I got myself a C128DCR about 4 years ago, and have been considering the JiffyDOS option for a while. Thanks to this video, I now kow exacty how to go about it. Thank you so much.
The reason for the 1571 JiffyDOS ROM having PAL and NTSC versions is because the C128DCR PAL systems had intermittent timing problems with JiffyDOS between the computer and the floppy. On PAL systems with the original version of the JiffyDOS 1571 ROM, doing a @$ from JiffyDos would sometimes result in display errors in the directory. The PAL systems ran a little slower than the floppy so Jim had to develop the two .bins to account for this.
One day, a retro youtuber is going to clamp a piece of wood onto the back of the metal / plastic they're drilling through and not put the PCB at risk - but this is not that day ;) Great video as always!
it's not just RU-vidrs... i constantly think "I'm glad I'm not doing this on RU-vid" every time i work on my systems because I'd get tons of flack for everything i do. 😃
The c128 is the best 8bit micro made, Jiffydos is in my opinion an essential as is the drive switching, nice video, you are an animal with that drill 😆 lol
A customer brought me his C128 & 1571 in for repair. My repair work spent too much time in "testing phase", causing him much bother. I love my C64 and 1541, but after trying a C128 I can say: I love it! NICE! I want one for me.
I'm on the standpoint of "switches give them personality". So I am absolutely fine with drilling a few holes there. :) Nice mods. How about a few more C128 mod videos? Like the U36 roms and all.
Interesting that you have a Rockwell 6522 in the DCR. Good old Commodore, using 2nd sourced components rather than their own MOS version. It is probably better quality and will last longer.
For drilling cases, a step drill bit is very handy. Avoids an overshoot when you breakthrough the material you are drilling and then you can make the hole larger as needed by pushing on 🙂 Great videos, keep up the good work. Envious of the A1000 behind you!
If you want to have less obvious switches and you aren't changing the settings frequently you can always go with a "Dip Switch SPST 2 Position Through Hole" affixed behind a tidy cut square hole
Thanks Bil. So crazy you guys did all that work to make the board fit in the D, just to have Commodore release only the flat and later DCR in North America I believe. I'm glad your efforts didn't go in vain, it seems there were a number of the plastic D's sold in Australia and I prefer it over the DCR. And uh, sorry about the holes ;-)
Lol, too traumatic? Although it's hard to tell in the video, they actually are straight and look pretty neat. S/N is DA4 48176 on the D The DCR was HB1 012101 And I have another D here with DA4 47076
Nice how-to but it left me with one question. @28:30 You guide the yellow wire under the resistor but you attach a connector so you can easily remove said wire. Wouldn't it make it impossible to remove the wire because now it is trapped underneath the resistor or did I miss something?
You did miss something but only because I didn't show it. After the drama with bridging J4, I needed to pull everything out again and that wire going under the resistor was changed so it no longer runs under it
12:36, that was scarier than watching Predator when I was a kid. 😵 These C128D vids really make me regret getting rid of mine. It was dead but still a cool piece, never be able to get another one these days $$$.
These were the computers I grew up with, most of us has no issues with drilling holes for reset, rom switches or whatever the mod required . After all it is a personal computer
Entertaining, as always. I have no issue with adding switches if they are unobtrusive, as yours are. However, I cringed when I saw you drilling the metal case without a piece of wood clamped to the inside.
Have you ever done a dual SID mod for stereo? I would love to see that done. Great video, though. I have never even seen a C128. My uncle had a C64, but we were never allowed to use it. It was too expensive for kids to play with. On a different note, I wish I had my eyes back. There is so much stuff I need to solder but my eyes can't focus on anything less than a half inch pad! This is similar to when I put a switch in my Amiga 500 to switch from fast ram to chip ram.
There's a video from a while back on the channel looking at the ARM2SID stereo capabilities ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-i0zcMzC8VZo.html
I performed a mod like this to my 128DCR a while ago, but I installed 4 switches, 1 on the left side for JiffyDOS, then 3 on the right, 2 set the 1571 ID and the 3rd disables the 1571 by interrupting the ATN signal, thus making the 1571 deaf.
Love your work sir, more switches the better!! For the flat, I repurposed the caps lock key as my JiffyDOS switch due to the space limitations on that case.
