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Disclaimer:
All the information presented here, was taken from the following sources:
Brain Bagnal's Book
On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore.

Available at Amazon.ca
The new edition had been delayed at Amazon until Feb.2010

Also, a lot of information has come from Video interviews with Bil Herd and Dave Haynie. Dave has a lot of videos on You-Tube. Search them out.. I wish I could post them here, but I don't have permission.

Lastly, more sites on the net have information. There are even a few dedicated sites to the C16. Do a Goggle search, because Bing is just a flash in the pan.:)

First, the "new" Heathkit did not get back to my e-mails, so last night, I went through the entire web site looking for answers. The good news is that they will indeed grade and Honor the past Heathkit courses, but there is a small catch: this is the quote from their website:

Q1 - I still have a Heathkit course and final exam that I purchased X years ago. Will Heathkit still accept the exam for grading and credit?
Yes, Heathkit ILPs do not expire. We will grade your test and if you achieve a passing score, we will issue a certificate with the number of CEUs assigned to the course. You must use the answer sheet and exam from the original exam pack. We will not accept a photocopy of the answer sheet.
Q2 - Is the electronics course that I purchased X years ago still applicable?
The Fundamental Electronics series, as the names implies, is fundamental in nature. The fundamentals do not change. Therefore these courses are still applicable.

So, as you can see they are still honouring them, but I think some of the tests in mine have been sent in. I will have to check.
I did call them this morning to find out about their prices etc. The person that answered (sorry, I didn't catch his first name), said he would send me in the regular mail, a catalogue. In the future, the course can be ordered online, but for now, it was just regular old snail mail. The course are around $130 each. The trainer is a whopping $3500. So if I added up my courses in today's dollars. I would be looking at about $7000. Not too bad, if you wanted to go to a school to take them, you would be looking at at least 3 times that much. I will post "proper" prices when I get them. The soldering course is only $30, so I will be buying that at the end of the month or so. They do not take PayPal right now, only CC's, but that will all change soon, he said.

I am afraid to ask what the HEro bot is worth :) Well, I am crazy, if I do win the lotto soon, I will be ordering everything I can get from them, including a good Oscilloscope, and the HEro.

I will be working on the clock circuit tonight on the APTCO NCS 2065T kit. I was browsing E-bay looking at Dallas real time clocks for it would be cool to add one to the kit. They are under $20 for the "original", but they now have 3 pin, tiny IC's also for only a few bucks apiece. Ummm... more Ideas, No time or money.

March 18, 2010

Just Plugging Away

This week I have been fighting bad Internet access , . I had cleaned up my parts closet, trying to find a place to put all my Heath kit courses and parts, and NO, I had not yet heard back from Heath Kit.
I have also been working on my Apatco NCS 2056T kit, and I am at the point now where I am Ready to wire up the Clock. For those that are interested, I cheated a bit. I Did NOT flash the EEPROM by hand. EVERY single person I had talked to about the kit, said it was a total waste of time. I would never, ever flash an EEPROM by hand, and a few even said they would not only flash it for me, there are kits like this, just to build an EEPROM burner. Even a Computer Science Teacher, told me not to bother with this step. I felt a bit disappointed by this, but I did move on. In the pictures, you will noticed I wired the EEPROM to the processor. The kit calls only for Orange and Yellow wires, but The EEPROM was relocated due to the LCD screen. As a result, the orange wires were just not long enough, so I substituted the green ones on. So other than re-arrangining my living room, not much has been done this week.

March 16,2010

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

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.

March 15, 2010

Our Prices are insane!!!!

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.

March 9, 2010

Back to the C128

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.

Now back to the on-line store makeover.

March 8, 2010

Programming an EEPROM

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.

March 4,2010

The Commodore PC

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 8087 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.

March 3, 2010

Now, I realy am on my way to build hardware

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:,

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..

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