#bbc master

Repairing a BBC Master #3: Power checks

Now that we know the sickly BBC Master’s power supply is okay, it’s time to check whether that power is getting to all the chips on the board. Luckily, the schematics help us here in more ways than one. On the first page is a table of all the ICs with pin numbers for their VCC and GND connections. I have this printed out and on a clipboard for easy reference. I also have the schematic PDF…

Repairing an #Acorn #BBC Master, part 1 – plan of attack #retrocomputing #bbcmicro

So my poor Acorn BBC Master Turbo is sick … again. And I feel a little bit responsible. Quick recap: the Master developed a problem some years ago. This was ‘fixed’ when a very generous person donated a motherboard from his machine. I never did find the cause of the problem. Since then, however, the machine has spent a lot of its time stored in a cupboard because … reasons. The other day I…

First, do no harm. Second, check the voltages. That’s how the Hippocratic Oath starts when adapted for electronics. If the device under test is not getting the proper power supply, then you can’t reasonably expect it to work. But there’s something I wanted to check, even before I apply power, and this turned out to be a learning opportunity. The BBC Master has many powerful connections. With the…

Making ROMs for the BBC Micro #bbcmicro #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing

Here’s something I’ve only just learned about the BBC Micro: you can burn ROM chips using modern EEPROMs. Who knew?*

One of the strengths of the BBC Micro was the way it handled ‘language’ ROMs. The quotes are there because while many of these ROMs were, indeed, programming languages, others were applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, utilities and so on. To switch between the normal…

Programming the BBC Micro with ease

No, this isn’t going to be a tutorial on BBC Basic. Nor am I about to offer programming tips and tricks. This is about being comfortable while hacking.

In the last postI wrote about recreating the first serious program I ever wrote on the BBC Micro. And I mentioned that I’d written the code using the BeebEm emulator running on a Windows 10 VM on my iMac. Yet if you’ve been here before you’ll know…