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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
 
| Looking forward to seeing that.
What's this with firefox blocking the site from auto-refreshing? |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 618
Location: Hull, UK | Can't abide by LCD monitors, I'd honestly sling it back on the landfill.
Mozilla is not supported, I gave up adding entire pages worth of crap to work around their bullshit years ago, I shouldn't have to account for a browser that refuses to adhere to the HTML 3.2/4.0 standards or CSS. Wasn't worth my time, nobody uses that thing any more anyway, so expect things to break and never be fixed if you're going to view my pages with that archaic piece of trash.
Got gypped by an eBay seller, ordered a 2TB WD RE, got a 4TB Seagate Desktop drive that didn't work and killed the RAID card in my NAS, was gonna send it back anyway, Seagate suck balls and have no place in anything I own, but unfortunately decided to play with it first. Not sure how I'm meant to get the data back off my other drives and there's at least 200GB of important stuff on one of the volumes I'd like to keep, plus images of driver floppies that no longer work and don't exist in the wild.
Otherwise got sent two panel PCs that didn't match the listing and had a part missing. Not sure if they're defective or if the Vortex86 is just shitty, because trying to run anything more complex than DIR basically causes an instant reboot, screen is broken on one of them and has white bars. Totally trash, no use to me, can go back.
Edited by DXZeff 2020-05-17 8:00 PM
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| tedster - 2020-05-17 2:59 PM
Looking forward to seeing that.
What's this with firefox blocking the site from auto-refreshing?
It is a bit on the hold, that C64 project. I am extremely tired these days. I had planned to begin soldering the darn thing today. Then make a list of what components that are missing, in order to buy those. The monitor will be tested this week. Yet I have to watch out for my health, as too many things done a day, will drain me and give bad sleep. It is just one of those things that are a part of Aspergers syndrome. I have it in mild degree. In my case, it shows in the way that I need three times more rest than the average person, and I can only do one big activity each day. If I have been going 5 days straight, I need 3 to 4 days rest. The good part for me, is that I am not stimming or show any other signs than people with "stock" aspergers syndrome are batteling with.
By the way... I have not seen any issues with Firefox. It might be that I am using Firefox on Linux. I have not used Windows on my daily driver for the last 4 years, and if I do use Windows, then it is on my old hardware when running Win98se. Those machines are not on the internet at all. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| DXZeff - 2020-05-17 9:55 PM
Can't abide by LCD monitors, I'd honestly sling it back on the landfill.
Hehe.... Well... I am kind of forced to use LCD monitors. I have not much room, and I am the only one in the household that can stand the noise that tubes emit. Plus my woman get instand deep migrane, when she experiences the flickering that a tube emits. The screaming noise are something she reacts to as well. This is the way she have had it since she was 5 years old. Basically. I am forced to use LCD monitors, except for those days, were I am the only one home. Then I have this 14 inch CRT television, that can take an RGB signal on the Scart input. You know Scart-RGB, Scart-Video and then it has Composit for those machines that do not output RGB. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Dell monitor working perfect in 15khz with my Amiga.... Uploaded a small demonstration video on youtube. It is a really bad camera. Things are looking way better in person. Butter smooth scrolling and perfect colours. Only downside, is that the monitor does not remember settings for 15khz. Remembers if I use the scandoubler in my Amiga600 or a 486 computer. I have them written down on a piece of paper, so it is not a big deal as such. The settings will only revert to default, if I turn off the monitor.
15khz Amiga600 |
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| I've no room for bulky CRT's. I've got three Dells on my corner desk. A 19" a 20" and a 27". Using just one CRT would leave me with no desk space.
I can't say I really miss them... |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| tedster - 2020-05-20 7:25 PM
I've no room for bulky CRT's. I've got three Dells on my corner desk. A 19" a 20" and a 27". Using just one CRT would leave me with no desk space.
I can't say I really miss them...
