I still have mine from back in the day in its original box... I wrote my PhD on it so it's a bit precious. I still have 5 1/4" drives and disks but it's at least 3 decades since I fired it up.
Looks like there’s a tiny fault with it where the video signal cuts out intermittently. Looked it up and it’s possibly got to do with X1 16MHz oscillating crystal having gone bad so I just ordered one (ok, 50x so if any of you need any, let me know) 🤞
*and* the book. I'm jealous! Back in the day for the beeb, I wrote in assembler a ring-buffer network packet sniffer... got me into a *lot of trouble*. I wish I'd thought of preserving the code somewhere.
@dch I wish I still had the code for the teletext network hypertext system I built for it, complete with the ability to download binaries from pages. Could have knocked down quite a few web patents.
@dch I do have a listing for an early version of the page editing piece, which was printed in Personal Computer World. First bit of money I made from programming!
@dch I’ve searched a few times to see if anyone from school might have kept a copy and put it on the Internet somewhere, but no luck. I got an Atari ST and couldn’t imagine ever wanting my old BBC floppy disks again. Didn’t keep my Atari ST programs either. Oh well!
@mathew @dch Oh, I’m not even thinking of my old programs from back when I was a kid. They may still be on some disks in a cupboard somewhere in Turkey :)
Wish me the luck, the little guy’s going under the knife… the video signal cuts out intermittently so I’m going to try changing the 16MHz oscillating crystal.
So mine’s apparently an Issue 4 from 1982. Although there’s a sticker in it that reads 1 Nov 83 (maybe when it was sold/serviced?)
The board’s out and yes, I was a bit of a barbarian and, since I’m not going to be using the composite out, cut the wires to it instead of desoldering them. If I ever need it, I can just connect the wires again.
There are seven places where the power supply attaches to the main board but there’s no way you can get it wrong as the lengths of the wire won’t let you. (You still have to know black is 0v.)
A frequent post topic on STH , and indeed all similar retro forums, is where someone has a hardware fault and is asking for advice on how to go about fixing
@Em0nM4stodon Good times. The model B was my first computer. While everybody else played games on their C64, I learned Acorn Basic and 6502 assembler with the Beep.
@pu @Em0nM4stodon It’s such a beautiful device. And more so because it was made for the right reasons and without some nasty corporate growth motive. I remember we had it in class but I probably learned more about it in the last day or two than I did in my entire time in class :)
I have the same HDMI adapter and I seem to get a washed out image, with the whites shifted towards blue and the blacks shifted towards red. Is yours OK or are they all like that?
It might be an issue with one of the other components. I found the Stardot forums and their wiki of issues/fixes invaluable for troubleshooting: stardot.org.uk/forums/
Thanks, but it’s definitely the converter as it’s poor regardless of which computer I connect to it. They all display fine on an old LCD TV I have which has a SCART socket built in, but I’d rather use the monitor that’s already on my desk, which is HDMI only.
No worries! It’s just a bit annoying, but that said - the folks on Startdot are always very helpful, so maybe I will take some comparison pictures and ask anyway.
Despite the colours being fine, I still wasn’t happy with the quality. So when I saw a used OSSC on eBay, I put a lowball offer in and they accepted. It just arrived and honestly it’s like night and day, the cheap Amazon scaler really is garbage by comparison. Super happy!
DamonHD
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to DamonHD • • •Russell Garner
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Russell Garner • • •Russell Garner
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Matt
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Brad Macpherson
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •/brad decamps to shed to get the Model B he bought off eBay a year ago up and running 😂
I tell ya, if it wasn't for work there'd be no end of fun to be had!
Aral Balkan
in reply to Brad Macpherson • • •Jessie Kirk
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Jessie Kirk • • •Jae
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Ben Hammond
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •spdrnl
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •DataKnightmare
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Matt Tutt
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •C. Anthony Lewis
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to C. Anthony Lewis • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •dch
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to dch • • •mathew
in reply to dch • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to mathew • • •dch
in reply to mathew • • •mathew
in reply to dch • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to mathew • • •mathew
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to mathew • • •Matthew
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Matthew • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Wish me the luck, the little guy’s going under the knife… the video signal cuts out intermittently so I’m going to try changing the 16MHz oscillating crystal.
🤞
#BBCMicro
Chris Trottier
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Chris Trottier • • •Chris Trottier likes this.
Ivor Hewitt
in reply to Chris Trottier • • •Chris Trottier likes this.
Aral Balkan
in reply to Ivor Hewitt • • •Eslam Family🕊️❤️
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •✅ Step 1 (the easy bit)
(The X1 oscillator is circled in white.)
(Did I mention I’m a nervous solderer?) :)
Brad Macpherson
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Brad Macpherson • • •tecteun
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to tecteun • • •Michael
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Michael • • •Michael
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Michael • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •So mine’s apparently an Issue 4 from 1982. Although there’s a sticker in it that reads 1 Nov 83 (maybe when it was sold/serviced?)
The board’s out and yes, I was a bit of a barbarian and, since I’m not going to be using the composite out, cut the wires to it instead of desoldering them. If I ever need it, I can just connect the wires again.
Now the bit that scares me…
#BBCMicro
#repair
tecteun
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •tecteun
in reply to tecteun • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to tecteun • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Right, well, oscillator replaced. No solder accidents.
Going to put it back together and try it out.
🤞
Jessie Kirk
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Jessie Kirk • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Note, if you will, the beauty of this design:
There are seven places where the power supply attaches to the main board but there’s no way you can get it wrong as the lengths of the wire won’t let you. (You still have to know black is 0v.)
#BBCMicro #repair
Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Right, about to turn it back on…
If you don’t hear from me, there was probably smoke :)
Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Yep, it’s been half an hour and no dropouts… I’m calling it, my lovely new BBC Micro B is fixed :)
Yay! Soooo excited to play with it tomorrow 🥳
Here’s a before video:
vimeo.com/1181523949#t=26
And an after:
vimeo.com/1182284426
And the issue, for anyone else who stumbles on this thread, was the 16MHz oscillator circuit (marked X1 on the main board).
Also, I could only find a lot of 50 of them, so if anyone needs one, just hit me up and I’ll send it to you :)
Huge thanks to the folks on the stardot.org.uk for sharing the fix: stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopi…
#BBCMicro #BBCMicroModelB #video #dropout #issue #fix #x1 #oscillator
Fault finding index - Page 4
MartinB (stardot.org.uk)Dr. Abed From Gaza🇵🇸
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Dr. Abed From Gaza🇵🇸 • • •Dr. Abed From Gaza🇵🇸
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Andre Louis
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •sound1,-15,100,100
Aral Balkan
in reply to Andre Louis • • •Professor_Stevens
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Professor_Stevens • • •Geoff Mackenzie
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Geoff Mackenzie • • •Ken Milmore
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Ken Milmore • • •katzenberger
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to katzenberger • • •Patrick
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Patrick • • •James Holden
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to James Holden • • •@jamesholden No, the colours are fine on mine.
It might be an issue with one of the other components. I found the Stardot forums and their wiki of issues/fixes invaluable for troubleshooting: stardot.org.uk/forums/
Index page
stardot.org.ukJames Holden
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to James Holden • • •James Holden
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •James Holden
in reply to James Holden • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to James Holden • • •James Holden
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to James Holden • • •James Holden
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •