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Second channel: Battery powered soldering iron, ZX Spectrum motherlode and broken Famicoms

Hello my patrons! Next up on the second channel, a decidedly not "mini mail call" episode. Note the chapter marks if you want to skip ahead.

Jan from the Netherlands sent in a whole bunch of wonderful goodies which will make their way into future videos! Amazing stuff and I can't wait to hear from viewers who are familiar with the Spectrum stuff, all of which I know almost nothing about.

I really need to spend some quality time downstairs sorting things and organizing, as you mig...

Main channel: The saga ends! I finally fixed the Zenith ZT-1.

Hello my patrons! When I first looked at the Zenith ZT-1 terminal, I never expected to need FOUR parts to get this thing working. I figured it would be a quick fix and I could demonstrate the terminal, then move on. What actually happened is the machine was very broken and while I managed to get it mostly working, it just refused to fully work. So in part 4 of the series, I sat down to really get to the bottom of EXACTLY what is keeping this thing from working. Please join me on the final par...

Second channel: Examining core memory, a early touch screen tablet and old magazine ads

Hello my patrons! Next up on the second channel I'm trying to get back to chipping away at the incoming mail call packages. As you can see in the thumbnail, one of the items is a core memory module and it simply blows me away how intricate the thing is. It's amazing this was a viable type of memory and I assume large systems had many many many of these boards in it. (It looks like the board here is only 8K x 8) Very cool stuff!

Reminder I will be at VCF in Chicago next month, so if you...

Main channel: See why Lorde's clear CD has so many issues playing

Hello my patrons! While waiting for stuff to arrive in the mail for the Zenith ZT-1, I decided to take a side quest and figure out why this new clear CD released by the artist Lourde has so many reported issues playing on so many players. After my recent foray into CD players on the second channel, I decided to try this CD on a few players and actually look at the signal coming in off the optical pickup. It was quite enlightening and fun, I really do like playing around with CD players and h...

Second channel: Preserving the ROMs on the best RAM tester ever made

Hello my patrons! Ah it's Monday and I'm trying to get through my insanely long to-do list. It's funny how it's nearly lunchtime and I've haven't done anything when it comes to making videos. If only I had multiple copies of me, so I could focus on making videos and editing -- and less on other stuff. Anyway, here's the next video in the queue for release on the second channel. It came out of an email from a viewer who also has one of these RAMCheck devices and was hoping I could dump the ROM...

Main channel: I think I got to the bottom of what's wrong! (Again)

Hello my patrons! The Zenith ZT-1 continues to kick my butt. We're now up to part 3 -- and it's time to do two things: See why the video is glitching and seemed to be cut off, and then dig into why we're missing the first column of text. What might be actually causing that fault?

Sort-of-spoiler: I break out the logic analyzer again, as it seems this is likely the best way for to see exactly what's going on and how the system is converting what is stored in RAM into what you see on scre...

Second channel: Fixing up a grimey old CD player (NEC CD-510)

Hello my patrons! Next up on the second channel we have a change of pace.... I found this old discarded CD player and decided to see if I could get it working. I'm not big into old audio gear, but this thing just screams 80s and I love the look of it. So time for me to expand my knowledge a little and see if I can get this CD player working.

Thanks for all your support!

Direct link: https://youtu.be/52ER51QrsBE<...

Main channel: The Zenith ZT-1 lives! Going deep to figure out what killed it

Hello my patrons, here is part 2 of the Zenith ZT-1 series where I actually get this machine to show signs of life. Getting to that part required breaking out tools I don't even normally use: my logic analyzer! So enjoy the troubleshooting exercise and see what it's like working on an undocumented system where you lack schematics and technical documentation.

Thanks for all your support!

Direct link: https://youtu.be...

Second channel: Another big lot of cool Apple II cards including a Trackstar Plus!

Hello my patrons! It's time for another SMMC episode on the second channel, and this time we have more Apple II stuff, even though it all came from a different viewer. One of the special cards here is a Trackstar Plus, which is an Apple II emulator for the IBM PC. I saw LGR's coverage of this card a while back, so it's going to be fun to explore the card some more. (I do play around with it in this video.)

In other news, I'm working on Part 2 of the Zenith ZT-1, but I'm waiting for som...

Main channel: The Zenith ZT-1 tried to be a low cost gateway to the information age

Hello my patrons! Next up on the main channel we have a real curiosity. This is the Zenith ZT-1, which was the proverbial "Web TV" of 1981/1982. This simple device was designed to be an inexpensive way to get you connected to the information age, which means connecting to services like CompuServe over the internal 300 baud modem. Up until that point, you needed a computer to access these services, but this device is basically a terminal with an auto dialing modem (and easy to use menu driven ...

Second channel: Clone Apple II floppy drives and some cool old Apple II books

Hello my patrons! I'm going to be doing some SMMC episodes for a while on the second channel, the backlog is getting big again, so I need to really start to chip away at it. In this episode we have a bunch of Apple II stuff including a couple third party Apple II floppy drives, and one of them has a neat surprise inside.

In other news, I have family visiting for the next couple weeks, so it means I may end up missing a video release, at least on the main channel. We'll see what happens...

Main channel: This Mac Plus repair taught me a good lesson

Hello my patrons, it's time for another classic Macintosh repair. We're looking at the Mac Plus I briefly showed off in last week's video. It seems to be dead with a clicking power supply. You'll see in this repair that I initially thought things would be a super simple fix, but in the end I was led down a bunch of different paths and it took a little while to get to the final fix.

I know these repairs aren't super involved, but I still find them fun and you just never know what intere...

Second channel: I brought home many treasure from VCFSW 2025!

Hello my patrons! It's a long weekend here in the United States so if you are bored and stuck hanging out with family, perhaps this video will be a bit of a diversion. :-)

It's a "wrap-up" from VCF Southwest in Dallas, where I was able to bring home a bunch of fun, interesting and rare goodies from the event. I didn't know if I should have made a thumbnail with a photo of the stuff or the auditorium at the event. (You might see either.)

Anyway, it's a long video that took me days...

Second channel: Let's try to remove scratches from a CRT

Hello my patrons! So a follow-up from the Trash-Picked TV video on the main channel, I tried polishing out the scratches on that TV. If I ruined the TV, I didn't really care so this was perfect thing to experiment on.

I know I have more work to do testing out various methods, but I think this is a winner.

Thanks for all your support!

Direct link: https://youtu.be/8lUA2bOAnDI

Main channel: This expanded Mac 512k came from the college Steve Jobs went to

Hello my patrons! Next up on the main channel I've moved to the 16bit era with a sad Mac 512k. There's nothing too complex about this repair, but it was a fun diversion and a fun exercise to think through the fault and figure out exactly which chips were causing our issue. On top of that, the exact fault was a curious one, one I hadn't personally run into before. So sit back and enjoy some light hearted troubleshooting of a classic Macintosh.

Thanks for all the support!

Direct li...

Main channel: Trash-picked CRT Television: Does it work?

Hello my patrons! Next up on the main channel we have a trash-picked CRT television that I found on the side of the road. Wet and muddy, I just couldn't resist bringing it home to see if it worked. These late model ultra-cheap TVs were never that great when new, but this one had A/V inputs on the front, which helped seal the deal.

So please indulge me with another CRT video, but I think this one is pretty interesting.

In other news, thanks to all of my supporters I get to meet a...

Second channel: Atari 800XL keyboard repair

Hello my patrons! I'm back from VCF Southwest in Dallas. It's nice to be back in normal temps again! (I'm not used to the humidity and oppressive heat in Texas.) Thank you to everyone who managed to find me at the event and say "Hi!" It was an absolute blast to meet so many fans of the channel.

This second channel video is just about me trying to fix up the keyboard of the Atari 800XL that I recently fixed on the main channel. It had some keys that weren't working at all, and for some ...

Main channel: Let's fix a dead and dirty Atari 800XL

Hello my patrons, the Atari 8-bit repairs keep coming! This is the last one though as, if you saw my second channel video testing them, almost all of them worked perfectly. This one presents as totally dead with just a black screen, so let's investigate and figure out what's wrong.

Ultimately what I have determined from these repairs is that we really need a better "Dead-Test" type diagnostic for these machines. While these machines are pretty reliable, they still do fail and some bette...

Second channel: An undocumented AT&T computer, Olivetti PC parts and a terrible Zenith Eazy PC

Hello my patrons! It's crunch time leading up to VCF in Dallas this coming weekend, so I'm trying to wrap up some video and post early access here.

I haven't been doing any SMMC videos lately and I really need to do some more of them as there is a backlog accumulating again. I always forgot how busy summertimes is with other "life" stuff which takes away from all the time I normally spend making videos. It's a cycle that repeats every summer LOL!

Reminder: if you are in and aroun...

Main channel: This smashed up Atari 400 deserved to be saved

Hello my patrons! Let's continue with the Atari content with a busted up Atari 400 that is giving us garbled screen.

This is the repair video that I asked about in the "Video Length" poll. The overwhelming response was that it should be one long video, so that's what this is. I recommend hitting the "Watch Later" thing in YouTube if you end up stopping part way through and you want to watch more later.

It's been fun learning about and fixing up these Atari 8-bit computers. They ar...

Second channel: Atari 1200XL Mini-Repair and Mod-Discovery

Hello my patrons! On a recent second channel video I looked at all of my Atari 8-bit computers looking for broken ones. This 1200XL had some minor issues along with some mysterious mods. In this video I open the machine to uncover what mods have been done and fix the issues with the computer. Besides this computer, I also have two more in-depth repair episodes for the other two broken machines coming up. I hope everyone is ready for some Atari 8-bit repair! :-)

Reminder to everyone in ...

Main channel: "Easy" Commodore 1551 repair was anything but...

Hello my patrons! Next up on the main channel we have a repair of the somewhat rare Commodore 1551 disk drive for the TED/C16/Plus4 based Commodores. This drive was recently shown on a second channel video where it came in a totally smashed case and non working state, so it's time to see if I can figure out what's wrong and get this drive working.

Thanks for all your support!

Direct link: https://www....

Second channel: Adding a high resolution mode to this composite color monitor

Hello my patrons! Let the mods begin on the Philips monitors that I recently featured on the main channel. In this video I go over how I did a super simple mod to disable the silly "Green Only" mode this monitor has and instead make it have a high resolution monochrome mode. This will make a huge difference on any of these monitors that lacks Luma/Chroma input and especially on ones with a high resolution CRT.

I am very pleased with how this turned out, so hopefully you find it interes...

Main channel: Your Philips Commodore 1084 monitor might have a serious flaw

Hello my patrons! Thanks to friend of the channel Mike, I recently ended up with a whole bunch of monitors (of unknown condition.) Two of them were these Philips Magnavox monitors that while looking totally different than the Commodore 1084, I suspect they are actually very similar or identical on the inside. If that's the case, all of these monitors have the potential to have a flaw that can render them unusable, so I want to dig into all three of these monitors and see how similar they are,...

Second channel: Can I even find a broken Atari 8-bit computer?

Hello my patrons! Next up on the second channel: I'm on the hunt for a broken Atari 8-bit computer. I gathered them up and made a chill video where I test them all up to see if even a single one is bad. (Electrically bad, I'm ignoring keyboard issues.)

Compared to the C64, these things are super reliable!

Thanks for the all the support!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtKhhwhngUI 2025-05-21 23:45:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Second channel: Will a video card with DVI fix my DOS text-mode issues?

Hello my patrons! It's time for a quick follow-up on the Dolch PAC-62 iPad 3 screen replacement. I have many many suggestions to try out a video card with a digital video interface and see if that allowed DOS text modes to work. Unfortunately for me, PCI video cards with DVI are pretty rare, especially ones that are old enough to have really good DOS support. After looking through all the cards I had, I managed to find a couple cards that might work, so in this video I gave them a try with th...

Main channel: How to use phones and modems like it's 1992

Hello my patrons! Next up on the main channel we have some old school analog telephony. This (unfortunately) isn't anything like you would get from the Connections Museum, but I bring a tiny bit of that home with a way to use all my old modems along with a few phones.

I'm pulling a lot of nostalgia threads for myself in this video, so please forgive the indulgence.

A few updates after watching this video, I still have some wiring to do at home and I'm still looking for some extr...

Second channel: Custom First Aid, PAKRATT-64 packet modem, TRS-80 M1 Digital I/O expander and more

Hello my patrons! Well look at this, I managed to post this SMMC episode with less than 24 hours before it goes live. I will eventually catch up :-) This is a "shorter" episode than normal, but we have a pretty interesting C64 radio interface, allowing data transmission over RF. I'm excited to see if I can actually do some over the air testing of this -- although that will take some coordinating with some local HAMs, so that won't happen right away. It'll be more interesting content to look f...

Main channel: The Dolch PAC-62 gets an amazing screen upgrade

Hello my patrons! I hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is enjoying some nice springtime weather. I've been getting out to enjoy it as things are so nice in Portland right now. That doesn't mean I haven't been spending time working on projects, and here is the next main channel video. I decided to give the recently featured Dolch PAC-62 a big screen upgrade. This upgrade wasn't without issues as you'll see in this video, but I think it was still worth doing.

I still have more work...

Main channel: Mystery ISA card with a full Z80 computer on board

Hello my patrons! Wow, it's been a whirlwind week. I had a very old friend visiting me in Portland for 7 days, so I took a "mini" vacation from the channels so we could hang out and I could show him around. Then I had an eye exam yesterday morning which dilated my eyes and made it impossible to anything for the rest of the day.

Now I'm back at it and I just realized I never posted this early video here for early access. Beyond that, it's funny when you are one-person operation, when you...