Posts tagged "NEC PC-6001/PC-6601 series"
An inexpensive 8-bit home computer series made by NEC after the success of the PC-8001. One of my favourite computers, you’ll be seeing a lot of projects for these.
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PaPICOm
One of the hot new trends in the 8-bit computer community is the development of “Pico carts.” By using a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller instead of a ROM, you can make a cool software-defined cartridge that can do basically anything. For instance, it can load a ROM. I decided to make a prototype one for my beloved NEC PC-6001 series of home computer.
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A PC-6001mkII keyboard replacement
My NEC PC-6001mkII has a very spotty keyboard. The captive-dome switches inside are too corroded or dirty to work properly, a common affliction of the model. Luckily, honet, a hobbyist in Japan, has produced a replacement PCB for the PC-6001mkII keyboard named P6KBPCB. I finally got my hands on one, and I’m going to install it.
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A Backup Papicom
When you love a computer, sometimes you have to buy a second one of that computer, especially if it’s cheap. My justification? I wanted a good sacrificial test platform on which to do a bunch of internal PC-6001 mods, and I didn’t want to worry about frying my beloved first PC-6001. So, of course what I did was: pick up one that’s in better condition than my “good” one.
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Giving my PC-6001 a LIFT
Most software for the NEC PC-6001 was sold on tape cassettes. Tapes are great, but they require a lot of patience. I do strongly prefer the modern conveniences of floppy disk and ROM cartridge. What do you mean those aren’t “modern?”
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Why, you three-bit machine...
My NEC PC-6601SR “Mr.PC” has been a nearly permanent resident of my desk ever since it was repaired. This beautiful red computer works okay with a regular old VGA LCD monitor. So why did I pay a fortune to import a CRT monitor from Japan? There are two reasons. For one, it is the NEC PC-TV151 monitor that’s supposed to go with this computer. Also, it’s broken.
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Becoming Mr.PC's Type
Like the Sharp X1turbo, the Mr.PC is also not very usable without a keyboard. It’s yet another way in which NEC copied Sharp.
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That name again is Mr.PC
Get ready to step into the cyberpunk future of the mid-late 1980s, and don’t forget to bring your boxed wine. NEC pulled out all the stops on this, their final PC-6001 computer. I have to pull out even more stops to get the disk drive to work.
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Hearing the PC-6001 out
When I first set up the PC-6001, I had to bring it back to life by replacing the shorted tantalum capacitors on the motherboard’s power rails. It’s such a great little machine! After some more testing, however, it became obvious that I was getting no sound out of the poor little thing.
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Cleaning the keyboard on the PC-6001
When I first fixed the PC-6001, there were a few sticky keys on the keyboard. “H,” Left Shift, and - most importantly - Return were all bad to a certain extent. I could limp along with Ctrl-M for a little while to replace Return, but it was pretty awkward. How hard can it be to clean the keyboard?
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PC-6001mkII, or, sometimes the sequel is better
My PC-6001 came cheap because it was untested (and it did end up needing capacitor replacement), but the PC-6001mkII seems like it has always changed hands for a lot of money in Japanese collector circles, at least for as long as I’ve been paying attention to the prices. When I landed one for a great deal, I figured that there must be something wrong with it.
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The circle of life - an NEC PC-6001 arrives, breaks, is fixed
Sure, I’ve got NEC PC-88s, I’ve got NEC PC-98s, but didn’t NEC make anything that was a little friendlier to the home user? By now, you should know better than to doubt our friends at the Electric Company. The NEC PC-6001 has a thriving homebrew scene around it in Japan to this very day, and is still fondly remembered. Let’s rip one open and stuff it with hot molten lead.