No way that's a real electronics lab...where's all the clutter? :P How do you know which ESR rating is best to use with the capacitors and how do you know which brands/types that would be? Great video but it could really have used more explanation of the cleaning of the circuit boards, such as what chemicals you were using, what you were scrubbing, why you were cleaning various parts, etc.
Could you please explain the cleaning process starting from around 17:00, what tools and agents you are using, etc.? Especially what's in the pink bottle that you are brushing on - some sort of corrosion protection or just isopropanol for cleaning?
Hi - I'm working on a "dark" screen 64C - wondering if you could say more about what all you did to the RF box? Video seems to show you spent some time the inside. Nicely done!
Another great video. Did you lubricate the slide rails of the W/R head on the 1541-II? I hope you have the opportunity to recondition more retro computers in the future. I very much enjoyed episodes 1 and 2.
Yes i did lubricate the rails (forgot to put that part into the video). I simply used a tiny bit (tip of a toothpick) of grease on slide rails and on the small plastic lever arm of the of the opening / closing mechanism. But i would not use WD40 or any lubricant which contains silicone. WD40 is a good parting agent but not a very good lubricant (on the other hand it is very suitable to clean up the old dried up grease if you wand to replace it) and silicone tends to diffuse out of the grease/lubricant and cover everything with a thin film of silicone. And silicone tends to displace / break up the plasticisers so all the plastics and wire insulations starting to get even more brittle than they already are.
That looks very professional! Think I am going to make that PSU you showed in another video. Best PSU for the C64 I've seen! You should produce them and sell them online! Question: do you think it is needed to replace all the caps of my Commodore 1701 monitor? I also own a couple of Commodore 1084s monitors.
Regarding brightening the case, soaking the plastics out in the sun in a bath of Salon Care 40 (hydrogen peroxide based mixture) will do wonders to whiten it. I do prefer this to the Retrobright paste.
I didnt change the caps in the modulator but I did replace the onboard regulator Ics and put heatsinks on. You should consider doing the regulators and heatsinks. I enjoyed the video. Thank you.
Hi, Nice video. Subbed :) I didn't bother re-capping the modulator in my C64. Do you think it is worth going back and doing to avoid problems? I use an RGB cable. Btw, I am in the process of trying to cram your psu design into an original brick lol.
Interesting, I was wondering whether Greisis was going to use the old power brick case myself. How's it going, using the old case did you get it all in ????
Electrolytic capacitors have a liquid inside which over a period of years dries out, causing loss of capacitance and high ESR. All other types of capacitors have dry insulators and don't tend to deteriorate unless physically damaged.
I wonder what percentage, on average, of restoring old things is simply cleaning? I'd imagine a fair chunk! I know I find myself doing a lot of cleaning in my projects... Some rather unusual, like de-potting all the components from the original Commodore brick! So much chipping...
Nice skills and tools, to achieve a nice job as you did. Yeah, maybe a retrobright would be useful, but the hw restoration it's always first thing to do. Cheers, Mark
Thanks! I used "CRC Kontakt LR" PCB cleaner to remove the flux and isopropanol alcohol for general cleaning. To clean the connectors I used "CRC Kontakt 60 Plus".
Latest board design C64. I have one, had no SID output, thankfully the zener in it's regulator circuit failed short, fixed it right up ;-) Also trashed the EMI shielding.
Hi,nice videos you've made!Also nice equipment you have! Can you share a link (specs and where to buy) for caps you are using for recapping? Regards,Kresimir! Edit: Find it on Your blog site :-)
Will you be doing all sorts of computers, or do you just stick with commodores? Will you be doing any ZX Spectrum upgrades, fixes, peripheral fixes or mods at all? 128 likes and 0 dislikes my friend you must be doing something right.. Do you think maybe you'd be doing any unboxing and showing of anything that viewers send in, if they do ????
I love to watch videos like yours while I'm also repairing my stuff. What I was thinking is that you better don't use the fast forward, we can go to the minute you say if we want to. I also missed in the video that you changed the rubber belt of the floppy drive. I just suposse you did, but I didn't see it. Didn't it have it?. I believe to remember it has.
This looks like the 1541-II with the Chinon drive mechanism, which is direct-drive and therefore has no belt. The other version has a Newtronics (Mitsumi) mechanism, which does have a belt.
It's interesting to see the very late production dates on these pieces. 1991! I got mine in 1983, 8 years earlier. In the US we had moved on to 16 and even 32 bit machines by that time. It's also instructive to see the different mindset of an electrical engineer/tech when refurbing one of these. Most of the TH-cam videos concentrate on the appearance first and electrical functionality second. You go for functionality and reliability first. I like it. I am also in serious jealousy of your soldering station.
Thanks! I thought about retrobrighting the case, but as long as I can remember the thing had this yellow / brown colour and I think I leave it that way. Just grew accustomed to it :-) .
Really good job! I bought a 1571 floppy drive and I have to fix it, the seller said that turns on but it dosen't work, so I will use your video as guide to clean it and hopefully fix it. I would like to recommend to you to do the retrobright to the plastics, it really worth the effort, I did it to my two commodore 128 and looks like new. You can see the 8 bit guy video where he did it to a c128. th-cam.com/video/wLp6bzG9exk/w-d-xo.html
Great Video!. You should do a "Retrobright" on the whole case and keyboard.
Definitely would love to see that!
#METOO
totally agree, that's the first thing that came to mind when seeing how clean everything else is!!!
No retrobrite. The yellowness will return and the plastic will weaken.
No way that's a real electronics lab...where's all the clutter? :P
How do you know which ESR rating is best to use with the capacitors and how do you know which brands/types that would be?
Great video but it could really have used more explanation of the cleaning of the circuit boards, such as what chemicals you were using, what you were scrubbing, why you were cleaning various parts, etc.
Do a video on workspace organization. I never manage to keep mine so organized.
Could you please explain the cleaning process starting from around 17:00, what tools and agents you are using, etc.? Especially what's in the pink bottle that you are brushing on - some sort of corrosion protection or just isopropanol for cleaning?
khoroshen I assume the pink bottle is isopropyl since he used it on the drive heads. Never seen a bottle like that though.
What is the make/model of your soldering station?
Hi - I'm working on a "dark" screen 64C - wondering if you could say more about what all you did to the RF box? Video seems to show you spent some time the inside. Nicely done!
Another great video. Did you lubricate the slide rails of the W/R head on the 1541-II? I hope you have the opportunity to recondition more retro computers in the future. I very much enjoyed episodes 1 and 2.
Yes i did lubricate the rails (forgot to put that part into the video). I simply used a tiny bit (tip of a toothpick) of grease on slide rails and on the small plastic lever arm of the of the opening / closing mechanism.
But i would not use WD40 or any lubricant which contains silicone. WD40 is a good parting agent but not a very good lubricant (on the other hand it is very suitable to clean up the old dried up grease if you wand to replace it) and silicone tends to diffuse out of the grease/lubricant and cover everything with a thin film of silicone. And silicone tends to displace / break up the plasticisers so all the plastics and wire insulations starting to get even more brittle than they already are.
Ah, good to know about the silicone, as silicone grease would be my go-to choice. WD-40 I would avoid, for sure -- I made that mistake many years ago.
In that case, I would try Super Lube synthetic grease.
What frame capture device are you using on the Mac Air?
Hi. Since you had the whole thing dismantled, why didn't you retrobrighted it?
Thanks for all the video btw.
What's the AV capture dongle? I need one too :D
That looks very professional! Think I am going to make that PSU you showed in another video. Best PSU for the C64 I've seen! You should produce them and sell them online!
Question: do you think it is needed to replace all the caps of my Commodore 1701 monitor? I also own a couple of Commodore 1084s monitors.
Regarding brightening the case, soaking the plastics out in the sun in a bath of Salon Care 40 (hydrogen peroxide based mixture) will do wonders to whiten it. I do prefer this to the Retrobright paste.
I didnt change the caps in the modulator but I did replace the onboard regulator Ics and put heatsinks on. You should consider doing the regulators and heatsinks. I enjoyed the video. Thank you.
Hi, Nice video. Subbed :) I didn't bother re-capping the modulator in my C64. Do you think it is worth going back and doing to avoid problems? I use an RGB cable. Btw, I am in the process of trying to cram your psu design into an original brick lol.
