The Commodore PET Rescue
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Hitting the road to pick up some Commodore stuff including an old Commodore PET 2001-8.
Frank's video on dealing with RAM/ROM issues on the PET 2001-8:
• Commodore PET 2001 rep...
Part 2: • PET Rescue Part 2: Tim...
Part 3: • PET Rescue Part 3: Rep...
Part 4: • PET Rescue Part 4 - It...
The PET is completely original and it never had a banner display. All that stuff was stored in my workshop for over 20 years. I'd decided all that stuff needed a new home and I couldn't think of a better person to take care of it than Adrian. It was a pleasure to meet you and give everything a good home.
Thanks for taking the time to think it through instead of just pitching it!
George, thanks for doing that. Now we have serious vintage geek out fodder for quite some time.
Brilliant George. I'm glad you didn't make the mistake I did 20 years ago with my Coco 3. Looking forward to seeing this stuff restored to its former glory.
I dig the Abom t-shirt and thanks for passing all that gear along!
George, you're a good man you are. Most folk just chuck their old kit in the shredder - not you though. A wee bit of history has now found a safe home.
Cheers for that mate! I'd buy you some beers but sadly I live on the other side of the planet from you ;)
Was completely expecting this to go like "we found this neglected pet all alone in the woods. It had its pins corroding and video signal scrambling."
on March 14 1978 I got an 8k PET 2001 for £695 and it started me off on the road to computing. I added a 32K memory expansion and a second cassette deck.I helped start a company called Petsoft that year and wrote programs for it. I gave up my job and went self employed for 4 years earning a living from the PET. I had a great time.
Having your personal PET next to your PC is really cute actually. It’s like a grandfather sitting next to his grandson.
Amazing how far technology has come since the 1970s. The very first computer I got to see was in fact a PET 2001 sometime in 1978. The first one I got to actually use was an Apple II around 1983, then I got a 64 for Christmas in 1984...
2001 is such a good fit product name wise. Total coincidence I’m sure but this looks like a futuristic prop from the Kubrick classic. Your excitement for this project is contagious. Can’t wait to see the rest of the series.
It would fit in so well
I'll wager you that _wasn't_ a coincidence. 😉
But yeah, the PET design is defo an eyecatcher. Plus you have to credit Commodore with their foresight in bringing to market what amounts to the first plug&play "appliance" computer with everything built-in. Granted, neither the datasette nor the "keyboard" were anything to write home about, even back in '77. 😫
1:32 I love the way the led strips in your modern PC case illuminate the PET. Really aesthetically pleasing.
Fun project! Really looking forward to watching this machine come back to its former glory. The PET has a special place in my heart because it was the first computer I ever used, and it really got me started on the path to an eventual career in tech. When I was young my parents would send me to summer camp, every year, without fail. I. HATED. IT. WITH. A. BURNING. PASSION. I'm NOT what you would call an "outdoors type." Well somehow one of the camp counselors must have gotten wind that I was into electronics, video games, etc. (maybe they heard me talking with someone or something) and they made a deal with me: if I participated in the day's activities, in good faith, as best I could, then during the evenings they would let me play with the computer in the camp office. Which happened to be one of these exact model of PET. (I remember that wonky keyboard well.) I would happily while away the evenings playing games loaded from cassette tape and generally messing around with it, and eventually I taught myself BASIC and started writing my own games and other programs. The rest, as they say, is history.
It brings a massive smile to my face to see these old machines pop back into life ;) I'd love a pet just don't have the space...at the moment ;)
Looking forward to the series. PETs and TRS-80 Model IIIs is what we had in our High-School computer lab. So yeah, looking forward to seeing it restored.
What a generous gift! People will criticize you for powering before cleanup and inspection but there's something fascinating about a grubby old "junk" machine booting up after years on the heap.
Looking forward to this series! Thanks so much Adrian!
"Something I was able to find locally in Portland for $10". God dammit, why can I never find these bargains?
The PET was what I used in high school until we moved "up" to a T!99-4A. I repaired a crack in one of the copper traces on the motherboard and it performed flawlessly. Somehow one of those green capacitors had gotten whacked and it broke the copper track. There was enough lead left to solder it back together. The thing had been gathering dust in a library for who knows how long.
The TI99/4a may be better for gaming but the PET is certainly the more versatile machine of the two with its GPIB interface.
@@douro20 One of my former employers used a 3000 series PET for instrumentation and data acquisition in their research lab -- specifically because of the GPIB. It actually was the lab's first computer when it was founded in '79. The PET was last used as part of a "multicamera optical system" before gathering dust in the lab's basement. That PET is now in my possession, and still doing well. (Ok, the monitor's horizontal linearity is a bit out of whack; probably needs a new cap in the deflection).
How funny! I first assumed it was a review of the Commodore Plus/4 game " Pet Rescue" that came out a while back! Nope! A real Pet! Nice find, and I am glad you are bringing them all back to life.
There is an Amiga 2000!!
I would love one.
I loved mine. It actually was my favorite Amiga (I started with an A1000). It was a mistake when I "upgraded" to the A3000. I love my A3000 (in fact, I hope to successfully replace the CMOS battery later today), but the A2000 was just special. Great keyboard, lots of room for expansion, serious looking case...
@@Hiraghm Im in the same boat - sold my A2000 for a pittance (cos needed the money - same old story) but kept my 4000. Love the 4000, but it just feels sterile next to my 2000. My very first amiga was a 1200. long gone. Aah hindsight.
Ah, the PET 2001. What a design masterpiece. Had one of these back in the day. Great to see someone restoring it to its former glory.
I think we all want to see you clean this.
@Adrian Black
I have no memories of Commodore computers at all, but your video's about them are very compelling. You, The 8-Bit Guy and Perifractic are fascinating to watch! If the gentlemen who donated all of that equipment is watching, Thank You sir for your generosity! It's going to be great fun watching Adrian rebuild/restore these classic computers!
Check out RetroManCave as well!
@@subtledemisefox
Oh yeah, I'm sub'd there as well! Good stuff!
Good to hear people are hearing about commodore computers. They ruled the late 70s-early 90s by far outstripping most other computer manufacturers combined sales. They lived fast and died young. Long live the chicken head! C=
Oh my God I owned a Commodore pet 2001 which I Purchased from Rick Inatone Back in November 1978. I programmed that computer day and night, I peaked and poked the memory. I can remember typing Hexadecimal code into the machine to program a chess game. I wrote basic computer software programs and actually stored them on cassette tape. It took 20 minutes to back up the 8K of memory and you had to do that three times just to make sure one of the copies was readable. My first big endeavor was to program a bowling league sheet which I printed on the commodore dotmatrix printer. I eventually programmed my business using Commodore 8032’s coupled with the hard disk drives, what fond memories. I actually have video tape of me playing chess on the computer with my son on my lap, as he was only less than one years old. Thank you for bringing back such memories.
I think you are doing a better job of repairing these machines that I could. Last time I fixed one was a few years ago at a Commodore event in Vegas! It took me two days to fix one there.
At least there wasn't an ant's nest inside.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Mine had 3x-4x more dust when I got it...it looked like something out of Indiana Jones.
It’s absolutely crazy that this has roughly .1 percent of the total compute power of the smartphone that is in your pocket.
I love the pet.
i reckon i drove that road last year when i was over there with my mate here from AU. was absolutely fabulous to see mt hood, i love oregon absolutely beautiful part of the world. great video dude keep up the awesome work mate.
One of my fellow students at college in the late 1970's had a Pet just like this one. He used to bring it in to the college for our micros class. We used to use a terminal to run our simple programmes on the Open University Main Frame. We didn't have any computers in the college it self. So seeing the PET was quite a memorable experience!
I built my own Acorn Atom from a kit soon afterwards!
Great video! It really is amazing this thing just turns on after all these years. I look forward to seeing your progress on this in future videos.
You look SO happy lol eagerly waiting next video!
That PET computer in your office looks so good in that low light. setting. A work of art.
My first Computer and how it all began for me. Love to see your videos how to bring back this old fellows alive. I kept my own one and it still works after repairing the keybord and replaced the datasette drive and it is a real attrachtion in my officeroom, protected by a display case.
Adrian, you are the ideal guy to have this and the other vintage classics! I'm so happy your viewer gave you these items. They are in excellent hands. Looking forward to all the fun and educational restoration vids that will come from all of the wonderful gear. Your excitement is contagious! Enjoy!
The Pet 4016 was the first computer I ever got to use as a kid in the late 70’s. It is also the first computer I learnt BASIC on. Fond memories.
Dude, you have the BEST friends! This is so exciting just to see!
Love it! I'd love to get a PET 4032 at some point. I used one of those a bit in elementary and Jr High School... same soft spot in my heart as C=64 Logo has... I took a summer class around that age where I did Logo programming on a C=64. :D
Awesome video - looking forward to you restoring this and the other treasures you got...
Oooh, the PET 2001-8, exactly the model that I got my first computer hands-on experience with. Now I'm going to have to watch the rest of this series. 😍
i have only a tiny fraction of your technical skill, but the first thing i would do with something like this is blow out all the dust. i look forward to hearing about all the contacts being cleaned in the next video. hopefully no chips that are going bad, just dirty connections like you said.
It's amazing that a 40+ year old computer that hasn't been switch on in decades still works. It looks absolutely amazing with all that dirt and crud on it. I would be tempted leave it dirty.
I with you on the PET. It's the first computer I ever used. Thinking back to 1980 when I was in kindergarten. Pretty cool stuff for an impressionable 5 year old. Our school system used PETS for a lot of years. It wasn't until around 1986 that we saw an apple.
Nice rescue :) I was 3 years old as well in mid 1978 when your PET was manufactured :D
I've seen Commodore PET live only once in 1992 or 1993 when I was studying. It was in storage room, unused at that point. Looked the same as the one you showed clips about next to your new computer.
Looking forward to see videos about the other Commodore stuff as well.
You have a veritable fortune in Amigas on that table! Nice clean A4000, nice looking 2000, and some good looking keyboards to boot. Lucky!
You're a lucky man to recieve all these wonderful machines Adrian....and it's nice to know that they're in caring hands too! I'm looking forward to the upcoming restoration videos and hope that the A2000 board isn't too corroded.
Top stuff!...this is going to be awesome :)
OMG, what an EPIC score! There's enough neat stuff there to last you well into the summer.
Can't wait to see the other videos on this, it's a shame it wasn't broke so we could watch you fault find and repair. I am from the UK and this was the 1st computer I ever laid hands on, it was a school computer around 1980. I have always wanted one but they are so expensive now.
I really enjoy your enthusiasm in your videos. I have zero interest in restoring old PCs but you make the topic interesting/contagious.
Okay so I listened to this on the road yesterday, obvs. couldn't actually watch it while driving...now that I see it I am DEEP GREEN with ENVY. DUDE! You scored an A4000?!?!?!?!?!?! AN A2000?!?!?! All those 1084S's?! C64s...holy shit...man...damn it. I'd give anything (well, I have no money lol) to have a big box Amiga again. Wow. Good find my friend, you baby those suckers. Hopefully your first task will be removing the VARTA batteries from those two jewels!
I had an old Commodore calculator with the Nixie tube. Yes, those keys on the Pet look just like the calculator keys!!!
Great video -- you've had better luck than most on those machines. One very minor pedantic point: The "PET 2001 Series" does include models (most in fact), that use 2108 and 4116 DRAM chips. The only models that used the MOS 6550 SRAM chips were the 2001-4 and 2001-8 (sometimes called the 2001C machines to differentiate them from the 2001N and 2001B models). You can check gallery.zimmers.net for more info on the PET 2001 series.
Ya, only the very early ones have 6550s. I know one of mine does. One is a black badge and the other is a blue badge. I bought a few 2114 SRAM adapters in case I have a burn out later. That said, I barely use them. I just keep them working and preserved.
My chiclet PET 2001-8 uses TMS4045-45NL Static RAM chips.
@@peterlamont647 I think all black-badged ones use DRAMs. Mine has a 320137 main board.
Beautiful! I'm a Denver native, so I love mountains! I would love to visit the Pacific Northwest-I HAVE to see the Goonies house in Astoria, and I'd love to visit Boeing and Microsoft in Washington. Bend, Oregon is where the last Blockbuster is! Great pickups!
What a nice find, and it almost works too! Looking forward to the other parts!
