Hello - BBC B Newbie

[Becky]

Hello,

I finally own a Beeb! It belonged to my other half and has been in a box since he bought it years ago from a charity stall at a RISC OS show. I asked him at the weekend if I could have it. It's a dull orange coloured BBC Model B, has a floppy controller and DFS. Also has Exmon and disc doctor ROMS. No Econet interface. The main board is an Issue 7 but the keyboard is an issue 1. Is that unusual? What was unusual was that the down cursor key switch had never been soldered, I did that yesterday. Today I removed the infamous capacitors from the power supply, with replacements due to arrive hopefully in the next couple of days. I have seen the machine powered up, but not for a long time.

I remember using BBCs at school in the mid eighties, but only really started getting into Acorns about 1998, (Not a great year) when I bought an A3010. I had a Risc PC for a few years too. I use RISC OS most days via RPCEmu on my Linux laptop. I do miss my Risc PC though, cant remember why I got rid of it.

[Bobbi]

Welcome Becky! I also recently got a BBC B for the first time in 20+ years. I am having a blast with it!

[cmorley]

Welcome!

Splendid machines

[Multiwizard]

Hi,

welcome to this great Forum...


Greetings from my little Dutch Atomic Attic, Wim...

[flaxcottage]

Welcome, Becky.

[daveejhitchins]

Welcome to the Forum, Becky . . . Enjoy . . .

Dave H.

[SimonSideburns]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

It's good that you have saved this machine from its sorry existence in a box for years unloved.

I too was at school in the 1980s when BBC computers started being introduced into schools. We had one on a trolley desk thing that could be shared by two classrooms when I was in middle school, but by the time I was at senior school there was a whole room of them available.

I left school before they started getting Archimedes computers in, so I didn't really get to use those, sadly.

[davidb]

Welcome!

[tricky]

Welcome, now might be a good time to show your partner the new hardware list

[Becky]

Thanks for the welcomes.

Simon - I remember the Masters, but I don't remember seeing any Archimedes machines before I left school even though they had been out for a couple of years, not that I would have known what one was, but I would have been curious enough to look.

Tricky - The new hardware list is phenomenol

I haven't had it on since I got it out the box as I've got the PSU in bits and the dodgy capacitors de-soldered. They look really rough! The replacements were due yesterday / today from ebay, so hopefully they will arrive tomorrow

I already have a Turbo MMC ready to go - Cant believe how cheap it was compared to the equivalent for the Sinclair Spectrums.

I'm thinking of the PiTube too, that looks like fun. I remember one of the machines at school had what I would now recognise as a co-pro, but we were never told what it was or what it did. (Probably pepped up the Econet server) In fact the only practical thing I can remember doing on them in computing was programming in Comal.

One thing occurred to me playing with BeebEm on my laptop, the asterisk seems to be one of the most frequently used symbols, so I wonder why it was a shifted one and not a straight key press. As Cmorley said above, a splendid machine. I love the ruggedness o0f it, I suppose that would have been essential in a school environment.

[Coeus]

Welcome to the forum, Becky.

Yes, the industrial design of the BBC B was solid - imagine how things would have been in the classroom with the wobbly ZX81 RAM pack. Perhaps not so much so as the RM 380Z that preceded it as a school computer but then that cost several thousand when released. The industrial design of computer has definitely become cheaper and less robust over time. When the electronics inside cost thousands or even more a sturdy metal box is a small fraction of the price. When the electronics inside cost a few pounds at most the case becomes a big part of the cost. The BBC micro was all part of that transition.

[Diminished]

Hello!

Good job tackling the capacitors. My avatar depicts what happens if you leave it too long ...

[Becky]

Sitting here looking at the new hardware list and thinking how much cool stuff there is for the Beeb and how much fun I can have with it. Then a thought struck me:

"Maybe I should look for a second machine to keep as a spare in case something goes wrong"

Uh Oh.....

[Coeus]

"Maybe I should look for a second machine to keep as a spare in case something goes wrong"

Indeed someone asked "Master of BBC B?" a little while ago and got the rely "Well both of course?" or something like that.

[JasonStonier]

"Maybe I should look for a second machine to keep as a spare in case something goes wrong"

Careful. That slope is slippery and long. Very, very long. So long.

[Becky]

"Maybe I should look for a second machine to keep as a spare in case something goes wrong"

Careful. That slope is slippery and long. Very, very long. So long.

I can imagine... Once you've got two, you want (need) to link them, so you need Econet, Then You might as well get a third as a file server and then you really need a Master for balance and it will just snowball.

[JasonStonier]

I think I'm on something like 12 different working retro systems now, something like that, and a ridiculous collection of Atari carts. Also, against all the odds, still married after 20 years, so...

[Becky]

I don't think I mentioned it, but I replaced my PSU capacitors on Friday and the machine is working and appears in good health.

[JasonStonier]

Nailed it! Good job. Now, how's that slippery slope going?

[tricky]

Are you still enjoying it?
People often ask what add-ons they should get, do you have any recommendations yet?

[JasonStonier]

People often ask what add-ons they should get...

The answer is, obviously, all of them. See earlier comment about slippery slopes.

In particular I can recommend the Atari Joystick adapter from some random bloke on here. It's a work of perfection.