• Re: Advice on the best drive emulator?

    From Robert Roland@3:770/3 to All on Sun May 8 13:44:25 2022
    On 8 May 2022 05:28:09 GMT, Paul Förster <paul.foerster@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    I suggest
    taking the VIC chip out and clean the contacts, then put it back in. This can >be easily done if the chip sits in a socket. If it's soldered in then you may >have some soldering to do.

    From what I understand, the VIC2 is always in a socket. It is,
    however, likely to be one of those cheap single-wipe types which are
    notorious for having bad connections.
    --
    RoRo

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  • From Robert Roland@3:770/3 to All on Sun May 8 13:41:02 2022
    On Sat, 7 May 2022 20:57:00 -0700 (PDT), Kenzo <kjambrose@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    The 1571 won't power up but using the same power supply the 1541 II works fine.

    Wait. What?

    The 1571 has a built-in power supply. It is powered directly from the
    mains wall socket.

    You didn't plug the power supply into one of the IEC ports, did you?
    --
    RoRo

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  • From Kenzo@3:770/3 to Robert Roland on Sun May 8 06:35:53 2022
    On Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 4:44:24 AM UTC-7, Robert Roland wrote:
    On 8 May 2022 05:28:09 GMT, Paul Förster <paul.f...@gmail.com>
    wrote:
    I suggest
    taking the VIC chip out and clean the contacts, then put it back in. This can
    be easily done if the chip sits in a socket. If it's soldered in then you may
    have some soldering to do.
    From what I understand, the VIC2 is always in a socket. It is,
    however, likely to be one of those cheap single-wipe types which are notorious for having bad connections.
    --
    RoRo
    right, i misspoke about 1571, it is the first version and uses just iec power cord. but it won't power up. I have book on trouble shooting and repairing C64, but since I now have three working 128s, fixing the C64 work will be on back burner, as will
    troubleshooting the 1571. First order of business I guess will be to convert all the physical floppies to d64, and get the ram expansion running with GEOS.

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  • From Kenzo@3:770/3 to All on Sun May 8 10:28:34 2022
    On Saturday, May 7, 2022 at 10:28:11 PM UTC-7, Paul Förster wrote:
    Hi Kenzo,
    On 08. May, 2022 at 05:57:00 CEST, "Kenzo" <kjam...@gmail.com> wrote:
    The 1571 won't power up but using the same power supply the 1541 II works fine. And the second 1541 also works fine. So I have two drives working, but
    not the 1571 yet.
    I'm not sure that you can use a 1541-II power supply with a 1571. I'd do some
    research before trying that because a bad power supply can not only not power
    up the attached device correctly but it can kill it. So I'd be careful when trying a Commodore power supply with a different device than what it was built
    for. You should basically always assume that Commodore power supplies are NOT
    interchangeable between devices.
    And I had 4 computers in storage, a 64 and three original type128s. The 64 powers up, but composite connected monitor is blank. I have to do some research for that. Maybe the 64 does not output composite video?
    The C64 has a composite signal. It's pin 4 of the connector.

    See: http://www.hardwarebook.info/C128/C64C_Video

    But your VIC chip may be fried (or the monitor of course). Or it may suffer from a bad connection. It's hard to say without detailed info. I suggest taking the VIC chip out and clean the contacts, then put it back in. This can
    be easily done if the chip sits in a socket. If it's soldered in then you may
    have some soldering to do. But instead of soldering it back in I would put in
    a socket.
    The three 128s all work fine. Next I will try the two 1764 ram expansion modules. The one I have that was boxed comes with a commodore higher powered
    power supply. I will check the output voltages before powering up with it.
    I can't comment on the 1764. I never had one of those.
    So now that I can read disks, I guess the next step is to clean and lube the
    drives, and then figure out a way to convert the physical floppies to .d64 files, since I don't expect the drives to work forever.
    Most things are on the web already in d64 format. You'd have to search hard for some things, though. But if you want to do the conversion yourself, then there are several options, of which I can recomment two:

    1) if you want to do it on the C64/C128, then use method 4 of:

    https://diginoodles.com/writing/media-production/transferring-commodore-64-disks-to-modern-formats

    2) get a Star Commander cable and connect the drive to a PC running DOS. Then
    you can use the Star Commander:
    https://sta.c64.org/sc.html

    Though the second option is very comfortable and reminiscent of the well known
    Norton Commander, it requires an old PC running DOS and having a parallel port. You'd also need to aquire one of the X1541 flavor of cables. It's all documented on the Star Commander homepage.

