The Amiga Lounge

I think someone is trying to tell me something........

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:59:00 +0000

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First, let me start off, saying today's post has nothing to do with my Commodore obsession. I do believe someone is trying to tell me something. Over the weekend I was given a Complete Heathkit Electronics course. Not only did I get the 2 Electronics Trainers, but about 6 Correspondence courses in electronics to go with them. The courses are: AC Electronics, DC Electronics, Digital Techniques, Electronic Circuits, Semiconductor Devices, and Advance Mathematics for Science and Technology. These courses are about 90-99 % intact, along with all the parts, and exams that go with them. The biggest problem getting these things, is usually none of the parts come with it, as they seemed to get lost over time. Not with this kit! Even the parts bins are labelled to which course they belong to. Now, I know you are saying "What? These course are at least 30 years old!" That is true, the courses were bought in 1981, and the copyright date is 1975, but the basics and knowledge hasn't changed. In fact, a "NEW' Heathkit company had popped up and is still selling these kits. the trainers look identical, other than the case (photo Below). I did e-mail Heathkit and inquire about how the courses have changed etc, but so far they have not got back to me. I grew up with Heath kits in my house. My Dad, built in 1970, a 26 inch TV and Stereo system very similar to the pictures below.
Although, these photos are not exact, they are the closest I could find to what I remember. In about 1984, I blew up the Stereo, hooking up 8 speakers incorrectly- hey, I learned a big lesson in "series and parallel" back then. In fact, I still have the speakers sitting right next to me today. The speakers were works of art, and I could never bring myself to throw them away, they still work perfectly and the wood box is nice. Now, all I need is an Oscilloscope. Anyway, these will be done after my NCS 2065T project, which I am working on today. It looks more and more that I was destined to get into hardware.

Our Prices ARE INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:40:00 +0000

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So, the last few days, I have been re-working the online store, and I am getting a bunch of e-mail about it. My prices are pretty simple- Not only do they INCLUDE shipping and handling charges with in North America (IE: Canada and the US) they also are in US funds. That being said, I WILL ship anywhere, but be advised that shipping to some remote place, will cost an EXTRA arm and a leg (thanks to Canada Post).
People have been also asking me "Why are your prices so good on some stuff, and so insane on others". Its simple. The online store doesn't cost me anything but time. It is also a showcase of my collection. Some Items are pretty common, and easily come by. Others, I do not really wish to sell, but if the price is right, its always for sale. That is why my A1200 is $1400, and my PET is set at $2400. I may never get a chance to get these things back without spending that much. If I come across more, the prices will drop.
Also, remember, I am not an expert. last month I sold my A4000 believing there was a problem. I could not get it to boot last spring. I only spent a few hours on it, and put it aside. Last month, it sold, and it turns out, it works just fine. I am not sure if it got bumped enough is shipping to fix it or what, but in the end, the buyer was happy. That is what matters to me.
I state on my store pages that right up front. For example, the xetec hard drive for the A1000- I could not get it to boot. Does that mean it is dead? no, I just haven't had the time or energy to play with it. the previous owner said it had to be aligned "just right" for it to boot.
So, my point is, before you send me hate mail, ask yourself "why" the item is priced like that, and could you replace it for less.- Probably, but with any less hassle? I think not.
The Goal here is not to make any money. In all honesty, The money raised from the sale of any Item doesn't even get taken out of Paypal. It funds my hobby and goes to other online stores such as AmigaKit or ebay auctions.

Back to the C128

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:48:00 +0000

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If you remember, a while ago, I started to put some heat sinks, and upgrade my C128. I had ordered in 5 Packages total of Heat Sinks. I could have used 1 more, but as you can see, the results look great. I didn't need the "Long" sinks, so I just placed them on Random IC's just to make it look good.
You can also see the 64K ram upgrade and a "File Browser 6" Rom. I had got in the "Mega 128 Rom", but I wanted to check out this ROM first.
Slowly, this C128 is coming along. I still need an 80 Column monitor, a 1571 disk drive, and a RMU, but slowly this beast will come along.
Now back to the on-line store makeover.

Programming An EEPROM

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:18:00 +0000

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Well, After a busy weekend, I finally have a few days off to work on my NCS Kit. I have taken the manuals to work, read, and re-read, the next part on programming the EEPROM. I know what you are thinking "Why waste your time with That" -I know, I have had at least half a dozen people ask me that over the last few days. I even had a few offers to flash it on a real EPROM burner.
The fact is, the kit does come with a fully programed EEPROM, and I know I can skip this long and tedious process, but if I did that, I would learn nothing. I had a real hard time at first, wrapping my brain around the theory and the concept of reading binary and all the "High -Low" translation, but I am confident that I can understand it now.
I also have been working at least an hour a day, re-vamping the on-line store. I have now added the "Commodore Classic" stuff to it.
I also have been asked If I will be selling the NCS kit on my store. The simple answer is "No", you can always order it here , At APATCO Technologies.
In the next day or so, I plan to Finnish the C128 project, work more on the store, and work more on the kit, that is of course, if I can avoid dealing with computer clients and the "problems" they have.

The Commodore PC

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:53:00 +0000

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Well yesterday I teased about it, and today I got it in! The only released line of computers I had not talked about was Commodore's infamous PC computers.
The PC line started in Germany, without Jack approving it. According to Jack's philosophy," Why buy chips elsewhere, when we make our own?" But (in Germany) it sold really well, so Jack decided to try it out in other locations.
Now, in 1985, the PC market was strictly a Business market, but some "bright" marketer at CBM decided to try and sell the PC to the home market. They simply took a PC10 and re-labelled it the "Colt". Needless to say the Colt failed, but the PC market did remain lucrative to Commodore well up until 1994. The Commodore PC's were work horses, not great in any way, they just were reliable.
So, Very surprisingly (shipping only took 3 days) I got my PC-10 in today. Actually it's a PC10-II
The first thing I did (even before turning it on) is take the cover off to see the inside. There was only a trace amount of dust on the back of the cards.

This is a very BASIC PC. In Typical Commodore fashion, there is no hard drive, or even a hard drive controller on the motherboard. The motherboard is a revison "A", dated 1985. There is no 287 Co-processor in this unit, but a socket for one.
All the pictures on Google show a battery on the motherboard, but this revision has none. When I can borrow a better camera, I will be documenting this machine more on the web site.
It has 2 cards, 1 in the AT slots for Video. This card has no markings, so I can't tell you if it is the Commodore Original or an aftermarket. It also has a Ram expansion card. This is simply labelled "Commodore Ram Extension 1986". The motherboard itself is relitively small compared to most other Commodore Boards (about the size of a normal MoBO today).

