exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Acsi wrote: 03 Sep 2026 20:19

Nice.

Are you going to put it in a case or will it be a bare board?

Thanks @rubber_jonnie

I am thinking of maybe just a base but am also thinking of trying to bend some acrylic sheet (I last bent some at school back in the early 1980s) as that will give me something to mount stuff on.

I'd be interested to see how you get on with that, I've not bent acrylic since school either, probably a similar timeframe to you.

So first attempt. Not bad but angled and a bit wonky.


Kept going with that bit after having a second attempt at it (an advantage of acyclic sheet is the you can reheat it and try again it seems). 2nd bend got to hot and blistered a bit.


New sheet went better although I found that pressing to hard can leave dents from what your pushing it against (my old workbench)


And although not finished and only connected with what I had to hand rather than what it needs

Acsi wrote: 07 Sep 2026 02:55 And although not finished and only connected with what I had to hand rather than what it needs

Not bad at all!

BW

A more completed case, albeit with a couple of mistake holes :D


It's not perfect but it is a Hackenstrad after all. The gaps are intentional and where I have bent the sheet isn't necessarily straight (far from it) but I like it.

A power switch and tape input connections have been done but so far no luck in getting something to load, might need an amplifier to boost the signal maybe? I don't have any tapes and my tzxduino reloaded v1.4 with maxduino v1.51 firmware doesn't want to play a CDT file so have been trying with a windows machine and a Samsung tablet. closest I got was to get a filename recognised and otherwise just get read errors.

Have ordered a ULIfAC which may make the tape connection redundant anyway.

Refreshed my TZXduino with tzxduino v1.18 firmware to replace the maxduinoq and it now plays CDT files ok


And just when I think I'm getting somewhere I the 6845 fails. Fairly certain that was the original chip and lucky I have a spare

Acsi wrote: 10 Sep 2026 02:43
And just when I think I'm getting somewhere I the 6845 fails. Fairly certain that was the original chip and lucky I have a spare

IMG_7981.jpeg

Pretty typical in these circles...

I took my OSI 600D to CL4 last year, I tested it before I left and then on the day - nope. Turned out to be a couple of 74LS logic chips.

Good progress though, always nice to see a machine brought back from the dead.

My first ever PCB and of course I completely forgot to take into account the case screw which needed to be removed but it works :D