Another load from Ray Carlsen

[RobertB]

     Today I picked up another load of repaired C= goods from Ray Carlsen.  Once again, he has done his repair magic -- this time on a 1541-II (someone had tried to solder onto a surface-mount chip and did it badly), a monitor (bad power switch), a VIC-20 (bad color and unresponsive keys), a 1541 (swing-down hinge not working), and most of all, my MSD SD-2 disk drive (red light on all the time, drive not responding).  They are all now repaired with his guarantee!  That MSD SD-2 drive was a bear to repair, because leaking capacitors had corroded circuit traces and pins on chips.  It will now be good for the rest of my lifetime. 

          Writing from Portland, Oregon,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

     Last Saturday night while I was still in the Portland, Oregon area, I received an e-mail from Ray Carlsen.  He had already repaired the two monitors I left him - a Magnavox 40/80-column monitor which had a bad power switch and a Commodore 1701 which had no color.  Wow, all done in 24 hours!  Well, I couldn't meet up with him again, because Sunday I would be at Trek in the Park and Monday I would be returning to California.  I'll have to pick up those monitors when I'm in the area again during Thanksgiving.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

I'll have to pick up those [two] monitors when I'm in the area again during Thanksgiving.

Done!  I saw Ray on Thanksgiving Friday, and I picked up the 2 monitors.  I left him the pieces (!) of two SX-64's.  Our former club repair tech (who quit doing repairs in the late 1990's) had held onto them for years in his garage.  He was supposed to put them together but never did.  Now it's up to Ray to reassemble them or at least make one good one out of parts of the two.
    Also I left Ray our club C128 (which does not come up in C64 mode anymore) and our club treasurer's keyboard from his SX-64 (many of the keys don't respond anymore).

         I hope to pick up the repaired items during Spring Break, 2012,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://videocam.net.au/fcug      

[RobertB]

I left him the pieces (!) of two SX-64's.  Our former club repair tech (who quit doing repairs in the late 1990's) had held onto them for years in his garage.  He was supposed to put them together but never did.  Now it's up to Ray to reassemble them or at least make one good one out of parts of the two.
    Also I left Ray our club C128 (which does not come up in C64 mode anymore) and our club treasurer's keyboard from his SX-64 (many of the keys don't respond anymore).

Ray has told me that the pieces of the SX-64s were enough to make one good one.  He's finished doing so.  Also the C128 had a flaky power switch which can "create all sorts of weird problems, so it's no wonder that computer was touchy and unreliable."  He replaced the power switch and let the computer "cook" for several hours to see if any intermittent problem showed up.  No problem showed... everything was all right.  The treasurer's SX-64 keyboard was also rebuilt as were the keyboards of the piecemeal SX-64s.  (Hey, that means there will be an extra SX-64 keyboard.)
     I'm eager to see Ray in a few weeks.  I'm bringing him two MSD-2 drives and two to three flat C128s to check out.  (Well, I have two C64s to examine, too, but I think I'd hold off on those).

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

I'm bringing him two MSD-2 drives and two to three flat C128s to check out.  (Well, I have two C64s to examine, too, but I think I'd hold off on those).

Ack!  I left this morning from the house, and it was miles out of town when I remembered about the MSD-2 drives and the flat C128s.  It would waste too much gas and time to turn around and grab those items.  So, Ray will have the C64s to examine and a NEC Multisync 3D monitor (for the Amiga) to fix.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

     With the last day of school being this Friday, I'm already figuring out my travel plans.  So far, it looks as if I might be headed up to Oregon and Washington State (and Ray's place) on the third week of June.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          July 28-29 Commodore Vegas Expo v8 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

     A few days ago I came back from a visit to the Pacific Northwest.  No word back from Greg A. of PDXCUG.org nor from Jim Scabery, Commodore dealer in Portland.  However, I was able to visit Ray Carlsen in southern Washington.  He was gracious enough to take time away from his Thanksgiving day in order to talk Commodore with me.  The first things he showed me were some hardware prototypes he had created.  Very interesting!  Very exciting!  I showed him an upgraded power supply for the Plus/4 (built with modern-day components).  Then I handed over a VIC-20 for him to repair.  I also picked up a bunch of hardware left for him to repair during the summer -- a brown C64 for another user, a couple of VIC-20 motherboards for a club member, and most notably, a SX-64 that the former owner had left in pieces but was now reassembled in excellent shape!  Thanks, Ray!

         Truly,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

     This Thanksgiving Friday I visited Ray Carlsen and picked up a load of repaired items from him -- an Amiga 1080 monitor, a power supply for an Amiga 500 outboard hard drive, and a newly-made S-video cable for the Commodore 64 to Sony GVM-1311Q monitor.  (Ray had previously repaired the Sony monitor.)
     I had not seen Ray in a year, and this time I left him more items to repair - a Sears LX1 13-inch tv/monitor with digital RGB input, my main VIC-20CR, a NTSC Plus/4, a 1541 disk drive with flip-down drive door, and a C128DCR motherboard.  The Sears monitor powers up all right in TV mode, but composite mode just shows diagonal, horizontal lines and no audio.  My VIC-20 has two or three non-functioning keys and one broken key; I also want a socket installed in the 6502 processor space so that I could put in a 65C02 if I need to do so.  Ray will also install install his Computer Saver circuit.  The Plus/4 will be tested (though I see nothing wrong with it), a round DIN power socket will replace the square power socket (so that I could use a regular C64 power supply with the computer), heat sinks will be applied, and JiffyDOS will be installed.  Again the internal Computer Saver will be installed.  The 1541 does nothing when powered up.  The C128DCR does not go into C64 mode, though C128 mode is fine.
     I may need the VIC-20 before May of next year, and I won't see Ray until next summer.  Ray may have to mail the repaired VIC-20 back to me.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[RobertB]

...this time I left him more items to repair...

I forgot to mention that I left him an Amiga 1000 keyboard to repair.  Several keys when depressed would not bounce back up.
     This would be the first A1000 keyboard for him to fix, though he does have an A1000 in his collection.  He looks at the repair as a new challenge. 

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[RobertB]

...I left him more items to repair - a Sears LX1 13-inch tv/monitor with digital RGB input, my main VIC-20CR, a NTSC Plus/4, a 1541 disk drive with flip-down drive door, and a C128DCR motherboard... an Amiga 1000 keyboard...

I picked up all the items in June.  I was so pleased with the repairs, especially on the VIC-20CR and the NTSC Plus/4, that I gave Ray an early VIC-20 to mod (with a socket for the 6502, a S-video conversion, and a heatsink for the hottest chip) and more two more NTSC Plus/4s to mod (round DIN power input installed, heatsink installed over the hottest chips, Computer Saver installed).  He had all of those ready when I came through again.  Then I left him a Blue Chip BCD/128 disk drive to diagnose and MSD SD-1 and MSD-SD2 disk drives to inspect.
    Yesterday as I passed by, I picked up those items and also a couple of Commodore DIN-to-S-video cables.  The BC drive had a burned trace which he repaired; he also replaced 4 diodes and cleaned the heads.  Now this heavy-duty alternative to the 1571 is fully functional.  As for the MSD's, on the SD-1 he replaced the 11 capacitors on the spindle motor board and the 5 capacitors on the controller board; on the SD-2 he replaced the 14 capacitors on the dual spindle motor boards and the 10 capacitors on the dual controller boards.  He says the new capacitors won't leak during our lifetime.  
     This time I left him a C128DCR and a 1581 to go through.  I had forgotten to bring up my European PAL VIC-20 to mod; I'll have to mail it to him.  For that early model VIC-20, I'll ask for heatsinks on the hottest chips, a socket for the 6502, and his S-video mod.  After examining the on-line PAL VIC-20 mod to S-video - http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki/index.php?title=S-Video_output - he is quite sure that he can simplify the method and get equally good results.

         Writing from Tacoma, Washington,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[RobertB]

This time I left him a C128DCR and a 1581 to go through.  I had forgotten to bring up my European PAL VIC-20 to mod; I'll have to mail it to him.  For that early model VIC-20, I'll ask for heatsinks on the hottest chips, a socket for the 6502, and his S-video mod.

In March, I picked up the C128DCR and 1581 from Ray.  The 128 needed a key unstuck, and the 1581 tested out as o.k..  I also left Ray a couple of MSD-SD2 drives and a MSD-SD1 drive which were labeled from Computer Station as defective (bad board in one, bad mech in another, and the other labeled as "bad").  He will try to get them working again, possibly cannibalizing parts from one to get the other(s) working.  More importantly, I left the European PAL VIC-20 for him to do the above mods and to change the European power connector to that of a North American one.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          June 10-11 Pacific Commodore Expo NW -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/pacommex
          July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo v13 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

I also left Ray a couple of MSD-SD2 drives and a MSD-SD1 drive which were labeled from Computer Station as defective (bad board in one, bad mech in another, and the other labeled as "bad").  He will try to get them working again, possibly cannibalizing parts from one to get the other(s) working.  More importantly, I left the European PAL VIC-20 for him to do the above mods and to change the European power connector to that of a North American one.

Back in September, I visited Ray Carlsen, and he gave me the VIC-20 fully modded.  As for the MSD's, two of the three were in such bad condition that they were unrepairable unless I found drive boards that were in better shape; however, he did make one of the MSD SD-2's fully functional again.  As usual, while I picked up the repaired items, I left him other items for repair.
    Today, Dec. 12, I went to Ray's place again, and he brought out the items that I had left for him in September.  Here is his list of items that he repaired (or was unable to repair) --

PET 2001-4  SN 0010012  Heavily modified, broken fuse holder    FUSE HOLDER REPLACED

Monitor CBM CM-141  SN 1043133  Oct 84 (OEM Goldstar) made for the Plus/4     NO PROBLEMS FOUND EXCEPT REAR PANEL ADJUSTMENTS ALL OK

Amiga 1070 RGB monitor  no ID plate, rear panel modified with SCART connector     UNREPAIRABLE

CBM PC20 keyboard   TAB key sticks down     CLEANED RUST OFF THE RETAINER AND LUBED. OK NOW

CBM PC20-III computer   SN JA2001699 w/ HD, 720K & 360K floppies  Request: clean out PS & test computer   COMPUTER TRIES TO BOOT, MOBO RESPONDS BUT NO FLOPPY ACCESS FROM MOBO, HARD DRIVE CONTROLLER CARD MISSING. [NOT REPAIRED]

SX-64   SN GA1014213   modded with JD & FD4000, loose handle   Symptoms: blank screen but boots some carts...kernal ROM?
REPAIRED LOOSE HANDLE, REPLACED THE JIFFYDOS MODULES (DEFECTIVE & PRODUCING BLANK SCREEN), CLEANED DRIVE HEAD, CHECKED OK

    Naturally, upon receipt of the September items, I left him more goods for him to repair -- this time four, flat C128's in various states of condition.  One had a bad JD switch, another wouldn't power up, all of them had missing upper keys/posts (ALT, TAB, etc.), and one had a suspect MegaBIT ROM adapter (the original from D.C. Newbury).  Ray had never seen a MegaBIT ROM adapter before and was interested in its construction/operation.  I told him that F1 activates the ROM.  Also he stated that he is running out of the posts for those upper keys (the posts for the bottom keys are the wrong length).  If necessary, he may have to cannibalize one of the flat C128's in order to repair the others.
    Then he took me on a tour of his repair room, showing me boxes of external Computer Savers for the C64/VIC-20CR and for the Plus/4 (that Plus/4 version was not on his website).  He showed me his now smaller internal Computer Savers and various adapter cables for hooking power supplies to any Commodore.  Then he gave me a quick explanation on how he constructs the square connectors for C128's, Plus/4's, and Amiga 500/600/1200's.  (Oh... that's the "epoxy" that he uses...)  Finally, he showed the 14-gauge cabling that he uses in his standard and universal power supplies for C128's and Amiga 500/600/1200's.  (As Ray says, "The original power supplies used thinner wire, but they got away with it, because there would be a return line to the p.s. that would tell the p.s. to up the current if there was a greater load.  New power supply modules don't have that sensing circuit, and that is why I use heavier gauge wire.  Commodore used thinner wire, because copper cost money.)
    Finally, as a kind of Christmas gift, Ray handed me a board that he originally couldn't identify.  Through several e-mails between him and me and now in-person, I was able to identify the board.  Marked Xetec 1087 and C128-D, I concluded it was a daughterboard to be put inside the C128DCR and to be connected to a Lt. Kernal hard drive.

         Xetec photo to come later,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[RobertB]

     Here is that photo of the Lt. Kernal daughterboard for the C128DCR.

         Back in California,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

P.S. You must be a member of this forum to see the picture!

[RobertB]

...I left him more goods for him to repair -- this time four, flat C128's in various states of condition.

(snip)

If necessary, he may have to cannibalize one of the flat C128's in order to repair the others.

Yup, I received word from Ray that he will take parts from two of the C128's in order to repair the other two.

          Happy New Year!
          Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
          http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

[RobertB]

     I'm considering another visit to Ray Carlsen in July or August.  I have a club member's 3 SX-64's for repair, and I could pick up some Amiga 500/1200 and C64/128 power supplies from Ray at the same time.
     However, in this time of pandemic, my car journey would be restricted.  No visiting the inside of restaurants for me, only the drive-thru's.  No seeing other sights (gotta stay away from crowds).  And when I get to Ray's house, I'd leave the goods on his front porch, I'd walk back and stand by my car, and then he could come out to retrieve the items and drop off any goods.  We would be able to carry on a conversation, him on his front porch, me by the car. 

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan