Commodore_64_Bench

 

Commodore International wasn't originally building home computers or calculators as their first products.  They sold used and reconditioned typewriters starting in the late 1950's.  But by the mid 1970's, Commodore's Jack Tramiel (pron: Tramel) couldn't sell an electronic calculator cheaper than the chip maker, Texas Instruments was selling the parts for after TI was selling them direct.  To solve the problem, Commodore acquired MOS, an IC chip manufacturer in trouble.  Having the ability to make their own calculator chips, they would go on to bigger and better things through Chuck Peddle and his team's genius with the introduction of the PET 2001 in 1977's Consumer Electronics Show.  Well equipped with a cassette tape for data storage, the first unit featured a calculator keyboard borrowed from the rapidly diminishing calculator market.  From there the PET advanced with a full stroke QWERTY keyboard and external floppy drive support while still keeping the cassette port available for backwards compatibility.  The market was changing quickly and the PET was somewhat out of the need or price of most home interests.  The next line to replace the PET and target the home market specifically became the VIC-20 running on the same 6502 microprocessor with similar architecture as the PET it was to replace.  It maintained the data cassette or Datassette port and a redesigned unit was more inline with the style of the VIC-20's "Breadbin" look.  The market responded to the advances of the VIC-20 well propelling it forward as the lowest cost full-featured home computer available at the time with the VIC chip for graphics and never before heard 3 voice sound.  However, the market changes continued to accelerate and more RAM, better graphics, better sound, and a larger line of optional equipment became the focus.  Advances in IC manufacturing built the VIC-II chip, the SID chip for sound, and creation of the 6510 microprocessor had borne the C64.  And the rest they say, is history.

February 19, 2023

This blog is dedicated to my interests in the famous C64 of old.  My primary interest here is to blog about my work with my old hardware including, but not limited to repairing, software, and accessories.

What started all this interest was a couple of videos on YT by Adrian Black of Adrian's Digital Basement.  I got bored one day and with no motivation to work on anything related to ham radio I happened upon a repair video he did.  They were fun machines and I remembered doing C64 repairs back in the day.  I started to wonder how much of the stuff might still be around.  I'd lost an inventory sheet of what was in a storage unit years ago.  After having a shed built by my brother I moved everything from storage to the shed but didn't bother inventorying anything.  So ending the 18 year storage career, I was saving quite a bit of money now that the lot rent was going up.  I didn't quite feel like checking the shed out right then and continued watching repair videos over the next few hours.  I've always been interested in electronics and my vacuum tube radio gear has been fun to work on.  Within the last year however I haven't had much motivation to continue since my dad passed in May of 2022.  

A few days later I came back to the repair videos Adrian was doing and watched a series on an Apple II Plus a viewer donated.  It was a special rig to him as he had one as a kid and really got into fixing it up.  I was too.  After finishing the series an Amiga repair video caught my attention.  He was bringing back an Amiga 2000 back to life.  Early in the video after popping the case I was surprised to see so much corrosion.  It was due to the NiCad battery Commodore use to keep the clock data saved between power cycles.  That got my attention as I remembered seeing the Amiga I have during the transfer to the shed 6 or so years ago.  I found it and the 1084S monitor I used on it.  I also discovered 9 boxes of Commodore stuff in the process!  Nine freaking boxes!

Amiga 2000 with 1084S CRT.

Nine boxes!
The two on the right contain an A500, C64, 
and a 1541 disk drive and a BlueChip 1541
compatible drive.

Come back for updates on my journey of rediscovery of my love for the Commodore 64.

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April 13, 2023

Well it's been a while since the last post.  Much work on the Amiga 2000 and 500 have been done and have the 500 working.  I'll post that info in the Amiga blog.

So I finally researched the best plan for my C64 on the power end of things and came up with two routes.  First, build a custom PSU using a 9VAC (12VAC) unregulated wall pack and a 5V regulated wall pack into the proper DIN plug.  This would give me a workbench type of setup.

Second, build one of the C64 Saver's available and just use the stock brick until it fails.

A third and more permanent solution would be to either gut one of the bricks and install a Meanwell supply inside or build a totally new supply from scratch.  These are a bit more expensive and longer term solutions but hey, they work.

