Need repair advice for C15 on an A500

[TheBilgeRat]

Doesn't help those of us in Amigaland or who still like to repair things or build our own circuits but then that's the way of the world these days not many can be bothered learning how things work let alone repairing them and the electronics hobbyist market is like the Amiga market, fading into obscurity...

It's not that you aren't consuming, just that you aren't consuming ENOUGH and of the "CORRECT" things!  Planned obsolescence, roll-over, 400% margins for Steve Jobs and the CFO of Dell!  M$ licenses!  You, sir, are a communist if you don't recycle your old electronics after a year!  You are denying jobs to third world countries!  There are people relying on your greed and avarice..er..I mean consumer savvy... so they can melt down your cast-offs in their back yard and feed their families before they die of heavy metal poisoning!

CONSUME!  CONSUME! CONSUME!

OK.  rant done.

[Franko]

@ TheBilgeRat


Got thrown out of me local branch of the Communist Party back in 89 cos I said they were too soft (well that & I kept insisting that for all to be equal every member should be given an A1000 and the PC that was being used to run the place should be replaced with a USA made A500)...

I consume plenty of stuff, just not the stuff that "they" want me to consume, we'll see who has the last laugh when the world ends in 2012 and I'm safely tucked up in me bunker with all me miggies/ bagfulls of components and jars of Vindaloo paste and me squirrels for company...

You all doomed, Doomed I tell you... :eek:

Now excuse me while I remove some of em dead bodies of door to door salesmen from me bunker and bury them in the back garden with the local Tax Inspectors & Estate Agents and a few others who dared knock on my door...

Oooh... there's the doorbell... rudy Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons I'll bet... now where me baseball bat and shovel... :furious:

[guest7146]

we used to have maybe a dozen hobbyist magazines, now it's down to maybe 2 or 3 and one of those is an import from the EU.

Elektor, by any chance? Fantastic magazine that is.

AH

[JimS]

Elektor, by any chance? Fantastic magazine that is.

AH

That's the one. They recently started a US edition in partnership with Circuit Cellar Ink.

[BosonMichael]

OK, here's something else to stir the pot.... I just looked in my 500 schematics, which cover the rev5 and 6/7 motherboards. On the 6/7 boards, they changed the decoupling capacitors - including c15 to .33uF.
In any case, you should be able to find something that works at the local Radio Shack.

Thanks, Jim! I'll be sure to check the revision number when I crack my case open. I should be able to get some markings off the other assorted decoupling caps.
 
No pics yet... the weekend was way too busy. Will shoot for Tuesday night (the busy work continues tonight). Thanks for the continued help!

[BosonMichael]

On the subject of Radio Shack...
 
You'd have a hard job doing doing that here...
 
They shut down all the Radio Shack stores (TANDY) in the UK back in the late 90's ...
 
Loved going into those little treasure troves shops, now all we have left is Maplins and even though the stores are bigger components & electrical DIY are only a tiny part of them these days as they are more like PC/Gadget stores these days...
 
Best place these days to get components and the like is CPC/Farnell but they are only mail order...
 
I miss being able to wander round them stores and buying components I didn't really need just because I thought "those look interesting wonder what circuit I can build with some of those"...

Fortunately, I'm in the States. Unfortunately, Radio Shack has lost much of the charm it once had... components are harder to find, particularly in newer Radio Shacks.

[BosonMichael]

Hi Smerf...
 
Yup, how many folks would go to all this bother to fix a PC !!!
 
Not many I guess, they'd just pop down the nearest discount store or ASDA/WallMart and buy a new one...
 
Where's the fun in that...
 
Cheers
 
Franko

Actually, it was a PC problem that finally compelled me to get off my backside and learn how to solder. I have a six-year-old Dell Inspiron 5160 laptop that developed a loose power jack. I was reluctant to spend money on a new laptop, so I figured I'd first try to repair it myself. And as an added bonus, I'd be able to repair my beloved Amiga as well!
 
The Amiga repair was first... and didn't go as smoothly as the PC repair. The laptop jack is solid... so I'm guessing I did a good job on soldering U15 - with the exception of the C15 destruction. Hopefully that fixes the joyport problem I was experiencing... we shall see, as soon as I get C15 fixed up. Compared to U15, it should be a piece of cake!

[JimS]

Good luck... the value of the cap isn't all that critical. Either of the two values would work. As someone mentioned earlier, they often changed stuff like that on the fly depending on what the factory had on hand.

At least you won't have the problem I did with using Radio Shack parts... back in the 70's/80's I worked repairing the big mainframes... multimillion dollar big iron.... I made the mistake once of telling the customer that I went to Radio Shack to get a resistor we didn't have on hand.... oops ;-)

[guest7146]

Hi Michael,

Did you get your problem sorted out? I would be interested to hear if she's up and running.

AH.

[ChrisUnionNJ]

Here's a better company then RS this one has been around a long time
 Jameco here's the link to there newest catalog..

http://ftp://ftp.jameco.com/Archive/Catalog%20112/112Catalog.pdf

Chris:roflmao:

[BosonMichael]

Hi Michael,

Did you get your problem sorted out? I would be interested to hear if she's up and running.

AH.

Nine years later, and I'm just getting around to this. Kids were young then... now they're in high school.

Ordering some axial caps as we speak. Thanks for your help, everyone.

[JimS]

Wow, that was a trip down memory lane. It's weird to read messages you wrote so many years ago.