petSD

[SkydivinGirl]

Hi everyone!

I was able to heat up my soldering iron over the holidays and built a couple kits that have been waiting for my attention. The petSD is one of these kits.

The petSD is a basically IEEE-488 connected SD2IEC device for the Commodore/CBM PET computers. One of the neat things about this board is that you can add additional functionality to the device by adding the components necessary for those functions.

The base kit includes all the components necessary for the SD2IEC functionality. Other components can be added to the board for a Battery Backed-Up Clock, USB functionality that uses your computer for storage, and an Ethernet port. From what I've been able to tell, the Ethernet functionality has not yet been implemented.

I purchased the device from Retro-Donald's Sinchai shop. The only options he has available are the base kit and the Battery Backed-Up Clock so that's what I purchased. It would be nice if they offered the USB option with the USB chip already soldered to the board since that's the only small surface mount component and I don't have the skills to solder something that small.

The PCB of the petSD is a nice, black color. Unfortunately, the black PCB made it more difficult to see my work as I was soldering and I'm not very happy with the soldering on the SD card slot. I've since bought a nice, magnifying lamp so I'll most likely remove the SD slot, clean everything up and redo it.

Since my only fully working PET is kept at my workplace, I wasn't able to test it until today. Fortunately, everything worked perfectly and I'm super happy with the device. I've attached pictures of the kit before assembly as well as pictures post-assembly and a screen shot of using the device on my CBM Model 8032.

The kit came with a plastic mounting box, but I need to cut all the necessary holes myself. I'll post more pictures as I finish it up.

For more information on this device, go to the Sinchai.de shop I linked to above or go to the petSD project site.

Thanks for looking!

Heather

 

[desiv]

Awesome!!!

Congrats and nice work!!!

Haven't gone the PET route yet, but it's tempted me off and on.....
That card is great!!

desiv

 

[keropi]

thanks for sharing this Heather, nice job!

 

[User1301]

That's brilliant Heather - well done!

John

 

[scrappysphinx]

Well done Heather, looks great. I also did a little soldering over the holidays. Got myself one of those Retro-Donald Joystick adapters which come in kit form and successfully put it together but forgot to take pics icard

 

[TheCorfiot]

Simply stunning

 

[SkydivinGirl]

Thanks everyone! I've assembled a kit for my VIC-20 that I'll be testing tonight, but I have 4 or 5 other kits that I still need to build.

I looked on the petSD web site and they have a nice DOS Wedge for the PET that will make working with D64 files and sub-directories much easier. They've also got links to a Z-Machine interpreter so I'll be able to play the classic Infocom games on my 80-Column green screen PET! I know what I'll be doing for my lunch breaks.

@scrappysphinx

The Retro-Donald joystick adapters are great! I've assembled quite a few of the old version and I just recently assembled one of the new versions with a case for a Lemon64 user.

Heather

---------- Post added at 16:54 ---------- Previous post was at 16:52 ----------

Oh, I forgot to mention. In the first picture of all the components, everything to the left of the black case plus the case itself is the "Base" kit. All the components to the right of the black case are for the Battery Backed-Up Clock.

Heather

 

[johnim]

very nice work heather

i have seen somthing like it at the last replay on lurch666 pet quick too

 

[mjnurney]

Fantastic , I'd love one .. Got to get my pet working first ...

 

[protek]

Way to go, Heather! Nice work!

 

[Retrograde]

Wow they even make modern third party interfaces for THAT old computers? Neat! I've only ever seen one PET in the flesh at a retro fair, not running though.

Interesting to see that Commodore seems to use the same disk system for that old thing as for the VIC-20/64, or at least presented the same.

 

[SkydivinGirl]

Interesting to see that Commodore seems to use the same disk system for that old thing as for the VIC-20/64, or at least presented the same.

The disk format for early 8-Bit Commodore computers were usually close enough so that disks formatted in one model 8-Bit drive were somewhat compatible with other drives. The PET had multiple models of drives that were sometimes completely incompatible, partially compatible, or fully compatible with each other. For example, a disk formatted on one particular drive might be readable on another, but not writable. There are some good guides out there regarding the different models that work together.

I also sent the designer of the board, Nils Eilers, an email yesterday asking some questions. He told me that he's working a new revision of the board that will have an LCD display and a rotary dial for selecting disk images. The good thing is that the board I have will be able to be upgraded with a screen as well.

I'd say this is a wonderful device for any PET owner.

Heather