Today I finished creating the first pinout section for the connectors found on the Commodore 64.
You can find it here.
I hope to add other systems soon, but creating the images takes some time.
Category: Uncategorized
Upgrade the Commodore 16 to 64Kb of ram
Yesterday I upgraded my Commodore 16 to 64 Kb of memory.
I’m still not sure if I can call my Commodore 16 now a Commodore 64 😛 .
Now it can run most Programs created for the Plus/4.
I wrote a little story on how to do this.
You can find it here.
This is first mod I did on my Commodore 16, I’m already planning to do more mods, like adding the 3-1 function rom of the Plus/4, Jiffy dos and a way to enable/disable and select the rom(s).
Finished Thimbleweed Park
Today I finished Thimbleweed Park, a kickstarter from the guys that also created Maniac Mansion.
Thimbleweed Park is a nice game with a lot of hints to the old games of Lucasart.
If you liked Maniac Mansion and/or Zak McKrakken then you sure will like this game.
Old project
Yesterday I found an old project I made several years ago.
It’s a IECATA an ide interface for the commodore computers with the iec connector like the VIC20 and C64.
It’s based on a microprocessor and some memory.
The system lets you use the default commands to load and save files to an ide harddisk.
Later some other sites like www.dienstagstreff.de and 8bit.yarek.pl picked up the idea and made new versions of this project.
Happy new year
A Happy New Year to all of you.
Hope you all will have a good 2017.
Last month I collected some new hardware.
I got a 1700 (c128 memory expansion, expanded to 512k), 1571 drive, Multi evolution 500 (a500 SCSI interface with some fast memory) and a surf squirrel (A1200 scsi interface).
And I picked up some old projects.
I will try to keep this site updated with the progress of those projects
A little update
A little update, Last 2 months I was busy adding pages to the data sheet part of the site.
And changed the way I wanted to control my commodore SX64 (and later on my compucase and Amiga).
My first Idea was to control the Kernal selections and drives id by a little FPGA, but it the FPGA I have didn’t like to have that much flipflops (memory for storing configuration).
So I had to go for a bigger FPGA or move to another way.
The other way presented it self to me 3 months ago, when I learned about the ESP8266 
devices.
A ESP8266 Device is a cheap (2-3 Euro) module that contains a CPU, WIFI controller and webserver.
With some simple code, I turned it into an Access Point that has a website that is controlling the kernal selection and drive id.
The communication between the ESP8266 and the I/O chip (PCF8574) is done by I2C.
The circuit also contains a I2C EEPROM to store settings.
Last night I built the circuit on a circuit boards and hope to do some test real soon.
I still need to build the I/O part that selects the drive ID and drive ROMs.
Also I need to program the ROMs with the various Kernals and drive firmwares.
The Dutch Commodore club
This Saturday I went to the Dutch Commodore club in Maarsen.
It was about 6 years ago that I visited the club for a very short visit.
I met a lot of people with the same interest as me, and had several good conversations.
It was about 6 years ago that I visited the club for a very short visit.
I met a lot of people with the same interest as me, and had several good conversations.
On the club I noticed that Gideon (the creator of the 1541 Ultimate) was there with the prototype of the new 1541 Ultimate II+.
and a very interesting kernal selector based on a Atmel cpld chip.
and a very interesting kernal selector based on a Atmel cpld chip.
The Commodore club is a place where other 8-bit computers like Atari and TRS-80.
If you are in the Netherlands on the third Saturday in the neighborhood of Maarsen (near Utrecht), it will be worth visiting their meeting.
If you are in the Netherlands on the third Saturday in the neighborhood of Maarsen (near Utrecht), it will be worth visiting their meeting.
See their website for pictures of the meeting and meeting dates at:
https://www.facebook.com/commodoreclubnederland or
https://www.facebook.com/commodoreclubnederland or
A little update
A little update on what I’m doing last weeks.
Last weekend I bought 2 pair of new drawers for in my IKEA EXPEDIT cupboard.
(Actually the drawers are part of the IKEA KALLAX series but can also be used in the former EXPEDIT series.)
I’m decorating my attic into a hobby space and needed some storage for my 5,25″ discs and couldn’t find any disc boxes that were in good condition and similar to each other.
Beside decorating my attic I also created two kernal switches.
One of the two are for my Commodore 128 and the other is for someone of the Dutch Commodore forum.
I still need to add the part for the integral disc and I have to find out why some changes I created on the kernal won’t work.
The changes I made worked in the vice emulator, but won’t in the real thing.
I changed the way the C= key worked while starting up (hold the C= to go into C128 mode instead the other way around).
Wrong LCD
I was building a list of LCD monitors that were able display the 15 kHz images by searching on the internet.
I wanted to place the list on my website, but last week I bought a LCD monitor that should support the 15 kHz.
After testing it at home, I got the message that it did not support the frequency.
The monitor I bought was a Samsung Syncmaster 710N.
So I decided that I won’t publish the list.
New parts arrive
Yesterday some new parts arrived.
The mail man brought me a package with an internal 1571 drive and big power/drive activity led from a Commodore 128 D.
With this drive I can restore one of my Commodore 128 D computers that is missing the metal shields from the drive interface and the drive led.
