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janbeta.net
Jan Beta
@janbeta.net
4.3K followers 480 following 660 posts
I repair/hack/make/destroy stuff on YouTube/PeerTube.

Retrocomputing, VintageAudio, Tinkering. As unprofessional as it gets.

Chaotic good. Anti-fascist. C64 rules.

https://janbeta.net/
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janbeta.net
1990s SMD electrolytic capacitorps. #Nintendo #SNES
Closeup of the circuit board from the SNES I’m working on. Some of the SMD capacitors have clearly leaked and corroded the traces around them.
November 14, 2025 at 12:44 PM
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SNEStoration going on. #InTheLabDoingStuff
A yellowed PAL Super Nintendo console on my workbench photographed at an angle. A controller plug is connected to the first port, no cartridge is inserted.
November 13, 2025 at 11:36 AM
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New old tool in the Beta Lab: #Mitutoyo calipers I randomly found on eBay for little money. Not exactly sure how to date these but the logo appears to be the one used roughly from 1962 to 1965 (according to leftover.engineering/2020/09/06/m...). They are still VERY accurate as far as I can see. <3
Mitutoyo calipers on my workbench with an italic logo engraved on the head. Full view of the calipers with inches and cm scales, accuracy is 0.05mm.
November 11, 2025 at 10:56 AM
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Apparently, somebody at @ifixit.com liked my videos enough for them to send me their new FixHub portable soldering station for free. It’s "a bit" faster and more powerful than my aging Weller soldering station from some decades ago. The battery pack is optional, the little iron also works USB-C.
FixHub portable soldering station on my workbench with the soldering iron attached to the battery pack. The readout on the battery pack says it’s set to 350C and the battery is at 92%.
October 10, 2025 at 1:04 PM
janbeta.net
Recapped and readjusted the #NAD7020e today. Meditation Beta style. #InTheLabDoingStuff
A NAD 7020e receiver with the case removed on my workbench. Several tools and a pile of old capacitors are scattered across the desk. My multimeter is connected to some test points on the circuit board and showing the idling current.
September 4, 2025 at 7:10 PM
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Did some Amiga 600 updates and upgrades today and made it run more stable again (I hope). #InTheLabDoingStuff
My Amiga 600 on the workbench with an external Gotek connected. Amiga workbench screen running the Amiga OS 3.2 installer in the process of installing the German locale disk.
August 21, 2025 at 8:21 PM
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The keyboard needs "some" TLC and the machine herself lost two of the plastic feet during shipping. Unfortunate, but not unfixable. Will have a closer look at everything in a series of videos. Coming soon to a screen near you! ;)
Amiga 3000 keyboard sitting on a chair with a lot of cracked plastic parts and some of the keys missing. An A3000 mouse is visible in the background.
August 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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The main attraction seems to have made it over more or less intact thankfully. Will have to inspect the innards more closely, of course (it needs repaired anyway). It’s huuuge and clunky and gorgeous and best of all, it’s mine now!!
An Amiga 3000T in my living room (which is something I never thought I’d ever write)! Closeup of the Amiga 3000T print on the case. The backside of the Amiga. Closeup of the label on the backside, it’s the 220V 50Hz variant.
August 20, 2025 at 3:46 PM
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Unfortunately, there was some carnage… 😭
Bits of broken beige plastic including some keycaps.
August 20, 2025 at 3:36 PM
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Any guesses? (It’s beige and comes with a set of keys.)
View into the opened box with a beige square object that has two keys taped to it.
August 20, 2025 at 3:32 PM
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It’s here!
Huge parcel in my living room.
August 20, 2025 at 3:28 PM
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Here you go. Tried reflowing with hot air and lots of flux, no change unfortunately. Might be the BGA main IC then, but I’m probably not going to go through reflowing that. VGA and other analog inputs are fine so it’s likely going to end up with something connected to those.
August 20, 2025 at 12:52 PM
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Had a look inside the LIPS TV (really an elderly LG) that broke down recently. Not much I can do, I’m afraid. Measured some of the birdseed components (all good), the ICs are likely acting up. The only thing wrong with it is the HDMI inputs not working, so it might be the HDMI switcher chip?
My LIPS monitor‘s guts. The power supply board is visible on the left and the logic board is on the right, with flat flex cables and wires coming from both. Closeup of the logic board with the video inputs and audio circuitry, lots of smol surface mount stuff (as expected), not a lot of visible (or measurable) damage.
August 19, 2025 at 4:30 PM
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Didn’t get much else done today, but I successfully modded and updated my (outdated) #OSSC. #InTheLabDoingStuff
My ageing OSSC (Version 1.6) on my workbench with the top case removed before modding it. Closeup of my OSSC‘s circuit board with a tiny wire connected to one of the surface mounted chips. The other end of the wire connected to where resistor R35 used to be (I removed it beforehand). My OSSC‘s screen is happily reporting the latest firmware version 1.12 after all the modding and flashing.
August 10, 2025 at 7:23 PM
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I finally managed to repair my Amiga600’s disk drive today! Gave it a good clean and checked the alignment, too. I can play Turrican from disk again! Video coming soon. #Amiga #Commodore #Repair #RetroComputing #VintageComputing
The Panasonic floppy disk drive from my Amiga 600 on my workbench, removed from the Amiga.
August 3, 2025 at 8:49 PM
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Started filming a repair video about this #NAD 7020e receiver from the 80‘s today, only to find out that it worked like a charm after some cleaning. Sounds really sweet (same circuit as the NAD 3020, afaik). Maybe the video is going to end up as a bonus episode for supporters, I guess. 😅
NAD 7020e receiver on my workbench, photographed at a dramatic angle. The NAD from the frontside. The NAD‘s circuit board photographed from the top. The NAD powered up and displaying the FM tuning frequency in the display with red 7-segment LEDs.
August 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM
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The new #Commodore's acquisition of Commodore Corporation B.V. is complete, it seems. Got the official press release email yesterday. #WeAreCommodore #AreWeCommodore
Email from Commodore's PR manager to my address: "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Commodore International Corporation Acquires Original Brand and 47 Trademarks, Ending Decades of Cryogenic Sleep Full acquisition of Commodore Corporation B.V. secures all official Commodore trademarks dating back to 1983 DOVER, Del – July 31, 2025 – Commodore International Corporation today announced a monumental milestone: the successful acquisition of Commodore Corporation BV and all 47 original Commodore trademarks, the oldest of which dates back to 1983, marking the return of the iconic brand. This move, made possible by recently secured investment funds and generous community support, “shift locks” in Commodore's brand and resets the stage for the continuation of the friendly computing future. Commodore CEO Peri Fractic (Christian Simpson) shared: “Commodore has been asleep for over 30 years, but today marks the moment millions of fans dreamed of yet never thought possible. After decades adrift, on Thursday 31st of July, we made payment and signed the final contract to acquire the whole of Commodore Corporation B.V., and with it 100% of the original and official trademarks that defined the Commodore name since 1983. Commodore is finally in the community’s hands. Thanks to our incredible angel investors and overwhelming support for the new Commodore 64 Ultimate computer launched recently at commodore.net, we completed the final payment ahead of the July 31 deadline and the deal is now locked in. "
August 1, 2025 at 11:39 AM
janbeta.net
Joining the #SolderingTweezers club with this ~12€ model. Not sure if they are going to help with SMD desoldering or if I’m going to burn the lab down with them. 😅
Cheapo soldering tweezers with a European mains plug and the box they came in. It’s the "Entlötpinzette LP-48", available for very little money from various sources here in Germany.
July 31, 2025 at 1:41 PM
janbeta.net
My beloved old LIPS TV kicked the bucket. Well, the analog inputs still work (but the lag is even worse than with the cheapo upscaler I‘ve been using). All HDMI inputs just show "No Signal" with all cables/sources I tried. Trash-picked Samsung to the rescue until I find something better. Farewell! 🫡
My LIPS monitor (really an old LG TV I repaired ages ago) with the HDMI input showing "No Signal" (in German) on the screen. Stand-in 19" Samsung monitor fitted over the workbench with the C64 BASIC screen showing.
July 29, 2025 at 4:58 PM
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A viewer sent me an email, asking me to look over a schematic for an autofire circuit that he had a generative AI create for him.

This is the circuit he sent me.

It doesn’t make any sense.

I sent him a circuit that works from an old magazine I used before.

Don’t fricking trust AI with anything.
An AI generated circuit for a classic 555 timer IC based autofire. Many components miss connections, nearly everything is mislabeled, there’s a transistor that doesn’t make any sense and many more things that render this utterly useless. It looks plausible at the surface if you don’t know how to read schematics but it won’t work at all (you would even have trouble building it in the first place).
July 23, 2025 at 4:40 PM
janbeta.net
Spent the better part of the day figuring out why the VIC-20 Diagnostics Cart I used in the last video didn’t work correctly. Multiple little things, actually. Now it does work beautifully and is switchable between the NTSC and the PAL version of the Diag. Phew. #Commodore #VIC20 #VC20 #Diagnostic
A Diagnostics cartridge in a blue 3D printed shell in the cartridge port of a VIC-20 that I just repaired. It has a little switch in one corner (badly) labeled "PAL" and "NTSC".
July 21, 2025 at 3:26 PM
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And we‘re back up and running #Pentagorat (which is a brilliant game)! #VIC20 #Commodore #Repair #RetroComputing #VintageComputing
A VIC-20 board on my messy workbench with all kinds of tools and diagnostics cartridges/harnesses scattered around. The big screen behind the bench is showing the title screen from the game Pentagorat.
July 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
janbeta.net
VIC-20 repair going on in the lab tonight. #InTheLabDoingStuff
A VIC-20CR board on my workbench with the Dead Test from the Penultimate cartridge running on the screen that is connected. My multimeter and several tools and bits are scattered across the desk. Dead Test passed all the tests, it seems!
July 16, 2025 at 6:12 PM
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Question for the #VIC20 savvy human beings: can I just desolder the TIP29 transistor from one of my C64 spares boards and use it to replace Q4 on the VIC-20 (originally an 2SD880)? I believe they originally used the 2SD880 on the C64, too? (Too tired to dig out another C64 board to have a look…)
Closeup of the D880 transistor on a VIC-20CR board. Closeup of the TIP29 transistor on my C64 spares board.
July 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
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Just searched #Google for which transitors are suitable for replacing the 2SD880 at Q4 on a VIC-20CR board. That AI smarty suggest I should replace it with an EPROM. Brilliant! I have plenty of those! 🙄

Time to finally change my default search.

#NeverTrustAComputerYouCantLift #TheFutureIsGreat
Screenshot from Google‘s AI answer to my question: "The VIC-20's character ROM, specifically the D880, can be replaced with a 2732 EPROM using a simple adapter. This adapter project allows for easy replacement of the original ROM without needing large EPROMs, jumpers, or SMD components. Here's how to replace the D880: 1. Obtain the necessary parts: You'll need a 2732 EPROM, an adapter PCB (available from PCBWay, according to PCBWay.), and a way to program the EPROM with the character ROM image. 2. Program the EPROM: Use the provided zip file from the project to program the EPROM with the VIC-20 character ROM image. 3. Install the adapter: Place the programmed EPROM into the adapter and then insert the adapter into the VIC-20's character ROM socket."
July 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM