Working on 8mm film projectors

Last Updated or created 2023-01-04

I’ve got some old 8mm film from my father. And i wanted to digitise them.
Luckily he had some projectors. One was his own and a borrowed one.
Don’t know about the third one.

Not being used for 30+ years, none of them worked.

So i took them apart and tried to fix them.

Most of them had a driving belt issue, and two of them needed a new bulb.

In the end I had three working projectors. Let the digitising begin!

I started off with putting a Nikon camera beside it and selecting 24 frames/second and putting the speed dial just right .. i got a decent recording.

Tips:

Most drive belts still can be bought, sometimes you have to search for an alternative with same dimensions.

Measure the resistance of the power connector. The old transformers could have a shorted connection. (cause: dried out insulation of copper wires)

Use a pressurized can of air to clean the insides.

Keep track of the parts when disassembling. Those things are not made to be easy fixed.

Below a uncut/unaltered recording, so the media needs some cropping!
I love the authentic shutter sound!

Old computer : Comx-35

Last Updated or created 2022-04-01

Trying to fix a computer from my computer collection.

Comx-35 (1983)
  • RCA 1802 CPU @ 2.8 Mhz
  • 32K Memory

Apparenty something wrong with the graphics chip.

The COMX uses the RCA CDP1869 and CDP1870 Video Interface System (VIS), consisting of the CDP1869 address and sound generator and the CDP1870 colour video generator.

Maybe next to try : checking signals using a Logic Analyzer