Upgrading Commodore A3640 CPU Card (part one)

Works that have been done:

• Upgrading GAL (U204 & U209)
• Socket for Oscillator.
• Overclocking.
• Replacing all capacitors (the recap was already done but for the CPU adapter 040 -> 060 was necessary use smd capacitors for the little space available)
• CPU Adapter 040 -> 060.
• CPU Motorola 68EC060

Gallery of the work done:

Commodore Amiga 4000 repair with Floppy Drive that is not recognized.

Defect:

• Floppy Drive Dead (not recognized)

Repair:

• Replace CIA 8520 (U300).

Gallery of the work done:

Vampire GOLD2.8 Core Released for V600 v2 & V500 v2(+)

Vampire GOLD2.8 Changelog:

• Improved HDMI DMA support for misaligned screen pointers.
• Minor FPU fix.
• A500 RTC fix (V500).
• Improved SDCard/SDNet support.
• V500 V2+ Expansion port enabled.

SAGA Driver v1.1 Changelog:

• Updated VampireGFX.card to 1.12
  • Adds Scanlines settings.
  • Assumes SOFTSPRITE=YES by default if not set in tooltypes.
• Updated SDNet.device to 1.1.
  • Fix for x12 cores.
• Added VampireGFX tooltypes documentation.

Download: Vampire Core & Saga Driver (1282)

source: apollo-accelerators.com

Commodore Monitor 1084S-P Repair.

Defect:

• Completly dead with only a loud whistling noise in background.

Repair:

• Replaced the flyback transformer (AT2079/30102) everything has started to work perfectly.
• It’s mandatory to made a calibration of the SCREEN and FOCUS with the two trimmer placed on the rear side of the flyback transformer.

Note:

A loud whistling noise indicates a bad flyback transformer (also known as an LOPT).

Gallery:

Download: Commodore Monitor 1084S-P Schematics (1149)

This is the official demo party results from BCC #12. See also the CSDB BCC #12 section for more informations and download.

C64 Demo:

• 1 – Psychedelic Delicacy by Delysid
• 2 – The New Ninja Skateboarders of Death by The New Ninja Skateboarders of Death
• 4 – Honey by Atlantis

C64 Music:

• 1 – $50 Shades of Gradius by c0zmo
• 2 – Ibiza Sun [2sid] by GI-Joe
• 3 – We Hover Do You Feel That by G-Fellow
• 4 – Rain of Castamere by Kompositkrut
• 5 – Redshift by Toggle
• 6 – For BCC#12 Invitation by Sonki
• 7 – BCC12 by Sonki
• 8 – Eine Kleine Popmusik by Røly
• 9 – Migraines Revenge by Gaetano Chiummo
• 10 – The Courier Remix by Uctumi

C64 Graphics:

• 1 – Neonscape by Luisa/Oni
• 2 – Ein Tag im Meer by Baracuda
• 3 – Ghost by Fabs/Salvo Bee
• 4 – Fire and Fury by Nero
• 5 – Abstract Rotation by Informer
• 6 – Monsta by Salvo Bee
• 7 – Fun and Run by Informer
• 8 – Haruko and Ayako by Luisa/Oni

Mixed:

• 1 – Game Art Beyond by Bliss (Graphics Collection)

C64 Fast Intro:

• 1 – Monitori Te Salutant II by Brainstorm    
• 2 – Courier Intro by Hokuto Force
• 3 – Party-Part by Atlantis
• 4 – Kraut54147 by Mayday!

Productions released outside compos:

• Eliminator Remix (Music)
• Pains ‘n’ Aches +8D Trainer by Excess (Tool)
• Puzznic +3P (Crack)
• The Chicken Choker +2 by Aldi Industries (Crack)

Download: BCC #12 Full Party Stuff (1127)

source: csdb.dk

Vampire GOLD2.7 Core Released for V600 v2 & V500 v2(+)

Vampire Changelog:

• Added fully pipelined hard FPU with peak 78 MFlops
• Added native support for all 68882 FPU operations without need of extra libraries
• Added new high performance memory controller, reaching 600MB/sec memory speed
• Added MapRom support
• Added Workbench Hardware Sprite support
• Added Scanlines optional mode for retro look of games on HDMI output
• Added RangerMem (A500 slow memory) for better compatibility with some old games/demos
• Added new boot picture
• Improved MPU (memory protection) with catching memory access error Enabled
• Improved AMMX2 instruction set with acceleration features for Video decoding, Image Decoding, 2D-games, 3D-games
• Improved WHDLOAD compatibility
• Improved Faster Boot time

SAGA Driver Changelog:

• Added VControl 1.1 (replace VampireTool)
• Updated SAGA driver installer
• Updated SDNet to 1.0 (Bax)
• Improved VampireGFX performance with AMMX (Bax)
• Complete VampireGFX driver rewrite in ASM (flype)

Download: Vampire Core & Saga Driver (1239)

source: apollo-accelerators.com

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports: + many more….

Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.9.1a -> v3.1.16.1a cumulative changelog:

• User interface part :
  • Code Refactored
  • Better buttons behavior.
  • Better/faster rotary behavior.

• Normal mode :
  • Press both buttons shortly to jump to the first entry of the current folder. (“..”)

• Normal mode :
  • When returning to parent folder (“..”) the position in the folder is restored.

• Autoboot mode :
  • Press both buttons shortly to jump to Autoboot.hfe / Press both buttons more than 2 seconds eject/insert the disk.

• Indexed mode :
  • Press both buttons shortly to jump to DSKA0000.HFE / Press both buttons more than 2 seconds eject/insert the disk.

• 7 segments screen : Now show when an image is inserted (“—”) or ejected (” – “)
• OLED : init algorithm revised for diymore.cc screens.  (Press the right button at power up at the first diymore.cc screen installation).

• Various user interface fixes.
• Normal mode : key auto-repeat delay increased.
• Revert filtering changes (Rotary support)
• Keys debouncing filter increased.
• Normal mode : Wait the select key release after a directory change.

• New interface modes :
  • IBMPC_DD_HD (PC Mode with auto density selection)
  • S950_DD_HD  (Akai / Shugart-Like Mode with auto density selection)

• New Family :
  • Ensoniq ASR10 (Ensoniq Auto DD & HD support)

• New 7 segments config menu 1 (Interface mode) entries :
  • 0F = S900/S950 (Density Auto)
  • 10 = PC DD/HD  (Density Auto)

• New 7 segments config menu 0 (System family) entry :
  • 11 = Ensoniq ASR10 (Ensoniq Auto DD & HD support)

• Some file system & disks access sanity checks added.
• New menu setting interface menu for normal 7-segments Goteks :
  • To access it, remove the USB Stick and press both buttons.
  • Choose the sub menu number – wait some seconds for the selection validation.
  • Check and/or change the setting – wait some seconds for the selection validation.

This is only a little part of the changelog. The original one is very long and you can read it here. (instruction manual here)

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.1.16.1a (976)

source: hxc2001.com

This version of the Atari 410 Cassette Recorder differs from the one inside the “Atari – The Educator” box only for the additional colored box that hold the simple one in white cardboard.

Gallery:

NEW TAG: C64 BIG GAME PACK

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

Titles:

• Cabal +8DFHIR
• Tetris MP [2in1] +F
• Retaliate Preview 2 +2
• Retaliate Preview 2 +
• Retaliate V0.2 Beta
• Lemmings +15DF [easyflash]
• UFF +2TPDF [english]
• Number King
• Ratekoenig
• Axe of Rage +10DMHF
• Retaliate V0.2.1 Beta (Hotfix)
• Find The Pussy
• Jake the Snake V2.2
• Retaliate Preview 2 +3H
• Snake 360 Preview +
• Snake 360 Preview
• Painter +4DH
• Kevin in the Woods Preview +
• Steel Ranger Preview +C
• Balloon Flight +HF
• Wizard
• Trainsmission +1
• Trainsmission +
• Crazy Cars III +6D [easyflash]
• Tink Tonk Castle Clobber +
• Killed Until Dead +D [easyflash]
• Steel Ranger +3C Trainer
• Retaliate Preview 3 +3
• Fallout Hacker
• H.E.R.O. II Preview 2
• Fallout Hacker +1D
• Pirates! [german] [1581]
• Iceblox Plus +5HF
• Killed Until Dead +D [easyflash]
• Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego [easyflash]
• Battle Command [sd2iec]
• Metro Blitz +3DH
• Zork (53 Columns)
• Alien 3 [easyflash]
• Gindevmbly
• Border Blast 3 Enhanced +2H [seuck]
• Dark Destroyer 2117 RX +2 [seuck]
• Delta Run RX +2DH [seuck]
• Valentine’s Day Shopping Simulator +
• Navy Moves +7DFHIRW
• Indeflataball +7HF
• Vitamin +4CTD
• Bounder (Competition Edition)
• Zork III (Proportional Font)

Download: All Games in One Archive (5758)

source: csdb.dk

Commodore CBM 8032 (HP – Early version 1980) – CompuThink Disk Drive Controller – External Dual Disk Drive – Woltron ROM-BUS Adapter.

