VERAULT
Veteran Member
Someone reached out to me about an old computer they had to sell. They said it was a PET and they only wanted $50.00 as it didn't work. I was apprehensive of course because of all the scammers. Once I moved the conversation to a phone call I felt better as the older gentleman said he bought it when brand new and his story seemed completely authentic.
I drove an hour and 45 minutes to his home to pick it up this morning and here is what I got: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PSMm3h66cGfjb7e26
When I arrived He told me the computer was in his car as he was still moving in to that home. There it was in his backseat. I would have popped the hood but it still had the original screws in place and as we were outside and it was so nice out tody I was taking the Machine regardless.. I mean its a PET. Even if it didn't have the main board, I would still take it.
HE included a book from Commodore (book not manual) and he mentioned two of the keys on the keyboard were missing springs. I am quite familiar with rebuilding the 2001 chiclet keyboard so thats no big deal. I put the computer in the rear of the station wagon and headed home.
When I got home I notice two keys were missing. As if something fell on them and broke them off at the stems! I found them loose in the rear of the car. I am guessing they were broken when he had them and that's why he mentioned no springs. I think he wasn't aware they were broken. I will attempt to fix the stems with plastic welding, worst case I will take two from my spare chiclet keyboard (does anyone know if there are 3d print files for chiclet keyboard stems?). Either way its good to know I have the keycaps for a complete keyboard.
What I found on inspection atr home was a card edge connector on the back with one brown wire soldered to it running inside. There was another pin which appeared to have a wire soldered to it in the past but no wire anymore.
Now I already own a PET. I have an original 2001-8 with a blue crt bezel and Blue sticker with a serial number under 11000. This one has a serial number above 31000 and it has a black CRT Bezel and Back sticker. The board is also labeled 1977 with 6550 RAM. ( I do own a loose 1978 board and its interesting to note it has 2114 ram sockets so only the 1977 board had the ill-fated 6550 chips.
Upon unscrewing the base from the top to open it up I was surprised to see a hard CB radio Speaker suspended below the CRT housing with zipties. I assume this system was modded for sound? Two wires from the speaker run to the screw taps on the large capacitor and one runs to that edge connect on the back of the system.
You will also notice the main power connector has a scorch mark on it, and upon removing it you can see it has burned the board connector as well. You can see the RAM displays 642 Bytes so most of the 6550 RAM is BAD. I tried swapping it around but now it displays 41 bytes?! I need to reach out to tynemouth for a Video RAM replacement and RAM/ROM replacement board. No sense in fooling with 6550 RAM they are just used up at this point. Every time the unit power cycles the cassette drive whirs. I need to swap out the belt and clean the head.
Now here is something to note. When you turn off the CRT.. IT has an EXTREMELY bright spot in the center. Much brighter than I have seen on any other B&W CRT. I know Adrian Black had a video or two on that I need to go back and watch. Like my other 2001-8 the video cable is temperamental and the video goes out when you touch the cable. I need to work on that as well.
There is a repair sticker on the rear from Feb 1985. I assume RAM chips were replaced as they are a hodge podge of mixed chips with the newest dates from 1980
All in all a great pickup. My other 2001-8 was in far worse shape when I got it and the KB was destroyed. This should be pretty easy to remedy.
I drove an hour and 45 minutes to his home to pick it up this morning and here is what I got: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PSMm3h66cGfjb7e26
When I arrived He told me the computer was in his car as he was still moving in to that home. There it was in his backseat. I would have popped the hood but it still had the original screws in place and as we were outside and it was so nice out tody I was taking the Machine regardless.. I mean its a PET. Even if it didn't have the main board, I would still take it.
HE included a book from Commodore (book not manual) and he mentioned two of the keys on the keyboard were missing springs. I am quite familiar with rebuilding the 2001 chiclet keyboard so thats no big deal. I put the computer in the rear of the station wagon and headed home.
When I got home I notice two keys were missing. As if something fell on them and broke them off at the stems! I found them loose in the rear of the car. I am guessing they were broken when he had them and that's why he mentioned no springs. I think he wasn't aware they were broken. I will attempt to fix the stems with plastic welding, worst case I will take two from my spare chiclet keyboard (does anyone know if there are 3d print files for chiclet keyboard stems?). Either way its good to know I have the keycaps for a complete keyboard.
What I found on inspection atr home was a card edge connector on the back with one brown wire soldered to it running inside. There was another pin which appeared to have a wire soldered to it in the past but no wire anymore.
Now I already own a PET. I have an original 2001-8 with a blue crt bezel and Blue sticker with a serial number under 11000. This one has a serial number above 31000 and it has a black CRT Bezel and Back sticker. The board is also labeled 1977 with 6550 RAM. ( I do own a loose 1978 board and its interesting to note it has 2114 ram sockets so only the 1977 board had the ill-fated 6550 chips.
Upon unscrewing the base from the top to open it up I was surprised to see a hard CB radio Speaker suspended below the CRT housing with zipties. I assume this system was modded for sound? Two wires from the speaker run to the screw taps on the large capacitor and one runs to that edge connect on the back of the system.
You will also notice the main power connector has a scorch mark on it, and upon removing it you can see it has burned the board connector as well. You can see the RAM displays 642 Bytes so most of the 6550 RAM is BAD. I tried swapping it around but now it displays 41 bytes?! I need to reach out to tynemouth for a Video RAM replacement and RAM/ROM replacement board. No sense in fooling with 6550 RAM they are just used up at this point. Every time the unit power cycles the cassette drive whirs. I need to swap out the belt and clean the head.
Now here is something to note. When you turn off the CRT.. IT has an EXTREMELY bright spot in the center. Much brighter than I have seen on any other B&W CRT. I know Adrian Black had a video or two on that I need to go back and watch. Like my other 2001-8 the video cable is temperamental and the video goes out when you touch the cable. I need to work on that as well.
There is a repair sticker on the rear from Feb 1985. I assume RAM chips were replaced as they are a hodge podge of mixed chips with the newest dates from 1980
All in all a great pickup. My other 2001-8 was in far worse shape when I got it and the KB was destroyed. This should be pretty easy to remedy.
