6128 rescued :D

[Trotzdem]

For some time now I considered buying a 6128 at Ebay, but I never could decide wether I should do it or not.

But fate decided for me: my brother remembered that a friend of him had a 6128, and I called his friends parents if they still got it.

They did !!! And guess what, tomorrow they wanted to bring it to the scrapyard with some other stuff they wanted to get rid of. That's what I call just in time

So I got the 6128, with a green monitor again, this time a GT65 with that extra 12 Volts socket.

Now, I connected the computer to the monitor, and nothing happened. After I dismanteled the 6128, I saw that there was not only the cable for the 12 Volts socket - there was also the well - known 5 Volts socket. I didn't think that this computer would have 2 diffrent powersupplies. 

So I put the 6128 together again, which was much more difficult than the reassembly of the 464, plugged all 3 cables and see - it's working

Only the FDD comlained that the disc is missing ... a known problem, and with a little luck the FDD will be up and running before christmas with a new belt.

Next I will do some research on how to make a connection betwenn the 6128 and the PC in order to write back disc images.

With the 6128 I got 5 original sealed 3" discs from maxell, 7,95 DM (about 4 €) each.

This is great

[mr_lou]

There are too few people in the world reading the Bible. It clearly states "Thou shall not throw away thou Amstrad!".

Great that you rescued it from certain death. :-)

About the discdrive, you could be lucky that it's just dirt on the head. I tried that once.

Congratz on your new 6128. :-)

[ukmarkh]

Congrats... the CPC6128 was a very fine 8-bitter. Whilst reading your post, I felt excited for you, as I know personally how good the 6128 is... but then dismay hit, especially since you ended up with a green screen. So if you're in B'ham anytime soon, you can have my old colour monitor for a drink 

[Trotzdem]

Guess that would be worth nailing the steering wheel on the right side and taking a trip to Birmingham

I thought it would have been nicer with a colour screen, too, but I didn't want to complain. Sooner or later I'll find me that screen.

Today I dismantled the drive and scraped out the sorry remains of the former drive belt. A new one is ordered and should be delivered by the end of the next week.

[Cholo]

YAY! another 6128 saved 

Having a 6128 really is the best if you are looking for the best compatability with software and hardware. Like you can run all those fansy 6128-only games like Addams Family. Also all kinds of sampled speech gets available in some games.

Personally i find the most importent that the 6128 has just enough ram to run Symbos (symbos.de). As Symbos automaticly detects 720kb pc floppies, it gets incredible easy to transter files or whole Discimages (dsk) from pc to cpc. Symbos even has that Dsk-extractor so that you can extract whole discs from external 3,5" drive to internal 3" drive. Of cause all that requires you to have a 3,5" hooked up to your 6128.

Im guessing you have the german model 6128 with the centronics ports.

German centronics 3,5" external drive setup:
http://www.ulrich-cordes.de/cpc/english/disk.htm

English "pc"-edge connector setup:
http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Guide_on_how_to_connect_a_3.5

[mr_lou]

I thought it would have been nicer with a colour screen, too, but I didn't want to complain. Sooner or later I'll find me that screen.

You can make yourself a scart cable and connect it to a color TV. Easy to make. The only problem is that you need to power the CPC using some other power supply then.
Or get your hands on the MP-2 that has a built-in PSU and also lets you connect your CPC to a TV.

I made the scart-cable for my CPC464, but I have it easier because the CPC464 only needs 1 power-source: 5V 2A.
The CPC6128 also needs 12V 1A (I think). Maybe you don't need this though, if you connect an external 3.5" drive with its own power source anyway. Not sure.

[Trotzdem]

I could connect the power supply from the GT65, and plug the scart - adapter into the videoport. That should work. Alternatively I'll look out for that MP2 - thing.

When the new drive belt arrived, I will fix the internal drive with it. Then I will strip all the 3.5" FDs from the old PCs I own and see if it is possible to modify one so that it matches the 6128. The other thread where a compatible drive is described may be helpful, thank you for the hint.

It is correct, I own the German version of the 6128, with Centronics ports.

[Gryzor]

Yay! Another CPC saved I wonder how you managed to withstand temptation for so long...

And, boy it must have been an awkward conversation: "Hey there, I'm your son's friend's brother. Would you happen to have a 6128?"

[Bryce]

Hi Trotzdem,
           I assume from your User Name that you are German or located in Germany. If so, there's an MP2 on e-Bay Germany at the moment, still going for 1€. In case you are interested...

http://cgi.ebay.de/Schneider-CPC-464-664-6128-MP2-fuer-TV-Anschluss_W0QQitemZ320459188088QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKlassische_Computer?hash=item4a9cdb2778

Bryce.

[Trotzdem]

Yay! Another CPC saved I wonder how you managed to withstand temptation for so long...

And, boy it must have been an awkward conversation: "Hey there, I'm your son's friend's brother. Would you happen to have a 6128?"

It wasn't THAT arkward after all. I happen to be a lawyer and by coincedence, they are my clients. But if they hadn't been, I'd have called anyway

@Bryce: Thank you for the hint, I added it to my watchlist.

[Trotzdem]

I got that thing on ebay ... thanks to Bryce again

Now it only has to be working. But I think I'll find the answer to that pretty soon

[Bryce]

No Problem, I'm sure it will work, the worst that usually happens is a broken wire, but even if it something else is broken, they are very easy to fix and use standard parts that are still readily available. Check out my article on converting it to composite output ( http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/LCD_And_Plasma_TV_Solution ) and you can even get a decent (almost SCART quality) picture on an LCD TV.

Bryce.

[Trotzdem]

The 6128's drive seems to have a problem more serious than just the defective belt.

I replaced it, and it worked a disc fine. The "cat" - command was executed and the disks content was shown.

Then I started the game, but after a few seconds the drive got a read error.

After that, any disc I place in the drive produces read - errors. The disks run fine in the DDI of my CPC 464, but no disk will be read correctly in the CPC 6128's drive.

Any idea what might be the reason for that ?

[ukmarkh]

Sounds like the drive belt may have slipped off...

[Trotzdem]

I'll look that up, but the previous error was "Drive A: Disc missing", and now I get "Drive A: read error".

I'll look at it, now that I know how to dismantle that thing

I hope there's nothing wrong with the calibration of the drives head. If that is the case, I'll try putting the drive from my DDI into the 6128.

[ukmarkh]

How did you get on with the drive?