stardot.org.uk

Hoglet - good to know there's a fix for the SD card firmware issue in the works JudgeBeeb - if I can assist your reassembly with photos of my Zenith, then just let me know Lastly, I read out the mystery 2532 EPROM originally in IC24 with a GQ-4x4 programmer, and it turns out to be the Procyon "DISAT...

Try the oldest, smallest SD card you can find. I found an 8Mb JVC SD card in the bottom of a drawer - too small for the entire Stardot Atom software archive, but good enough for testing purposes: IMG_2471.jpg Instant success! So it was just an SD card issue. I'll dig out a 64Mb or 128Mb SD card, an...

Thank you both: Kees - setting *CFG to E0 works inasmuch as the register changes to the appropriate value, and the value appears to be retained, but the setting of the *CFG register appears not to affect the behaviour of the AtoMMC. Hoglet - I've tried the suggested experiment a few times just now, ...

Thanks for the encouragement everyone! The amber Zenith is lovely - I am a little worried about it though - it does make some some worrisome noises from time to time - I'm torn between leaving it alone, and taking pre-emptive action to see if I can avert what may be an impending problem... Kees - ma...

I thought I'd share my very first experiences with my 'new' Acorn Atom. I bought this machine quite a while ago. The top of the case showed marked discolouration in the vicinity of the voltage regulators, but otherwise the thing looked to be in quite good shape. Opening the case revealed this: IMG_2...

That's a great photo! I think that it captures something of the spirit of this heroic endeavour!

But, your photo somehow puts me in mind of the Titanium Cyborg from the Fighting Fantasy title Appointment with F.E.A.R ...

Hi Liam Great, if you did have the latest version that would be cool - actually if you did have a board still spare I would be happy to give you a couple of quid to post it to me, as it would be a quick way to learn a few useful physical things about the DIN connector footprint...! Cheers, Alex Hi ...

What a delightful bit of retrocomputing archeology! Thanks for unearthing this Lurkio! Very cool. Presumably the "Heath" mentioned is something like the Heathkit H8, H88 or H89. Spot on! There’s a section at the end of the Recreational Computing article as follows: Documentation and Dissemination Do...

Would it be OK for me to get a PCB made while I am ordering some of my own designs to be made? Hi Alex! Thanks for your interest in this board - you are very welcome to take my Eagle files and use them as you see fit! I think that I made some further “improvements” to the design since I uploaded th...

PowerIDE uses the native IDE interface in the A3020 etc, I don't think it'd work with this :/ d. The feature list for PowerIDE says: “Supports Compact Flash devices with a suitable 3rd party adapter” I think it will be worth checking with Partis before writing off PowerIDE; even if it transpires th...

It's a Alsystems IDE interface, branded "Power-tec" on the back. According to Chris’ Acorns http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/Companies.html#Partis - Alsystems sold Partis products under the Power-Tec brand - Partis is still in business, and it looks as though their PowerIDE software is wh...

Fantastic! Many thanks

flaxcottage wrote: ↑

Thu May 23, 2019 9:33 am

I have !PiRat somewhere. I remember using that to clone an educational title.

Investigator III is on my hunting list, thanks.

Any chance of uploading !Rat to the forum? Sounds like a handy thing to have around....

Hello Andrew - I have plenty of spare PCBs left, so I could certainly make a cable for you - the only issue is that I’ve just put my electronics kit into storage whilst I have a loft extension built - alas, this will mean a delay of a couple of months. However, I think that I do have an existing cab...

As mentioned, the university has several museums worth visiting, including the often overlooked Scott Polar Research Institute museum on Lensfield Road (there’s a glorious bronze statue in the grounds that was cast by Scott’s widow and which was modelled on TE Lawrence’s younger brother). Once you’v...

There are a few pointers on burning RO ROMs for RiscPC here https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/870 And it seems to be possible to deal with 42 pin 27C160s using a cheap minipro TL866 and an adapter board described here http://digicoolthings.com/eprom-programmer-adapter-for-27c400800160...

I've had good results with floppy disc cleaning frames, with both 5.25" and 3.5" discs - there's a link to a video showing the technique in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=15218

Here are the disc images - the attachment is a Zipped !Spark archive containing 800k disc images of the three 3.5" floppies that I received. The disc images work with !ADFFS. The three discs are: 1 the Informax app and associated support files including the Jotter font required by the app; 2 example...

Ah, yes! It would appear that my 99p bid was successful on this occasion. I will, of course, be more than happy to share the disc images and scanned documentation in due course....

I’ll take the last 16-bit card, if I may?

Richard - it would be great to see some progress on this; I'd be more than happy for a team effort, but I doubt that I'll be able to contribute much, if anything, in the foreseeable future. If you'd like to have a got at this, then you could ask RobC if he'd be happy to share his CP2201 driver code ...

Hi Richard - Unfortunately, the demands of my daily life have been such that I’ve not had the time to make any progress with this project. I have got the plipbox hardware, and RobC very kindly shared his CP2201 driver code with me, so at least I’ve got everything that I need to make a start, other t...

I recently managed to get an eBay purchased floppy disc working after cleaning the disc surface - see here: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=15218 Of course, if your disc has been overwritten, then cleaning won’t be much help, but it might be worth a try....I must admit that I was ...

Yes, please!

gazzaD wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 03, 2018 9:21 pm

Should anyone be interested...

I am!
Many thanks for this - a most welcome improvement in the pdf!

Thanks again for sharing Kenelm

I’ve been keen to try out Longman - Nuclear Reactor Simulator for some time, but I couldn’t locate a copy - I’ve not tried searching for this for a while, but I don’t think it’s available elsewhere?

How do you transfer something which is bigger than a disc size with this method? Is there a tool for splitting/recombining files or a multi-part archive format? Here’s a utility to do that - http://www.steve-potts.me.uk/software.html#split - this method does work, though it’s a bit of hassle. For t...

I finally found some time to build up my remaining Econet Hub PCB, and fit it into an enclosure, along the same lines taken for the Econet socket box described on the retro-kit site here . I decided to use a 2.1mm panel mount jack plug socket to power the Hub via a jack plug to usb cable. This Hub i...

Can I have an Econet podule, a socket box, and 5 T-pieces please!

The programs are in BASIC and the book is a delight!

Contents pages and Preface below, to give you a good idea of the subject matter covered: