Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by rubber_jonnie »

JezC wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 3:35 pm
rubber_jonnie wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:57 am

Who needs an intercom :) I'll have my own fridge and kettle etc in the new man-cave.
Indeed! The intercom would only make it easier for your other half to interrupt your hobby time ;) :lol:

No fridge but there is an old kettle in there..and a tap.

The back is mostly recovered - thanks to our sled dog stretching me (like being on a rack!) on a daily basis.

The other option suggested was to hire a skip :shock: :o so relocation to the garage was the preferred option.

The sort out has turned up a few missing items as well, so not all bad news! Still no sign of my Falcon to ST monitor adaptor or the Blow-up video lead, alas.
Sounds like it hasn't been all bad then :)
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

Yes, managing to find some of the silver lining in this particular cloud.... ;)

Next trick is to find a way to spend more time in the garage...
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

Well, my wife asked me earlier this week what i wanted for my birthday...so i now have the Xilinx programmer on order.

With a bit of luck that will allow me to update my TF536 in H4 #1 with the latest firmware & get the onboard IDE working...fingers crossed!

I've a bit more than a week to go until I'll get it but hope to be posting some updates once it has been unwrapped!

Now I need to think what the kids can get me... :lol:
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

A rare non-Atari update here...well, OK even an Atari update is relatively rare... :lol: :roll:
It's too hot outside (for me anyway ;) ) so I've used that as an excuse to plough on with the "de-clutter" inside...

While sorting through lots more boxes I've uncovered my two Amigas; an A500 which won't boot - even without the RAM expansion...just shows a green display on the TV and an A500 Plus which does boot - eventually - without the RAM expansion.

Without the RAM expansion, the 500 Plus gets as far as showing the waiting for workbench screen :yay2: but I've not yet found any of the Amiga discs - or even the dual format ST/Amiga format cover discs to try it beyond that stage :(

I know I've seen some of the dual boot discs recently...but danged if I can find them when I want to :headbang:

Ho hum...maybe I will stumble across them soon - fingers crossed!
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

My Waveshare Xilinx programmer has now arrived!

So, next ST-related thing will be to read up on which tools to install & then try to flash the latest firmware into my TF536 in H4 #1...

On the Amiga front, I found another box of cover discs (80+) but all were ST-only...so I've still not yet found an Amiga format disc to test on the A500+

Boo.
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

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Okay... having made a good start on putting up some shelving in the garage, most of the ST's plus the BBC Bs and their various add-ons are now starting to fill the shelves.

This has meant no time to pursue the fault finding on my H4 & H5 boards as of yet...but I've obviously been getting withdrawal symptoms as I appear to have yet one more STFM heading my way, not to mention 2x SD2IDE adaptors, a pair of Gotek drives plus a V4 Greaseweazle, the latter 3 direct from Keir Fraser of FlashFloppy fame.

Only the ST has yet to arrive...probably next week, so hoping to try at least some of the other purchases and get back to fixing the H4/H5 over the weekend.

The Falcon might be given some airtime to sort the SD2IDE adaptors along with HD Driver 11.... :D
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

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Ok, mixed bag of progress recently...

None on the H4/H5 saga sadly (not enough time at a single sitting to tackle either...and apparently no milliohm meter at work...sigh)

The 520 STFM arrived and is working nicely...as a bonus it turns out it's a 70789 rev F2 board with TOS 1.04 installed...so other than a memory upgrade/recap etc. that is a definite keeper!

Earlier this week saw the arrival of a BBC Master (thanks @PhilC)...had chance to briefly power it up last night & could vaguely see the boot info via the RF output on my naff TV (usually feed this via the SCART socket or VGA/DVI inputs).
I'm hoping to try it with either my Cub monitor (if I can find the lead) or my green screen composite monitor if not.

Yet another addition to the recap pile... :roll: I might order the recap kits for both BBC Model Bs at the same time ;)

No time yet to try the SD2IDE, new Gotek drives or Greaseweazle board as work is really busy... hopefully the overtime will help pay for all these recent acquisitions!
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

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JezC wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:41 am Ok, mixed bag of progress recently...

None on the H4/H5 saga sadly (not enough time at a single sitting to tackle either...and apparently no milliohm meter at work...sigh)

The 520 STFM arrived and is working nicely...as a bonus it turns out it's a 70789 rev F2 board with TOS 1.04 installed...so other than a memory upgrade/recap etc. that is a definite keeper!

Earlier this week saw the arrival of a BBC Master (thanks @PhilC)...had chance to briefly power it up last night & could vaguely see the boot info via the RF output on my naff TV (usually feed this via the SCART socket or VGA/DVI inputs).
I'm hoping to try it with either my Cub monitor (if I can find the lead) or my green screen composite monitor if not.

Yet another addition to the recap pile... :roll: I might order the recap kits for both BBC Model Bs at the same time ;)

No time yet to try the SD2IDE, new Gotek drives or Greaseweazle board as work is really busy... hopefully the overtime will help pay for all these recent acquisitions!
My BBC PSUs were ok regarding the caps, if you do nothing else to the PSU, replace the RIFA smoke generators.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by PhilC »

@JezC good luck with the Master, I was originally going to use it for a bit of experimentation but I'll use my other one now instead.

It does post ok on UHF but as other computers these days, its a pain to tune in with modern TVs.
If it ain't broke, test it to Destruction.
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

PhilC wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:53 am @JezC good luck with the Master, I was originally going to use it for a bit of experimentation but I'll use my other one now instead.

It does post ok on UHF but as other computers these days, its a pain to tune in with modern TVs.
@PhilC Thanks... looking forward to having some nostalgia with the Beebs in general. Never owned a Master back then... didn't seem worth it on top of a B and was wanting a 16 bit machine, hence the ST.

Yes, the 'digital' tuning on that TV is pants for all computers so I'm sure it will look great on any other display.
Thanks again for all your help!
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