Chiclet Keyboard Commodore PET 2001 - Waiting For Chess - Musings, Mutterings 1581 - Episode 2455

Описание: I am waiting for this Chess program to start...and while doing that, I talk about the new 1581 drives that we learned about on the latest online TPUG meeting. oh and yes, the fellow also makes new and vastly improved and safe full of all sorts of protection power supplies...indeed the old units are a ticking time bomb...just recently, I picked a power supply off the pile that I had recently tested and used only to find that it was now reading 10.5 killer volts...and quickly, the cords were snipped...also, there is more information about the World of Commodore coming up on November the 30th and December the 1st, 2024...got to TPUG.CA for the latest information! And I am not sure why, but this chess program seems to take forever to be ready to play...but as I am used to loading programs from a tape drive and then a 1541, waiting and being patient is part of the commodore equation...

When I was talking to Rudy of ‪@RudysRetroIntel‬ he strongly suggested that I take the circuit board out of the new PET and put it in the case of the other working computer. It gives me a chance to look at the bottom of the board, but also to determine if the keyboard and datasette work with the board, or do I still potentially have chip troubles that could cause such issues...so here we go...time to load up and play a bit of Black Jack and Chess even!

I headed to the PET room to find some tapes that I had tested to see if the datasette on this PET was indeed working...or not...tape drives are slow and sometimes even though things load, and report no ?load errors, things can sometimes be a bit wonky...but generally speaking, way back in the day, they were a fairly reliable way to store programs and files...but disk drives were of course way better! Onward with the tests!

After finding that most every chip worked, it is time to put everything back in the board of this new addition to the family...and see what is what...maybe it will work...maybe it will not...I am not at all sure...yet! I do find that the chips go into the sockets nicer after the DEOXIT application...even though it has been several hours...it does seem to have added a bit of lubrication to the equation...and sufficient lubrication is always a good thing! Let's see what happens!

Baffling circumstances with this vintage PET...so I called Rudy of ‪@RudysRetroIntel‬ to bounce some thoughts off of him...and yes, I should have been playing much closer attention to that one chip that goes in backwards to pretty much everything else...and of course, do not forget the World of Commodore...November the 30th and December the 1st, 2024! Got to www.tpug.ca for more and updated information! Rudy will be presenting at 11 on Sunday about his SuperPET findings...and he found lots of things! Also, he will be selling the last of the PET Companion boards that he made last year...it will be a great time...see you all there!

More RAM chip testing...one chip at a time...

RAM chips are often going bad in these old machines...but there is an easy way to check them inside the computer...if the computer is up and working, one by one, put the RAM chips in one of the screen RAM sockets...if the screen still comes up perfectly with a flashing cursor and no other strange characters, the the RAM chip is good...if you do this many times, sockets can get upset as is what happened here with me...I will not tinker in the screen ram socket on the left side ever again on this PET...like many things, this takes as much time as it takes...there are no points for rushing and damaging the pins on chips...or the sockets...

Time to test the 6520, 6522, and 6502 chips as well as a ROM that is way in the back...these chips near the back are harder to get in an out as it is very hard to see all the pins on the chips due to the top of the machine...maybe it is time to use the PET COMPANION...hmmmmmm...will ponder that!

Well, I do try not to get more PET's, but there are times when it just can not be helped...and yesterday was one of those days...so, time to plug it in and see what we see!

The Toronto PET Users Group will be holding the World of Commodore in 2024! For all the specifics to this moment and details, go to the link below!

In my video, you will find out some other interesting things!

https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodor...