My A500 "project" pics, details, build log?

[AmmoJammo]

Apparently the memory is more likely to fail if the electrolytic capacitors have dried out, and there's more ripple on the 5volt rail..

so, before I do anything, I'm going to replace the electrolytic caps in the three "good" C64's and powersupplies

[AmmoJammo]

I plugged in the "new" A500...

kickstart 1.2! and it seems a dud floppy drive...
I suppose I'll have to pop its cherry... :p

[AmmoJammo]

ah, but I have two A500's with dead drives, and its totally not worth it! lol

[AmmoJammo]

Sacrilege !!!! :flame:

Could always chuck in a HxC thingo

[AmmoJammo]

btw, I found a replacement SID on fleabay for about $30, make sure you get the right one, 6581 is the correct one for the original colour BreadBin models.

I'm going to pull the SID out of the dead machine, along with the memory, so hopefully I end up with 3 fully functional C64's, although I'd be happy with two

[AmmoJammo]

@aj how much did you pay for the lot? ;-)

$150...

[AmmoJammo]

Replaced the four capacitors in two of the C64's, one was the fully functional, the other has the bad ram.

Fortunately both these boards had the provision for a radial capacitor, instead of the original axial... The board with the bad SID (thats soldered, not socketed) is of course going to create more issues for me, as it isn't the same... :p

[AmmoJammo]

Anywhere that sells capacitors? :p
These came from Jaycar, there was someone on ebay selling a "set" of replacement capacitors and voltage regulators too.

[AmmoJammo]

60km? so, about half an hour? :p

I removed the "bad" SID chip, and fitted a socket...

put a different SID in, and it sounds exactly the same... whats the chance of two chips failing in an almost identical way?

Is there a good game/music/demo to fully test the SID?

[AmmoJammo]

what about sending me a floppy disc? xD
how exactly does the program work?

Thanks for the email btw

[AmmoJammo]

it sounds crackly... with both chips..
haven't put the "good" chip in the "bad" C64 as I dont want to risk damaging it.

[AmmoJammo]

I dont suppose anyone has a schematic for the  250407 C64 motherboard?

[AmmoJammo]

I think the capacitor thats in series with the audio output is C13 on my motherboard... but its C77 on one schematic I've seen, and C37 in the second link you posted...

So, I might start by replacing that.

edit: my mistake, C37 is a different part *goes off to look*

[AmmoJammo]

The problem with leaving it is, that apparently if there's excessive ripple on the 5 volt rail, the memory chips can be the first thing to suffer...

[AmmoJammo]

I ordered a Nano SwinSID the other day... I think...

The webpage was entirely in German, and my German extends as far as "Guten tag"

:p

http://www.sinchai.de/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=90

Of course, I'm still not convinced that the SIDs are bad... perhaps tonight, I'll take the plunge, and plug the "bad" chip(s) into the "good" motherboard... :p

[AmmoJammo]

I've recorded the Bolder Dash II music, is there anywhere good to host wave files? about 4 meg each.