ABUG Scotland #4 - Thu 29th February 2024

[Tosk]

This is a gathering for lovers of retro microcomputers, especially those fond of the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Atom, and Archimedes/RISC OS machines. This event is aimed at bringing together a community of like-minded individuals in a comfortable and modern setting – the Falkirk Business Hub, in central Falkirk, Scotland.

To emphasise this event is open to all with an interest in Acorn computers!

Please Confirm your attendance by Booking with the link below (£6)


https://retrorendezvous.org/feb2024

Thursday 29th Feb 2024 7:00PM running until 10:00PM

Confirmed and booked List

1. Tosk (Paul)
2. DaveLecky (Dave)
3. GordonDragon (Gordon)
4. IanJeffray (Ian)
5. AndyMc1280 (Andy)
6. Crivett95 (Chris)
7. Ramtop (Gary)
8. Walkerworks (Derek)
9. KenLowe (Ken)
10. Brianmartin_2001 (Brian)
11. Rodrigo Copetti

🕹 Event Features:

This is an informal gathering for...

- Show and Tell: Bring your own hardware to display and discuss with others.
- Collaborative Working: Spend time on hardware, programming, or gaming projects.
- Knowledge Exchange: Share ideas, insights, and skills with other enthusiasts.
- Advice on Repair and Upgrade: Reviving poorly Acorn machines.
- Socialize and Enjoy : There's a kitchen for coffee, tea and biscuits. We're in the town centre for bars, pubs and restaurants for potential afterwards gatherings.

February 2024 Special Focus : Restoration Workshop

Bring in a machine that you're still repairing or can't get to work and talk to the group to get advice about next steps for it's restoration.
Gain some hands-on learning! You may be able to  get the computer tested, get advice on cleaning or replacing components and best sources for obtaining those components.

🕹 Event Limitation:

Unfortunately we can't allow use of soldering irons at this event due to fire alarm / fire safety constraints.
Please do not bring hardware that you think may have the potential to blow capacitors.

Date & Time:
Thursday 29th February 2024 7:00PM running until 10:00PM

Location: Falkirk Business Hub

45 Vicar St, Falkirk FK1 1LL





Access : use the side door on Vicar Street. This also has disabled access.

https://falkirkbusinesshub.co.uk/ – a contemporary venue centrally located, just a 2-minute walk from Grahamston Train Station and with seamless access to the M9 motorway between Stirling and Edinburgh. Numerous bars and restaurants are nearby for post-event socializing.

🅿 There are two recommended car parks:-

i) Weir street car park which is next to the venue. Free parking in the evenings
ii) Melville street - one street away - also free in the evenings.

[DaveLecky]

Hi Folks,

Just registered, looking forward to seeing you all again.

Probably bring my Master Compact again plus another yet to be decided.

Dave

[gordonDrogon]

Put me down - I've paid/registered - thanks.

I can bring a couple of recapped & tested PSUs with me if anyone wants an exchange for a broken one. (small fee just to cover the work & testing).

I'll have a dig about and see what else I can bring. I inherited a lot of Acorn/Beeb kit and am slowly working through it. I seem to have many Electrons for some odd reason...

Cheers,

-Gordon

[thecellartroll]

I’ll miss this one due to being the other end of the country taking e-bikes to bits (and hopefully putting them back together again!). Look forward to the pictures.

[spanners]

I can't make it to this one -- it would clash with a gig my wife's going to. Enjoy!

D.

[Tosk]

Thanks for the registrations/apologies so far and look forward to seeing everyone who will make it!

For this event I'll be boosting the marketing with a new Facebook page; will let you know the link for that once it is up, this will no doubt help to add some new faces each month.

I'll also be running a "kiosk" PowerPoint running on how I slowly built up the code for my "Landscaping" game (loosely based on the Mike Singleton's "The Lords of Midnight") BBC Basic project on a BBC Micro (with GXR). Still can't believe I fitted this all into a game for Mode 1.

https://bbcmic.ro/#%7B%22v%22%3A1%2C%22 ... PROC%22%7D

[IanJeffray]

I'll be there.

[AndyMc1280]

I'll be there too.

Any of you nice people know anything about vintage Mac's ? My brother still has his Original Heavily expanded Mac SE 30 he bought when working for nasa in 1989. I have no clue and the prospect scares me but it would be a shame for Battery and cap rot to Scrap the poor thing. If we cant work on it it would be decent to at least open it and get the battery off/out (and see how utterly goosed it is)

I haven't seen it working for at least 20 years. I am not holding out much hope... Mac's aren't my bag but this has sentimental value.

[walkerworks]

Just registered..I'll bring along an Electron I refurbished a while ago which I also updated with an OSTC and a Minus 1.

Derek

[thecellartroll]

I can bring a couple of recapped & tested PSUs with me if anyone wants an exchange for a broken one. (small fee just to cover the work & testing).

Are you selling PSUs without an exchange? I have a BBC B with no PSU at all.

[gordonDrogon]

I can bring a couple of recapped & tested PSUs with me if anyone wants an exchange for a broken one. (small fee just to cover the work & testing).

Are you selling PSUs without an exchange? I have a BBC B with no PSU at all.

I have a spare or 2 from "donor" Beebs... I'll bring them.

Gordon

[thecellartroll]

Alas I can’t come to this one. I wonder if @Tosk would be able to ferret it away in his office?

[Tosk]

Alas I can’t come to this one. I wonder if @Tosk would be able to ferret it away in his office?

Yes - would be happy to.

[crivett95]

I've just registered, looking forward to seeing everyone again and will bring my Z88 since I didn't manage last time

Any of you nice people know anything about vintage Mac's ? My brother still has his Original Heavily expanded Mac SE 30 he bought when working for nasa in 1989. I have no clue and the prospect scares me but it would be a shame for Battery and cap rot to Scrap the poor thing. If we cant work on it it would be decent to at least open it and get the battery off/out (and see how utterly goosed it is)

I'm not an expert on Apple stuff, but I do have a couple 68K Macs (Centris 610 and Performa 400) that I needed to pull the batteries from (thankfully they hadn't leaked yet) and had caps which showed signs of leaking that I replaced. I don't know much about the SE/30 specifically but it does have a battery in a holder on the system board and the same kind of surface mount capacitors, so suspect they would need inspected at the very least.

[AndyMc1280]

I've just registered, looking forward to seeing everyone again and will bring my Z88 since I didn't manage last time

Any of you nice people know anything about vintage Mac's ? My brother still has his Original Heavily expanded Mac SE 30 he bought when working for nasa in 1989. I have no clue and the prospect scares me but it would be a shame for Battery and cap rot to Scrap the poor thing. If we cant work on it it would be decent to at least open it and get the battery off/out (and see how utterly goosed it is)

I'm not an expert on Apple stuff, but I do have a couple 68K Macs (Centris 610 and Performa 400) that I needed to pull the batteries from (thankfully they hadn't leaked yet) and had caps which showed signs of leaking that I replaced. I don't know much about the SE/30 specifically but it does have a battery in a holder on the system board and the same kind of surface mount capacitors, so suspect they would need inspected at the very least.

Yes thats what I thought. Brother away on holiday last week of Feb so may or may not have the machine by next meet. Will see.

[Ramtop]

Just booked, looking forward to meeting everyone again.

Looks like I may have the first prototype of my next design ready in time to bring, fingers crossed!

[DaveLecky]

That sounds interesting……..

Looking forward to seeing it….

Dave

[Tosk]

Just booked, looking forward to meeting everyone again.

Looks like I may have the first prototype of my next design ready in time to bring, fingers crossed!

Sounds good. Do you need folk to help test it?

[Ramtop]

Still a bit too early for that, to be honest. The PCBs for this one only arrived on Monday, so 'something that vaguely works' is my goal right now

[KenLowe]

Ok, so that's me booked up for Thursday.

I'll try to bring along a Beeb with one of my unreleased IntegraB-V2 boards installed, and a PiEconetBridge so we can backup some large files from a SCSI HDD that can't be easily copied over to floppy disk.

I can also bring along other kit, if anyone has a specific request.

[AndyMc1280]

No mac I'm afraid. Didn't get chance to meet up with bro before his holiday and he's been v busy lately so that'll have to wait until next time.

I'm still coming tho not decided if bringing anything or just self.

[brianmartin_2001]

That's me signed up. Unfortunately won't be bringing any display kit
and the BBS won't be running that night as its' hard drive will be at the event.
Ken (as he mentioned ) is kindly going to transfer all my BBS files from it's present
SCSI HDD to a Pi 1Mhz HDD through the Pi-Econet bridge.

I have a method pegged out to attempt this using XFER but it will likely take aeons to do
with serial from Master HDD to RPi4 . Considering there's the possibility of transfer errors
occurring it might be best to let Ken do it best.

See you there.
Brian

[Tosk]

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

I'll should be at the door just about on the hour at 7pm, but don't worry if I am a few minutes late.

The probability of home made cake being made (by my wife) is also quite high so an additional incentive to come if you need it.

Remember there are 🅿 two recommended car parks, with Weir Street being next to the Falkirk Business Hub and Melville street is just 200 hundred yards away.



(closest I've ever had Midjourney to depicting an "Acorn BBC Microcomputer". It's very hard getting Midjourney to depict any specific type of computer!)

[KenLowe]

Ok, just about everything packed up:

1 x Beeb Model B with Integra-B V2, SCSI HDD, 5.25" FDD & Gotek, Econet, User port MMFS, Printer port MMFS, Pi1MHz, PiTubeDirect & RGBtoHDMI (*).
1 x A4 with Econet
1 x Atom with Combined Econet / AtoMMC, YARRB, AtomVGA / Tube
2 x PiEconetBridge (one with AtomSoftwareArchive (ASA), and one with other beeb stuff) (*)
1 x Laptop with Piconet module (*)
1 x Wireless Router, so I can connect my laptop to the Bridges! (*)
1 x Dell Monitor (*)

(*) - to help with transferring large files from SCSI HDD to BeebSCSI

[DaveLecky]

Hi Folks,

I won’t make it tonight after all. I have a bad cold and wouldn’t want to sneeze all over y-all.

Dave

[AndyMc1280]

Let us in!!

[IanJeffray]

Let us in!!

Mm. Stuffy start, but another busy night doing a full ship of theseus mod on Rodrigo's RiscPC and achieving nothing. Hurrah!
Thanks again to Tosk for organising again, and the tea & cake!

[AndyMc1280]

Let us in!!

Mm. Stuffy start, but another busy night doing a full ship of theseus mod on Rodrigo's RiscPC and achieving nothing. Hurrah!
Thanks again to Tosk for organising again, and the tea & cake!

+1
Much thanks for organising. Tea, Company and cake worth admission price alone IJ and Tosk for wheelbarrow efforts, yes will remember side flaps are in the back pocket next time.

Ah I don't know if "nothing" was achieved Ian, perhaps not what was intended but we diagnosed a fair bit (ie likely wonky software) maybe we should say we found out what "it wasn't" through a lengthy process of elimination? even though we didn't % solve the issue.

The joys of old kit..

[gordonDrogon]

Really enjoyed the evening. Thanks!

-Gordon

[KenLowe]

Yeah, great evening. Thanks @Tosk for organising, and for the piece of cake, which I nabbed at the end .

I also had a rather frustrating evening - trying to get reliable Econet comms between any of my client machines (beeb, atom, A4, Piconet) and any of my bridges. I'm really not sure what was going wrong, but suspect it may have been due to the fact that none of the bridges were connected to an Ethernet network. Once I powered up my router and one of my bridges picked up a WiFi connection / IP address, everything seemed to be more reliable. I'm going to investigate this a bit further once I get back home.

Anyway, that eventually allowed me to get onto the main task in hand, which was to back up a @brianmartin_2001 SCSI HDD onto my PiFS, so we could then write that back to a BeebSCSI HDD image. With the use of Copyfiles, and with a PiTubeDirect 6502 co-pro attached to my beeb, that all seemed to work really well. Lots of large files were copied!