The C64 Saver:

I think Ray Carlsen invented it and the design has been refined over the years by a few.  That or he built the most reliable one and others have improved designs like BWACK.  I bought one of these in kit form from EverlastEngineering on Etsy.com .   Here's what I wrote about it in my initial review:

Excellent kit! Reminds me of the Heathkit products I built as a kid. All parts were accounted for after they fell out of the envelope to the floor while removing the larger pieces. Only suggestion I have is to put them into a small plastic parts bag as these parts can disappear easily. The kit took about 20 minutes to take stock and build. A link to photo instructions the seller provides is good. Silkscreen is excellent and can be assembled using only part designations. Seller did write on parts tags what designation they are making assembly a snap. Unit can be built as an external inline protection device or can be mounted internally with minor C64 mod.

The kit cost, at the time of this writing, was $17.04 plus shipping.  After receiving it I took stock of the parts and checked them off the proceeded to assemble the board.  With that done I'm now looking into methods to install this internally to the computer to keep the set up looking stock.

Today I thought I would shoot an introduction video on the C64 and the C64 Saver.  Be warned that I am by no means, a video artist, photographer, or editor.  I shoot raw video, maybe do some corrective editing and release.  I don't polish it to production levels.  It keeps it simple and you see what I see straight up. No Fluff-N-Stuff.  And as Adrian Black likes to say: So without further adieu, let's get, right to it!

With Jeep work still pending, I might get back to this project during the evenings more easily with the limited evening light.  My Jeep work needs a day or two in case something goes wrong.

That's it for tonight!  See ya next time!

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May 18, 2023

I haven't been updating this as much as I should have.  Since the last post the C64 Saver was tested and put through it's paces passing with flying colors.  I grabbed the PSU, C64, video cable with the S-Video/LumaChroma plugs, and the Star Trek cartridge to bring with me to my sister's place for a weekend.  The weekend of May 6-7 was a milestone for the family as our dad passed away a year earlier on May 8, 2022.  Dad loved Star Trek TOS, Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager, not to mention the movies.  I had an opportunity to get hold of a Star Trek arcade cartridge from an estate sale and thought how fitting it would be for us to play it in remembrance of dad.  It was a different style of game play from when I played Space War in an arcade he took me to in the mid 1970's.  Not long after I would play a text graphic type Star Trek game on an IMSAI 8080 outfitted with a Zilog Z80 microprocessor.  Dad modified the main board to use the Zilog CPU instead of the Intel 8080 after building the computer from a kit he bought from The Byte Shop back in Boulder, CO in 1977.  He found a Star Trek game in a magazine that I could type in to play.  I spent hours typing in the lines of code and a few more debugging it with his help.  In the end it worked and with a few modifications he changed the characters representing the Klingon ships and the Enterprise as well as get it to clear the screen before refreshing the display with the updated data instead of scrolling up the old information off the screen.  I can't remember the actual name of the game but it might have been Galaxy War.  I remember the title screen featured a crude ASCII character figure called Admiral Fox as he gave me my orders at the mission start.  The game display info looked very similar to Apple Trek in layout of the information about the ship and enemies.  Since then I've played every Star Trek game out there at least once.  Both of us could barely play this version as it was modeled from the arcade version after the ST: The Motion Picture was released.  It just didn't play as smooth as the arcade and even this rendition was as difficult to move the ship to where you wanted before firing on an enemy vessel.

After the weekend ended and I got home, the C64 remains in the box I took it in.  I will bring it out after getting the 1541 drive working.  Right now I'm focused on my wife's Amiga 500 restoration.  Check out that blog when you have a chance.

R.I.P. Dad.  May you explore the stars in your new life as you wanted in this one.

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August 17, 2025

It has been a while since I last posted here.  Been quite a bit going on and new distractions since Dad's passing to keep my mind busy as I dealt with it.  But it seems the fog has lifted and moving on is more important than reminiscing.  Jeep work, job work, Amiga work, yard work.  You know.  The usual stuff.

So it will take a little time but I fully intend to get back into the C64 scene and get the Pi1541 built and working.  I bought the non-daisy-chain version by mistake initially then ordered the one with two connectors.  I thought the other one connect as the last device on the chain but after having difficulties and a few emails with the seller, I opt'd for a new purchase.  It came in and I wasn't able to get it working then things happened.

So it seems the little case that looks like the 1541 will work but getting the display to line up correctly was proving difficult.  I think I fried the display and got another one.  It works so now that I'm attempting to get back into the C64 swing of things, I have a new firmware update for it to download and install.  I'd like to have it working and running the Commodore Christmas Demo for the holidays playing on the TV in the living room this year.

Other than that the machine works fine as does the drive I bought from Mike at RavenWolf RetroTech.  I'm not sure if I want a printer to finish off the set or not.  I need to go through and take an inventory of the stuff I have so I don't duplicate anything.

That's it for this round.  Catchya on the next one.

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