Farewell to 2023!

As the year 2023 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 2023 a great year.

I’m sending all of my best wishes to you and your loved ones for 2024 – 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 nearly 70,000 views and 39,000 viewers across 148 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.

1985 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

For my birthday this year, my wife bought me a NES, which I’ve since fixed up – new cartridge slot, switch-mode voltage regulator, full recap, and region free modification.

1993 Apple Macintosh LC-III

I bought a boxed Macintosh LC-III and matching CRT display a couple of years ago, and this year I got around to refurbishing and upgrading it – mainboard and power supply recap, upgraded system RAM, upgraded VRAM, a 68k co-processor, and an internal BlueSCSI.

1994 Apple Macintosh LC475

I’ve been working on a Macintosh LC475 for a friend of mine, which needed a mainboard and power supply recap, and an internal BlueSCSI.

1994 Apple M1299 12″ RGB CRT Display

I’ve been working on an Apple 12″ CRT display for a friend of mine, the same as the LC475, which was completely dead – seemingly due to leaked electrolytic capacitors. After a partial recap and the replacement of several damaged parts, it’s now working well again.

1989 Apple Macintosh SE/30s

I’ve worked on three Macintosh SE/30s this year:

• #1: A good tune-up for a friend’s machine – a digital board and analogue board recap, FDD service, and internal BlueSCSI.
• #2: A good tune-up for a friend’s machine, the same as the LC475 and 12″ CRT – a digital board and analogue board recap, FDD service, and internal BlueSCSI.
• #3: My own machine, damaged badly by battery leakage. I’ve transferred all of the original components over to a replica SE/30 PCB kindly provided by CayMac – it’s not completely working yet, but I’ll get there in 2024!

1997 Apple Macintosh Performa 6400/180

I bought a boxed Macintosh Performa 6400/180 with matching CRT display early this year, which needed some work – a power supply rebuild, new SCSI CD-ROM drive, new IDE-CF internal drive, and a new PRAM battery.

1991 Acorn RISC PC 600

This year I got an Acorn RISC PC 600, with a 200MHz StrongARM CPU card and 486 PC card – this had minor battery leakage and needed repairs, and also got mainboard and daughterboard recaps, a power supply rebuild, an internal IDE CF card with RISC OS 3.70 and Windows 95, and a 16-bit audio upgrade.

1984 Amstrad CPC464s

This year I repaired a pile of Amstrad CPC464s, with various issues – some completely dead, some with video issues, and some with tape loading problems.

1989 Amstrad PCW8256

This year I repaired and upgraded an Amstrad PCW8256, which needed a 3″ FDD service and a general tune-up, and also got an upgrade from 256k to 512k system RAM.

1983 Commodore 64s

I haven’t worked on as many Commodore 64s as usual this year, only two – both for friends of mine, both requiring repairs – one didn’t output any video (bad VIC-II) and then only displayed a black screen (bad 6510 and bad 6526), and the other was a garbage screen (bad MOS-brand glue logic ICs).

I’ve already written about repairing/restoring my own Commodore 64, and repairing most generations of Commodore 64 mainboards (ASSY 250407, 250425, 250466, and 250469).

1994 Amiga 1200

I’ve only worked on one Amiga 1200 this year, for a friend of mine, which needed a mainboard recap and general clean-up.

I’ve already written about restoring my own Amiga 1200.

1982 Tatung Einstein & CRT Display

I’ve been working on my first Tatung Einstein TC-01, for a friend of mine – the machine 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.

I’m also in the process of repairing its matching Tatung TM-01 CRT display, which was suffering from vertical deflection issues – these are now fixed, but it still has other issues (bright raster and no colour) which I will be dealing with in 2024.

1994 Pioneer CLD-D515 Laserdisc Player

I volunteered at the repair café at the Billingham Festival of Thrift 2023, where I successfully repaired a lovely Pioneer CLD-D515 laserdisc player.

2012 Nintendo Wii U

I volunteered at the Climate Action Stokesley & Villages (CASaV) repair café at Swainby village hall in November 2023, where I was able to repair a Nintendo Wii U console for a very grateful mother and twin daughters – the unit wouldn’t connect to controllers, and needed a new Bluetooth module fitting which the owner kindly provided.

1975 Sinclair Cambridge Calculator

This year I fixed a Sinclair Cambridge calculator for a friend – it had suffered from battery leakage in the past, and needed a good clean up.

1954 CT52 CRT Oscilloscope

I bought a beautiful military CRT miniature oscilloscope untested from Kiwi Trading in Hartlepool – it needed replacement of all unreliable vintage paper/wax, oil, and electrolytic capacitors (over 100 in total, this thing was crammed full!), replacement of three unreliable vintage selenium rectifiers, and fitting of an IEC mains input (the original was a non-standard screw-in DIN connector).

1973 Armstrong 626 Amplifier

I fixed a gorgeous Armstrong 626 stereo amplifier for a friend of mine, which was partially working but needed a service and repair – a mains filter needed to be removed, three bulk capacitors needed to be replaced, two fuse holders needed to be replaced, all of the controls needed to be cleaned, the dial lamps needed to be replaced, and the right audio channel needed to be repaired (two shorted transistors).

1985 Fidelity IS-650 Turntable

My father-in-law gave us a Fidelity IS-650 hi-fi cabinet, his from back in the day, which had been in storage for decades and wasn’t working – it needed a good clean and general tune-up, including a new turntable drive belt and stylus, speed switch repair, tape deck service, partial recap, and cleaning all of the controls.

1961 Ever Ready “Sky Master” Radio

I bought an Ever Ready “Sky Master” AM transistor radio from Tynemouth Market – it was working but needed servicing, including replacement of all wax/paper and electrolytic capacitors, and cleaning all of the controls

1954 Philips “Music Maid” Radio

I bought a Philips “Music Maid” AM tube radio from Kiwi Trading in Hartlepool – it was working but needed servicing, including replacement of all wax/paper and electrolytic capacitors, and cleaning all of the controls

1962 Bush TR82C Radio

I bought a cheap Bush TR82C AM transistor radio on eBay, as I really like the iconic look of these – it was working but needed servicing, including replacement of all wax/paper and electrolytic capacitors, and cleaning all of the controls