exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

stephen_usher wrote: 12 Sep 2021 19:36 Why is it when you're doing an order for RS, Farnell etc. you rack your brains thinking if there's anything else to add, spend 5 minutes doing this before hitting the order button and then a minute later you find something that you've forgotten?

Every f**ing time...

Well, it was only rectangular, red LED. Found 100 for ~£8 on Amazon, so that's OK. 8p per LED is a reasonable price. Not sure I'll be able to use the other 99 LEDs though. :-)

The other day I had a look on-line for EPROM erasers and was shocked at their price. Over £80 for the cheapest (non-Chinese electricution risk version) one! It's a box, UV lamp and timer... How can it be that expensive?

I have a Chinese UV eraser, cost I think about £15 shipped from eBay. I try not to think about the questionable electrical safety as it erases my EPROMs lovely.

I get a decent tan if I sit near it when it's in use too.

As for Farnell, RS, DigiKey etc, every bloody time.

Seeing as I'm now waiting for the MkII circuit board for the Apricot memory board to be manufactured it's back to the Amstrad CPC6128, or rather the Gotek and mounting bracket.

This morning I've replaced the round green LED with a more prototypical red rectangular one, in the same location as the original drive has it, and made a hole for the rotary encoder, if it ever turns up. The encoder was supposed to have been sent 1st Class "Signed for" on Monday and it's still not arrived.

No hardware hacking today. Instead I've been creating the info-signage for my displays at the Retro Computer Festival in Cambridge next month.

Just as a taster, here are the titles for Saturday:


and Sunday:


Each system will have its own A4 info-display too.

stephen_usher wrote: 19 Sep 2021 15:46 No hardware hacking today. Instead I've been creating the info-signage for my displays at the Retro Computer Festival in Cambridge next month.

Just as a taster, here are the titles for Saturday:
British-Computers-Mid80s.jpg
and Sunday:
Sixteen-Thirty-Two.jpg

Each system will have its own A4 info-display too.

Nice, if I can make it up on one of the days I'll be able to find you :)

Well, i might as well post the whole lot as I have pictures...

Saturday:


Sunday:


I've a 1.8m wide table to fill with stuff.

stephen_usher wrote: 18 Sep 2021 14:26 Seeing as I'm now waiting for the MkII circuit board for the Apricot memory board to be manufactured it's back to the Amstrad CPC6128, or rather the Gotek and mounting bracket.

This morning I've replaced the round green LED with a more prototypical red rectangular one, in the same location as the original drive has it, and made a hole for the rotary encoder, if it ever turns up. The encoder was supposed to have been sent 1st Class "Signed for" on Monday and it's still not arrived.


IMG_2399.jpg

Looks nice !

I feel like doing the same mod on mine.

Well, it's definitely time to start preparing for the show.

This evening I've sprayed the top cover of my 520STM with sealant, which I didn't do when I painted it a couple of years ago. This should make the paint robust enough in the long term.

Now I've got the Third Coast Technologies HD box down from the loft and I've wiped the SD2SCSI drive connected to the ICD AdSCSI host adapter and am starting from scratch using ICD Utils. The aim is for a true representation of an early 90s machine with Spectre GCR install and a Mac environment. No need for games on this one.