This is a Sinclair Microvision MTV1B. It’s the second attempt of Clive Sinclair’s to make a small portable television.

Released in 1978, it was the smallest television in the world with a CRT tube. A teeny-tiny 2″ D5-100w CRT made by Telefunken. Powered by 4 x AA or via External Powersupply at 6v DC (Negative at the center of the power connector).

Gallery:

Download: Sinclair Microvision MTV1B Schematics (1346)

The ABC 80 (Advanced BASIC Computer 80) was a home computer engineered by the Swedish corporation Dataindustrier AB (DIAB) and manufactured by Luxor in Motala, Sweden in the late 1970s (first model August 1978) and early 1980s. It was based on the Zilog Z80 running at 3 MHz and had 16 KB RAM, expandable to 32 KB, and 16 KB ROM containing a fast semi-compiling BASIC interpreter.

ABC 80 normally used a dedicated (included) tape recorder for program and data storage, but could also be expanded to handle disk drives (and many other peripherals). Some sound effects could be produced by a Texas Instruments SN76477 sound chip which was connected to an 8-bit output port, but there was no way to control the chip’s features in any detail, so sound was limited to 96 fixed sounds. The monitor was a black and white TV set modified for the purpose (an obvious choice since Luxor also made TVs). The computer had excellent I/O response times, something that was discovered when trying to upgrade to personal computers. The solution was to use a microcontroller that communicated with a PC. The main unit had a reset button as well.

ABC 80 was also manufactured on license as BRG ABC80 by Budapesti Rádiótechnikai Gyár in Hungary. It used the same keyboard, but the case was metal instead of plastic.

The ABC 80 was a huge hit in Sweden, and grasped a majority share of the rising personal computer market thanks to its office software in Swedish. Although the ABC 80 fans would defend the ABC 80 by referring to its good BASIC and usable extension bus, it couldn’t defend the home market against the gaming computers with color graphics and better sound that arrived in the early 80s like the Commodore 64, even though a new cheaper version was released that could use an ordinary TV instead of the dedicated video-monitor.

Luxor held on to its office market for a couple of years longer with the ABC 800 series, which had a more extensive BASIC, more memory and a 512×240 ‘high-resolution’ graphics mode, but otherwise similar performance. In 1985 Luxor also tried to compete in the office market against the IBM PC with its ill-fated ABC 1600 and ABC 9000 series UNIX computers, but failed.

Gallery:

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… and the boxes

Software: 

• demo
• software emulation and wav conversion

source: wikipedia

Defects:

• Some keyboard keys are totally dead.
• Missing +17v and obviously the +12v
• Short-circuit on the psu side, inside the monitor.
• Tape Recorder with the mechanism stucked.

Repairing:

• Replaced most of the Tantalum Capacitors* on the main pcb and on the tape recorder pcb, some are in short-circuit.
• Replaced 1 x Fuse on the CRT Monitor pcb side.
• Repair Tape Recorder, i had to disassemble most parts of the tape recorder mechanism. The lubricant grease was dry and has totally blocked the mechanism of the tape recorder.
• Replaced all pads (Foam Mylar Pad) of the Keytronics Keyboard, the same Keyboard used in SOL-20.

* For this repair i have used only tantalum capacitors, although i usually prefer to use electrolytic capacitors, i used to keep the same aesthetic.

Gallery of the repairing:

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Download:

• Luxor ABC-80 Service Manual (1104)
• Luxor ABC-80 PROM & ROM (992)

Commodore Amiga 2000 – Black Screen of death

The Battery Acid has corroded some pcb tracks (not visible to the naked eye) connected to the pin of the resistor packs RP900 and to MC68000 and probably other IC.

Gallery before cleaning and repair:

Commodore Amiga 2000 – All that glitters is not gold.

After some work it seems to work but still suffers of some problems.

Present problems:

• All Connectors are rusty and uprooted.
• Boot sequence problems, when boot correctly, there are no problems.

Resolved issues:

• Corroded tracks, i have made 12 bridges*.
• Replaced “deflowered” kickstart socket.
• Replaced not working Kickstart 1.2 ROM.
• Replaced 4 x LM33256 (RAM) shorted.

I need to assess whether or not continuing with the repair…

Big gallery of the repairing:

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Welcome back, Commodore Amiga 2000.

I do it very shortly, i don’t like writing a lot because i don’t  have time to do and i don’t like it.

We are left with the Amiga 2000 that sometime works and sometime not.

Defect/Boot Errorr code was: gray / yellow / green / rainbow / out of sync / purple / white.

When this not happen, the boot works perfectly and i can see theusual “hand”

• To fix the problem of the green screen that indicates problems of the RAM, i had to replace 3 x LM33256 (Total RAM replaced: 7), these ram are not shorted but partially functional and 1 x 74LS244.
• To fix the problem of the yellow screen which created problems with the LATCH, i had to replace a 1 x 74LS373.

