Well folks, in spite of covid, Paul and I decided to meet using the current safety measures that are in place for our province of British Columbia.
Items on the agenda - Ed - simply learn to use my desoldering station on a broken GBS-8200 card (it's a long story how it got broken).
- Paul - sleuth out why his Italian Master Compact stopped working and robot wonders (more on that later)
- both - what else, HSC of Manic Miner.
I will share basically on the things I learned about my soldering station and I'm hoping Paul will share his sleuthing and robot adventures.
Look who's arrived at my doorstep in Squamish. What a wonderful sight after all these months.
These are a few of my favourite things......and now I don't feel soooooo baaaaaaaaad.
This was my first attempt to clear a hole with the new station. It took more than one try to get the hole cleared.
You can tell I'm bearing down here and really getting after it.....to.....sigh, not quite.....
Attempting a new technique. It worked for 2 of the holes but the other was stubborn and never did clear, perhaps more heat.
Sometimes you just need a friend to help. Since Paul was busy I had to employ a '3rd hand' technique....an old friend I'd say.
So, here's the first hole that got cleared - celebration time....where is that Manic Miner anyway?
We also had music at this ABUG. This particular disk would play the whole set if you chose it to. It would be good to know how that is done so all the diskettes could be made to do this if any knows how, maybe they could start a thread to show this. Thanks.
https://youtu.be/Vehz5cETmf4
This video shows the sound made by the vacuum pump of my desoldering station.
https://youtu.be/4IwhhtAWBbs
It may not be grandiose but it works.
This is level 6. Unfortunately at this ABUG I did not up my game......
Another great ABUG West Canada meeting comes to an end in a covid fashion with us masked guys....bandits all. Thanks for a great day Paul and the gifts and a special thank you out to Melanie for my designer mask. it is much appreciated.
ABUG Canada West Sept 25 2020 Meetup Meeting #19
ABUG Canada West Sept 25 2020 Meetup Meeting #19
Ed......
3 working Beebs, 1 RetroClinic Master, 1 normal Master, 1 A3010, 1 Pi2 RISC OS, 2 broken Beeb Motherboards, 1 Omnibus A7000+ server, 1 A7000+ Desktop, 1 PET, 1 C64, 1 C128, 1 Amiga 500 and 1 Roamer.
3 working Beebs, 1 RetroClinic Master, 1 normal Master, 1 A3010, 1 Pi2 RISC OS, 2 broken Beeb Motherboards, 1 Omnibus A7000+ server, 1 A7000+ Desktop, 1 PET, 1 C64, 1 C128, 1 Amiga 500 and 1 Roamer.
- klintworth
- Posts: 810
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:03 pm
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
- Contact:
Re: ABUG Canada West Sept 25 2020 Meetup Meeting #19
Wow - we haven’t had a physical ABUG Canada West for sooooooo long! So it was great to meet up again in person, though we had to keep our distance - no hugs! As per tradition Ed greeted me with his Hybrid Music system playing various tunes on autoplay. What was very special is that this was the ABUG inauguration of Ed’s new computer den - what a great room, and very practical, with an open workspace table in the middle, complete with plenty of power outlets. After showing me round Ed gave me a wonderful coffee along with nuts (very appropriate for an Acorn meet!!) We usually have a gift exchange, and Ed kindly gave me two Arduino boards, along with instructions how to upgrade the GBS 8200 video adaptor.
Ed's Acorn Den
Gift giving - thanks Ed! (Another project!!)
My main order of business was problem solving my Olivetti PC128S (Master Compact) keyboard. I had managed to frizz the board by using the wrong power supply in error. First I used Ed’s Fluke multimeter to measure chip voltages. Most chips were getting a reading of 4.75V which was encouraging. The RAM chips were all only getting about 1V, and were running hot. IC16 was only reading 0.5V instead of 2.2V, so this pointed to IC10 as being the suspect supply chip, according to the service manual. This looks to be the first chip to replace, then I’ll move on from there.
Testing IC voltages
Poor scope signal from IC16
Next up was testing an H bridge motor control board which I had damaged somehow. Power was able to get in and out of the board, but not via the motor output. Ed reckoned that the power transistor was fried. I then connected a User Port cable to my Master Compact, and powered up the robot motors directly via the User Port as a test. This did drive the motors successfully. The next step is to add the control lines via the User Port and see if I can control a floor robot via LOGO or equivalent software. I’ve seen a Jessop turtle going for an extravagant amount on eBay, so I’m planning to go for a modern Beeb alternate.
The sick motor board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rvjYLx ... e=youtu.be
Motor test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7v66b0 ... e=youtu.be
Robot testing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NOZ-uA ... e=youtu.be
Round & round!
