14-10-2018
Was away for almost four weeks. Holidays! Italy. Pizza and Calamari! (and practice surviving skills on the road while driving). Rome area was a challenge, it seems that the only undamaged car in traffice was mine (and it is still undamaged). Tried eBay there to find out if there were some nice things to buy. But both Italy and Switzerland the pricings are high…If I will ever decide to sell my collection, i will drive up there to sell it!
Noticed btw. that it is getting harder (and more expensive) to get auctions from Marktplaats.
There was a boxed 1581 on Catawiki selling of for I think 130 euros. One offered on Marktplaats went away for 200 (not quit sure it is the same one). Seller had one lot with books (including the manual of the 1581…) and that lot sold of earlier than the 1581. Some unlucky buyer ending up with a boxed 1581..excluding the manual.
Bought myself a second joystick for the Commodore 64 mini and a Lioncast Arcade fighting joystick for the mini as well (next will be a Logitech F71o, this wireless one should work with the mini as well). Seems that the quality of the joystick delivered with the mini is really poor. A lot of people ending with broken joysticks.
Started working on the re-assembly of the Compucase 64d again. Tested the board, with the two 1541 drives (one has the speedloader+ installed). Ordered a lot of small bolts and nuts to use in the re-assembly (the units are disassembled multiple times in the past 30 year…not screw or bolt used is the same at the moment. Looks like installing the two drives and putting back the outer casing is quite a difficult job with fair chances on damaging the casing.
Should have made a video during disassembly. Tried looking for manuals or youtube movies with no luck. Need to do some soldering as well on the selection switch of the kernel, reinstall it and decide where to put it in the casing. Probably drill a hole in the plate for power/joysticks instead of putting it in the outer casing. After this one, there is the second 64d waiting…but that came without board, drive and is missing the keyboard cable.
Got myself an Eprom eraser as well as theXGecu minipro TL866A/TL866II+ USB programmer. Now looking for some new eproms. Will use it to experiment with programming new kernals (diskdrive and c64), and reading out some existing eproms I have to secure the content.
From Aliexpress i got an Ozone generator, 1000W UV ledbox and I got some ziplock bags. Still not quit sure how to start experimenting with Retrobrighting. Got my self a sous vide last year..and I got 5L of 13% peroxide waiting. Not quit fond of the cream method..due to changes of failure and damaging my precious 😉
I am looking for a method in which i can at least do a full Commodore casing at once. Preferred method would be to submerge both casings fully in peroxide/water solution. While heating it up to an 55/60 degrees and use the UV light to accelerate the process?
So now to decide on how to move forward!
Noticed some capacitors leaking from the Amiga CD32…so Richard from Alphen aan de Rijn is currently working on it. Recap the board and clean it.
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