Most liked posts in thread: What's new Pussycat too?

Actually closer to Northolt Airport (just over the road) but yes I have cleverly used my Dick Dasterdly sidekicks to plunge Heathrow in to a mess

Muttley is keeping them busy...

Btw Graham, did you know there was an Omnimon disk for the Controller card?

 

Here's the disk, it asks for another disk which I don't have but it may just be a disk with the Omnimon roms on?

 

Nor me...Downgraded my status from Uber Fan to Fan

 

I'll change the subject then as my daughters were 14 at some point !

Added more photo's in Oric Drive Media Album

 

Ah, porn for Andy

 

Pretty crap delivery service there Matt, guess you were hoping to have the truck up and running by now. In the main deliveries with in the EU seem o.k had deliveries from Poland, Netherlands, and Germany all in pretty short order. Also had one from China via SpeedPak took less than 10 days including customs clearance, that's exceptionally quick. Not said to rub it in I'll add, hope you get the truck running very soon.

 

Paul
Wish you luck with your install, just remember for the XE computers its almost worth snipping all the legs off the MMU & ROM, that way you can take a great deal of care with the individual pins. The Chips are lost but the boards are a nightmare for lifting traces when you have limited de soldering equipment to hand.. (P.S Let me know if I can help out, your not that far away from me )
(Shame I got my Incognito only last week, could have shared the cost of the Postage)

 

Hi Klyde
I've spotted this site before, however as to quality etc, I've no idea; and prices maybe better elsewhere,
https://www.sellmyretro.com/store/zx-spectrum-retro-shop
Good luck with your new computer !

 

Yes thank you, I know this website, the membranes are sold £20.00 there, I'll dig a little deeper and if there is nothing else, I'll go for it.

 

Maybe worth re writing the originals if they don't work, could always have gotten to close to a magnet.. saves moving the Labels as well.

 

I may have to get one of those one day. But I'm not really familiar with what they do, except that it freezes programs where you can restart at that point later, I believe, but that's about all I know. I need to read up on it more and see if it's something I'd use much.

 

Oh dear... doesn't sound too promising at the mo then, mate.

See how you go and if I have to relist as spares/repairs, then so be it.

Cheers, Rich.

 

Yep sounds like a duff 6502, its not one made in Mexico by any chance ? think they are more prone to that issue, presumably a different FAB plant.
let me know if you need a 6502 posted up.
Also I could send a WDC 65C02S only just got this but I can replace as not using at the moment.

 

wow ... thats a fair markup on there original cost ...
I hope the disk is good, you'll have to tell us how it runs.

 

BLOODY HELL!!!

 

I have a R65c02P4 some where so I could pop that in to test my theory, just waiting on some sockets now, all the resistors are ok as well spent the afternoon with a Oric, multimeter and schematics. My eyes are killing me now... I need to get a magnifier

 

It booted first time Graham so had half an hour blasting away

 

Rich, I have one of those "multi helping hands" things with a magnifier which I can send up if it's any use rather than it just sitting here gathering dust:

 

Hi Richie

Nice one I'm glad the disk runs fine good idea to back it up if you can.

Can you confirm what items you need to fix the Oric, I'm guessing a CPU, I can send up some turned pin sockets as well. What did you want to do re a Gotek for Andy, I guess you either have or have ordered the 3" drive face for this?

One thing I did think of, and I'm not sure it's been documented anywhere, is changing out the linear voltage regulator for a switching version. You can then ditch the heat sink in the Oric as it will run that cool.
This does mean a few wiring changes as you can only get positive rail regulators so not just a drop in replacement. Requires a bridge rectifier purely for safety (polarity of incoming DC) wired across the power input socket, wiring the new regulator direct to its output, and connecting the new regulator output to the positive and negative points on the original board. may need wrapping the new regulator in capton tape, it won't be getting hot at all, so just needs insulating from anything else.

The original brick PSU is still giving out about 15V for what becomes 5V so producing a fair bit of heat.

Let me know please as can send off first thing in the morning if required. p.s WDC chip not directly compatible but have standard 6502's I have a switching regulator and a should have a small bridge rectifier or individual diodes to make one.

Welcome to call or text me any time after about 8AM

 

[Encounter!] A classic game that was ground-breaking 3D when it came out. Simple, yet addictive, and faster moving than similar games like Battlezone. I'm a very big fan of a similar game, that is deeper, but only enemies in the 360 degree 3D world and no pillars: Dimension X by Synapse, another ground-breaking 3D game that came out around the same time. but it has a real story and different levels/areas to go to via tunnels like X-wing fighters and in the Death Star trench, some that need to be cleared of enemies, some bonus areas and areas that repair your ship, etc. It gets more play-time from me...though I don't fully understand it yet and need to take the time to find and read the manual!

 

If you have never seen Dimension X, you should be bloody well impressed by the visuals, moving checkerboard ground even better than Ball Blazer (more like arcade Space Harrier), killer sprite scaling, especially when entering the tunnels...

 

Nice haul there Matt

 

So, sat down to work on the 810 circuit boards removing the 'Happy' upgrade. It was amazing that this ever worked, having touched several of the solder joints for them to fall apart.

I had a quick look at the drive mechanism only to find the drive band from the stepper motor missing. Had a quick look on ebay, and as units are Stateside, looks like this is going to stop where it is.

I'll test the chips that are socketed to make sure they're OK and box it up until I can hopefully get a cheap mechanism.