I have also replaced the socket of the MC68000 CPU and i have discovered another interruption between the pitche and track and also a lot of corrosion and recovered some connectors of an old Amiga 2000 REV 4 motherboard to give an decent aesthetic look to the repaired motherboard.

Now the Commodore Amiga 2000 works perfectly.

Before and after Gallery:

The Commodore PET 4000 series features Basic 4.0 as a standard feature, along with more memory and a lower price that made them attractive to schools.

Elementary, Middle, and High Schools all over Canada and the United States were filled with these impressive lumbering beasts. Introducing children far and wide to the wonders of BASIC programming. Another lesson taught was the importance of patience, since many schools provided only a tape datasette for loading and saving work.

Like the other models of PET, the 4000 series includes dual datasette ports, though only one is exposed to the outside of the casing. A standard IEEE-488 interface in the back allows the PET to connect to the numerous (and heavy) disk drives and printers being produced by Commodore and other manufacturers.

The PET also has a fully programmable bi-directional parallel interface called the “User” port, which allows the PET to connect and control almost any device one could dream up! The greatest feature, however, is the friendly READY prompt, and the well-laid out keyboard with graphic characters only a keypress away! Pictured here is the PET 4016.

Interestingly, although Commodore provided 8, 16, and 32k versions of their PET 2001 and 3001 series, they had a hard time getting people to purchase higher memory versions as an upgrade. It seemed that people were soldering in their own memory chips onto PET 2001 and 3001 8k and 16k models to upgrade them to 32k. To help prevent this, Commodore sold many PET 4008 and PET 4016 models with the empty memory sockets punched out and destroyed! This encouraged those who wanted more memory to upgrade to the 4032 instead of doing it themselves.

Gallery:

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source: zimmers.net

C4CPC is a cartridge replacement for the Amstrad Plus range and the GX4000.

Using a micro-SD card storing cartridge images it also allows direct loading of the cartridge from a PC (Windows/Linux/OSX) through USB.

Features:

• Direct access to 16 cartridges selected by dip switches. Cartridge can be up to 512kB.
• Access to unlimited number of cartridge images using the provided selector cartridge.
• Direct cartridge loading from host computer using USB.
• Cartridge file can be in standard .cpr format or raw binary .bin
• Integrated ACID.

Gallery:

Download: C4CPC GX4000 microSD Games & Demos (1313)

source: cpcwiki.eu

Defect:

• Black screen.

Replaced parts:

• Soldered a 24-pin IC socket.
• Replaced 1 x 901486-07 KERNEL ROM (UE12)

Gallery of the repairing:

A big disappointing this Commodore SX-64 USA purchased for spare parts to fix aesthetically one of my SX-64 PAL.

Why disappointing? because from the photo’s looked in a very bad shape, rust stains, various diseases and not working.

Conversely after removed the shit from the external case, replaced the booring PLA (906114), general cleaning + keyboard / Floppy Drive test and replaced one keyboard lock, the SX-64 is fully working and aesthetically in good condition.

Now i have for myself four SX-64 where the fourth is NTSC/USA, but honestly i was not looking for the USA version.

I am really unlucky :D

Gallery of the cleaning and repairing:

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

Titles:

• Speeding on the A 81 +7
• Speeding on the A 81 + Bonus
• Slime Deluxe +3
• Lazarian +3DGH
• Fire-Drill +H
• Pirati +2DT
• Petaco´5
• Mini-Penetrator +3HT
• Sheepoid – Frozen in Time +4DF
• Sheepoid – Frozen in Time
• Slider Session
• Kill the Bit
• Frogger II – Three Deep +4D
• Castle of Life +3DT
• West +2DT
• It’s Magic 2 +4PI
• Movement Basic
• Shockway Rider +6DGH
• Pothole Percy +3D
• Buttonpress
• Chopper Hunt +3
• Heathcliff +DGMF
• Ring on a String [16kb cartridge]
• Slime Deluxe [16kb cartridge]
• T.H.E.A. [16kb cartridge]
• Alienator [16kb cartridge]
• Vortex Crystals [16kb cartridge]
• Pickle’s Pod Patrol [16kb cartridge]
• Icicle Race [16kb cartridge]
• Platman [16kb cartridge]
• Bug Hunt [16kb cartridge]
• QWAK [16kb cartridge]
• Blap ‘n Bash Revisited [16kb cartridge]
• Platman +4
• Pickle’s Pod Patrol +4H
• Night of the Valkyrie [seuck]
• Ring on a String
• Platman +2H
• Icicle Race +2
• QWAK +3F
• Bug Hunt +1H
• Blap ‘n Bash Revisited +5HD
• Alienator +4HF
• Vortex Crystals +9HD
• T.H.E.A. +2D
• Ring on a String +
• Alone Against the BSE9 +6T

Download: All Games in One Archive (3514)

source: csdb.dk

This is the official demo party results from Revision 2016 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB Revision 2016 section for more informations.

