@root42@chaos.social
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root42

@root42@chaos.social

https://www.youtube.com/root42
Coding, tinkering, ancient hardware and software.
he/him
#retrogaming #letscode #demoscene
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This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

phranck, to random
@phranck@chaos.social avatar

So langsam wird das was mit dem auf der Terrasse. 🤪

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@phranck nah dran, aber nicht ganz die richtige Spezies. :)
Fun fact: im botanischen Garten der Uniklinik Aachen war lange Zeit auch ein kleines Schlafmohnbeet, dass videoüberwacht war...

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

So yesterday I restocked my very last batch of 2.0 cards on my Tindie store: https://www.tindie.com/products/polpo/picogus-sound-card-emulator-for-isa-retro-pcs/ Once I’m out, I’m out. I’m passing the job of selling cards over to other capable established sellers, such as:
🇺🇸 Joe’s Computer Museum: https://jcm-1.com/product/picogus-v2/
🇪🇺 Serdashop: https://serdashop.com/
🇬🇧 Flamelily IT: https://shop.flamelily.co.uk/picogus
All ship worldwide!

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@polpo Makes sense. And people can still spin their own Picogus. Still it’s a pretty good bang for the buck!

root42, (edited ) to random
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New video for Patrons:
Black Amiga 500
https://www.patreon.com/posts/black-amiga-500-104547080?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
#commodore #amiga #retrogaming

root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

And these are the before and after pictures of the cast metal frame. I used deoxit and an old cloth and cotton buds to remove the dirt and cover the metal at the same time with the deoxit, which usually gives a very thin coating that will protect the metal. Smells horribly though. :)
I think I will need to lube the top and bottom ball bearings of the spindle. The top one I can reach easily. For the bottom one I probably have to unmount the flywheel, but I don't want to...

A much cleaner metal frame, with significantly less visible corrosion

root42,
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The read/write head is freshly cleaned, the rails have their dust removed and a thin coat of lithium grease has been applied to all surfaces that slide around.

root42,
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@Zitruskeks There is a central screw on the flywheel. But yeah, I got a drop of oil in between the top pulley and the die cast frame. There a bearing was barely visible.

root42,
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Now everything is put back together. All things that I could reach are lubed. I am slightly optimistic...
To do:

  • one more drive mechanism
  • testing the transformer
  • maybe getting rid of the mains filters...?
root42,
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This is drive unit 0, which I still have to clean. It looks better AND worse at the same time as drive unit 1. The corrosion on the die cast metal looks worse, but the microswitch looks better. The spindle motor looks slightly different...

Closeup of the metal drive clamp, showing white corrosion on the metal bars.

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

Interesting! The two mechanisms are slightly different! Drive unit 1 is a 101S and drive unit 0 is a 101SM. I wonder what the differences are, except for the slightly different motor.
To me the motors look exactly like the tacho motors used on the Micropolis mechanisms. I do have one or two spares should the need arise...

Closeup of the flywheel and sticker of the other drive, saying "MPI Model 101SM" manufacturing date October 1983

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

Another interesting difference compared to the 8050 with Micropolis drives is this weird contraption at the back of unit 0. It is there to support the drive PCB! On Micropolis drives the PCB is simply mounted on top of the mechanism. But the MPI mechanisms only allow for a half length PCB! So the Commodore built PCB hangs over at the end and has to be supported!

root42,
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You know the drill... Before and after. This time it is not quite as visible. The plastics were already relatively clean.

Nicely cleaned plasic front bezel and side panels. No more white crust.

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

And another before and after picture for the metal frame. The white crust leaves behind dark splotches. I wonder if this can be treated in some way to avoid future corrosion? So far I have used deoxit, which lubricates with some kind of synthetic oil, so I hope this will keep corrosion at bay.

The die cast frame now without the white crust. There are darker spots visible in the places where the white crust was before.

