Assembling my Comet64

Thoughts, musings, and my inability to read properly.

The awesomeness that is the Comet64 finally arrived yesterday (I'm surprised it came so quickly, since goog's been pretty busy). I bought the kit; as I wanted to brush up on my soldering skills, and I needed something to pass the time at work.

(Fun tidbit: I had goog thinking I was completely clueless for a moment when I told him this; "Goog, I got my Comet64 kit in the mail today, but all it was was a bunch of parts!"... Hilarity ensued).

Due to a mixup / bad planning / alien abduction, my kit arrived sans one part, which goog is shipping Monday (I hope!), so I am unable to actually try the modem out yet. I will also wait until it is fully assembled before I take pictures and post them.

I decided to plug it in and power it up anyway; I figured even without the one part, there should be some functionality. I loaded up cometchat, and got an error message. Not a "Can't communicate to commodoreserver.com" error, but a "You don't have what I need" error. Uh-oh...

I spent an hour checking and re-checking my soldering. I pulled out the meter. I checked voltages. I checked continuity. I checked me meter at once point. Everything looked good.

I plugged it back in, fired it up, and... error. Hrmm. This time I slowed down a little and read the error again. What was I missing? Oh, V-1541. Right. The hardware was fine.

 

I need to learn to slow down... or wake up.

 

One thing I did notice, which I consider to be an error with the Revision 2g board design, is that 3 of the 4 pin holes for the reset button are grounded, instead of 2 ground, and 2 reset line. This means that microswitches meant to fit that spacing will need 1 leg bent out, or the switch will ground reset all the time. I'm not aware of any microswitch that would work with the current board without a modification, but I could very well be wrong. (I've been married; I know I'm always wrong). UPDATE: Goog has sourced & shown me DPST momentary contact pushbuttons that DO work with his design, which is why he designed it that way. Tres interesting!

The internet connection reset switch is one of two surface mount components (the other being a 3.3V voltage regulator). I had a little trouble with it since I'm still a bit rusty, so I decided not to attempt to center it properly, but have it slightly offset, so I wouldn't accidentally bridge the circuit 'on' by mistake. I'm a little disappointed with the placement, as getting a finger down between all the other components is tricky, but I don't imagine I'll be hitting that button too often.

Goog said he doesn't sell many kits, usually completed units, when I asked him about that. I want to take a moment and suggest to anyone still thinking about buying one, to get the kit. Brush up on your soldering. Remember, it isn't JUST about running old games. It's about learning the ins & outs of the equipment, too. Mind you, if you're not good with soldering, don't start out with the Comet64. Although it's easy for someone with intermediate or better skills, a novice may well end up tossing $50 out the window.