BBC Micro - Part Three: Can This Little ACORN Grow Up To Be A Massive OAK?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ค. 2024
- Hi Everyone, and in this video we'll be pimping up our BBC Micro Model B following it's recent refurbishment. I want this machine to become my daily driver for writing episodes for the channel, but to do so we need to upgrade the machine to make it more usable in these days of expecting instant results.
So we'll be fitting:
A 1770 Disk Filing System
A Gotek Drive with FlashFloppy Firmware
A 128k Sideways RAM/ROM Expansion Card
An SPI MMFS SD Card Solution
There'll be one further episode in this series where we fit a Raspberry Pi Co-Processor to get a 300Mhz BBC Micro! In that episode, we'll also do a deep dive into the features of the hardware we install today.
Hope you enjoy the video!
P.S. First video with new audio equipment - let me know in the comments if this is an improvement for you. Thanks!
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
04:51 1770 DFS Installation
07:40 Sideways RAM/ROM Installation
10:02 Gotek Drive Installation
14:40 Power Up & Test
References:
Gotek/FlashFloppy
github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shugart...
1770 DFS Kit
Www.retroclinic.com
Sideways RAM/ROM Board
Search eBay for 128k Sideways RAM BBC - you'll find them :)
SPI/MMC
Search eBay for BBC MMC and you'll find them too :)
DFS
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_Fi...
Sideways Address Space
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideway... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Hi everyone - Could I just ask: If you've had trouble with the audio on previous videos, could you let me know if this is an improvement for you in the comments please? New audio equipment but still the same me, so need to discover if this is a step in the right direction. Many thanks and hope you enjoy the video :)
I find the background music very distracting, perhaps it's my deteriorating hearing at advanced age! Otherwise enjoyed the video.
@@worldgeektube Thanks - I’ll see what I can do going forward - appreciate the input :)
Hi, I was literally just popping in to tell you I made true on my promise & subscribed. You've improved your signal quality significantly with your new mic & possibly adc, & the distortion is down significantly! That said, you're still bassy af. Yes you have a naturally bassy speaking voice, but some sort of coloration is being added. Based on my autism senses, I can tell that there is at least one bare surface in whatever room your recording studio (corner) is in. Yes, that's simple, but there's a bit more.....try tightening down your mic stand. You don't have to torque the screws just get it to where it won't vibrate with your voice. If you have a standey little desk stand one, a few sticky felt feet would achieve the same result. If you're simply holding a mic, hold it somewhere else, perhaps against another more cluttered wall, or in a closet.
As for music, the trick is a selection well out of the spectral bandwidth of your voice. This is why LGR's go-to in smooth jazz. He cranks it at the start of his videos so your woofers set the mood with the bassline, then he cranks it down to background levels. You can no longer hear the bass as crisply, but you can still make out the pianos. David Murray usually goes for 80s royalty free instrumentals, & since it always has a robotic rhythm you can phase it out naturally to still clearly hear his voice.
@@wesleyswafford2462 Thanks! Where I don’t have experience of a machine I do try to do the research but no doubt get a few things wrong along the way :) Luckily, this seems to be a really nice and informative community which helps me to learn too :) Thanks for your support!
The new audio sounds great... Less boxy and distorted from the old videos. Thanks for the upgrade!
This is just brilliant. It's wonderful to see a *physical* BBC B working and with all those delightful upgrades. Well done.
Glad you enjoyed it - I really do believe that these machines can have a use in our daily lives - after all, at one time they were ALL we had and we managed then :)
Cool Video...The BBC B was one of the best Microcomputers in the early 80s .
Couldn’t agree more! :)
It really is the most gorgeous font on the BBC.
Designed for Teletext, it's requirements were to be readable on a PAL CRT of a certain size at a certain distance, across the living room.
It used the analogue nature of video signals of the era to generate sub-pixel detail, psuedo-triangles instead of pseudo-pixels, with four different shapes, NW, SW, NE and SE.
I don't know if the regular raster modes used the sub-pixel detail trick but mode7 definitely did.
It's not a font of course, merely a character set.
Unnamed, it's typically known as the "SAA5050 character set", named after the character generator IC found in the Beeb and Teletext devices, the Mullard SAA5050.
This was so ahead of is time. Anyone remember that game Elixir where you flew around as a spaceman? Utterly brilliant compared to anything else out there at the time.
This brought back some good memories. I worked at Viglen back in the early days when they were in an all out war with Cumana and Watford Electronics to sell BBC disk drives and upgrades. We would do DFS upgrades for customers “while they waited”. I must have performed 100s of installs over my time with them and Twilstar computers in Southall. Great to see the the process again after all these years. Cheers.
Thanks for sharing :)
this nicely demonstrates the baked-in expandability of a stock beeb. the audacity of clive sinclair thinking his ghastly speccy was better.It's strength was it was cheap, and the beeb was definitely not.
I absolutely love my Beeb and yes, it was an incredible machine back in the day, and still is :)
I remember Solidisk, that sideways ram solution fitted at the side.
I also remember making a single sideways RAM extension for a friend, using 2x 8k chips piggybacked and a 74 logic chip to steer the select
That’s cool!
Your chilled-out presentation style is fantastic. Keep up the good work - the beeb is looking mighty at the moment. Imagine if we could have had this level and depth of expansion back when they were on school desks. Obviously the expansions themselves are very clever, but they still prove just how capable and expandable these machines were even back in the day.
Many thanks! Appreciate the support :) And, yes - what we would have done to have this stuff back in the day! :)
Wow. Really looking forward to the Raspberry Pi co-processor upgrade.
Thanks for watching :)
Right, just off to Watford Electronics to buy some floppies...
If only :) :)
IIRC, you can use *. instead of *CAT and - will boot a bootable disk. Less to type!
You're absolutely correct :). In fact, the main acorn forums are at stardot.org.uk (*.) - With MMC devices, ADFS and Sideways ROMS there are various combinations of CTRL-BREAK/SHIFT-BREAK to do things and I always get the wrong one :) :)
I owned a BBC B and 100k disk drive. I just loved it. I wish I still had it. Don't know what happened too it. I am glad to see one getting the love it deserved.
:) Thanks for watching!
Gold! What an outstanding series.
Thank you so much!
I was using one of these in a lab as logger until 2005 when I updated to a pc and LabVIEW. The beeb was a built like a tank. Miss having access to ADCs, and various buses on old personal computers.
You’re not wrong there! Has anyone else on the channel been using the Beeb in a professional capacity later than 2005? Let us know!
@@TheRetroShack I guess the raspberry pi or similar would be the equivalent now.
@@andrewapsley7259 The OSes are too big and complicated for simple tasks. too many hidden things updating and breaking.
I don't know what it is, but the BBC Model B is such a thing of beauty.
I couldn’t agree more!!!
@@TheRetroShack that was quick, in only five minutes in.
Hey Retro, have you seen Micromen?
@@Zooumberg I have :) You really NEED to keep an eye on the channel this weekend if you’re an Acorn fan... Believe me! :)
@@TheRetroShack I subscribed, so let me know what is going on.
Another great Beeb video! Brings back lots of memories for me, we had 16 of them eco-netted together. One machine had a 20meg winchester hard drive, where all the files were saved too. One machine had a disk drive and that was the one I always used so I could play games. Years later I came across an auction for a lot of bbc micros from a business that was selling up. I ended up with 3 machines drives etc and several large boxes of original software on tape and disks. One day I will pull it out of storage and sort out what I have
Can I give you a hand? :) :) If you’re an Acorn fan you’re going to LOVE this weekend here at the Shack ;) Keep watching :)
*Winchester hard drive*
_Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time... A long time._
I bought a BBC master system a few years back, and never got round to sorting it out. Once I have my new workshop up and running, I must get around to exploring what it is capable off.
Doing this has got me in the mood for a series on the Master 128 at some point :)
I love the sound of that keybaord
Right there with you on that one - it's a DEEPLY satisfying sound! :)
Just caught up with this series. Excellent so far. This channel has been climbing my own list of retro computing youtubers, as the video are so well decribed and shot
Thank you SO much - very kind comment and very much appreciated. Thanks for watching :)
O_fficially blown away. You don't disappoint :) BTW, sound levels are good for me!
Thanks very much!
Excellent video, I really enjoy your presentation style. Watching this series about the BBC Micro makes the Brit in me want to buy one and have it shipped to the US. I am too old to have played with these in school, and having lived in the US since 1986 have never had the opportunity to see one in the flesh.
Thanks - I’m glad you’re enjoying the channel :)
Fact. As much as I like the 8bitGuy, this series is more entertaining, better shot AND informative than the system specific video on that channel. I suppose what I'm saying is this channel deserves a ton of subscribers. Top content.
Thank you! That is incredibly generous! Glad you're enjoying the channel :)
Loving see you upgrade your Beeb.
