BBC Model B - Some upgrades

[rubber_jonnie]

As well as my recent BBC Model B repair, I also made a couple of upgrades. @JezC this is aimed a little at you :)

The machine I revived received a TurboSPI MMC adapter. This is kind of akin to a Gotek and comes in 2 parts, a ROM to plug in internally and the MMC reader itself, which plugs into the User port and will support around 500 disk images.

The good machine, received a 64KB EEPROM adapter from @cmorley of BooBip, and also received a TurboSpi.

The 64KB EEPROM adapter gives you 4 paged ROM banks in a single ROM socket. They can also be chained as well to give multiple EEPROMS and more banks.

The TurboSpi

TurboSPI.jpg

And fitted:

TurboSPI_2.jpg

And here are both the TurboSPI ROM and EEPROM adapter fitted:

BooBip.jpg

With the additional required connections elsewhere on the board:

BooBip_2.jpg

And the overall picture:

BooBip_OV.jpg

And lastly, running RTOOL which comes installed onto the 64KB EEPROM adapter give a nice overview of the installed ROMs and the means to install the ROMs you want:

RTOOL.jpg

I still need to get my head around driving both of these add ons, but TurboSPI does have a menu you can start and a large selection of games to play with.

TS_Menu.jpg

However, I am quickly finding that analogue joysticks are not much fun!!

[stephen_usher]

They're best for games such as Elite and Aviator but not so much for ones where on/off left-right-up-down are needed. Most people just used the keyboard for that.

[rubber_jonnie]

They're best for games such as Elite and Aviator but not so much for ones where on/off left-right-up-down are needed. Most people just used the keyboard for that.

Indeed, though despite a refurb, mine seem to have quite a dead zone in the middle. The keyboard is definitely the better option, especially if you can redefine keys, which many games do.

Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf and Jetpac were particularly mad to play with the analog stick!!

[rubber_jonnie]

Not so much an upgrade, more of a tool, and another of @cmorley's BooBip collection:

Tube_Snoop.jpg

I can plug into the Tube on a BBC B and with the software available over at startdot, I can decode what's going on on the bus, in case I have another dead Beeb with no video output!!

Next up, i think I'll be ordering one of his 32K RAM/EEPROM kits to get Sideways ram and more ROM banks :)

[JezC]

Not so much an upgrade, more of a tool, and another of @cmorley's BooBip collection:
I can plug into the Tube on a BBC B and with the software available over at startdot, I can decode what's going on on the bus, in case I have another dead Beeb with no video output!!

Next up, i think I'll be ordering one of his 32K RAM/EEPROM kits to get Sideways ram and more ROM banks :)

All looks very interesting...need to start clearing the backlog & saving up some more funds

:roll:

[cmorley]

You might want to cut the trace to one of the FT232H module LEDs (or remove the series resistor)... the details are documented in the stardot thread. Reason being so as to not load the 2MHz clock with the LED.

[rubber_jonnie]

You might want to cut the trace to one of the FT232H module LEDs (or remove the series resistor)... the details are documented in the stardot thread. Reason being so as to not load the 2MHz clock with the LED.

Yeah, I had read that, just not got round to cutting the trace yet.

Getting a bit worried, the device is detected in Windows but I don't see it or detect it in FTDI FT Prog. Hoping it isn't a duffer. I will give my laptop a reboot first, see if that makes any difference.

[rubber_jonnie]

Hold that thought, I now have it detected :)

[BennehBoy]

I think this is catching, I keep adding beebs & masters to my ebay watch list :oops:

[rubber_jonnie]

And it's programmed :)

So, just that track to cut before I go any further.

Back to work for now though!