The 1570 was a single-sided drive made from a combination of a mechanism suitable for a 1541 (singe-sided) with a (possibly slightly modified) 1571 control board. There was a shortage of double-sided drive mechanisms, so the 1570 was developed as a stop-gap until enough mechanisms were available to provide enough 1571s. It had the speed of the 1571 when used with the C128, but only half the capacity.
This video was 33 minutes, it felt like 10. Even though I am only 13 I find old computer repairs very entertaining and interessting, keep up the good work!
The slow rise times on A12..A15 are caused by the RP4 resistor pack. These address lines are not connected to the VIC-II, only to the CPU. To prevent that they float when the VIC-II uses the bus, RP4 pulls them up. But because of parasitic capacity on the bus, these resistors need some time to get the bus lines to 5V.
I guess having a probe on the AEC pin of the CPU might help to know when those lines aren't driven by the CPU. Perhaps even trigger from that in order to always see CPU-driven address lines.
i'm german and recently bought a C64 from ebay, it also came with a dust cover... it was basically the same style/plastic so i assume these were very common.
@@proxy1035 They were, I'm German as well and I've seen them. I'm just amazed the seller still had it, because many, many people lost them, threw them away, etc.
Was the dust cover an extra accessory or was it part of the package when the computers was bought new? I do have an Amiga 500 with the same style dust cover.
Nice seeing you actually repair a german C64. I loved how you try to pronounce the German and one has to admit: All the guesses you made were right or nearly right. Thank you for another 30 Minutes of entertainment, it's a pleasure to be able to learn along with your judgements and misjudgements. Greetings from Germany, Sven.
Thinking about them dead chips, once you've got enough of them, you could turn them into a resin table-top, set their legs into a lower green resin layer (mimicking a PCB's solder mask) and then cover in clear resin to make the top, would look pretty cool I think... :D
Those units were built in Braunschweig, Germany. The screws are DIN7981 and actually direct tap-in screws for sheet metal. But they work just fine for plastic as well. Commodore just misused them like so many did/still do.
23:32 Lines ARE pulsing, oscilloscope would not trigger (which it does) otherwise. Your trigger point is off the screen to the left, so you don't see a pulse. Push little knob in Horizontal section to center it.
I am absolutely astounded that this survived packed like it was! I assume this wasn’t shipped with standard postal service but with some dedicated parcel service.
I spent 18 months in Germany at a small AB called Sembach. Wiesbaden was in the area and the W is pronounced as a V. Later in life I worked for a company that was a VAR for IBM PCs. I was sent to IBM PC school for the 1st IMB PCs in Boca Raton FL in the mid '80s. Learned the PC and printer repair. Got a real neat diploma with a picture of all the class.
I would suggest running a 240V line (Hot-hot double breaker) to your workbench so you can run Intl voltages natively at least for testing. Only rarely, you will run into something that HAS to have 50 Hz or damage, but again that is rare. I love being able to run something that needs (intl) or really wants (power supply efficiency) ~240 volts natively. But do remember to fully unplug if you need to test it! I learned the hard way! (Cause the "neutral" side is also at 120 to ground) EDIT: I know from experience on all accounts, I run 80% of my workbench on 240V for a number of reasons, using appropriate NEMA and IEC connectors (6-20 and C13/C14)
I second getting 240v, but a small step-up transformer is probably sufficient for Adrian's purposes if he doesn't want to run new electrical. I would also suggest, for temporary testing ONLY, using special power cords to tap two 120v circuits on different legs, but this is MUCH more dangerous and doesn't work on GFCI-protected circuits like Adrian has in his basement. Running 50Hz devices on 60Hz is unlikely to cause damage; the other way around is more likely to cause overheating. Lower frequency means more magnetization current which will cause a massive current increase if it pushes the transformer (or motor) into saturation.
Greetings from the very city you mispronounced! :D That was a surprise to see, someone from right around here sending you a package. By the way, my C64 also used to have an "RF cardboard" that just clipped into the cartridge slot like on this one, with the difference that mine has a shortboard and the cardboard was, if I remember correctly, smaller and had ventilation holes like you mentioned.
4:47 Here in Turkey, that "Made in W. Germany" label does mean quality. It didn't matter what kind of product it is, those with that label are perceived to have quite long lifespan. For example, I have a Fashy hot-water bottle from that time. It's being used every winter frequently but it still works perfectly as if it's brand new. It never fails to amaze me after reading its "Made in W. Germany" label for a thousandth time.
Basically those "Made in Germany" labels were introduced right after WW2 . They were meant to warn or to drive people away from buying an item because it wasnt made in the U.S. and therefore it was seen as low spec. Ironically it became a sign of quality instead of a warning not long after its introduction :)
@@proCaylak The W. Germany Label was really introduced after WWII, but there exist an older made in germany label, that was introduced before WWI from Britain, to prevent people from buying german products. But they were at that time as good if not even better than english ones. But products, that were made in GDR weren't bad at all, they were only cheaper in production in cause of the not worthy currency of eastern germany during the cold war (often 1DM for 7 EGDM). They sell them for DM and $ on the western market. In the time of reunion was a decision made to change it for 1:2.
Awesome videos Adrian, I'm addicted! I love the deductive logic that you employ to troubleshoot issues, I use many of the same processes to repair contemporary tech (self taught), I pick up useful info and techniques all the time and rework elements of them to fix current gen tech. Your genuine love for the tech shows through along with your heaps of patience when things don't go your way and genuine joy when you fix something, all of this added up plus your very humble approach to your own undeniable skills; Great tech, great logic, great videos, great guy!
Who remembers running you hand across the ||| holes to reacht e on/off switch and making a sound? 5:47-5:49 (somewhere in there u hear the sound) of this video reminded me of that... love these videos!
@@adriansdigitalbasement Not at all, cudos for trying and actually doing quite well. As a native german speaker i am very thankful that i do not have to learn it :-) English is so much easier.
The weird lines in the plastic are also present on my french breadbin C64. I'm pretty sure they're welding fixes manually made to the molds as they become worn down. My late production SNES (last motherboard revision, high S/N) has the same kind of lines and blobs on the inside, and the inside casing texture isn't as clean as it is on my earlier consoles.
The rule of thumb for pronouncing “ie” or “ei” in German is to pronounce the second letter as long. So Wiesbaden is Veese-bod-en. Nein is like “nine”, Drei is like “dry”.
That is really wrong it is true that we switch the i and the e around but it is 100% not veeseboden it is how it is spelt Wiesbaden phonetically wieesbaden
@@tickertape1 I think most English speakers would want to say the "a" in the second syllable as long. That's why I used "bod" phonetically. I suppose I could have used "bahd". The phonetic pronunciation I gave matches ua-cam.com/video/9XZN0R0osbw/v-deo.html. It is pronounced wrong there?
4:14 Haha, we germans use many english words - especially in IT things. So of course we pronounce "sound" like everybody does. Same like americans say Zeitgeist.
@@absalomdraconis You are probably spot on. The amount of mix-ups of "their" "they're" and "there" is staggering. Also "have" is very often replaced by " of" (like for example in "he would of done this") which is completely puzzling to me. And I'm not a language expert or anything -- and should shut up now! (and by the way: I'm German, too ;-))
The RF extension cable is (or at least was before SCART & HDMI took over) used between things like video recorders to the TV set, often daisy-chaining through other things (e.g. a satellite or cable TV box, DVD recorder, etc.) to connect all the analogue goodness together, but also of course useful as an extension too... :)
1570, far as I know, was the stopgap drive Commodore released when the C128 was new. It has the improved speed mode of the 1571 but it's only single sided and it was quickly replaced by the 1571.
Exactly. That’s why now it’s so rare. Had one as a kid for my 64. front panel was painted instead of molded with beige plastic, that’s why the color comes off.
I think that you're fantastic and what you do is very entertaining. But there are some things that you shouldn't do on the C-64 motherboard or on any PCB. 1. Don't bend the capacitors to an upright position, don't touch them!!. You can destroy the soldering and eventually will have a periodic error during it's lifetime because of a faulty soldering. 2. It looks like you should replace some of the capacitors, because you have a positive ramp signal on the address line. This will eventually destroy or influence the performance of some of the other ICs. 3. Keep up the good work. You're always welcome to contact me if you need further clarification on these issues. ;-)
I was thinking the exact same thing. Plug that bad PLA back in and check all the scope screenshots! and compare them to the good PLA scopes! nice repair again!
Quite a while ago now, the EU banned lots of "artifical" colors and flavourings, which affected quite a lot of sweets. I remember the "blue smartie" dissapeared for a while because they couldn't find an approved coloring to replace it. I imagine the US gummie bears probably do use all sorts of colours and flavours that aren't allowed in the EU, which probably explains why the colors are more vibrant on the US ones.
One thing you might want to add to your tool belt is an inrush current map. Basically use a resistor/shunt on the power input with the source side as your ground, then the other side to your oscilloscope with the time scale set large. You should see a pattern of current for a health system, but you might be spot common faults this way as well. Such as bad regulators or ground faults. Run through your dead parts bin and take pics of the different fault types.
6:45 where was this cable 30 years ago?! that connector was on my home console TV and we could never connect a VCR or our Nintendo to it! had great picture quality on it too.
0:15 almost. the ie is pronounced pretty much like the e in "we"^^ That reaction on the opening was sweet. 3:17 yes. 3:30 "Work(ing) memory" more or less. 3:50 - 4:13 yes. 4:39 Did the German QWERTZ layout not exist at that time? 19:00 Did we all just get RickRolled? ;) Your knowledge is fascinating every time. 19:45 omg that scene is so weird. It looks like we traveled back in time by 30+ years and then, all of sudden, an iPad enters the screen :D 20:36 What's that tool? Never seen anything like it
A few language lessons: The German "ie" is close to the English "ee", so you should pronounce it like "Weesbaden", same with "Bier" just spell it "Beer" like you're used to. Tastatur = keyboard, Taste = key, but also "Schlüssel" = "key" but it's the key to lock or unlock something and because their are nouns, nouns always begin with a capital letter in German language. And if you didn't know already: The VIC-20 was renamed to VC-20, because the German pronunciation of VIC was too close to the F-Word (we use it with "i" instead of "u"). You may now change your Name to Adrian Schwarz, may the Schwartz be with you! ;) 7:05 The Office was in Frankfurt, but they were assembled in Brunswick, one reason was because the nearby Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (=Federal Institute of Physics and Technology) which is our NIST, was a good business customer, a few years ago they've opened a museum in the former plant: translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=blog.hnf.de/commodore-aus-braunschweig/&prev=search&pto=aue You should visit it if you get to travel to Germany, Brunswick is between Hanover and Magdeburg and further in the East is Berlin, maybe a round trip, Berlin, Brunswick, Hanover, Hamburg and back to Berlin or first Hamburg, Berlin, Brunswick, Hanover and further West into Rhine-Ruhr area with Cologne, then Rhine-Main with Frankfurt. The Screws seem to be wood screws, a major difference in many ways is the metric system, the screws aren't so much different but bolts are with metric threads and the pitch of these is measured in how far the screw/nut protrudes axial per full rotation whilst inch-based use threads per inch, so how many rotations it does to protrude one inch axial.
