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Archie A3000 inbound

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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Very nice work sir.

I think the mod I really want for my A5000 is a proper network adapter so I can hook into my local LAN. I already have an EcoNet adapter, so should probably have a look over on Stardot, see what they recommend.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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Badwolf
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by Badwolf »

HigashiJun wrote: 03 Oct 2023 12:05 The UltraVIDC is described on this website:

https://www.retro-kit.co.uk/Ultra-VIDC- ... html#A3000

A nice piece of hardware.

I would also recommend you to fit the HD Floppy mod in your Archie.
Cool. Thanks. :)
rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Oct 2023 13:34 I think the mod I really want for my A5000 is a proper network adapter so I can hook into my local LAN. I already have an EcoNet adapter, so should probably have a look over on Stardot, see what they recommend.
I've bodged my A3000 onto the network with serial. The stack is a bit of a faff IIRC.

You can get ethernet podules on ebay quite frequently and CJE down in Littlehampton often sells them. Expect it to be £90 or thereabouts for a 10baseT, mind.

One of my longer-term plans was to try to develop a lightweight network adapter for the podule port.

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Badwolf wrote: 03 Oct 2023 16:49
You can get ethernet podules on ebay quite frequently and CJE down in Littlehampton often sells them. Expect it to be £90 or thereabouts for a 10baseT, mind.

One of my longer-term plans was to try to develop a lightweight network adapter for the podule port.

BW
I do look at eBay quite regularly, but CJE were charging £145 when I looked today, and that is rather more than I'd like to pay.

Maybe you'll get round to a podule, I'd certainly be interested.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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HigashiJun
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Oct 2023 13:34 Very nice work sir.

I think the mod I really want for my A5000 is a proper network adapter so I can hook into my local LAN. I already have an EcoNet adapter, so should probably have a look over on Stardot, see what they recommend.

Thank you sir !

An internal 10Base-2 adapter do exist for the A3000:

https://www.cjemicros.co.uk/micros/indi ... -3K10B2-SH

but you have to tweak your hardware if you want to fit it along your IDE adapter:

https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic ... 16&t=26273

I guess the A5000 is much more endowed and fitting an extra adapter is less pain.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

HigashiJun wrote: 04 Oct 2023 05:08
rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Oct 2023 13:34 Very nice work sir.

I think the mod I really want for my A5000 is a proper network adapter so I can hook into my local LAN. I already have an EcoNet adapter, so should probably have a look over on Stardot, see what they recommend.

Thank you sir !

An internal 10Base-2 adapter do exist for the A3000:

https://www.cjemicros.co.uk/micros/indi ... -3K10B2-SH

but you have to tweak your hardware if you want to fit it along your IDE adapter:

https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic ... 16&t=26273

I guess the A5000 is much more endowed and fitting an extra adapter is less pain.
Yes, fitting a podule really isn't an issue on the A5000, there are multiple slots free in mine so it really would be simple, and I'd probably end up spending as much building an econet bridge as it would cost to buy a card from CJE, but spending that much for network access on a machine I don't use a lot, well, it's a difficult prospect.

The A3000 looks to be a bit more of a difficult prospect though.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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stephen_usher
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by stephen_usher »

The A3000 "mini podule" has very little to do with the podules for the other Acorn machines. It basically connects with a couple of headers onto the motherboard. It's a really cheap and poor design. I think the emphasis is on "cheap".
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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Badwolf
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by Badwolf »

stephen_usher wrote: 04 Oct 2023 10:03 The A3000 "mini podule" has very little to do with the podules for the other Acorn machines. It basically connects with a couple of headers onto the motherboard. It's a really cheap and poor design. I think the emphasis is on "cheap".
8 bit too isn't it?

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
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stephen_usher
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by stephen_usher »

Badwolf wrote: 04 Oct 2023 10:52 8 bit too isn't it?

BW
I think so, yes.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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HigashiJun
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Location: Tokyo

Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by HigashiJun »

A quick update.

So everything seems to work good:

A3000.JPG

IDE, Econet, 4MB RAM, keyboard and mouse are working without any issues.

The original FDD works but doesn't seem to recognise floppies. Will have to check that later.

Next steps will be HD FDD install and UltraVIDC.

So far so good.

The Archie A3000 is such a lovely machine.

:D
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stephen_usher
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Re: Archie A3000 inbound

Post by stephen_usher »

:dualthumbup:
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.

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