The Commodore PET 64 Docking Station

The Commodore PET 64 was my very first computer, and I have so many fond memories of sitting awash in green screen light while trying my best to write BASIC programs that never worked right. The PET died sometime in the late 90's, but I held onto it. I removed the CRT and motherboard back in 2005 when I decided to retrofit it with a PC, but I never got around to finishing that project... until now.

It took seventeen years, but I finally did it. I changed my mind this time around, and instead of putting a PC inside, I turned the shell into a USB docking station. Here is the realized build with a docked Windows laptop:

I inserted a generic 12-inch TFT LED Point-Of-Sale monitor that doesn't have great picture quality, but it's a perfect fit. I connected that monitor to a WAVLINK USB 3.0 DisplayLink adapter and attached that adapter to a powered 7-port USB 3.0 hub.

I used an Arduino Micro and this Cheap and Easy Arduino C64 Keyboard to USB Adapter tutorial from Retro Game Coders to adapt the Commodore keyboard to a USB interface. The original keyboard didn't work, so I swapped it with a new, old keyboard I secured through Facebook Marketplace.

Below is a quick test of the adapter before I mounted the keyboard in the case:

The Commodore keyboard is great for nostalgia's sake, but it's not a very satisfying typing experience. So, my next update will be building a DIY MechBoard64 mechanical keyboard to add a little clicky-ness to the PET.

Here's everything jammed into the base of the unit. All USB devices plug into the 7-port hub. I put a small surge protector in the case, and plugged the monitor and USB hub into it. The only cables coming out are the USB cable from the hub and the power cord from the surge protector. All it takes to use the keyboard and monitor as a docking station is a single USB cable connected to a machine that supports DisplayLink.

Here are some images of the latest iteration of the build. I added front USB ports to replace the missing 9-pin joystick ports. The GIF shows the docked PC running an old Pong clock screensaver I wrote sometime around 2003 or 2004, but recently ported as a Centennial app to the Windows Store.

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