scottyau

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: Onc...

So I have a new toy and it's amazing!  I've wanted a desoldering tool for a long time but could never really justify the cost for the tiny amount of use it would get.  This Commodore 64 was what made me pull the trigger and so I ordered a Hakko FR-300 , which finally arrived yesterday: It's a really nice little bit of kit!  I really love my Hakko soldering iron so figured this would be just as good.  It did not disappoint.  It made VERY quick work of desoldering the PLA IC.  It came out first go: While I was waiting for both the replacement (new old stock) PLA and the Hakko FR300 I ordered to arrive, I also ordered a few other bits and pieces in anticipation of getting the C64 up and running.  Including (but not limited to) a complete socket set and a set of heatsinks: My plan is that anything I have to replace will be socketed.  At this stage I'm not sure I will proactively socket anything that doesn't need to be replaced (bu...