General Stuff(tm)

[stephen_usher]

I've completed the head transplant...

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Unfortunately it doesn't work. If it were merely an alignment problem then it work format correctly but not read disks written on another machine.

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Still, it works perfectly as a single-sided drive, which is better than the original.

[stephen_usher]

A couple of deliveries today...

Firstly, with all the chat about the Acorn Electron and the ULA when I visited RMC The Cave the week before last, especially with Mogway, I decided to play around with the Electron I picked up in February. To help with the expansion I've bought a recreation of the Plus 1 expansion. I need to work out how to make a sideways ROM/RAM cartridge which will then allow me to connect an SD card reader to the extra expansion option added to the New Plus 1.

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The second delivery is sort of computer related in that it's a device to talk to the computer in my old SAAB 93.

It's the GM Tech2 diagnostic unit. Rather more expensive than many retro-computers at ~£550 on eBay.

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I had to build a Windows 7 VM on one of my old MacBook Pros so that the vendor could license the GlobalTIS software. Well, I thought it might be a bit dodgy... He had to remote into the machine via AnyDesk... then he loaded an iffy version of JAVA and generated a cracked license key and left. After which the VM tried to download lots of malware. Managed to stop that, get the free version of AVG Anti-virus on there via a shared virtual drive and clean the machine up.

Anyway, this should allow me to diagnose faults on the SAAB and mostly maintain it myself now, which should save money in the longer term. After all £550 is probably one service charge for the car.

[stephen_usher]

The RH Plus 1 looks quite nice connected to the Elk. From the look of the PCB it's a clone of the original Plus 1 but with an added digital joystick port, support for a 16K ROM and a port to stick a cheap SD card reader into which connects via the parallel printer port.

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Does anyone else find that the display on the Elk is too high for the monitor so the top characters get chopped off?

[Higgy]

@stephen_usher can you change the background colour from Black?
There is a similar issue on X68000 with LCD displays, but if you change the background colour (basically a bios setting) to something other than black then 'auto' the monitor it will centre the screen better.

Nice one on the SAAB diag. It's handy to know what's wrong before just taking it too the dealer (if job is not fixable at home).
There is similar non-factory device for VAG cars - VCDS or Vagcom (older name I think). Pretty powerful, although Smart Phone Apps seem to be able to do a lot now.

It's surprising how many features are already installed in your car just waiting to be unlocked :)

[rubber_jonnie]

The RH Plus 1 looks quite nice connected to the Elk. From the look of the PCB it's a clone of the original Plus 1 but with an added digital joystick port, support for a 16K ROM and a port to stick a cheap SD card reader into which connects via the parallel printer port.


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Does anyone else find that the display on the Elk is too high for the monitor so the top characters get chopped off?

That looks like a nice little add on, all I have is an ElkSD 64, so none of the funky bit's you've got.

Does your display go too high without the add on? Neither of my two working Elks have any screen issues like that.

[stephen_usher]

And I should be able to diagnose and fix the SAAB now if needs be too...

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[stephen_usher]

That looks like a nice little add on, all I have is an ElkSD 64, so none of the funky bit's you've got.

This isn't as "useful" as the ElkSD64 as it doesn't have sideways RAM and the MMC ROM. It's just a Plus 1 really. I'm looking at ways to implement at least one ROM and bank of 16K of static RAM though. That will be enough to run MMC and load stuff from the SD card.

Does your display go too high without the add on? Neither of my two working Elks have any screen issues like that.

Searching on Stardot, apparently a number of people have the same issue with their LCD TVs. This is worse when the Samsung has the machine plugged in directly than if I have it into the external SCART->HDMI device. It's also the same over composite.

[rubber_jonnie]

That looks like a nice little add on, all I have is an ElkSD 64, so none of the funky bit's you've got.

This isn't as "useful" as the ElkSD64 as it doesn't have sideways RAM and the MMC ROM. It's just a Plus 1 really. I'm looking at ways to implement at least one ROM and bank of 16K of static RAM though. That will be enough to run MMC and load stuff from the SD card.

Does your display go too high without the add on? Neither of my two working Elks have any screen issues like that.

Searching on Stardot, apparently a number of people have the same issue with their LCD TVs. This is worse when the Samsung has the machine plugged in directly than if I have it into the external SCART->HDMI device. It's also the same over composite.

Hmm, interesting, it sounded like your interface had more going on. Good luck extending it's usefulness :)

Odd, I've had no issues and it works great using my BBC B SCART cable via my OSSC to HDMI. I'm not using a Samsung TV though...

[stephen_usher]

It'd probably be fine via the OSSC. :-)

Anyway, domestic fun this morning... the fridge/freezer died overnight so I had to scramble to order a new one and get it delivered tomorrow morning. So, that's another leave day lost without real R&R benefit.

[stephen_usher]

The good news:

The new fridge/freezer has arrived!

The bad news:

The GM Tech2 car diagnostic unit is faulty. There are pulsating lines down the screen and it crashes and resets whenever you try to access any of the car diagnostic utilities.