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

The motor of the 101SM mechanism is a slightly different variant. All the motors have tachometers, so they have four wires: two for the actual motors, two for the tacho. For the drive unit this black piece fell of, it was glued to the top, same as visible in this pic for the other motor. I wonder what it's for. First I thought maybe it's a magnet for the tacho, but it seems to be a solid plastic piece, not magnetic.Maybe some kind of protection for the cables?

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@Random_Seed Well, let's see if I know anyone with an electroplating device :)

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@Random_Seed I will keep it in mind... Anodizing would mean I have disassemble the drive completely, and after reassembly align everything again. This is quite tedious, so I will only consider this once I have established the drives actually work...

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

The transformer—rusty though it may be—is humming away quietly and outputting the correct voltages.

Digital multimeter displaying a reading of 16.51 volts, connected to wires of a transformer. Large green capacitors for filtering the mains are visible in the background

tubetime, to random
@tubetime@mastodon.social avatar

another silicon valley electronics flea market thread!

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@tubetime The secret of Monkey Island?

root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

But I won't give up quite yet. If the motors work, and if the head is good (it measures fine), maybe we can restore this thing and/or use the mechanism on the other drive. This will require partial disassembly of the mechanism and lots of scrubbing, oiling and lubrication.

The drive mechanism removed from the case, showing white corrosion and rusty spots. Lots of dust as well.

root42,
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The drive latching mechanism has this interesting little feature. I guess it will prevent the doors from locking when no disk is inserted? or ...?

A gloved hand moving a black plastic lever that pushes a spring loaded screw.

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

The microswitch detects if the door latch is closed. It has a metal leaf attached that is totally rusted. A quick dremel later and it is looking better. I will coat it with lots of deoxit to keep further corrosion at bay...

The same switch with a more shiny metal leaf.

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

These are the before and after pictures of the plastic parts that can be removed. Dish soap and LOTS of water plus an antistatic brush and cotton buds helped in removing 40 years of dirt.

Clean black plastic front bezel and side panels.

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@1024Bytes White balance of both images is not the same... So yeah, the left should be somewhat darker.

AndyGER, to retrogaming German
@AndyGER@mastodon.social avatar

#retro #retrogaming #commodore #c64 #breadbin #1541 #pi1541

Until now I do not own any storage system whatsoever for my Commodore C64 breadbin.

I am looking into several solutions like the SD2IEC (several) combined with a Final Cartridge III+ cartridge or an EPYX FASTLOAD cartridge.

The perfect yet pricy (for me) solution would be the Ultimate 1541 II-L cartridge.

Another one could be the Pi1541 but I haven't yet found any offer that can sell me the complete thing with the case ...

root42,
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@ipaschke @AndyGER SD2IEC means you can't run most demos. Which is, at least for me, very important.
The SUBcart you are mentioning: is that the same as AVGCart? That seems to cost around 75 EUR, which is in the order of the Pi1541, and seems to have disadvantages, too: "supports ATR (floppy image) files (read/write) - support is limited without an optional SIO or ECI/PBI cable due to Atari cartridge port constraints (e.g. SW that uses RAM under OS does not work)"

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@ipaschke @AndyGER Furthermore the Pi1541 is only slow because it is a cycle accurate emulation of the 1541, which is slow! But the Pi1541 I linked to includes the Epyx Fastload, so that is less of an issue. Modern productions come with their own IRQ Loaders anyway and are not slow anymore, even on original 1541.

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@ipaschke Hm, I use a PiZero on my Pi1541 and have had very little trouble running demos. However I must admit that it sees very little use these days, as I run almost everything from real floppies... But eventually those will run out, so Pi1541 it will be. :)
I will have to test Next Level some time. Only watched it on floppy so far. But even with real floppies the IRQ loaders have issues. Krill's loader used to be a bit picky, producing garbage on some of my wonky drives. He fixed that, though

root42,
@root42@chaos.social avatar

@ipaschke The KFF is a great choice. Limited D64 support even.

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