I do have two CRT's. One is an EGA monitor, and I need it for my 8-bit Paradise EGA card, that were originally in my 286 computer. The other CRT is an old 14 inch CRT television. It is nice to have in store, for those times that I am alone or need to test C64 in dept. Else I am happy with my Sony, Dell, Samsung and IBM monitors. They are all LCD's and I am using them for different platforms. Some VGA cards need the Samsung, IndivisionECS-V2 scandoubler have previously been used with the IBM, because it delivers a solid and extremely good image, and the Sony is only used for 50hz refresh rate signal. Like that of my ScanPlusECS scandoubler in my Amig500-Turbo-Edition. The Samsung is only in use when I want to play some Dynablaster (MS Dos version). I know it is overkill to have all these monitors for specific tasks, yet the Samsung is the only one, that can center that special resolution that Dynablaster uses. Yes. It is strange to have one monitor for one single game. However it is one of the greatest Dos games ever created. People are talking bomber man. I don't care for that. I want my Dynablaster. Awesomme game with the most awesomme soundtrack. And the Dos version is the absolute best. I have no idea what is going on, yet the OPL chip kicks the Amiga Paula's ass in terms of dept. And you really need the correct soundcard for that game, as the lower part of the middle tone, is cut out on most sound cards. I have this Vibra16 based Soundblaster card, and it is one of the best for Dynablaster. The card have a real OPL chip. Then I have this CT29xx SB16 card, and it just sounds horrible in Dynablaster. It is the model that uses jumpers instead of software, for setting up IRQ/DMA/IO channels. Basically.... If you want to play Dynablaster in the best possible way, then you need specific hardware.
It is just one of them games, I guess.... |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Watching demo's on my Amiga600. There are some nice ones. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| And so it begins.....
I am still missing some parts though.
 (Build-01.jpg)
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 Build-01.jpg (460KB - 408 downloads)
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| I like the colour on that PCB too! |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| tedster - 2020-05-24 6:43 PM
I like the colour on that PCB too!
Thanks... I love this black/gold colour of that board, with the white text on the silk screen.
I did some more solder work today. Soldered in all the components that I have at this moment. Everything in the picture is brand new components, except for the two joystick ports. As they are reused from a different, yet broken, Commodore64 board. The bracket/shield that goes on top of the cartridge port, that I have not soldered in yet, are salvaged from that board as well.
 (Build-02.jpg)
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Build-02.jpg (493KB - 388 downloads)
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| That'll be great when you've finished.
I spent an enjoyable afternoon running Win 2K on my Athlon system. I really loved it back in the day and with the 6600GT it provided a solid experience today too! |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Thanks.... I have a few things I need to buy now. And some things that I need to desolder from an old C16 board. Same Commodore-Parts number as on the 250466 board. Then I will complete the build. I did a continuity test on the ground plane of the components already in place and the sockets. Seems like I did a perfect job so far. Even the 5-volt line and 12-volt line are perfect, from were the regulators will go and to the different sockets.
Athlon and GF6600gt for Win2k? Sweeeeet.... Love it. :-P |
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Aye, I was watching Jan Beta fit an RF Modulator replacement on one of his C64's on the 'tube earlier. Great stuff!
The only issue I had today, was with my SB Live. I let 2K use its built in WDM driver set and it worked great in the OS but SB emulation is broken. I suppose I could mess with other drivers as I do have a disk. I couldn't be arsed tho.I was having too much fun just playing games. Even the mess that is NFS Hot Pursuit 2 played great. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| tedster - 2020-05-24 11:28 PM
Aye, I was watching Jan Beta fit an RF Modulator replacement on one of his C64's on the 'tube earlier. Great stuff!
I saw that video. However. I am going for a different solution. I ordered a couple of PCB's from PCB-Way, using gerbers, found at this place:
RF-Replacement
tedster - 2020-05-24 11:28 PM
The only issue I had today, was with my SB Live. I let 2K use its built in WDM driver set and it worked great in the OS but SB emulation is broken. I suppose I could mess with other drivers as I do have a disk. I couldn't be arsed tho.I was having too much fun just playing games. Even the mess that is NFS Hot Pursuit 2 played great.
Hehe.... Well.... Whoever said that 2K was shit for gaming, is out of his mind. It is a wonderfull OS.
I kind of like it better than XP for some reason. It has this strange tiny feel of IBM Os/2 over it. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 618
Location: Hull, UK | I don't have room for LCDs, the size argument never made sense to me as they take up far more room than even my Trinitron by the time they start to come close to doing the same thing, they're not worth it. It's a Hull technology after all.
Win2K for me is what Vista is to Win7; They're both bloated and troublesome, but the latter at least did a lot of the fixes for you. By the time you've sat with Win2K to install all the service packs and updates needed to make it do anything, as well as trying to make things like networking actually function, you may as well have just installed XP and turned the themes off.
My final verdict on the Vortex86 is that it isn't a very good SoC, it's extremely slow (933MHz model is outrun by a modest 486DX-33) and has massive compatibility issues.
Otherwise I fixed my Satellite Pro to work on my book, I can get keyboards for that one but not for this dumb EliteBook machine. Book is now at 300 pages and 99873 words, but will shrink when I remove about 15 pages of trash from the end I wrote for reference. Probably gonna work on that more today as there's nothing else to do. |
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| I just downloaded the SP4 ISO from winworld or wherever, I did put the unofficial SP5.1 on it too for good measure.
It flies along on half or a gig of ram, you don't get that with xp or 7. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Yup.... The world liked XP better, yet for some reason, 2K is a better choice. I can't think of something the same with Vista vs. 7. Vista demanded fast and quality hardware. Yet when you had the right combination, Vista worked much better than Win7. Win7 have this advantage over Vista, that it required more generic hardware. Yet with the right computer, I actually like the GUI of Vista better. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Aaaand that made no sence.... I am drunk. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
| Did some more work on my SixtyClone 466 board. One of the few components that are near impossible to get as a original commodore component. Are the choke coil, at the correct ratings as the original one. The 250425 and 250466 boards, use the same coil. You can get modern coils, however, they do not all have the same resistance or other ratings. So I had to eighter search deep and extremely broad, in order to get that original part with the correct rating's. Well... A couple of weeks ago, I went throught the service manual of different commodore machines, and what do you know, I found that the choke coil used on the Commodore16, have the exact same Commodore parts number, as the choke coil used on the C64 250425 and 250466 boards. I quick mail to both Jan Beta and Adrian Black, confirmed that Commodre was rather strict with their parts number, yet used same parts for multiple machines. So I took a gamble and bought a defect C16 board without any chips on it. It was cheap, only 3 euro, and way cheaper if I was to actually find that specific part. (anyone interrested in a donor-C16 board with few parts missing?)
Anyway...
I desoldered the coil, and soldered it on to my board. Then I did a quick continuity test. First from pin 7 on power-in to rectifier, and then from 6 on power-in, through switch and to the fuse. Everything tested perfect. I was rather nervous, that the coil had the legs on the wrong positions. Meaning that pin 7 on the power-in would then connect to fuse instead. I was lucky, and I have found the perfect part. A real Commodore era coil.
Sometimes, research pays off I guess. Salvage part or pay 3 to 4 times more for one small component... 
 (Build-03.jpg)
 (Schematic.png)
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Build-03.jpg (453KB - 392 downloads)
Schematic.png (58KB - 391 downloads)
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Thet must have done that all the time, which is lucky for people like you. Not that there'll be many folk building their own C64's like!
Today, I took my Synology NAS up to the shed and blew all the dust out with the air gun from the compressor. Cough, choke!
Edited by tedster 2020-05-25 11:54 AM
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 618
Location: Hull, UK | I would have been cheap and just bridged over where that choke needed to go.
Got a new dangerous toy to replace my busted old one, old one looks puny now;
I also drew some artwork but you probably don't want to see that, so I'll save it for a rainy day.
Started work on another Duke3D mapping video, but only sporadically working on it. Also got my 2-stroke to 'diesel' from being too hot, so will have to crack that open later to check for damage.
Edited by DXZeff 2020-05-26 2:07 AM
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Love the "handle" on your old one! |
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Rise MP6
Posts: 263
| Bloody roasting out here! Good job I'm inside, with the fan on, playing Dune 2000 on the Athlon. |
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TM Crusoe
Posts: 618
Location: Hull, UK | Too hot here to do much. These turned out to be useless;
My book grew;
As I have nothing else going on right now, I'll share that horrid artwork I mentioned. This is NSFW and if you're not a fan of the show, you won't get the joke.
http://dxzeff.com/trash/LISA1HT.PNG
Subtitles for those who can't read my writing, as I'm not used to writing Latin letters (my handwritten alphabet is kinda Runic or something, that's a whole 'nother story) - Lisa: Bert! Are you sure it's normal for girls in the Evergreen Forest to bathe this way? Only I... Hey! You weren't peeking at me, were you? Don't you DARE! Bert: N-n-n-no, Lisa. Err... I was just keeping a lookout. Yeah! That's EXACTLY what I was doing... he he... err... you can start bathing again now.
And without the dialog;
http://dxzeff.com/trash/LISA1IT.PNG
I'm not normally too pleased with anything I draw, but I'm actually quite pleased with this one, turned out better than I expected for a quick joke scribble. Plus I usually draw angular, cavalier stuff like diagrams. I did want the darker colors to run along the sides of the body and meet below the belly, but with gray as the only color I thought it wouldn't look right and would cause detail to go missing. |
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Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