Nice to see even more Commodore peeps in the pacific northwest!
That dirt road looks like the Autobahn compared to my driveway. LOL.
Great! Looking forwards to seeing you tackle this .. thing. ;)
Love your enthusiasm, it's quite infectious. Keep up the fun content, watching every video!
Big fan of PET myself, got an 8032 with the dual 8050 drive. One of the nicest designs ever, I think. Not the computer itself I mean, but the actual aesthetics of it all. Space-age beauty!
Looking forward to seeing more!
Wire up a USB-to-serial cable to connect the 4016 to the PC. You could use the PET to display CPU load, RAM usage, fans, temperatures, etc...
Wow, i am impressed, So much donations. I can't wait to see the videos of it. :) my First "PC" was a Commodor PC 20 III and Later an IBM PC 80286 But before i had a Commodore Amiga 500.
We had one of these at school this very model, in amongst the ZX Spectrums and BBC Model Bs. It was the old machine in the corner that no one was interested in (this was around 6th grade in the mid 1980s for me). But I was fascinated by it because I had a Vic 20 at home and the similarities for programming were obvious. I tried to get Vic programs working on the Pet and vice versa, the tape deck on the Pet was very unreliable but I did get it partially working which was exciting for a nerdy kid ;)
That brings back some memories.
My high school computer lab was a bunch of PET 4032s, all sharing a single printer and floppy drive (one massive stack of parallel port cables tied together)
pileofstuff - we had that exact same spec in college, and didn’t have any PCs until I left Uni
Wash that board! Depending on where you live, dust can be conductive, and ruin electrical connections.
That was the first PET I used in high school at the BTHS Physics Dept. Computer club in '78 and then we got the other 2001 with the full keyboard. Strange; the newer 2001s with the large keyboard used 2114s Static RAM Chips and 4108/4116 Dynamic RAM chips. Putting/upgrading that PET with more RAM should not be a problem.
Later in HS ('80/'81), the Math Dept. got a bunch of 4016s to teach programming on but being a computer club member, I was head of the class and the teacher who did not know anything about programming.
I've seen a RAM expansion board for the PETs that fit that slot.But that was a long time ago.
This was the first computer I used at school alongside a westrex teletype connection to the local university’s ICL 2904 mainframe back in 1978 when I was 15/16. Watch out for the keyboard as the letters are just stickers and are very easy to peal off. Wrote my first basic program on that ver6 model of Commodore PET.
Fond memories of this model indeed!!
Went to Secondary School ( ages 11 - 16 ) here in the UK from 1978-1983.
For most of that time we had a single Pet 2001-8 , in a school of over 1200 kids!!!
In fact most of my o-level course work was done on this solitary Pet ( or by sending a hand written listing to the local University where they transferred it onto Punch cards to be used on the Main Frame !!! )
Used to bribe the caretaker to let us stay after hours so we could use it.
Hours & hours in typing in programs from various magazines & books when I was supposed to be doing Computer Science coursework .
Even more hours spent playing - 2 games stand out in my middle aged memory - Star Trek & Nightmare Park
Would really love to be able to find one & give it a good home
Wow what a haul! Very generous guy :) Looking forward to seeing that beauty restored!
What a fantastic find! Can’t wait for the next video!
Awesome gift Adrian. I love your restore video's. Excellent quality content and a lot of enthusiasm! Keep on going!
Wow, great findings from the outback of Oregon ;) . George really had a kind of a collection of classic top-computers in stock - look at this incredible tiny space key on the PET ;)
Right away I notice that George has an Abom79 shirt. If you're even slightly into machining, that's a good channel to follow.
Wow you're very lucky to have donations like that ... Get it back to looking and working like new ... You never know it may last another 40 years...
We had a 4016 for a long time. Definitely fond memories. We replaced it with a B128 with an 8050 dual floppy drive (!)
What a marvellous machine! I'm glad you're going to restore it and put it to its former glory.
Looking forward to the next video!
I just wonder if you intentionally skipped the opportunity of calling it "The Oregon PET Trail" ;-)
The computer lab for my highschool had a PET sitting in the back of the room. It would power on but the keyboard wouldn't do anything. This was in 1995 and I also remember the room was full of fresh new base model 486sx Packard Bell computers.
