Jamaica 11 ch12 Electronics

electronics                        iopop
----------------------------------------
well, welcome to this chapter. as i said
last time that there might be a full
chapter about things you could do with
your computer. and this time i'm gonna
explain how to make a reset, drive reset
and a ntsc/pal switch.

 to make everything safe for your
computer is it a must that you know
something about electronics and atleast
have done a soldering before. another
thing to point out is that we are NOT
responsible if you do anything wrong.
but all things explained here is working
so if anything goes wrong then it's your
fault. don't try to say anything else!



              SID DAMAGE II
             ---------------

 last i explained to you how to make
good samples. but there is one thing
that i forgot to tell you. which i found
out after i've wrote the article and
that is that it's very good to connect
a switch between the resistor and
ground. so you can choose which sid you
want to use. as some new samples sound
bad on the old sid! :-(

 another thing i forgot to explain was
where the hell can you find ground(gnd).
well, if you are a lucky owner of a
user manual to the c64 then just look
at appendix i. there are all pinouts for
all input/output devices. but if you
don't have it i better tell you.

 i recommend you to take ground from pin
1 or 12 in the user port. as there is
already holes to solder in. i hope you
understand more this time.


                  RESET
                 -------

 one of the most vital device for your
c64 is ofcourse the reset. if you own a
action replay or a tfc then there is a
reset button on the cartridge. but if
you for some reason don't use it, then
you get real problems. that's why i
recommend you to build a reset button.

 some short theory about the reset. you
generate a reset when you shortcircuit
reset and ground.

 so the only thing you need is a push-
button and 2 20-30 cm. cables. i must
say that the pushbutton must be of the
kind that can stand many pushes!

 first you must find out where on the
computer to place your reset. i recomm-
end you to place it on the left side of
the computer. if you have the new model
of the c64 then i recommend you to place
both the reset and drive reset between
the left side and the power led. (so is
in on my computer! :-) )

 then you should have a place to connect
one cable to the reset and that signal
can be found on pin c in the cartridge
slot or pin 3 in the user port. it's
best to take it from the user port as
it's already holes to place the cables,
on some computers. solder the other
cable to gnd, pin 1 or 12 in the user-
port.

 owners of c128 might have noticed that
if you do a reset then both the computer
and the drive will be reseted. but so
isn't it on the c64. no, here you must
push off the drive to make it reseted.

 but we can solve that. it's just to
connect pin 6 in the serial i/o to gnd.
but there is a small problem. it is not
so easy to find the place to solder the
cable on. pin 6 is the one on the middle
of the contact. you can soler direct on
the connection between the contact and
the circuit board. but if you want to
make it professional and for safe then
you better use a ohm-meter or any other
kind of thing you use to find if the
circuit is short. place one contact on
the pin 6 and the other one on one of
the many soldering holes on the left
side of the serial contact.

 unfortunately i can't say that it's
the second from the left to use as i'm
not 100% secure that it's so on all
c64's.

 another thing that i think will happen
when you use this reset is that you'll
reset all drives connected to your
computer. i don't know as i just own one
drive. :-(

if you don't think this was too much
then better read on how to do a:


             NTSC/PAL SWITCH
            -----------------

 this one is also a bit lame. as it will
only work on c64c. but until next time
i'm gonna find some more info how to
make it on other versions of the c64.

 if you look on the circuit board and
in the middle of it, to the left of the
sid chip, you'll find a text which says;

 open  ntsc
 short pal

 and on the left side of that text
you'll find our new victim. it's two
half circles filled with solder and
there's a very little solder connection
between the two half cirlces.

 the first thing you do is to cut the
connection with a knife or something
like that. make sure that the connection
really is broken, with a ohm meter or
such. then solder two cables, one on
each half circle. then connect the two
cables to a switch. and place the switch
somewhere on the computer.

 well, what is the need of this switch
then? you might ask. you can switch if
you want the computer to run in ntsc or
pal. in the ntsc mode the computer will
go some mhz faster. but the screen will
fuck up, as the tv can't handle the
signals. unless you have ntsc tv.

 but when you are crunching or packing
it's good to use. as it'll take a little
lesser time, because the computer will
go faster.

 this circuit was once explained in dmz
and there they called it 'fattigmans
turbo', 'poorman's turbo'. which is
quite a good name as the only things you
need is a switch and 2 cables.

              - -- --- -- -

 hope i didn't scare you too much with
these small circuits. next time i'm
gonna tell how to make a device switch
on 128d, a pause switch + some more
things that you might be intereseted in.

 if you also have a real cool computer
with lots of small circuits. why don't
drop us a letter and tell about it. and
maybe you can share some of your stuffs
with the readers.


          thanx for attention!






           nothing comes easy

            but a broken back

           nothing comes easy

            but a broken will

         you've got to work hard