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Stuff and Things.

Blogs & guides and tales of woo by forum members.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

OK, so more on the Kraft joystick.

I've figured out what is broken. There is a metal piece which you can see in these photos:

IMG20251224142235.jpg
IMG20251224142235.jpg (189.29 KiB) Viewed 155 times
IMG20251224142250.jpg
IMG20251224142250.jpg (162.31 KiB) Viewed 155 times
IMG20251224142300.jpg
IMG20251224142300.jpg (195.16 KiB) Viewed 155 times

And it is suppose to have a pivot pin, however as you can see it's snapped off. So I need to figure out how I can replace it in order to return the joystick to its natural order.

Annoyingly its made of die cast metal, which is why I think it failed in the first place, so first I need to find a suitable pin, next I need to figure out how I can fit it.

At least I know whats wrong with it :)
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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stephen_usher
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by stephen_usher »

I guess a steel tube with a machine screw down the centre and then drill and thread a hole in the casting might work.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

stephen_usher wrote: Wed Dec 24, 2025 3:41 pm I guess a steel tube with a machine screw down the centre and then drill and thread a hole in the casting might work.
More or less exactly what I was thinking of 😁

Great minds 👍
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Well things are getting better:

First image of the problem:

IMG20251222223404 (1).jpg
IMG20251222223404 (1).jpg (188.87 KiB) Viewed 136 times

And how it is as of today:

IMG20251225084008.jpg
IMG20251225084008.jpg (197.35 KiB) Viewed 136 times

So definitely getting better even if it's slow.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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JezC
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by JezC »

Good improvement with the screen so far :D
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

JezC wrote: Thu Dec 25, 2025 9:01 am Good improvement with the screen so far :D
Definitely :)

Just wondering how long the whole thing will take to fade completely. Even if it's a couple of weeks I can live with that.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

OK, so with regards to the Kraft joystick, looking back at the metal piece that broke, I'm just not sure it has enough meat in the metal to take drilling and fitting of a new pin.

Not only that, I suspect it would just break further with any pressure applied to it and the springs are quite strong. So I think it's time to warm up my metalworking skills to make something new and stronger.

EDIT - I've ordered some materials so the Kraft is on hold for now.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Well, things are looking much improved on the screen front:

IMG20251227094118.jpg
IMG20251227094118.jpg (175.36 KiB) Viewed 101 times

It's still far from perfect, but it's way better than it was and improving daily so I'm hopeful with the passing of time it will get back to normal. Phew.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

OK, so the screen so far:

IMG20260104110649.jpg
IMG20260104110649.jpg (235.99 KiB) Viewed 58 times

Now the worst has gone the improvements are much much slower, however I tend to use dark mode most of the time, so it's becoming less of an issue now.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Stuff and Things.

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Well this is annoying:

IMG20260105162357.jpg
IMG20260105162357.jpg (201.63 KiB) Viewed 44 times

This is my 800XL with Rambo installed, but otherwise it's a stock machine. I've had it out today to try a few things out, but it's been a bit off. I guess this shows why, so I'll pop a more substantial RAM checker on to see what's what.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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