Thank you, George
I would definitely replace that big capacitor in the power supply - you do NOT want to experience one of those venting, especially as they often had no safety vents!!
I've never seen one of these go bad.
sadly, i almost feel like whatever chinese part you replace it with today could actually be worse than what's already in it. I can't tell you how many times those old 70's and early 80's capacitors i've gone to replace have actually been closer to spec then the new ones.
@@brianv2871 who said anything about a chinese part? Plenty of good manufacturers to choose from such as Kemet, Nichicon or Vishay
@@jaycee1980 I'm just reluctant to swap out capacitors that still work but good to know you can get new quality replacements for that part.
I Loved my commodore pet in the early 80's, that exact model too, great to see one being restored, I wish I still had mine.
Oh at the start of the video the Mountain looked like a face or is it just me?
Thanks for the great video's, love retro!
Great to see it working, so nice to share your happiness
Looking forward to your restoration of this computer.
Nice catchy title. I'm glad the PET didn't get euthanized. (Or end up in the wrong hands)
Don’t forget to neuter!
This will be a really interesting series to follow. Keep up the nice work.
The big blue Mallory CGS series cap went leaky in my 2001. Last time I took it for a spin, the transformer hummed like crazy and clearly wasn't happy, so I immediately pulled the plug before blowing the primary. The Mallory is originally 27000µF, which is an odd value (it's also a LOT bigger than the one in this video). The closest replacement I found is a 24000µF KEMET, which is much smaller; not sure if it's still long enough for the original mounts. Given that the tolerance is probably 20%, I expect 24000µF is still ok. Mouser and Digikey still list the Mallory CGS series in Europe, but they cost about triple compared to the KEMETs, plus double for shipping!
Also, the fuseholder on my 2001 broke too, though it was actually the plastic post that cracked and separated where it passes through the case, exposing the metal contact and shorting it to the case! This happened while I removed the fuse to check it (assuming it had blown due to the essentially shorted cap). Luckily these are easy to replace, though the 6.3mm fuses are less common in Europe. The original fuse -- rated "3/4" at 250V, so presumably 0.75A -- is still intact, so that's good news.
P.S. The top half of my 2001 is actually RIVETED to the back hinge, so removing it isn't an option. I wonder if this is the case (pardon the pun) with all later PETs.
What a find! Goldmine! Hope to see some great content of yours about all the stuff you managed to dig up!
love your channel and your enthusiasm
Great score! Looking forward to the next PET-video!
Looking forward to the rest of the series, dude- I love your videos.
On old dusty computers like this with dual row ICs, I'd recommend carefully pulling the socketed ICs and cleaning the contacts manually. Use a glass scratch brush on the IC pins, and a small contact file in the sockets if absolutely necessary, after a good swipe with alcohol and a toothbrush as the first course of treatment. De-Oxit is good stuff, but it helps to get things as clean as possible first before using it around PCBs, because it will tend to wash the contaminants onto other parts of the board where they can cause issues. Honestly though, I'd probably ultrasonic the whole board too, and replace all the electrolytics as a matter of course. It doesn't seem that much is wrong with that PET other than some poor contact surfaces and/or dust bridging lines.
I was 4 lol. Nice enthusiastic video. Grabbing popcorn...
the expansion port carries a full bus up to address line 11 along with quite a few pre-decoded select signals and as such... yes. you can hook up pretty much anything you want to it and i'm sure people did and many still do (mainly considering that the thing lacks both rs232 and any other sort of network capability - the pets don't even do software bitbanging rs232 on the userport. at least not without loading the routines for it yourself. so yeah i do guess quite a few people instantly soldered a 6850 to that ;) besides that. other than the keyboard, the basic revision they originally shipped with (most have been modified to basic 4 anyway), some other obvious things. it's pretty much the same machine as a 4016/32 or 8016/32 they all seem to have the video ram in the same spot, 1 via and 2 pias, in the same spots too. they also all have $0401 as the load address, so it's not like the 2001 is gonna do anything more or less than your other pet :P other than having a bit less ram and a worse keyboard :P the only thing potentially causing incompatibilities between the pet series is the various different keyboard versions when decoding them directly... some differences in the character roms for 'international' versions, and the 'basic 2 or 4' (along with different kernal and editor roms to accomodate that) thing. (not that it seems to make much of a difference while running programs as basic 4 is just microsoft basic too. just with another number ;) as for the 'just soldering stuff to that expansion port' eh yeah well gotta keep in mind the previous model was the kim-1 :P lol. and other such things which come with a piece of prototyping board to solder onto on board of all things :P i do think many people 'added some stuff' but no. not with a connector and a cartridge housing around it. :P lol.