Interesting, I was wondering whether Greisis was going to use the old power brick case myself. How's it going, using the old case did you get it all in ????
RED PILL DOCTOR Hi, actually, I am on it right now lol. Trying to document for a vid as I go along.....
So you only replaced the electrolytic capacitors... I guess disc capacitors don’t generally have the same wear issues?
Electrolytic capacitors have a liquid inside which over a period of years dries out, causing loss of capacitance and high ESR. All other types of capacitors have dry insulators and don't tend to deteriorate unless physically damaged.
I wonder what percentage, on average, of restoring old things is simply cleaning? I'd imagine a fair chunk!
I know I find myself doing a lot of cleaning in my projects...
Some rather unusual, like de-potting all the components from the original Commodore brick! So much chipping...
Nice skills and tools, to achieve a nice job as you did. Yeah, maybe a retrobright would be useful, but the hw restoration it's always first thing to do.
Cheers, Mark
Really nice video, can you tell me what you used to clean to board (spray can and the other bottle) ?
Thanks! I used "CRC Kontakt LR" PCB cleaner to remove the flux and isopropanol alcohol for general cleaning. To clean the connectors I used "CRC Kontakt 60 Plus".
what kind of de-solderer is that you're using ??
Yeah, I want to know that too.. I'm shopping for a new desoldering station.
Wait, I think I found it.. it looks like a Weller WXDP120.
Latest board design C64. I have one, had no SID output, thankfully the zener in it's regulator circuit failed short, fixed it right up ;-) Also trashed the EMI shielding.
I don't recommend bending the top head up so far like that. You can damage the spring and ruin the tension.
Hi,nice videos you've made!Also nice equipment you have!
Can you share a link (specs and where to buy) for caps you are using for recapping?
Regards,Kresimir!
Edit: Find it on Your blog site :-)
Will you be doing all sorts of computers, or do you just stick with commodores? Will you be doing any ZX Spectrum upgrades, fixes, peripheral fixes or mods at all? 128 likes and 0 dislikes my friend you must be doing something right.. Do you think maybe you'd be doing any unboxing and showing of anything that viewers send in, if they do ????
I love to watch videos like yours while I'm also repairing my stuff. What I was thinking is that you better don't use the fast forward, we can go to the minute you say if we want to.
I also missed in the video that you changed the rubber belt of the floppy drive. I just suposse you did, but I didn't see it. Didn't it have it?. I believe to remember it has.
This looks like the 1541-II with the Chinon drive mechanism, which is direct-drive and therefore has no belt. The other version has a Newtronics (Mitsumi) mechanism, which does have a belt.
Love the video keep making them
It's interesting to see the very late production dates on these pieces. 1991! I got mine in 1983, 8 years earlier. In the US we had moved on to 16 and even 32 bit machines by that time. It's also instructive to see the different mindset of an electrical engineer/tech when refurbing one of these. Most of the TH-cam videos concentrate on the appearance first and electrical functionality second. You go for functionality and reliability first. I like it. I am also in serious jealousy of your soldering station.
Does MacAir support Composite?
Capture card was likely used
You can see the input lag is like 1000ms, so yeah most likely some kinda USB capture device :P
Awesome video! I am really enjoying all these episodes so far. Subbed.
Looks amazing. Now the case just needs some Retrobright love and it's good as new :)
Thanks! I thought about retrobrighting the case, but as long as I can remember the thing had this yellow / brown colour and I think I leave it that way. Just grew accustomed to it :-) .
now THAT's some TLC
Waiting for you to get a C2n and wow at the raster lines, splash screen and loading music as the game takes 5 minutes to load
Great repairtips! Nice video.
LOL, " Could be worse! "
and @21min5sec "uuuuuuu... dusty and crusty....mmmm.. just as we like it" :-)
Please do some more videos. :)
Really good job! I bought a 1571 floppy drive and I have to fix it, the seller said that turns on but it dosen't work, so I will use your video as guide to clean it and hopefully fix it.
I would like to recommend to you to do the retrobright to the plastics, it really worth the effort, I did it to my two commodore 128 and looks like new.
You can see the 8 bit guy video where he did it to a c128.
th-cam.com/video/wLp6bzG9exk/w-d-xo.html
Nice work man.