I have found a Commodore 64 / 1541 Floppy Drive and a C16 Datassette in the trash.

The Floppy Drive was very dirty but in good working state, while the Commodore 64 was faulty (black  screen with tiny raster effect). I have replaced the video chip (MOS 6569) and is back to run better than never.

Turbo Chameleon 64 is an extremely user-friendly cartridge that can be used without opening the computer. It is just plugged to the expansion port of the C64.

The Turbo Chameleon 64 cartridge can also be operated as a stand-alone unit (since it’s basically an FPGA computer like the C-One or the Minimig in a C64 cartridge case), replacing the computer, the floppy drive and the heavy power supply.

When used as a stand-alone unit, a USB power adapter or active USB hub can be used as a power source.

Changelog:

Beta-5 to Beta-5a:

• Fix crash when turbo limit is set in menu without activating turbo. (or when disabling active turbo with button while a limit is set)
• Fix D030 mirror of the turbo bit emulating C128 2Mhz mode with Chameleon turbo.

Beta-5a to Beta-5b:

• Eliminate spurious resets by masking reset line in standalone mode.
• Fix keyboard matrix so joysticks are properly emulated (IR, numpad) in standalone mode.
• Block normal button functions in menu mode (only exception is reboot by pressing 0.7s on right button)

source: syntiac.com

Turbo Chameleon 64 is an extremely user-friendly cartridge that can be used without opening the computer. It is just plugged to the expansion port of the C64.

The Turbo Chameleon 64 cartridge can also be operated as a stand-alone unit (since it’s basically an FPGA computer like the C-One or the Minimig in a C64 cartridge case), replacing the computer, the floppy drive and the heavy power supply.

When used as a stand-alone unit, a USB power adapter or active USB hub can be used as a power source.

Changelog:

• Framebuffer writes now use MMU.
• Framebuffer writes can be switched off (buffer can be used by software)
• Cartridge buttons emulated on PS/2 keyboard (F11,F12 and PrintScreen)
• Chameleon can use real BASIC and Kernal ROMs in machine in cartridge mode.
• Emulated IEC bus can be disconnected from C64 (Chameleon is drive emu)
• FLI bug fixed.
• Added Stereo SID support.
• Turbo feature added.
• Relative CPU speed displayed in VGA debug bar.

source: syntiac.com

This is a very old project published in a Dutch magazine to capture the state of the IRQ for Commodore 64 (vic-20) with a LED. After many years i have decided to make it.

On the photo you can see the project and the right connections on the cartridge port.

Components:

• 1 x IC 74LS04.
• 1 x Bicolor LED.
• 2 x 330 ohm resistors.
• Tiny wires.

How it work?

When the CPU generates an IRQ the green LED lights up, otherwise is red, if the irq is turned on and off quickly the led is orange.

Micro SwinSID (SwinSID88) is a hardware replacement for legendary SID sound chip which was placed in every Commodore C64 computer and other devices. Firmware update (27022011):

• This new firmware brings 6581 filter emulation by connecting B0 AVR pin to ground (on the Photo).
• Filter distrortions are still not emulated, only filter cutoff is affected.

source: forum64.de

Micro ZoomFloppy is a reduced version of the ZoomFloppy interface.

The interface Micro ZoomFloppy will sit in the 6522 IC socket of the Commodore Floppy Drive and provides the complete ZoomFloppy functionality.  The only external connection is a USB connector.

source: go4retro.com

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

On the Photo you can see the AVR ISP homebrew Adapter for programming the firmware.

Firmware update (10012011):

• Much improved ADSR envelope fading based on a real SID counter design.
• More soft filter.

Hardware tip:

To increase audio quality and volume level replace R4 (2k2) resistor with 1K. This will boost volume by about 50%

source: forum64.de

Commodore 64 it’s back… and better than ever! The new C64 is a modern functional PC as close to the original in design as humanly possible.

It houses a modern mini-ITX PC motherboard featuring a Dual Core 525 Atom processor and the latest Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset. It comes in the original taupe brown/beige color, with other colors to follow.

source: commodoreusa.net

Finally i had time to finish the enhancements of my Commodore 64, below a brief description of what you see in the photos.

Enhancements description:

• 1541-III bulk version.
• Reset Switch.
• Multi Kernel with Atmel flash rom.
• Multi Kernel Switch.
• Eprom homebrew PLA.
• Cartridge ON/OFF Switch.
• DualSID with separate output (6581 / 8580)
• 2 x Fan Cooling.
• Fan Cooling Switch.
• Bright Blu Power LED.
• 1541 Ultimate REV1 with v2.0 Firmware.

ZoomFloppy is an USB device for connecting Commodore disk drives to your PC.

The ZoomFloppy is an improvement based on XU1541 from Till Harbaum. Nate Lawson and Jim Brain teamed up to produce a professional product.

This controller will support IEC drives, IEEE-488 drives and a user-port connection for parallel speeder drives.

source: jbrain.com commodore-gg.hobby.nl

The team from dienstagstreff.de has demonstrated a Commodore C64 on the “Hobby und Elektronik 2010” in Stuttgart.

Demonstrating a C64 is not so special but this time the C64 was under water! They submersed a C64 circuit-board in water, connected it to a power supply and a monitor and the C64 work without problems for 1 hour.

source: youtube.com commodore-gg.hobby.nl

Autopsy:

Today i picked up two Commodore 64, both are in poor condition and Broken.

The first one with the chip SID 6581 can play a garbled sound and the closing hooks broken, the other one with the chip PLA 906114, 7406, CIA 6526 dead. I made some cleaning and repaired the problems.