Need help with ... anything.

[Megaball]

Hey everybody. I'm new here, a complete newbie to the Commodore 128, and I have a few questions about the C128 and hacking the thing. I'm not going to dance around anything, so I'm just going to dive right into it.

I have a 128 that functions perfectly, but the RF out is picking up major interference (could also be the fact that I'm using a NES RF adapter.) Is there anything I can do to reduce the interference? I don't have a Commodore monitor or adapter, and I'm looking to get sound output isolated from video out.

About hacking...

Is there anything I can do to ditch the RF adapter and go for a standard RCA cable out for everything? I'm a musician, and I want to be using this thing for recording, but the RF picks up noise and the tv's sound quality is just bad through headphones.

Can I ditch that giant sheet of metal resting on the chips? I know that the Commodore's chips aren't made to have a heatsink like that, so can I just throw the thing out?

I would like to get the best possible quality out of this thing. It's my first synthesizer, and I want it to be special. By the way, I have no disk drives, only a tape deck that I think was modified - did they have a big red button on the front and audio out in the back?

I could also use any and all suggestions you may have on getting my 128 to last as long as humanly possible. The thing belonged to my dad, and he used it to the point where he could fry an egg on it. (more than 12 hours straight.) Cooling tweaks, speed hacks, chip replacement from c64 or vic20, I'm game.

Well, thank you all for your help, and I hope to hear back from you soon.

Chris.

[Mark Smith]

Hello and welcome :-)

Forget the whole RF output thing for starters .. horrible picture quality, horrible scratchy sound and you've already seen the interference it picks up.  On the back of the C128 is a Video (and audio) out port using a DIN connector, jump on the internet and find the pin-out of that and use it to get some RCA cables with composite (or s-video) and the audio output.

Leave the big sheet of metal in there ... you even say yourself that you want to keep the thing cool .. that's what it's for :-)  (as well as RF shielding)  If you want better cooling on the chips get some heat sinks onto them.

The tape deck you have sounds interesting .. throw it away ...  go on Ebay and buy a 1541 or a 1571 you'll be happier .. then ask here for some kind soul to do you some JiffyDOS ROMs and you'll be happier still!

And you say you are a musician ... then you want to ask Fotios nicely for his Stereophonic SID cartridge :-)  I take it you want to record SID music .. not use the C128 to record with yes ?

Have fun!  And just ask anything you like in here, we're all friendly .. just beware of the warped senses of humour :-)

Mark

[Megaball]

Forgive me if I talk weird, i'm friends with vodka right now. So,  I just read about the heatsink ans the rf thing, and have constructesd a cord to take care of that for me. So I'm set on that.

I also read about that sid stereophonic thing, and I like. I may buy. I want to use the sid chip, I'll use an Amigaforediting sound.

As far as ditching the tape drive, i really want to kep it. I have a big tape deck rigged up to my computer which makes it easy to transfer roms, so far it works,.

I'll post later, whern i'm able to type right.
thanks for the help.

Chris

[Mark Smith]

hehehe .. yup .. so you think posting when hungover will be better than drunk ? :-)

Talk to you when sober! .. hmm .. think some wine would be good about now as well ...

Mark

[Megaball]

Good Lord was I smashed! Anyways, I'm fine and dandy right now (I've got German and Italian in me - what's a hangover? )

So, everything is sorted out with the 128, now on to more pressing matters...

I have a Commodore 64 that I sort of mutated with my busted Vic 20, and the power supply to a 128. This is kind of fun. The 64's aluminum/paper shield has been completely torn away, and upon further inspection I've found that the 64's fuse is blown. What do I do? Find a busted 128 psu, and swap out the fuses. Will that work?

As for the Vic 20, the 64's keyboard was in disrepair, so I just took the top half of the Vic 20's case and put it on the 64. Now I have a Commodore Vic64. I'll put up pics when I find a camera.

So as of right now, I haven't turned on the 64. I'm honestly afraid to. This is my dad's old 64, and it was discovered with a bag of MOS chips next to it. I put in the SID chip, because everyone knows what that is and where it goes, but... um, where does the 6502 go? Is it in the silver box (not the RF) that I can't pry open, or does it go next to the Keyboard connector?

So help me out, please! I need some help. I'm going to be in an industrial type band soon and I need to have a backup 64 in case the 128 decides to frag on me.

[Andrew Wiskow]

I put in the SID chip, because everyone knows what that is and where it goes, but... um, where does the 6502 go? Is it in the silver box (not the RF) that I can't pry open, or does it go next to the Keyboard connector?

First of all, your C64 may have some problems if you can't open that metal box.  You should be able to pull that off with your hand without too much effort.

As for the 6502, that's a microprocessor for a VIC-20.  The C64 uses a 6510, which goes in position U7 on a C64.  Check out this page for a list of what chips go where, as well as what symptoms they cause when they go bad:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/c64-ic.txt

-Andrew

[Andrew Wiskow]

One more thing... be sure to check out Ray Carlsen's root CBM page for lots of other great repair resources:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm.html

-Andrew