VIC-1001 Repair

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:03 am

Partly different keyboard mapping, as the VIC-1001 probably supports more/other graphic symbols? I seem to reckon that you can hold down the C= or CTRL key upon boot to get it to US ASCII mode? In that case, it clearly should be a code difference in the Kernal.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 11:09 pm

Success!

Fortunately, I also had a very early VIC motherboard here that is almost like the one in the VIC-1001. There are a few subtle differences, but the board I put in actually matches the photos in the VIC-1001 manual, so I guess that's OK.

I took photos of the boards for anyone who is interested in those kinds of esoteric details. And who knows if the motherboard in the 1001 was actually the original anyway.

So, after a quick swap of the Kernal and Character ROMs, I now have a working, legitimate VIC-1001!

Now I just need to to figure it out. The manual seems to indicate that there are *6* character sets/keyboard layouts to choose from. But the character ROM is still only 4K so I'm not sure how they manage that. And my Japanese is non-existent so I might not be reading the diagrams correctly.

Was there ever any software specifically for the VIC-1001? I suppose the type-in programs from the manual (complete with broken English) sort of count. Wasn't there a few games on tape included with a VIC-1001 auction a while back?

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:51 am

Does the VIC-1001 have Latin lower case letters, or are those replaced by Katakana or whichever writing system it uses? I would imagine it may have six different combinations of Latin, Japanese and graphic characters to choose from:

1. Reg-Latin + Shift-Graph + CBM-Graph
2. Reg-Latin + Shift-Graph + CBM-Jap
3. Reg-Latin + Shift-Jap + CBM-Graph
4. Reg-Jap + Shift-Graph + CBM-Graph
5. Reg-Jap + Shift-Latin + CBM-Graph
6. Reg-Jap + Shift-Graph + CBM-Latin

Admittingly 2=6 and 3=5, but it would offer different ways to input characters.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 8:27 am

I think as I mentioned when I got my Vic-1001, the six character modes are standard, with shift and with C= key in both normal and Japanese boot. To get Japanese boot, hold down shift and C= when turning the power on.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 2:25 pm

Is there a programmatic way (i.e. a POKE) to switch the character sets? I'm finding that the method of holding down Shift/C= on boot is tricky. Plus, if I press them again, it goes into one of the other modes and I can't get back into the Katakana mode.

wiskow · Post by **wiskow** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:26 pm

Just out of curiosity, could you put a 901460-02 charachter generator ROM and a 901486-02 kernal ROM into a standard VIC-20 and turn it into a VIC-1001? Or is there more involved than just that? Obviously, it wouldn't have the cool keyboard with katakana charachters on it, but aside from that, would it work?

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 6:27 am

I think it would work, perhaps best with a NTSC VIC-20? The ROM files can be found at Zimmers, so you can download and plug them into VICE. If it works out of the box, so would a real VIC-20 do.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 6:54 am

Schema, are you going to post those motherboard pictures you took?

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 7:47 am

carlsson wrote:I think it would work, perhaps best with a NTSC VIC-20? The ROM files can be found at Zimmers, so you can download and plug them into VICE. If it works out of the box, so would a real VIC-20 do.

wiskow · Post by **wiskow** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:34 pm

carlsson wrote:The ROM files can be found at Zimmers, so you can download and plug them into VICE.

That's exactly what I was thinking of trying...

But... Looks like orion70 beat me to it.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:41 pm

ral-clan wrote:Schema, are you going to post those motherboard pictures you took?

Yes. Nothing too exciting inside, but for the historians:

Original board:

Closeup of original board.

Closeup of replacement board.