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers
    Paul
    Zoomfloppy? Looks great for converting physical floppies to D64 copies in windows and reverse?

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  • From xxxx@3:770/3 to All on Sun May 8 20:38:49 2022
    Can anyone recommend the preferred drive emulator for making use of .d64 files?
    I want to run the .d64 files on my 128 after I have downloaded onto my windows PC.
    I see various hardware on the Bay but not sure which will work on a 128 in either mode.

    You should try Pi1541 is much compatible than SDIEC

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  • From Robert Roland@3:770/3 to All on Sun May 8 22:13:19 2022
    On Sun, 8 May 2022 10:28:34 -0700 (PDT), Kenzo <kjambrose@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    Zoomfloppy? Looks great for converting physical floppies to D64 copies in windows and reverse?

    I have a Zoomfloppy. I definitely recommend it.

    The accompanying software (OpenCBM) does not provide a GUI, but there
    are 3rd party solutions available for free. I use cbm-transfer.
    --
    RoRo

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  • From Robert Roland@3:770/3 to All on Sun May 8 23:03:32 2022
    On Sun, 8 May 2022 06:35:53 -0700 (PDT), Kenzo <kjambrose@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    it won't power up

    It is likely that the power supply has failed.

    The 1571 has a very simple linear power supply. It should be easy to
    fix.

    There is even a fuse, winch needs checking.

    Also, the solder joints for the transformer can crack. The transformer
    is heavy, and there is nothing other than the solder joints holding
    it.

    Be careful with mains voltage, though.
    --
    RoRo

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  • From Kenzo@3:770/3 to Robert Roland on Sun May 8 14:48:11 2022
    On Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 2:03:31 PM UTC-7, Robert Roland wrote:
    On Sun, 8 May 2022 06:35:53 -0700 (PDT), Kenzo <kjam...@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    it won't power up

    It is likely that the power supply has failed.

    The 1571 has a very simple linear power supply. It should be easy to
    fix.

    There is even a fuse, winch needs checking.

    Also, the solder joints for the transformer can crack. The transformer
    is heavy, and there is nothing other than the solder joints holding
    it.

    Be careful with mains voltage, though.
    --
    RoRo
    Thanks, I ordered a zoomfloppy today.
    Regarding the 1571 I should just replace the linear power supply with an SMPS. If the fuse is blown there must have been a reason. There is a meanwell that is a good match. And there are 4 electrolytics on the logic board that should also be replaced.
    If I later find the heads are bad, I can use the SMPS for a different project...

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  • From =?UTF-8?B?UGF1bCBGw7Zyc3Rlcg==?=@3:770/3 to Robert Roland on Thu May 12 15:41:12 2022
    Hi Robert,

    On 08. May, 2022 at 13:44:25 CEST, "Robert Roland" <fake@ddress.no> wrote:
    From what I understand, the VIC2 is always in a socket. It is,
    however, likely to be one of those cheap single-wipe types which are notorious for having bad connections.

    I don't know if it always sits in a socket. If so, the easier is it to take care of it. Sometimes it also helps to check the soldering of either the
    socket and/or the chip.

    Cheers,
    Paul

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  • From Andreas Kohlbach@3:770/3 to phigan on Fri May 13 15:18:33 2022
    On Fri, 13 May 2022 11:52:25 -0000 (UTC), phigan wrote:

    On 2022-05-08, Kenzo <kjambrose@gmail.com> wrote:
    Thanks, I ordered a zoomfloppy today.

    I'm really liking this thread.

    Just wanted to chime in that I too have a C64 that powers on with just a black screen. I tried changing out the VIC and that made no difference.
    Even tested the original as well as relacement VICs in a known good
    system, and they both work fine. The first suggestion I got was to try replacing the PLA, which I did, and also made no difference (also tested
    that in the known good system). I don't _see_ any issues with any of the
    caps on the board, but that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any.

    I'd be very interested to hear what's causing yours to do the same if
    you should find out :).

    If there are no other solution I recommend Adrian's Digital Basement on Youtube. He appears to be a specialist when it comes to the C64 - and I remember he had to deal with a lot of "black screeners" and always found
    the culprit.

    Jelly of your C= collection! Never had a 128.

    Neither did I. A friend had and I was envious. Probably because of the
    shape of the shell, as we usually booted into C64 mode and did things a
    C64 can do itself.
    --
    Andreas

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