Yes, tantalum caps are a direct replacement for cheap aluminium electrolytic caps. The only difference is the costs - that's why you see tantalum caps mainly in expensive devices or only in critical circuitry. They almost came out of use when everyone started to go cheap in the early 1990's.

ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-05-25, 10:32:

brostenen wrote on 2020-05-25, 09:01:

I know... Yet they are not always in the correct ratings. And for something like a Commodore64, you really need to use the correct type of parts. Like you do not ever use tanteleum caps were electrolyt is supposed to be. So the coil need to have the exact same ratings as the original one. I have asked around on various forums about were to get the correct part. And even the BOM list of the SixtyClone, have that part added as "potential replacement part under investigation" or something like that. Even the person that updates that list, have no real answer to what part can be used instead. So getting the correct unused or NOS part, is quite hard to come by.

Tantalum capacitors are electrolytes, their main advantages over aluminium electrolytic capacitors are high density and low leakage. There should be absolutely no ill effect when replacing aluminium electrolytes with similarly rated tantalums.

This choke only acts as an EMI filter on the power supply input, it's not a critical part at all. It's not in a timing circuit.

Well...
I am in no way a professional electronics repair man, and I have no deeper knowledge on the various technology behind different components. All I have done, is to buy this board and jump straight into the deep end of the pool. I have not build any device from scratch, since I had electronics in 7'th grade in school. That is way back in 1989 or 1990. That would be soldering complete of the shelf hobby projects, like blinking led arrangements or make a small AM/FM radio, in were we had to make the coil our self, using wire and a small plastic tube. And yes, my knowledge is rather slim on what type of capacitors that are the same type yet looks different and all that. And I can only follow the BOM list in order to get the correct parts for it. Error seeking on a complete machine is something that I have more knowledge on. I am only doing this, to see if I really can do it.

Today I have been mostly wiping/testing old 2.5" laptop IDE hard disk drives I won on eBay - so far 1 fail and 6 passed with no errors!

FazzaGBR wrote on 2020-05-25, 13:22:

Today I have been mostly wiping/testing old 2.5" laptop IDE hard disk drives I won on eBay - so far 1 fail and 6 passed with no errors!

20200525_120656067_iOS.jpg

My best hard drive score was like 15 Western Digital, 250gig IDE, for $15. Was about a 400km journey to pick those up. A few tested bad, but meh, was totally worth it to get a pile of good, quiet hard drives for retro builds.

I always substitute with better quality compatible equivalents and improve the C64 that it didn't have before, people were doing this to make the C64 work properly and reliable. Common mode chokes are sized to handle maximum current rating by changing the donut and copper wire thickness, More turns more effective it is at filtering noise.

Commodore were known to be very cheap with components, use better capacitors that can be fitted. Low ESR small capacitors, except for audio paths.
And add grounded zener diodes to the input and output ports to prevent blown chips due to static shock. Blown CIA chips were due to these.
Make a aluminum plate to go under the regulator IC for better cooling instead of depending on the copper patch of your motherboard.

Cheers,

I dug out my old PS2 the other week (fat model). I never played much games on it when I first got it in 2005 (I was in my early 30's and too busy with other things). However, I saw a video of Tomb Raider Anniversary and that looked good for a PS2 game so I ordered a copy PLUS a PS2 to HDMI adapter. I can now play PS2 games on my PC monitor, sitting at my desk. For some reason reason I hate playing games on a TV in the living room...

Anyhow, Tomb Raider Anniversary is a great game. Good atmosphere, I really enjoy it. I also always liked Colin Mcrea Rally 2005, so playing that as well. I used to be pretty good at that. I will also revisit Shadow of the Colossus, was always an intriguing game.

Does anyone have any PS2 games to recommend?

pan069 wrote on 2020-05-25, 20:52:

I dug out my old PS2 the other week (fat model). I never played much games on it when I first got it in 2005 (I was in my early 30's and too busy with other things). However, I saw a video of Tomb Raider Anniversary and that looked good for a PS2 game so I ordered a copy PLUS a PS2 to HDMI adapter. I can now play PS2 games on my PC monitor, sitting at my desk. For some reason reason I hate playing games on a TV in the living room...

Anyhow, Tomb Raider Anniversary is a great game. Good atmosphere, I really enjoy it. I also always liked Colin Mcrea Rally 2005, so playing that as well. I used to be pretty good at that. I will also revisit Shadow of the Colossus, was always an intriguing game.

Does anyone have any PS2 games to recommend?

How many PS2 games have you played already?

I probably just played Gran Turismo 4 or 3 on PS2, but other than that never used my old PS2 a lot. I trashed it after a few months... (this just proves I prefer Atari over modern consoles).

pan069 wrote on 2020-05-25, 20:52:

Does anyone have any PS2 games to recommend?

If you like JRPGs, Dragon Quest VIII is a masterpiece.

pan069 wrote on 2020-05-25, 20:52:

Does anyone have any PS2 games to recommend?

- Black.
- Dead or Alive 2.
- Medal Og Honor Allied Assault.
- Futurama.
- Virtua Fighter 4.
- Tekken 5.
- Testdrive Unleashed.
- Outrun 2006 Coast To Coast.
- Crazy Taxi.

I learned to setup an Extron RGB-DVI 300 properly for DOS modes .
I learned that old Windows 98 Nvidia drivers/cards do not always like a modern monitor's EDID and may require an EDID emulator .

pan069 wrote on 2020-05-25, 20:52:

I dug out my old PS2 the other week (fat model). I never played much games on it when I first got it in 2005 (I was in my early 30's and too busy with other things). However, I saw a video of Tomb Raider Anniversary and that looked good for a PS2 game so I ordered a copy PLUS a PS2 to HDMI adapter. I can now play PS2 games on my PC monitor, sitting at my desk. For some reason reason I hate playing games on a TV in the living room...

Anyhow, Tomb Raider Anniversary is a great game. Good atmosphere, I really enjoy it. I also always liked Colin Mcrea Rally 2005, so playing that as well. I used to be pretty good at that. I will also revisit Shadow of the Colossus, was always an intriguing game.

Does anyone have any PS2 games to recommend?

Star Wars Battlefront 2
Kingdom Hearts
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Burnout 3: Takedown
ICO
Okami
Katamari Damarcy
Auto Modellista
The Warriors
GTA San Andreas (Vice City is nice too, but SA is just so much better gameplay mechanics-wise)

ragefury32 wrote on 2020-05-25, 23:51:

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Kingdom Hearts Final Fantasy X/X-2 Burnout 3: Takedown ICO Okami Katamari Damarcy Auto Modellista The Wa […]
Show full quote

pan069 wrote on 2020-05-25, 20:52:

I dug out my old PS2 the other week (fat model). I never played much games on it when I first got it in 2005 (I was in my early 30's and too busy with other things). However, I saw a video of Tomb Raider Anniversary and that looked good for a PS2 game so I ordered a copy PLUS a PS2 to HDMI adapter. I can now play PS2 games on my PC monitor, sitting at my desk. For some reason reason I hate playing games on a TV in the living room...

Anyhow, Tomb Raider Anniversary is a great game. Good atmosphere, I really enjoy it. I also always liked Colin Mcrea Rally 2005, so playing that as well. I used to be pretty good at that. I will also revisit Shadow of the Colossus, was always an intriguing game.

Does anyone have any PS2 games to recommend?

Star Wars Battlefront 2
Kingdom Hearts
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Burnout 3: Takedown
ICO
Okami
Katamari Damarcy
Auto Modellista
The Warriors
GTA San Andreas (Vice City is nice too, but SA is just so much better gameplay mechanics-wise)

I have a PS2, but the laser in it gave up its ghost, it just boots to the Browser/System Config screen and shows the Disc Read Error when I go to the browser with a disc in, happens with both DVDs and blue back CD-ROM discs. It's a SCPH-30001 R, It was working for a while but suddenly, it just died out of the blue and it won't read a single disc anymore, not even PS1 or any music cd.

There are adjustment potentiometers for the laser, I believe for both CD and DVD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tvwdel1XuA

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-05-26, 04:26:

There are adjustment potentiometers for the laser, I believe for both CD and DVD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tvwdel1XuA

I did that before, no dice. It's dead as a doornail, I am thinking of going with a hard drive/Free HD Boot/OPL instead of replacing the laser, i know it's a common issue with those PS2s, failing lasers, thats the problem with many of the old disc based consoles. I also have a Gamecube and a PS1 SCPH-1001 that won't read discs.

Ouch.

Spent some time disassembling and cleaning a Commodore VIC-20 computer.

I didn't want to dismantle the keyboard itself as I know how fragile the keys can be, so cleaning the dust off that took some time. As for the case, a lot of scrubbing with soap & water cleaned that up nicely. The case has yellowed a fair bit, but after cleaning it already looks much nicer.

I installed an ISA MPEG decoder in my 486. To put it through its paces, I transcoded my Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Blu-ray to a 352x240 MPEG1 stream and burned it to two CDs.
Man was it weird seeing such a recent film play in a Windows 3.1 environment. But it played! In all its blocky, 2 channel stereo glory, it played. I could even go full screen with nary a dropped frame. Now that's effective hardware acceleration.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-05-26, 04:45:

Ouch.

I was thinking of also installing a PSIO into my dead SCPH-1001 and a GC Loader into my dead Gamecube.

Those are good investments. Might as well do the same thing with my GameCube someday (it reads good, but takes a while to load games sometimes).