Archive

Archive for the ‘Projects / Repairs’ Category

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

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

Commodore SX-64 Keyboard Fixed

May 29th, 2014 No comments
Commodore SX64 Keyboard Fixed

Gallery:

Commodore SX64 Keyboard Fixed.

Defect:

  • Some keys works and some not.

Work done:

  • Cleaning with a “Contact Cleaner” to remove the oxidation of gold contacts under the membrane.
  • Cleaning all keys.
  • Cleaning the keyboard case (inside/outside).

Replacement NiCd Battery of a Commodore SR4190R Calculator

May 29th, 2014 1 comment
Commodore SR4190R Calculator

Gallery:

Replacement NiCd Battery of a Commodore SR4190R Calculator.

Defect:

  • Battery Leaks.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 3 x NiCd Rechargeable Batteries 1.2v.

Commodore SX64 (USA/NTSC) Repair

May 27th, 2014 No comments
Testing Game

Gallery:

Commodore SX64 (USA/NTSC) Repair.

Defect:

  • Black screen and then noise of a misaligned drive (don’t read anything).

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x 906114 PLA (UE4)

Other things:

  • Aligned the Floppy Drive using the original copy of the Free Spirit Software Drive Alignment.
  • Removed the broken switch to disable the write protection and disconnected a LED on the front side of the SX64.
  • Connected the sensor wires cut.
  • Cleaning the Floppy Drive.

Apple IIc Rom v4 Upgrade & Repair

May 26th, 2014 1 comment

Apple IIc Rom v4 Upgrade & Repair.

Defect:

  • The second RAM in the auxiliary memory is faulty.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x RAM 4264 (ARD1)

Upgrade:

  • Apple IIc ROM upgraded to the latest version V4 (MON)

Download:

Commodore PET(CBM) 3032 Repair

May 25th, 2014 No comments

Commodore CBM/PET 3032 Motherboard Repair.

Defect:

  • Garbled screen and then “Illegal Quantity Error” message or 31 Bytes free

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x NE555 (A2)
  • Replaced 2 x Unstable RAM 4116 (I2/I3)
  • Replaced 1 x 74LS153 (E4)

Atari Disk Drive 1050 Repair

May 25th, 2014 No comments

Atari Disk Drive 1050 #1

Defect:

  • SIO bus unresponsive.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x LM3086N (U1)

Atari Disk Drive 1050 #2

Defect:

  • SIO bus unresponsive + no reset cycle of the Disk drive on poweron.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x RAM-I/O-Timer (RIOT) 6532 (U7)

Commodore 64 ASSY 250407 Empty PCB

May 3rd, 2014 4 comments
Commodore 64 ASSY 251137 Empty PCB

Gallery:

Commodore 64 ASSY 250407 Empty PCB + some Working components.