New A3000 owner - dumb questions

[matburton]

I now own an A3000 but I'm new to the Acorn scene so here come some dumb questions!
(Sorry if I should have been able to Google these myself)

1. I've seen screen shots of people with multiple hard disks in the icon bar. I presume they're partitioned CF cards? Were partitions like this possible with IDE podules of the day? I have a "RISC Developments' IDE Interface (31/7/92)"
2. I have RISCOS 2 but I'm considering upgrading. Would I need to find RISCOS 3 ROMS specifically for the A3000 or are all the same?
3. I've removed the original and leaking battery and attempted a clean-up. Most people seem to have replaced the battery with either an AA (would a AAA be fine?) or CR2032 like in a PC. For both there needs to be a diode to prevent charging. What diode would I need and where would it go? Does anyone have any pictures (sorry, I'm a n00b )
4. Being nosy I dumped a Lotus 2 game disk with a Kryoflux and found what looks like a copy protection track. Is there a community effort to preserve original disks? I can see there's JASPP but if I understand correctly that's more about removing the copy protection, making it more compatible and hard disk based?

Here's my battery leak clean-up effort, comments welcome.
Before:

After:

[Kazzie]

Multiple drive icons could be due to multiple partitions, or multiple physical drives. Going on a limb and from memory, Acorn's original interfaces didn't officially support them, but modern IDE devices often do. (Back in the day, Oak's ClassROM products would partition a hard drive into system and user space, and make the system area read-only to stop click-happy kids from messing up the configuration of school machines.)

When fitting a non-rechargable battery with a diode, the diode should allow current to flow in the usual (for the battery) direction, but oppose any current that flows the wrong way into the battery. Any bog-standard general-purpose signal diode would do: no need for fancy germanium, zener, or other varieties.

This web page shows some options for how and where to install a battery and diode in an A3000 case. This topic may also be some nice background reading, as it charts another member's project of resurrecting an A3000. Page 4 is of particular relevance, as it discusses methods of connecting the battery to the board.

[IanS]

This web page shows some options for how and where to install a battery and diode in an A3000 case.

And is wrong.
It shows adding a battery (with diode) attached to LK5. Without something fitted in the D1 position on the motherboard, it will do nothing.

Fitting D1 and using LK5 would be fine, but that's not what the web site shows.

a3000-batt.PNG (17.04 KiB) Viewed 1408 times

(NF - not fitted)

[matburton]

Acorn's original interfaces didn't officially support them, but modern IDE devices often do

Thanks Kazzie, I suspected that'd be the case. Not much of a loss as I'm not sure I'll even use a hard drive yet.

And is wrong.

Thanks IanS, are you aware of any n00b friendly resources to minimize the chances of me mucking this up?

That page also says "The A3000 is ideally suited to this modification as it has an unused battery holder built into the case" but my case doesn't seem to have a battery holder.

[geraldholdsworth]

That page also says "The A3000 is ideally suited to this modification as it has an unused battery holder built into the case" but my case doesn't seem to have a battery holder.

Next to where you plug the mouse in.

[matburton]

Next to where you plug the mouse in.

Yup, mine doesn't have anything resembling a battery holder there.

[hubersn]

That page also says "The A3000 is ideally suited to this modification as it has an unused battery holder built into the case" but my case doesn't seem to have a battery holder.

I think the later A3000s (e.g. all German variants) don't have a battery holder at all. Not sure if "cardboard cover PSU vs. metal-cased PSU" is a reliable indicator.

Have fun
hubersn

[IanS]

Next to where you plug the mouse in.

Yup, mine doesn't have anything resembling a battery holder there.

It's not obviously a battery holder, it's just a small panel with a screw in the centre. It's just above the mouse cable in this picture - http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org ... 30002D.jpg
Did later cases remove it?, I wasn't aware of that.

[matburton]

This is what mine looks like



I think I've found the answer to (b) it's specifically ROMs 0296,041-01 to 0296,044-01 I'd need.

[IanS]

This is what mine looks like

I think I've found the answer to (b) it's specifically ROMs 0296,041-01 to 0296,044-01 I'd need.

Interesting, that looks a big improvement, the mouse connector can be a bit fiddly to fit on the original cases.

Any RISC OS 3.11 roms should work.

[matburton]

This topic may also be some nice background reading, as it charts another member's project of resurrecting an A3000. Page 4 is of particular relevance, as it discusses methods of connecting the battery to the board.

Thanks Kazzie, that was good reading. Given I have no battery holder I think I'll go down the CR2032 route and use one of these with the diode already built in as suggested in that thread and pictured here.

I guess that only leaves my last question, is there any kind of disk image preservation going on?

[matburton]

Thanks again Kazzie, here's the result



It works perfectly, but I now have a new problem with my floppy drive so I'll start a new thread

[Kazzie]

That's looking nice and tidy, well done.