stardot.org.uk

Popular with pirates, by any chance?

I was looking for instructions for doing that to the cost reduced motherboard but haven’t found any yet. The main problem for me would be making the cable - not my skill set. I did see someone used to sell a plug and play mod with a cable (http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?81700-VIC20-VC20-Plug-...

Lardo Boffin wrote: ↑

Mon May 18, 2020 8:53 pm

A very nice VIC 20

Is there any other sort? Don’t know why I have such a soft spot for these.
If you haven’t tried it already, the s-video mod works really nicely.

I’ve picked up a few boards like that. It seems to be pretty random which chips are fitted, whether they’re soldered or socketed, or whether other blank spaces have empty sockets. Never any resistors etc fitted. Almost as if the factory started making econet-capable boards but changed their minds pa...

From reading old Beebugs and Acorn Users from the period, it would appear that the real reason for delayed release was that Acorn found it rather trickier to get the Tube working properly. Beebug from Sept 1982 lists all three 2Ps, giving provisional production dates of November 1982 for the 6502 an...

There's an article in Beebug Vol 1, Iss 6 (Oct 82) about the Tube. This refers to the 6502, Z80, and a "16 bit NS 16032 based machine", which goes along with what Acorn claimed they would be producing. It would seem there was a common perception that the 16032 was 16-bit, which was why NS ...

I’ve got several IDE solutions (Wizzo, Simtec podule etc) that will let me run multiple partitions on one device. I’ve also just got hold of several IDE to CF adapters, so it would be nice to run a few (currently driveless) machines with 4 partitions on one CF card. If it’s possible, the easiest way...

Weird. I never though the answer to What Would Jesus Do would be “Flog dodgy knock-off software on public auction sites”!

I do remember Acorn having some kind of massive stock clearout in the mid-90s around the time of one of the Acorn User/Acorn World shows at Wembley that I used to go to with my Dad (those were the days). Remember being most intrigued by the "Briefcase Communicator" on the list, but was no...

Bull Electrical were flogging them off, boxed with manuals, for £30 each around 1994/5. As well as cheap night vision and other geeky stuff.
Might be the sort of place a set designer for a geek tv show on a tight budget would look.

Ok, so it seems to be worth paying at least a slight premium for one that’s been recapped. Looks like I’ve found my getting-through-hell-at-work present. Up until now, it’d been a decent FFP3 mask. And a free pair of anti-fog goggles, kindly donated by the local Toolstation (they deserve a plug for ...

The A500 is nice for basic retro gaming, playing games via a floppies or a GoTek. But the A1200 is a much easier machine to deal with if you're looking to do more than that. The internal IDE port makes it easy to connect up a CF/SD adaptor or an IDE hard drive if you're feeling oldskool, the PCMCIA...

Please can I also express an interest in an A1200, if Dom doesn’t want first refusal, if anyone’s selling one? So long as it’s usable (ie mouse and psu) and in reasonable condition, I’m not too bothered about add-ons. An Amiga is the main machine I don’t have and particularly want, although I’m some...

Please can I clarify my interest - 1 each of the underside 1MHz and Tube, and 1 remote 1MHz (so same overall total as before).

As good as I can get it...

Thank goodness at least some people are being sensible about all this! Dave/John - you’re being true role models. As for me, I’m going to be not so much isolated as sequestered on ICU for about the same time period (who’d have thought Director of ICU would be such a bad lifestyle choice?). I’m spend...

I’ve got one.

Will try to scan and upload on Wednesday. It’ll make a nice change from all the covid meetings. And may be the last chance I get for the next few months...

At a guess, because the machine is only findng 64Mb, all of which checks out okay? When the RPC was launched, the product literature claimed to take up to 128Mb SIMMs, with the small print to the effect “when this is available”. So it wasn’t ever tested as working with 128Mb during design, because t...

From my old school, I got: TRS80 Model III (first computer I ever touched) TRS80 Line Printer VII BBC Model A Filestore E01 & E20 Watford Adder Watford Beeb Video Digitiser Acorn teletext adapter 6502 Second Processor 2 x Music87 2 x Watford ROM boards Acoustic coupler Loads of eproms Acorn Coma...

Plus one for me

An image of that disc would be phenomenally useful. The original Rodime in mine still works, but was sadly blanked before I inherited it. Whilst I do have multiple copies of 1.21c (running on several other machines), and (allegedly) a copy of A680 vmunix, I can’t get vmunix to boot successfully - al...

How many do you need - is it just one that’s bad or both?

If it’s only the one, I’ve got one left over from my repairs.

Mouser had them in uk stock when I ordered, so carriage was free as part of a bigger order). It would seem Farnell also stock them for £1.03 each (+vat & carriage), which they didn’t when I bought mine. The manufacturer’s (TE Connectivity) part number is 7-520355-0. Google throws up a few possib...

Available from Mouser (or were in November) - part no. 571-7-520355-0.

Worked fine in my A3000

Thanks for the explanation. You’ve just saved me from a couple of hours of futility.

Can the FPU podule not co-exist with the ARM3? I do remember with the RiscPC some software that allowed the x86 cards (assuming not the SX versions) to be used as a pseudo-FPA, but that became obsolete with the StrongARM as the overhead of getting it across the DPOB made the latency greater than ju...

Software disc and manual (scanned to my usual low standards!) for the original FP Co-Processor Podule

You don't own an A7000+? :shock: I found that for some tasks - OK, FP-heavy tasks - the A7000+ was at least as good as a StrongARM RPC of the period. Nope. The plus model never came down into what I considered an acceptable price range. The bulk of my collecting was done when the stuff was worth bo...

Looks like the support disc may be MIA. I’ll upload when I get chance. As for what can be done with it, disappointingly little in practical terms. Given that it’s a choice between the copro (and faster FP) or ARM3 (and faster everything), it’s usually a no-brainer. The only advantage is faster FP in...

Looking at the respective service manuals, the A300 specifies a 64-way connector in its parts list, the A400 a 96-way.
I thought it’d been officially nobbled in some way, if for no other reason than to polarise the budget and high-end models.