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CPC Laptop.

Started by Bryce, 12:20, 25 October 14

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Neil79

Quote from: Bryce on 09:23, 17 November 14
Well the CPC screen is/was 4:3, so the aspect ratio always fills the screen as it would on a CPC.

Bryce.


Then it's all good, just assumed you were using a 16:9 screen, but as you explained it's a 4:3  8) 8)
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TFM

Quote from: opqa on 21:27, 16 November 14
.... and IIRC the standard CPC only uses 12V to power the 3.5" drive motor, not for anything else. ...


Actually the 3" drive of the CPC oG needs 12 Volt. But not a 3.5" drive of the Plus 3" drive.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Jckf

Quote from: TFM on 17:48, 17 November 14

Actually the 3" drive of the CPC oG needs 12 Volt. But not a 3.5" drive of the Plus 3" drive.
I'm guessing he made a typo. No "standard" CPC came with a 3.5" drive, as far as I know. Some replace their 12v 3" drives with 5v 3" plus drives, but I hear those have an issue where the head will move while it's still writing unless you are careful with your code. Ordered a step-up circuit for my own machine to keep the stock drive.

CraigsBar

Quote from: Jckf on 17:59, 17 November 14
I'm guessing he made a typo. No "standard" CPC came with a 3.5" drive, as far as I know. Some replace their 12v 3" drives with 5v 3" plus drives, but I hear those have an issue where the head will move while it's still writing unless you are careful with your code. Ordered a step-up circuit for my own machine to keep the stock drive.
Both of my Cpc 6128 machines have plus drives now. 5v only and no issues at all.
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TFM

#104
Quote from: Jckf on 17:59, 17 November 14
I'm guessing he made a typo. No "standard" CPC came with a 3.5" drive, as far as I know. Some replace their 12v 3" drives with 5v 3" plus drives, but I hear those have an issue where the head will move while it's still writing unless you are careful with your code. Ordered a step-up circuit for my own machine to keep the stock drive.


There is a port for a B-drive. And some drives actually take their power form the CTM. Different models exist. Also a 3.5" drive would be neat in a laptop case.


The error you talk about works different, I described that in the other thread. It's only an issue with very efficient FDC code (means some games and FutureOS). No problem for slow FDC code.

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

opqa

Quote from: Jckf on 17:59, 17 November 14
I'm guessing he made a typo. I'm guessing he made a typo. No "standard" CPC came with a 3.5" drive, as far as I know.
Right, it was a typo, I was talking about the internal 3" drive. I know that modern 3.5" drives usually don't need 12V either.

steve

Quote from: TFM on 17:48, 17 November 14

Actually the 3" drive of the CPC oG needs 12 Volt. But not a 3.5" drive of the Plus 3" drive.

3.5" drive or the Plus 3" drive.

There fixed it.

seanb

Quote from: CraigsBar on 19:51, 14 November 14
LOL, I like the way Bryce's project has become a CPC Wiki owned machine. So when is my turn?


Craig

Reading these updates I feel like I'm making it with him so if there is a diode put in backwards or an important lead comes loose due to dodgy soldering you'll know my contribution.
Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Bryce

Quote from: Jckf on 17:59, 17 November 14
I'm guessing he made a typo. No "standard" CPC came with a 3.5" drive, as far as I know. Some replace their 12v 3" drives with 5v 3" plus drives, but I hear those have an issue where the head will move while it's still writing unless you are careful with your code. Ordered a step-up circuit for my own machine to keep the stock drive.

I hope you have a good 5V supply and direct wiring to the step-up. A DC/DC conversion to 12V 750mA (about what these old drives pull) is going to pull about 2A on the 5V rail.

Bryce.

TFM

And the CTM only supplies 1.7 A. So one needs an extra PSU.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Jckf

Quote from: Bryce on 20:34, 17 November 14
I hope you have a good 5V supply and direct wiring to the step-up. A DC/DC conversion to 12V 750mA (about what these old drives pull) is going to pull about 2A on the 5V rail.

Bryce.
Yep. I'll of course be using an external after-market one.

Bryce

I thought I should give an update on this as I haven't posted any in a while...

At the moment I've hit a bit of a major issue that I haven't been able to solve yet. The LCD controller PCB won't fit in the lid no matter how hard I try (and I've even considered heating the plastic to mold a curve into the outer surface!). So the controller PCB needs to go in the lower part. This means connecting the 30way connection through the hinge. The Flat cable that came with the screen is too short and wouldn't fit. The pitch is 0.75mm. I can't find a replacement so the only solution is hand soldering a flat extruded cable (Floppy / hard-drive type), but they are 1.27mm pitch and the 80way cable used on later IDE drives is 0.7mm pitch. So my only solution would be to use this and spread the wires at the end. This would be extremely messy and difficult to do, which is why I've spent so long looking for something better.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Bryce.

Lazy Dude

no chance of nicking the right pitch wire from some other old junked item you can lay your hands on?
bit of a sod when you cant get the right stuff and keep it tidy

Bryce

It's not a standard pitch for extruded wire, only for flat cable which would need to be the exact length and have some sort of feature for the hinge. Chance of finding that... Zero.

Bryce.

Gesendet von meinem Motorola DynaTEC 8000X mit Tapatalk 2.


TFM

Quote from: Bryce on 14:58, 24 December 14
If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Add a level of space! How to explain??? Ok you got this

XXXXXXXXX
SSSSSSSSS

X is the Lid and X is the keyboard, now you make the keyboard taller, so it looks like:

XXXXXXXXX
SSSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSSS

Sorry, can't explain it better ;-)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Bryce

Hiding the wire isn't the issue, I can fit that through the existing hinge. It's having to remove the two connectors and hand-solder 60 tiny wires is what's putting me off.

Bryce.

Lazy Dude

yep, so best thing is to shelve it for a while and wait till the enthusiasm comes back.

Bryce

I kind of have done, but I want the laptop to be finished for Revision 2015 :)

Bryce.

Lazy Dude

sounds interesting. What stuff would you demo on it?

Bryce

It'll have a HxC installed and a cartridge port, so anyone who brings something along can try it out. I don't do Demos, but I'll have an SD Card full of games with me :)

Bryce.

seanb

Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Bryce

Why Outrun? (which I think is on the SD card already anyway).

Bryce.

seanb

Because it's awful.
Perhaps something else that'll showcase it more  ;)
Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Bryce

Well technically it's still "just" a CPC+ with some more memory and a HxC, so it's not going to do anything more than a standard CPC+ can do.

Bryce.

Gryzor

If you take Outrun you'll have to take the recording of the audio tape with you, too :D

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