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Fujitsu FM Towns II PSU Repair

June 29th, 2014 5 comments
Fujitsu FM Towns II Repair

I start to saying how much i hate repairing psu switching, one of the most boring things second only to the repair of CRT Monitor, at least for me.

However this repair was made. The failure is almost certainly caused by a copious spillage of electrolyte (conductive fluid usually formed from a salt solution or acid which is located inside of the electrolytic capacitors) and a dangerous test if the machine works again after the electrolyte was leaking over the pcb.

The moral of the story is easy to figure out, a short circuit has made several deaths, a good portion of the Primary (PWM) and Secondary.

The components that have been replaced are the following:

  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 3300µF 16v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1000µF 25v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 2200µF 35v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1000µF 100v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 330µF 160v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 47µF 25v 85°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 10µF 100v 85°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 22µF 25v 85°
  • 1 x Sanken Hybrid Voltage Reculator Module STR 53041
  • 1 x Photocoupler TLP 541G
  • 1 x Overcurrent Protection Elements ICP N10
  • 1 x Transistor C1815GR
  • 1 x Transistor DTC114 ESA (C114 ESA)

After 1 week i have decided to replace also all capacitors of the power supply section of the computer.

Components replaced:

  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 3300µF 25v 105°
  • 3 x Electrolytic Capacitor 5600µF 10v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 2200µF 10v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 330µF 35v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1000µF 16v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 470µF 25v 105°
  • 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor 1µF 50v 105°

Gallery of the repair:

Tale of a dear friend of a day spent in my laboratory.

June 28th, 2014 No comments

A very nice tale of a dear friend of a day spent in my laboratory. Happy reading.

source: ti99iuc.it

Categories: Event(s), News & Rumors, Today

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 status update

June 25th, 2014 No comments

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 status update

Directly from the SD2Snes Homepage:

Here’s what I’ve been working on in the meantime:

  • More refactorings of the menu ROM. This will facilitate further UI development (sub-menus etc.)
  • NMI+IRQ hook routine – these are required for WRAM cheats and in-game reset. The latter is in working state as of now. I’d like some input on which key combinations would be desirable ;-) (some conflicts can arise with existing SNES mods, see below). There is now a dedicated memory area in FPGA block RAM mapped to $2a00-$2aff which is used for the hook routine and command exchange between a running game and the sd2snes main CPU.
  • Game loading handshake between SNES menu and sd2snes CPU – this is a technical prerequisite for error handling (such as missing supplementary files, write-protected SD Card, etc.)
  • 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. Also the sd2snes will retry saving until it works so you have the chance to swap out the SD Card etc.
  • “Screen saver” – 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.
  • Fixed 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))

To do for the upcoming release:

  • Cheat management – technical prerequisites for cheats (ROM+WRAM) are met, now to code the GUI for it…
  • Finish on-the-fly file browsing
  • Decide on key combinations for in-game functions. (en/disable cheats, kill cheat engine, reset game, reset to menu)

About key combinations:

I wanted to use combinations that don’t interfere with my SNES IGR mod. This mod uses L+R+Select in combination with Start, A, B, X, or Y to perform different operations. In that scenario I still had the four directional buttons left to put other functions on. However :D With borti4938′s release of the feature-enriched uIGR these are now taken.

So far this is my new proposal for key combinations (UPDATED 2014-06-24):

  • L+R+Select+Start = Reset game
  • L+R+Select+X = Reset to sd2snes menu
  • L+R+Start+B = Kill in-game routines (in case they interfere with game operation).
  • L+R+Start+A = Disable cheats
  • L+R+Start+Y = Enable cheats

Updated to reflect some of your suggestions. Already looks better to me. I steered clear of L+R+Start+X because it’s similar to L+R+Select+X. ;)

source: sd2snes.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

ASAP v3.2.0 – Another Slight Atari Player

June 24th, 2014 No comments

ASAP is a player of 8-bit Atari music for modern computers and mobile devices. It emulates the POKEY sound chip and the 6502 processor.

The project was initially based on the routines from the Atari800 emulator, but the current version has a completely new original emulation core.

