I though about that, but that would be too easy. Lol. I have several C64's, I don't have any printers for my C64 and don't really plan to get one. I thought about the external perepheral, but what I really want is a box I can take somewhere, plug in the power, a joystick, the SD card, turn it on and away I go. I'm also going to a bit of a wow factor too, and something I can fit into my entertainment center in my rec room. Dan ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeff Bourdeau To: torontocbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 4:07 PM Subject: [torontocbm] Re: Bugged firmware uIEC's and Jim Brain... Hmm....'sounds messy and sounds like you may interfere with the 64's future ability to work with printers and other peripherals....why not just get a small project box and set it up as an external peripheral? From: Daniel Kovacs Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 4:01 PM To: torontocbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [torontocbm] Re: Bugged firmware uIEC's and Jim Brain... Thanks Tom; I went out during my lunch and got a 30 watt iron, .6 mm solder as toggle switch and some "project wire (22 AWG)". How are the serial ports attached to the C64 motherboards? Are they just soldered down? If so, it should be pretty easy to desolder it and attach the serial cable from the UIEC to the motherboard directly. The other thing I was thinking of was to solder to the exposed pins on the back of the port, but then would it cause any damage to attach a drive and the UIEC at the same time? I want to take it right off as I am wanting an all-in-one unit with the card slot. Dan ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Luff To: torontocbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 9:03 AM Subject: [torontocbm] Re: Bugged firmware uIEC's and Jim Brain... Hi Dan, For any person new to the electrical soldering hobby I tell them all the same thing. If you are buying your tools and supplies from a place like Canadian Tire or Home Depot it is important to keep size in mind. Bigger is Not necessarily better despite what our woman say. You want to solder small wires or components not weld pipes together, so blow torches and solder from the pumping isle are out. All kidding aside what you should get is a soldering iron rated between 35 to 60 watts. 25 watts will work butt there will come a time when it will not. Secondly the iron should have changeable tips. The Weller (brand name) Irons I have, I have 2, both use tips that I can change from small points to large wide blades (1/4" wide) and each size tip can be purchased in different temperatures. The same size tips comes in 600, 700, 800 and I think 900 degrees F. Start with a small round tip with a temperature of 700 degrees F. It will do a great deal of your jobs. The rule of thumb I use is if after 5 seconds the solder has not flowed then consider a larger tip. The longer you touch a hot soldering iron to a wire or board the more damage it will do. Solder should be thin and have a flux core. I use about .060 " thick. Flux is used for two main reasons 1) to help clean the surface(s) for the solder to attach to, 2) it aids in the transfer of heat from the soldering iron to the surface(s) being soldered. A few things to consider picking up would be a soldering iron stand, if one is not supplied with your iron. To remove excess solder use Solder Wick or a solder pump (also known as a solder sucker). And if you do not already wear glasses a pair of safety glasses should be wore any time you cut or solder. Even a pair of cheap sun glasses would be better than nothing. I will be at the TPUG meeting this coming Thursday if you would like to discuss this further. Tom Luff TPUG BoD --- On Sat, 12/13/08, danielkovacs <danielkovacs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: From: danielkovacs <danielkovacs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [torontocbm] Re: Bugged firmware uIEC's and Jim Brain... To: torontocbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Received: Saturday, December 13, 2008, 4:43 AM Hello All; I've am very happy with the unit and have not had any real concerns about it. I am planning on mounting it inside a C64 this weekend, but I have just a couple of questions: - I am planning on building a new cable - can I use copper (twisted pair from Cat 3/5 ethernet cable) in place of the serial cable in the C64? Does this matter for this kind of thing or should I get some of that stranded aluminum wire that the serial cable is currently built with. I know with electrical wiring you are not supposed to go from aluminum to copper but does it matter with electronics? - I need to buy solder, what kind should I get? Will I need flux? I will probably get a new soldering iron too, is there anything specifc I should get? (I know you can get them at different wattages). Dan