gilsaluki Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 5 minutes ago, Tuxon86 said: And except for the few fortunate to have been born in a rich family I got banned from a subject for saying those exact words... And I was just joking... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlight_mile Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Congrats on the 600xl finally showing up. I jumped the gun when my xe was acting flaky and the guy in oregon didn’t have any 800xls. He had 600xls. I should have just got one of those. Oh well Live and Learn. Glad it showed up for you. Now time for the fun to really start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 24, 2021 Author Share Posted March 24, 2021 8 hours ago, flashjazzcat said: Mask it up unless it needs removing (if it's bent or falling off, etc); if it needs to be removed, use a hair dryer or hot air station to very carefully heat up the metal without melting the surrounding plastic, and slide a scalpel blade under the badge at the shallowest possible angle, cutting through the adhesive along the length of the badge. You want it to come off flat, because if it gets kinked, said kinks ain't coming out. I have to wonder if this case needs Peroxide treatment at all, though, although the naked eye is always more honest than a photograph. This is valuable information FJC, thank you. I just realized, the pictures really don't show it, but some yellowing (very slight) is present. Especially when you open the device up and see the white of the areas not subjected to UV. I'll try a gentle wash first and see how it looks before I use any peroxide. All week I've been on the ##Atari IRC channel hanging it on others over the weather here, and as soon as my 600XL arrives it's overcast and raining... 2 hours ago, Tuxon86 said: It was a great monitor for the time. Was it the best money could buy, no... And except for the few fortunate to have been born in a rich family, no one bought top of the line color TV of fancy fine pitch monitors for their kids to hook up a C65 or an Atari 8bit. Most of us made do with second hand fuzzy B/W or beat up color TV. The 1702 was way better than what most of us had. The 1080/84 were also great. I used mine up until 2010 to watch TV on in my home office with an old VHS as a tuner. I use a 1084S on my other 8bit machine and it's IQ is amazing. Furthermore, as you stated, the number of inputs is very handy. I'm sure there's Svideo equipped TV's that could do better (assuming you can find an Svideo equipped lead with separate chroma/luma shielding, which I'm struggling with), but they'd probably cost more than a 1084S and they'd still look like TV's - I want the aesthetic of a proper monitor, not a TV. If people feel uncomfortable using a Commodore device, think of it as a rebadged Philips or Daewoo monitor. Broadcast monitors are probably the gold standard, they also cost a few bars of gold for a decent one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 (edited) What do people think? I gave the little beast a good clean inside and out (full hot bubble bath treatment). Carefully dried it off and blew everything out with compressed air. Luckily I got about 30 - 40 mins of nice sunshine, so I carefully masked up the badge and applied some peroxide, which brought it up to the color of the white plastic under the brown top cover. I carefully sanded the cartridge doors with 1200 wet and dry using plenty of water and soap and polished them up, same with the console keys. I gave the perspex cover a bit of a polish and reassembled. The Atari badge has a bit of a crease that it had when i got it, and a couple of the key caps are scratched. But it's not terribly noticeable, all in all I think it cleaned up pretty well for a 30yo machine! Now to make up power and monitor leads and see if electrons flow as they should... Edited March 25, 2021 by Mazzspeed 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Moved the Amiga. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 She's a beauty! Here's hoping she's in as good shape inside and that she fires right up without issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 7 minutes ago, bfollowell said: She's a beauty! Here's hoping she's in as good shape inside and that she fires right up without issue. Unless it's fallen victim to an ingot PSU, I think she'll be fine. I did ask the seller if it was a working unit and he stated it ran fine, he sells a lot of retro hardware and has 100% positive reviews, so fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archeocomp Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 3 hours ago, Mazzspeed said: I carefully sanded the cartridge doors with 1200 wet and dry using plenty of water and soap and polished them up, same with the console keys. I gave the perspex cover a bit of a polish and reassembled. This is the first time I see real refurbishing of console keys. Did you the sandpaper work do with steady hand or with some mechanical guide? Your START key looked really bad, just like keys on my 800XL. and now it seems much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, archeocomp said: This is the first time I see real refurbishing of console keys. Did you the sandpaper work do with steady hand or with some mechanical guide? Your START key looked really bad, just like keys on my 800XL. and now it seems much better. Thank you for the comments, the Start key was very worn and tarnished (possibly a cassette based machine?) - Which is the exact reason why I thought a refurbishment of the console keys was necessary. Basically, I used 1200 grade wet and dry with plenty of soap and water on as flat a surface as I could find. You have to sand with the existing grain of the aluminium, slow and steady, as straight as you can. Sand for about 30 seconds, rinse, check coverage (the surface of the console buttons is far from flat and you're aiming for a uniform finish). Once you're happy with the finish, give the button a polish with metal polish (I use Autosol as it's what I use when reconditioning trims on car's). Buff with a soft clean cloth and you're done. Note: The aluminium finish is quite soft, so be sure to polish and buff with the grain of your sanding. Otherwise you get a very light grain going against your existing grain which messes with one's OCD! You also want to give the two top and bottom matching aluminium facia's on the 600/800XL's case a polish or they look dull compared to the buttons. You could remove them to do this using heat and a 'very' steady hand, however I found it less risky to simply mask everything up and polish using Autosol - You don't need to sand if the fascia trims are already in pretty good overall condition. I hope this helps. EDIT: I'm really impressed with my cartridge port doors, and you're not going to see them once there's a SIDE 3 in there! Another shot: Edited March 25, 2021 by Mazzspeed 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archeocomp Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 Thank you. English is not my native language, so may I ask what what "buff" and "OCD" mean? (I did not completely understand your two sentences in Note:) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 (edited) 3 minutes ago, archeocomp said: Thank you. English is not my native language, so may I ask what what "buff" and "OCD" mean? (I did not completely understand your two sentences in Note:) Sorry. - By saying 'buff' I mean to clean off the polish with another soft, clean cloth. - By saying 'OCD', I mean Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In other words, I'm a perfectionist. Edited March 25, 2021 by Mazzspeed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archeocomp Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 3 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said: In other words, I'm a perfectionist. Haha me too:-) Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 2 minutes ago, archeocomp said: Haha me too:-) Thanks Not a problem my friend. Any more questions, feel free to ask. I've just made the USB to 7 pin DIN power connector. The little red LED comes on, but I have no monitor connector yet. I'll make that tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 Looking sweet there, really nice look to it... Damn you perfectionists I'm a total "as long as its working I don't care if its a bit grubby" type... Hope it fires up and gives you some great usage.. Paul... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amis Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 Hands down the cleanest 600XL in all of Australia! Nice work Mazzspeed! Upgrade the hell out of that 600! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnPolka Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 (edited) Congratulations Mazz! You unleashed the "Mazz Spaz" and cleaned the hell out of it! Actually, it was more like a trip to the beauty spa with that great manicure you gave those delicate keys! My messages on the BBSs were not off at all when I said the 600XL was in for the pampering of its life, eh? I think the electronic music group, Kraftwerk, probably captured what your 600XL must be thinking right about now: https://youtu.be/ZtWTUt2RZh0 Now, if you can confirm for us that the 600XL boots, we will all know for sure that this whole ordeal has come to a happy ending! -JP Edited March 25, 2021 by JohnPolka 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 This looks absolutely fantastic @Mazzspeed! I usually just give my machines a good wipe down and call it a day; hats off to you for making this one look all but factory new. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Naw, thanks for the comment's guys! Second stage: I've made the power lead. I installed a printer for a client the other day and they didn't want the USB lead, I immediately thought of the power lead for my 600XL so I nabbed it! Oddly enough, when I cut the plug off and checked the polarity of the red and black wires (thank Gawd I did), they were ass about...Black was positive and red was negative - Very odd. Anyway, power lead made and we have a little red LED. Today I plan on making the monitor lead so I can check for correct boot. Now if I'm right, I believe luma is connected on the monitor port, so I should get a black and white image at minimum? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong people! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 26, 2021 Author Share Posted March 26, 2021 Chroma and Luma mods done to FJC's specification and RF modulator removed. Also made a monitor cable with separately shielded Svideo. The machine boots perfectly and the keyboard and all other self tests run through no problem, although I'm struggling to find a monitor that can sync to 15khz - Right now I'm using this absolute piece of garbage Chinese video scaler that I'm honestly surprised is capable of outputting anything at all, as it's never actually worked for me in the past, but it's the only thing that can sync to 15khz so far even if the resulting image totally sucks. Tomorrow I try the outdoor TV as well as the TV in the Daughters room. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuxon86 Posted March 26, 2021 Share Posted March 26, 2021 49 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said: Chroma and Luma mods done to FJC's specification and RF modulator removed. Also made a monitor cable with separately shielded Svideo. The machine boots perfectly and the keyboard and all other self tests run through no problem, although I'm struggling to find a monitor that can sync to 15khz - Right now I'm using this absolute piece of garbage Chinese video scaler that I'm honestly surprised is capable of outputting anything at all, as it's never actually worked for me in the past, but it's the only thing that can sync to 15khz so far even if the resulting image totally sucks. Tomorrow I try the outdoor TV as well as the TV in the Daughters room. I've found a 15" 4:3 LCD that had composite, svideo & vga input on ebay last year. Brand new, works like a charm. They pop up once in a while on ebay, many are used for security monitoring. I also got a cheap Hier (sp?) 15" LCD TV with composite, VGA, HDMI on order (old discontinued model but NIB) that I'll use with composite only system (NES, A2E, Ti) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 26, 2021 Author Share Posted March 26, 2021 4 minutes ago, Tuxon86 said: I've found a 15" 4:3 LCD that had composite, svideo & vga input on ebay last year. Brand new, works like a charm. They pop up once in a while on ebay, many are used for security monitoring. I also got a cheap Hier (sp?) 15" LCD TV with composite, VGA, HDMI on order (old discontinued model but NIB) that I'll use with composite only system (NES, A2E, Ti) I've got an older Dell monitor with svideo that I was hoping to use, but alas it just can't sync...Bugger! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuxon86 Posted March 26, 2021 Share Posted March 26, 2021 1 minute ago, Mazzspeed said: I've got an older Dell monitor with svideo that I was hoping to use, but alas it just can't sync...Bugger! Is that a Dell 2007? There were two model of that one. One that did sync and the other not. That's the problem with Dell, they use different parts on the same model line... The one I got is: ViewEra V151HV 15" Black Monitor Works great in SVideo with both my 130XE and C64 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 26, 2021 Author Share Posted March 26, 2021 5 minutes ago, Tuxon86 said: Is that a Dell 2007? There were two model of that one. One that did sync and the other not. That's the problem with Dell, they use different parts on the same model line... The one I got is: ViewEra V151HV 15" Black Monitor Works great in SVideo with both my 130XE and C64 Yes, it's a Dell 2007WFP. I'm going through the menu settings trying to see if I can get it to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuxon86 Posted March 26, 2021 Share Posted March 26, 2021 Just now, Mazzspeed said: Yes, it's a Dell 2007WFP. I'm going through the menu settings trying to see if I can get it to work. Like I said, they used two different internal for that serie, one is compatible the other isn't. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted March 26, 2021 Author Share Posted March 26, 2021 2 minutes ago, Tuxon86 said: Like I said, they used two different internal for that serie, one is compatible the other isn't. I think I lucked out, the svideo indicator on the screen just flashes about once a second, can't get it to sync without an adapter which looks terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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