ilike8bits

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…”

The Collection (As of 27/04/2021)

A quick document of what equipment I have, and what status it’s in, as of today. Monitors 2 x SVideo capable flatscreen monitos. Both support Composite, VGA, Component and SVideo. I use these for a lot of my older 8 Bit systems. They’re generic off brand. ACER-V226HQL. These are capable of syncing right down toContinue reading “The Collection (As of 27/04/2021)”

More Archimedes work

So I have been mostly busy getting ready for SwanCon, but I have managed to squeeze some Archimedes work in. Firstly I attended a meetup of the local Amiga Users Group, which was awesome fun, and while there talked to a couple of other Archimedes collectors. One individual, Steve, offered for me to drop overContinue reading “More Archimedes work”

Quick Mac SE/30 update.

Swapped out the switch. Now it turns on fine 🙂 Yay! I have a Mac again. Now to install all the software / hardware needed to bootstrap it into horrible, terrible life! Where did I put my FloppyEmu?

I’ve been working on the Archimedes

So for the last week I’ve mostly been concentrating on something else but I have spent some time on the new Archimedes. It’s an Archimedes 440, one of the original family, but it has some upgrades installed. Most noticable is the CPU has been upgraded to an ARM 3 processor, and the OS ROMs hadContinue reading “I’ve been working on the Archimedes”