zix +5DMG
• Box Nightmare 0.1
• Nu pogodi
• Space Trap +3GD [pal/ntsc]
• Helsings Hunt +2
• Vampire’s Empire +3DM [pal/ntsc]
• Jara-Tava
• Zoo Mania Final +3H (eapi fix) [EasyFlash]

Download: All Games in One Archive (2982)

source: csdb.dk

CBM-Command is a disk manager for the Commodore 64 / Commodore 128 / Commodore VIC20 / PET and Commodore C16 computers. It is written like Norton Commander or Midnight Commander, but is much simpler due to the target platforms. Both the C128/C64/VIC20/C16/PET have their own native version of the application.

Release Notes – Version 2.3 Final

This is the final release for CBM-Command Version 2.3. What happened to version 2.2? Well, cc65 went through several breaking changes and I wanted to make a clear delineation that this version of CBM-Command isn’t a simple fix and recompile of the last version 2.2.

New Features:

• Provides Side-By-Side panels or Top-And-Bottom panels on 40-column systems.
• Batch disk image creation.
• User can select drive or partition number.
• The disks have a little BASIC-language program that can update your configuration files.

Known Issues:

• It can trigger the write-and-replace bug.
• It can’t create or write back D80 and D82 images.
• The REL-file copier doesn’t truncate old target files that have the same record size as the new file.
• It will try to copy DEL files if they are selected.
• Errors don’t stop batch operations; the file is skipped.

Download: CBM-Command v2.3 Final (D64/D80) (2195)

source: cbmcommand.codeplex.com

I thank a friend for the donation.

Donated item:

• Fenner MX-66 (Monochromatic Monitor)
  • The Mx-66 was a green phosphor CRT-based monochrome monitor manufactured in Italy by Fenner.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Autopsy:

1234►

This computer/console in good cosmetic condition is arrived for a repair from a friend a few weeks ago. The defect is The Black Screen of Death, the computer turns on but doesn’t turn off, the standby LED remains faint green.

Unfortunately after several hours spent to trying the fault and i have tried just everything, the computer is still dead, my suspicion falls on the Custom Chip “SCOTCH” IX 1267CE from Sharp.

Components that have been tested and replaced:

• Tested all capacitors.
• Tested all transistors.
• Tested all SMD fuses.
• Test all the Coils.
• Tested all voltages.
• Replaced 74LS08 ic that controls the logic of power on/standby.
• Replaced 74LS244 ic that controls the logic of power on/standby.
• Replaced the power supply.

Download: Sharp X68000 Schematics (1713)

from Wikipedia:

The Sharp X68000, often referred to as the X68k, is a home computer released only in Japan by the Sharp Corporation. The first model was released in 1987, with a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU (hence the name), 1 MB of RAM and no hard drive; the last model was released in 1993 with a 25 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU, 4 MB of RAM and optional 80 MB SCSI hard drive. RAM in these systems is expandable to 12 MB, though most games and applications did not require more than two.

The X68k ran an operating system developed for Sharp by Hudson Soft, called Human68k, which features commands very similar to those in MS-DOS (typed in English). Pre-2.0 versions of the OS had command line output only for common utilities like “format” and “switch”, while later versions included forms-based versions of these utilities, greatly improving their usability. At least three major versions of the OS were released, with several updates in between. Other operating systems available include NetBSD for X68030 and OS-9.

Early models had a GUI called “VS” (Visual Shell); later ones were packaged with SX-WINDOW. A third GUI called Ko-Windows existed; its interface is similar to Motif. These GUI shells could be booted from floppy disk or the system’s hard drive. Most games also booted and ran from floppy disk; some were hard disk installable and others require hard disk installation.

Since the system’s release, Human68k, console, and SX-Window C compiler suites and BIOS ROMs have been released as public domain and are freely available for download.

Early machines use the rare Shugart Associates System Interface (SASI) for the hard disk interface; later versions adopted the industry-standard small computer system interface (SCSI). Per the hardware’s capability, formatted SASI drives can be 10, 20 or 30 MB in size and can be logically partitioned as well. Floppy disks came in a couple of different formats, none of which are natively readable on other platforms, although software exists that can read and write these disks on a DOS or Windows 98 PC.

source: wikipedia

I have received these computers to be repaired for a friend.

Defects found on the Commodore VIC-20:

• Error message (device not present) when trying to access the IEC devices, like a Floppy Drive.

Defects found on the Commodore 64:

• Black screen of death after installing the missing roms.

The repair of the Commodore VIC-20 was made by replacing a HEX Inverter Buffer 7406.

The repair of the Commodore C64 was made by replacing the MOS 906114-01 (PLA – Programmable Logic Array).

Gallery of repairs:

This is the official demo party results from Stary Piernik 8 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB Stary Piernik 8 section for more informations and download.

C64 Demo:

• Fogyish
• In Thorn by Sabath
• Kazachski piesek by Provocator

C64 Music:

• Nasty Bitch by Wacek
• One Life by Surgeon
• Filth And Scottish Words 50% by Randall

C64 Graphics:

• The Jungle by JSL
• Black Sun Logo by Miras
• Gdzie by Maciaszczyk

Download: Stary Piernik 8 full Party stuff (1140)

source: noname.c64.org/csdb/

Thanks go to: Damiano (manosoft) and my Brother Alessandro.

Things that have been donated:

• 4 x Box of Verbatim Datalife 3.5  2HD Floppy Disk.
• 1 x Apple Keyboard for my iMac G3 “Bondi Blue” M5521
• 1 x Iomega Zip Drive SCSI + Cable.
• 1 x Iomega Zip Drive USB + Cable.
• 11 x Zip Disk.
• Some 3.5 Floppy Disk.

Autopsy:

The Mupi CineVisor was a must in the 70/80′s year and was used to project movies on the small screen.

The CineVisor was very cheap compared to a classic projector and perfectly manageable by children, don’t require special aptitude like the super8 projectors.

Autopsy:

Finally i have replaced my old and inaccurate Capacitor tester with a better one. My lab is beginning to have a semblance semi professional ;-D

Download: Peak Atlas ESR+ 70 User Guide (1503)

Video Review: