Commodore.ca: The PET, VIC, 128, 64 & More Forum

Hello everyone,

My name is Gene, and I live in Southern California.

Used to work for a company called Cal Comp in Anaheim, Ca. They built pen and ink plotters, actually the first company to do so. I got hired as an electronics technician, working in the PCB test dept. My friend Bill and I decided in Feb '84 that it was time to get a computer, seeing that we worked on them! My sister and brother had just purchased Commodore 64's, so It made it easier.

I went to the local "toys 'R' us", (no kidding) and walked out with a Vic 20. I thought it would be the same as a C-64, but it wasn't. So, back to the store, returned it, and bought the 64 I should have in the first place. Trying to save money, I bought a dataset. As you US/Canadians know, the Dataset is dead slow, and is not as supported in the US/Canada as the 1541, so I ended up getting a 1541.

I joined a copying software organzation, er, Commodore club, and learned a lot about other things.

Over time, I bought the following (mostly) Commodore stuff:
1520 Plotter. (NOT as nice as the Cal Comp ones I worked on, but a LOT cheaper.)
B-128. (I upgraded the motherboard with ram to make it a B-256.)
CBM 8050
C-128
SFD 1001
Various dot matrix printers.
Commodore modem,(don't remember which model.)
I was on-line at all of 300 baud, btw, learning about bbs's in May of '84, and after awhile bought a Hayes 2400 modem.(It cost over $600, as much as the rest of my system!)

After a while, I sold my 8-bit equipment and bought my first Amiga, a A500. Since then, I also owned a 1000, two 2000's, and a 3000T (tower)

After an absence of any Commodore for many years, I now own 2 SX-64's, and of course, 2 2000's.

Gene

tesla wrote:My name is Gene, and I live in Southern California.

Welcome! Since you are in southern California, don't forget that there is a SCCAN meeting at the Northridge Panera Bread Restaurant on July 17.

Trying to save money, I bought a dataset. As you US/Canadians know, the Dataset is dead slow, and is not as supported in the US/Canada as the 1541, so I ended up getting a 1541.

I used a datasette for the first two years of my C64 and finally got a 1571 disk drive in 1985. What a difference!

After a while, I sold my 8-bit equipment and bought my first Amiga, a A500. Since then, I also had a 1000, two 2000's, and a 3000T (tower)

After an absence of many years, I now own 2 Sx-64's.

Do you still have your Amigas? I usually bring in an Amiga and a SX-64 to each SCCAN meeting.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

Hi Bernardo,

Thank for the nice welcome.

I do have my two 2000's, although the ps died on one.

Unfortunately, my 3000T died from battery corrosion.

Northridge is quite a ways for a club meeting, but perhaps someday I will show up (When I have the gas money.)

What Amiga do you have?

Regards,

Gene

tesla wrote:I do have my two 2000's, although the ps died on one.

That p.s. could be fixed.

Unfortunately, my 3000T died from battery corrosion.

Have you tried repairing the damage caused by that corrosion? And did you replace the batteries on the A2000s? I ask, because I've had all the batteries replaced on my A2000s. Right now, the A3000 I have is having its battery replaced.

What Amiga do you have?

Almost all of them - A1000, A500, A2000, A3000, A600, A1200, A4000, CDTV, CD32, and AmigaOne G4.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

Robert,

I had the A3000T in the mid nineties. I saw the battery was corroded, but I underestimated the time it would take for the acid to spread and the acid damaged the multilayer circuit board. I trashed it, much to my eternal regret. Nowadays, I would try harder to salvage it.

I know the power supply is repairable on the 2000, and I will repair it one of these days. Just not in a huge hurry.

I replaced both batteries on the 2000's immediately after buying them. Both had batteries just starting to show signs of corrosion.

my latest project on my working 2000 is to get 3.9 installed on it. I have 3.1 installed, but have had problems with the installed Blizzard 040 board working with the scsi cd rom drive. Long story short, I just can't get the cdrom drive to work with 3.5/3.9, both of which I own legitimate copies, bought when I had my 3000T. Long(er) term, the working 2000 also has a Toaster installed, and although I have the version one software on floppy, it just doesn't seem to want to install, it thinks I have too little space on my HD, even though I have a small 1 gig drive, and very little else, with plenty of room.

Gene

Hi Gene;

If you are ever interested in parting with your B, please let us know as we store a few of them posterity but could use 1 more.

Thanks for joining and I hope you enjoy the company... as well as the "new" site http://www.commodore.ca/index.php

Hello,

I wish I had kept my B-128, but I sold it as well as the 8050, when I bought my A500.

administrator wrote:Hi Gene;

If you are ever interested in parting with your B, please let us know as we store a few of them posterity but could use 1 more.

Thanks for joining and I hope you enjoy the company... as well as the "new" site http://www.commodore.ca/index.php

tesla wrote:Long(er) term, the working 2000 also has a Toaster installed, and although I have the version one software on floppy, it just doesn't seem to want to install, it thinks I have too little space on my HD, even though I have a small 1 meg drive, and very little else, with plenty of room.

I'd have to check my VT 2.0 manual, but I believe that it needs more than 1 meg of hard drive space in which to cache its contents.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

Thank you Robert,

I made a mistake. I meant to say one Gig.

Regards,

Gene