Voltages wondering about the Oric-1 - Just to be sure before I toast it!

I hear from Richie, Klyde, that a certain Oric-1 object has already arrived at chez Richie!

I do hope sincerely that your parcel still arrives safely, mom ami, as no-one likes to hear of retro goodies parcels going missing or being damaged in the post... they're way way too precious.

Bonne chance.

 

If your ULA has gone AWOL then I will send you one FOC ASAP hopefully then I won’t use so many abbreviations LOL ROFL LMAO

 

I have received your PCBs yesterday Richie, they are really neat, and will be very handy! thank you mate!

I also have received the RAM chips, so I can test them.

But Andy what you feared arrived, the ULA was lost by the courier... IFAIK (abbreviation, LOL!) it was delivered to someone else, I don't know where... I have to investigate and ask for a refund.

Richie, before sending me one, let me replace the RAM chips to see where it drives me.

 

Aw, Manu, I'm so sorry to hear.
Let's hope the RAM chips may be the solution and if not - well, a new ULA can only help / be useful in the future etc,

 

Not a big deal Andy, but yes it is a shame they delivered somewhere else, maybe the seller did a mistake with my address? I'll try to find that out...

 

So, how the story of this unfortunate Oric goes on? I'm curious to see if it can go back to work, although I'm pretty sure that Klyde will succeed in the end!

 

Sorry, BTW I've been away for a while, and you didn't hear that much from me. After 2 months in Rome to help my parents after the incident, I had lots of issues with work, culminating in a minor crash last week at the datacentre that I manage on my own. Hardware failures so it took a lot of work and time to restore everything in a working condition. I'm still on it, TBH. Ok, enough of me, let's go back to retrocomputing.

 

Hey, Dazza.

Sincerely, we all hope you are OK - another sad story of folks battling to help others and then coming a cropper themselves.

Treasure all we have that means so much to us, eg family, loved ones, loyal friends and of course... our faithful retro treasures.

Do take extra care and keep the faith, my friend.

How's Klyde/Manu getting on? Any progress on this Oric-1 and how is Rich - ready for a catch up when you are, buddy, as we are currently working from home self-isolating so have a bit more time for a natter when you're free, mate.

 

I didn't have a lot of time to look after the Oric these days, too much work! But it is cooling down in July (not the weather), so I'll let you know when I have something new!

 

If you’re too busy at the moment @Klyde I have plenty of spare time these days and I have all the spares.

 

I must have lost much of the Oric stories here on AOC, especially Andy's. For example, what's the state of the art about Orics running at the Bazza towers? Any new entry? Telestrat or Oric modern/old disk drives? Where the famous lot of 8 French Orics went to? All fixed and sold? Any other Oric adventures with pretty stories in them to tell? I've got one about a lost and then found SwinSID for a broken C64. I may start a new thread called hardware stories.

 

A quick note about the Oric.

First I realised that the SCART cable I built was faulty, I could never display a picture with it. Once fixed I could have a picture: A scrambled screen with odd characters, generaly the sign of a faulty RAM.

I then desoldered and tested the RAM chips, they are ALL faulty!! The ULA was not the culprit finaly...
Next step: replacing the RAM chips.

 

Good to hear that there is some progress to your Oric story, Manu.

Hey, we spent the weekend near Cambridge with the friends we were with the last time we met up, buddy,at Duxford. Many aircraft flew over their house over the weekend incl a Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota and so I thought of you and your pals from last time, mon ami.

Dazza asked about some Orics which arrived here courtesy of a distant sale that you helped negotiate. I wish I had still had a few as they made a good price back then but Atmoses are now making crazy prices - some going for over £200 for the bare computer so you can imagine that a boxed example with some software and accessories could push £300?
(This is what some people are asking for on Feebay).

Basically, they have gone now, Dazza and they went towards financing the wedding so they were sold for a worthy cause else I would still be single and living out of a phone booth...(!)


ABOVE: Baz's cave before Bev let him in to her abode.

 

Ah yes, we spent a good time in Duxford! Hope we can do it again!

 

We certainly did, Manu.

I hope in the future that we manage to get a good few of us together as it would make for a super retro rendezvous.

Sending my very best to you all, Manu and hope life is treating you well.

 

Thanks, Baz for the news about the Oric orphans, now shipped to good homes (I'm sure) and making some good guys happy. Much happier I am because the income of that huge sale went for a very good cause, your wedding! Amazing! So happy for you and Bev, once again the Oric computers have shown their real usefulness, set aside becoming great and colorful doorstops. ;-) I am joking, I learnt to love the Orics!

 

Cheers, Daz.

Without those Oric sales I fear I would have been sent up chimneys cleaning the buggers!



Baz contemplating how many more chimneys he needs to clean before being let back into the marital maison.

 

Now that the RAM chips are replaced with new ones, I have white still rectangles on a black screen display. You guess it, it is not fixed yet.

After a quick look at the oscilloscope, the RAM signals seems ok, excepted the Write signal (floating high), the 6502 have some signal pins stuck high, the 6522 chip appears to have almost all its signals stuck high.

Next time I'll focus on the 6522, and maybe replace it too.

To be continued...

 

Hi Manu,
Did you burn a 16K EPROM with a v1.1 BASIC on the off chance the Rom is damaged?

 

Good idea, I will.

 

Keep going, Klyde.

The end justifies the means...



OR



= pure working Oric heaven.

 

Here we go guys, I nailed it!

First, the white rectangles I was having before, the Oric used to be stuck on that screen:


And the culprit was... a bad solder joint on the ROM socket pin 12!
I found out by first taking the ROM chip out, then checking all the connections with the oscilloscope and multimeter.

Once the socket was replaced with a good quality one... Result!


I can now ZAP, PING, SHOOT and EXPLODE the Oric!


Last thing, I have a quite loud and constant humming from the speaker. I'll try to have a look at the sound circuit, maybe a bad capacitor? Any idea?

Next step will be to hook up a tape recorder and try to load some games, and replace the ROM with a 1.1 BASIC version, like @Vyper68 suggested.

Many thanks to all of you guys who helped and supported me with the fixing attempt, especialy Andy for the example pictures above, and @Vyper68 who sent me a ULA after the one I ordered from Bulgary was lost during its journey through the Carpathians?!

ZAP!

 

Brilliant work, Manu.

If anyone can sort these pesky Oric problems - it's you n Richie!

I will look into that buzzing sound issue you have it.

Does it ring any bells with you, Rich?

Have a good old sound riot with your predefined sounds, Manu.

I will try and find you a listing that makes them sound like a synth orchestra... or maybe not!

 

Thank you Andy, I know that you particularly like this machine, I hope I will appreciate it as much as you do.

Cheers!

 

And another 8-bit computer is now saved from oblivion. Nice, nice work, Manu.
PhantasmagORIC result!