Two Stop Bits | I really hope no one is upset at this point by that sort of thing.For any Commod...

I really hope no one is upset at this point by that sort of thing.

For any Commodore, Apple, Atari, these computers sold in the zillions; there are plenty of decaying originals. They rot over time; if you want to keep using them, you have to replace the power supply; recap the motherboard; the case will generally have yellowed and if you want it to not look nasty you have to do something about it -- retrobrite, paint, total replacement. It's always going to trend to a ship of theseus situation unless you want to encase it in an unlit vacuum forever as an object to occasionally think about but not interact with. And if you want to use it and you have to make changes anyway, why not make it more pleasant to live with?

barbeque 43 days ago
I was happy to make it somewhat modular, so at least the original keyboard (and Tandy bodge board) has survived intact. The machine was never original in my possession – the previous owner has done a lot of modifications to it - so I feel like I am carrying on with his wishes rather than tinkering with Tandy's.
I do want to still replace the membrane/backplate inside the keyboard with low-profile switches as I did to my PC-6001mkII (https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/11/26/pc6001mkII-keyboard-...), but that involves a lot of picky measuring for mounting holes, outlines, key switches, etc and you can tell from the article that accurate measuring is not one of my strongest suits :)
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bmonkey325 43 days ago
As you can guess. I am more pragmatic.
I probably just need to stop hanging around snobby retro enthusiasts who brag how they have a VAX 11/780 in their basement with OG parts salvaged from other Vaxen? Vaxii ?
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- KODust 42 days ago
  Totally. I sort of understand it with big(ger) iron -- there are fewer made, by any measure, and you want to do things like get a VAXBI adapter because your goal is to get a an 8MB disk the size of a washing machine or whatever connected to it. But if you could power it from USB-C instead of a custom three phase power line with the original power supply -- you probably can't -- I might still argue that would be more sensible to do so.
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