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Posted By

FrankBorman
on 2024-01-21
16:25:54

Keeping it safe?

What's the best way to keep my plus 4 from dying from daily use? I've seen Ted replacements, CPU replacements...should i consider these and shelf the originals?

Posted By

Luca
on 2024-01-22
02:07:30

Re: Keeping it safe?

Frank, those machines had been made with an hypothetical warranty of 5 years. Yes, FIVE YEARS. Taking in count that the Plus/4 has celebrated its 40th anniversary few days ago, my suggestion is: use'em like hell! All the machines are going to die, and if you don't use'em, they're going to die the same, due to the obvious migration of material from one side of the semiconductor at environmental temperature.

Enjoy your Plus/4 while its alive and kicking, and only use some good manners to let it live a joyful old age (e.g.: avoid to attach/detach the joysticks with their tiny circular cable because any possible sparkle may reach directly the TED).

For your knowledge, we debated about this "how-to" sooo many times, there are two parties of thoughts. Start from here, a thread which starts from a practical study about the usage of heatsinking on the main ICs.

Posted By

SukkoPera
on 2024-01-22
02:37:03

Re: Keeping it safe?

I agree with Luca: just use the machine with a little extra care: don't plug/unplug anything while the machine is on, as Luca said, make sure you are using a good power supply and maybe get a few extra TEDs/8501's until they are available, to keep in stock just in case

.

I have never been a fan of heatsinks on these machines, IMHO they are totally useless and can actually make the whole thing worse if you stick them on with the incorrect adhesive...

Posted By

seff
on 2024-01-27
01:31:35

Re: Keeping it safe?

What is the best practice for joysticks?

Connect them when the machine is powered off and still connected to the PSU?
Ground the joystick pins before connecting the joystick to the machine as a safeguard against static electricity?
Back in the day I would unplug and plug the joystick while the machine was powered on and the game was running ;-(.
But I know of people who patched all their games to use joystick port #1 only.
I recall that somebody developed TED protection.

Posted By

SukkoPera
on 2024-01-27
03:58:41

Re: Keeping it safe?

I think (most of) the static electricity is in your body, not in the joystick. So just make sure to "discharge" yourself, by touching a radiator or anything earthed/grounded before plugging anything. Or just walk barefoot :).

Then of course the machine must be switched off but I don't think it matters much whether the PSU is connected or not, as it has no earth connection anyway.

If you have a C16, my Fixteen and Hannes512 RAM expansions feature TED protection from ESD from the joystick port.

Those don't fit in a +4 though, so in that case you can use this (it also works in a C16 if you only care for protection).

This is also cool for the +4: it is not an ESD protection circuit but gives "permanent grounds" on the joystick ports and a port switch (It's basically the famous circuit by @TLC in a +4-friendly format).

Posted By

seff
on 2024-01-27
05:02:41

Re: Keeping it safe?

Thanks @SukkoPera.

I like the MOS TED 8360 7360 ESD Protection.

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