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johndias

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Posts posted by johndias

  1. Posted

    10 hours ago, Texas Tandy restorations said:

    did you test if it was a power issue or a chip issue ? the first is a easy repair, the second is a chip replacement at about 25$. 

    I know one source for refurbished FDC but its in Australia

    you could ask Jay by emailing jay @ [email protected], he sells components and is on the west coast of USA, tell him TTR sent ya, he might have some for sale.

     

    I'll check with Jay, thanks. The chip you sent didn't help unfortunately. It won't boot from floppy or Gotek (although it does at least prompt for Diskette?).

     

    I sent Ian an email but would like to avoid the international shipping cost if possible.

  3. Posted

    You don't need a lot, @eightbit. I did about a 50/50 mix of water and Salon 40. Just be sure to wash your hands after you touch the solution - at first you won't notice anything but it will start to burn your skin. Gloves would be ideal when handling. You can always add more if you think you aren't getting results but if you get little bubbles on the plastics after about an hour or so, it's doing the job.

     

    Just my limited experience, of course.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted · Edited by johndias

    My VIC-20 was the first retr0brite I tried. Turned out fine but we will see if it sticks. I used liquid just like @Arnuphis in a tub, left it in the sun for a few hours.

     

    Now, my attempt at doing a retr0brite on the keys, THAT was a disaster. I used cream and the outcome was discoloration of the brown. So, lesson learned on that.

     

    Currently working on a retr0brite of a calculator body for my brother. He asked me to give it a try, even after I explained the possible issues.

     

    WRT brittleness. I, in my very limited experience, have not found the plastics to be brittle - at least for the age. My guess is that the plastics that are yellowed also suffered structurally from the same environmental stress, and the assumption is that the process made them brittle, when in reality they were already brittle.

     

    Quote

    @ the OP - How is your Vic-20 doing? Excited for you. It was my first computer so it has a special place in my heart.

    Looks great (except for the above mentioned key botch) and runs great. I recapped it, but I'm toying with the idea of doing the S-Video mod. Not 100% sure I want to go that route yet. I did get the Penultimate+ cart, love that thing! Oh and the spring I lost on the keyboard; got a replacement in and I'm whole again!

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    3 hours ago, carlsson said:

    Probably someone has spare keyboards in parts from where you could source a spring if that is all you're missing. I suppose measuring an existing one might allow you to find somewhere selling springs only, though I don't know if hardware stores have that.

    I've had to match springs before, it's challenging. There are online places that sell springs. That's my last resort, I'm hoping to find a kind soul with a spare VIC-20.

  10. Posted

    Oh man, rookie mistake! Short story, while I thought the contacts were clean I put them under my microscope and realized there was corrosion on most of them. So, with extra diligence I cleaned them all up and for kicks tested the resistance on all of the plungers (they were all around 100 ohm which I guess is good?) and tested - all the keys work!

     

    Well, except for the Commodore key, for which I lost the spring. Anyone know where I can buy one?

    20200919_125756.jpg

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    17 hours ago, carlsson said:

    Is there a pattern to which keys are not working? Like it was mentioned in the other thread, every second key worked and the rest didn't. If you have a massive fail of up to 80%, sure it could be a toasted 6522 but it makes me wonder what other causes it could be.

     

    In case you own a C64, the keyboard is mechanically (*) and electrically compatible with the VIC-20 one so you could swap keyboards to rule out sources of error.

     

    (*) The white C64C keyboard may have different mounting points so it would be difficult to fit physically, but loose out of the case it works the same way.

    There's no pattern, that I can determine. The working ones are scattered about.

  13. Posted

    I pulled the keyboard PCB out and cleaned it with IPA. Then I plugged it back in and used a wire to jump the contacts to see if that would respond. The keys did (I didn't do a complete test but enough to convince me that I had a mechanical problem).

     

    Then I took a plunger (the commodore key) and used it to connect each of the contacts. No bueno, the key presses did not show up. So, I think my plungers are bad, what to do? These are NOT the rubber dome ones but rather like this one

     

     

  14. Posted

    Hi all, my new power supply from Ray arrived today so I got a chance to boot up for the first time.

     

    System comes up, no problem, but the keyboard ... probably 80% of the keys don't work.  I had pulled them and cleaned them while I was retrobriting the case (and lost one spring - anyone got a spare?).

     

    I saw another thread @carlsson recommended swapping the 6522 chips, which I will do. What else can I check?

  15. Posted

    7 hours ago, Papalapa said:

    I don't know if the American version video circuit is different from the European one (the modulator for sure) but if not you can convert the video composite output in S-Video. Im my case the quality difference was amazing:

     

    After

    W412ESO.jpg

     

    Before

    q2YHJiW.jpg

     

    Also, Pi1541 is really useful and even if do you have a Commodore 64 can serve both computers, VIC-20 and C-64.

     

    WOW that's a huge difference.

  18. Posted

    20 minutes ago, desiv said:

    You can get composite video from the video port on back, but be careful because one of the pins has voltage on it for the modulator and the pinouts aren't the same across all commodores.

    Oh yeah, I did see something on DenialWIKI that I bookmarked for later, might dig into that this weekend while I await the PSU.

  20. Posted

    3 hours ago, bluejay said:

    Congrats! The VIC-20 was also my first Commodore. It's a fun little system to mess about with. I loved it so much until I fried it. There are some great games on cartridge, and with a RAM expander(which I highly recommend), you'll have plenty of RAM for BASIC coding and some games that support it. I'm sure you've heard of the 8 Bit Guy; he made a game called Planet X1 that runs on a VIC-20 with 32k of RAM. It's impressive and fun, especially for a VIC-20 game. Cheese and Onion is also apparently very fun, although I've never played it.

     

    Let's face it; the VIC-20 isn't a powerful system. It's only got 5k of ram(3.5k free), 22 column screen, and CBM BASIC 2.0 isn't the best. However, the limitations are what makes it so fun to mess with! You'll find some great games and programs for it. Good luck!

    Oh yes, 8BG is one of my YT subscriptions! I've never bought Planet X1 but I probably should go ahead and grab it, and that'll give me an excuse to add the RAM expander!

  21. Posted

    Got a VIC-20 over the weekend, a CL find (although it was a 3 hour drive one-way). Came with the box (in OK shape, cardboard is holding up but the artwork is looking rough), computer, PSU, RF converter and TV adapter.

     

    OK, you're gonna cringe but I plugged it in with the original PSU before I found out that's not a smart thing to do! It powered up but I got no video.

     

    Fortunately, I didn't have it powered on long and after I learned about the problems with these PSUs I ordered one from Ray Carlsen and also tested the one I have. It was still reading 5V on the DC pins so... phew! 😬

     

    As for the video, I saw on Ray's site where he talks about the Mitsumi's having some cap issues. Sure enough, I pulled it open and it's a Mitsumi and the two cans are showing some corrosion on the legs (but thankfully didn't leak). I'll be replacing those.

     

    I'm excited to join Team Commodore - what else should I be looking for on this unit? Tips? Mods? Webby links appreciated, too!

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    Ah, figured it out - again, newbie here. Booting into LDOS and trying to access TRS-DOS disks seems to be my problem. After reproducing the issue on Matthew Reed's emulator (which I will be purchasing, what a handy thing to have) I realized that the disk images from the web were pretty much all TRS-DOS disks so I used TRSTools to copy the contents to an LDOS image I had and it read just fine in the emulator and then again on my Model III, so pumped!

     

    Wondering if there's an easier way to do this though 🤔

  23. Posted

    Yeah, I'm missing information as a newbie. Here's the thing, when I converted images from the sites you listed to HFE on my HxC Gotek. I see that the virtual drive is being accessed, but after a bit it tells me "Illegal drive". I found a thread where someone posted a JV3 image and I tried that - bingo, reads just fine on my III. So my assumption is that I don't have the right disk drivers loaded, i.e. SYSTEM(DRIVE=2,DRIVER="filespec").

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