Re: 'Frankenstein' Disk Drives, Done Cheap

On Tue, April 22, 2014 9:20 pm, Clockmeister wrote:
>
> On 23/04/2014 8:40 AM, Julian Perry wrote:
>> Re: 'Frankenstein' Disk Drives, Done Cheap While we're on the subject
>> of modern takes of old Commodore, kit, THIS PROJECT - C64 Reloaded
>> <http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/C64_reloaded> - is a novel idea.
>>
>> It's basically a redesigned C64 board, fully populated, sans Processor
>> and SID. It has a couple of interesting points.
>>
>> 1: it has no RF modulator, only an Svideo output. Since the RF
>> modulator is responsible for the chroma signal bleed into the
>> luminance signal, it would be interesting to see what the video output
>> quality is like - and whether the circuit can be easily adapted to
>> existing boards.
>> 2: One of the design simplifications was to run off a single 12VDC
>> supply, and generate all voltages from this one source. In particular,
>> the 9VAC is needed both with early breadboards (which used this to
>> generate the VIC VCC), and for ALL units to generate the power for the
>> tape drive, and external power for the USER port. The AC component was
>> used to generate the clock signal for the TOD pin in the 2 6526 CIA's.
>> Jim, amongst many others would be very interested in seeing how this
>> has been accomplished in this board.. the component count looks quite
>> small.
>> 3: there is provision for a workaround for silent memory corruptions
>> caused by memory refresh glitches, when fooling around with the VIC
>> chip timing (a technique called VSP). Having witnessed the problem
>> first hand (and "fixed" it by retrofitting NOS RAM in my own machine)
>> - I'd like to know how this has been achieved.
>>
>
>
> Certainly some points of interest in terms of the items you outline and
> using them for the classic board, but no interest in terms of purchasing
> it.
>
> I'd rather stick with an almost infinitely repairable classic board with
> all through-hole technology myself, particularly since I have already
> fully socketed a couple of boards.
>

I would much rather see something where I transfer the chips to a much
more capable board, not a reproduction of the old one.  I don't have
problems finding original boards that still work... there's still millions
of them in the US.

Something with full 1541 emulation from SD, multiple SIDs, removal of AEC
lines from video output, standard power supply, regular serial/parallel
ports, etc.

Still, it would have to be "reasonably priced".

-Pete


       Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list