Very early Vic-20 has different board than I've seen before

yoyodyne · Post by **yoyodyne** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 1:53 pm

I had a pile of vics in the corner waiting testing, I won some
auctions earlier this summer. One was a pet-style keyboard, so
I opened it up first, and found a motherboard that I had never
seen before. It had a copyright date of 1980, and the 6560 had
a date code of 1980. It didn't work at first, but I found a cold solder
joint on the bridge rectifier, and now works. Sadly the 6560
with the early date had crappy sound, so I had to replace it with
a newer chip.

I also found a cost reduced vic with socketed rom chips. All my
other cr vics are soldered.

Here is a photo of the boards with a standard non-cr board for
comparison:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/20 ... 8028vcoDqP

Here is a close up of the early board:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/27 ... 8028hoPZhv

The early vic has a serial number in the 50k range, and had an
FCC label that says that approval was pending. Also, the motherboard
had a sticker that says produced 06/81. The machine was labeled
made in Japan.

The video was very clear, in contrast to most of my other vics that
need tweeking now and then to keep them in sync.

How common are these boards? Does anyone have one here?

-Brian

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 2:07 pm

yoyodyne wrote:One was a pet-style keyboard, so
I opened it up first, and found a motherboard that I had never
seen before. It had a copyright date of 1980, and the 6560 had
a date code of 1980. It didn't work at first, but I found a cold solder
joint on the bridge rectifier, and now works. Sadly the 6560
with the early date had crappy sound, so I had to replace it with
a newer chip.

[snip]

The early vic has a serial number in the 50k range, and had an
FCC label that says that approval was pending. Also, the motherboard
had a sticker that says produced 06/81. The machine was labeled
made in Japan.

The video was very clear, in contrast to most of my other vics that
need tweeking now and then to keep them in sync.

How common are these boards? Does anyone have one here?

I have an early (low serial number) PAL VIC-20 that I picked up in England back in June. It too has PET-style keys. I'll have to open it up and check it out the board.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:06 pm

yoyodyne wrote:The early vic has a serial number in the 50k range, and had an
FCC label that says that approval was pending. Also, the motherboard
had a sticker that says produced 06/81. The machine was labeled
made in Japan.

The video was very clear, in contrast to most of my other vics that
need tweeking now and then to keep them in sync.

How common are these boards? Does anyone have one here?

I had a VIC with a japanese made board like that which I sold to a german collector. He managed to get it shipped to the US to get Michael Tomczyk to autograph it.

These have exactly the same part no. mainboard as the VIC-1001, only the ROMs differ.

Jogi · Post by **Jogi** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:21 pm

HI yoyodyne,

yes 4....

1. http://www.vic20.de/html/vic_1001.html
2. http://www.vic20.de/html/vic20_usa_1.html
3. http://www.vic20.de/html/vic20_usa_2.html
4. http://www.vic20.de/html/vc20_germany_1.html

and eslapion your VIC20 not my VIC20...
http://www.vic20.de/html/michael_s__tomczyk.html

regards Jogi

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:52 am

I've never seen that metal thing under the whole board on the CR model before. Is it like that on NTSC?

yoyodyne · Post by **yoyodyne** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:20 pm

Boray wrote:I've never seen that metal thing under the whole board on the CR model before. Is it like that on NTSC?

It is just an 'adapter' so the smaller cr motherboard can still be attached
to the case in the original, non-cr motherboard mounts.

@Jogi: Nice pictures, thanks for posting the links!

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:51 pm

Jogi wrote:and eslapion your VIC20 not my VIC20...
http://www.vic20.de/html/michael_s__tomczyk.html

regards Jogi

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1GQXEJ

This guy has a PET style keyboard.

Strange that the date on it is the same...

Jogi · Post by **Jogi** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:34 pm

Hi eslapion,

The world is small.!!!

The German collector is a friend of mine.

regards Jogi

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:03 am

Are we talking about Jan here?

Jogi · Post by **Jogi** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 11:47 am

Yes Jani.... the litle Jani...

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:12 pm

Jani... Jogi... I am now Jefi.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:04 pm

May the doors be with you!

(if you are a Jefi instead of a Jedi, you can't expect to have the Force but will have to settle for the Dorce.. Doors?)

Cyberdyne · Post by **Cyberdyne** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:01 pm

Hello everyone!

I think Jefi

is the only one, I don't know till now. Greetings!
Yes, the one with the PET-style keyboard is mine (now). I got a few other signed Commodores but Michael was the only one who signed a VIC-20.

CU
Jani

Denial

Very early Vic-20 has different board than I've seen before

Very early Vic-20 has different board than I've seen before

Re: Very early Vic-20 has different board than I've seen bef

Re: Very early Vic-20 has different board than I've seen bef