What retro things have you done today?
- Thread starter Duke
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Picked up an Olivetti PCS/44 with its original monitor, peripherals, disks and manual (486SX, 4MB, 128MB, Win 3.1), a Texas Instruments TI99/4A with its original accessories and a tonne of books and pamphlets, and an Amstrad PCW8256 with all of its original peripherals, disks, manuals, dust covers, and a couple of working dot matrix printers... 
All from the same seller, for not very much money, and all in fairly good condition, all mostly working. No boxes aside from the original keyboard box for the Olivetti.
It started with the Apple II Europlus, and now I am out of control...
The majority will probably get sold once I've had my fun tinkering and getting everything working 100%. Maybe... We'll see...
I haven't collected the Amstrad yet. But here it is:
All from the same seller, for not very much money, and all in fairly good condition, all mostly working. No boxes aside from the original keyboard box for the Olivetti.
It started with the Apple II Europlus, and now I am out of control...
The majority will probably get sold once I've had my fun tinkering and getting everything working 100%. Maybe... We'll see...
I haven't collected the Amstrad yet. But here it is:
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I've been doing a lot of troubleshooting on the Apple II lately as well, tried my hand at soldering (turns out cheap soldering irons suck), replaced a few chips, improved some cables, etc...
There are a lot of pictures and such, I can post if people would be interested.
I'm really enjoying it to be honest, the vintage Apple forums are very helpful. I am *this close* to buying an oscilloscope...
There are a lot of pictures and such, I can post if people would be interested.
I'm really enjoying it to be honest, the vintage Apple forums are very helpful. I am *this close* to buying an oscilloscope...
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Start a thread! less grief than in the Motors forum!I've been doing a lot of troubleshooting on the Apple II lately as well, tried my hand at soldering (turns out cheap soldering irons suck), replaced a few chips, improved some cables, etc...
There are a lot of pictures and such, I can post if people would be interested.
I'm really enjoying it to be honest, the vintage Apple forums are very helpful. I am *this close* to buying an oscilloscope...
And an oscilloscope is very helpful IMO, you don't need anything too crazy to really help diagnosing retro stuff.
e.g.
I use a picoscope myself, but that was only because it has decoding of i2c, serial and other common protocols that massively help when doing lots of IoT projects and similar.
And in other news, whilst (painfully) waiting for parts for all my retro projects, I found this on eBay needing a good home:
It arrived this morning apparantly, so might check when I get home, but the VCS2600 was the very first computer/console we had as a family (shared Xmas present, I would have been 7, the memory of playing combat on Xmas day, then queuing hours outside Comet on boxing day to get Space Invaders still brings a smile to my face!).
This one is presumed in need of repair, it is the sellers original console from childhood and probably wasn't getting bids because working ones aren't that expensive and this one looks 'loft' fresh and unabled to be tested.. also.. photographed on a patio!
I've promised the Mrs that I'm only getting a handful of the early computers/consoles, only stuff I owned myself, and only to repair and then display in the study and occasionally have a nostalgia trip!
It arrived this morning apparantly, so might check when I get home, but the VCS2600 was the very first computer/console we had as a family (shared Xmas present, I would have been 7, the memory of playing combat on Xmas day, then queuing hours outside Comet on boxing day to get Space Invaders still brings a smile to my face!).
This one is presumed in need of repair, it is the sellers original console from childhood and probably wasn't getting bids because working ones aren't that expensive and this one looks 'loft' fresh and unabled to be tested.. also.. photographed on a patio!
I've promised the Mrs that I'm only getting a handful of the early computers/consoles, only stuff I owned myself, and only to repair and then display in the study and occasionally have a nostalgia trip!
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Bought this 1969 Bell & Howell Filmosound 450A cassette recorder. It is designed to be worn in the leather pouch over the shoulder, and has a microphone that is stowed in the lower compartment that can be affixed to the bottom of the case with velcro. Possibly something a casual reporter or something might have used back in the day?
It was pretty manky...
Gave it a good clean...
And set it down next to the Apple. It looks good there!
I am expecting it to need some work before it functions properly, but once I've got a 7.5V wall adapter, I will test it and see!
It was pretty manky...
Gave it a good clean...
And set it down next to the Apple. It looks good there!
I am expecting it to need some work before it functions properly, but once I've got a 7.5V wall adapter, I will test it and see!
damn it iv been confusing you with the other youtuber called LGRBenched my DX4 Overdrive against the stock DX2 in my dell 466i.
"Head-to-Head: DX4 Overdrive VS DX2 in my Dell 466i"
A short video where I was curious to test the DX4 Overdrive CPU in my Dell 466i against a real DX4 in a later 486 motherboard and also its stock 66Mhz DX2.Pl...youtu.be
@cee-S-dee you thought about spraying the coating back on? https://www.coating.co.uk/anti-glare-coating/
Another Monitor has just been to the Anti-Glare Dr for some attention! 
.
I went to visit my mom today and saw my Viglan Envy 17" which had been stored there for a good few years now. I remember getting this monitor, and cleaning the glass with a cloth and water and the coating began to smear. I was pretty miffed. I managed to get a good amount off, but it was very patchy as i just continued to rub off what i could with water at the time. Not long after, I picked up my 19" CTX so this went into storage. After the success of using CIF on the Mitsubishi screen I thought I would do the same on the Viglen. It came off a lot easier and now the screen is smear free! This monitor is actually pretty awesome. Its a 17" Flat screen Trinitron, which will do 1600x1200@60hz, 1280x1024@75hz, 1024x768@100hz and 640x480@120hz. The case of the monitor is slightly yellowed and has some hairline cracks, but the tube produces and excellent image!
I'll have a look into it! Never crossed my mind about a spray on solution. Only issue is, I'm not sure if I could get the application flat. Probably make a right bodge of it!
.I went to visit my mom today and saw my Viglan Envy 17" which had been stored there for a good few years now. I remember getting this monitor, and cleaning the glass with a cloth and water and the coating began to smear. I was pretty miffed. I managed to get a good amount off, but it was very patchy as i just continued to rub off what i could with water at the time. Not long after, I picked up my 19" CTX so this went into storage. After the success of using CIF on the Mitsubishi screen I thought I would do the same on the Viglen. It came off a lot easier and now the screen is smear free! This monitor is actually pretty awesome. Its a 17" Flat screen Trinitron, which will do 1600x1200@60hz, 1280x1024@75hz, 1024x768@100hz and 640x480@120hz. The case of the monitor is slightly yellowed and has some hairline cracks, but the tube produces and excellent image!
I'll have a look into it! Never crossed my mind about a spray on solution. Only issue is, I'm not sure if I could get the application flat. Probably make a right bodge of it!
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@cee-S-dee still on topic, the anti glare coating on my glasses is wearing out its got patches in areas, can your method be used to take the whole coating off without damage to the plastic lens and frame?
Honestly I'm not sure mate. It requires quite a bit of pressure to remove the coating, and a flat crt screen is going to be stronger then thin glasses lenses'. Maybe a Dremal and a polishing pad might do the trick?
@cee-S-dee Viglen a quality name, nice looking screen and great it was your original. I wish I'd kept mine.
CIF for restoring your Mitsubishi - inspired!
CIF for restoring your Mitsubishi - inspired!
So I have been trying to troubleshoot an issue with my Apple ][ where it sometimes (often) doesn't boot.
And when it does, it doesn't like booting with the floppy drives plugged in.
Everyone has told me it sounds like it is power supply related, which tracks.
After some testing, the positive rail voltages seem fine, but I haven't checked the negative...
It is in some way affected by heat, because if I turn the machine on, leave it for 10 minutes, then come back and cycle the power, it boots straight up!
I figured I'd try replacing the power supply just to see. I could have bought an original unknown condition one for about £60, I could have bought various kinds of fully assembled modern drop in replacements for between £75 and £150...
But I got a bit carried away and have ordered everything I need to hopefully make my own modern PSU inside the original PSU enclosure...
I will be stripping and modifying an FSP Flex-ATX power supply, combining it with an ATX4VC voltage conversion board, and making the leads etc... And hopefully mounting it all in the original casing using adhesive backed PCB standoffs.
I think I should be able to make it look fairly tidy...
We shall see!
And when it does, it doesn't like booting with the floppy drives plugged in.
Everyone has told me it sounds like it is power supply related, which tracks.
After some testing, the positive rail voltages seem fine, but I haven't checked the negative...
It is in some way affected by heat, because if I turn the machine on, leave it for 10 minutes, then come back and cycle the power, it boots straight up!
I figured I'd try replacing the power supply just to see. I could have bought an original unknown condition one for about £60, I could have bought various kinds of fully assembled modern drop in replacements for between £75 and £150...
But I got a bit carried away and have ordered everything I need to hopefully make my own modern PSU inside the original PSU enclosure...
I will be stripping and modifying an FSP Flex-ATX power supply, combining it with an ATX4VC voltage conversion board, and making the leads etc... And hopefully mounting it all in the original casing using adhesive backed PCB standoffs.
I think I should be able to make it look fairly tidy...
We shall see!
After some further testing, I am not convinced that the PSU is at fault. All of the voltages seem fine at all of the connectors across the board. The negative rails might be out slightly at -5.38 and -12.68 but I don't think its out enough to cause an issue.
Regardless, I have decided to plough on with my power supply upgrade anyway, just because it is a fun little project, and it eliminates one potential future issue.
The ATX4VC with the Apple II power cable all made up:
Power switch connector, with the cables passed through the board just for neatness sake so, and an isolating backing recycled from an old power supply and cut to size. Holes done with a hole punch!
I did some mocking up with an old microserver power supply, which is flex ATX size but doesn't follow the standard, so has no -12V, and realised it would be quite a tight squeeze, but do-able...
I then bought an FSP Flex ATX PSU from eBay, but unfortunately the PCB was slightly longer, and also it didn't have mounting holes in the corners, so I would have had no easy way to mount it.
The side of the PSU enclosure where the PCBs mount is actually the top, so they hang upside down.
I decided to give up on that idea, and instead I have bought a Streacom Nano 120W, which is a good quality pico size PSU. I managed to pick it up supposedly new/unused for less than the price of a bare Pico 80W with no power brick.
So I am now waiting for that to arrive and I can finish this off.
In the mean time I have gutted the standard contents of the PSU enclosure, and stored it away. I only had to cut one wire to get it out, which now has insulated space connectors, so it will be easy to re-install it if I want to.
I will be making a C14 blank with a hole in the middle, so the laptop barrel connector for the Nano can be mounted where the original power connector was, for neatness.
+12V 2.5A, +5V 1.5A, -12V 0.25A, -5V 0.25A
The -5 is the clincher, no modern power supply can provide it.
The ATX4VC converts the -12 into -5.
Its actually a very well featured little device made by DekuNukem. Perfect for powering most retro gear.
GitHub - dekuNukem/ATX4VC: Replace aging vintage computer power supply with modern ATX PSU
Replace aging vintage computer power supply with modern ATX PSU - dekuNukem/ATX4VC
github.com
You can get a pre-assembled modern PSU for about £70 - £80, the components in this little project are costing me around £90. But it won't spoil the way the machine looks inside.
It is do-able for closer to £50, but I wanted to use a quality pico PSU, a genuine motherboard connector, high quality wire, etc.
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I had a spare Raspberry Pi 3B hanging around so what better than to create a little retropie setup specifically for a CRT? This will do until I get a Mister FPGA setup
You can download an already made image, although it's around 2 or 3 years old so I installed the latest retropie image (that is also around 1 year old or more), but manually installed the script as per https://github.com/stuckonretro/CRTPi-Project
I've set it up to output as RCA. The analogue composite output from a Raspberry pi is actually quite decent. A lot of TVs bought in the late 90's and early 00's in Europe can accept NTSC on composite so that's what I've gone with here. I didn't want a crippled PAL system. The pictures below don't really do the setup justice due to the poor camera used in the shots plus the fact it's taking a picture of a CRT TV! First picture is the interface in 480i, second picture shows a very good game that we all love and in 240p. The 240p is lovely and in person the scanlines look fantastic. Coupled with the Dualshock 3 controller, I honestly prefer playing retro games this way over the real consoles - you can see my US NTSC SNES also in the pictures below. I do have the real console set up for RGB over scart so it's gonna look better than composite and obviously beat emulation, but really, retropie with retroarch 1.15 and the SNES2005 core is pretty solid. I also set preemptive frames to 2 which completely eliminates input lag and the pi 3 still keeps full frame rate for most games.
You can download an already made image, although it's around 2 or 3 years old so I installed the latest retropie image (that is also around 1 year old or more), but manually installed the script as per https://github.com/stuckonretro/CRTPi-Project
I've set it up to output as RCA. The analogue composite output from a Raspberry pi is actually quite decent. A lot of TVs bought in the late 90's and early 00's in Europe can accept NTSC on composite so that's what I've gone with here. I didn't want a crippled PAL system. The pictures below don't really do the setup justice due to the poor camera used in the shots plus the fact it's taking a picture of a CRT TV! First picture is the interface in 480i, second picture shows a very good game that we all love and in 240p. The 240p is lovely and in person the scanlines look fantastic. Coupled with the Dualshock 3 controller, I honestly prefer playing retro games this way over the real consoles - you can see my US NTSC SNES also in the pictures below. I do have the real console set up for RGB over scart so it's gonna look better than composite and obviously beat emulation, but really, retropie with retroarch 1.15 and the SNES2005 core is pretty solid. I also set preemptive frames to 2 which completely eliminates input lag and the pi 3 still keeps full frame rate for most games.
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