Master 128 Startup Beeps

[dhoggan]

Hi,

Apologies in advance if this has been asked/answered somewhere - I've spent the better part of an hour Googling and looking around and so that might say more about my search skills than anything!

On a Model B, I'm used to the dual tone beep-beep when you turn it on and anything else spells trouble. But, in the various videos of the Master 128 I've seen some a a single long beep and some are the more usual two-tone style. Both seem to work, so does anyone know the difference?

Thanks,

Dave

[danielj]

The first beep is the sound IC being uninitialised. The second is the real beep. My master does a double beep. If the videos you've seen of masters have a copro enabled then you don't get the second beep (which is actually the same on a beeb).

[1024MAK]

And yes, similar questions have been asked on this very forum before.

A problem is mainly when there is a continuous tone when you turn on a Beeb regardless of which model it is.

Mark

[dhoggan]

Hi,

Thanks for answering - it really was beginning to bug me as they both seems to work. As for searching - I tend to use Google as the main search - a habit I picked up when dealing with one of our vendors who have a lousy search engine. I did try the *. search engine too, but admittedly for less that 10 minutes.

Thank,

Dave

[DutchAcorn]

Hi,

Thanks for answering - it really was beginning to bug me as they both seems to work. As for searching - I tend to use Google as the main search - a habit I picked up when dealing with one of our vendors who have a lousy search engine. I did try the *. search engine too, but admittedly for less that 10 minutes.

Thank,

Dave

So does one of these Masters have a 6502 second processor (or other second processor) installed?

[1024MAK]

Anything that prevents the relevant ROM from printing the normal Acorn startup text will interfere with the second bleep.

The second bleep is a VDU 7 (see here and here).

So if the text that contains the VDU 7 code is never “printed”, then there will be no second bleep.

Similarly the “first” bleep that you hear when turning the machine on does not sound when you reset the machine using the BREAK key, as the sound chip stays on. Unlike when you use the power switch [when you turn the power on, the sound chip sounds all it’s channels at maximum volume until the ROM code in the OS ROM tells the CPU to tell it to “shut up”].

See also this topic

Mark

[dhoggan]

HI,

I'm not sure if they did (have a co-pro) or not - the video was more of an overview than anything.

Thanks,

Dave

[BeebMaster]

Sometimes you get no initial brrrrr at all, especially if there is an externally powered peripheral connected at start up. If there's also a second processor active, there will be no sound at all!

Occasionally you might get a high pitched initial noise, that seems more likely to happen as a result of a rapid off/on power action.

Masters tend to have a longer initial beep than standard Model Bs as there are more sideways ROMs in a Master by default to initialise.

Masters with MOS 3.50 have a slightly different beep, the first Brrr is very short, followed by a brief pause, then the VDU7 bleep.

And of course the brrr...beep of a Model B is famously the UNIT intercom noise in "The Five Doctors".

[archie456]

Excellent - I didn't know that a Beeb was in the Five Doctors.

Here it is: at 6:08

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x75u27c

UNIT Technology is obviously very advanced...