The last pieces of the c64 puzzle

So since the last post I have acquired the last piece that I was looking for to round out my c64 setup - a Commodore 1701 CRT monitor:

It took me quite a while to find one of these in Australia that was in good condition but that wasn't several hundred dollars.  Good things do come to those who wait (sometimes at least).  It's in excellent condition - it did get mishandled during shipping which resulted in a crack in the top of the case which is a shame.  Other than that though it functions perfectly and has the front little cover on the controls in one piece as well!  I needed to order a different video cable to the one I had - so I ordered this guy from Hercules Workshop (my other s-video cable was from them and is awesome quality - thanks guys!).   Once I had the monitor and cable I set about making a more permanent setup for my c64 - that would give me my "electronics workbench" (ie half of my desk) back.  First I made the shelf you see above that the monitor is sitting on, along with the 1541 disk drive, with the c64 underneath.  I then made a new desk specifically for the c64:

Both were just made with cheap pine from a local hardware store, with a decent amount of sanding and some clear varnish for finishing.  This gives me space for my c64 and all associated bits and gives me my desk back now its all working:

The other piece that I have actually had for a while is a wifi modem:

That's right - wifi modem on a c64.  It's based on an ESP8266 - details here.  Plugs straight into the user port and works really well for connecting to BBS's over telnet:

And that's it.  Hardware wise it's all pretty complete now.  I've been working my way through the c64 users guide relearning how to program on the c64 in basic and 6502 assembly.  Once done with that I have a copy of the c64 programmers reference guide to work through too.  I'm playing a bunch of games on it - both old and new.  If you are reading this and have a c64 (or even just an emulator) check out Galencia - its awesome!  I am also really loving the new fan magazine Freeze64 - the author Vinny puts a ridiculous amount of effort into each issue and it shows.  

1530 Dataset

After getting the 1541 sorted, I thought "What C64 setup would be complete without a dataset?"  They are dirt cheap on eBay and I managed to pick one up with its original box no less for little more than the cost of postage.  The seller even confirmed before sending it that he had connected it up to his C64 and loaded a tape and it had worked first go.  It turned up pretty quickly too:

While looking around to see what common faults these guys had prior to it arriving I was surprised to see that it was mainly just the rubber belts (if anything) that fail, with the head, capstan and pinch rollers needing cleaning as well.  There's one belt for the main drive, and one for the little counter on the front.  I ordered one of each as part of another order and waited for them to arrive.  Once they did, it was time to crack this guy open and have a look:

These things are super simple - and thus quite easy to take apart.  Four screws on the bottom and the unit splits in half, a few more screws and the drive assembly can be removed from the upper half of the plastic case:

This unit was actually pretty clean inside with minimal dust and bits to remove.  I gave the head and rollers a good clean with isopropyl alcohol.  I then switched out the two belts.  The counter belt is on the "top", and the main drive belt is on the "bottom":

I also applied a small amount of lube to all the moving parts just to make sure everything was good to go - taking care not to use too much, and not to get any on the belts.  I then put it all back together and plugged it in ready for a test:

I got two original tapes off eBay - The Untouchables and Rampage.  I fired the C64 up, typed "load" and hit enter.  It asked me to hit play on the tape drive, which I did.  It then found the name of the program on the tape, I hit the Commodore key and it loaded the game.

Boy did I forget how long it takes to load something from tape...  Using the 1541, even without the fastload is still fun.  I enjoy it.  It's part of the nostalgia.  Loading things from tape - not so much.  And just to rub it in - the first load of Untouchables crashed as soon as the actual gameplay started!  (It worked fine on the second load - after rewinding and starting again).

Rampage loaded first go - it's as fun as I remember.  I'm not sure how much I will be using the dataset, but for the price/few minutes fixing it up, I'm still glad I got it.

1541 Disk Drive

So what have I been doing since the last post - playing some solid C64 that's what.  It hasn't skipped a beat since I put it back together at the end of the last post.  I've been playing some games, writing some BASIC and just generally getting reacquainted with the C64.  I haven't stopped on the hardware side of things though.  Like I mentioned previously I've bought a few accessories, and now the system is running it's time to work through them.  The first being this guy:

It's a beast of a thing!  Just like the C64 itself, instead of paying top dollar for something in mint condition I took a punt on something that was listed as "found in storage - sold as is".  The unit looked like it had been sitting on a shelf in a garage for a long time.  Instead of firing it up - I opened it up to have a look before plugging it in:

It was dirty - but actually in pretty good condition.  I kept pulling it apart so I could give it all a good clean and a closer inspection:

All parts got a good clean, all dust removed and a rub with isopropyl alcohol where needed.  One of the other key things I picked up watching a bunch of repair videos on YouTube, was to make sure you put some lubricant on any of the mechanical parts that move.  So I did that too.  I also gave the head a very good clean with isopropyl alcohol:

