J.Ivy

motrucker - The pc case is just some scrap wood that I had. I figured id use some analog gauges that i had laying about, wanting to use them somewhere. The speaker/amp was made out of my old mans tool box. It gives me a nice daily reminder of him. The 2350 is used as a support device for my Vic-20, as a virtual modem and program loader. While im sure that i will be having fun with the xu1541, dang. Now i want a kryoflux unit!

Games past 1998.. eh, dont care about them. I will be happy to just buy and play the games i grew up on

So my Vic-20 is set up and running, but I had 2 floppy drives.... I didnt actually need the second floppy drive on it so.. So why not use an xu1541 "floppy to usb" adapter and hook it up to my pc? I can download an emulator program and use it to load games from the floppy. I knocked out a shelf on my desk, added the 1541. Now i just have to wait for the adapter Yes, my desk is "eclectic", my only explanation is that i get bored in winter. Thats a 2004 dell 2350 in the green case with gauges, the newly made 3 tube amp up above (just made to look crude). The kodak camera is soon to become a web cam. The 1541 is snuggly fit on the bottom right, where the original drawer once was.

Sounds like a lot of fun, ill be sure to attend with my breadboarded TI Oh and I happened to grow up in Centralia, just a mile past the "steam plant". Dont worry, i got out of there in 2004, when pacificorp bought the mineral rights for my parents farm.. forcing us to sell our 40 acres and farm for just 12k..... They immediately resold it and subdivided the land into a bunch of prefab homes... Yup. I have my own reasons for hating that town and company. Theyll screw over anyone to make a buck.

Atari 400 motherboard. It just looks so simple and elegant to me in its layout.

I tend to only buy the games that I will actually play. I dont really display my video games, prefering to keep them organized in drawers for easy access. Buying the games that I loved as a kid, so i can relive those memories

So I thought the red LED light on my Vic-20 was a bit boring. I saw one of these kits on ebay, a color changing, flashing, LED replacement for only 5 bucks. It has a cable that just pops into the original socket. The O.E plastic LED mount just kind of crumbled away with a pair of needle nose pliers when i tried to remove it. So all in all, this took 5 minutes to do and looks pretty darn cool http://www.ebay.com/itm/commodore-64-VIC-20-Fast-flash-color-changing-RGB-LED-assembly-13-in-long-difuse-/161886703987?hash=item25b1331173:g:~wAAAOSwkZhWRiqQ

So the thin plexi glass lenses of the gauges cracked out when I tried to drill them... I tried to cut out some of the plexi glass that i had laying around, but the jigsaw chipped out the sides. So I just slammed this "modem" together with an amp and volt gauge up front, an 0A3 vacuum tube as an indicator light to see if the modem is on. I cant wait till the SD card and power supply come in, so i can get this modem up and running and my Vic 20 online.

Right now... ive two zx-81's, two TI-99/4a, the vic 20 thats pictured, then a vic-20 thats raspberry pi powered, an apple IIE, an atari 400, oh and yes, i was given a 1996 powermac 4400/200. The original owner bought it, upped the ram, then boxed it up as he didnt like it. I picked it up in 2014 from him for free My next project will be to make a Sol-20 styled case, to house a zx-81, with a mechanical keyboard in it, thats had the matrix changed

In essence, yes. I built a serial to usb Strikelink null modem cable. It converts TTL signals to rs232 and vice versa. From there I had just plugged it into my Laptop, I downloaded TCPser, and was using IT as the modem. Now you can can access Telnet. This desktop will just replace my need for my laptop, acting as a dedicated modem. heres some links if you care to try it. https://1200baud.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/build-your-own-c64-2400-baud-usb-device-for-less-than-15/ https://1200baud.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/strikelink-ultra-raspberry-pi-complete-modem-solution/

Thanks MarkO, I was hoping that this wasnt too silly of an idea. Oh and by the way, forgot to mention that this desktop will be housing a Pcduino3 Nano Lite board. Its going to become my dedicated modem for my Commodore Vic-20.

So I have knocked out a small wooden desktop case. I want to mount an oldschool on/off switch and a usb jack in the front. So i was thinking that since i have two broken round analog gauges with plastic lenses, i was debating drilling them out to mount the on/off switch in one and the usb jack in the other. What do you guys think of this idea?

Sure thing

I wish I had seen this reply earlier Id have begged to borrow a 2001, id love to get a chance to pull a mold off of one. I have no plan to market these, id just like to build a few for myself. As well as pop out a few more for those who want them.

Dont worry Carlsson, I dont plan on modifying a real PET. Just pulling a set of molds off of one, making a PET STYLE case, then modifying the cloned case to NOT have the cassette and chiclet keyboard holes in it. Pulling a final mold off of that one. Then the builder could use whatever keyboard he cared for as a keyboard. Could mount any p.c inside of it they cared to.

It would need to be made in four pieces, upper and lower shell, monitor and monitor bezel. If i buy the cloth, gel coat, resin, etc, in bulk, i couldnt see the cost going past 80 bucks each. Decisions would have to be made. What to do with the keyboard and tape player holes.. do i fill them in or not? Should I enlarge the 9" 4:3 monitor, or leave it stock size? As well as, since this is a hinged case, ill need to mold in a piece of wood into each of the case halves, then find a suitable hinge for it.

So I have an idea, making some new Commodore Pet cases out of fiberglass. Ive always loved the look of the early PET, but honestly, id like one with a modern p.c inside of it. An issue i have is that it has the 9" screen, thats tough to find. perhaps enlarging it to accept a 10" 4:3. The keyboard would be another issue to sort out. So this is just an idea that im tossing around. I still have to find someone with a PET case that will let me pull a fiberglass mold off of it. If i get this project underway, do you think a few others would be interested in me making them a fiberglass PET shell?

I picked up this beige one off craigslist for only 20 bucks. Perfect condition and the box is pretty fair too. I still plan on picking up an earlier black model, I just prefer their looks more. Would be fun to see them next to eachother, displayed in a cabinet.

Dont worry, I have the plexi to make the cover. I cant get dust on this tech "work of art" but yeah, making a plexi cover to go over this is the only way that i can think of displaying it. oh and yeah, heres my later model TI.

So heres my breadboard style TI. The case was ruined, so I built a 70s style breadboard for it. Still have to cut down the oversize heat sink for it, a few other things but... eh, playing Munch Man on this is pretty fun I do have an all original perfect later model, the grey one, ill un box it and snag a picture later on.

Opry99er Thank you for the heads up. I hadnt considered that the numbers would end up as only 1/12" of an inch high, somehow I just assumed i could easily make the numbers much larger. Oh well, I can always just find an old 20" flat screen tv on craigslist and use that for the display.

Dont worry, I havent forgotten the heat sink, I just havent attached it yet. I still need to make the plexi case to fit over the board, then decide how ill run the power and video cables. As for the display for the TI-clock, im thinking of buying a Sony Watchman on ebay, mounting its tiny board and 2" lcd to an identical piece of wood and plexi case, mounting it next to the TI-99.

Well the board and keyboard are mounted, still have to knock out the plexi glass case to cover it. I think i will be going the XB route, it seems simplest. Burning an eprom chip on a new cartridge, while that would be fun, i dont think I can do it yet.

So the XB cartridge has the feature that im looking for?, i.e a clock. Sounds good to me, a simple solution like this is almost always the best Thank you all for your help everyone, this is sure to be a fun little project.

Yup, id far rather have this mounted in a case, on the wall, driving a tiny lcd tv screen, displaying the time or some other semi use full info. I have started in on the case, cut out some oak and polyurethane stained it. Plus im happy to have found just where i stored (misplaced for a few years) my plexi glass sheets, that will make up the cover for the TI "clock case"