General Stuff(tm)

[stephen_usher]

Oh, and reading Exxos' washing machine fun I had something similar on Wednesday. The combination oven/microwave failed.

Basically the microwave transmitter went click and stopped working. I'm guessing that the nearly 30 years of strain each time it turned on finally caused a stress fracture in the structure.

I went on-line to see if there were any spares for this Sanyo machines... there were but just not any of the technical guts. So, what should have been a relatively easy swap of a single component became scrapping and buying a new £350 one. *sigh*

Anyway, that arrived yesterday and I got it set up in the same place as the old one. Did the burn-in to clear the oil from the heating elements (and checked how hot the top became, which was around 60C with the oven at 200C, so not that hot even though it had big warning signs).

This dinner time I used it in anger for the first time, just as a microwave. As I did with the old machine I set the power and time at the beginning of the cook, which would be about 15 minutes before I hit the "go" button. At the point I wanted to hit "go" it had swapped back to the clock display. "OK, I'll just hit a button to wake it up." Erm, no... no response. Opening and closing the door had no effect. It was totally unresponsive. I had to power cycle it to get it to work...

I CRASHED THE MICROWAVE!!!!!

Obviously leaving the system set and ready for an extended period wasn't one of the tests in Panasonic's test regime. Oops!

[rubber_jonnie]

Nice job on that keyboard :)

There are so many variations it's ridiculous, from membrane to mechanical switch and foam/foil etc there are some weird options out there.

As for the microwave, I guess that's a sign of the times, it's probably a a software defined device. :dizzy:

[stephen_usher]

Reading the QL Forum I was reminded of a thread about doing a mod on the ICL One Per Desk CPU board to consolidate the ROMs into two 27C512s and add another containing ICL BASIC into one of the spare sockets.

Seeing as I had spare Windbond W27C512 chips and plenty of sockets I thought I'd give it a go.

Here's the original thread on the QL Forum: https://theqlforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4676

Basically, you remove the original ROMs, socket the 74LS138 and bodge a couple of pins then program and insert the 27C512 chips, connecting pin 1 to pin 14 on the 68008.

The original description talks about cutting traces... I didn't go that way. Instead I modified sockets, plugged those into the PCB sockets and then ran bodge wires from bent up legs on those sockets. Anyway, it's easier to see than explain.

IMG_4922.jpeg

And... It works!

IMG_4923.jpeg

Despite the original thread noting that for the poster a Winbond EEPROM wouldn't work in the IC7 socket mine actually does.

This is a great benefit when using the Computer One disk interface as there's not enough RAM to load BASIC into it and then load any significantly large program into it, including the CONFIG and PRNCON programs needed to configure the hardware. With BASIC in ROM it's not an issue.

[rubber_jonnie]

Reading the QL Forum I was reminded of a thread about doing a mod on the ICL One Per Desk CPU board to consolidate the ROMs into two 27C512s and add another containing ICL BASIC into one of the spare sockets.

Seeing as I had spare Windbond W27C512 chips and plenty of sockets I thought I'd give it a go.

Here's the original thread on the QL Forum: https://theqlforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4676

Basically, you remove the original ROMs, socket the 74LS138 and bodge a couple of pins then program and insert the 27C512 chips, connecting pin 1 to pin 14 on the 68008.

The original description talks about cutting traces... I didn't go that way. Instead I modified sockets, plugged those into the PCB sockets and then ran bodge wires from bent up legs on those sockets. Anyway, it's easier to see than explain.


IMG_4922.jpeg


And... It works!


IMG_4923.jpeg


Despite the original thread noting that for the poster a Winbond EEPROM wouldn't work in the IC7 socket mine actually does.

This is a great benefit when using the Computer One disk interface as there's not enough RAM to load BASIC into it and then load any significantly large program into it, including the CONFIG and PRNCON programs needed to configure the hardware. With BASIC in ROM it's not an issue.

Interesting, I might take a look at that when I'm in possession of some free time!

[stephen_usher]

More OPD tinkering... this time it's software transfer stuff.

Seeing as there was posted a zip file containing what was supposed to be a dump of all the files on the Welcome cartridge I copied these onto a C1 floppy interface formatted FAT12 floppy.

Unfortunately, because the metadata about what sort of file wasn't included and, of course, the Atari ST/TT knows nothing about how the C1 interface encodes the metadata all the files show up as DATA type.

Over the last day or so I've been investigating this and found that the metadata value is held in the "Creation time resolution" field in the root directory.

Anyway, I've written a little metadata editing program (attached) which some may find useful.

[stephen_usher]

Oh, and the files in that zip archive... broken. They give "BAD PROGRAM" errors.

[stephen_usher]

Boooo! I think it's more metadata for programs and basic files... looks like probably in the ctime, cdate and maybe even last accessed fields.

Seeing as I only have a small sample of programs and basic files and no disassembly of the C1 floppy controller ROM this is all just guesswork.

[rubber_jonnie]

Boooo! I think it's more metadata for programs and basic files... looks like probably in the ctime, cdate and maybe even last accessed fields.

Seeing as I only have a small sample of programs and basic files and no disassembly of the C1 floppy controller ROM this is all just guesswork.

Sounds rather annoying!!!

[stephen_usher]

My first order from JLCPCB has just arrived...

IMG_4937.jpeg

They don't look too bad but took far longer to produce than PCBWay would take, but the 4 layer board was cheaper.

The only reason why I went with JCLPCB this time is that PCBWay have lost the ability to do PayPal or anything else other than Payoneer at the moment. This has been going on for about a month and I'm guessing that they're hobbyist business, which they've spent a lot of marketing money on building up, has completely dried up.

Anyway, the floppy break-out boards should help me find out why the One Per Desk will copy files onto a real floppy but not to an image on a Gotek. There must be a signal missing.

The Lazarusstorm board I should be able to make up next week once the edge connectors arrive. I can then test that the PiStorm board I've been trying to use with the ST actually works or if that's the reason why my results are far worse than everyone else's on the Discord channel.

[stephen_usher]

Oh dear... Amazon's Twitter bot is dumb...

I posted the same Microdrive joke thing I posted here onto Twitter/X and I got a reply...

dumb.jpg

Hehe.