Changelog ASAP 3.2.0 (2014-06-23):

  • Reduced amplitude by half to avoid clipping on loud tunes.
  • Silence detection regarded GTIA and COVOX sounds as silence.
  • asapconv supports conversion to one WAV/RAW/MP3/XEX file per subsong.
  • File Information window in the foobar2000 plugin.
  • Updated the XBMC plugin for the new XBMC.
  • OS X VLC plugin no longer requires OS X 10.8.

Android changes:

  • Android 4.4 can now read the memory card.
  • Switch to the next song when the current one ends.
  • Playback couldn’t be resumed after a while of pause.
  • Search files using on-screen keyboard.
  • Removed HTTP playback.
  • Files with duplicate titles were lost in the details view.

Download: ASAP v3.2.0 (1563)

source: asap.sourceforge.net

Apple IIgs ProTERM 3.1: Serial Console & Telnetting BBS

June 23rd, 2014 No comments
Apple IIgs ProTERM 3.1: Serial Console & Telnetting BBS

Apple IIgs ProTERM 3.1: Serial Console & Telnetting BBS.

Download: ProTERM v3.1 Intrec Software (1179)

Commodore Amiga 500 full replacement Power Supply

June 15th, 2014 22 comments
Commodore Amiga 500 replacement Power Supply

Gallery:

This is a full replacement of the power supply of the Amiga 500 with a similar one of the last generation. This type of switching power supply fits perfectly inside the case of the original psu.

The repair will not be made because this psu is very common at very low prices, i don’t waste even a second to find the multiple faults, i prefer devote to other things less common.

Commodore Floppy Drive 1541 Repair

June 13th, 2014 No comments

Commodore Floppy Drive 1541 Motherboard #1

Defect:

  • IEC bus unresponsive.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x VIA 6522 (UC3)

Commodore Floppy Drive 1541 Motherboard #2

Defect:

  • IEC bus unresponsive.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x VIA 6522 (UC3)
  • Replaced 1 x 7414 (UA1)
  • Replaced 1 x 901229 ROM (UB4)

Removed parts:

  • SpeedDos adapter with the flat cable (user port bus) cutted.
  • SpeedDos ROM Adapter.

Sinclair QL Repair

June 12th, 2014 5 comments

Sinclair QL #1 Repair

Defect:

  • White Screen (RAM problem)

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 3 x 4264 RAM

Note:

I took the opportunity to install the Minerva Rom v1.98 to identify the faulty ram. Thanks to the Minerva ROM i have identified 2 of 3 Ram failed.

  • Ram Location $1F340 (IC9)
  • Ram Location $3D040 (IC10)
  • Ram Location $30910 (IC16)

Sinclair QL #2 Repair

Defect:

  • White Screen / Black Screen / Garbage Screen / Annoying Background Sound

Replaced parts:

  • Voltage regulator (7805) fault. In input we have 9v and in output 9v instead of 5v.

Note:

Incredibly nothing is exploded ;-D

Commodore Amiga 500+ (plus) & Amiga 600 Repair

June 12th, 2014 No comments

Commodore Amiga 500+ #1

Defect:

  • Battery Leaks.

Solution:

  • Battery Removed.
  • Cleaned the PCB with PCC Kontakt.

Commodore Amiga 500+ #2

Defect:

  • Battery Leaks.

Solution:

  • Battery Removed.
  • Cleaned the PCB with PCC Kontakt.

Commodore Amiga 600

Defect:

  • Where are the capacitors and the tracks ?

Solution:

  • Cleaned the PCB with PCC Kontakt.
  • Alternative way to install the capacitors ;-D

AspeQt v1.0.0 Preview-6 (Atari serial peripheral emulator for Qt)

June 12th, 2014 No comments

AspeQt is a cross-platform, free and open source Atari 8-bit serial peripheral emulator. The name is an acronym for Atari serial peripheral emulator for Qt, Qt being the cross-platform application development framework used by AspeQt.

AspeQt emulates various Atari 8-bit peripherals like disk drives and printers via an SIO-2-PC cable. If you are familiar with software like Sio2Pc, APE, Atari810, AtariSIO etc., you probably won’t have any problems getting used to AspeQt.

Even though AspeQt is not fully mature yet, it is easy to use and, despite its shortcomings, has many features that you may find useful, the highlights being:

  • Cross-platform GUI with drag and drop support.
  • 15 emulated disk drives with support for 512 bytes per sector disk images.
  • High speed operation up to 6 times faster than the normal speed (With compatible OS / DOS)
  • Ability to use PC folders as emulated disks.
  • Disk image explorer for viewing and modifying disk image contents.
  • Ability to run Atari executables directly without using disc images and Doses.
  • Printer emulation with preview and ATASCII support.
  • Cassette image playback with custom baud rate.
  • Ability to save and restore AspeQt sessions with its UI settings..=
  • Normal and mini UI modes.

Version 1.0.0 Preview-6 (May 23, 2014) (Ray Ataergin):

  • Windows registry entries for AspeQt are now stored under “atari8warez.com” registry tree, the program will automatically migrate settings on the next run. Existing AspeQt session files storing session settings are not affected by this change
  • Code needed to compile AspeQt under Mac OS X is added (David Voswinkel – optixx) (see compile.rtf file included with the source archive)
  • Folder images are now emulated in DOS 2.5 disk format rather than DOS 2.0 This gives more unique sector numbers to work with before they are re-used in a circular fashion.
  • Fixed the “Not a binary file” error loading certain executable files.
  • Text conversion is now OS platform aware (Win, Linux, OS X)
  • Explorer Window Stay-on-top feature is now user selectable and persistent across sessions.

Download:

source: aspeqt.sourceforge.net

Flashback 2014: C64 – Official demo party results

June 9th, 2014 No comments

This is the official demo party results from Flashback 2014 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB Flashback 2014 section for more informations and download.

C64 Demo:

  • Eclectic by Onslaught
  • Rog by Funkentstört
  • Flashback by Software of Sweden

C64 Music:

  • Klotokok by iLKke
  • eXTRATERRESTRic sYMPHo by dEViLOCk
  • Cloudy Days by Gaetano Chiummo

C64 Graphics:

  • Nature by JS
  • Abstract Mutualism by Slayer Grafix
  • The Procurement of the Crimson Skull by iLKke

Download: Flashback 2014 full Party stuff (1240)

source: csdb.dk defame.com.au/home

Amiga 500 Keyboard: Keep the useful things from the useless things

June 3rd, 2014 1 comment
Commodore Amiga 500 Keyboard: Keep the useful things from the useless things.

Commodore A500 Keyboard: Keep the useful things from the useless things.

Commodore Amiga 500 Keyboards Join & Fix

June 3rd, 2014 1 comment
Commodore Amiga 500 Keyboards Join & Fix

Commodore Amiga 500 Keyboards Join & Fix.

Unfortunately from five keyboards i have made only one in a good shape and full working.

Commodore Amiga 500/600 PSU Repair

June 2nd, 2014 1 comment

Commodore Amiga 500/600 PSU Repair

Amiga 500/600 (PSU) PowerSupply #1

Defect:

  • Short-circuit and the fuse blows.

Replace parts:

Amiga 500/600 (PSU) PowerSupply #2

Defect:

  • Short-circuit and the fuse blows.

Replace parts:

Amiga 500/600 (PSU) PowerSupply #3

Defect:

  • Short-circuit and the fuse blows.
  • The PCB is half broken.
  • Some components have suffered of too much heat.
  • The locking pins of the cover are broken.
  • Dirty and Yellowed.

I don’t made the repair. I recovered what might come in handy.

Gotek (Cortex) USB Floppy Disk Drive Emulator

June 1st, 2014 7 comments
Gotek (Cortex) USB Floppy Disk Drive Emulator

Gallery:

The Gotek is a USB Floppy Drive emulator very cheap, you can buy it from eBay at €24.00 €20.00 including the shipping cost.

Let’s start by saying that this Floppy Disk Emulator with the original firmware is totally useless for our purpose, like to connect it to an Amiga and in the near future to a Atari ST or Amstrad CPC. The new firmware written by Herve Messinger replaces the original firmware, to do this you need a simple converter from USB to TTL Serial Interface to program the STM32 ARM Cortex MCU.

I would add this thing; this Floppy Drive Emulator is not absolutely comparable to the HXC Floppy Emulator of Jean-François DEL NERO (Jeff) where in addition to supporting dozens of Floppy Formats/Hardware and the Firmware is in development from several years but it’s a nice and inexpensive alternative.

For more information, firmware and programming tool you need to go here the official blog of Herve Messinger.

Video:

source: cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com