I put it all back together and booted it up. The System disks are labelled DOS 2.11, and indeed the boot screen showed Dos 2.11. I am not sure why Dos 3.2 was not here, but the start disks state Commodore PC-10 boot disks (hand written copies- of course).
The monitor looks to be a 10 inch Commodore mono monitor, but even though it does say Commodore on the front, the back has no Commodore labels or model number.It's not that they have fallen off, it's just the original manufacturer's stickers are there instead. K.A.P Consumer Electronics for those that are interested.
The PC boots just fine. It was stated before that Commodore continued the PET boot up sound to the PC. This is very true. The POST screen shows Commodore PC bios 2.01. The unit just has 640k, I guess they originally came with 320K.
The back of the unit is sparse. Just an RS232 "c" port and a "Centronics" or printer port.-It's actually labelled "Centronics".
The only other thing worth mentioning is the keyboard. The function keys are running up and down the side, instead of across the top. This is kind of cool, and sets them apart from other PC clones.

Now I really Build Hardware!

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:44:00 +0000

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It's been a busy few weeks here at the lounge. Many people have asked "what did you get at AmigaKit with your little nest egg? The truth is, I thought long and hard about the Subway USB adaptor, but I decided to do something else, something I have always wanted to do- BUILD a Computer from scratch! I have been assembling computers for over 20 years with "off the shelf" components, but as a hardware junkie, I always wanted to learn design and principle and make a computer "OLD SCHOOL", like they did at Commodore.
After a hunt on the net, I decided to order the NCS 2056T kit from APATCO Technologies.
I got it in this afternoon, and quickly went through the kit. The kit is based off of the 65C02 processor. It comes with 32K of RAM LCD screen, and a PS/2 keyboard adaptor. Infact the only thing that this kit does not have is a way to hook it up to a VGA monitor or a RS232 port to telnet into it. I will add these components later, as after I get this up and running, I plan to do a "wire Wrap" board, then a PCB final board (with the RS232 and VGA), but I have to learn to crawl first, before I can "RUN".
The kit starts with 3 printed manuals in full color. I was expecting some cheap photocopied and stapled manuals, but these are a good quality. The Technical manual has the complete history of the 6502, right up until modern day.
It comes with a nice quality "Bread Board" with a metal back plate. The only thing I can see missing is an actual "Power"Switch, as it look like you will have to unplug it every time. The IC chips were already installed before shipping, I am not sure if that was just for shipping, or to make it easier to assemble. I just layed in the LCD screen for the picture, it is not attached to the board just yet.
All the wires, and components are nicely sorted in this plastic, reusable, parts bin. I don't have to go hunting for each part.
There is also a CD included with all software, documentation etc. You even get 3 ROM EEPROMS:,

1) EEPROM 1 on breadboard is blank. Used in the assembly process.

2) EEPROM 2 with white dot is pre-programmed with the short assembly language program that the assembly manual has you attempt to program into the blank one. This is just incase you fail at the attempt. The small program simply counts from 1 to 255 using the LED's on the breadboard. This ensures that the breadboard computer is working.

3) EEPROM 3 with red dot is programmed with code to control the keyboard and LCD, and has usable routines you can use in your own programs. As well, it also contains a very basic monitor for programming memory locations using the keyboard.

At $180, this kit seems expensive, but when you actually see what you get in it, it is very apparent, the time and energy that went into making this kit right. I think it is well worth every penny. In fact, the ONLY complant is that the IC markings are hard to read, This is not APATCO's fault, but rather the (very Cheap) silk-screening on the individual chips themselves. There used to be a day when the blind could read the Chip ID's because the manufacturer was proud of it, including the company logo (remember, you could spot an AMD chip a mile away, in the dark even, because the silk-screening was so bright). I will update as I assemble this puppy.

Now, I also have one a VERY rare Commodore Item on Ebay over the week-end. It is one of the last Commodore machines I didn't have yet, and I had not made any mention of them here. Yes, Commodore had 1 more Commercial line of Computers, that they sold from 83 or so on until the went bankrupt. Now, other than a CBM II line, I have a representation of all the lines of computers that Commodore sold. I won't say what it is, but here is a Cryptic hint. This was a line designed in Germany for Business Clients only. Later, Commodore tried selling it to the home market, but renaming one of the models after a small horse. Needless to say that approach failed.
While, it didn't sell to home user's, it wasn't a bad machine. Not great, just a workhorse.

More on that when it comes in..

History of the PET

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:29:00 +0000

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You knew it was coming! Today lesson is for the kids out there that have never seen a P.E.T. During the 80's, it was the only computer is schools here in Canada, but I will get to that later.
The story of the PET, begins, not with Commodore or Jack , but with a amazing man named Chuck. Chuck Peddle.
Chuck some time in the 60's or 70's.
Chuck in 2007 at the Vintage Computer festival Live, via skype from Shrilanka. Yes, he is still working with computers to this day.
The (abridged) story starts when Chuck was at Motorola and saw the first 6800 processor, and said he could do better. Chuck then left Motorola and went to work at MOS Technologies before Commodore had bought them out and created the 6502 Microprocessor. He had created the 6502 as a low cost Mircocontroler and never even thought of making a computer. Chuck would visit customers, and help out to make the 6502 work. Because it was a $20 chip and Motorola wanted over $300 for the 6800, Chuck was busy designing every thing from Pinball machines, to Photocopiers. He even went to help Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs to bring up the Apple (much later)
It was apparent that people wanted a computer on their desks. Chuck had earlier designed the KIM 1, a circuit board, to play with his 6502 chip, but people wanted a box to do accounting, word processing etc. By this time Commodore had bought MOS, so he went to Jack and began to ask to build a Computer. Jack was weary, as nobody was really doing anything in this unproven market.
Then Radio Shack had approached Jack to build a Computer for them. Jack looked as this as an opportunity to sell more Calculators to Radio Shack, so he then gave in. There was even talks to buy Apple at one point, but Steve Jobs wanted way too much money at that point. (Apple had just made the Apple 1 kit).
So Chuck rolled up his sleeves and started to design the PET. They had until a certain date to produce one, to show RS at some show (I think it was Winter CES in Chicago).
Luck was also on their side, as someone at Microsoft built a BASIC for the 6502. At the time, Bill Gates thought the 6502 was a "Crappy" processor and told the guy to sell it for as much as he could, and move on to something that would make Microsoft real Money. Chuck and Jack, met with Bill and negotiated for BASIC. Jack was a very practical man, he didn't know if they would sell any computers, nor would he gamble on "future Sales" he wanted to pay once, and one time only. So, the story goes that Jack was the only one who ever got the best of Bill. Commodore got the rights to include basic in EVERY machine that they sold, and both Microsoft and Commodore could upgrade it at any time, Microsoft got the right to sell it to anyone else.
How much you ask? Well, there has always been a "gentleman's" agreement not to disclose the price, But unconfirmed reports say between $10,000 and $50,000. If Microsoft knew just how many Commodore computers used the same Basic, they probably would have insisted on "per Computer Sold".
During the making of the PET, Chuck had made a nice curved case and put a full keyboard on the prototype. Jack came back and said "Why plastic?" "I have a file Cabinet maker up in Toronto, lets use metal"and "Why a full keyboard?" "Why not use a calculator keyboard, we have tons of those". Chuck did not know it then, but Jack had no money, as the Calculator business was drying up with very cheap units from Japan.
Now, with the Calculator keyboard, Chuck had room to impliment a cassette deck for storing data. You have to remember, at this time, there was no "Home Computers" so they were making it up as they went along, and Chuck was being very practical, Hard Drives, and Floppy Drives were just about NON-existent or cost way too much. A cheap Sanyo Cassette deck, was perfect at the time for datta storage.

Chuck also knew the need for graphics and designed a graphics set so people could create games and play cards etc. It was based on the ASCII subset, but latter, people called it "Petscii"
So, the electronics show came and Commodore presented their new system to Radio Shack. They passed (It was said they did this to a few other companies, and took all the best Ideas and made the TRS-80).
Chuck was not going to give up, he then went back and perfected the computer. Now it needed a name, and Jack wanted something friendly. A guy made over a million dollars that year selling the pet rock, so they decided on PET. Later Chuck would revel (for a joke) the PET stood for "Personal Electronic Transactor", but really it was just a friendly name. And thus the PET was born.
At the first "official" showing of the PET, they had only a handful of units. Jack needed cash and fast to "Bootstrap" production (they were all made by hand). He than declared, that they were going to sell them on a pre-order basis. You paid in full, and in 90 days you would have your PET or your money back. Chuck got his Beautiful Wife at the time to take the orders, while he demo'ed the unit, and there were so many people lined up to give her cash, it was a frenzy. He went upstairs to the "Big Iron" dealers like Univac and nobody was there, they were all downstairs at the Commodore booth. He said he could see this was the "Death knee" for the big main frame computers".

Eventually Commodore filled all the orders (well past the 90 days- but nobody wanted their money back). The biggest complaint was the Chicklet keyboard, you just could not type on it. Jack said "Ok, we tried that. Let's give them a full typewriter keyboard and see what happens".
So chuck moved the Cassette to the outside and gave both a "Home" Keyboard with Petscii symbols, and a "Business" keyboard with out.
Each subsequent model was a minor improvement on the last, the model numbers being the key. For example in the picture shown above, we have a 4016 (most common of all Pets), which simply means, it has a screen that could show 40 characters and it had 16 megs of RAM. Next to it is the 8050 Double disk drive. I will save the story this beast for another day.
Chuck also built them to open very easily like the hood of a car. they even have a "prop rod" in all metal Pets.
The best PET by none is the Super PET. This Pet was commissioned by the University of Waterloo, and not oly does it have a regular PET inside, but a second 6809 board, makeing it probably one for the worlds first DUAL processor computers. It was certainly the most powerful computer at the time.
All was going well with selling the PET, then they went overseas. Jack hit 2 snags almost immediately. One- PET in French means "Fart" or "Shit", and Two, Phillips owned the rights to the name PET. So, in true Commodore style, they Quickly "re-named" (IE-printed up new stickers) it the "CBM" series.
Commodore also made sure that they gave PETS to schools (here in Canada) beginning in about 1978-79. The heavy Metal housing made it perfect for schools, and the only "damage" you see from a school machine is the corners of the black sticker have been tried to peel off, Commodore must have used industrial glue for the sticker, because very few ever came off, and not for lack of trying.The picture above was not uncommon. Infact, other that the model, (we had the typical 4016) you would see classrooms like this up until past 1988 (when I graduated high school). Insuring, that my generation had at least touched a PET in our lifetime.

Over in Europe, things were a bit different:
Some Pets were made of PLASTIC. That and the fact that now Commodore had released a CBM II line. More powerful, disk drives built in, separate monitors and keyboards.
They came in a few different models, the high profile and low profile, it looks like the low prifile had attached keyboards. They even had a few rare Color models. One such model was essentially a C64 in a PET case the P500.
Even though I have never seen or heard of a CBM II here in Canada, that doesn't mean they don't exist. A very small number have popped up on E-bay from time to time from the US, so it is very possible that they were offered for sale here also, but by the time the appeares on store shelves, they were just too far behind the bossiness computers at the time to survive. You also have to factor in the success of the VIC 20 and C64. Jack's mantra was computers for the masses, which meant cheap, and easy to sell. PETS were not that cheap, and Stores did not want product that was harder to sell.

Now, the PET is all but a memory, but you do see them pop up on movies and TV shows from time to time. From Star Trek:
To Terminator 3:
The PET was an ICON back in the 1980 and early 1990's. Now as computers, get faster and better, Intel, Microsoft, and Apple all want to erase it from history.
BTW, I will gladly give any Super PET or CBM II a good home. I plan soon to make a PET sub-domain just like the TED.

My New PET! and I shall Call her GlaDOS!

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:20:00 +0000

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Well, it has been a busy week here at the lounge. After a few e-mails, phone calls and such, priorities have changed a bit. Last week, I was all set for a small shopping spree at Amigakit, and then I found out they were sold out of the IDE 97 board for the Amiga 1200. I got busy trying to get all the A4000 stuff together and ship it out, and as it turns out I had to ship it in 2 boxes- there was just that much stuff with all the books and such. After shipping, no profit was actually made over what I paid for it, but thats the breaks. I did increase most of my prices on the on-line store to compensate for the jump in Canada Post shipping Rates.
I was then trying to decide to get a Subway USB port for the 1200 instead (to hook up an external CD-Rom Drive) when I got an e-mail about my Kijiji Ad.
A local guy named Mike had a PET 8032 and a CBM 8050 Double Drive he wanted to give to a good home. He even dropped them off on Monday. He also had a Commodore 1701 monitor.

It had been about 20 years since I last played with a PET, so I opened her up and did a fast clean of the dust. She boots fine, but some of the keys are not working, so I will have to take apart the keyboard (and we all know how much I LOVE to do that). It seems my chore in life is to take apart and clean keyboards. The cable for the disk drive was missing, so I had to track one down. The Toronto Pet User Group has them listed on the "Items for sale" page, but so far I have not heard back from them. I even wonder if anyone is still around to check the e-mail there anymore. It would be fantastic to get this old system up and running fully.
When I opened it up, I found a ROM in the spare ROM slots labelled "WP-4" The guys on the forums suggest that this is a Word Pro 4 ROM, and I need it to run the Word Pro software. Yes, like the C128, the PET had between 2 and 4 extra ROM slots depending on the Model.
This Model (if you are wondering) is the 8032, which simply means it was a later 80 column model with 32 K of RAM, which also means it has a bigger screen than the original 40 column models. With more Ram and more screen room, it was a "Higher up Model". It also has the "Business" Keyboard with NO PETSCI symbols on it. I still want to get a Super Pet though, they had a 6502 processor and a 6809. Better pictures and internals to come later. Oh, how I forgot how I loved the boot sound on these things.

Another One Bites the Dust

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:35:00 +0000

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Well, it's another Sunday, and that means another 11 hour shift at work. It's -7, and I have a very weak Internet connection that keeps dropping here (it's taking forever, just to upload 2 photos). It's also Superbowl Sunday, so hopefully all the perverts will be at home today, and I won't have to deal with them. If you haven't been following the Amiga Buzz for a while, last week, on E-bay, a stock A4000 desktop was sold for over $1000. Normally, A stock A4000 run about $400 or so dollars, so there was a lot of buzz over this on the boards. The seller is, has a good reputation, so a lot of rumours are floating around as to what is going on. I just about put my non-working A4000 up just to see if it was a one time fluke or what. I had plans with Craig from Amitrix to repair this beast, when Craig had the time (I suspect the CIA chips have given up the ghost). I also removed the Indivision card and installed the Video toaster card, and put it up as "fill" in my On line store, asking $450, thinking it would never sell.
Well, this week it did, and tomorrow (if I have time before work) or Tuesday (my days off) I have to carefully package it up and ship it out. I admit, I hate to see it go, for I fear, I will never get another one it that shape, but I did say that about my Amiga 1000 and I found a better one.

So, (because I don't have a bank account- I hate banksters) I have a nice nest egg sitting in my paypal account. You would expect the first thing I would do is go on a small shopping spree at AmigaKit, getting an ECS indivision for my Amiga 1000. I noticed they DO have the A1000 indivision adapter for an extra $14. I am not sure if they just got these in or if they had them hidden elsewhere on the site, but in any case I have found them now. In a perfect world, I would get 4 ECS indivisions for now, 1 for the 1000, 1 for each of the 2 600's and 1 for the 500, but that just is not going to happen yet. I would love to double these and get 6 more for ALL my ECS Amigas, (the A500's piled in the store room), but no.
The first thing I did was order 4 more heat sink packages to finish off my C128 from China. Then, I ordered the "New" version of "AmigaForver" direct from Cloanto. I like to support them also. Because it was cheaper to order the pair together, I also got the C64 Forever. I will post more about them, when I receive the package from Cloanto. I did get the "download" of C64, but the Amiga was too big for the flaky Internet connection.
I also want to at least get a 1571 disk drive for my C128, so I am waiting to hear back from an Amibay member, before going nuts at Amigakit.
I also want to get an IDE package from Amigakit, so I can finally hook a CD-rom drive to my A1200. I know once this is done, I can finally get "on line" with the A1200, as the Internet "package" (including network card) that I ordered from AmigaKit, came with a CD, and no floppies. Which, to me, doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since probably only a small percent of A1200 owners actually have a CD rom hooked up to the A1200.

In other news, I lucked out, and came across a few boxed Commodore C2N Dattasettes. The funny thing is, that even though the boxes sort of look the same, they are labelled differently, and one box is actually smaller than the other. If you are familiar with the Dattasette, there seems to be a few different models, probably due to different manufactures. One has the "Stripes" by the Commodore name plate, and one does not. I will investigate this further in the next few weeks.
I also came across a (badly) boxed 1311 joystick, these are the original "white" joysticks that are very similar to the Atari joystick.

After Humans..or Yes Virginia there was a Chip Fab here

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:23:00 +0000

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It's Sunday. Its only about -12C and its snowing once again. I am working a double shift, and the store is dead, because of the weather. I was reading the posts at Amiga.org, when one of the members posted a link to the following page. I do not know his real name or I certainly would give him credit. the following are recent photos of MOS technologies down in Norristown PA.
I am reminded of the show on History channel "After People" and it's kind of sad that this site is an environmental hazard now from all the toxic chemicals used.
For those that don't know, MOS technologies was the "Birth"place of the 6502 chip and probably all of the other MOS chips that Commodore used. I like to think that EVERY Commodore computer and Amiga ever made, had at least one chip made here. There are probably thousands of stories just centred here to make a book. In the book "on the Edge" Brian states that the cafeteria had blue prints hanging up on the wall. If the paper was yellow or green, that meant ussually some toxic chemicals were in the air and you didn't go in there.
From the front, it looks nice, and I guess at the time they were still trying to sell it.
At least the tulips grew. It's kind of ironic. Tulip is the name of the company that owes or owned the Commodore name now.
Its around back that things are looking bad. Bil had stated that back in the day, you did not park your car next to the trees, as at the end of the day, you would have this gunk coating your car.
Now the chemic pits are starting to be exposed, but they probably had all toxic chemicals removed long ago.
I though this was a cool shot, probably a backup generator housing, the power consumption must have been mind-blowing.
Inside is just a shell now, I would love to see pictures of what it looked like back then.
Lastly, the garbage area. I would have to think twice about routing around for some long forgotten souvenir, as there could still be some toxic Chemicals lurking.
Anyways, I just it was kind of cool to see what has become of some of the Commodore buildings.

An interesting Call

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:33:00 +0000

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Well, I still don't have the Internet back up, but luckily a neighbour has moved their unsecured router and I have a ok connection. Yesterday, was a day off, and I was just messing around on my Commodore's. I wasn't really doing anything important, just trying to create a setup I liked for the 128, when my e-mail alarm went off. I wandered over to the Voodoo, and it was an e-mail from Bil Herd. He had been looking over may post, and noticed a bit of wrong information regarding the CP/M Cartridge. He said to call him some time. So Since I had the time, I tried calling, but there was no answer at the number he gave. I also had e-mailed him back to call me when he had a moment, and then the phone rang, and it was indeed Bil.
Over the next 45 or so minutes, I got a quick education in why the CP/M cartridge didn't work and how he fixed it. Needless to say, I got a quick but cool education on the Z80 processor, and the RAM. I also asked some questions that had been bugging me about the 128, and talked in general about computing today. Needless to say, it was a very good conversation, and I hope to talk with him again.... Unfortunately, with me in Alberta and him in New Jersey, our paths won't likely cross anytime soon.

Another Flipping day in paradise.

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:49:00 +0000

CLICK HERE FOR THE ON LINE STORE
CLICK HERE FOR THE TED SUB-DOMAIN

Its taken a few months, but my bout of flu in November has finally caught up with me financial wise. If you remember, I was off work for about 3 weeks with very little income, so I have had to "shut down" the high speed cable, and get rid of the cable TV, so as a result, I have been limited to Internet access. I apologize if I haven't got back yet to your emails, for the only unsecured networks around here are just out of range and I am limited to about 1k a sec. If you feel generous, there is a handy "donate" button on the side of the page, and any donations would and are totally appreciated. If just 10% of the visitors to this site, donated a buck or 2, I could live very comfortably indeed, and certainly afford to actually get into more Amiga projects.
On other news, I have been debating to take down posts older than let us say 1 month. Bandwidth is not an issue, but I have visitors that love to "Hotlink" to photos, and that really burns my butt. If I take down the archives, then people are forced to come to the front page and not continually hit one of my past pages and or photos. This wouldn't be an issue, but these people have no desire to actually read my blog, just look and link to the funny photo. I probably will end up removing the "failed" pictures as a result.
Anyways, I better wrap this up as the connection is fading....

The Lounge is a year old!

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:01:00 +0000

CLICK HERE FOR THE TED SITE
CLICK HERE FOR THE ON_LINE STORE

Happy new year everyone! The Amiga Lounge is One year old.
Just a quick thank you going out to all of you this week. We have had close to 100 thousand hits last year, and its been an adventure. I have had the chance to chat with many of past Commodore and Amiga employees and the wisdom and stories they have past on is truely priceless for myself.
What will 2010 bring? Well, I am looking now at a replacement for my ageing Voodoo laptop. Even though it is still a great unit, and I do love it (if you remember my old blog Iboughtavoodoolaptop.com)
It never the less, has to be upgraded soon. The problem is that HP has taken over Voodoo and they no longer have the replacement that I desire. The conundrum is that how do I remain a loyal Voodoo owner when Voodoo is no longer even a spot on HP's roadmap? I certainly do not want to be-little HP, but they do not even come close in overing a "High end" laptop.
I do not want to go to DELL /Alienware, because I fear that DELL has soiled the quality of Alienware products.
I could go with just getting a new Clevo, and building it myself or I can go to Falcon NW.
Falcon NW offers the "Fragbook DTR" which is the upgrade to my Voodoo U709. I am not sure at this point what I am going to do,for it probably be late summer before I do anything.
Voodoo still after all these years are saying "SOON" (it is their mission statement now) so we will just have to wait and see. I may have to get a new domain name soon and do a blog about the Falcon NW- LOL

On the Amiga front.
I am still putzing around and toying with some "upgrades" for my Amiga from AmigaKit.com, but the recent bout with the hardware developers from overseas has still left a bad taste in my mouth over the truly greedy and outrageous pricing of some components. That and the fact that AmigaKit still doesn't have an ECS indivision card for the Amiga 1000, have left me pondering what to do about that.
If you have been living under a rock lately, Hyperion and A-EON have "announced" the new X1000 motherboard available later this year. Translation a VEEERY expensive "high end" Amiga system, that will not sell and be forgotten by Christmas. Yes, the will make exactly the same mistake and launch this board at and outrageous price and sit back and wonder why nobody is buying it, nor developing for it. Its a shame that greed will kill this machine before it is even available to the public. The SAM has proven that over and over. I expect that this system will cost at least $2,500 USD at launch. I will be quite surprised if it is affordable.

On the Commodore 8-bit Front:
All I hope to get this year is a nice C128D unit, and a 1901 monitor. A C116 would be nice, and a nice boxed C16, but those can wait. I am running out of room and I need to either get a basement or start that museum I have talked about.

Here is looking forward to a good 2010 for everyone. I thank you for stopping by and hopefully I will get more juicy updates on a regular basis.

The END is near!

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:19:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE TED STUFF
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ON_LINE STORE

I have decided to take a break in the blog from the C128 and just go to a general blog today. The end of 2009 is less than 14 days away and I wanted to share my thoughts on the fast year in tech in general, like I do every ear at this time. I ussually go into my "predictions" for the next year, but the tech world is so screwed up right now, I predict that 2010 will bring more of the crap 2009 brought us. So I leave to you a few "Top 10" lists.

TOP 10 TECH things that I WISH would just die in 2010.
in no particular order.

10: The I-Phone- Come on people, wake up out of your zombie like state. There are much better phones on the market, and with the 'droid phones, no one is locked into Apple's hold of death on the apps.

9: Twitter- face it, no one cares what you are doing "Right now" and if the do, they are more pathetic than you for buying into the crap, than you are for posting it.

8: Facebook- There are so many things wrong with Facebook- active scripting, CIA involvement, every single application whats to take over your whole computer, privacy issues, etc. The next major virus to hit and possibly kill the Internet, will be launched through facebook. Also, do you actually have that much low self-esteem that you need 5000 friends that you would never talk to in the real world?

7: MySpace- Another hudge risk on security and just a very "Bad" Idea.

6: Lime Wire- 99% of all and I mean ALL viruses I deal with on a day to day basis come down through Lime Wire. People, just use a bit torrents.

5: Browser Tool bars- In a lot of software (Nero, Adobe etc) are trying to sucker people into installing a "asK" or "Yahoo" tool bar. It is not enough that firefox or IE has this built in to it. I just cringe ant the amount of flipping tool bars people have installed and wonder why they can't see the Internet, because they have 20 on the screen. Of course they have "No Idea" where it came from, or why their computer has spyware.

4: Laptop Touchpads- Yes, I said it. With all this "technology" we have to have SOMETHING BETTER than a useless touchpad that interferes with typing if you accidentally hit it. Even if manufactures moved it ABOVE the keyboard or to the actual side of the laptop, ANYwhere that its not going to interfear with typing (I myself have been actually working on this and drawing up designs- not that anyone cares mind you). God, just a simple blu-tooth mouse that slides in the laptop when not in use is a no brainer.

3: Useless applications that want to load at start-up:- Ok people, look down by your clock on your task bar. How many icons do you have? If the answer is more than 5, you need to really examine what needs to start up. WinZip, Acrobat reader, live-update, weather bug,nero -quickstart, Apple I tunes, Quick Time, the list goes on and on. How long must we put up with this BORG like mentality?
Half of my service calls are from people with slow boot times and they have all these useless programs running at start up, because they just don't know. If Microsoft asked me to help design the next Windows, I would insist that the Start-up be a "protected" mode and none of these would be able to infest the start up process.

2: "Live- Update" features: _one of my pet peaves is that "Live-update". Not only does it halt everything going on on your system to remind you that the latest and greatest version of the software is avalible, you must stop EVERYTHING you are doing and re-boot after it updates. Java is one of the worst for this. I have had DVD's transcodeing for 6 hours and crash, because Java wanted me to update. The worst part, 2 weeks later it wanted me to update again. WHO THE HELL cares about it, when I want to update, I will go to Java and update it myself. I don't need to be reminded every frickin 5 minutes, when I am trying to work.