C64 4K Intro:

• 1 – The Best Intro Ever by Razor 1911.

Mixed Graphics:

• 6 – Vote EvilBot by Laxity.

Mixed Music:

• 4 – 8-bitburgers by Panda Design.
• 5 – A Computer in My Backpack by Lft.
• 9 – Remembrance by Genesis Project.

Mixed Demo:

• 1 – We Are Demo by Fairlight, Noice, Offence.
• 6 – Watch My Balls in Action! by Singular.
• 7 – Decrunch 2016 Invite by DreamWeb.

Download: Revision 2016 Party stuff (1012)

source: 2016.revision-party.net

CBMXfer is a front-end to several command-line utilities for transferring files and working with disk images. CBMXfer makes using those utilities easy by providing a familiar windows interface that removes the need to learn the commandline syntax of each program. CBMXfer also includes a multi-format file and picture viewer.

The commandline utilities are:

• OPENCBM – transfers files/images to/from a real CBM drive connected via an ‘X-cable’ on the parallel port.
• CBMLINK – transfers files/images to/from a real CBM drive connected to a real CBM computer connected to the PC via a serial cable.
• C1541 – a utility from VICE that works with CBM Image Files (ie: D64,D71,D81 files).
• NIBTOOLS – Utilities to transfer images via parallel port. Supports protected disks.
• IMGCOPY – Utility to image IEEE and 1581 disks.

What can I do with it?

• Transfer files to or from real CBM drives
• Create D64 and other images files from real CBM disks
• Write D64 and other files back to real CBM disks
• Transfer files from WITHIN Image Files
• View Commodore files (BASIC, SEQ, Binary, ML, Chr Sets, and Images). Supports all all machine types
• ML viewer is a full two-pass symbolic disassembler!
• Simple file operations like copy, delete, rename
• Launch VICE and attach disk images plus autorun
• Zoom Floppy supported.
• Supports 1581 partitions with OpenCBM
• Format disks
• Supports IEEE drives with Zoom Floppy

Download: CBMXfer v0.41.1 (1127)

source: Steve J. Gray Homepage

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:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.6.7a

• Tandy TL/2 write issue corrected – glitch filter reduced (Probably solve write issue with some others machines too).
• 2 digits display init issue corrected (I2C timeout reduced).
• LCD support: Characters glitches with some long file name corrected.

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.6.7a (1055)

source: hxc2001.com

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

Titles:

• Shark +2
• Hugohunt +5D
• Slime 100%
• Slime
• Slime +
• Mystic Mansion +3DG
• JANI 2 +2 [seuck]
• JANI 2 [seuck]
• Wizard’s Doom +3D
• Hessian
• Hessian +5
• Kormi a tetőn [hungarian]
• Spaceman Splorf: Planet of Doom +2D
• Spaceman Splorf: Planet of Doom
• V2 Basic Minesweeper Clone
• Snake
• Crackers Revenge +7DGH
• Dress Up!
• Happy Blocks Basic Preview
• Captain Fizz V1 +9
• Dungeon Wizard +DT
• Stack (My Bitch) Up +
• Telengard Remastered V1.1
• Rodland +7DHI
• Beppe Kid +3DEM
• Chobin II +2DES
• Slime Deluxe
• CRX Race
• Avenger +5DG
• Dragon Hunter Preview +3
• Drugs +5HFTD
• Ylcodrom +1FTD
• Space Defence +D
• Encounter +3DIGF

Download: All Games in One Archive (3551)

source: csdb.dk

Commodore A3640 CPU Card 3.2 Upgrade.

I have updated only the GAL (U209) because the GAL (U204) was already replaced.

Gallery of the work:

Commodore Amiga 4000 Replacing Battery Clock with a CR2032.

Gallery of the work:

Download: AmigaWiki GAL/PAL/PLD (1795)

This is the official demo party results from BCC #10 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB BCC #10 section for more informations and download.

C64 Demo:

• Tangled Up by Delysid
• The Mayday Show by Mayday!
• TIS by Bonzai

C64 Music:

• Oldschool Heaven by c0zmo
• Toca Off Alone by Snabel
• Press Space, Release Power by Gaetano Chiummo

C64 Graphics:

• Der Wahrsager by Oni/Luisa
• Voyage to Pandora by Grass
• Moon by awsm

C64 Mixed:

• CRX Race (Game)
• David Bowie Collection (SIDCol)
• Stack Up (Game)

Productions released outside compos:

• Crackers Revenge +7DGH by Hokuto Force (Crack)
• Dungeon Wizard +DT 101% (Crack)

Download: BCC #10 full Party stuff (1093)

source: csdb.dk