ABUG Canada West - March 29 2019 Meetup #9

[KarateEd]

Well folks, this was a very successful meetup. We solved three issues.

Mine were getting another working PSU and affixing my case Paul gave me to a monitor using whatever genius method I could figure out to do so.

Paul's task was.......well, why don't I let Paul tell you himself.

The first thing I did was try to afix the GBS-8200 to the case Paul gave me last time. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right screws. Fortunately, Paul came to the rescue with some screws that worked perfectly. First portion of task completed.

Next was to afix the device to the back of the monitor. I tried several types of innovations using wood glue and plastics - every notice how that never really works. I ended up jerry-rigging with tape and screwed some velcro to the monitor (tv) in holes that were meant for a wall monitor holder. It worked very well for this. As you can see from the pictures, the whole things works. I used the openings on Pauls case to wrap electrical tape around the velcro to hold it and it worked.....all good for now.

[KarateEd]

For the PSU, i got the Meanwell kit online and was just waiting for the right moment to put it together. Fortunately Paul had already done this with his Meanwell so I had a working one to work from which was much easier than the written instructions. That project worked out very well too and it seems that the voltages were all correct across the board too.

All in all, we had a very fine day, listened to a little retro music, played some Spooks and spiders, well, Paul did, I abhor that game....so I'll drop down the HSC list some more.....it's ok, I've won a couple times.

Did I mention how beautiful the weather was here today? Don't know what the temperature was but it was warm. I've had the door open all day.

Thanks Paul for the books on RISC and other retro docs. It is much appreciated, also the lending of the PSU switch. Seems I've misplaced mine somewhere when I took it apart.

And.....Paul also printed me a couple tanks I designed only as an exercise and to see what might be necessary to do should I wish to get a 3D printer.

[klintworth]

And once again I was greeted by some lovely Ample music courtesy of Ed's Music 5000. What a great piece of kit! I had a lovely sunny drive up from Vancouver on a beautiful Spring day (a contrast to last month when Ed arrived at my place in a snow flurry!!) My main task was to assemble a working reserve Model B (issue 7) which I picked up on Fleabay last Oct. I had already replaced the PSU with Steve's Meanwell kit as I wanted to test the motherboard which is working well. But the keyboard ......

Dodgy tracks and sticky keys!

So I spent most of the day replacing non working keys on my spare keyboard. Once I worked out how to ensure a good contact between the PCB and the keyswitch then I was able to make good progress and end up with a working keyboard.

Keyboard testing - repeat multiple times!!

Fixing a broken speaker wire

All the keys now work!

Ed checking continuity on the keyboard


I had never seen Elite: Dangerous so Ed showed me his docking skills. I was interested in how the original flavour of Elite was still maintained, albeit with more modern graphics.

The modern Cobra spaceship


Ed kindly gave me a chopping transistor to repair an old PSU. Unfortunately I ran out of time to do this repair, so this project will be held over (like so many of my other Acorn projects!)

The PSU transistor that Ed gave me

All good things must come to an end! Look closely and you'll see the Hybrid Music system in the background, as well as the trusty A3010!

[daveejhitchins]

For goodness sake, guys . . . There's still 7.5 hours left on the clock! What a waste

Dave H

[flaxcottage]

Cool stuff!