Today I received.....

[flaxcottage]

Jan 1985 is the next one to scan.

[Lardo Boffin]

A very nice VIC 20.

On which I am playing The Count. Badly.

[flaxcottage]

An Epson PX-8. Actually runs CP/M...

Check out Computing Today November 1984

[Boydie]

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.

[Lardo Boffin]

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 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?81 ... dification) which would be great but it is no longer available.

Adjusting the white pot with the white arrow has helped a bit.

[jonb]

An Epson PX-8. Actually runs CP/M...

Check out Computing Today November 1984

Thanks John. A pretty bland review - were they trying to cozy up to EPSON?

My PX-8 only has the two ROMs - Wordstar and a CP/M utility ROM (with only the very basics on it - PIP, STAT, SUBMIT), although there are lots of others available to download. It's an interesting toy but not one I'd use extensively. The ROM chips are mounted in cradles that fit the special sockets under the machine's main board. I'd like to get more of these (ha!) or alternatively 3D print some. They protect the chip legs and make it easier to swap.

[Boydie]

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?81 ... dification) which would be great but it is no longer available.

Adjusting the white pot with the white arrow has helped a bit.

I followed these instructions for my cost-reduced VIC. Worked like a charm:

http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... deo_output

As for the lead, I cheated and cut one end off an s-video cable, traced the wires with a continuity meter, and soldered onto a 5-pin DIN connector. Then did the same with an old audio lead.
I've never managed to get an s-video scart lead to work. All my TVs auto-selected composite rather than s-video, so I gave up and went for a proper s-video connector.

[Lardo Boffin]

Thanks Boydie! I will have a read.


Good week this week!

A pretty good copy of Elite for the Elk. Not quite as exciting as the co-proc version that sold recently but over £400 cheaper!

All the gubbins - even the till receipt!

[flaxcottage]

Jan 1985 is the next one to scan.

Now uploaded.

[Leew]

A pretty good copy of Elite for the Elk. Not quite as exciting as the co-proc version that sold recently but over £400 cheaper!

£400 !!!!

Just had a look at my Beeb Elite and it is the 5.25 floppy version with support for 6502 second processor. Don't know if it's the same version as you mention but I wouldn't sell it anyway

I might have a crack at making a 6502 co-proc for my Beeb (or even my Elk as I have Dave's AP5) out of a Raspberry Pi, I've seen it somewhere on the forum. Will have to have a look round when I get five minutes...

[leenew]

Jan 1985 is the next one to scan.

Now uploaded.

Thanks John

[Lardo Boffin]

A pretty good copy of Elite for the Elk. Not quite as exciting as the co-proc version that sold recently but over £400 cheaper!

£400 !!!!

Just had a look at my Beeb Elite and it is the 5.25 floppy version with support for 6502 second processor. Don't know if it's the same version as you mention but I wouldn't sell it anyway

I might have a crack at making a 6502 co-proc for my Beeb (or even my Elk as I have Dave's AP5) out of a Raspberry Pi, I've seen it somewhere on the forum. Will have to have a look round when I get five minutes...

Its this one -

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2506&start=2790#p269685

I have a couple of Pi co-procs. Very handy!

[Leew]

An Acorn Atom from eBay...

I always wanted one for my collection, but working ones are hard to come by without paying very high prices.

Anyway this was listed as working and it has now arrived, and yes it is working, but...

There are a few issues such as it has had a composite connection added and some other soldering work done, but not to a particularly high soldering standard. Some of the keys are a bit hit and miss (as well as being upside down on the keyboard) and some screws are missing or aren't the right ones. Composite video is stripy (but not sure if that is my monitor, further testing required) and the case is very yellow.

The main thing is that it works and I am generally pleased with it

[philpem]

This absolutely massive pack of RISC OS software just arrived on my doorstep -- big thanks to Bart and Viola, this will all be archived!

I'm still going through the box, but I know there's a copy of Acorn InterTalk in here (which I don't think has been archived in any form) ... and the icing on the cake for me -- a Cerilikey keydisk for Vantage!


And this arrived last week - an Xemplar Sales Support Pack containing a mountain of Anglia, YITM and Sherston educational titles:

Looks like I'll be spending my bank holiday archiving!

[flaxcottage]

A few days ago I took delivery of a sexy new scanner from D&H Innovations, an excellent supplier in Dundee.
.

.
The box and contents looked very 'sexy' and I was very impressed. This could be the answer to my documentation archiving problems. I couldn't wait to try it out.

Unfortunately my anticipation was not fulfilled. The system, for my purposes, was just a stylish toy. The quality of scanning was poor with only a fraction of the 16 megapixel resolution being used (for an A5 manual only 17% of the resolution was used). It was fast however - lightning fast - and the OCR was amazing

Then things went pear-shaped. The image below shows a constant flaw after the system had been used for a while.
.

