I’ve owned a Commodore PET* 8032 for a few years now. I’ve been able to download and run many different programs for it, like WordPro you see above. But one thing always remained elusive. I’ve long wanted to connect it to a standard RS-232 device and use it as a terminal. The PET’s classic shape, green monochrome monitor, and 80 column display all lend itself perfectly as a terminal.

You might be asking yourself, less stripes? No, not the colorful stripes on your breadbin badge. We’re talking about the stripes on the video image. The same stripes that we’ve all become accustomed to over the many years of playing Commodore 64 games, watching demos and carrying on with modems and BBS’s. These stripes, which are actually interference, come in a variety of flavors: horizontal, vertical, and checkerboard patterns. The intensity of the stripes also varies from machine to machine. Some say with that these stripes become even more apparent when using a C64 with a modern LCD monitor.

If you were following along with my previous post about converting an SX-64 to a DX-64 by adding a second floppy drive, you’ll know that the process isn’t without it’s problems. There are some irreversible changes that need to be made to the case to accommodate all the extra equipment.

The SX-64 was Commodore’s portable version of the best selling C64 computer that wrapped the C64, a 5″ color display and a 1541 floppy drive into one case that loosely resembled a Kaypro. They were also called luggables because, well, they are quite heavy. Despite folks calling them rare, they litter eBay very frequently and command a premium price.

It’s time to de-clutter once and again and that means time to visit eBay. First item I’m parting with is a nice Commodore 128 and 1571 disk drive. I have the original box for the CPU but that’s about it for the packaging. I don’t have the original foam sides that held the computer in place (see picture below).

Instead, my computer looks more like this.

I need a good way to keep the computer from getting damaged inside the original box before that box goes in another box– follow me? That got me thinking about the expanding foam in a bag system I’ve seen before. It’s foam that expands inside a plastic bag– place it inside the box and close the lid and it fills the voids and holds everything in place. I wondered if a can of “Good Stuff” expanding foam insulation would work. I picked up a can (large gap filler) for a $5er.

I have these nice cardboard corners as starting points– but they’re a little big. My plan was to fill the corners with foam, put a bag over it and put the computer inside it and let the foam do it’s magic. The results so far look promising.

Some things I’ve noticed–

• It expands slowly, so don’t rush, you’ve got hours before it cures.
• Make sure to put at least two pieces of plastic between the foam and your object to keep it safe.
• Don’t over do it– remember, it will expand.
• Wear gloves!
• Some areas seem to be taking a long time to cure. The bottle says water speeds the process.

Link.

I recorded a high speed (or slow motion) movie of this frog. I wanted to capture him jumping into the pond but that’s not what he had in mind.

The head massage this fellow is getting looks pretty intense. “Note the application of cosmic energy.”

A box set of the short lived ABC tv series Max Headroom will finally be been released on DVD on August 10, 2010. It was a show that was ahead of it’s time and it’s a shame it was canceled so soon. I remember being mesmerized by the “graphics” of the Max Headroom character and the near-future post-apocalyptic themes. I’m really looking forward to Netflix getting this one in.

Preorder Max Head via Amazon.