👍

TBF, that paper shield is useless and blocks cooling.

@@Okurka. I don't think a company pays for design and built-in any component delivery for no reason. It has a reason to be there. Maybe RF interference?

@@ElectronGordo RF interference in 2021? No.

@@Okurka. No? :) ok, no.

Yeah I have seen Adrian just throw them away. What a laugh. Right guys, throw those shields away! :D

Thanks! Seriously, sometimes simple things throw us off for a loop. Especially here because the voltage drop was only partial, I kept expecting some component to fail, not the dry joints!! I even triple-checked that the switch was fine (but failed to show it in video). Oh well. Lesson learned there. Now get read for part 2, which is when things start getting REALLY ugly 😱

Haha, thanks. The really ugly part is going to be Part 2 (not for lack of my trying). This was just a rocky start.

Thank you so much! Glad you like them!

on my behalf thank you very much

Awesome, thank you!

Glad you enjoyed it! 😃

I have a huge backlog of C64s to repair, so I'll be working my way through them interleaved with videos on other topics.

Awesome, thank you!

A total cliffhanger!

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!

Deal! 😃 (Thank you!)

YES! It's one of the most professional, if not the best, video channels about retrohardware repair and modding. Maybe others could be more savants, but no doubt that Noel makes truly descriptive and pro videos

🤣🤣 Just wait until you get to Part 2...

Thanks! 😃

Thank you! Much appreciated!

Thanks! Yes, switch problems are very common, and I actually checked it multiple times (even though that didn't make it into the video).

I think you're right. I should have another look. Maybe I can even add that to the start of Part 2 since I haven't exported the final edit yet. Cheers.

Haha, if it makes you feel any better I had checked the switch multiple times (but somehow didn't record it).

@@NoelsRetroLab No it doesn't... :-( Just kidding :-) Shouting at a computer screen is the best part of being a nerd, so I guess it happens quite a lot on these retro computer repair channels like yours. But yet, IMHO, the tracing of a power fault should start from the point of input, not vice versa . Old electronics like these are very likely to have corroded socket pins and switch contacts, cracked solder joints where mechanical stress is frequent. They are the usual suspects if it is an intermittent fault like you had here. Can't wait for the second part, I have more shouting to do. :-)

Glad you liked it! Part 2 might be a disappointment though 😬

@@NoelsRetroLab Now you got me even more curious! 😁

Nice! I've never seen one of those, but that's a good solution if it kept getting unplugged. Back then I always had the problem that the power might accidentally go out for the whole neigborhood for a few seconds (especially during storms).

Totally right. I wouldn't advocate doing everything at satellite standards, but some things can be much better. Having some screws in the power connector would have cost Commodore a few more pennies and would have been much better. But then again, they may have been fine for the first 10-20 years and it's only now that we're getting those problems. And yeah, modern devices are orders of magnitude worse! 😬

@@NoelsRetroLab But we get so much fun from these old machines :D So I would've liked them to engineer them to proper customer electronic standards :D Although generally they are holding up really nice. I just had an MSX come in. 1988 and the only thing the previous owner did was change the floppy drive belt. And I learned a valuable lesson today. I had this 16LED bar display made for the C64 (to learn KiCad and test PCBWay). And since you get 5 board for 5 bucks I made one for the MSX too. And I noticed that when I toggled the STROBE that the lower 8 bits also got updated. Turns out that the STROBE bit actually is not completely in your control. But when you send data, it will briefly go down to inform the printer. And down in my case is, activate the other latch :D I never knew that about parallel ports! And the C64 user port isn't a parallel Centronics standard so PB2 is just fully in my control. But I figure I can make it "look" okay when I quickly enough write both bytes out. This was the idea anyways to polish my 31 year old Z80 coding skills. I do like the MSX (I was triggered by your love for the Amstrad, also a Z80) I was a N00B until 3 days ago. We had one in school but never got serious about them. But it's quite interesting, like the Amstrad I guess. Also a bit quirky with the VPD. Which doesn't allow you to write immediately in the NVRAM, you have to go through an IO port. And basically have two calls one to set the address, and one to push the data. Unless you do consecutive writes then the VDP address is incremented. But then you run into timing issues because if you do it too fast :D Interesting stuff. So much, more fun than X64 PCs ;) Keep up the great work, I adore your chancel. And I am amazed how many great hackers there are of these old machines in Spain!

Thanks! 😃

Thanks! Oh I have a huge backlog of C64s and VIC20s to repair, I just haven't been able to make time for them. There will be more for sure. Were the fuses the only thing wrong with those machines? That's lucky!

@@NoelsRetroLab It was strange with the 250469 board it seemed to work fine otherwise except there were no sounds. I tested to 8580 SID chip in an another machine and it worked just fine. Then i watched Jan Beta's video where he was fixing one of his c64c's and from there it occurred to me that hang on maybe that's it and after examining the fuse it was not good. Put an new one in and board has been working just fine since then. With the breadbin i found no power on both 7805 and 7812 voltage regulators then i examined the fuse and put in an known working one and that 250407 board came back to life and the voltages seem okay.