Hooked up to User Port power on the Compact
It was then time for some High Score Challenge, this round using the infamous Manic Miner. I’d never played this on the Beeb, just read about it’s mythic status (mainly in Spectrum circles!) Ed showed me how to navigate levels 4 and 5. Then all too soon it was time to head home. So pleased we were able to meet up in spite of the pandemic - I’ve really missed our regular ABUG meetings!
Ed's Acorn Den
Gift giving - thanks Ed! (Another project!!)
My main order of business was problem solving my Olivetti PC128S (Master Compact) keyboard. I had managed to frizz the board by using the wrong power supply in error. First I used Ed’s Fluke multimeter to measure chip voltages. Most chips were getting a reading of 4.75V which was encouraging. The RAM chips were all only getting about 1V, and were running hot. IC16 was only reading 0.5V instead of 2.2V, so this pointed to IC10 as being the suspect supply chip, according to the service manual. This looks to be the first chip to replace, then I’ll move on from there.
Testing IC voltages
Poor scope signal from IC16
Next up was testing an H bridge motor control board which I had damaged somehow. Power was able to get in and out of the board, but not via the motor output. Ed reckoned that the power transistor was fried. I then connected a User Port cable to my Master Compact, and powered up the robot motors directly via the User Port as a test. This did drive the motors successfully. The next step is to add the control lines via the User Port and see if I can control a floor robot via LOGO or equivalent software. I’ve seen a Jessop turtle going for an extravagant amount on eBay, so I’m planning to go for a modern Beeb alternate.
The sick motor board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rvjYLx ... e=youtu.be
Motor test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7v66b0 ... e=youtu.be
Robot testing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NOZ-uA ... e=youtu.be
Round & round!
Hooked up to User Port power on the Compact
It was then time for some High Score Challenge, this round using the infamous Manic Miner. I’d never played this on the Beeb, just read about it’s mythic status (mainly in Spectrum circles!) Ed showed me how to navigate levels 4 and 5. Then all too soon it was time to head home. So pleased we were able to meet up in spite of the pandemic - I’ve really missed our regular ABUG meetings!
BBC B Issue 4 & 7, BBC B (USA), BBC Master, Electron, BBC Master Compact, Olivetti PC128S, Castle A7000+, A3020, Valiant Turtle, Trekker Robot
Re: ABUG Canada West Sept 25 2020 Meetup Meeting #19
Thanks for the report, pics and videos guys - I suppose that's the advantage of having a 2-member ABug 'wing' - it's actually relatively feasible and safe to hold a physical meetup during covid times (so I'm slightly envious! ).
Rooms looking good now Ed!
Rooms looking good now Ed!
Please subscribe to the ABug YouTube channel!
Re: ABUG Canada West Sept 25 2020 Meetup Meeting #19
It was a great meeting and I'm putting storage in place for the items not used a lot to go in. It's already in the room behind the door, a set of 5 drawers that will hold both small and large items, so it will help me organize my shelves for optimum use.
Also, you can see in the room a monitor with a picture of a computer on it. Can you recognize it? I have one coming within a couple of weeks or so.
Ed......
3 working Beebs, 1 RetroClinic Master, 1 normal Master, 1 A3010, 1 Pi2 RISC OS, 2 broken Beeb Motherboards, 1 Omnibus A7000+ server, 1 A7000+ Desktop, 1 PET, 1 C64, 1 C128, 1 Amiga 500 and 1 Roamer.
3 working Beebs, 1 RetroClinic Master, 1 normal Master, 1 A3010, 1 Pi2 RISC OS, 2 broken Beeb Motherboards, 1 Omnibus A7000+ server, 1 A7000+ Desktop, 1 PET, 1 C64, 1 C128, 1 Amiga 500 and 1 Roamer.
- richardtoohey
- Posts: 4075
- Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:13 am
- Location: Tauranga, New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: ABUG Canada West Sept 25 2020 Meetup Meeting #19
Looking good and nice to see you are both still going strong despite 2020's best efforts!
Re: ABUG Canada West Sept 25 2020 Meetup Meeting #19
Yes, the picture isn't quite accurate as to what I'll be getting. It'll be a monochrome 68040 turbo (33Mhz) machine. Everything stock except the SCSI2SD card. Didn't want the neighbours to think I had jet airplanes in the neighbourhood so opted for reliable and quiet. Also 128M RAM but I think it only really will use 96M in this machine.
Ed......
3 working Beebs, 1 RetroClinic Master, 1 normal Master, 1 A3010, 1 Pi2 RISC OS, 2 broken Beeb Motherboards, 1 Omnibus A7000+ server, 1 A7000+ Desktop, 1 PET, 1 C64, 1 C128, 1 Amiga 500 and 1 Roamer.
3 working Beebs, 1 RetroClinic Master, 1 normal Master, 1 A3010, 1 Pi2 RISC OS, 2 broken Beeb Motherboards, 1 Omnibus A7000+ server, 1 A7000+ Desktop, 1 PET, 1 C64, 1 C128, 1 Amiga 500 and 1 Roamer.