Hi folks,
I started on a C64 back when I was eleven years old, and some twenty years ago I bought a bunch of retro gear off Ebay when I got a decent paying job. This, of course, included buying a C64 (I sold my original long ago when I was a teen) and an Amiga 500 (which I could never afford in those years.) However, the experience was a bit of a letdown in that I re-discovered that C64 floppies are slow as molasses.
But recently I decided to dig out my old devices and sell them on Ebay, as they were just collecting dust. I will still be selling off my Apple gear (maybe here), but I was intrigued to discover the whole scene had changed with SD card and CF card and USB storage for all these old devices. So I've been doing some reading, some learning, and some thinking.
I've been poking with various C64 and Amiga 500 upgrades and mods and have come to the conclusion that there's some space for some well designed solutions. Whether or not I can turn this into something I follow up on and produce as products is an open question. But here's what I've been up to in the past couple months:
The C64 needed recapping, and here's how nutty I went with that: nearly all the ceramic caps replaced with SMD versions and other things cleaned up as best I could, including replacing the fuse with a resetable unit from littelfuse.
The RF Modulator was desoldered and cleaned up of all the RF & Composite circuitry:
The small printed enclosure on top of the RF box is a fabbed up reset circuit, as I hate having messy wiring on the main board itself.
But the C64 PSU had burned itself out long ago, so I made a new one using a Meanwell DC supply and a half-kilogram transformer I got from an industrial supplier. Here's the enclosure render:
It printed out fairly well. I decided to include in it the AV cable and have it split it out to s-video and stereo (mono split) jacks so there's just one box for both connections. I stuff in the 330-ohm resistor on the chroma line, too.
The power ingress unit is EMI filtered and fused, so this PSU should outlive me by a while, assuming the DC supply unit is solid. (Meanwell is one of the better Chinese supplies for these.)
And since the outside has to look good, too, stainless steel barrel switches:
The Amiga, on the other hand, still needs recapping, but that's slated for some day soon. Instead I've been working on the parts and pieces that upgrade the machine into something nicely modern. (Sort of.) We start with the mouse, which gets the laser guts that you can buy. Unfortunately the internal bits they provide are a really crappy 3D print, so I made my own bracket and the bottom retaining plate.
Then there's the ACA500+ from Individual Computing. Love this board, but it comes as a bare unit, and the "cases" that are available from various vendors are pretty much junk: acrylic plate you bolt together or a simple plastic tub that is open on the ends and side. Just ridiculous. So I've been working on a case design of my own.
It's coming along fairly well, but I still need to figure out light pipes for the LEDs, a window for the DiSMO, and plunger to interface the contact switch, a removable backplate for a Indivision ECS, and a venting/heatsink solution for the ACA1233N.
Things I'm planning on tinkering with but not pictured:
If any of these turn out to be of serious interest (and I can get the technicalities worked out) I will likely try to produce some things in quantity for sale. I don't think that retro computing with these old devices will disappear any time soon, but I'd like to produce some cool additions to the scene if I can work out the logistics. For example, I need to truly figure out whether I need to get an SLA printer and start experimenting with mold casting, or whether I could actually contract out some injection molding to make cases and pieces that are economical and don't eat every cent I have.
Anyhow, cheers everyone!
I started on a C64 back when I was eleven years old, and some twenty years ago I bought a bunch of retro gear off Ebay when I got a decent paying job. This, of course, included buying a C64 (I sold my original long ago when I was a teen) and an Amiga 500 (which I could never afford in those years.) However, the experience was a bit of a letdown in that I re-discovered that C64 floppies are slow as molasses.
But recently I decided to dig out my old devices and sell them on Ebay, as they were just collecting dust. I will still be selling off my Apple gear (maybe here), but I was intrigued to discover the whole scene had changed with SD card and CF card and USB storage for all these old devices. So I've been doing some reading, some learning, and some thinking.
I've been poking with various C64 and Amiga 500 upgrades and mods and have come to the conclusion that there's some space for some well designed solutions. Whether or not I can turn this into something I follow up on and produce as products is an open question. But here's what I've been up to in the past couple months:
The C64 needed recapping, and here's how nutty I went with that: nearly all the ceramic caps replaced with SMD versions and other things cleaned up as best I could, including replacing the fuse with a resetable unit from littelfuse.
The RF Modulator was desoldered and cleaned up of all the RF & Composite circuitry:
The small printed enclosure on top of the RF box is a fabbed up reset circuit, as I hate having messy wiring on the main board itself.
But the C64 PSU had burned itself out long ago, so I made a new one using a Meanwell DC supply and a half-kilogram transformer I got from an industrial supplier. Here's the enclosure render:
It printed out fairly well. I decided to include in it the AV cable and have it split it out to s-video and stereo (mono split) jacks so there's just one box for both connections. I stuff in the 330-ohm resistor on the chroma line, too.
The power ingress unit is EMI filtered and fused, so this PSU should outlive me by a while, assuming the DC supply unit is solid. (Meanwell is one of the better Chinese supplies for these.)
And since the outside has to look good, too, stainless steel barrel switches:
The Amiga, on the other hand, still needs recapping, but that's slated for some day soon. Instead I've been working on the parts and pieces that upgrade the machine into something nicely modern. (Sort of.) We start with the mouse, which gets the laser guts that you can buy. Unfortunately the internal bits they provide are a really crappy 3D print, so I made my own bracket and the bottom retaining plate.
Then there's the ACA500+ from Individual Computing. Love this board, but it comes as a bare unit, and the "cases" that are available from various vendors are pretty much junk: acrylic plate you bolt together or a simple plastic tub that is open on the ends and side. Just ridiculous. So I've been working on a case design of my own.
It's coming along fairly well, but I still need to figure out light pipes for the LEDs, a window for the DiSMO, and plunger to interface the contact switch, a removable backplate for a Indivision ECS, and a venting/heatsink solution for the ACA1233N.
Things I'm planning on tinkering with but not pictured:
- Precision routing C64 cases and having an internal SD2IEC drive and bracket that is professional. Would include controls/LEDs as a surface mod that looks good.
- Replacing the C64 badge with custom clear/solid cast pieces that are internally lit with the 5 colors of of the bade rainbow via LEDs, replacing the normal power light functionality.
- A USB (gotek or whatever) drive emulator bracket for the A500 (and similar cases) with a display and control unit that is hugging the top face of the A500 case.
If any of these turn out to be of serious interest (and I can get the technicalities worked out) I will likely try to produce some things in quantity for sale. I don't think that retro computing with these old devices will disappear any time soon, but I'd like to produce some cool additions to the scene if I can work out the logistics. For example, I need to truly figure out whether I need to get an SLA printer and start experimenting with mold casting, or whether I could actually contract out some injection molding to make cases and pieces that are economical and don't eat every cent I have.
Anyhow, cheers everyone!
