The age of Aquarius

Any 8bit repairs, images, cool things, upgrades etc.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by rubber_jonnie »

HigashiJun wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 12:09 pm
rubber_jonnie wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 11:58 am

Interesting.
Yes, and if you go with the Dragon 32, just check the following Retrohax page:

https://retrohax.net/dragon-32-64k-ram- ... -and-mods/
I'll be sure to!
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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JezC
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by JezC »

I always wanted a Dragon 64 back in the day (and a Jupiter Ace) but both are way too expensive for my retro funds.
Maybe a nice Mac if the price is right...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by rubber_jonnie »

JezC wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:17 pm I always wanted a Dragon 64 back in the day (and a Jupiter Ace) but both are way too expensive for my retro funds.
Maybe a nice Mac if the price is right...
Don't get a Mac Classic unless you're mad in the head!
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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JezC
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by JezC »

rubber_jonnie wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:33 pm
JezC wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:17 pm I always wanted a Dragon 64 back in the day (and a Jupiter Ace) but both are way too expensive for my retro funds.
Maybe a nice Mac if the price is right...
Don't get a Mac Classic unless you're mad in the head!
I did specify a 'nice' Mac...probably a Quadra or later (to work with some music software) ;)
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by rubber_jonnie »

JezC wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:14 pm
rubber_jonnie wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:33 pm

Don't get a Mac Classic unless you're mad in the head!
I did specify a 'nice' Mac...probably a Quadra or later (to work with some music software) ;)
Fair enough. The Classic really isn't a nice Mac!
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Ok, so first look inside the Aquarius and it is quite grubby:

IMG_20220107_165834.jpg
IMG_20220107_165834.jpg (353.89 KiB) Viewed 1740 times

There is a lot of dust, though corrosion does seem to be limited.

It does power up, but the screen has garbled colour data:

IMG_20220107_165957.jpg
IMG_20220107_165957.jpg (261.45 KiB) Viewed 1740 times

So a dig around for Aquarius info seems to be on the cards for me tonight.

I'm hoping it won't be anything wrong with a PLA and just either be RAM, Character Gen or ROM, as the PLAs are like they are in the Electron and hard to get hold of, and in the case of the Aquarius, not yet remade. More Ferranti stuff, who seem to be the only people able to make PLA/ULA chips at the time.

The keyboard has a slightly different problem (It was shown on the listing) in that the Z key is missing it's top!

IMG_20220107_165857.jpg
IMG_20220107_165857.jpg (385.97 KiB) Viewed 1740 times

I'm thinking that if I can remove the key sheet and fence off the Z key, I can repair it with something like hot glue or silicone, and then paint a letter on the top after recolouring. I doubt the key sheet will be something I can easily replace, but something else I can look for tonight.

The keys do all at least work and the membrane looks to be in excellent condition overall.

Parts ordered for this too: http://www.bhabbott.net.nz/micro_expander.html which will expand it nicely.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Hmm, putting the pieces together after finding a nice schematic online, I am thinking that after a cleanup, I may try and check over the signals at the TEA1002, which is the PAL encoder chip too.

It takes RGB signals from PLA2, and CSYNC from PLA 1 and outputs in composite to the modulator. Given that the signal is actually good and just the colours on the characters are messed up, then it could be the TEA mangling things, or it could still be RAM/ROM/CHARGEN problems. I'm still thinking RAM, but I think I'll need to bust out the oscilloscope and have a good poke around the video generation signals.

It's annoying, as I've yet to find any sort of service manual or tech reference that explains how video generation fully happens.

Next I think a clean is in order though.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by PhilC »

@rubber_jonnie could it just be that it doesn't like your monitor? Thinking similar to the Apple //e thing. All the colours and characters are in the right place just distorted.
If it ain't broke, test it to Destruction.
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Re: The age of Aquarius

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PhilC wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 10:46 pm @rubber_jonnie could it just be that it doesn't like your monitor? Thinking similar to the Apple //e thing. All the colours and characters are in the right place just distorted.
It has no monitor output, not even composite.

I'm running via RF to an LCD TV, so I don't think so. I will pull out my period TV and check, but there are distinct blocks of colour around the characters like the "paper" on a Spectrum character. My gut feeling is that it's electronic.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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Re: The age of Aquarius

Post by exxos »

Kinda looks like ram refresh fail .
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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