Hi folks, just want to share a few pictures. Earlier I had some great fun soldering up Rob Taylor's SixtyClone boards. So, why stop there? There's a LOT of cool C64 stuff beeing reverse engineered and designed from the ground up at the moment, like that amazing handheld design that was posted here some time ago. For my project this time, I chose the KU-14194-board that Bwack reverse engineered a couple of years back. Got PCBs made from his gerbers at JLCPCB, with that sweet golden ENIG finish. It's a straight up remake of a rather rare, early C64 design that I don't think was ever sold in the US. Bwack states that it's a PAL only, and from what I understand it was mainly made in 1982, about the same period when the more common 326298 boards were produced.
The board has flaws that Bwack has kept, so to make it work it is necessary to cut a trace under R37 and bodge in a resistor to a via right beside C31.
Now old Commodore ROMs are not the most reliable things, so this time I'm trying out the replacements from DIYChris. Works well and looks good! Also note the 6510 here: It's a NOS chip from Retro 8bit Shop. G0pher who runs the store, bought a batch that originated in the old Commodore warehouse in the Netherlands. It's a CSG-branded part, and the datecode is week 36 of 1991 - meaning that these might be some of the latest 6510 ever made. By this time Commodore had long since moved on to the Commodore C64C with the 8500 processor.
SID prices are getting silly, and the ARMSID is certainly a good replacement. Went with a NeatPLA to match the looks! I'm using an old modulator can here, it's recapped and works as well as these old part can. Harvested both the modulator and some connectors and other things from an old 250407 board with too many lifted pads and traces to be worth repairing.
So, this thing needs a case. For a completly bald gentleman, I have a surprising number of haircare products, but they come in handy when fixing up yellowed plastic. This one turned out nice.
Since I've got a couple of C64Cs, it's nice to have some visual cues to keep them apart. So I got a cool badge from Lukparts, they're on Etsy.
I've got a spare MechBoard64 that'll probably use for this, with Cherry MX Clears. Now I'm just waiting for the keycaps from mr. Drew! I think grey ones would look really nice, but we'll see. One thing to note is that to use these kind of longboards in C64C cases, you need a special kind of keyboard mounts, like these:
https://www.shapeways.com/product/RQ5UF ... -64c-cases
So, on to the next project. Matthias who designed the handheld C64 has made a lot of other stuff too, picked up this one, looks like fun!
Cheers,
Olem.