First Week Recap
Entry posted by Blatboy ·
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Here's a recap of my first week building my MB-6582. Pics were taken on an iPad. I love my iPad for a lot of things, and it's camera is definitely not one of them.
I got my parts (so nice...so shiny) right before I had to split town a couple weeks. Once I got back, I was rarin to go.
Everything started off pretty smoothly. I was being vigilant about following the construction guide. So I started with resistors, diodes, and caps that were inside of IC sockets. Although I didn't notice this at the time, I missed a few, and I mad a pretty horrible error with the resistors, which you can see here if you see it. I'll go there later...
Then I added the sockets, resistor networks, and headers:
Then, as the construction guide says, I needed to make my decision as to what type of power supply to have. I'm going for option B. I have 8 8580 SIDs that I plan on using, but I also have a couple of 6581s, and want to have the ability to use those if needed. I figure SIDs are just going to get more scarce as time marches on, so it's good to have options. So, I put on option B:
So, I figure I'm ready to test, like the construction guide says. I scan a bunch of threads on the forum. I read somewhere that testing the power supply first to be sure it works is a good error checking policy. Sadly I'm still new enough that I shouldn't be sticking probes from my DVM onto the pins of a hot power supply. Even though I thought I did my research, I fried the PSU before I even tested my board! Not only that, all I had to do was turn on my C64 to see if the PSU was working. So, I felt like an idiot, but, it's not the first time I've felt like an idiot, and it won't be the last. Reading about how wonky those old C64 bricks are anyway, it got me thinking that I will probably either build my own linear PSU, or find some other way to avoid using the vintage one. But, to solve the immediate problem I had at hand, I was able to find a PSU here on the Midibox forums pretty quickly, which was awesome.
Since I couldn't work on the Base PCB anymore, I figured I'd work on the control surface until the PSU came in. I'm following Hawkeye's to do this. He also gives links to parts online, which helps sourcing incredibly. So, Here's the first few steps covered on the control surface:
And then, the new PSU came in today, much quicker than I thought possible. This is great, as the next step on the control board would require the front panel, which hasn't been completed yet. I tested the PSU on my C64 and it worked fine. So, I went through all the tests I was supposed to do on the base pcb, and everything checked out great. Awesome! So now I can start building the rest of the core and sid modules. I start to do this, then notice that I had put a whole row of resistors in holes meant for capacitors! Ugh.
I'm not the best at removing components yet. So, it took a lot of time, but I took the resistors out (ruining a lot of them, so I'll have to order some more.) First I used a solder sucker to get some of the solder out and then I put the iron on, one pin at a time, and gently tried to take the resistor out w/my needle nosed pliers. I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but I didn't seem to destroy any pads. Getting the solder out of the holes was a pain. Luckily I had some solder wick, and I figured this would be a good time to try it. I watched a couple vids on youtube (specifically this one) and gave it a go. It took longer than I liked, and I singed the board a little, but I was able to start getting the hang of it and clearing the holes. I didn't quite finish though. I'll start with that tomorrow.
Alright. Progress report concluded. Carry on...
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