Narwhal

Yes this is a pretty good way to think about it as tracks, or signals that are each processed separately. If you want to further understand what each of the components is doing in this circuit, I recommend http://en.wikipedia.org/ as an excellent source. Here is how the rectifier turns the AC in DC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier The device in the schematics you are looking at that has the squigly connections and the plus and minus outputs is a full-wave rectifier. It take an alternating current that has no net force in any particular direction and converts it into a pulsing positive current with a net forward or positive direction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier#Full-wave_rectification You can think of AC current as a force pushing and pulling a boat that is sitting the water. Whereas the full-wave rectified DC current is a force pushing a boat in pulses such that the end result is that the boat moves forward. But since the boat is receiving pulses of full-wave rectified DC, it also pulses forward with lots of starts and stops. We need to smooth these pulses by taking a bit of the strong part of the pulse and filling in the stops. Since capacitors store up charge and release it this is where they come into play. The capacitors in the circuit are smoothing out the pulse in this full-wave rectified DC current, so that the regulator will receive a steady flow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor The capacitors in that circuit are in parallel which means that they add together to form one big capacitor. They both have voltage ratings that ensure that they will be less likely to blow up giving the voltages that they will see. If you were to hook up an oscilloscope to the outputs of the capacitors, you will see voltage flows in almost steady DC, but with minor ripples in it. This is where the regulator comes in. Then you have the regulators making sure that what comes out is the DC voltage that you wanted. It removed the ripples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_regulator In some ways a regulator can also be thought of as a protector. It can shut down if it sees too much current draw at its output, or blow out if it sees too much voltage at its input. This might not actually "protect" anything else in your circuit, but I have doubt that things could get much worse if it wasn't there in the first place. Hope that helps a bit.

I'd like to get in on an order of these knobs. Ultimately, how many I'd like to get will depend on the cost, but I'd think that 50 would be a starting number.

I didn't dissolve away the clear part of the label on mine at all. The only parts that were really clear on mine are the inside of the big letters and inside of the pot holes. Once you clear coat the whole label, you wont even know if there were clear parts remaining or not.. they just dissapear. Is there some reason you have to dissolve the clear part of the label?

1) I used a high resolution color laser printer (Konica 2550) 2) I used a heat gun that was sold in the electronics section specifically to shrink heat tubing. It gets hot enough to burn you, but not so hot that it will strip paint. The air from it often brushed my fingers enough to go OW! and pull my hand away, but it wasn't quick enough burn. 3) From the moment the label was printed, I handled the paper and the panel wearing latex gloves. 4) Before I drilled any holes, in fact before touching either the transfer or the metal with my bare hands to avoid oil transfers, I sprayed the panel slowly with light coats several time until it built up a thick gloss. I use clear acrylic Krylon as per the lasertrans instructions. Then I let it sit for 24hrs before I drilled it, and I think I could have let it sit longer to really harden up. I thought for sure that something bad might happen to the decal once it was drilled, but the acrylic really added a strong hard coat above the decal and the holes cut as clean as metal. I intend to write up a really detailed webpage on my usage of lasertrans ... I'm a huge fan of the stuff now. I was hoping to do this as I printed the transfers for the back panel, but I've been lazy now that my 9090 is all together and working. (I updated this post because I realized it read funky)

I have similar results with Lasertran on my 9090 as well. Turned out amazing, but I nicked the word power while it was in a delicate state -> before clear coating. http://www.potm.org/Kurt%20Arnlund/9090.html I used a hot air gun (purchased to heat shrink tubing), to really soak the toner into the paper before applying it to the metal. This REALLY glossed up the color. Kurt

The pyramid of life hehe. So TK.. you say "It works with a 6582 or 8580, but not with a 6581". Right now I have 5 6581's.. I've had to kill a lot of C64's and C128's just to get the 6581's I have. How on earth do I locate 6582's or 8580's??? I've scoured all the C64 parts sites I've found. Is there some secret that only a few people here know? I _want_ that sound.

TK, your demos are so sick. :D In a very good way. They make me giddy with excitement to hook my MBSID boards up and try it all out. I'm about a few hours of wiring away from finishing my 9090 though, so that project is coming first. I can already hear the two projects together in my head and I see many sleepless nights ahead. Thanks for always tossing out the audio. I don't think anything here inspires more than hearing what I'm headed toward. ;D

I bought one of these from there and it's awesome. Works great and is built beautifully. I have been searching for an ME-1 for years. Highly recommended. ;D

I'm actually using this exact display for my projects. I just got it connected up over the weekend and it works perfectly. Oh, one note: I did have to turn the brightness down just right on core card for the characters to show up.. there is a small range of settings on the brightness control that make it work. BTW: AllElectronics is an awesome recycled electronics store. I went there on a whim 2 weeks ago to buy some press-n-peel for making my PCB's. I filled a hand bucket with way over $50 of parts from throughout the store. I was throwing in tons of their best audio jacks, 5Pin DIN midi ports, cables, audio taper pots, 2 of those 40x2 LCD's, really nice chip sockets, you name it. When I went up to pay the guy said how about $25 for this entire bucket! Of course I agreed 100%. They were really nice and obviously willing to deal. Two thumbs up. -K