Video

Finally! The little Apple IIc monitor is back together! All 9 inches of it!

In video #22 a month or two back I built a Tauntek logic IC tester. These are firmware upgradable, and while there were no new features in the latest release that I felt a burning desire to have, I thought I’d run through the process of doing the firmware upgrade so we could see how it’s done.

When I got my Spectravideo SVI-328, it came with a floppy drive but no floppy discs. A chance visit to the Spectravideo Facebook group for a different matter led me to a cassette file that I could use to create a disc BASIC boot disc (and CP/M boot disc). This video runs through the process of creating the disc BASIC disc using a SVI-CAS digital playback and recording device (the process to make a CP/M boot disc is almost identical). ...

Well, that didn’t go as planned… The “plan” was to test out the SVI-806 80 column video card.

This week I’m repairing a Sony TC-K590 tape deck. I started this a few weeks back but had to wait for parts to arrive from the UK. Was difficult to cut down 3-4 hours of footage into a watchable video without it ending up all disjointed – hopefully it came up OK :-)

Experimenting with desoldering techniques in this video – hoping to solicit some feedback on how to do it better and more consistently!

This time around I’m building a Tauntek Logic IC tester, which should be useful for testing 74 series logic IC’s I reclaim from old equipment, and also some 4000 series IC’s. There are other testers out there, like the Retro Chip Tester Pro (which is good for testing RAM/ROM in particular), and in time I’ll probably acquire & build one of those too :-)

In this video I take a look at the Spectravideo SV-601 super expander, and come across a few surprises along the way!

This time around we’re repairing a Commodore 1084S-P1 monitor (originally made by Philips). For those wondering about the doubled up insulator on the heatsink – I checked after running the monitor for 30+ minutes and the heatsink was the same temperature as the transistor (approx 35 degrees C), so the thermal conductivity doesn’t appear to be compromised.

This time around I put the Vectorio back together. There’s no real surprises here – it all bolts back together about the way you’d expect. Next time around I hope to have a working composite monitor that I can plug into it (my modern Sony LCD workshop TV doesn’t like the composite output from many retro machines).

Another tip shop find – this time a Macray CCTV switcher thing. Not entirely sure what this is supposed to do, other than switch video in a CCTV system. It’s pretty basic, with a PSU and a bunch of relay boards. I bought it for the Euro card enclosure.

This time around we take a look at a monochrome 9″ Apple ][ monitor, and make a start on rectifying its issues. This will be part 1 of at least 2 as I’m still waiting on some of the replacement parts to arrive (some I had in stock, but many I didn’t). You’ll see what a PITA this thing is to get apart, and next time I expect you’ll see what a PITA it is to put back together! ...

Another tip shop find – this time a PACOM 3170 video “thing”. I realised after I made the video that the identification overlay that I think this produces would require a video source to generate that, and the video cards don’t have that, and it’s unlikely the microprocessor is bit-banging the video. BUT, I missed the obvious – there’s provision for a daughtercard on each video card, with pins labelled “VSYNC, HSYNC, ID VIDEO” amongst others on one side, and the other side has serial in/out, ID0-3 pins (device select?). ...

In this video I clean and re-assemble the Vectorio keyboard that I took apart quite some time ago. In doing so I noticed another area where this machine differs from the genuine Apple ][+, so I explore that a little before giving the keyboard a test. AND IT DIDN’T WORK PROPERLY! But it wasn’t a huge issue, and the fix was pretty straightforward if not slightly fiddly.

A while back now I picked up an Apple II clone on eBay – listed as “unknown condition – parts only”, or words to that effect. Back then I popped it open, checked the power supply for obvious issues, checked the output voltages, and was able to successfully power up the machine. BUT, the machine was a bit of a mess – the case is very yellowed for one, and it needed a good overall clean. So I pulled it all down and made a start, but that was about the time I ran out of space in my little home office, making it very difficult to get anything done in there. That was the driver to build a new workshop for this stuff! ...

In this video we’ll have a look at the cassette system of the Spectravideo 328. How it connects to the system, a look inside the SV-903, and a quick look at some cassette based software. Note: I didn’t mention it in the video, but there are virtual tape solutions available for the SVI-328 – links below. Details of the Spectravideo tape format SVI-CAS owners manual link: The manual has recent pricing for the unit & SVI cable. ...

This set of Logitech X540 speakers were plugged into our bedroom TV to make it sound half decent. Most people seem to use those sleek sound bars, but I had this set of speakers sitting idle and for nearly 10 years they’ve done the job just fine. Until the other night when I turned them on and… Nothing. Nada. Zilch. So in this video I break them open to see what the problem is, and whether I have the parts required to fix them lying around. ...

In this video I unboxed a Spectravideo SV-328, an 8-bit computer from Spectravideo that was introduced to the world in 1983. I’ve never owned, or even used, one of these machines so this was interesting. I picked this lot up from the local tip shop – yup, someone was literally throwing this out! In part 1 of this series, I take a look at it, plug it in, and check if it works. I also pop it open to see if anyone else has been inside modding anything. ...

I said I’d likely do a video of the second G413 repair, and I did exactly that. This second one had an identical fault, just on a different key (the ‘E’ key), and the fix was exactly the same. So despite the comments I read when I was Googling around that it’s the keyswitches themselves that are the problem, this hasn’t been my experience. That’s not to say that people haven’t had issues with the keyswitches – just that I haven’t. ...

A quick look at the Sheen 100 video sport system from the late 1970’s, including some technical documentation and a brief session playing some of the games with my 15 year old daughter, who had some quite hilarious reactions to it all!

Most of the IC’s are now in their sockets (on the CPU card at least). Getting close to being able to fire it up – just need the DS1210, and the PLCC adapter so I can do the initial programming of the flash memory. Live streams on Twitch ...

This Apple ][ clone arrived in the mail today. Mightly yellowed, but other than the ‘K’ key, the machine seems to work fine. The motherboard is branded “Vectorio”, so it’ll be interesting to learn a bit more about this one. Live streams on Twitch

After the last BBC stream I pondered that maybe the suspect disc drive’s heads were just dirty, so we clean those. Then investigate a couple of Master Compact systems, and end up opening the Amiga again to work out which Kickstart ROM it had (1.3) and realised it had a mono video output! Streaming PC bluescreened towards the end, but we picked up where we left off. ...

More Z80 board build… Live streams on Twitch

A look at my “main” BBC model B and the upgrades that I’ve done to it, re-assembling the other model B, checking out the double floppy drive unit, and an update on what’s been happening with the Z80 build. Live streams on Twitch