Ready for some SX-SixtyMore?
Hello Chip Dippers, and welcome to another Quick Bytes episode.
Now, last time I showed you my Commodore SX-64
restoration using 3D printing, a wish dosher, and Ladyfractic taking a chip dip.
It's one of my fastest-growing videos and even generated a meme.
Some flawless photoshopping there. Wonder what I would look like in a bikini?
Actually, Photoshoppers... forget I said that. But I have been keeping up with Commodore. At least until
1994 when Commodore stopped keeping up with us. (Kids booing)
And a lot of you asked if I really dropped the machine at the end.
Of course, I did. Would I trick you in a video? That trip even blew my shoes and socks off.
And this was what it looked like after my fall.
Just kidding. This is actually the first of two quick things
I'm bringing you in this quick bytes. Because you've seen my refurb, now
you're about to witness the incredible repair done for C64portal.pl by friend of the channel Pete,
aka Retrohax.net.
This very heavy SX-64 was obviously dropped on its front.
Shattering the panel under its own weight. I mean we've all been eating a bit more under quarantine,
haven't we? But impossible to repair right? Come on, haven't we taught you anything?
Nothing is un-refurbishable.
So with this kind of repair, the first thing you need to do is remove the label. That's easily done,
just fire up the hot air gun to about a hundred degrees Celsius and slide a scraper underneath it to slowly ease it off. (Pop!)
But for the tricky stuff, you can use the technique similar to Pete's incredible Atari 800 XL repair.
Take this brass mesh and just melt it into the plastic on the inside using the soldering iron.
And for the actual broken wall,
you can shape it into place like this. And then you'll want to actually recreate the angle and correct line by cutting down the brass.
And then you just place that next to the flat section that you soldered it on earlier, and it's back to the soldering iron
to solder those two pieces of brass together.
So that's the top and the side of the brass taken care of. What about the bottom, I hear you ask?
Well,
you can run a brass rod all around the edge there to give strength on the bottom as well. But enough boring metalwork,
now for the fun stuff. Grab some fiberglass putty and start filling in all around the mesh.
You can add some flat panels to help you create that flat edge on both sides. Once that's dried, just keep layering it up.
Baby steps, don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.
You can use the flat panels to keep those clip areas nice and straight as well.
And once you're nice and square, not you personally, it's time for some sanding with the help of a sander.
Do the same on the top with some imperfections filled in,
and it's time for a coat of primer, and
then especially color matched paint.
You are gonna be able to get soon at Retrohax.net along with matching paint for other retro machines. And
then it's time for a quick reminder of how things looked SX-60 before, before the big reveal.
Just incredible, you might have even noticed that those scuffed up clips from the beginning were all glossy and that was thanks to this silicone oil.
There you go, two SX 64's restored. Brand-new, in just two weeks, just like 1984 all over again.
You may also have noticed this PCB ruler during the repair and this of course came from
PCBWayyyy.
They're celebrating their sixth anniversary soon. (kids cheering)
Happy Anniversary PCBWay because as we all know, PCB stands for Portable Commodore Brick.
Isn't it?
Ladyfractic: Did you order an OCD magazine?
Perifractic: OCD.. Ladyfractic: Yeah, I mean you order a lot of weird magazines, but..
OCD? Perifractic: Ahh, I have no idea what that is. Ladyfractic: Is there a special way you should open it?
Perifractic: Well, I'm not OCD so..
Perifractic: Oooohhhhh! Ladyfractic: ZZap 64 from 1985.
Perifractic: Why does it say OCD Magazine? Ladyfractic: Wait,
is that an "L"?
Perifractic: It says "OLD Magazine". Ladyfractic: Ooohhh! Perifractic: Old magazine, oohh.
Now, we've all heard of the NES Mini and the C64 Mini. But what about the SX-
64 Mini? Well speaking of OCD,
this is the meticulous work of the fantastically named Christian Steenken. and Christian
Thalhammer. The project starts life as this, a generic electronics carry case. And
after carrying it to the workbench and opening it up,
it's time to install a RasPi compatible three and a half-inch LCD display and the speaker for those gorgeous Chip Tunes.
This is the screen and to make things super easy. I've listed all the parts for this build in the video description below.
So maybe we can create a little army of Mini SX-64s. Ah, how cute. And the next Retro Recipe ingredient
is this delicious RasPi for the screen to connect to with that
HDMI flat cable. As for the speaker, it comes with a volume control.
So we can patch that in by the PI's three and a half millimeter headphone jack and Bob's your Auntie's brother,
you've got a knob. Um, volume, you've got a volume knob.
Next up is easy, SD card access. Achieved via this SD card extension cable with the business end installed at the back.
So with everything looking like it will fit, it's time to spray the case an essexy shade of grey.
And start to mount things properly in those dremeled out holes.
But wait a minute, how come it looks like a real SX-64 now? Well, maybe this will give the game away.
Yeah, it's just the photo decal affixed on the front. And whilst you can download this from the description below.
I think we can improve on it. Stay tuned for that.
But how can you program your basic creations or play games on this thing?
I mean it does have a touchscreen display, but we can do better. That's where this mini RasPi wireless keyboard comes in.
So with everything connected up inside, and the Combian 64 Commodore 64 distribution installed on the pi,
the big question is does it work?
Well, it works as we could see with the barbarians going head to head. (drum noises)
Now, let's improve things further with a bit of SX-64 blue paint on that front trim and those end caps.
The improvements continue with a 3D printer and these models, again all in the description, to add a bit of SX-60 grill flair and
a 3D printed front keyboard panel that the keyboard can be fixed into, combined with another decal on the outside.
This thing looks great! And then it's time to do away with that decal and go full 3D printed full frontage or something.
Now SD card is fine. What about real working
floppy disks, kind of? How?
Well NFC,
of course. By installing this NFC reader inside on one side of the drive bay area only,
and then dropping two NFC tags into the disk while the 3D printer is adding layers to create it,
you effectively end up with a double-sided disk.
The reader will only see the tag when it's on the left.
So flipping the disk presents the other tag to the reader and those tags are programmed to launch a specific
D64 file from the SD card. This means you can label your virtual diskettes on both sides.
Insert them whichever way around you want and the SX-64 will load the corresponding game.
Magic.
But here's what's actually going on behind the magic. When the NFC receiver
receives the file path from each tag, the custom written Python script translates that into an attached disk telnet command.
The device C64 emulator can receive the via the virtual server feature.
So the tag tells Python to telnet in to VICE and attach the disk. Simple, kind of.
You can even add this USB 1541 adapter for real Commodore floppy support.
Which means real printer support, too.
Hello.
So there it is. If you were jealous of people who owned a real SX-64, now
you can build your own SX-64 Mini with working floppy disks for less than the price of a real one on Flea Bay.
Hey, maybe 30 years from now, when Puppyfractic is all grown up, she'll make a video about yours. Talk about retro.
Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this Quick Bytes. Huge thanks to Pete and the two or three Christians.
Thanks for watching, subscribe below, and cheerio.
Ladyfractic: As soon as I came out she just licked my face!