I ABSOLUTELY love C128D and A1000... I am waiting for the selfless benefactor that will allow me to put one of them or both in my life. Esp. one of those having MANY... :(
Yeah I LOVE my 128DCR! I traded my mint SX-64 for it, and I absolutely love it. I use it more than any other 8bit I've owned. I did make the mistake of trying to retrobrite the keyboard and it came out all splotchy, so I pushed it further and now it's not splotchy but bleached way too light. I wish I'd left it yellow. Now I need to wait a year or two for it to yellow again! :| Lesson, if you use hydrogen peroxide cream, rinse and replace it every 15 to 30 minutes. I fell asleep :(
I do it with 10% liquid peroxide. u use a clear plastic tub to keep the parts submerged under the peroxide. You can add some water to the peroxide but make sure its distilled water,otherwise minerals in the water can stain. did tons of amiga and c128 stuff and never a splotchy problem or faded keys etc.
Hello, amazing video, following you guide and the links, but only the jiffy dos part of the 128 and 64 mode is working when I switch to the original kernal the machine stays blank and drive keep spinning. I am using 128dcr pal and the 318022-02 did you have any idea?
Could be an issue with the EPROM. Double check you added everything in the correct order, maybe use a different EPROM if you have another. Could also be a problem with the connection between 5V and A15 (pins 1 and 28 on the EPROM). Did you bend out pin 28 and put a 4.7k resistor between 28 and pin 1?
@@TheRetroChannel Thanks for the ansfer, i found the error looking your video again and again. i stupidly duplucated the basic rom 318022-02 (32K) instad of the complete kernal 318023-02 (32K). Since my old C128DCR came with custom not labeled sw/fi Kernal. I run into this issue. Now it should be fine... and again... Awesome Video. I've placed the two switches between the Front plate and the metal shield mounting them on the existing holes. Without drilling. Since i am using a SD2IEC most of the time i will not often change the switch positions.
What happened when you did the J4 direct jumper? I had found a 32 ROM file for the 128Flat/D with a unique part number that I used when switching my 128 Flat to 32k ROMs. I'm curious if my 128 Flat is having the issue you said you reported. I was having issues with loading some programs, but not all. I know it has some issue with the Cartridge port being unreliable that is unrelated, but I am wondering if some other issues with disks my be related to the non specific problem you mentioned having with J4.
It would seem to start loading just fine but would randomly fail with the disk drive led flashing. I couldn't find a way to trigger it to fail and went down the rabbit hole of thinking the disk drive had developed an issue. But it works perfectly after running the jumper wire
@@TheRetroChannel I'll have to look at mine closer sometime. It did seem to start loading from the pi1541 then stop for not good reason part way through. I was figuring it had to do with the cartridge port so, I shelved it while I think over what I might do to try to sort that out. I was looking forward to using it more especially as switching to your RF Module replacement really cleaned up the video output.
I have an A4000, a C1581, a C1551 all in original packaging. Setting al on fire tonight 20:00 CEST live on RU-vid. Stay tuned ... Shocking to watch this video ...
Hi Mark, I have made a mess of my 128D got it out after 4 years and the disk dive would read discs, made all the load sounds and the head was moving back and forward, I cleaned the heads and now it’s not really moved back and forwards and the noise is really quiet, I have played with the head stopper (dumb idea) anybody in Australia that could fix this or help guide me on next steps, I’ve had this since new, update, sounds like the to head it know hitting the disc so I would suggest I have stuffed it by messing with it and I have been pushing the head back and forth so I think I have stuffed it dose anybody have a working drive for a (D) in Australia
Ouch. Yeah those heads on the 1571 are very fragile, especially the top head. It has a thin metal strip that often bends out of shape. I've come across two drives with that issue and only had 50% success getting one working again. I can't offer any advice as I think I just got lucky, and finding a replacement working drive seems near impossible 🙁
I was wondering what RGB mod you were referring to for a minute. Yeah the Sony CRT is still on the list of things to do, and no that's not mine on ebay if it's the $280 one. Slightly different model
'a lot of software was coded to run from device 8'. well then the software is wrong. :P software ofcourse should always work with whatever diskdrive or harddisk you throw at it at any device id and if it does not go get your money back. :P 'muh it must have a 1541 on device 8'. (the cheapest and slowest and smallest capacity piece of crap commodore ever produced at that ;) software like that is just broken and needs debugging. also if it can't handle dual drive units on the same id.
Surely this mod isn't necessary. I have an SD2EIC on my 128D that seems to be working fine with disk images without issue, without any of these mods. I also have an Epyx fastloader cartridge which negates the main need for Jiffydos which would be speed up. The only issue I have is that I have to press the autoboot (C= + runstop) keys twice sometimes on boot up, but that even happened on my C64.
