RAKJAB RetroChallenge

Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 13 Oh My ... All the tapes ... So today's adventure in reliving the past has brought me back to why we invested  $214 for out 1541 I have disconnected my SD2IEC from the cassette port and put my tape drive back in.  I still have a special cassette for cleaning and demagnetizing that I am using to clean the drive from the 35+year old tapes.  I can read some writing on the labels but it is really unknown if these tapes have anything readable on them or not.  I did dig up a cassette/CD portable mini boom box to rewind the tapes so the wear and tear did not hit the CN2.  This also allows me to hear if the tape had data recorded on it. The process is very slow but rewarding.  These are files we recorded back in the early 80s.  Some of the recovered files are programs that Judy wrote herself in the early days of her programming career.  She is still working for the same software company now as she was back then!...

Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 12 The Joy of Joysticks! Today, I pulled out Omega Race and tested my joysticks and paddles.  I have original Commodore accessories plus a bunch of Atari compatible knock offs.  All the joysticks worked great.  The fire buttons and mechanisms all were in good shape and worked fine.  The paddles on the other had were  in very bad shape.  The fire buttons worked by the rotation control was either poor or non-existent with all of them. I used my   DeoxIT®, #D100L-2DB   on the connectors.  These have not been plugged in for decades and looked bad. That took care of the connector end. I removed the two screws from the back of the paddle and had easy access to the 1 Meg-Ohm variable resistors/potentiometer they used inside.  I the sprayed a bit of  RadioShack® Anti-Corrosive Lubricant Spray   right into the inner-workings of the pot.  This should eliminate the corrosion and oxidation in th...

Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 11 SD2IEC - WOW! A Micro-SD in a SD Adapter in a SD2IEC on a VIC-20 DIGITAL  TURDUCKIN I have added this incredible modern day device to my system.  The SD2IEC is made from recycled VIC-20 cases. I got it from   www.thefuturewas8bit.com/ I was able to set it up and change the device from 8 to 10 so now I have a 1541 on 8, a 1541-II on 9, and the SD2IEC on 10.  Everything plays very well with each other.  The cable is a bit short on the SD2IEC so I will have to get an extender or Y-cable so it will daisy chain in better.  For now the printer is turned sideways and that works. I like the CBM FileBrowser from   www.vic20.it/cbmfilebrowser/     I will try it on the 1541. I am getting better with the command channel.  I functioned back in the pre-PC days without even thinking about it. The single disk drive was such an improvement over the cassette that any hoops that needed to be jumped through...

Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 10 Well, here it is. My complete VIC-20 system. I hooked the CN2 cassette drive to the VIC and was able to save and load to it without any issues.  I have so many cassettes! I wonder what could be on them.  Each is like a small time capsule just waiting to be opened.  I was able to read one of these old cassettes and retrieve the working program. Next, I setup the daisy chain from the VIC to the 1541 to the 1541-II and then finally to the MPS803 printer.  I set the 1541-II to #9 via the dip switches in the back.  I was able to read and write to a diskette using both drives but seem to have some issue with properly closing the saved file with the 1541-II as drive#9.  I was able to properly set the 1541 and close the drive allowing all files to be saved correctly.  It has been a very long time since I jumped through the hoops of operating Commodore drives so it will take a bit of getting use to again.  They say i...

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 ...

Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 07 1541  --  Take Two... Well, I didn't realize just how tight the space was inside the 1541 case.  The solution to my 6800uF cap problem failed.  I could not get the case top back on.  The caps were much too high. So back to the shop.  This time I kept a lower profile and was able to still fit the caps into the avaiable space.  I decided to encase the three caps in heat shrink tubeing to be on the safe side.  I didn't like the exposed leads of my previous attempt.  This looks much better.

Retro Challenge 2017/04 Day 06 Today I tackle my 1541 Disk Drive. I opened the unit up and it looked very clean inside.  I decided to only transport the circuit board to recap the unit instead of bringing the complete unit in to the shop.  I did not want to run the risk of knocking something out of alignment. This is one solid case! Cover off   These two big caps are hot glued to the board. The drive assembly on the right and the power transformer on the left. This is what they used before switching power supplies.  The transformer is the heaviest part in the whole drive. A normal drive section - very clean. I discovered that the 6800uF that I had was not the correct voltage.  This is the filter cap for the 12Vdc side right after the bridge rectifier.  The cap I had was 16V but I needed a 25V.  I did have a bunch of 2200uF 25V caps so I installed three of them in parallel to give me 6600uF.  That is wel...