Your videos are great!! I was betting on a bad ram chip. Great troubleshooting!! See ADB come up, pause everything to watch!! Thanks for a great video!!
The high rise time you're seeing is typical of open collector outputs which are not being driven high by anything else other than a pullup resistor. A12-A15 have 3K3 pullups so this could explain it. The CPU's address bus can be tristated via the AEC signal
Hey Adrian! 😊 Greetings from another German Here that likes Your Channel really a Lot! Hope This Makes Sense, Just Had a funny Evening with some Friends and -may be- some Beer! 😅
I think it’s really because to me, German and English are quite similar. Isn’t it the same root language? I’m not too bad at French and Spanish too so that helps a little :-)
Commodore GmbH... I had to look up that acronym GmbH, apparently it means "company with limited liability", but I can't stop thinking of goombas from Mario Bros.
I love how it's possible to identify a company's country of origin just based on which version of "Inc."/"LLC" they use, if you know which ones are which.
I once read that Commodore originally planned to discontinue the C64 in late 1989/early 1990. Then the Berlin wall fell, and all the people from Eastern Germany who always wanted one, but never were able to get one, rushed to buy one in the Christmas rush. That actually created enough volume to continue production for another 3 years.
Interesting factoid! Really not surprising and honestly if I were in their shoes, I would have been dying for a C64 as well. It must have gotten much cheaper by then too.
@@adriansdigitalbasement They were around 250-300 DM at this time according to the Internet (150-200 USD). The first ones were 1495DM, which quickly dropped to 698DM though. But yeah, quite a bit cheaper.
I have Scandinavian version of the Commodore Amiga 500, and from the date codes, seems to be made in the last weeks of 1990. The serial number sticker still says Made in W. Germany, even Germany was re-unified in 3rd of October 1990 (according to wikipedia).
The 1570 is a rebaged 1571; it has the electronics but only one side, but supports the burst mode or high speed on a c128. It was so common in Spain, may be even more common than 1571.
You can get 240 volts from any two adjacent breakers on your panel. Electric stoves, electric dryers, and large air conditioners run on 240 volts in North America.
I just love these videos, starting to buy some broken retro myself due to this. Do you know/have you been to Haribo in Berlin? It is a relatively big shop with ONLY Haribo. Freaking excellent :-)
Interesting as the many machines in the UK I repaired had screws and shield like the one form Germany even though some commodores machines was made in UK
That Competition is not a clone, it's the "clear" version. Those things are among the best joysticks on the planet. Pretty much indestructable, and if a switch goes bad, even I am able to fix that. And that's saying a lot. I have one of those. Used it in my Atari 2600, in my Commodore 64, then in my Amiga, then when I started collecting, in a 2600 again. All those years, still kicking.
I had similar "saw toothed" signals on my SX 64 project. Besides the PLA, it also had a semi-broken CPU: some operations failed. The "Count" in the dead test did go non-numeric after about 5 or so iterations, pointing to a broken BCD add or inc operation, but I'm no expert for this instruction set...
I’ve got a 1570 drive with my C64C (for which it’s a great cosmetic match). I bought it before I really knew much about C64s (I was a ZX Spectrum kid) so didn’t realise I’d bought something particularly interesting 😄
Fun video as always! One thing about the VIC-II at around 26:00 - it only has 14 address bus lines, but can be switched to any of 4 banks using bits 0 and 1 of Port A on CIA #2, so it actually can see all 64K (16 bits) of address space, but just 16K at any moment. It obviously wasn't the problem here, but doesn't that mean it could be on any of the address lines?
I'm fairly hardware-dumb, so I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just not sure how that works. I suppose it means the CIA handles the other 2 address lines, and the VIC-II just gets the appropriate data back on the data lines. While I'm rambling, I also don't fully understand how the VIC-II refreshes all 64K of RAM while only having access to 16K of RAM at a time.
@@8_Bit DRAM addressing is split between row and columns. The VIC-II cannot address all colums, but it can address all rows. Row access is enough to do a refresh, and the RAM is refreshed one row at a time.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Yes, it does so during horizontal retrace. Each scanline, 5 DRAM rows receive a refresh. By doing it this way, DRAM refresh is completely invisible for software, no coder needs to worry about it, the C64 is like coding for an SRAM computer. In the early 90s, when I did switch from the C64 to the PC as my primary computer, I was shocked how terrible the design of the PC was compared to the C64, and this while in popular opinion, the PC was vastly superior as a "serious" computer, while the C64 was considered a toy. IMO, the C64 architecture is so beautiful that it should be teached in universities as a textbook example how to design an elegant computer. The art has been lost and modern computers are not just complex because they can do much, but also because their architecture is completely disgusting. PCs got far worse than in the 90s.
I have my C64's audio plugged into my computer's line input. That way I can listen to both with one set of speakers. The C64 is TWICE as loud as youtube (or at least your video) I couldn't hear you at all until I paused it. lol
Hi Adrian! Keep up the good work! I´m addicted to your channel. I´m triying to build the Memory expansion for the Tandy... its complicated to get the parts here.
Heh a couple people asked actually and I got rid of it. I also remove the RF shield now it keeps heat in. It was certainly an unusual piece that German one here in the US but I knew I didn't want it on this machine.
The joystick looks like a Zipstik clone. A real Zipstik has square buttons, but it seems to use the same case and microswitches, it even has "Zipstik" written where you found joystick written on there. Very reliable sticks, broken switches can be easily changed without any soldering.
I've never seen a C128 from a non-English-speaking country before! At 8:42, we can see characters on the keyboard that are exclusive to the German alphabet. This unit must have a special ROM to support those -- do they print on the screen in all of the C128 operating modes? Is there software that supports those characters? I have so many questions! :)
That clear plastic joystick, aside from being suitable for use in prisons, looks like a high quality WICO joystick and uses microswitches. Those sticks are very durable and good quality.
13:50 - the cartridge shield thingy and the serial and video port looks ugly, but I know you were focusing only on the ram chips at that moment because of the mixed brands. That slow rising of the signal looks like a cap that is charging slow or an inductor. I don't know, I'm not a pro...
The German Gummy Bears are without artificial coloring and without artificial flavors. (I was quite shocked that the U.S. version uses so much additional "stuff" in it.)
In Germany, they could use artificial coloring (by law), but they don't use it because of health concerns by the German public. There is also a "juicy" version that uses 25% natural juices. The "normal" Gummibärchen also use fruits for coloring and flavoring.
Maybe the Audio noise is the Typical noise easily fixed by grounding the Audio in which can be done on the underside of the board rather quickly. Nice Video btw! -Mark.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Wow, that's odd as I have Modded 5 C64's and while they may vary in how they sound after it certainly worked for me on all 5 C64's. I have a few more unmodded and I will try those as well to see if I can find one where no difference is noticed. -Mark.
Hi Adrian. The screws are different probably are a different design since they are made by a different company than in the US and smaller since they are metric screws.
Those "ripples" in the plastic is from when it was moulded. It is quite common to make these in the mould to make the part stick to the correct half of the mould.
Whenever I buy things from Ebay Germany, I always get Haribo. I bought a shoulder bag, it came with Haribo. I bought an Amiga accelerator, it came with Haribo. I bought a camera lens, it came with Haribo. I wonder if it is some sort of tradition.
The Haribos probably are a different colour, a lot of food manufacturers removed artificial colours from their European product lines in the mid 2000s.
I would imagine that the european gummybears have a difference in colour based on the additives being used. If Haribo manufactures in the US for your market then they are probably following US laws governing what types of additives are allowed. (If memory serves, the EU has a lot stricter rules about additives in foodproducts than the US has)
Opens gummy bear bag with a box cutter. No wonder why he has a bandaid on one of his fingers 80% of the time :)
Can't let the gummy's get stale
Has a _plaster_ on his finger.
Cut toward your chum, not your thumb!
@@simontay4851 depends. I grew up in Australia, and it was always a bandaid.
Tom Storey we do have plasters but they are much different animal....usually has medicine on the pad.....A plain old bandaid just covers the wound.
The 1570 was a single-sided drive made from a combination of a mechanism suitable for a 1541 (singe-sided) with a (possibly slightly modified) 1571 control board. There was a shortage of double-sided drive mechanisms, so the 1570 was developed as a stop-gap until enough mechanisms were available to provide enough 1571s. It had the speed of the 1571 when used with the C128, but only half the capacity.
This video was 33 minutes, it felt like 10. Even though I am only 13 I find old computer repairs very entertaining and interessting, keep up the good work!
Do your parents know what you use the internet for...?
same here buddy
The slow rise times on A12..A15 are caused by the RP4 resistor pack. These address lines are not connected to the VIC-II, only to the CPU. To prevent that they float when the VIC-II uses the bus, RP4 pulls them up. But because of parasitic capacity on the bus, these resistors need some time to get the bus lines to 5V.
That one time fail in the dead test cart would drive me mad. I wonder if just changing the PLA cleaned up some oxidation or something?
I guess having a probe on the AEC pin of the CPU might help to know when those lines aren't driven by the CPU. Perhaps even trigger from that in order to always see CPU-driven address lines.
When you have a lot of stuff planned and you see a ADB video - "there is always tomorrow"
He kept the dust cover. For 30 plus years. I'm speechless.
i'm german and recently bought a C64 from ebay, it also came with a dust cover... it was basically the same style/plastic so i assume these were very common.
@@proxy1035 They were, I'm German as well and I've seen them. I'm just amazed the seller still had it, because many, many people lost them, threw them away, etc.
I love watch your videos,your passion for these machines are amazing. Great job on this one..
I'd completely forgotten those dust covers even existed. watching this video was a 35 year old memory jolt.
Was the dust cover an extra accessory or was it part of the package when the computers was bought new? I do have an Amiga 500 with the same style dust cover.
Nice seeing you actually repair a german C64. I loved how you try to pronounce the German and one has to admit: All the guesses you made were right or nearly right. Thank you for another 30 Minutes of entertainment, it's a pleasure to be able to learn along with your judgements and misjudgements. Greetings from Germany, Sven.
14:33 Yep, that was my 1571 drive that had a short on the 5V rail due to a bypass cap being squished down.
great fun for German viewers like me. Thanks for uploading!!!
Respect to that German guy that sent this package
Thinking about them dead chips, once you've got enough of them, you could turn them into a resin table-top, set their legs into a lower green resin layer (mimicking a PCB's solder mask) and then cover in clear resin to make the top, would look pretty cool I think... :D
or they might have gold in them.
Those units were built in Braunschweig, Germany. The screws are DIN7981 and actually direct tap-in screws for sheet metal. But they work just fine for plastic as well. Commodore just misused them like so many did/still do.
cheap and plenty supply
@@arjanvanraaij8440 Indeed
@@ChipGuy In those day's they use them in construction with the first cordless drills.
Can never have enough Commodore 64 repair videos.
23:32 Lines ARE pulsing, oscilloscope would not trigger (which it does) otherwise. Your trigger point is off the screen to the left, so you don't see a pulse. Push little knob in Horizontal section to center it.
I am absolutely astounded that this survived packed like it was! I assume this wasn’t shipped with standard postal service but with some dedicated parcel service.
I spent 18 months in Germany at a small AB called Sembach. Wiesbaden was in the area and the W is pronounced as a V. Later in life I worked for a company that was a VAR for IBM PCs. I was sent to IBM PC school for the 1st IMB PCs in Boca Raton FL in the mid '80s. Learned the PC and printer repair. Got a real neat diploma with a picture of all the class.
PLA troubleshooting video would be great! Always enjoy watching your videos!
I would suggest running a 240V line (Hot-hot double breaker) to your workbench so you can run Intl voltages natively at least for testing. Only rarely, you will run into something that HAS to have 50 Hz or damage, but again that is rare. I love being able to run something that needs (intl) or really wants (power supply efficiency) ~240 volts natively. But do remember to fully unplug if you need to test it! I learned the hard way! (Cause the "neutral" side is also at 120 to ground) EDIT: I know from experience on all accounts, I run 80% of my workbench on 240V for a number of reasons, using appropriate NEMA and IEC connectors (6-20 and C13/C14)
I second getting 240v, but a small step-up transformer is probably sufficient for Adrian's purposes if he doesn't want to run new electrical.
I would also suggest, for temporary testing ONLY, using special power cords to tap two 120v circuits on different legs, but this is MUCH more dangerous and doesn't work on GFCI-protected circuits like Adrian has in his basement.
Running 50Hz devices on 60Hz is unlikely to cause damage; the other way around is more likely to cause overheating. Lower frequency means more magnetization current which will cause a massive current increase if it pushes the transformer (or motor) into saturation.
8 Bit Guy could learn a lot about unboxing videos from this channel. Great positive vibe.
AFAIK David doesn't do donations or unboxings anymore because he has too much stuff.
Greetings from the very city you mispronounced! :D That was a surprise to see, someone from right around here sending you a package.
By the way, my C64 also used to have an "RF cardboard" that just clipped into the cartridge slot like on this one, with the difference that mine has a shortboard and the cardboard was, if I remember correctly, smaller and had ventilation holes like you mentioned.
same here, my C64C from germany also had the cheap silver cardboard with vent holes
4:47 Here in Turkey, that "Made in W. Germany" label does mean quality. It didn't matter what kind of product it is, those with that label are perceived to have quite long lifespan.
For example, I have a Fashy hot-water bottle from that time. It's being used every winter frequently but it still works perfectly as if it's brand new. It never fails to amaze me after reading its "Made in W. Germany" label for a thousandth time.
Basically those "Made in Germany" labels were introduced right after WW2 . They were meant to warn or to drive people away from buying an item because it wasnt made in the U.S. and therefore it was seen as low spec. Ironically it became a sign of quality instead of a warning not long after its introduction :)
@@Hirndille "Germany" doesn't have the same oomph(pun not intended) as "West Germany" or "Federal Germany" when it came to manufactured goods.
@@proCaylak The W. Germany Label was really introduced after WWII, but there exist an older made in germany label, that was introduced before WWI from Britain, to prevent people from buying german products. But they were at that time as good if not even better than english ones. But products, that were made in GDR weren't bad at all, they were only cheaper in production in cause of the not worthy currency of eastern germany during the cold war (often 1DM for 7 EGDM). They sell them for DM and $ on the western market. In the time of reunion was a decision made to change it for 1:2.
@@steveoerkel735 Thats right.
Made in W. - Germany lasts for a hundred years. Made in GDR lasts forever.
OK but they said "Grundig - hundig" (meaning awful like dog) or AEG - Auspacken Einpacken Gutschrift (meaning unboxing, packing, getting refund)
German Haribo uses Glucose syrup and North America uses Corn Syrup. Also the German ones use fruit juice and North American uses Artificial flavoring.
Awesome videos Adrian, I'm addicted! I love the deductive logic that you employ to troubleshoot issues, I use many of the same processes to repair contemporary tech (self taught), I pick up useful info and techniques all the time and rework elements of them to fix current gen tech. Your genuine love for the tech shows through along with your heaps of patience when things don't go your way and genuine joy when you fix something, all of this added up plus your very humble approach to your own undeniable skills; Great tech, great logic, great videos, great guy!
Congrats on fixing another computer!!!
Pretty nice gift that fan sent you!!!
I would love a C128 in my collection!
Who remembers running you hand across the ||| holes to reacht e on/off switch and making a sound? 5:47-5:49 (somewhere in there u hear the sound) of this video reminded me of that... love these videos!
I love how in depth your unboxing videos are!
I'm from Germany and i love the way you tried to read the text. Made me chuckle thanks alot for that :)
I had more in there but I cut it out because it was likely so bad and embarrassing!!
@@adriansdigitalbasement Not at all, cudos for trying and actually doing quite well. As a native german speaker i am very thankful that i do not have to learn it :-) English is so much easier.
The weird lines in the plastic are also present on my french breadbin C64. I'm pretty sure they're welding fixes manually made to the molds as they become worn down.
My late production SNES (last motherboard revision, high S/N) has the same kind of lines and blobs on the inside, and the inside casing texture isn't as clean as it is on my earlier consoles.
The rule of thumb for pronouncing “ie” or “ei” in German is to pronounce the second letter as long. So Wiesbaden is Veese-bod-en. Nein is like “nine”, Drei is like “dry”.
That is really wrong it is true that we switch the i and the e around but it is 100% not veeseboden it is how it is spelt Wiesbaden phonetically wieesbaden
@@tickertape1 I think most English speakers would want to say the "a" in the second syllable as long. That's why I used "bod" phonetically. I suppose I could have used "bahd". The phonetic pronunciation I gave matches ua-cam.com/video/9XZN0R0osbw/v-deo.html. It is pronounced wrong there?
Todd Swan yeah that’s right bahd would make more sense but yes.
Try pronouncing it like Wheeze for the first part then ba like in bathroom and the last part like in (the) den: Wheeze-bah-den :)
Hirndille yeah I should use that analogy more often
Another machine fixed. "Herzlichen Glückwunsch" and "Daumen hoch" from your German viewers. 😀😁
4:14 Haha, we germans use many english words - especially in IT things. So of course we pronounce "sound" like everybody does. Same like americans say Zeitgeist.
Handy is the worst English word you use.
Okurka but it came in Handy
"we germans use much english words" - and apparently not always correctly ;-)
(scnr - I'm sure you know the difference between "much" and "many")
@@oldguy9051 : If that's the worst he does, I'll have to rate his English about even with the modern highschool graduate.
@@absalomdraconis You are probably spot on.
The amount of mix-ups of "their" "they're" and "there" is staggering.
Also "have" is very often replaced by " of" (like for example in "he would of done this") which is completely puzzling to me.
And I'm not a language expert or anything -- and should shut up now!
(and by the way: I'm German, too ;-))
The RF extension cable is (or at least was before SCART & HDMI took over) used between things like video recorders to the TV set, often daisy-chaining through other things (e.g. a satellite or cable TV box, DVD recorder, etc.) to connect all the analogue goodness together, but also of course useful as an extension too... :)
I love these videos, you became my “smile” notification together with the retromancave, which is a good sign. haha
Lucky you !!. So many birthdays during the year, with incredible gifts :-)
1570, far as I know, was the stopgap drive Commodore released when the C128 was new. It has the improved speed mode of the 1571 but it's only single sided and it was quickly replaced by the 1571.
Yup and I have one with identicaly worn door lever, workin!
8-Bit Guy has a really good history of commodore disk drives here:
ua-cam.com/video/6QBXY8dx8ZA/v-deo.html
Exactly. That’s why now it’s so rare. Had one as a kid for my 64. front panel was painted instead of molded with beige plastic, that’s why the color comes off.
Your guessing in German is amazing! Almost hit it all right 😉
I think that you're fantastic and what you do is very entertaining. But there are some things that you shouldn't do on the C-64 motherboard or on any PCB.
1. Don't bend the capacitors to an upright position, don't touch them!!. You can destroy the soldering and eventually will have a periodic error during it's lifetime because of a faulty soldering.
2. It looks like you should replace some of the capacitors, because you have a positive ramp signal on the address line. This will eventually destroy or influence the performance of some of the other ICs.
3. Keep up the good work.
You're always welcome to contact me if you need further clarification on these issues. ;-)
I was thinking the exact same thing. Plug that bad PLA back in and check all the scope screenshots! and compare them to the good PLA scopes! nice repair again!
Quite a while ago now, the EU banned lots of "artifical" colors and flavourings, which affected quite a lot of sweets. I remember the "blue smartie" dissapeared for a while because they couldn't find an approved coloring to replace it. I imagine the US gummie bears probably do use all sorts of colours and flavours that aren't allowed in the EU, which probably explains why the colors are more vibrant on the US ones.
"Ich habe Schwein gehabt!"
Never change, german. Never change.
He had „Schwein“ because „Schwein“ is in Haribos.
I have pig had? Correct? Or am I still reading in Pennsylvania German?
kd9bwi, if you translate it 1-to-1 it would be correct.
TP, that’s wrong.
„gehabt“ means „had“.
LOL at the end, those Labtec 550s! I had those with my 486!
One thing you might want to add to your tool belt is an inrush current map. Basically use a resistor/shunt on the power input with the source side as your ground, then the other side to your oscilloscope with the time scale set large. You should see a pattern of current for a health system, but you might be spot common faults this way as well. Such as bad regulators or ground faults. Run through your dead parts bin and take pics of the different fault types.
6:45 where was this cable 30 years ago?! that connector was on my home console TV and we could never connect a VCR or our Nintendo to it! had great picture quality on it too.
It was sitting on the shelves of Tandy, Dixons and Currys, waiting for you to buy one.
@@gwishart I take it those are all in Europe? I'm in the US.
0:15 almost. the ie is pronounced pretty much like the e in "we"^^
That reaction on the opening was sweet.
3:17 yes.
3:30 "Work(ing) memory" more or less.
3:50 - 4:13 yes.
4:39 Did the German QWERTZ layout not exist at that time?
19:00 Did we all just get RickRolled? ;)
Your knowledge is fascinating every time.
19:45 omg that scene is so weird. It looks like we traveled back in time by 30+ years and then, all of sudden, an iPad enters the screen :D
20:36 What's that tool? Never seen anything like it
Wow! That smoke-tinted 128 dust cover is pretty drool worthy!!
A few language lessons: The German "ie" is close to the English "ee", so you should pronounce it like "Weesbaden", same with "Bier" just spell it "Beer" like you're used to.
Tastatur = keyboard, Taste = key, but also "Schlüssel" = "key" but it's the key to lock or unlock something and because their are nouns, nouns always begin with a capital letter in German language.
And if you didn't know already: The VIC-20 was renamed to VC-20, because the German pronunciation of VIC was too close to the F-Word (we use it with "i" instead of "u").
You may now change your Name to Adrian Schwarz, may the Schwartz be with you! ;)
7:05 The Office was in Frankfurt, but they were assembled in Brunswick, one reason was because the nearby Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (=Federal Institute of Physics and Technology) which is our NIST, was a good business customer, a few years ago they've opened a museum in the former plant: translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=blog.hnf.de/commodore-aus-braunschweig/&prev=search&pto=aue
You should visit it if you get to travel to Germany, Brunswick is between Hanover and Magdeburg and further in the East is Berlin, maybe a round trip, Berlin, Brunswick, Hanover, Hamburg and back to Berlin or first Hamburg, Berlin, Brunswick, Hanover and further West into Rhine-Ruhr area with Cologne, then Rhine-Main with Frankfurt.
The Screws seem to be wood screws, a major difference in many ways is the metric system, the screws aren't so much different but bolts are with metric threads and the pitch of these is measured in how far the screw/nut protrudes axial per full rotation whilst inch-based use threads per inch, so how many rotations it does to protrude one inch axial.
I think you're pretty talented to learn German. The repair part was really interesting.
Your videos are great!! I was betting on a bad ram chip. Great troubleshooting!!
See ADB come up, pause everything to watch!! Thanks for a great video!!
The high rise time you're seeing is typical of open collector outputs which are not being driven high by anything else other than a pullup resistor. A12-A15 have 3K3 pullups so this could explain it. The CPU's address bus can be tristated via the AEC signal
Hey Adrian! 😊 Greetings from another German Here that likes Your Channel really a Lot!
Hope This Makes Sense, Just Had a funny Evening with some Friends and -may be- some Beer! 😅
I used to get PLA "BAD" a lot too......until I sprayed the cartridge slot with deoxit. I'm surprised you didn't. hahaha
I did actually just didn't show it :-)
Your german skills are actually kinda decent. You understood almost everything from the box^^
I think it’s really because to me, German and English are quite similar. Isn’t it the same root language? I’m not too bad at French and Spanish too so that helps a little :-)
Commodore GmbH... I had to look up that acronym GmbH, apparently it means "company with limited liability", but I can't stop thinking of goombas from Mario Bros.
I love how it's possible to identify a company's country of origin just based on which version of "Inc."/"LLC" they use, if you know which ones are which.
You make me want to fly back to Portland and pick up my C64 in storage. Had it since I was 9. Memories!
I once read that Commodore originally planned to discontinue the C64 in late 1989/early 1990.
Then the Berlin wall fell, and all the people from Eastern Germany who always wanted one, but never were able to get one, rushed to buy one in the Christmas rush. That actually created enough volume to continue production for another 3 years.
Interesting factoid! Really not surprising and honestly if I were in their shoes, I would have been dying for a C64 as well. It must have gotten much cheaper by then too.
@@adriansdigitalbasement They were around 250-300 DM at this time according to the Internet (150-200 USD). The first ones were 1495DM, which quickly dropped to 698DM though. But yeah, quite a bit cheaper.
you have a wonderful channel... greetings from Italy
I feel reeeally uneducated now. How come I never saw you or your channel since a lifetime? Really cute, amazing stuff. Need to follow.
It is a transclear Competition Pro. They have took, what was available at cheapest price for RAM-Chips.
Thumbs up for Alex sending super repair powers
I have Scandinavian version of the Commodore Amiga 500, and from the date codes, seems to be made in the last weeks of 1990. The serial number sticker still says Made in W. Germany, even Germany was re-unified in 3rd of October 1990 (according to wikipedia).
10:22 you mean tapping screws instead of machine screws?
you rocks man!!! nice electronics fault analysis!!! un gran abrazo!!! from Chile.
The 1570 is a rebaged 1571; it has the electronics but only one side, but supports the burst mode or high speed on a c128.
It was so common in Spain, may be even more common than 1571.
Cool video Adrian. The Haribo lover. Oh i fot some of that peach Tang from Mexico, is a bit diferent from the one here in Europe, i like it. ;)
You can get 240 volts from any two adjacent breakers on your panel. Electric stoves, electric dryers, and large air conditioners run on 240 volts in North America.
I just love these videos, starting to buy some broken retro myself due to this.
Do you know/have you been to Haribo in Berlin? It is a relatively big shop with ONLY Haribo. Freaking excellent :-)
Interesting as the many machines in the UK I repaired had screws and shield like the one form Germany even though some commodores machines was made in UK
That Competition is not a clone, it's the "clear" version. Those things are among the best joysticks on the planet. Pretty much indestructable, and if a switch goes bad, even I am able to fix that. And that's saying a lot. I have one of those. Used it in my Atari 2600, in my Commodore 64, then in my Amiga, then when I started collecting, in a 2600 again. All those years, still kicking.
Germany: "We are FAIRLY sure the C-128 is compatible with all C-64 software, but just in case, we are including a bonus C-64 for free!"
Great Vid and greetings from an other German fan of your channel!
I had similar "saw toothed" signals on my SX 64 project. Besides the PLA, it also had a semi-broken CPU: some operations failed. The "Count" in the dead test did go non-numeric after about 5 or so iterations, pointing to a broken BCD add or inc operation, but I'm no expert for this instruction set...
I’ve got a 1570 drive with my C64C (for which it’s a great cosmetic match). I bought it before I really knew much about C64s (I was a ZX Spectrum kid) so didn’t realise I’d bought something particularly interesting 😄
Fun video as always! One thing about the VIC-II at around 26:00 - it only has 14 address bus lines, but can be switched to any of 4 banks using bits 0 and 1 of Port A on CIA #2, so it actually can see all 64K (16 bits) of address space, but just 16K at any moment. It obviously wasn't the problem here, but doesn't that mean it could be on any of the address lines?
