Author: Jeroen

Smoke… again….

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Yesterday I was building a Amiga to scart cable.
But when I was testing the cable, I had no picture on screen (only as shadow on a black screen).
So I looked on the internet and found that my TV (LG) must be manually changed to RGB mode.
So I turned on my Amiga and TV (cable disconnected) and while I was busy searching for the option, I hear the floppy drive running and noticed a funny smell…

I immediately look at my Amiga and noticed gray/white smoke rising from her.
So I turned her off.

It looks like R406 that started to smoke.
I have to find out what could cause this, and what I need to replace.

I killed a switch.

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Last night I was working on a ZX spectrum keyboard replacement when a solder pad broke lose from the switch.
The switches are very tiny, the solder pad are even smaller, so the traces are to small to solder a wire to it.

Now I ordered a new batch of switches as I had just enough of them.
I hope that they will arrive soon.
sometimes it looks like an Asian is cycling to the Netherlands to deliver the package from China (it can take up to 6 or 7 weeks).

switch 4mmx4mm with wires mounted ready to be used in a ZX Spectrum keyboard
switch 4mmx4mm with wires mounted ready to be used in a ZX Spectrum keyboard

Found a music maker keyboard

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Today, my lovely wife found a music maker keyboard at a second hand store.
So we paid the 1 Euro they asked, and I added it to my collection.

Commodore music maker keyboard
Commodore music maker keyboard

The keyboard came in it’s original box, but it has a big hole in it.
The keyboard is fine, but the tape with the program is missing,
Finding the program on the internet shouldn’t be a big problem.

New member to the family, A VIC-20

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Today I collected a VIC-20.
I swapped 2 Commodore 64 computers for one VIC-20.
VIC-20
The VIC-20 is the predecessor of the Commodore 64.

The VIC-20 specs:
CPU MOS 6502 at 1 Mhz (1.108404 Mhz for PAL and 1.02 Mhz for NTSC)
20Kb ROM and 5Kb RAM (expandable to 32Kb)

20150901_222212

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet, it’s in working condition but I’m thinking about adding Jiffydos and a internal 32Kb ram.