Farewell to 2024!

As the year 2024 draws to a close, I wanted to thank all of you – viewers, subscribers, supporters, and those who have bought anything from me, had anything repaired/serviced by me, or donated/sold anything to me – for making 2024 a great year.

I’m sending all of my best wishes to you and your loved ones for 2025 – I hope you get everything that you want out of it and more, and are able to spend it in safety and comfort.

Now that the sobby stuff is out of the way, let’s get down to business.

I didn’t post as much as I wanted to on my website as I’d have liked this year (though I’ve been quite active on Twitter as usual), however it was still a good year for activity – clocking in at over 92,000 views and 39,000 viewers across 163 countries.

I’ve still been plenty hard at work in my workshop, so there’s lots of website content for me to catch up on, including some of my favourite repairs/restorations from the past year or so.

1993 Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

I got my first SNES from a vintage toys and games market in Houghton-Le-Spring – it was working but I fixed it up and performed some tasteful modifications.

1995 SEGA Saturn

I repaired my SEGA Saturn console, which wasn’t booting due to corrosion damaging a couple of traces on one of the CPUs, which required some very fine soldering to fix.

1992 SEGA Game Gear

I repaired and upgraded my SEGA Game Gear hand-held console, including full recap, new IPS screen and front cover, and lithium-ion battery packs with USB-C charger.

1996 Nintendo 64

I repaired and upgraded my Nintendo 64 console, including a mainboard recap and installation of an active RGB video output adapter.

1992 SEGA Master System II

I repaired and upgraded my SEGA Master System II console, including a switchless region selector and RGB video output adapter.

1992 Acorn A4 Laptop

I repaired and upgraded a rather rare Acorn A4 laptop for a friend of mine, including fitting a new PRAM battery, mainboard recap, replacement of the broken IDE HDD with a CF card, and replacement of the original NiCd battery pack with lithium-ion cells.

1994 Apple Macintosh IIci

This year I fixed up an Apple Macintosh IIci for a friend of mine, which was no longer booting – leaking electrolytic capacitors on the mainboard, RAM card, and power supply are a common problem with the IIci, so I needed to recap all of these (including replacing the RIFA mains filter capacitors in the PSU, which can fail and release lots of smoke) and fit a new PRAM battery, and now it is working well again.

1980s Acorn AKF-12 CRT Displays

This year I fixed up a pair of non-working Acorn AKF-12 CRT displays for a friend of mine – both needed new power switches as they wouldn’t stay latched on.

I removed each power board for servicing – I replaced the power switch with a suitable new part, re-soldered all of the major solder joints on the power board, and replaced all of the electrolytic capacitors on the power board for preventative maintenance. I also re-soldered all of the major solder joints on the mainboard including transformers, connectors, and large power resistors, which are susceptible to cracking – also, I cleaned out all of the control potentiometers and switches with contact cleaner.

I refitted the power boards and tested both of the displays, and both of them gave no image, no high-voltage, and just a high-pitched whine (but not the expected 15.6kHz horizontal scan) as though the PSU was going into self-protection due to an overload.

The flyback transformer is a common failure point in the Philips CM8833 chassis, which affects displays such as the Acorn AKF-12 and Commodore 1084 – I decided to fit a replacement flyback transformer (HR 7506) to each display as well as replacing the horizontal output transistor (usually a BU508A or D1577) in case this was failing and causing damage to the flyback transformer.

I tested the displays again, and one now worked perfectly following adjustments to vertical/horizontal centring and size, contrast, brightness, flyback HV, and flyback focus to give the best image over RGB SCART. The other partially worked but only displayed a very dim image which was only barely visible with the brightness & HV turned right up.

I initially thought that this could be a video amplification issue, so I spent a lot of time running through the video circuit with an oscilloscope to compare the signals to those expected by the service manual, from the RGB SCART input, primary amplification stage, and the inputs and outputs of the TDA3505 video decoder IC, including the control potentiometers and drive circuits, and the +12Vdc supply rail – everything seemed OK.

Visual inspection of the board showed that it was quite badly scorched around R475, as though it had been getting extremely hot (it’s a power resistor so is designed to get hot, but it was running far hotter than the equivalent in the working display), and it had burnt flux underneath it as though it had been re-soldered – the resistor itself had become discoloured and cracked and the markings were no longer readable, it measured 30kR in-circuit, but the part fitted to the good display was 15kR.