Ah! I knew there had to be an easier way to open that! 😃 Usually, if I have to do any kind of work around the VICII I end up desoldering that little metal cage and fitting some heatsinks directly on the chip anyway.

Thank you!

Pesky life getting in the way! 😃 Glad you're back and hope everything is well.

Honestly, it can be anything.... as you'll see in Part 2 😬

Haha, that was definitely a message sent through time from the past until... right now. So yes, I'm definitely future man. Sometimes time travel works! (especially in that direction 😃).

Oh wow, yeah, those are the worst kind of failures. Intermittent ones that only happen sometimes or after some use. Even here it was driving me crazy because I would try something and it would start working because the power connector was making better contact, and then I would do something else and it would stop. It can be quite frustrating!

This was just warming up with a rocky start. Part 2 is where the real ugliness starts 😬

Sure, that's ideal but unfortunately I don't have the harness. I should get one sometime. The memory test is still valid, which is mostly what I'm using it for.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad you liked it!

I'm excited to do some more work on my C64's now! 😅 I've been doing some upgrades in my lab so I haven't been able to produce videos for a while.

Sure, if you know it happens enough, it's a good idea. Normally I have problems with the switch, but not with the power connector so much. I guess I'll be looking at it a lot more closely from now on 😃

This was just a rocky beginning. The really ugly part is coming in Part 2 😬

Haha, didn't even realize I said that until now! Doh!

Right. I've seen it a lot in Amstrad CPCs too, but it's usually binary: You either get full voltage or it stops and you get nothing. Here it was really weird and intermediate. Maybe because it's AC and one contact was fine and the other one wasn't?

Thanks! The start was rocky and a bit ugly (forgetting the video connection, spending forever tracking down power issues), but the really ugly part comes in Part 2. Just wait 😬

Thank you! Cheers!

Haha! 😃 But actually go ahead and convince me they're worth keeping (I'm being serious). Do the RF emissions from a computer like this go far or are they limited to the range of my house for example? Because if it's just me, I don't think it affects me any, and the electronics in there will be a lot happier with the extra ventilation. Now if it has long-distance effects, then I could see it being a problem and I'm happy to change my stance.

@@NoelsRetroLab Do any of your neighbours listen to shortwave, are they radio hams? You may be interfering with their hobby.

@@M0UAW_IO83 I have a few shortwave radios and 2 older computers without those shields and I have no problems. Perhaps with some AlieExpress shortwave recievers there might be some problems, but I guess they don't like striplights too.

Thanks!!

Thank you! Yes, it's going great. The sponsorship and Patreon has been helping a ton. Right now I'm committed to a project for work for about a year and a half, but once it is over, I could see giving this a shot full time for a while. I could do SO much more than I'm able to right now!

@@NoelsRetroLab I’m so happy for you! I hope you can make it, so it gives you time to make great content. Kudos! Edit: random though: I always envisioned an ”I.T. Crowd” kind of intro for your channel... I wonder what you can do with more time and money...

I wasn't even thinking of a professional intro, but that's true. I want to keep it super short, but it could be fun having a high-quality one!

Good point. I saw the differences but I didn't instantly think re-work and I thought maybe it was done at the factory. I should have another look just to check.

Yes, quite a bit actually. Happens on Amstrad CPCs quite a bit (even though it's just a barrel jack), but it's usually an on/off thing. You touch it you get power, you touch it again, it all goes away. Maybe here because we have multiple pins and AC current it causes that partial current draw that threw me off.

Haha, yes, that's correct. It's on a tripod in front of me. So pretty much the same view as I have of the workbench. Also explains why I'm often kind of clumsy doing something on camera, because it's not the most natural position in the world 😃

@@NoelsRetroLab Thanks, I just couldn't picture where it could be without occupying the same volume as you do!

Oh good eye!! 😜

I'm already shooting that one, so expect it in two weeks 👍

@@NoelsRetroLab Yay :-)

I actually got my VDrive for the Spectrum today. Hmmmm :-/

Yes, that's one of the first things I checked. I even checked multiple times but somehow never recorded it. Go figure.

Too many good retro channels

This particular one is pretty inexpensive, around 5€ or so already assembled. I haven't tested the ones you mentioned though, so I can't compare them.

That's crazy that that same problem was already happening such a long time ago. I guess it's mostly due to stress rather than just age.

Yeah, especially because this one wasn't on or off. It was "kind of passing voltage but not enough", which really threw me off for a loop.

@@NoelsRetroLab The rule of thumb.... always check the power supply from the very start.... ie.... the wall plug.... then after the transformer...then the connector..and so on and so forth. Lots of time can be saved.

@@GORF_EMPIRE True, but that's exactly where I started 😃 It's just that it decided to fail after I was already happy with the voltages!

@@NoelsRetroLab Ah ok I did not recall that in the video so I mentioned it.

*dingo's donger

🤣🤣

Best shirt! 😃

Coming up... in part 2 😬