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🚀 Vintage Computer Museum – March Update! 🚀

It's been a while since our last update, and for good reason! Over the past few months, I’ve been fully immersed in training at my primary workplace after returning from an extended medical leave. Now that recurrent training is nearly complete, I’m excited to dedicate more time to the museum and our ever-growing collection.

But even during my busy schedule, the Vintage Computer Museum has remained active behind the scenes. We've made some fantastic acquisitions—both missing pieces for our collection and essential parts for restoration projects.

🌟 New Additions to the Collection:
📌 Super Sketch for Commodore 64 – A complete, near-mint set, finally replacing our loose unit that lacked packaging and a manual.
📌 Tool 64 Manual & Cartridge – A BASIC extension for the Commodore 64.
📌 REX RS232 Interface (Model 9626) – A serial communication interface for the C64.
📌 PAL VIC-II & SID Chips – Essential replacement parts for maintaining our PAL Commodore 64 systems.
📌 Oric Atmos Bottom Case – This will help restore one of our Oric Nova systems that had a damaged case.
📌 COMX 35 Expansion Cards:
Original Printer Interface Card
Floppy Controller Card
Super Board for COMX 35 – While not vintage, this modern expansion was developed by Marcel van Tongeren and Ed Keefe, beginning in 2012. Ed Keefe was an extraordinary contributor to 1802-based projects and the mastermind behind this hardware. Sadly, he passed away two years ago, but his legacy lives on. If you're interested in learning more about the Super Board, check out the project details here: www.comx35.com/superboard.html. I plan to do a detailed review in the future!

💾 Exciting Donations Await!
On top of these acquisitions, we’ve also received some amazing donations—so incredible that each one deserves its own dedicated unveiling video! Some of them are still in their original mailing boxes, waiting to be revealed. Stay tuned for upcoming posts as we showcase these wonderful contributions to the museum.

As always, thank you for your support, and keep an eye out for more updates soon!

🔗 Follow us for more vintage computing goodness!

#VintageComputing #RetroComputers #Commodore64 #OricAtmos #COMX35 #ClassicTech #RetroTech ... See MoreSee Less

Rare Qubbesoft Hardware Setup at Our Vintage Computer Museum! 🎉

We’ve brought together three Qubbesoft components: the Aurora motherboard, Qplane backplane, and QubIDE hard disk interface! This interesting setup features some of the more uncommon hardware expansions designed for the Sinclair QL ecosystem.

🌟 Highlights:

The Aurora was designed as a replacement for the Sinclair QL motherboard, offering VGA/SVGA support and multiple connectivity options. While installing it in a standard QL case is impractical, it works well in a PC case with the Qplane backplane, which provides 3 expansion slots and connects to a AT PC power supply.
The QubIDE hard disk interface adds modern storage capabilities and can also be used directly with a standard QL without the Aurora or Qplane.
Our setup uses a Super Gold Card for CPU and memory, with Minerva 1.98a1 as the operating system.

🔧 Challenges & Next Steps:
A key challenge was powering the Super Gold Card and QubIDE. Both have onboard 7805 voltage regulators, which expect a minimum input of 7V to regulate down to 5V. Since our AT power supply provides only 5V, we had to supply power independently to each card to ensure proper operation.
To complete the project of installing all this into an AT case, we need a QL keyboard interface (Di-Ren, SuperHermes, or Keyboard-90). If anyone has one to sell or donate, please let us know! Otherwise, we’re considering designing a custom keyboard adapter that could support PS/2 or USB keyboards.

💬 Have any memories or stories about using these QL expansions? Share them in the comments! And check out the photos of this interesting setup running Minerva in full VGA mode!

#VintageComputing #Qubbesoft #SinclairQL #RetroHardware ... See MoreSee Less