A new arrival - Amstrad PPC512

[rubber_jonnie]

And so it begins...

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[rubber_jonnie]

So the display is out and it's a chonky boy...

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The huge modem is also out now to provide some space for the RPi and internal cables:

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And as I said the plastics need some help:

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The broken bits are what the entire display pivots on, so need to be solidly repaired before I can progress.

The flat HDMI cable is arriving today, plus I need to mod the LCD board to remove some parts (VGA in, composite in and the power socket) to reduce the profile so it fits in the display housing. I will double check that first but the vid's I've watched all do the same.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so working on repairing the pivots is tricky.

They are difficult because they are supposed to flex, but don't, I'm having to key the surface to try and get the grp to stick:

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But that reduces flexibility and makes things harder, so I need to figure out how I/m going to make fitting easier and the pivots less likely to fail when I try.

[stephen_usher]

Have you thought about melting the plastic to weld the side which will get the most tensional stress in addition to glue?

[rubber_jonnie]

Have you thought about melting the plastic to weld the side which will get the most tensional stress in addition to glue?

I have, the trouble is it's all very brittle, it's a bit of a fight. I'm just re doing one and am considering melting in some metal pins to add to it before I add the GRP on top.

In fact I just did the pins

Also, on the left hand side there is a guide down which the pivot is pushed to insert it:

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If I extend the hole to about halfway up then I can push it in with minimal force so less chance of another break but gravity will hold it in place during use.

I really don't want to push it too far, but I do need it to go back in. Can't believe both pivots broke off in the end.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so the plastics are fixed well enough now and I have made a small mod to allow for the screen to fit without requiring so much pressure, lessening the risk of them breaking again.

I did get the flat HDMI cable, but it doesn't work well with the space I have to work with as it too thick and not flexible enough, so I have an HDMI FFC coming so that should fix that, hopefully it'll be here today so I can get the screen finished and reinstalled.

Once the screen is reassembled with the new 'guts' then I can move onto connecting up the RPi internally and putting the whole thing back together.

I've already removed the VGA, composite and other connectors to get the display driver board down to minimal height ready for installing in the display itself, last one to remove id the barrel jack power connector which I'll do last before I finish the display off.

[rubber_jonnie]

So the FFC arrived and works just great

Here are the display internals:

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And the display all reassembled:

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This is just to prove the completed display works before I reassemble the display into the PPC512 and is a RGB2HDMI test pattern.

Yes, there is quite a bit of hot glue in there but that is simply to stabilise the install, which was done with double sided tape. With the hot glue there should be little scope for movement in all the parts whilst remaining flexible.

Next up the display can go back in and I need to solder in a cable to pick off the CGA signals internally and feed them to the RGB2HDMI and find 5v pickoffs for the display and the RGB2HDMI. I think I will be able to get this done fairly soon.

[exxos]

Nice !

[rubber_jonnie]

Nice !

Thanks. Also, no AI here

[rubber_jonnie]

So the internals are all in place and the RPi and display both have 5v.

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So all I need to do now is hook up the CGA port internally to the RGB2HDMI and providing all the video wiring is good then I can close it all up

Incidentally the DIP switches on the LHS need to be set like this:

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They are labelled 1-6 starting on the left side of the switch and are as follows:

1 - Off
2 - On
3 - On
4 - On
5 - Off
6 - Off

This is the position required for 80 column text and CGA external on.

There seems to be some discrepancy with the switch position for 1 in the manual, it appears to be the opposite of whats stated.

Nonetheless, these are the switch positions that work.