The 12th X party will be held from October 24th until October 26rd 2014. The party will be at the location: De Hoof 18, Someren – the Netherlands. Competitions: C64 Demo, C64 Music and C64 Graphics.

source: x-2014 homepage

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 v2.0.26.0:

• New Loader : PC Magazine (FLP) file format support added.
• GUI – Track viewer window : Track editing functionality added, internal sanity check added.
• libhxcfe : Casio FZF loader -> non sector-aligned file image size issue corrected.
• libhxcfe : Generic flux stream analyzer enhanced – Track encoding & RPM correctly reported.
• Batch converter : Now use the folder name for the output filename while converting KF stream files (raw).
• FAT12 Disk Browser:  PC98 FAT disk support enhanced, free space reporting corrected.
• Raw Loader – Predefined raw formats added (XML) :
  • Logical Interchange Format (LIF) 3″1/2 264KB (single side).
  • Logical Interchange Format (LIF) 3″1/2 616KB (double side).
  • Logical Interchange Format (LIF) 3″1/2 1232KB (HD).
  • Logical Interchange Format (LIF) 5″1/4 264KB.

Download:

• HxCFloppyEmulator v2.0.26.0 (1150)

source: hxc2001.free.fr lotharek.pl

The Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 DT-1 is a video terminal. It is ideally suited for communications with the TRS-80 Model 16 Multi-User Office System or with other host computers. With a low-cost Tandy acoustic coupler it can also access time-sharing information networks.

Gallery:

12►

State-of-the-Art Design:

Unlike many terminals, you can easily set up and change the configuration on your DT-1 from the keyboard. A revolutionary non-volatile memory that retains your terminal configuration even with power off and without battery backup!

Multiple Emulation Modes:

The DT-1 is completely code compatible with four standard terminal protocols.

• Televideo 910
• Lear Siegler ADM-5
• ADDS 25
• Hazeltine 1410

The 30.5 cm diagonal CRT displays 24 lines of 80 upper and lower case characters per line. Special single-character symbols are used to display control characters.

Dual-Speed Repeat:

Any character can be repeated by merely holding down the desired key. After several characters are repeated, the DT-1 will automatically repeat the characters at a faster rate.

Two Printer Ports:

The TRS-80 DT-1 can be equipped for hardcopy output by connecting a printer to the built-in RS-232C serial interface or parallel interface.

Special Features:

A local monitor mode lets you enable printer ports and position the cursor using local control and escape modes. The carrige return key can be programmed with or without a line feed. Control key termination codes are also user programmable. An electronic bell is standard.

TRS-80 DT-1 Highlights:

• Data Transfer: 75,110,150,300,600,1200,2400,4800,9600,19200
• Cursor: Four keyboard-selectable types: Steady, Blinking Block, Steady or Blinking Underline.
• Video Attributes: Normal, reverse, Invisible, Blink, Underline and Half-Intensity Video.

Download:

• Tandy DT-1 Owners Manual (2717)
• Tandy DT-1 Service Manual (1646)
• Tandy DT-1 Advertisement (1426)
• RSC-9 Computer Catalog (1567)
• Tandy DT-1 Video Monitor Service Manual (1599)

Video:

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Data Terminal (DT-1) Repair.

Defects:

• Some keys are dead (X – Z – DEL – ])
• Sometimes the characters typed are uppercase and sometimes lowercase.
• The DT1 Terminal doesn’t turn on the first try.
• Horizontal scan problem. The right side of the image is rolled up on itself.
• Outside ground of the CRT disconnected.

The jobs that have been made:

• Replaced 1 x 74LS138 Demultiplexer (U1)
• Replaced 1 x 74LS240 Octal Buffer/Line Driver (U23)
• Replaced almost all capacitors on the power supply side with the wrong ESR/Capacitance.
• Cleaning keyboard switches. Fortunately these switches can be opened.
• Removed the filter capacitor (RIFA)
• CRT Linearity adjustment.
• Restored the outside ground of the CRT.

I thank Simone B. for the donation. The donation was made through the Blog.

Donated item:

• Sinclair Spectrum 128k +2a – Boxed (Black version)
• Sinclair Spectrum 128k +2  – Boxed (Grey version)

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 (#2) Repair.

Defect:

• Black Screen.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x CD4069 HEX Inverter (Z6)
• Replaced 1 x CD4069 HEX Inverter (Z57)
• Replaced 1 x 74LS00 QUAD 2-INPUT NAND GATE (Z5)

It was released a new OS Update for the Everdrive N64 Flash Cartridge (Nintendo 64) by Krikzz. The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Changelog:

• After reset, file browser returns where you was before than run the game, instead of just go to the root.
• Users can change default save type in save_db.txt
• ED64-V3 support.
• Fixed default save type for some games.
• Changed save memory initialization, it fix the problems with some games.
• Fixed possible problems with sram and flash ram saves.
• Fixed ramnom hangs after reboot.
• Self test function. Cart stability diagnostic.
• Improved eeprom implementation.

Download: Everdrive N64 - OS Update v2.05 (1123)

source: krikzz.com

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Full Changelog:

It addresses some issues reported with v0.1.7 preview (and some others).

• Satellaview works again. BSX alters the original interrupt vectors at run time. The original interrupt vectors are now saved per hook call, not only once when loading the ROM.
• In game buttons now work with MSU1, too.
• Automatic hook method choosing: NMI is default but switched to IRQ when no NMIs are triggered. If both occur, NMI has priority. This should enable the in-game buttons for games that previously did nothing.
• The hook routine saves some CPU time when auto joypad read is enabled by the game – it will just reuse the result instead of doing its own controller scanning. Also the controller is now only scanned every 8 frames. This helps alleviate some glitches, e.g. Secret of Mana now starts up correctly. There are still some glitches left which can’t be eliminated fully.
• Auto region patching works again without having to delete the sd2snes.cfg.
• BSX now emulates Type 1 memory packs instead of Type 2. Apparently the BSX BIOS is buggy with Type 2 packs when they contain HiROM games that are supposed to be run from PSRAM. So, at least Bomberman works now, and probably others too.
• Fixed BSX PSRAM shadowing for HiROM.
• Files and directories with “hidden” or “system” attributes are now actually hidden from the file browser.

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 Beta/Preview Rev 2 (1477)

source: sd2snes.de

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 Repair.

This is the second time that this computer was repaired within 2 years.

Defect:

• Video Sync issues (Horizontal Driver) and then … garbage on the screen.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x CD4069 HEX Inverter (Z6)
• Replaced 1 x MM2102 RAM (Z62)

The Prism QL 14 is a Color Monitor for Sinclair QL. The monitor has an Scart input (RGB) but unfortunately that is not fully compatible with other devices that use the Scart output as video.

Some photos of the monitor cleaning:

I thank my friend Giacomo Vernoni for having given me this console that i was looking for a long times. This the link of the Giacomo blog where you can find a complete review of this console with some beautiful photos.

Gallery:

12►

Following Commodore’s acquistion of MOS technologies (famous for producing the later 6502 chip for the PET), the Pong-like TV Game consoles 2000K and 3000H made their appearance.

The 3000H console features two paddles (sliders), one internal and one connected by wire (with 2 additional optional sliders); 9VDC or battery power (6 AA batteries required, yes it can run on batteries!).  It generates its own sound with the built-in speaker and can play 4 games: Tennis, Target (with an optional light gun), Football and Squash.  There is also a gage for difficulty level (handicap), and another for the number of players and other settings.

The cool thing is that the core chip, the MOS 7601 (the last of MOS’s Pong-chip line) read game instructions from a special ROM which appears to be internal to the chip, making it stand out from the other Pong-clones that had the game hard-coded into the system’s logic

However, because graphics and sound are also generated directly by the 7601 and are hardwired into the chip’s logic, it meantthat special variants had to be created if a special display was required for an arbitrary application. Thus, the 7601 in the TV Game series, while being programmable in a crude sense, is hardwired to generate the graphics for the TV Game series’ internal games only and cannot be used into drawing other kinds of shapes.

Games available were the following four:

• Game mira (playable with an optional optical gun )
• Tennis
• Football
• Squash

source: computinghistory.org.uk

Repair Commodore Amiga 3000 Motherboard with Battery leakage

There was once a motherboard of an Amiga 3000/25 devastated of the Battery acid where missings all the socketed components and others are unsoldered and recovered for other things.

The situation was not exactly the best one, in other words … was going into the box of spare parts.

I made the impossible, i have cleaned, scraped and rebuilt many tracks of the pcb corroded by the battery acid and i must say that with lot of patience i have repaired the motherboard giving a new life to this Amiga 3000/25 that he had no many chance to come back to work

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Full Changelog:

• In-game button combinations are in effect. See the table below for the key mapping. Note that some games show glitches with the in-game functions in place. I added an additional feature to temporarily disable them in case of game glitches (e.g. Secret of Mana hangs at the Squaresoft logo, displaying only garbage). I’m not entirely happy with the button choice but it will do for now. ;)
• LED blink codes for file system errors – e.g. in case the SRM file cannot be saved this will tell you that something’s gone wrong. The blink codes are yet to be listed.
• Also the sd2snes will retry saving until it works so you have the chance to swap out the SD Card. In that case the directory structure must be present where the sd2snes expects to save the file.
• “Screen saver” – in the menu, the screen is darkened after some idle time to reduce wear on CRT and plasma screens.
• Memory sharing between SNES and the sd2snes CPU is greatly simplified (The FSM is reduced to only 5 states instead of 18) and timing is more relaxed. This should help with stability on a wider range of consoles.
• On-the-fly file browsing. Also shows a little “loading…” window when loading directories/files.
• Windows are now blue so they stick out better in front of yellow directory listings.
• Cx4 data ROM is now embedded in the FPGA configuration – no more need for the external file cx4.bin.
• Initial Satellaview clock is back to 18:00:00 from 18:05:30.
• SD cards can be hotswapped. Currently there is no automatic refresh of the file list so tapping reset on the SNES or changing the directory is necessary to get the new contents.
• The status line is moved upward a few pixels so hopefully it doesn’t get eaten by overscan.
• Navigation: When scrolling page-wise with the right D-pad arrow, the end of the file list is now aligned to the bottom of the screen.
• Navigation: The shoulder buttons can be used to jump to the beginning/end of a directory listing.
• Bugfix: some compatibility issues with a number of games. (Super Play Action Football (S-RTC interference), GP1 Part II (WRAM initialization), Human Grand Prix (mapper detection bug))
• Bugfix: properly initialize FPGA state machine (on some consoles the menu failed to start at all)
• v0.1.7 final will contain menu items for various configuration settings and a cheat interface.

In-game button mappings:

• L+R+Select+Start = Reset game
• L+R+Select+X = Reset to sd2snes menu
• L+R+Start+B = Disable cheats
• L+R+Start+A = Enable cheats
• L+R+Start+Y = Kill in-game routines (in case they interfere with game operation).
• L+R+Start+X = Temporarily kill in-game routines (~10 seconds – if you need to get past a glitch but don’t want to lose in-game buttons)

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 Beta/Preview (1350)

source: sd2snes.de

Apple IIe Power Supply Repair.

Defect:

• Dead with clicking noise in background (This power supply works even without load)

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x 200uF 10V Electrolytic Capacitor.

Removed as a precaution the RIFA filter capacitor.

Gallery:

Epson PX-4+ Easy Repair

Defect:

• Dead.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x Fuse 3A

Removed the internal Backup Battery (RB 301) 4.8v 90mA.