Master / Default Station ID

[james]

Although no Econet hardware fitted, my Master recently encountered an ANFS ROM image and self-identified as Station 13

Do Masters have a default station ID when originally shipped or when the cmos battery is subsequently removed?

[BeebMaster]

The Econet station number is stored in byte 0 of the CMOS RAM, which is a protected location so there is no *CONFIGURE command to change it, and OSBYTE 162 doesn't work on it either. It can only be changed by direct access to the CMOS chip, which the Econet library *SET utility does.

It looks like it has picked up a random number, probably due to flat batteries in the past. When the CMOS RAM is reset, the location is set to 0, like all the others, but unfortunately that's an "illegal" Econet station number, so if ANFS encounters station 0 (or 255, which is also illegal) then it will default to Station 1. That's all very well, unless you already have a Station 1, in which case havoc ensues!

(Non-Master versions of NFS, including ANFS 4.18 for the BBC B, will attempt to read the station number from the selection links on the PCB, which aren't present on the Master, so using the wrong version ROM will also give an incorrect station number.)

[james]

Thanks for the comprehensive and interesting reply!

[WrightStuff]

In the absence of *SET, you can use :

Code: Select all

10REM Set Station Number
20REM BBC Master 128 only
30REM Version 1.0 28/xi/2003
40REM (C) Ian Wolstenholme 2003
50DIM stn 1
60PRINT'"Enter station number: ";:INPUT""n
70FORA=1TO250:NEXT
80?stn=n
90?&FE40=2
100?&FE40=&82
110?&FE43=&FF
120?&FE41=&E
130?&FE40=&C2
140?&FE40=&42
150?&FE40=&41
160?&FE43=&FF
170?&FE40=&4A
180?&FE41=?stn
190?&FE40=&42
200?&FE40=2
210?&FE43=0 

CTRL+BREAK