1: "Busy" Websites - This is websites with so much stuff on the front page, you can't find what you are looking for. This may be ads, or what the website can do for you, but, if there is too much shit on the front page, it will turn people off. GO-DADDY.com is famous for this. I use Go-daddy for my domain names, and all that shit even leave my head spinning. Go-daddy makes enough money, why not hire a REAL website designer and have even more Business.

There are much more I would love to add to this list, but I cut it off at 10.

My Commodore 128

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Please Click Here for the (Commodore C116/Plus /4) TED Sub-Domain

Please Click here for the On-Line Store

Well, this week has gone from extremely busy to dead, work wise. I have had a bunch of new clients, and some really wacky tech calls. I really hate it when people go out and spend a good amount of coin, getting a nice computer system running XP and then find out it only has 128 megs of ram. They get it home and all the windows updates come down and then they can't even start the machine. To me this is straight out fraud and both the sales person and the company that sold that machine should get a minimum of a million dollar fine, if not jail time. It's just criminal how people get away with selling shit to an uniformed public.

Just after my last blog, I received in my Commodore 128.
For those of you that do not know what the C128 is, it was CBM's last ditch attempt at an 8 bit computer before the Amiga came out. When the project was started, CBM had not acquired the Amiga, so for a brief moment, this was Commodore's most powerful machine.
The story behind the C128 is just as fascinating as any of the Commodore computers. It all realy started at the CES in 1984 when Bil Herd was getting flack over the C264 for no backward compatibility with the C64. So Bill made it his mission to build the next system with 100% backward compatibility with the C64 (no small feat).
Instead of making a C64 with more ram, and minimal upgrades (like the TRS 80 Color Computer 3) , Him and Dave Haynie decide to make it more. They not only wanted a full C64 mode, and an extended 128 mode, the also were looking at CP/M for business. Bill also new that CP/M was on its way out, but the machine was only suppose to be a bridge between the 8 bits and the new 16 Bit computers.

As he was trying to get the CP/M Cartridge to work, he had found out why the original C64 Cartridge did not really work. It was under powered. So he decided to put a Z80 CPU right in the 128 and late one night, he tore open his "doorstop" ( a Sinclar Computer) and by morning he had the SECOND Dual CPU computer ever made. The C128 boots off the Z80.
(update) Jan 27 2010
Bil actually called me and told me it wasn't JUST because of the power. I won't get into the whole story in detail, but it had also to do with the timing and clock signals of the Z-80, coupled with the brand of RAM they were using at the time. All of these issue, and the CP/M cart was a blatant copy of the Apple card, forced Bil to re-evaluate and just fix everything.

Also, Bil set out to "fix" the bugs in the original C64, but as he did, he noticed les and less of the software would work with the "improved" C64, as the programmers often to full advantage of the glitches in the system. He had no choice but to "put the glitches back in" he even had a wire titled as such.
Perhaps the biggest pain was there was a ton of people against him, and he only had a few months to make the computer. At the 1985 CES show, just as he and Dave were coming in to Vegas, they saw a bill board that said "Can be expanded to 512K of ram". He originally made it for 512 k, but his boss told him to take it out. Now, they had to put it back in! Well, he did!

The best thing is that the system sold way more units and for years after it was released (up until 1989), The sad thing is that barely anyone took advantage of the 128 mode that was not backwards compatible with the C64 for mode, and CP/M was really dead by launch.
Bil also designed a C128D (desktop) unit, and shared the same "design" case as the Amiga 1000, with a built in C1570 Floppy drive. Commodore chose not to release the Desktop unit untill years later, and that unit caught on and the public love it. The C128 Desktop unit remains one of the most desirable Commodore computers to this day.
MY UNIT

I have the regular "Flat" or wedge unit.
The box came in not too squished, and the contents were in fair condition.

Since I bought mine, the prices have crashed on Ebay. I probably paid the last high price at $45 for this unit, as better units with Disk drives can be had for around $25-$30 now. My did not come with a Power supply, nor any books or disks. When I bought mine, A nicely boxed unit with Disks and books were going for between $60 and $80, now not even half.

The Auction said this unit also came with a Commodore mouse:
Unfortunately, the mouse is an Amiga mouse, which can not be used with a 128 (you can tell by the plug, for an Amiga mouse has a bigger, longer plug with a metal band around it.

The "bad" thing about the wedge systems, is that they were sold as cheap as possible. The wedge system only came with 16K of video memory, (as apposed to 64K on the desktop) so in order to do any full graphics, you need to get the Video upgrade (about $29, I have one coming).
One cool feature is that Bil designed this with an "open" rom slot, so you can add anything to they sys rem in ROM. I am getting a "double" rom with GEOS and Basic 8 available on a switch.

One last "fun fact" on the system is the keyboard layout. Bil and Dave "borrowed" the layout from the VAX keyboard, which they had used all for development of all CBM computers. Once the C128 was done, they used them with custom software to design other commodore computers and chips.
I have all the Power and disks coming for it.
Next Time:
A look inside.

Sunday and feeling alive

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:18:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HER FOR THE TED SERIES SUB-DOMAIN

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ONLINE STORE

Well, 3 weeks later and I think my flu has finally cleared up! What really sucks is the lost wages due to me being down, but I did manage to get some actual Amiga time in. Last weekend, I hooked up with Craig- the president of Amicue and we cleaned up 3 A2000's he had in his pile. One was an Awsome, original A2500 with an Amber (flicker fixer) card. We hooked it up to an LCD monitor with no issues. It also had a nice variety of cards, enough to make any Amigan envious. The othe 2 were plain A 2000's. one had a nice A2286, but the battery for the A2286 leaked all over the motherboard. I had thought it beyond repair, but Craig is a wizard at hardware (he has designed his own Amiga hardware) and had it cleaned and fixed in no time. The longest chore was going through the pile of floppy drives to figure out which ones were dead. that and the Scsi drives he had all seemed to be failing or dead too.
This week, nothing has come in, but suspect my C128 will be here any day now. I did source another power supply and system disks for it also. I have yet to get the Video Ram Upgrade, as the C128 "flat" system only shipped with 16K of video Ram, where as the 128 desktop shipped with 64K of Video Ram. I am not sure of why the difference, but the upgraded ram is much needed- probably yet another "Cost prevention" on CBM's part.
I found out that the Commodore "TEST Pilot" system was a bit different in the UK. In North America, it shipped with a 1441 Floppy drive, but in the UK, it shipped with a cassette drive and all the programs on Cassette!
It also did not ship with GEOS. I wonder what the retail price difference was (If any- Commodore was know for charging more in the UK than in North America) It looks like the box was way smaller as a result.
I have also found a nice clear picture of the "Canadian Olympic" Plus/4 logo and I will be updating the TED pages soon with that and the following Color map. You can see the TED chip made more colors than the VIC 2 chip.
Not much more to report this week, hopefully I will have something exciting to speak of soon, Maybe a TOWERING report of 3000 words (or less).

Sick Days Pt.2

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:02:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE TED PAGES
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ONLINE STORE

Today, its Friday and I am starting to feel human again. This week has been very on and off though, besides the flu.
I think Canada Post is starting to speed things up before Christmas, as most of my Ebay Auctions have come in this week. The first thing to arrive was my Commodore 64C "Test Pilot" package. I had been hunting for a while now, to find a nice 64C package and this one came up. I Paid only $33 bucks for it, so I was quite happy.
This box is huge! 20 inches tall, by 28 inches long. Inside were 2 close to mint boxes, one for the 64C, and one for the 1541-11 Floppy drive. The joystick was not included. I was also disappointed that the GEOS disk was missing and most of the games listed on the front. In fact only 2 games showed up, ATF and Crazy Cars.
After carefully cleaning the outside of the 64 (it was mostly clean, just a small amount of dirt), I hooked everything up and ran the test/demo disk for the 1541. Needless to say, it worked flawless.
Yesterday, I got in my C16.
No Box or nothing with this auction, just the Power supply and "tutorial" cartridge. I paid $7 for this auction, and it stunk like mold. I scrubbed the ouside down with my "Mr Clean Magic Errasers" and hooked it all up. I watched as the TED chip died, as the boarder came up on the white screen, then the screen filled with garbage then just like my plus/4 , 3 collums of vertical lines. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I seem to be having no luck with my TED machines.
About an hour ago, I got my last package in: another Plus/4. Needless to say, it's filthy! I paid another $7 for this. I hooked it all up and IT WORKS!!!!!!. I may need to clean or replace the keyboard, as it doesn't seem quite responsive, but hey! IT WORKS.
Now if you will excuse me, I am off to nap a bit (flu Remember) and then hook everything up to it.

Sick Days

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:12:00 +0000

Click here for the TED Subdomain
Click here for the on-line store

Well, it's official, I am down with the Flu. Everyone auto-maticly jumps to the asumption that I have the H1N1 swine flu, and just shuns me like a leaper, but no one thinks it could be just a case of a regular cold? No, I have not been to a doctor. What is the doctor going to say? "yep, you are sick..." congratulations. I just waisted his time, when he could be helping someone who really needs his help.

What sucks, is I was suppose to start a new contract job today, rolling out new computers for a multi-national company. I will try to make it tomorrow, as I have been sleeping and popping Vitamin C tablets like Candy.
This week, not much has happened. I caught the flu sometime Thursday, so I have been trying to recoup as much as possible, but I did get in an NOS boxed 1531 Dattasette for the Plus /4. I am just waiting for 3 items now: A nice boxed Commodore 64C "Test Pilot" Pack with games and a 1451-11 Disk drive, A C16 and another Plus/4. The 64 C and the C16 should be here by the end of the week. I also am trying out Google wave, but so far I have no clue what I am looking at. For now, back to bed......

Plus /4 No go's

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:21:00 +0000

CLICK HERE FOR THE TED SUBDOMAIN

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This week has been almost a total failure on the plus/4 front. Both of my machines do not work. My "new" Plus/4 had no power and the Canadian Plus/4 had a messed up display. I took both units apart, thinking the fuse needed to replaced on the "new" unit. What I found was that the RF shield obviously had been removed and because the solder points are right beside the power plug, and the Video plug, both were melted from repair. I know - I COULD replace the plugs, but with the price of these units, I can just get another one. I then swapped all the chips on the Canadian unit, and still an no go.
But, all is not lost. I plan to mount these 2 units on a back board and hang them on the wall.

I also got in more stuff from E-bay:
First, was my 99 cents Commodore C2N Dattasette. This will work with the VIC 20 and C64/128. You can not have the true retro experience without using the Dattasette.
I know what you are thinking: It's true, the C2N WILL NOT work with the Plus /4. You need a 1531 Datasette. (That is on its way).

Next, I received in 10, that's right 10 cassette games for the C16-Plus /4. These were only $9 bucks Canadian from the UK. They Might be PAL games and no work on my unit, but I thought I would try.
The last thing I got was a T-1341 Boxed joystick for the Plus/4. I paid about 18 bucks for this, which was a bit above my budget, but no TED collection is complete.

Well that was all this week. Sorry no RANDOM Photo today. More next week.

Happy Turkey Day Canada

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:54:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE TED SUB-DOMAIN

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ONLINE STORE

So, I have been rather lax on the blog lately, but their is not much to say yet. I am still waiting on Various parts for the Amiga, and the Plus/4 , so those are put aside until they come in. Also, work has been throwing me around between stores like a Yo-Yo, and I am working both Day and night Shifts. I suspect they are trying to make me quit, but so far I am too tired to make that decision. Even today, the holiday, I am working. Yesterday was a double shift, tonight, I work until 11pm and tomorrow I am on the bus at 7 am to make it to work on time. So no real chance of sitting down to work on anything. This week (for those that are interested) I got in my $5 Vic 20 system. Yea, I know a Vic, but it was boxed and only 5 bucks. But like usual, it looked like it had been buried in a pit for 20 years. One of my endless peeves with people, is they can't take 5 minutes to clean the stuff they are selling on Ebay. The pictures don't show the grime layer or the amount of dirt in the box. I swear they would get more money if they just took 5 minutes to clean the darn thing, even just wipe a damp cloth over it. So , as usual, I spent a few hours cleaning that up. For those few Vic 20 collectors out there, here are some Specs on my unit. First its a Canadian unit (made in Canada) and, I suspect it its a "Mid-run" unit. It has the "rainbow" label The power supply

Part No. 251053-02 (early version)
(Rectangular black plastic case with few ridges. Sticky label on top.)
110V, 60Hz for N. American / Japanese market
Openable: NO
Replaceable fuse: NO
Input: 117V, 50/60Hz
Output: 5V DC-8.5W, 9VAC-9.0VA
Made in Singapore

The label on my power supply is curling off, and is dated 10-83.

The RF-modulator is also an early one, pictured below.

The box is not in that great of shape, and has a hole in the middle of the lid. Also it is an early model, because the Styrofoam inserts is top and bottom encasing all the contents, not just on each side. The top half is missing.
What is interesting, is the box is totally in English and so is the manual, so I suspect either this unit was exported just to English only Canada or it infact was made in Canada and sold to the US. Even the manual is the later "US" manual. Incidentally this unit was bought from within Canada, as Canadian Ebay auctions generally go for MUCH cheaper then a similar unit it the US. For example, a similar VIC 20 unit would fetch $35 -$40 on the US Ebay. I did spend a few hours, taking it apart and cleaning and scrubbing the case of of all the filth. Before you ask, no, I did not have to take apart the keyboard, as it look relatively clean, compared to the rest of the unit.

