I’ve finally taken the jump into retrocomputing with something I’ve always wanted to own, a proper Commodore PET, or CBM 3016 to be exact!
The seller said 5 years ago when it was last turned on, that it worked perfectly fine. However I do wanna take some precautions before reawakening it. Not that something blows after all this time.
I however am still pretty new to retrocomputing and wanted to ask the experts on here, If/what I should first inspect under or over the hood before turning it on? Thanks in advance!
If you replace them anyway… just do only that. To test functionality it could indeed help avoid explosions.
Havent replaced parts like these or soldered things before, so it’ll definetly be interessting. Though out of curiousity, if the Capacitors do explode, would they damage other electronics in the system or would it only be limited to itself?
The explosion should not damage anything short term. Leaving the residue will cause a lot of corrosion long term. If you get into soldering, make sure to buy proper flux. It makes such a huge difference. Also not the cheapest iron. I would recommend a TS80P. For removing parts, if you do that more than a few times, get an automatic solder sucker, cheap ones should do. Otherwise use the iron with extra solder at high heat and perhaps 3 or 4 hands.