I removed R475 to better inspect the board, and noticed a scorch mark on the nearby metal film capacitor C476 (47nF 250V) – sure enough, this part seemed to have failed short-circuit, as it tested short both on the board and once removed.

I replaced R475 with a 15kR 5W film power resistor and C476 with a 47nF 630V axial polypropylene film capacitor (which should be suitable for the high frequencies it will see in the horizontal filter circuit) then tested the display, and it now worked perfectly following adjustments to vertical/horizontal centring and size, contrast, brightness, flyback HV, and flyback focus to give the best image over RGB SCART.

2003 Microsoft Xbox (Original)

I upgraded my original Microsoft Xbox, with an OpenXenium modchip, 1TB SSD, 128MB RAM, and an XboxHD+ HDMI video adapter.

2001 Sony PlayStation 2

I upgraded my wife’s childhood Sony PlayStation 2 with a 1TB internal HDD.

1960s Telequipment Serviscope Minor

I fixed up a lovely 1960s Telequipment Serviscope Minor CRT valve oscilloscope that a friend of mine very kindly gave me, which required a recap, service, and tune-up.

1980s Sinclair ZX Printer

I repaired my Sinclair ZX Printer, which required a new belt fitting – this is a fiddly process which can take a long time and lead to a lot of swearing!

1974 Texas Instruments TI-2500 Datamath Calculator

I repaired and upgraded my Texas Instruments TI-2500 Datamath calculator, replacing the original leaking NiCd pack with a lithium-ion pack and charge control board.

1992 Acorn Archimedes 3010 Repair & Restoration

I repaired and restored my Acorn Archimedes 3010 computer, which needed a new PRAM battery and a RAM expansion repair.

1955 Radio City Products “Model 314” Vacuum Tube Tester

I repaired and restored my Radio City Products “Model 314” valve tester, which needed a new mains cable and a good clean up.

1958 Marconi T69DA Vacuum Tube Radio

I bought a very beautiful 1958 Marconi T69DA tube AM/FM radio set in an antique shop in Marske-by-the-Sea, Vintage by the Sea, and repaired and refurbished it.

1981 Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III

I worked on a Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III for a friend of mine, which needed a new power supply and general service.

1956 General Electric BC5645

I also repaired and restored a lovely GEC BC5645 valve AM/FM radio which I bought from Stokesley car boot sale, which needed a new mains cable, new dial lamp bulbs, replacement of all of the paper and electrolytic capacitors, and a good clean.

1970s Kenwood A901 Stand Mixer

I volunteered at the Climate Action Stokesley & Villages (CASaV) repair café at Stokesley library in May 2024, where I was able to repair and service a 1970s Kenwood A901 stand mixer for a very grateful owner, including a motor drive board rebuild, new motor brushes, and a new 3A-fused UK mains plug.

1970s Goblin 855 Teasmade

I fixed up a very cool Goblin 855 Teasmade which I bought in Southwick, Brighton, while on a work trip as it reminded me of the music video for I Want to Break Free by Queen – it was in rough, non-working shape, and required a service and clean.

1950s English Electric 2750S Heated Serving Tray

I volunteered at the Climate Action Stokesley & Villages (CASaV) repair café at Swainby village hall in November 2024, where I was able to repair a 1950s heated serving tray for a very grateful owner who will no doubt be using it for Christmas dinner.

1994 Apple Macintosh LC475 & M1299 12″ RGB CRT Display

I worked on a Macintosh LC475 and Apple 12″ CRT display for a friend of mine, which needed a mainboard and power supply recap and an internal BlueSCSI, and a a partial recap and the replacement of several damaged parts, respectively.

1982 Tatung Einstein & CRT Display

I worked on a Tatung Einstein TC-01 and matching Tatung TM-01 CRT display for a friend of mine – the computer was non-working (blank screen) but is now repaired thanks to new system RAM, and has also had a PSU rebuild, a mainboard recap, a 3″ FDD service, and a keyboard rebuild. The CRT was suffering from vertical deflection issues – when I fixed this (bad electrolytic capacitors and potentiometers), it also had no colour (more bad potentiometers) and extremely bright raster (failing flyback transformer).