Stuff and Things.

[rubber_jonnie]

They probably recycle the old good ATARI's Wang caps...

The other problem is, they set the fan run time to about 20 minutes and nobody goes "Oooh I'd better drop the runtime a bit" so they end up running rather more than they really need to once power is turned off (Ours come on with the bathroom light).

So I've turned it down to about 5 minutes, it's just a small pot to adjust and they now go off after about 5 minutes.

[rubber_jonnie]

Picked up one of these the other day:

IMG20241103150522.jpg (104.07 KiB) Viewed 119 times

Whilst it has a number of functions, so continuity, resistance, inductance, diode, I really wanted it as I'd seen a review of it's LCR capabilities and for around £20 it was quite the bargain.

In terms of LCR it will allow testing at 100Hz, 1Khz and 10Khz, something my multimeter won't do, and also something my component tester won't do either (They tend to fudge it, and it's OK but not 100% accurate)

So far I'm pretty please with it and it seems quite good at testing SMD parts in circuit. For the price, whilst it isn't a full blown LCR meter, it is better than what I currently have so quite handy.

[rubber_jonnie]

Just arrived:

IMG20241108154738.jpg (148.32 KiB) Viewed 94 times

IMG20241108155222.jpg (198.91 KiB) Viewed 94 times

I've been after a decent 3rd hand for some time ow and this seems to fit the bill nicely.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so I just picked up this:

Screenshot 2024-11-26 at 09.20.51.png (3.46 MiB) Viewed 63 times

It's an ATPL Sidewise ROM/RAM board and it's heading for my number 2 BBC. It's got no ROMs installed at present, but it does have RAM. I'm sure I'll be able to find plenty of ROMs though.

I'm also looking at this machine for a proper FDD interface. IIRC it has an intel 8271 and it requires a disk to boot from for the dual Cumana drive I have, and I don't have the disk. I could make one with Greaseweazel but I'd rather get a 1770 based controller which replaced the 8271 fairly quickly, and it's also ROM based.

I guess that needs to go on the project list...

[JezC]

I'm also looking at this machine for a proper FDD interface. IIRC it has an intel 8271 and it requires a disk to boot from for the dual Cumana drive I have, and I don't have the disk. I could make one with Greaseweazel but I'd rather get a 1770 based controller which replaced the 8271 fairly quickly, and it's also ROM based.

I guess that needs to go on the project list...

I'll have to check but, from some vague distant memory, my original Acorn 8271 DFS (fitted bac in 1985 IIRC) didn't need a special floppy to boot and nor did the later upgrade to 8271/1770 dual controllers (so ADFS could work via he 1770).

I had lots of time playing Elite on disc before it was officially released (that's a different story) - and basically killing the original video ULA (with heatsink) that was fitted into my issue 3 Beeb...

Probably won't get chance before the weekend to dig them out though...

[PhilC]

It will depend on the format of the discs you are trying to use but typical 100k 40 track discs regardless, should work with the standard 8271. It's worth checking drove ID, termination and any cable twists.

Just returned a dual 5 1/4" 40/80 cumana drive and it works with 8271, 1770 & 1772.

Retro clinic do a 1772 upgrade on eBay that works pretty well.

Btw, good luck with the rom board, I got fed up with mine being too unreliable and have just ordered a modern replacement, again retro clinic

[rubber_jonnie]

I'm also looking at this machine for a proper FDD interface. IIRC it has an intel 8271 and it requires a disk to boot from for the dual Cumana drive I have, and I don't have the disk. I could make one with Greaseweazel but I'd rather get a 1770 based controller which replaced the 8271 fairly quickly, and it's also ROM based.

I guess that needs to go on the project list...

I'll have to check but, from some vague distant memory, my original Acorn 8271 DFS (fitted bac in 1985 IIRC) didn't need a special floppy to boot and nor did the later upgrade to 8271/1770 dual controllers (so ADFS could work via he 1770).

I had lots of time playing Elite on disc before it was officially released (that's a different story) - and basically killing the original video ULA (with heatsink) that was fitted into my issue 3 Beeb...

Probably won't get chance before the weekend to dig them out though...

So I don't have a DFS ROM and the documentation that came with the Cumana drives stated I need a disk, and without it it seems there are no commands for managing disks. The machine the Cumana drives came with had an 8271, and the original Cumana disk had been overwritten, or at least that's what it looks like.

[rubber_jonnie]

It will depend on the format of the discs you are trying to use but typical 100k 40 track discs regardless, should work with the standard 8271. It's worth checking drove ID, termination and any cable twists.

Just returned a dual 5 1/4" 40/80 cumana drive and it works with 8271, 1770 & 1772.

Retro clinic do a 1772 upgrade on eBay that works pretty well.

Btw, good luck with the rom board, I got fed up with mine being too unreliable and have just ordered a modern replacement, again retro clinic

I have checked all of that, but I have no DFS ROM and the docs stated it needed a disk, and as I mentioned to Jez, that disk appears overwritten.

Anyways, I just ordered the board from Retroclinic so it's all good. As for the ROM board, we'll see... I do have a BooBip ROM adapter in my main Beeb, and have lots of lovely ROMs in there, but I had an urge to go old school .

I do seem to have an issue with one of the drives in the Cumana duo as on inserting a disk it spins contiuously, whereas it doesn't in drive 2, so I need something reliable to test the drives with.

May have a go with my Greaseweazel.

[PhilC]

@rubber_jonnie you should get two rooms if you ordered the assembled one. I've used both without issues on my Cumana.

Sounds like something not right with one drive if it just spins. Mind you, if you have a disk in drive two, then the drive motor runs in drive one at the same time, regardless of a disk being in it or not.

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie you should get two rooms if you ordered the assembled one. I've used both without issues on my Cumana.

Sounds like something not right with one drive if it just spins. Mind you, if you have a disk in drive two, then the drive motor runs in drive one at the same time, regardless of a disk being in it or not.

I presume you meant 2 ROMs?

Yeah, drive one spins for an age when a disk is inserted, but it does stop eventually. Bit of a head scratcher, I can't get GW to read anything and I'm not 100%sure why. More fiddling required as it doesn't see the index,