Next, I got in a 1541 floppy disk drive. I can use it on the Plus/4 and the Vic, and later on the C64/128. I have yet to receive the Serial Cable which is really needed to hook the unit up. Again, I paid $10 for this. It did not come with a box or manual, but again from here in Canada. This unit was actually Clean.
The above photo is just a stock unit, what is interesting on my unit, is that the drive is beige, not black like 99% of units I have seen. It falls in like with the later units shown bellow:
Which leads me to suspect that my unit may have been repaired at one time and the actual drive been replaced.
Last, I got in my RCA cables that I need for the Plus/4. Now I can ditch the emulator and actually use the real thing. God, how I despise emulation. The cool thing is this cable will work on all the Commodore computers, so I don't have to screw around when switching from unit to unit.

And now for today's RANDOM Photo(S) (yes you get 2 today for me being lazy):
Yes Captain Kirk loved the VIC.

Cleaning the PLUS/4

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:26:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW TED SUBDOMAIN
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ONLINE STORE

So I got in today, my "NEW" NOS Boxed Plus /4. The only difference between to two units is the label. The US Plus/4 has a metal label, that the words "Commodore" and Plus /4" are raised and sharp. you could probably cut yourself on it, in contrast to the Cheap Vinyl sticker on the Canadian plus /4. Otherwise, on the outside they are exactly the same.
I have not Cracked open the new one yet, as I was up at 6 am today working on the TED site. Its almost complete, all the models have their own page now.
Here are some pictures of the inside I took while cleaning it.

What is note worthy from a bazaar point of view is that every old computer I have ever cracked open from Commodore has finger prints corroded into the top metal cover of the RF modulator box. I am not sure if the assembler had a grease on their hands or if the metal composite of the lid part, after 30 years just corrodes the natural oils on the hands, but it is crazy.
You will also notice the top of the CPU cover is also a make-shift heat sink. After 30 years the thermal paste is still moist.
I don't think this CPU is a 7501, but a later 8501, because without cleaning the thermal paste off, I could see an "85" on the CPU.
I then started on the keyboard, again removing all the keys and meticulously cleaning and scrubbing everything. It must be my lot in life to get filthy keyboards.
I just though the arrow keys were cool so I took a pick.

Now, for today's RANDOM Photo:
I know, I posted it before, but its such a cool picture. And to think the Plus /4 has a million times more power than that Rand. I want the wheels for my system.

Opening the Plus /4

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:18:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ON LINE - STORE
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW TED SUB-DOMAIN

Today I received my Canadian Plus /4 in.
Again, people who sell stuff on E-bay should take 5 minutes and clean the items they are selling. It's only common curtsy,but no one wants to clean the stuff they are selling. Needless to say, this Plus /4 was filthy. It also had seen better days and obviously it had been repaired at one time. It also apears to have had it's keyboard replaced with a UK keyboard. I could be wrong though. Maybe, unlike the Amiga, they just had one keyboard and the "£" key is present on all the keyboards. I have some work set out in front of me. I will take it to work and clean it there.
The label is falling off. Unlike the earlier Commodore labels like on the VIC -20 and C64, this label is not metal, but just a vinyl sticker. As a result of age and cheap glue, it is bulging, and is letting go on one side.
You can see from the very bad photo above that the Amiga 600 is actually a few inches bigger all around. I did not get a power supply, or cables with this Auction, but I did pick up a brand new Plus/4 in another Auction and a spare power supply, so within the next week I can test this baby to see if it actually works. Hopefully by then, I will have my good camera back.

Now for today's RANDOM Photo:

BUSY Weekend

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:23:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ON-LINE STORE

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW TED SUB DOMAIN

I have had a full plate this weekend. Not only have I been down sick with a stomach flu, Saturday, I still went out to the Amicue meeting, and then put in my 8 hours at work. Got home, did some work on the TED site, and then slept and wend back to work for my normal 12 Sunday shift. So between the website, Work, and Amicue, I also watched the complete 24 episodes of the Witchblade Amime'.
I was expecting A bit of Ghost in the Shell/ Appleseed Action mixed in with a bit of T&A, but what I got was very unexpected. I won't spoil the show, but I don't think an American writing team could put out that story. I can't really describe how I fell about it, but I must be getting a bit sentimental and soft in my old age, because the ending did move me. I can best describe it as Ghost in the Shell, meets and mixes with "Spirited Away". I will now have to go out and Buy the unrated DVD's. I really kind of hate how some Anime' can suck you in on that emotional level, and we just have to wait an see if they will continue it with a new series or just leave you like that. Then again, maybe it was because I was sick and mentally exhausted.

Now for today's RANDOM Photo:
YEEEHAWWWWW!

TED Domain is up

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:15:00 +0000

I have been busy making a down and dirty SUBDOMAIN for the TED computers. You can Click here or go to ted.amigalounge.com be warned its not finnished yet.

Let's Talk about TED,Baby......or those wacky Canucks

glenvdb1@gmail.com (glenvdb) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:33:00 +0000

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ON-LINE STORE

Today, I am going to take a break from Amiga and talk about TED. I don't have to remind you that Dave Haynie worked on TED with Bil Herd before Amiga and the 128.
You all know, I have been looking somewhat for a TED. The stuff I collect, Usually finds me, I really don't fight for all that much on e-bay, because I don't believe in snipping programs.
Last night, I was looking at some Commodore Auctions, when I came across the following +4.
Instantly, I knew something was different about this machine. The seller had no clue, for he couldn't power it up for it had no power supply with it, but it was only $20 BIN, so I knew I had to get it.
What is different you may ask? At first glance it looks like any other +4 machine, but if you look closer this one is different.
Look at the label. EVERY plus 4 I have ever seen has on the label the words "plus/4" like the picture above. Except this one. I did a google search, and sure enough, every one, all over the world had the same logo.
I then e-mailed Bil about it. I didn't expect any reply, but he got back to me almost immediately. He said he wasn't sure, but to check the Serial numbers, it could be from another country.
After about an hour of searching, I came across a couple of sites dedicated to the plus/4. It seems like there are people out there like us Amiga users and have documented as much as possible on the TED computers. I must say, I was hoping this was not a plus 4 but rather a 264 (like right).
On a site called "plus 4 world", There was the answer:
These are actually Canadian Plus 4's. Canada was the ONLY country to change the labels and they also sponsored the '85 Olympic team. I am not sure if the label re-design was just for the Olympics, but it looks cool.
You can just make out on the bottom of the box, the Olympic sponsorship.
Bellow is the US Version (and more familiar) Box:
Now, you may also be surprised that there are a ton of games for the plus 4 (I was shocked) and some of them actually have very good graphics for an 8 bit machine

And now for Today's RANDOM Photo: