C64 board storage

Working on a better way to store my non-cased C64 boards. These parts can be connected and they create two rows of angled holder to keep the boards at an angle of 64° (what else ;) ) with enough space inbetween to take them out and put them back even when accessories like the FPGASID or the SIDKick are installed.

Focus was on easy prints without support as well. I wasn't looking for a fixed number of boards to keep since I want to use this in different places with the ability to add or remove holder as required. 

The bridge part is aligned in a way that it prevents the holder parts to shift around so it is a bit tricky to put everything together. Tolerances are optimized for the Prusa i3 MK3s and PETG material. This might be different for other printers and/or material but it fits perfectly here without the need of force during assembly or glue to hold it together. One set, containing two holders and one brigde takes about 2 hours to print at 0.2 mm layer height. The holders might print at 0.3 as well but the brigde requires 0.2 mm, otherwise it won't fit into the holder. I have printed it with 2 perimeter and 4 top/bottom layers with 25 % infill and it has some flex. If you want to have it stronger simply increase number of perimeter.

Designed with DesignSpark Mechanical

Links:

3D file at Prusaprinters

3D file at Thingiverse

Custom DIY Mssiah controller

I eventually found the time to do the video about my DIY Mssiah controllers I've built about three years ago.

You'll find it here:

https://youtu.be/AB0bYh1Xm5k

Feel free to ask if something hasn't been covered :)

First programming with the revitalized TL866

 So it looks like the TL866 is running again, at least it pretended to flash the Keyman64 bootloader and firmware to the Atmega 1284P. I wasn't able to establish an USB connection yet, have to figure out what the cause of this issue is but at least, I'm making progress :)

TL866 CS/A conversion, firmware issues, problem solving

 

The TL866CS by XGecu is a pretty handy device to program/burn many different Eproms/EEproms/Atmega and alike ICs. I've bought the CS version because I wasn't aware of the later need to use the ICSP port as well but interestingly, the A version, which comes with the ICSP port already, is basically the same device with a connector added to the PCB and the little port door removed from the case. And, like with many such things, there are people who figured out how to convert a CS to an A. Done so with mine, it worked fine for a long period until XGecu got sort of annoyed by plagiatism of other companies and perhaps/maybe by those modders as well. So they have released a new version of the programmer software which detects this little hack and sort of bricked the device. Fortunately, this is reversible and this was my mission for the weekend, bring it back to life :) 

The electronic side is rather easy, adding one resistor to the circuit to enable boot mode on the device and the second step was to use an alternative tool to flash the firmware back to the TL866.

I haven't tested it yet fully, so I might face some surprises but for now, the TL866 is recognized as version A again and seems to work.

Here's a llink to the firmware updater and the related firmware:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/330bs8t4uucnyi9/TL866.zip

This has been provided at the EEV blog forum, so I'm not responsible for it, but the link to the forum post isn't working occasionally, hence the direct download.

Here's a link to another forum, mentioning the original post and this is where I've got the direct link from:

https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15529

Keyman64 - sort of reproduction

 

The Keyman64 is a nice little device to control certain functions of a C64 and/or to change the keyboard layout as well as adding macros to your function keys. In the past, I have ordered complete assembly kits but due to a period of absence of the creator of this device, I decided to order PCBs and the required parts by myself. As with many things, I sort of lost focus on this topic due to a lack of usage but now it is about time to revitalize this work. During this process I've learned that my programmer, the TL866, was rendered useless by the original software. Now I have to bring it back to life, an unexpected side path of this project :)

Here are two links to videos where I have used the Keyman64Ö

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuUjSOicsD0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v---EHyQHcI

Ultimate64 - New Firmware Release 1.41

 The new firmware for the Ultimate64 brought a lot of new features, a sort-of re-structured user interface and, unfortunately, some new bugs. But anyway, I've got it to work in combination with Mssiah, which is usually a bit quirky when it gets into contact with non standard C64 boards. To avoid endless text which would be tl;dr anyway - here's the video about how to set up the Ultimate64.

Ultimate64 and Mssiah

Hello World - First blog post :)

 Hi all!

Keeping Twitter, Instagram, Patreon, KoFi and Youtube posted with recent news takes a lot of time, so I came up with the idea to create a blog where I just put thoughts, ideas, work-in-progress stuff and give you the chance to keep track of what I'm doing.

I hope it is working in some way. I'm looking forward to your feedback :)