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Display problems on a Commodore Pet 8032

Hurray. Nearly total success. :)


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We used the bin to hex convertor on the characters-1.901447-08.bin (2k) and loaded it up onto the 2617 chip
http://www.keil.com/download/docs/113.asp


The only slight problem is the characters seem to be in capital reverse. Eg. Using the Shift or Shift Lock key produces lower case lettering.
Any ideas folk?

Thank you very much for all your contributions, I am a very happy working commodore pet owner :D
 
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Now we are all sat here not sure whether the shift key was used to lower case the characters rather than upper case as traditional keyboards are

where-am-i.gif
 
Congratulations on the repair - looks good!

And yes, all upper case is the default, shifted is lower case.
 
It seems there exists two different kinds of PET character sets. The early machines defaulted to upper case while the latter machines default to lower case. Thus it is possible you chose the wrong BIN file to program. Hopefully you'll receive my two chips within a week so you can compare function.
 
Hi Steve, Hi Anders.

I'm really (really) pleased with the repair. Excellent Diagnosis then. Thanks both.

I'm sure this is a later PET and pretty sure it was lower case before. Anders, your right I loaded up the characters-2.901447-8.bin instead of the characters-2.901447-10.bin
I've covered the eproms as someone has advised me here. What do you think guys? Top Job? :)
 
If you count all models I think you'd be surprised; I know of about 25 just among three or four local friends and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a hundred or more just in the greater Toronto area. After all, any collection of significant vintage computers has to include at least one PET.

Bo Zimmer, Steve Gray, Jim Brain and Anders alone probably have 450 units among them ;-)

Don't forget that many thousands were put into schools, at least in Canada and the US.

Mind you, considering the current theme of this thread maybe instead of "working" we should say "working the last time they were turned on" ;-)

Well, I have about 15 if you count my CBM2 models... However a collector friend of mine claims to have at least 100 himself. I think the actual numbers would suprise most people...

Steve
 
Congrats on a succesful repair. I just love to see an old Pet spring back to life.

I had an off-the-wall thought when I was reading this thread. We could have an event - a "PET ALIVE" day where on a nominated day (April Fools?), interested PET owners of this forum dragged out any PETs stored more than 3 months and switched them on! The carnage could then be reported baclk.

Now that would be fun! On the other hand maybe it would just be too depressing :)

Whadyaya reckon?

Tez
 
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Hi Steve, Hi Anders.

I'm really (really) pleased with the repair. Excellent Diagnosis then. Thanks both.

I'm sure this is a later PET and pretty sure it was lower case before. Anders, your right I loaded up the characters-2.901447-8.bin instead of the characters-2.901447-10.bin
I've covered the eproms as someone has advised me here. What do you think guys? Top Job? :)
Tsk, tsk... you shoulda read my post more carefully ;-)
...download the appropriate image (901447-10)...
I wouldn't be too concerned about covering the window but it's a good place to label it.

Congratulations; you're now an official PET expert!
 
Congrats on a succesful repair. I just love to see an old Pet spring back to life.

I had an off-the-wall thought when I was reading this thread. We could have an event - a "PET ALIVE" day where on a nominated day (April Fools?), interested PET owner of this forum dragged out any PETs stored more than 3 months and switched them on! The carnage could then be reported baclk.

Now that would be fun! On the other hand maybe it would just be too depressing :)

Whadyaya reckon?

Tez

I like the idea! Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to participate for three months because this thread persuaded me to fire them up (and the 8032 did indeed have an intermittent monitor cable).
 
I like the pet alive day idea :) I know it was my own pet but it really was fun getting her fixed.

So how long do people think that eprom will last then? It could have been programmed more times than I've had hot dinners :rolleyes:
 
So how long do people think that eprom will last then? It could have been programmed more times than I've had hot dinners :rolleyes:

There probably is a spec on how many times an EPROM can be erased, I don't remember but it is a large number. Your part, nicely protected from UV rays as it is, should stay programmed for decades.

Last year a retired Rockwell engineer gave me a set of EPROMs for a PET that he programmed in 1983. They worked like a champ.
 
Well, both of your memory chips could fail, or for that matter input and output devices. You may both know how the letters look like, but in the end not being able to produce any coherent writing. :twisted:
 
Exploring the "PET ALIVE" day idea

Exploring the "PET ALIVE" day idea

Hmm...This "Pet alive" day.

The more I think about it, the more I think it could be fun. I'd like to gauge support. Mike's disqualified himself already but I'm sure a few other regular readers have a PET or two in the cupboard. The reason I suggested 3 months resting qualifiying period is because that's how long my own PET has been dormant.

It could be a fun event, especially if enough people participate and put up pictures of their alive (or now verfied deceased) PETS. The fear I have is there will be so many dead ones, Carlsson's going to run out of spares, Steve will run out of sleep, Dave_m will run out of ideas and Mike will just run, seeing the number of people who now need Pet therapy through this forum.

What's the feeling? If there is broad support I'll put is as an "event" in the Main forum. Many people with dormant PETs don't necessarily read this Commodore forum religiously.

(Note: "Broad support" in this context means that most of the regular PET experts are supportive...cause they are likely to be the medics dealing with at least some of the casualties! I don't want to give you guys more work than you want.).

I'm not sure how many takers there will be but...no harm in flying the kite. I'm picking a lot will be too afraid to switch their's on.

Tez
 
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All my PETs are in the basement and it takes a bit of effort to haul one into the apartment. But sure, I can join. Even better if we have some task to perform. Those of us who own IEEE floppy drives and one of those cbmlink compatible cables could try some disk transfers, report success and how we went ahead: PC64, C2N232, PRLINK, X-cable and so on.

By the way, did you see the Christmas card I sent to some of my friends?
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Cool That Anders. :cool:

Another of your friends and some one you've help Andrés Fachat asked me if he could use my pictures for his website incase some one else has the same fault.

I uploaded the best ones here :

Clicky

You have to click the thumbnails for the bigger pics.

I think I now need to invest in a floppy system like yours in the picture. :rolleyes:
 
Before our North American friends tell you the 8250LP is a very rare floppy drive, I'd like to mention it seems quite a bit more common in Europe. A little bit lighter than a full height 8250, but not quite as stackable. If you insist, regular 3040, 4040, 8050 and 8250 drives should probably be possible to find within the UK for not too much money.
 
It could be a fun event, especially if enough people participate and put up pictures of their alive (or now verfied deceased) PETS. The fear I have is there will be so many dead ones, Carlsson's going to run out of spares, Steve will run out of sleep, Dave_m will run out of ideas and Mike will just run, seeing the number of people who now need Pet therapy through this forum.

Tez

Tez, count me in.
-Dave
 
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