Newbie

[stulish]

 Hi Ladies and Gents,I have just joined the Forum and it said about doing an introduction post so, I thought I would get one done before I forget about it as I get sucked into reading everything else here.Well my name Is Stu (Stuart), I live in England and am currently serving in the Royal Navy, well for the next few weeks, and then I will be a civillian for the first time in nearly 27 years.I have recently been looking at buying a CPC464 from eBay or elsewhere as it was my very first computer and got me interested in programming and engineering (I later joined the RN as an engineer).I have been reading up on some projects for the CPC as when I get one I want to mod it without making it look too modded so I can use SD cards for holding games (I was looking at the DDI-1 clone and SD HxC as a starter for 10 (any other ideas are appreciated).I thought I would join a CPC group/forum as the platform is getting slightly older I was thinking it may be difficult to find parts or get advice so hopefully this is the place to be.I have already put a bit in on eBay so hopefully soon I will have my CPC and I can get playing.Anyway thanks for letting me in, I hope to have many more fun hours with a CPC in the future.Regards Stu

[CraigsBar]

Welcome stu, this is the place for all things Cpc. We have many members from all over the world, and a general environment of help and friendship. I am sure you'll be right at home quickly enough.  As for moding a Cpc, after the ddi1 and HxC I'd suggest you look at @TotO 's products. The x-mem and minibooster are amazing products, and the soon to be available again PlayCity add 2 additional ay sounchips for true 9 channel stereo sound (amongst other features). @Bryce is the hardware man, I swear he can fix and enhance anything with an Amstrad or Schneider badge, he is currently working on my 464+ adding the extra 64k ram and a disc Interface.

All on all, welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay.

Craig

[Bryce]

Hi Stuart,
      like you, I grew up with a 464 and it's still my retro computer of choice. However, the 6128 is much easier to expand on, so I'd recommend that you gete a 464 for nostalgic reasons and keep it original, but get a 6128 if you want to mod it to the max.

Bryce.

[stulish]

Thanks guys,

@Bryce,

I did notice from looking on the net that the 6128 looked easier for modding, and as you said the 464 is for nostalgia.

I lost out on the 464 I was bidding on but will look for others, and hopefully will be up and running soon 


Cheers


Stu

[Gryzor]

A big warm welcome from me as well mate. I'm sure you'll find all the answers to your questions here, so we hope you stay with us

And, above all: have fun once more with the CPC!

[MacDeath]

Hi Ladies and Gents

You must be new here...



Welcome anyway.

This is the right moment to go back to CPC.
Many sweet hardware cards are available at the moment :
RAM/ROM boxes, Floppy DD1 ersatz... these days even the humble yet colourfull CPC464 can become the beast it deserve to be.

So yeah, you'll have to find some sweet RAM/ROM expansion and some floppy solution to get into the "6128" level a least.
Best is to have a proper CRT monitor in colour as well.

Otherwise those Amstrads are quite robust and would handle time not too badly but hey, nothing is totally sh!tproof.

As already said : the 6128 is what to look for as this is the most complete system : the disk thing is on the computer, the CRTC are of the better models sometimes, and it can handle both tape and disks.
Also : compact design, solid keyboard, serious bizness here... and those 128K are quite enough to benefit from best modern productions with no extra Hardware.

But these days some solutions are here to get the 464 into those specs... jsut less reliable as those are not in-built on motherboard.


664 is pretty nice for collector value, but the keyboard is often faulty.
the PLUS models may be quite fun and benefit from being the most recent models, 5V disk drive is nice as well and be sure they are supplied with the Basic cartridge..

Have fun again with your Amstrad.



you may find Amstrads more easily in France, if you pass here by.

[stulish]

Hi guys got a CPC464 on eBay with green screen for £1, so happy with that and got a CPC6128 for £30 (no screen or power supply), any pointers on the best place to go for power supply and video adaptor.  Also the 'L' key on the 6128 is not working apparently so i will have to investigate that when it arrives.

Any links to psu's and video adaptors would be good.

Thanks

Stu

[steve]

PSU and scart lead here AMSTRAD CPC 464 TV CONNECTION KIT - PSU ADAPTER & RGB SCART CABLE | eBay

[stulish]

PSU and scart lead here AMSTRAD CPC 464 TV CONNECTION KIT - PSU ADAPTER & RGB SCART CABLE | eBay

Thanks Steve,  I have now ordered one and they will hopefully all be here by the weekend

Regards

Stu

[CraigsBar]

Thanks Steve,  I have now ordered one and they will hopefully all be here by the weekend

Regards

Stu

and it starts...... Have you ordered your xmem, minibooster, mother x4, hxc and playcity yet? You know you want to.

[TFM]

That sound like a good start! 

[stulish]

I think i will get everything up and running and then start ordering other add-ons or the wife will kill me 

[CraigsBar]

Rofl. Oh I know that feeling LOL

[CPC_Fan]

Hello Stuart. Welcome to the forum. Hopefully you will be able to get everything up and running again soon (if you haven't already) and enjoy some great 8-bit computing again.


Mark

[stulish]

hi guys does anyone have the wiring diagram for the CPC6128 keyboard membrane so i can buzz it through to see where the breaks are.

I got the power supply and VGA converter board so it all starts up, i just need to get the keyboard sorted out, i found it wasn't just the L key not working but G H L ; and f4 f5 f6 were all not working and they all seem to be in a line so maybe one break, but i don't know the way it is wired to say for sure.

Thanks

Stu   

[Bryce]

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/manuals/service.manual.cpc6128.ctm644.gt65.zip Check out pages 6 and 20.

Bryce.

[stulish]

thanks Bryce, Looking at page 6 It looks like the problem could be on the line that connects to connector 7 but after connector 12 for the S key, i will have a look this weekend.


Thanks

Stu

[stulish]

Found the break in the keyboard membrane, i have now ordered some silver conductive paint to repair the track and hopefully get me up and fully functional.