So on Thursday, after receiving a very kind offer, I drove out and collected another system for my collection. It’s another Acorn, which means I now have three different Acorn systems. Meet the Acorn Electron. It was Acorn’s attempt to produce a “price reduced” version of then hugely successful “BBC Micro” family of computers. MuchContinue reading “The newest member of my Retro Family”
Author Archives: ilike8bits
Quick Atari 800 paddle build
So I survived running a convention, and wanted to ease back into doing some retro computing stuff. One of the projects that came up as a possibility was a pair of Atari Paddle controllers. I already have paddles for the C64, but they use different variable resistors, and so are incompatible. (As an aside, whileContinue reading “Quick Atari 800 paddle build”
What next?
While I wait for a bit more financial liquidity before I purchase some more bits and pieces, I’ve been contemplating what to do next. I’m in a strange place where pretty much all my systems work, one way or another. The Wizzard may need a replacement controller, but that doesn’t mean the main unit doesn’tContinue reading “What next?”
Archimedes Addendum
In the last post, I mentioned that the only thing left to do was to make up a cable and I’d be done with the Archimedes. Well, that turned out to be quite the project, didn’t it? So the point of the cable is twofold. Firstly, it physically connects everything together and secondly it changesContinue reading “Archimedes Addendum”
Finishing up the Archimedes
So I have made quite a lot of progress since my last post. I replaced the damaged capacitor on the mainboard.I cleaned the case a bit further to eliminate some corrosion I missed the first time.I replaced the dead cooling fan. (I need to modify this fan as it’s way too loud currently. Time forContinue reading “Finishing up the Archimedes”
Oh no! My SCSI CD Rom let out the magic smoke!
There was a “Pop!” and a bad smell. Looks like one of the chips failed. It’s all surface mount so there’s no chance to fix it, especially as the chip that failed is a large QFP with about a hundred legs. Sorry Greg! I only got to use it once or twice.
Owner of a broken Arch.
So my purchases from AliExpress finally started trickling in, and, with some sockets from Jaycar I was ready to move forward with trying to fix the Archimedes. This was very heavily assisted by the always excellent team over on StarDot. Step 1: Burn off a set of Diagnostics ROMs to allow me to see whereContinue reading “Owner of a broken Arch.”
I did a thing! (Mac SCSI)
So now I have my Mac SE/30 all nice and stable and set up the way I wanted it set up, I decided it was time to play around with something I built a fair while ago. Quite some time ago, ty tech patron (Hi Greg!), who has gifted me so much stuff over theContinue reading “I did a thing! (Mac SCSI)”
Where the Archimedes is at
Well, with the Archimedes, I’ve reached the point where I believe I’m stuck until I can get some ROMs burned with a RAM Test image on them. What I have checked so far: All RAM chips have power. None are getting hot. All lines to all chips are showing activity. (This took a LONG time)Continue reading “Where the Archimedes is at”
I used ‘ResEdit’ in anger today…
So I was having an odd problem where I couldn’t install System 7.5.3 on my Mac SE/30, which was driving me a little loopy. I joined a 68K Mac forum and they helped me solve the problem in seconds. The problem is that I could no longer boot from System 7.5.3, which is the latestContinue reading “I used ‘ResEdit’ in anger today…”