I'm fairly hardware-dumb, so I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just not sure how that works. I suppose it means the CIA handles the other 2 address lines, and the VIC-II just gets the appropriate data back on the data lines. While I'm rambling, I also don't fully understand how the VIC-II refreshes all 64K of RAM while only having access to 16K of RAM at a time.
@@8_Bit DRAM addressing is split between row and columns. The VIC-II cannot address all colums, but it can address all rows. Row access is enough to do a refresh, and the RAM is refreshed one row at a time.
@@danielmantione Aha, thanks!
So the VIC-II does the actual refreshing right? Pretty smart design as are most things in the C64!
@@adriansdigitalbasement Yes, it does so during horizontal retrace. Each scanline, 5 DRAM rows receive a refresh. By doing it this way, DRAM refresh is completely invisible for software, no coder needs to worry about it, the C64 is like coding for an SRAM computer.
In the early 90s, when I did switch from the C64 to the PC as my primary computer, I was shocked how terrible the design of the PC was compared to the C64, and this while in popular opinion, the PC was vastly superior as a "serious" computer, while the C64 was considered a toy.
IMO, the C64 architecture is so beautiful that it should be teached in universities as a textbook example how to design an elegant computer. The art has been lost and modern computers are not just complex because they can do much, but also because their architecture is completely disgusting. PCs got far worse than in the 90s.
Hey Adrian, I'm a German-People, i understand tha half from you. I love yout Channel.
Yay, the dead chips bin is back!! : )
I have my C64's audio plugged into my computer's line input. That way I can listen to both with one set of speakers. The C64 is TWICE as loud as youtube (or at least your video) I couldn't hear you at all until I paused it. lol
Yep! The PLA chip was the only thing wrong with the C64 I bought and fixed last year too!
Slow dance 8-bit party yeah !
Hi Adrian! Keep up the good work! I´m addicted to your channel. I´m triying to build the Memory expansion for the Tandy... its complicated to get the parts here.
its an original comp pro 5000.... the clear ones were very popular in the uk and europe
UK is still a part of europe :D
@@macdaniel6029 depends on whom you ask lol..... to me its not
Another great video! Btw. what would you recommend to do with the cardboard shield of the C64? Keep it or get rid of it?
Heh a couple people asked actually and I got rid of it. I also remove the RF shield now it keeps heat in. It was certainly an unusual piece that German one here in the US but I knew I didn't want it on this machine.
The gummy bear colors are likely due to different food laws, I think some artificial dyes are banned in EU
greetings from Hamburg / Germany ;)
The joystick looks like a Zipstik clone. A real Zipstik has square buttons, but it seems to use the same case and microswitches, it even has "Zipstik" written where you found joystick written on there.
Very reliable sticks, broken switches can be easily changed without any soldering.
I've never seen a C128 from a non-English-speaking country before! At 8:42, we can see characters on the keyboard that are exclusive to the German alphabet. This unit must have a special ROM to support those -- do they print on the screen in all of the C128 operating modes? Is there software that supports those characters? I have so many questions! :)
They will all be answered in part 2! :-)
That clear plastic joystick, aside from being suitable for use in prisons, looks like a high quality WICO joystick and uses microswitches. Those sticks are very durable and good quality.
Prison joystick LOL. Yeah this one is kind of worn out -- feels mushy
It's a "Kempston Competition Pro Joystick", although the design might have been relicenzed to other brands later on
13:50 - the cartridge shield thingy and the serial and video port looks ugly, but I know you were focusing only on the ram chips at that moment because of the mixed brands.
That slow rising of the signal looks like a cap that is charging slow or an inductor. I don't know, I'm not a pro...
The German Gummy Bears are without artificial coloring and without artificial flavors.
(I was quite shocked that the U.S. version uses so much additional "stuff" in it.)
In Germany, they could use artificial coloring (by law), but they don't use it because of health concerns by the German public.
There is also a "juicy" version that uses 25% natural juices.
The "normal" Gummibärchen also use fruits for coloring and flavoring.
i got same cover for my C64 in 90s .. it was a pretty l33t piece of gear for my rig ;p
Maybe the Audio noise is the Typical noise easily fixed by grounding the Audio in which can be done on the underside of the board rather quickly. Nice Video btw! -Mark.
I've read that but I've done that mod and never found any change at all.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Wow, that's odd as I have Modded 5 C64's and while they may vary in how they sound after it certainly worked for me on all 5 C64's. I have a few more unmodded and I will try those as well to see if I can find one where no difference is noticed. -Mark.
Hi Adrian. The screws are different probably are a different design since they are made by a different company than in the US and smaller since they are metric screws.
Those "ripples" in the plastic is from when it was moulded. It is quite common to make these in the mould to make the part stick to the correct half of the mould.
Whenever I buy things from Ebay Germany, I always get Haribo. I bought a shoulder bag, it came with Haribo. I bought an Amiga accelerator, it came with Haribo. I bought a camera lens, it came with Haribo. I wonder if it is some sort of tradition.
The Haribos probably are a different colour, a lot of food manufacturers removed artificial colours from their European product lines in the mid 2000s.
by pointy, you mean Self-tapping.
the flat ended ones are also called machine screws generally
Awesome repair again!
You're the best. Du bist der Beste!
My C64C here in Australia had a cardboard shield.
While reading the comments below I wondered whether you have any viewers outside of Germany at all. :-) ..and yes, I'm German too.
Haha! It is my #2 most popular country outside of the US :-)
I would imagine that the european gummybears have a difference in colour based on the additives being used. If Haribo manufactures in the US for your market then they are probably following US laws governing what types of additives are allowed. (If memory serves, the EU has a lot stricter rules about additives in foodproducts than the US has)