Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Disk drives, Monitors, SuperCPU etc.
BillHoo
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Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by BillHoo »

Was going thru the garage and found my old SX-64 portable "luggable".

Sometime in 1992 I was working in AV and plugged an RGB monitor cable into the back of the computer "because it fit" and to see whether it would work. Well it fried something.

Now I'm wondering if I can just buy a working C64 and pull the motherboard and do the same to my SX-64 and swap out the whole motherboard to get it in working condition?

Figure it would be easier than trying to troubleshoot chip by chip, circuit, by circuit...

Any thoughts?

-Bill_H


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radron5809
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by radron5809 »

They look like a completely different layout, the c64 board has joystick ports, serial ports, etc... right on the board, looks like the sx-64 might use a header on the board and routes the ports to the back of the sx-64. Don't think you'll be able to simply swap boards.
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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

It's not even "a" motherboard, it's a few separate boards that plug into each other, and sections of it are not even like the regular 64.
Why do you think troubleshooting it would be that hard?
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by ambradley »

I know it's been 7 days since the last post on this thread, but I'm wondering what connector an RGB monitor cable would plug into. The ports are the same as a C64 (minus datasette). The video port is a round 8 pin DIN connector. The only thing that looks kind of like a normal monitor connector is a joystick port. If you had a DIN cable for your RGB monitor, pin #5 on the C64 and SX-64 is AUDIO IN, which I believe connects to the SID and could possibly fry it.

As for troubleshooting, what does it do when you power it on? Does the drive spin for a second then turn off? Does it spin but never stop? Does the monitor flicker or come on at all? Does "blind" typing LOAD"*",8 cause the disk drive to spin? Although the SX-64 boards are different than a C64, the chips are pretty much the same. You can remove the SID and see if it'll boot. Also, push in all the socketed chips in case they've worked their way loose over the years. Might just be a coincidence that it stopped working. I had to do that with one I bought.

I've got a spare SX-64. It's ugly and doesn't have a keyboard or keyboard cable (those stay with the good SX-64), but it works. I'm open to offers especially if you're close enough to pick it up. It's heavy so shipping is expensive. You could scavenge what you need from it and try to sell the rest.
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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

ambradley wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2019 1:04 am I know it's been 7 days since the last post on this thread, but I'm wondering what connector an RGB monitor cable would plug into.
I wondered about that, I think the Amiga had a RGB cable that went from the Amiga's DB-23 to a DIN 6 connector on the monitor.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-COMMODORE- ... 2901431867

https://inanis.net/amiga-500-to-amiga-1084-rgb-cable/

I don't know how plugging that into the SX-64 would damage anything unless it was plugged into the SX and something bad on the other end.
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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

Oooh the 1902 monitor had an 8 pin DIN input for the 128's RGBI output. So that's two places you could plug the wrong cable to.
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by merman »

The SX has a different ROM too, without cassette support
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by ambradley »

merman wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:00 pm The SX has a different ROM too, without cassette support
Yes, but the C64 ROM can be substituted, which will result in the traditional blue on blue color scheme.
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Re: Is the SX-64 motherboard identical to the standard C64?

Post by ambradley »

Gyro Gearloose wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2019 10:23 pm Oooh the 1902 monitor had an 8 pin DIN input for the 128's RGBI output. So that's two places you could plug the wrong cable to.
Doh! I even have a C128 and 1902A and should have remembered this.
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