Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 08 and 09

Now that the recap of all the critical units is complete it is time to power up!

The first VIC I tried was the newer of the two.  This one was Judy's father's VIC and it has not been used since the 90s.  The power light came on but no video.  After checking to make sure the TV was working, I set aside that VIC and went for my original.  It came right up!



The first thing I noticed was many keys were not working very well.  Research showed that sometimes a complete disassembly and isopropyl alcohol cleaning helped but others reported the conductive pads on each plunger may need resurfacing.  There are many screws and much care needed to remove the key caps. This many be my next project.  For now, I want to see if it is a simple fix for the other VIC.

I opened the case and carefully re-seated the socketed chips.  Everything seemed fine but still no video.  I got one of the spare VICs that I had not cleaned up and after a quick inspection inside powered it up.  No video with that one as well.  This VIC that I am trying to get up and going had extensive corrosion form leaky caps. This was in the video section and there maybe more damage that needs repair. This may need to be looked into with my scope but not tonight!

The keyboard on the cleaned up VIC was very nice.  It was the newer type with the rounded, less clacky keys.  Instead of trying to repair my keyboard I exchanged the two.  Now my original VIC has a newer keyboard and testing showed all keys working properly.  I am happy with this slight mod/repair.  I would have changed keyboards back in the day if it was possible.  My case is very yellowed compared to the no video VIC but for now I can live with the retro coloring.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day21-23 Time for a better monitor! My neck was taking a toll having the TV on top of my desk.  There is no room to have it lower so another option was needed.  I had an under the counter LCD TV/DVD in the kitchen that we no longer used so I re-purposed it to the computer room..  It is awesome!  The screen is sharp and clear.  The position is perfect!  I am very pleased with this change! The disk copying was not going well.  In desperation I tried changing my 1541 to the "UI-" setting and instantly unreadable disks were coming over without any issues!  The "UI-" speeds the drive up a bit to match a 1540 and it has made all the difference in the world!  Now I can copy over entire disks to the SD2IEC with virtually no errors.  The few files that seem to be problem files copy fine when I move them separately. I had to @0: save the files but there were only a few to copy. I was able to get through all t...
Read more
Image
Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 24 - FINAL DAY This is my finial entry for the 2017/04 Retro Cjallenge. My goal was to completely set up a working VIC-20 system and I have done that. My system includes a working VIC-20, MPS 803 printer, CN2 tape drive, 1541 floppy drive, 1541-II floppy drive, and a SD2IEC drive.   I recapped all the electrolytic caps in the VIC and 1541s. I worked out a great video display option.   I have retrieved all the files that were salvageable from 45 cassette tapes and 20 floppies. I am able to download files from the Internet and use them on the VIC-20 and I can run files from the VIC-20 on my home PC via VICE. I have leaned how to blog and share my experience. I am very happy I took on this challenge and look forward to years of reliving the past and discovering new uses in the future!  
Read more