ilike8bits

A Whole Lotta Nothing

I’m not dead. Honest! It has, however, been a long time between posts. Unfortunately I haven’t been working on project work as much as I would have liked, and I spent a long time waiting for parts to arrive for projects. CreatiVision Controllers (AKA the Dick Smith Wizzard) The new PCBs arrived. It took meContinue reading “A Whole Lotta Nothing”

Working on the Haul

Well, I have the “haul” of old computers, and I’ve been slowly working through them TRS-80 CoCo With the 4 I had, all were using RF, and I knew one worked and one definitely didn’t work. I started by doing an S-Video Mod on the first one I picked up. With 2020 hindsight, this wasContinue reading “Working on the Haul”

The Long Haul

So recently I managed to participate in an exciting retro-computing “thing” in the form of clearing and organising a seatainer full of old computers and peripherals. While most were not systems I was interested in (So many dead printers, for instance), there were some gems that I took home, as did my fellow participant. ThisContinue reading “The Long Haul”

Argh!

So far, I have broken / failed to fix: Some days this hobby can be a bit depressing…

Fun with “Stuff”

I do apologise that I haven’t been updating as much as I could. There’s been personal things going on in the background that have slowed my output down. Atari 2600 The replacement 6507 CPUs arrived and after hitting a dud, my second chip worked fine. This is why you always buy a couple. I didContinue reading “Fun with “Stuff””

Quick Update on Multiple Projects

I’ll try and keep this informal this time 🙂 The Atari 2600 seems to have a bad 6507 CPU. The voltage drops to zero when it’s inserted. I have a replacement on its way Of the CreatiVisons, I managed to get one to boot fine and one just gives black screens. The tape drive works.Continue reading “Quick Update on Multiple Projects”

The Big Haul

So on the weekend, as part of a local organisation, I did some volunteer work. In return I got some old systems donated to me. And what a donation it was! While none of this equipment is in what I would call a “working state”, it’s all fixable and it’s all super interesting. First upContinue reading “The Big Haul”

Update on all the PCBs

So remember all those PCBs I ordered? Let’s break down what worked and what didn’t. What Worked So first up, both my ROM adapters worked without a problem. So we now have a Low Profile Amiga ROM switcher and a Low Profile Microbee ROM switcher. Both built around using turned pins to keep the profileContinue reading “Update on all the PCBs”

Assembling the Microbee MultiROM

EDIT: Important Note! PLEASE READ FIRST! I made a mistake in my assembly pictures. I have assembled this board upside down! It works if you solder everything to the correct side. Don’t be an idiot like me! Solder so the credits face the underside of the PCB not the top. So I have finally gotContinue reading “Assembling the Microbee MultiROM”

Not a Soldering Iron in Sight

Updates Starting with an update on existing projects, I have the Amiga MIDI project working. I’d accidently crossed the input and output lines on the MAX2323 chip. A quick bodle later and it was working. It’s now corrected in the master PCB. I also have permission from Grzegorz Kraszewski to release my version. That wasContinue reading “Not a Soldering Iron in Sight”