.
The software/scanner seemed to be incompatible with each other. This effect of diagonal page splitting was a consistent error after 6 consecutive scans and was irredeemable. It occurred with A5 books and magazines. Also if a new scan was started the whole system had to be shut down and restarted. Maybe it was just a one-off with my scanner. For archiving it was not fit for purpose, so I am back to the time-consuming flatbed scanning and manual cropping/editing of images. The company accepted the return and refunded my money without quibble and very quickly and I cannot praise their customer service enough - a rarity these days.

[flaxcottage]

And another one from me ...

A few days ago Phipli gave me the heads-up about a Commotion control box auction on eBay. Amazingly I won it and cheaply too and the following kit arrived.
.

The box, software and documentation are unused. I've no idea if it all works yet but it looks great! The Coco+ disk for the A3000 works OK and has already been archived. I hope the BBC version is just as good.

There is only the BBC connecting lead, which uses the printer port and user port. The Archimedes lead is missing but it should not be too difficult to make an appropriate lead - I have the connectors and cable in stock. One good thing is that over the years of accumulating stuff I have a number of devices intended to be connected to this box - now I can use them.

When I get round to it I'll post further details, the documentation and the software on the archive website.

[LordVaderUK]

Two deliveries for me today, firstly a box of programming books from Bart's collection, hopefully there'll be some ideas in here to further improve my programming (and get MoonBase2 to actually fit on a BBC B )


Also, an eBay win, £1.50 for these three, to add to my slowly increasing collection of Acornsoft titles...

[stuslayer]

I never knew these existed for the Beeb, but I remember it as the coveted joystick BITD for C64 and Amstrad owners (I.e. 8 year old me), and this one appears to have an analogue connector. I took a punt and it works perfectly:

Just had a blast on Cylon Attack to check it works

[tone76]

... some maintenance and upgrade goodies for my Master 128, from the good people at RetroClinic. It only took 2.5 weeks to get here from the UK, which is nothing short of amazing in these current pandemic-affected times.

The obligatory PSU recap kit, along with a Raspberry Pi Zero copro board (sans Pi Zero) and a multi-OS ROM kit. It's been a few years since I last did any proper soldering, and it just so happens that I have a few small unassembled electronic project kits that I bought many moons ago. I'll practice on those before I unleash myself onto the Master's PSU.

[Leew]

Second item this week is a Phillips G7000 Videopac Computer from eBay.

I always said that the Acorn Electron was my first computer back in the early 80's but then I saw this on eBay and it spiked a memory from the late 70's of me having one of these. It was in a large plastic carry case with slots for games cartridges and for the joysticks etc and I vaguely remember arguing at school that my Phillips G7000 was better than everyone else's Atari 2600's

Anyway, I saw it on eBay and my nostalgia meter shot up to max so I had to have it. Pity I don't have an analogue TV anymore, but I did get it working on a little analogue transceiver box thingy that takes RF in and has SVGA out, although there was no sound with this box.

[roland]

New Yarrb2 boards

Electron Wifi boards

Soldering the smd components will be a piece of

[anightin]

Congratulations Roland!



(Once if not twice , I need to remember a 25th Anniversary cake for next year)

[Multiwizard]

New Yarrb2 boards

96B0C1D6-7F7D-43D5-AA01-72EF211DDF00.jpeg

Electron Wifi boards

5B587B6C-E43E-463A-80E7-BD3AEC97458A.jpeg

A6C0B362-3143-4A63-BB0A-2D602AF4A626.jpeg

Soldering the smd components will be a piece of

8E562136-1C5C-41E5-B4B0-C26063E2C341.jpeg

Nice pics...

Especially the last one... (congrats... )


Greetings, Wim...

[Lardo Boffin]

My kids just made me this with hama beads:

[chrisn]

Something to read, to go with the Atom I picked up back in December ...

[flaxcottage]

My kids just made me this with hama beads:


D21D12C7-3403-4050-B9DF-AE725EC01E95.jpeg

Now that is cool!

[Lardo Boffin]

A copy of LISP. Still sealed (and likely to stay that way, I have the user guide for it and it gave me a headache) and in very nice condition. The box is flatter than the picture makes it look.

I’m just a sucker for Acornsoft Languages.

[markjw]

a Pi1541 - finally been able to load programs on my 64C (and good news on that machine, seems to be fully working after replacing CIA2) and I can now get my C128 out and see if it full works.

[jonb]

One of these..

DRZ-400SM

Many years ago I had a DRZ-400S (the green laning version) and had a boat load of fun on it. I traded it in against a looney sports bike, and have had them ever since. The last acquisition was a very expensive Triumph, hugely fast and evil looking. Yet, in 21 months I did 1100 miles. What a waste of money! It's been sold now, and the little DRZ is the replacement. On the ride home it all came flooding back and I had a smile on my face all the way. The Triumph never gave me that as I had no connection to it. Happy happy happy!

[roland]

When visiting a friend ...

Hobbit magazines and ATOM User Group booklets

I thought that I already had a copy, seems not so but now I have one.

I didn’t have the “Getting aquanted” book :)

Mice? O no, just a bunch of new rabbits :)