It was at this point that I had to wait again - this time for a replacement belt to arrive.  While the one that was on there didn't seem terrible, it was also only a couple of dollars for a replacement.  So I placed my order and waited (and played some games while I waited).  Then it arrived:

That's the new belt inside the old one...  Fitted the replacement and put it all back together:

It was at this point I plugged it in.  First without the C64 connected, and as expected the drive powered up and ran for a second or two.  So far so good.  So I turned it off and  connected it up to the C64.  Turned the drive on again, then turned on the C64 - drive light on for a second or two like it should be.  By this stage I had also received the set of 25 random used disks I purchased for next to nothing off eBay.  I inserted on of the disks, and typed:

LOAD "$",8

Once that finished I typed:

LIST

And low and behold I got a directory listing that matched the notes scribbled on the label of the disk.  It was at this point it was time to test the drive a little more using this guy:

It's a 1541 test cart - info is here.  I ran through various tests from the cart menu - all passed:

At this point I turned off the C64, pulled out the test cart and tried a few more disks.  All gave me directory listings without issue - but some failed to run, looking at the titles I think some of them may actually beApple II software which is why they won't load.

There was only one thing left to complete this bit of work - setup up my new (old stock) disk box:

I also got a box of new (old stock) disks cheap to play around with as well.  Done!

A little more maintenance

So a lot has happened with the little C64 since my last post.  I've tried to take photos of everything I've been doing, as well as some video.  It's given me a HUGE appreciation for what it must take to produce the quality of videos that I am used to watching on YouTube.  I knew it took work, but wowsers.  So thank you to all those makers/hackers/tinkerers I enjoy watching on YouTube.  Onto the work!

So first stop was a capacitor replacement.  This revision only has six electrolytic capacitors - and it was another chance to use my FR300. Original caps:

I'd ordered replacement caps while I was waiting for the PLA and FR300 to arrive (hoping that the PLA would fix things - lucky it did!):

The FR300 made quick work of the old caps.  Although as suggested in a few places online I did have to crank it up a bit more for the negative terminals on the larger caps - the ground plane in the board really absorbed quite a bit of heat:

Once that was done I gave one or two holes a quick clean (most didn't need it) and soldered in the shiny new caps:

At this point I plugged the board back in and powered it up - to see this:

I'm not going to lie - my heart sank a little.  I had that brief second of "I've killed it".  It's the reason I had decided not to socket all the other ICs that were currently working - I didn't want to break something that was already working.  That feeling only lasted a second though.  I powered the C64 off and triple checked all the new caps were in the right spot with the right polarity with solid connections.  No issues found.  After checking a few other things for some reason I thought "maybe it's just the screen" so I power cycled the LCD:

What a relief!  So with the cap replacement finished it was time to try out something else I had purchased in preparation for a working C64:

My thought process being that if there were any other issues with the logic board I'd like to find them now (and fix them) before I clean the board up and button the case back up for a while.  The manual that came with the test cart and cables was pretty awesome, talking through each test that is runs and what a failure might mean.  So I plugged it in and fired it up:

And got the following test result (with multiple tests):

I had a look at the page of the documentation around what that Keyboard error meant and started looking at the connectors and tracks mentioned in the documentation and noticed that some of the connectors inside the test connector for the keyboard header were a little high and might not be making a solid connection.  So I pushed them down with a tiny screwdriver and tried again:

Boom!  So with that sorted next was cleaning the logic board with special attention on the cassette and user port connectors as well as installing heatsinks on all the major ICs:

That's the logic board sorted.  Last part before reassembly was the keyboard.  As I mentioned in my last post it was barely functioning.  I googled around and watched a couple of YouTube videos of people disassembling and cleaning C64 keyboards.  Then I got to work on mine, removing it from the case first:

Then removing all of these little screws from the back to remove the PCB:

You then need to desolder the shift lock key before you can remove the PCB:

I cleaned the pads on the PCB as well as the pads on the bottom of each of the key switches with some isopropyl alcohol and cotton tips.  I then put the keyboard back together to give it a test:

Each key worked with a very light touch including the space bar.  "Hello World!" worked like a charm.  One bit of cleaning now remained before I could reassemble the C64 - the top of the keyboard:

It's not super visable in that photo - but there was roughly thirty years worth of gunk in there.  I removed all the keys and gave the base a good clean:

Once that was done I reassembled the keyboard - cleaning each key individually as I went:

That was it.  Cleaning done.  I put the whole lot back together.  I only just now realised I didn't take a close up shot of the C64 post cleaning and assembly.  Needless to say it's a LOT cleaner - and with the PLA, caps and heatsinks done should be good to go for a while.  So I'll end with a shot of Choplifter instead!