Commodore Flyer

Check out this picture of a Commodore Flyer case enclosure made out of LEGO’s sent in by Gary (gazj82) who is a 31 year old Commodore enthusiast from Cambs, UK:

He got the idea from Biz, age 12, who is a member of the Boreatton Scouts Robo Club who made a LEGO Raspberry Pi enclosure.

At some point Gary will be sending me more pictures showing the blinking lights coming through clear LEGO pieces. Pretty cool! I’ll be sure to post those too.

Do you own a Flyer (with or without a case) and want to submit a picture of your Flyer modem in the wild connected to your favorite Commodore computer to be showcased on the site? Kindly email your pictures to commodoreflyer [at] gmail [dot] com

Below are a few user submitted pictures showing the awesome Flyer with custom homebrew case enclosures out in the wild.

Here we can see a breadbox Commodore 64 computer with Flyer case enclosure sitting on top of two 1571 disk drives loading a program:

Look! Here is my personal Flyer rocking a case enclosure connected up to my Commodore VIC-20 computer:

Commodore SX-64 Executive computer with Flyer case enclosure:

Just in today, part of the next batch of Commodore Flyer case enclosures that will be shipped out over the weekend to paid pre-order customers:

Here is a brand new fresh out of the bubble wrap Flyer case enclosure. All that’s missing now is to install a Flyer modem into the case:

For those who are wanting a case enclosure, they won’t be publicly available until all paid pre-orders are filled to make sure there are enough to cover all pre-orders.

After all paid pre-orders are filled the price is going to be around $50.00-$60.00 USD but will be subject to change based on what current manufacturing prices are at that time.

Keep in mind that you don’t need a case enclosure to actually use the Flyer. The PCB with blinking lights looks pretty awesome on it’s own.

Do you own a Flyer (with or without a case) and want to submit a picture of your Flyer modem in the wild connected to your favorite Commodore computer to be showcased on the site? Kindly email your pictures to commodoreflyer [at] gmail [dot] com

Enclosures are being shipped on a weekly basis via USPS. As of today I know some people have received them and some are still waiting. We have no control over USPS delivery times and even with Priority mail, USPS says it’s not a guaranteed service, even though you pay extra for it.

For anyone who has pre-ordered and wants, I can refund you and when your enclosure arrives you can re-pay. Let me know if that’s what you’d like to do via the CommodoreFlyer.com contact form.

With that, for those who have sent a message via the CommodoreComputerClub.com or CommodoreFlyer.com contact pages and has not received a reply, try sending a direct email message to commodoreflyer [at] gmail [dot] com as some messages via the contact form have been marked as spam and not delivered through.

Please keep in mind this is a hobby project (not a real business) for the enclosures and being maintained when there is free time between the “day job” and just personal life in general.

If I knew in the beginning how much of a pain it would be with suppliers, manufactures, unexpected production costs and unforeseen issues, this enclosure project would have probably never taken place, especially taking a loss on every unit sold.

I want to personally apologize for this taking way longer then originally expected and thank you again for your patience, time and understanding.

As most hobbyist know, homebrew projects can be tricky, however, the Commodore Flyer Enclosures are pretty much ready to be sent out to those who pre-ordered.

Because of unforeseen delays there will be a little something extra in the box for being patient while things got fine tuned. Once pre-orders are filled, there will be a page on the CommodoreFlyer.com website for the general public to order a Flyer enclosure.

I do apologize for shipping and project status delays, but things are finally getting sorted and delivery should take place just in time for Christmas.

Thank you for everyone’s patience and understanding.

Heads up Commodore Flyer users, Brandon has released Cloud Server 1.0.3 which is now available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Mac OS X platforms!

The latest release of the Commodore Flyer cloud server includes the following changes and new features:

• Added ability to chose ethernet interface if multiple are available.
• Added optional access restrictions to allow multi-user configuration (including login credentials & per user directories).
• Disk types (d64, d71, ..) now displayed in search listings returned from the server.
• Fixed bug causing wrong disk type ID to be sent back to the Flyer. This would cause incorrect disk types to be displayed when listing disks on the Flyer (load”$$”,7) even though the disks would otherwise work fine.
• Media is no longer pre-scanned. Any file system changes are seen immediately.
• Cloud Server now available for Windows, Linux (Ubuntu tested) and Mac OS X.

As always, let Brandon know directly via the RetroSwitch.com contact page if you have any questions or feedback, especially regarding the new platforms!

Flyer firmware version 1.1.9 is now ready for public distribution:

1.1.9 is an interim release containing some soon-to-be-announced features which are still in development. It does, however, contain a few IEEE-488 protocol fixes (including full support for CATALOG) that I wanted to make available ASAP for the growing number of PET/Flyer users.

Source: RetroSwitch

To update your Commodore Flyer firmware, check out an earlier post of mine where I provide details on how-to update your Flyer firmware over the internet.

You can also check out the Flyer Firmware release notes page for specific updates and fixes from previous versions.

Just got word from Brandon that the Flyer internet modem is finally back in stock and available for purchase.

Check out this huge Box-O-Flyers ready to find a new home:

This is great news as there are a lot of people wanting to get their hands on this awesome piece of Commodore computer hardware.

A big “thank you” to Brandon for continuing development and production of the Flyer.

Photo Source: Retroswitch.com

First off, sorry for the radio silence on the site. There hasn’t been much for us to publicly report on. Soon there will be some exciting news to post.

Second, this time of year there are a lot of family and other events going on that take away from “hobby time”.

Ok, now for the Commodore Flyer Enclosure status update. The cases did finally show up from the manufacturer:

• They are in 3 pieces (top, bottom and light pipes).
• The color and texture is spot on.

Things were looking good, then came doing a test fit/install of Flyer into the enclosure. Uh-oh! The light pipes, which bring the light from the Flyer PCB up to the top of the case needed to be redone.

Long story short, the manufacturer made a small mistake on the length (too long – case couldn’t close properly). Drat, but they are taking care of it for us.

As most hobbyist know, these small run projects can be tricky. We’ve been taking the time to get it right instead of just throwing out something that’s not quite there.

I do apologize for the delay, but it should be sorted soon so delivery can take place. Thank you for everyone’s patience and understanding.

Flyer firmware version 1.1.8 is now ready for public distribution with the following updates:

• REL File Support
• D64 Error Block Support
• IEEE-488 Protocol Fix
• Minor Bug Fixes

To update your Commodore Flyer firmware, check out an earlier post of mine where I provide details on how-to update your Flyer firmware over the internet.

You can also check out the Flyer Firmware release notes page for specific updates and fixes from previous versions.

A new port of the Flyer IRC client for the PET/CBM is now available for download on the Flyer product page. It currently supports 80 column, 32K (or greater) models only.

For those wondering, we also have the Flyer IRC PET CBM client available on the Commodore Flyer download page as well.

There’s just something so cool about doing real stuff online with such a classic machine! Is this the first PET on the modern ‘net? I can’t imagine so, but who knows.

Source: Brandon – Retroswitch.com

Nicely done Brandon. PET owners around the world are probably rejoicing at this news and if they don’t own a Flyer already, they’ll probably want one for sure now!

Note: For official Flyer customer support, sales and service, contact Retroswitch directly.