Commodore 16 and Commodore Plus/4
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 9:23 am
These are two machines Jono (Spidersweb) passed to me on a recent visit. I've been playing with them and thought I'd report progress to anyone whose interested.
First task was to find PSUs. The Commodore 16 was easy. I just used a spare PSU I had for my Sinclair Spectrum. The PSU issue on the Plus/4 was solved by changing the square socket to a round one poached off a C64 junk-board plus some jumpering. I could then use the C64 PSU. (As an aside, in reading recent posts about C64 supplies I'm now feeling paranoid about these things! I might make up a Wall-wart solution sometime in the future.)
Both machines booted up! The C16 is fine but the Plus/4 had an issue with tracks lifting off the delicate ribbon keyboard connector. I managed to hack up a fix (as a previous owner had tried to do) but it will probably only last as long as the next time I unplug it. Despite this some of the keys take a fair amount of pressing to get a response. I'm sure it's the membrane rather than the connector at fault here. The feel of the Plus/4 keyboard has to be one of the worst I've come across. Yuk! Very mushy, similar to my Atari 130XE.
As with my recent TI-99/4a find, getting these two machines made me find out a lot more about them. Even though they are certainly not classics and are generally derided, the whole TED thing is an interesting part of Commodore history in it's own right. I'll probably add them to my formal collection, get a software library, write a restoration article, make a video etc. , etc. They will give me something to play with in the coming winter months.
Thanks Jono (P.S. the Atari 800XL worked just fine too).
First task was to find PSUs. The Commodore 16 was easy. I just used a spare PSU I had for my Sinclair Spectrum. The PSU issue on the Plus/4 was solved by changing the square socket to a round one poached off a C64 junk-board plus some jumpering. I could then use the C64 PSU. (As an aside, in reading recent posts about C64 supplies I'm now feeling paranoid about these things! I might make up a Wall-wart solution sometime in the future.)
Both machines booted up! The C16 is fine but the Plus/4 had an issue with tracks lifting off the delicate ribbon keyboard connector. I managed to hack up a fix (as a previous owner had tried to do) but it will probably only last as long as the next time I unplug it. Despite this some of the keys take a fair amount of pressing to get a response. I'm sure it's the membrane rather than the connector at fault here. The feel of the Plus/4 keyboard has to be one of the worst I've come across. Yuk! Very mushy, similar to my Atari 130XE.
As with my recent TI-99/4a find, getting these two machines made me find out a lot more about them. Even though they are certainly not classics and are generally derided, the whole TED thing is an interesting part of Commodore history in it's own right. I'll probably add them to my formal collection, get a software library, write a restoration article, make a video etc. , etc. They will give me something to play with in the coming winter months.
Thanks Jono (P.S. the Atari 800XL worked just fine too).