New project: An ACT Apricot F1 "barn find"

[stephen_usher]

The response from the person sending it was, "Well, we sent it via Royal Mail so we thought that they'd take good care of it."

I could tell that they weren't malicious at all and they've never couriered anything before so I merely educated them about appropriate protection if they send anything in future.

[rubber_jonnie]

The response from the person sending it was, "Well, we sent it via Royal Mail so we thought that they'd take good care of it."

I could tell that they weren't malicious at all and they've never couriered anything before so I merely educated them about appropriate protection if they send anything in future.

I guess it's difficult to be angry if they appear to have done it innocently, but you'd think common sense would prevail.

Well, at least you have it and it is mostly in one piece :)

[stephen_usher]

Yeah, and the most important thing is the keyboard works! :-)

[rubber_jonnie]

Yeah, and the most important thing is the keyboard works! :-)

Result!

[stephen_usher]

I just tried powering up the F2 (still at work) and it works. I didn't run it for very long as I didn't want to trigger the RIFA smoke generator in the power supply.

[rubber_jonnie]

I just tried powering up the F2 (still at work) and it works. I didn't run it for very long as I didn't want to trigger the RIFA smoke generator in the power supply.

Those Rifas are bloody annoying, good news it runs ok :)

[stephen_usher]

Exciting news!!!!

OK, not really. The battery box for the keyboard arrived today, so I can actually use the machine, set the time, run MSDOS 2.11 and the "Activity" graphical desktop, which wouldn't have had Apple worried... :-)

IMG_2300.jpg

IMG_2301.jpg

I'll have to find someone with a 3D printer and the skills to design a replacement battery box cover door for the keyboard as that's missing. It's merely a cosmetic issue though.

Apparently there's a later version of the OS which comes with GEM (the two static window version to avoid the Apple lawsuit).

[stephen_usher]

I did a quick analysis of the output from the keyboard controller this morning.

The output is actually at 3.74KHz as I had mine originally. However, the pulses are far shorter. This is probably why the machine wasn't "seeing" them. Effectively I'd need to trigger a 15uS pulse on a rising edge of the synchronous serial output or, if a 1 is followed by a 1, add a pulse after x uS.

Other than that, I'm starting to use proper Loctite Superglue to weld the case together after the failure of the plastic cement and "Gorilla" epoxy resin.

[stephen_usher]

I haz colour!

Made up an adapter to fit onto the on-board RGBI-Compsync header, which annoyingly doesn't have ground as well. Wired it up to an 8-pin DIN socket which matches the Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ 128K's RGB port pin-out so that I can use the SCART cable for that. The intensity circuit in the SCART cable works a treat. I'm going to have to redo the GND wire though as it's too short, and probably get a 2 wire Mini-SPOX so I can use the audio header. I may also install a mono audio out jack socket.

[rubber_jonnie]

I haz colour!

Made up an adapter to fit onto the on-board RGBI-Compsync header, which annoyingly doesn't have ground as well. Wired it up to an 8-pin DIN socket which matches the Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ 128K's RGB port pin-out so that I can use the SCART cable for that. The intensity circuit in the SCART cable works a treat. I'm going to have to redo the GND wire though as it's too short, and probably get a 2 wire Mini-SPOX so I can use the audio header. I may also install a mono audio out jack socket.

Cool, pictures please :)