ABug NORTH, 20/21/22 November 2015, Bolton

[sPhilMainwaring]

Could you add me to the list please Sydney ... also tentatively for the curry night. Thanks

[1024MAK]

Alas, I cannot make it to this meet, due to family reasons. A shame, as everything else was aligning okay (a free weekend off work, travel plans etc).

Maybe next time

So are there any provisional dates for next year?

Mark

[jgharston]

After a lot of searching I managed to find my Matchbox CoPro hiding under an envelope Will there be anybody at the meetup who can reprogram it with the latest processors?

Also, does anybody want to go halves on a hotel room on Friday/Saturday night?

[sydney]

Could you add me to the list please Sydney ... also tentatively for the curry night. Thanks

Done!

[richardtoohey]

Sorry for a slight thread hijack - you guys got anything planned for June/July next year?

Pencilling in my next UK trip, and thinking around then. But this time I'd like to come up North (past the Thames!) and meet some of you guys, so if there is an event that would tie in nicely.

[flaxcottage]

I know you Southerners (and you are really south, Richard ) regard Watford as being on the frontier of civilisation but there is a whole new world above the Trent.

It would be good to have a meet to coincide with the antipodean visit. There is less traffic, parking is cheaper and the hotels too.

[1024MAK]

Um, Mr John. For the record, one person who lives in the South West / West country (me! ) went to Crewe last month (October) and Bletchley Park earlier in the year. Over the years, I have been to Par, Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, Milton Keynes, Crewe, Nantwich, Derby, York, Cardiff, Newport, Port Talbot, Bournemouth, Southampton, Bath, Bridgwater, Taunton, Lands End, Swindon, Reading, London, Didcot, Brighton, Clacton-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth, Birmingham, Tamworth and Doncaster plus some smaller places, and some places that I forget.

My problem is timing, as I work 40% of weekends and also have early starts on Mondays on some of the weekends I have off

Mark

[daveejhitchins]

I think it was The SUN newspaper (so I've been informed ) that used to run a "Spot out Man" competition, at various resorts. Maybe we can have a "Spot our Mark" competition, as he seems to have covered a large part of the country

Dave H

[sydney]

Sorry for a slight thread hijack - you guys got anything planned for June/July next year?

Pencilling in my next UK trip, and thinking around then. But this time I'd like to come up North (past the Thames!) and meet some of you guys, so if there is an event that would tie in nicely.

If you can let me know the dates you'll be available I'm sure we could arrange something.

[leenew]

I will do my best to get along for Saturday - daytime only.
I am working Friday night and Saturday night so I may be only able to attend for a few hours.
Still, It will be good to catch up with you all again!

Lee.

[richardtoohey]

If you can let me know the dates you'll be available I'm sure we could arrange something.

Thanks.

From rummaging around in *. there was an ABUG 19th-21st June 2014 and another July 11th & 12th 2014 so hopefully you'll all be keen for something around the same time next year.

I won't be sorting out flights until next year, so I'll come back to this, then - just wanted to ask now.

Anyway, enough thread hi-jacking, scuttling away back under my rock now.

[sydney]

Only 17 days to go so if you want to join us let me know here and I'll add you to the list.

[danielj]

wOOp.

[sydney]

After a brief pm conversation with Daniel I got my bodged non-functioning matchbox copro programming rig out of storage and added some pogo pins to it and I must say it looks promising! I'll be bringing it to Bolton if you want your matchbox updated.

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[leenew]

Hi Simon,
Is there going to be anyone who could update my co-pro to the latest build at Bolton?
I don't know if you missed my post above, but I will be there BRIEFLY!! for a few hours on Saturday
(Work really gets in the way of beebery..... )

I am currently working my fingers to the bone on a little project for Dave (Arcadian). It is taking every spare minute I have!!
I am hoping to have phase 1 of this project completed for the Bolton meet.
If I succeed, I will be delivering around 20 beebs in a much better state that when I collected them a few weeks ago
BTW, I have never meant "working my fingers to the bone" more literally than I do now!
I have scrubbed, and rubbed these beebs until my fingers are literally numb and tingly and I still have loads to do
(And that's before I fit the missing bits and fix/test 'em.)

Oooh! I have just had a thought!
I have no way to test econet at home, but I have 5 or 6 econet machines here amongst the ones I am cleaning up. Will there be a quick(ish) way to test the econet on these machines? I will be leaving them on the Saturday obviously....

Lee.

[sydney]

Hi Simon,
Is there going to be anyone who could update my co-pro to the latest build at Bolton?

Daniel is bringing his programmer and hopefully the rig above should make it easy to connect the matchbox to the programmer otherwise you'll have to solder a pin header to it.

Oooh! I have just had a thought!
I have no way to test econet at home, but I have 5 or 6 econet machines here amongst the ones I am cleaning up. Will there be a quick(ish) way to test the econet on these machines? I will be leaving them on the Saturday obviously....

I'm pretty sure a semi-permanent econet is set up at Bolton so it should hopefully simply be a case of connecting the beebs up to test them. Don't quote me on this - I know almost nothing about econet.

[1024MAK]

After a brief pm conversation with Daniel I got my bodged non-functioning matchbox copro programming rig out of storage and added some pogo pins to it and I must say it looks promising! I'll be bringing it to Bolton if you want your matchbox updated.

Blu-tac and elastic bands - It doesn’t get any more hi-tech than that!

But if it gets the job done, why not

Mark

[danielj]

Win.

Lee - yes, I'll bring a xilinx programmer along. Also will bring along an eprom programmer and kryoflux. Won't be down on the Friday but will pop across Saturday first thing in the morning!

d.

[sydney]

Blu-tac and elastic bands - It doesn’t get any more hi-tech than that!

But if it gets the job done, why not

Ah, but it's not blu tac or elastic bands! It's Epoxy putty and hair bobbles!

[sydney]

Added leenew and Beebmaster to the list - sorry for the delay Ian, I think I went off to investigate the other dates and forgot to add you!

[JonC]

Hi Simon,

Wouldn't mind coming along to my first meeting, but don't have the post count to PM you yet.
I only live just off J25 of the M62 so won't be doing an over-nighter.

Friday evening is dodgy as I work till 7, but should be good for Sat & Sun

Hopefully I'll have my alternative econet in a box 'almost' set up by then so I can bring it along to show off.

[jbnbeeb]

Hey there,

just booked the hotel room.

I'll be driving up on the saturday morning.. should be there 11ish and heading back early sunday afternoon.

I've not really had much chance to do much on my "new" game. I'll try to find some time to do some updates. These meet ups are always a good incentive!

Looking forward to seeing old and new faces.

cheers,
jbnbeeb

[sydney]

oops... pressed quote instead of edit!

[sydney]

Jon and Jason both added to the list, see you there!

[Prime]

Right room booked,

Arriving Friday, leaving Sunday.

Cheers.

Phill.

[flaxcottage]

Just an update. Will be arriving Saturday and Sunday mornings around 9-ish. My pass is stamped for the weekend.

[jgharston]

I'm hoping to actually remember to bring them with me this time, but will there be anybody who can:
* extract data from the SCSI drive from my Torch HD
* test a 40x4 EA-Y40040AT LCD display (link)
* test a 40x8 TLC-292A LCD display (link)

[BeebMaster]

If somebody has an ARM7 co-processor then we could try that idea I had of reading the Torch drive into RAM and then outputting it either to an Econet file server or to a CF drive, assuming we can switch between ADFSes and WInnie hardware without losing the data in the ARM7 RAM.

Is the drive Beeb-ready - ie. plugs straight into the 1MHz bus - or do we need host adapters and Winchester controller boards?

I can bring that sort of thing, although there is plenty of Winchester disc hardware at Bolton that we could cannibalise temporarily. I can also bring my ARM7 if necessary, although it's running an early unreleased Econet patch version of the ARM 7 host, so isn't 100% reliable.

[jgharston]

Is the drive Beeb-ready - ie. plugs straight into the 1MHz bus - or do we need host adapters and Winchester controller boards?

It plugs into the Torch host board which maps the drive I/O somewhere in &FDxx instead of &FCxx. I can't remember if it easily comes out with the drive as it's a couple of years since I had the top off, but I expect it will come out somehow.

[billcarr2005]

I should be able to make it down there sometime on Saturday.