#sx64 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #sx64, aggregated by home.social.
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SX-64 BBS Connection Takes a Month of Troubleshooting
#Commodore64 #SX64 #BBS #RetroComputing #SnobsoftBBS #The300BaudGuy #Commodore
https://theoasisbbs.com/sx-64-bbs-connection-takes-a-month-of-troubleshooting/?fsp_sid=9414 -
SX-64 BBS Connection Takes a Month of Troubleshooting
#Commodore64 #SX64 #BBS #RetroComputing #SnobsoftBBS #The300BaudGuy #Commodore
https://theoasisbbs.com/sx-64-bbs-connection-takes-a-month-of-troubleshooting/?fsp_sid=9414 -
Think I am ready to call this one done for now. Next challenge: how and where to keep it in my office with other select retro machines.
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Think I am ready to call this one done for now. Next challenge: how and where to keep it in my office with other select retro machines.
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So this is interesting: a reply on the linearity question on Lemon64 suggests this is just reality on an SX-64. The responder said he was even trying to reproduce the effect on an LCD replacement because it’s so much a part of the authentic experience. Hhhhmm.
I did a Kagi image search and, while some model shots look “perfect”, I do see lots of examples that are similar to mine.
Opinions?
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So this is interesting: a reply on the linearity question on Lemon64 suggests this is just reality on an SX-64. The responder said he was even trying to reproduce the effect on an LCD replacement because it’s so much a part of the authentic experience. Hhhhmm.
I did a Kagi image search and, while some model shots look “perfect”, I do see lots of examples that are similar to mine.
Opinions?
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The SX-64 restoration continues. The re-capping of the monitor introduced no failures to fix, so that's a relief.
What has not improved (and I hope has not worsened) is bowing and linearity - especially toward the right side top to bottom.
I'd love any feedback on improving this. Been years since I dug this much into a CRT, so others with more experience truly appreciated! Reshare to others as needed.
Service manual: https://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/schematics/computers/c64/sx-64/SX64_technical_manual.pdf
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The SX-64 restoration continues. The re-capping of the monitor introduced no failures to fix, so that's a relief.
What has not improved (and I hope has not worsened) is bowing and linearity - especially toward the right side top to bottom.
I'd love any feedback on improving this. Been years since I dug this much into a CRT, so others with more experience truly appreciated! Reshare to others as needed.
Service manual: https://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/schematics/computers/c64/sx-64/SX64_technical_manual.pdf
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Woohoo! Everything looks to power up just fine.
No miracles with the monitor, unfortunately. Image is crisp and color is good (which I don't think was lacking before the recap)... but linearity issues and bows in the image are more pronounced or worse now than before the recap. So... no good deed goes unpunished on this front.
Gotta dig into that now...
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Woohoo! Everything looks to power up just fine.
No miracles with the monitor, unfortunately. Image is crisp and color is good (which I don't think was lacking before the recap)... but linearity issues and bows in the image are more pronounced or worse now than before the recap. So... no good deed goes unpunished on this front.
Gotta dig into that now...
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Curiously, the plate glass in front of the tube only cleans up so much. The tube itself looks pristine, but the glass piece I removed to clean has permanent… burn? Might not be too noticeable once it’s lit up again, but an odd pattern embedded seemingly in the glass itself. #sx64 #retrocomputing #commodore64
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Curiously, the plate glass in front of the tube only cleans up so much. The tube itself looks pristine, but the glass piece I removed to clean has permanent… burn? Might not be too noticeable once it’s lit up again, but an odd pattern embedded seemingly in the glass itself. #sx64 #retrocomputing #commodore64
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Just spot checked a few of the removed caps and the ones I tried are all in range. This was probably a risky waste of time… but we shall see.
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Just spot checked a few of the removed caps and the ones I tried are all in range. This was probably a risky waste of time… but we shall see.
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Recapping done and, somehow, I got the monitor assembly all back together. Checking everything a million more times, then crossing my fingers and seeing if it still produces a picture. This one is pretty nerve wracking.
Note the oddball orange 0.22uF 50v in the retired cap pile.
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Recapping done and, somehow, I got the monitor assembly all back together. Checking everything a million more times, then crossing my fingers and seeing if it still produces a picture. This one is pretty nerve wracking.
Note the oddball orange 0.22uF 50v in the retired cap pile.
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I hit my limit on the monitor recap last night and had to resume with fresh eyes this morning. The thing is quite the pain to say the least.
And to complicate matters, the serivce manual, my cap kit and my particular unit don't quite align. My revisions suggest I should be swapping two electrolytics, but the board has polypropylenes that align with a prior revision.
I posted about it on Lemon64 with pics if anyone has thoughts:
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I hit my limit on the monitor recap last night and had to resume with fresh eyes this morning. The thing is quite the pain to say the least.
And to complicate matters, the serivce manual, my cap kit and my particular unit don't quite align. My revisions suggest I should be swapping two electrolytics, but the board has polypropylenes that align with a prior revision.
I posted about it on Lemon64 with pics if anyone has thoughts:
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As I've been working on this machine, I keep trying to decide if I see signs of previous work. So far, I had all of one screw missing in the frame when I first opened it... but beyond that, nothing looks modified.
There was one monitor cap that was uniquely bright orange and 50v rather than 10v... so maybe that was a fix of past decades? Otherwise, the solder joints (other than mine) all look the same and the rest of the machine seems utterly factory.
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As I've been working on this machine, I keep trying to decide if I see signs of previous work. So far, I had all of one screw missing in the frame when I first opened it... but beyond that, nothing looks modified.
There was one monitor cap that was uniquely bright orange and 50v rather than 10v... so maybe that was a fix of past decades? Otherwise, the solder joints (other than mine) all look the same and the rest of the machine seems utterly factory.
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There is this gorgeous hack as well: C533 which the cap kit says "might be on the bottom of the PCB". Yep... encased in age old hot glue. It has no through-holes... it's just soldered to the legs of, I think, two resistors. I replicated it with the new cap in a slightly neater arrangement and refreshed the hot glue.
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There is this gorgeous hack as well: C533 which the cap kit says "might be on the bottom of the PCB". Yep... encased in age old hot glue. It has no through-holes... it's just soldered to the legs of, I think, two resistors. I replicated it with the new cap in a slightly neater arrangement and refreshed the hot glue.
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Spent the afternoon and early evening stripping the whole machine to the frame, washing the plastics and case, etc. I'll tackle the keyboard last.
I took a long look at the monitor and debated if I even wanted to wade into recapping it. This thing is a real bear the way it's jammed into its assembly with no easy way to get the PCBs fully away from the tube. I finally found a path to reaching the caps, but I'm having to solder sideways and be very careful.
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Spent the afternoon and early evening stripping the whole machine to the frame, washing the plastics and case, etc. I'll tackle the keyboard last.
I took a long look at the monitor and debated if I even wanted to wade into recapping it. This thing is a real bear the way it's jammed into its assembly with no easy way to get the PCBs fully away from the tube. I finally found a path to reaching the caps, but I'm having to solder sideways and be very careful.
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So, first pass: ARMSID enables me to finally hear the three noise generator tests on the internal speaker and, of course, with a bit more fidelity if using the external 1084S monitor... but I will note that the volume level of the noise is noticeably lower than the other tests in both cases.
Makes me inclined to revisit the potentially erroneous resistors values I read about elsewhere. Will check that as I tear it down here in a bit.
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So, first pass: ARMSID enables me to finally hear the three noise generator tests on the internal speaker and, of course, with a bit more fidelity if using the external 1084S monitor... but I will note that the volume level of the noise is noticeably lower than the other tests in both cases.
Makes me inclined to revisit the potentially erroneous resistors values I read about elsewhere. Will check that as I tear it down here in a bit.
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Ok - ARMSID and a cap kit have arrived. Plunging back into the #sx64.
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Ok - ARMSID and a cap kit have arrived. Plunging back into the #sx64.
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Glad I eeked out the two caps I needed before all hell broke loose in the AMS 2 Pro. I printed them with a 0.2mm nozzle using 0.08mm layers. Also the first time in the eight months with this #BambuLab H2S that I even took the shipping plastic off my smooth plate.
Not quite injection moulded quality, but as close as I'm going to get. Pleased with them and the color is close enough.
Rest of that spool goes in the trash.
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Glad I eeked out the two caps I needed before all hell broke loose in the AMS 2 Pro. I printed them with a 0.2mm nozzle using 0.08mm layers. Also the first time in the eight months with this #BambuLab H2S that I even took the shipping plastic off my smooth plate.
Not quite injection moulded quality, but as close as I'm going to get. Pleased with them and the color is close enough.
Rest of that spool goes in the trash.
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Got it all back together and everything still works. Yay.
Here's a picture of the broken filament that caused it all. It was entirely inside the sandwich that is the hub, stuck between one of those magnets and the extruder gear. None of it was visible or reachable without taking half the AMS Pro 2 apart.
The board you don't want to touch is on the back side of one of those halves and there's no reason to open it to deal with this problem. My mistake.
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Got it all back together and everything still works. Yay.
Here's a picture of the broken filament that caused it all. It was entirely inside the sandwich that is the hub, stuck between one of those magnets and the extruder gear. None of it was visible or reachable without taking half the AMS Pro 2 apart.
The board you don't want to touch is on the back side of one of those halves and there's no reason to open it to deal with this problem. My mistake.
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That makes it impossible for the magnets to sit in their slots for you to then insert the delicate little springs in behind them.
It occurred to me that I was fighting magnets attracting one another. What could combat that? A bigger f'ing magnet.
So I grabbed a larger powerful magnet I had, held it on the opposite side and that caused all the little jumping beans to now pull INTO their slots toward the bigger one. That allowed me to get the springs in place. 3/x
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That makes it impossible for the magnets to sit in their slots for you to then insert the delicate little springs in behind them.
It occurred to me that I was fighting magnets attracting one another. What could combat that? A bigger f'ing magnet.
So I grabbed a larger powerful magnet I had, held it on the opposite side and that caused all the little jumping beans to now pull INTO their slots toward the bigger one. That allowed me to get the springs in place. 3/x
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One of the springs instantly got misaligned, which takes tension off the little trapezoidal magnet behind it in a slot. I had to open it entirely, knowing I was likely walking into hell.
The second you remove it, the magnets rip one another out of their slots. Fortunately, the springs caught in the crossfire stuck to things and didn't vanish into the ether.
Then it's whack-a-mole. Each magnet pulls the other from its slot, so you can't hold them all at once. 2/x
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One of the springs instantly got misaligned, which takes tension off the little trapezoidal magnet behind it in a slot. I had to open it entirely, knowing I was likely walking into hell.
The second you remove it, the magnets rip one another out of their slots. Fortunately, the springs caught in the crossfire stuck to things and didn't vanish into the ether.
Then it's whack-a-mole. Each magnet pulls the other from its slot, so you can't hold them all at once. 2/x
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Wow! I found the part of your Bambu AMS2 Pro you do NOT want to open. That old blue filament worked well enough to print the caps. Then it broke into pieces in several parts of the AMS on unloading.
Despite improved access in this model, if filament breaks inside the hub, you've got pain ahead. I found a shortcut, but I did look behind one tiny board I shouldn't have touched. Behind it are four springs and four magnets. Once the board gets a gap, they go nuts. 1/x
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Wow! I found the part of your Bambu AMS2 Pro you do NOT want to open. That old blue filament worked well enough to print the caps. Then it broke into pieces in several parts of the AMS on unloading.
Despite improved access in this model, if filament breaks inside the hub, you've got pain ahead. I found a shortcut, but I did look behind one tiny board I shouldn't have touched. Behind it are four springs and four magnets. Once the board gets a gap, they go nuts. 1/x
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Moving on to cleaning the case, keyboard, etc., while I await the ARMSID's eventual arrival. Like most SX-64s, the blue end caps on the handle are long gone (double sided tape dries out over 40 years). To my amazement, my overflow bin of random filament had an unopened 0.5kg roll of filament in a shade of teal-ish blue so close to correct that I won't even bother looking for alternatives.
It's like the universe has long been aligning to obtain this machine.
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Moving on to cleaning the case, keyboard, etc., while I await the ARMSID's eventual arrival. Like most SX-64s, the blue end caps on the handle are long gone (double sided tape dries out over 40 years). To my amazement, my overflow bin of random filament had an unopened 0.5kg roll of filament in a shade of teal-ish blue so close to correct that I won't even bother looking for alternatives.
It's like the universe has long been aligning to obtain this machine.
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Grrr... lots of conflicting info out there about the caps in question and whether we're talking subtle differences or significant ones.
With the SX64 SID barely having noise channels in my bread bin despite seeming to be a matching model (only a few weeks apart on manufacture date), I might just sit tight for the ARMSID for the SX and test that before I change anything on the main board. Minimal effort, but "do no harm" is my goal here.
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Grrr... lots of conflicting info out there about the caps in question and whether we're talking subtle differences or significant ones.
With the SX64 SID barely having noise channels in my bread bin despite seeming to be a matching model (only a few weeks apart on manufacture date), I might just sit tight for the ARMSID for the SX and test that before I change anything on the main board. Minimal effort, but "do no harm" is my goal here.
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So also got info that the SX64 might have the wrong caps (from the factory) affecting low frequency sounds with its 6581 (no Rev) SID. I cautiously swapped it into my bread bin and there ARE noise channels from it there, but they are very muffled compared to the same non-rev 6581 in the bread bin. I'm not going to risk my bread bin SID in the SX64.
Mine has 2200pf caps and it seems 470pf are suggested. But I still think it's failing and the ARMSID is coming.
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So also got info that the SX64 might have the wrong caps (from the factory) affecting low frequency sounds with its 6581 (no Rev) SID. I cautiously swapped it into my bread bin and there ARE noise channels from it there, but they are very muffled compared to the same non-rev 6581 in the bread bin. I'm not going to risk my bread bin SID in the SX64.
Mine has 2200pf caps and it seems 470pf are suggested. But I still think it's failing and the ARMSID is coming.
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Curious if anyone has encountered a SID chip that appears to work EXCEPT for the white noise. When I run diags on the SX-64, I get all the tones, but the last set should be the three channels using the white noise generator. They are entirely absent.
Seems odd that one aspect like that would be dead AND across all three voices… ? I might be misunderstanding the architecture and this is entirely logical.
I’m hesitant to swap it to my other C64 just yet.
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Curious if anyone has encountered a SID chip that appears to work EXCEPT for the white noise. When I run diags on the SX-64, I get all the tones, but the last set should be the three channels using the white noise generator. They are entirely absent.
Seems odd that one aspect like that would be dead AND across all three voices… ? I might be misunderstanding the architecture and this is entirely logical.
I’m hesitant to swap it to my other C64 just yet.
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#C64 #C64C #SX64 🤗
Got a new case ⬛️
Blue power LEDs will arrive soon 🟦
A black #KungFuFlash2 is on they way down from Denmark too 😎 -
#C64 #C64C #SX64 🤗
Got a new case ⬛️
Blue power LEDs will arrive soon 🟦
A black #KungFuFlash2 is on they way down from Denmark too 😎