• COMPU/THINK (CompuThink) Dual Disk Drive Controller with 8k RAM per commodore PET 8032 (It could be a Prototype or a Clone Board with ASSY 001-35 – DD DSK CTL COMP).
• COMPU/THINK External Dual Disk Drive 800k DD/DS.
• WOLTRON ROM (CompuThink C-DOS & TOOLKit) + PET/CBM Expansion BUS Adapter + PIA (Peripheral Interface Adapter) Motorola MC6821.

Unfortunately there is no documentation on the net of this Computhink card that seems to be a prototype or a clone, also there is no documentation or photos of the BUS/ROM Adapter by Woltron.

I spent sleepless nights looking for the starting SYS for the disk management software on the eprom, i have disassembled 24k of code (C-DOS Roms / Basic Roms Patched / Edit Roms Patched) in machine language.

I did it and found it the starting sys ($E790 – SYS 59280), although everything seems to work perfectly after the sys command is printed on the screen (*DOS-40*) and by typing the directory command ($d,1) or the format command ($f,1) the floppy starts to run correctly but the head does not move, while the exit command ($h) work correctly,
i need to say that i replaced the FDC1791 and some floppy disk logic and also one floppy disk drive, but nothing changed.

My suspicion falls on the PROM 82S123 there is no dump on the net, reading this PROM of 32 bytes, only the first 8 Bytes are filled, this is right ? we’ll never know.

All EPROM and PROM have been dumped and you can find them in the archive below.

Gallery:

Download: C-DOS 4.0 - Basic/Edit Roms Patched - PROM 82S123 (1034)

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports: + many more….

Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.2.0a -> v3.1.8.1a Cumulative Changelog:

• Raw files : Write sector performance increased. / Near Real time sectors write !
• Low level Floppy IO optimizations.
• Raw *.IMG PC Files : Use the DOS 6.22 disk layouts.
• And as always some code optimizations.
• Cache flush fix : Do you not reorder the cache when not needed ( e.g when the track fit the cache size )
• CFG File V1 fix (Autoboot mode) : slots support now file images with 2 characters filename extension…
• More code Speed optimizations. (again ! :) )
• More Code Speed optimizations.
• RAW MFM & FM Images (IMG/ST/…) : More Write speed improvement. / Sector Data cache prefetch.
• RAW MFM & FM Images (IMG/ST/…) : Write speed improvement. / Track cache workflow improvement. / Code optimization (CRC16, MFM 2 BIN…).
• *.ST 720KB Files : Switch to the TOS 1.62 Disk Layout.
• RAW files loader : Internal enhancement.

This is only a little part of the changelog. The original one is very long and you can read it here.

Software HxCFloppyEmulator v2.1.8.0:

• New Loader : Atari ATR file image loader.
• New Write & Loader : HFE V3 : variable bitrate and other proctections support. / (Experimental ! The file format definition is not yet finished !)
• Kryoflux raw files Writer : Fix dead lock with tracks without pulse.
• Amiga DOS image browser : 85 tracks AmigaDos image support.
• Disk Image browser (FAT & AmigaDOS) : Fix null-sized file import issue.
• Disk Image browser (FAT & AmigaDOS) : Can now delete folders.
• All image loaders : Fix possible track skew calculation error.
• Emax image loader : GAP fixed to 30.
• Thomson *.FD loader : Sector interleave set to 7
• Command line tool : -uselayout option can be now used to specify external xml disk layout file.

Download:

• USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.1.8.1a (1571)
• Software HxCFloppyEmulator v2.1.8.0 (1301)

source: hxc2001.com

A new version of the firmware for the interface 1541 Ultimate II+and 1541 Ultimate II is released.

Release notes Ultimate-II & II+ v3.2:

• Completely rewritten SID player, by Wilfred Bos.
• Enhanced version of FC3, by Daniël Mantione.
• Added Tape Index function, as suggested by Tom Roger Skauen.
• Added UCI interface to access the network (TCP/IP and UDP/IP) through Ultimate Command Interface (documentation pending)
• Many additions and bug fixes by Henning and Markus, including Home Directory, REU load on startup, EasyFlash write support (manual save), and more.
• Some enhancements in FTP server.
• Additional bug-fixes.

How to update?

• For the 1541 Ultimate-II:
  • Navigate to the unzipped file ‘update_audio_3.2.u2u‘ or ‘update_dual_drive_3.2.u2u‘ and select “Run Update”
• For the 1541 Ultimate-II+:
  • Navigate to the update_3.2.u2p file, and select “Run Update”.

Download: 1541 Ultimate-II / Ultimate-II+ v3.2 Firmware (1051)

source: facebook.com 1541ultimate.net

Commodore CBM 8032 (HP Early version [1980]) Motherboard Repair (ASSY 8032030)

Defect:

• Garbage screen.

Repair:

• Replaced 4 x 2114 Static RAM (UC4 / UC5 / UC6 / UC7)

Note:

As you can see from the photos this computer is already been repaired by a butcher. The butcher did not use the sockets after replacing the static ram ones and the pads had already suffered from the previous desoldering and soldering, probably using an unsuitable soldering station.

Gallery of the repair:

Commodore CBM 8032 (HP Early version [1980]) PCB Monitor Repair (ASSY 321448)

Defect:

• Dead. Missing High Voltage from Flyback Transformer (LOPT)

Repair:

• Replaced 2 x burned resistors of 56Ohm 1/4w (R752 / R753)

… and now let’s move on to the second defect. :-)

Gallery of the repair:

The SuperPET is a Commodore PET 8032 with one or two added boards that were designed at the University of Waterloo.

The computer has a built-in RS-232C interface and many programming languages on Floppy Disk. In Europe, this machine was called the MicroMainFrame 9000, or MMF 9000.

Let’s start to assembling the BMB Compuscience Ltd Board and Compu-Think 64K Memory Expansion board in the Commodore MMF 9000 (SuperPET)

I had to shorten the original standoffs installed in the computer because the length was wrong for the two boards BMB Compuscience/Compu-Think 64K. The long standoffs are used for the superPET Combo Board (the last one released).

It was not a simple job, obviously i have looked around for the identical standoffs with thickness, size, pitch and some with a long screw other with a short screw.

Between one phase and another i have also giving a nice clean inside and outside of the computer and of the motherboard.

Unfortunately there are a couple of problems after assembling the two boards of the MMF 9000 (SuperPET).

Defects:

• The keyboard space bar dead.
• Don’t runs any Waterloo program in the 6809 environment, runs only the Bootstrap menu which allows to load the programs from Floppy Disk, the Machine Language monitor and the Setup program both are in the Eprom.
• The protection Dongle (6702) not correctly viewed from the system.

Repair/Fix:

• The keyboard after a good cleaning has started to work well.
• The Dongle after cleaning the contacts now works.

About the programs that don’t runs in the 6809 environment the repair was a bit longer. I have used the only program that worked under the 6809 environment, the Machine Language Monitor.

With this program i have filled the memory with the command Fill (f 9000-9fff aa) and i have changed from time to time the bytes that i was going to write in memory and  i have used the command (d 9000-) to see the results and not all memory locations are written correctly.

With the Bank Switching command (b 0, b 1 …) i have switch the memory bank, there are 16 banks of 4k each for a total of 64k.

I have found 7 x 4116 RAM failed (this card is new, never used), replaced these bad RAMs everything has started to work properly.

So my advice is to try to load the Waterloo software in the 6809 environment to make sure that the 64k memory expansion (only seen in the 6809 environment) is working properly.

Below the photos of all the tests that i have done:

• Test with the CPU 6502 (Standard Commodore 8032/32k) with disk access, some software running in emulation 40 columns with the program: 80240.prg
• Test with the CPU 6809 of the entire Waterloo software package with disk access.

Gallery:

123►

This is a archive with documents, disk images and rom files usefully to test the computer.

Download: MMF9000/SuperPET Documents,Disk images,ROM Files (1304)