Fantastic! Kind of freaked me out when you just plugged it in - check those voltages!! Cheers!
Really looking forward to the restoration ! Greetings from Europe !
Amazing! Alway good to see someone give his PET some love!
Noooooo! I want to see the whole restauration in one video 😊 Awesome stuuf, definitely hooked for the whole series!
I never understand why I am always seeing people "just turn it on". I always take power supplies off the rest of the system,u nhook the monitor then test the psu voltages. This makes sure you don't cook components because of a bad PSU.
What power supply? You mean the A/C transformer?
@@brianv2871 The voltage regulation circuitry in particular. Capacitors and diodes tend to be a weak point. If the regulation fails, many times the fault is overvoltage, or passing AC through to the main boards, or otherwise.
@@wolvenar Well, it's been my experience that A/C Transformers rarely fail and if they do, they provide less voltage and not more voltage. It's usually the voltage regulators that go bad and provide over current (like on a c64 power supply). Since there is no 'power supply' on a PET 2001, all the regulators are part of the logic board, there is no way to test it without turning it on (short of unsoldering and removing the regulators or cutting traces on the board).
@@brianv2871 Yes I realize that it is probably onboard regulation. Many S100 systems have similar. The S100 systems LOVE to sport shorted tantalum capacitors which generally burn traces well before the caps cook. Guess it's just my overcautious way of doing things. I will go through quite large lengths to separate any power systems , sometimes apply dummy load and test before letting it power up the rest of the system. It gets quite complicated in some things to do that, but I think the PET wouldn't be all that bad. Lift a few component legs, solder on some wire and find a suitable load to test. The load is both to make sure it does work under similar load to normal, and many means of power regulation do not stabilize until under a load. Yes I see regulators fail as well, but that PET is getting back far enough where I was seeing circuitry that proceeded the integrated voltage regulators. Not that they didn't exist, but they were still prohibitively expensive. I have not yet worked on a PET so excuse my ignorance on the details. On my 5150 system (somwhat newer as you know) the 12v rail was over 30v when I did such a test as I got it. Of course the 5v was similarly high by design. Various VCRs and Pioneer Laser Disc systems also tend to be such offenders. MANY Bally pinball machines from the 80 have shorted bridge rectifiers which send AC into the rest of the DC systems. It r wreaks havok on the driver's. Occasionally I see eproms /cpu cooked from the AC leakage as well. Anyhow I'm sure you get my point and maybe understand why I am always overly cautious.
Super! I love Bend, I live near by, and I love Retro Computers! That makes this video the BEST EVER!
Very cool, I started my voyage into the cyber world with a C=128 and along the way have owned several other commodores from the VIC20 Plus4 and a few 64's even one 64SX that I used as my PC when I ran a PD many years ago. They were great machines in their day, I do miss the always boot of those old machines unlike the trash that we get from China now days
Absolutely mind blowing it just fired up like that! Can't wait to see how this one goes. Awesome.
Also, I noticed Amiga!!!
Great video can’t wait to see part two
At about 10:30 he frets about using a 1.5A fuse ("it's pretty beefy" and "more than enough for this computer") right next to the label that says the PET draws 1.1A. That could hardly be a better match - if anything a slightly larger fuse would be ideal.
LOL "Sad PET". Great video!
Amazing collection. Glad it has a good home!
IIRC the side expansion port is the system bus, and could conceivably be used for memory expansion, though I don't know if anyone actually went that route as fitting an internal memory expansion was a trivial matter.
ALWAYS clean elelctronic parts BEFORE passing current through them!
Can't wait to see the restore on that beauty. Did the guy give you pretty much his entire vintage collection, or just the stuff he didn't want anymore?
@@adriansdigitalbasement Very cool. Can't wait to see more!
Cheers George!!