I upgraded a BBC Master at the beginning of this year. What great systems they are! I've got the Gotek, the SD card, the Pi Co-Pro, a home-made joystick and a ROM switcher for backwards compatibility. I'd like to see an episode on Econet as I haven't found much useful information on it yet, despite some cursory investigation.
I’ll see what I can do :) Thanks for watching!
I seriously need to put one of those Gotek doodads (old technical term, lol) into my Technics KN2000.
Part of my first paid job was upgrading Model A to Model B machines - that kinda dates me!
Model Bs where in short supply (mainly due to schools buying them up) but as they sold to families as quick as they came in there was a nice little profit to be made buying in the components and fitting them. These where advertised as being 'equivalent to Model B' and I cannot remember anybody objecting (esp as the where a little (£5?) cheaper in the shop.
I honestly cannot imagine any company producing a parts list for their latest 'throw the old one away' box now though...
Nice to hear from another Beeb lover and thanks for watching :)
Nobody typed *CAT they used *.
I’ll go through commands and shortcuts in more detail in the final episode :)
@@TheRetroShack Cool :D
@@TheRetroShack Maybe shortcuts should have been the first episode, it would save you a lot of typing :)
When inspecting those pins under the addon board try using a dentist mirror. You can get them very cheaply on amazon.
That’s a cracking idea, thanks!
I'm loving this series and I'm so glad I recently found this channel!
I had a Spectrum but always loved the Beeb. It was just so solid and felt like a 'proper' computer. Our school had a room full of them installed in the mid 80s, all with monitors and disk drives. I was lucky enough to have my morning and afternoon registration in that room for my last 2 school years, so every registration the floppy disks wouild be passed around and games would be played. Great times. Always had a soft spot for the Beeb ever since then and have often looked at ebay with half an eye to buying one but never have.
That Gotek mod looks amazing. Just like having the floppies but so much more convenient.
Think I'll just take another look on ebay......
Go on... Go on... I’m the voice in your head saying ‘Do it, do it, do it...’ :) Welcome to the channel!
Awesome video - thanks! Makes me want to bring down the old beeb from the loft and give it a brush up - although feeling a bit daunted about replacing those old caps. When can we expect the RasPi Co-processor episode?
Very soon - I'm in the final stages of editing :)
Seeing this ... if present day "me" where to go back and redo my micro purchase decision back in 1985, - I would probably have bought this instead. Sounds like a fantastic machine.
Couldn't agree more - the BBC Micro to me embodies everything then that the Raspberry Pi does today. (Apart from being cheap :) )
@@TheRetroShack
Now, if only it had had a 6809 processor. :)
@@pm71241 th-cam.com/video/AhCtUpFR5J4/w-d-xo.html
You're welcome :) :)
Great video and has helped me trouble shoot issues I was having. Who supplies the ROM expansion card, can’t find that version on eBay. Thanks
I remember having a non battery backed Sideways RAM bank installed on my Beeb back in the day.
It was a bit clunky and came with the machine when I bought it 2nd hand and did weird things with the user port which caused issues with my mouse & paint package.
This one seems to be playing nicely so far :) Thanks for sharing!
@@TheRetroShack think it was this one telcontar.net/About/Beeb/evil-hack/Both-expansion-boards.jpg Solidisk, had leads which you had to attach to various points on the board and chip legs, which never seemed to stay attached for long.
Amazing how many systems used that processor designed by Commodore's processor division.
Yep - amazing little chip really :)
15:58 now you're talking BEST 8-BIT GAME EVER! best wishes and take care
I'm thinking of doing an entire episode on this game - it's an amazing achievement to cram this amount of game into the tiny memory footprints these machines had! :) Thanks for watching!
@@TheRetroShack have you seen oolite? Elite with everything you wanted!
@@jimmyviaductophilelawley5587 I hadn't - but I have now!!! Already downloading :). Thank you SO much!
@@TheRetroShack prepare tissues and some time ENJOY!
When I was at school in the 80's six bbc bs had dfs but one had disk doctor chip and we all wanted to get on that one. ...had more bells and whistles?
Well, it's colloquially known as 'The Ultimate' rom but I've not used it personally - I'll download it and slip into one of the sideways slots and take a look :)
is it me or is this filmed at a higher resolution too.. looks crystal clear here.. maybe its cos I've cleaned my screen.. lol great video as usual. i only vaguely remember using the BBC in primary school. I must have been 9. i remember the sound of the keys more than anything.
Thanks :) It is a rather distinctive sound - I love it :) Video’s have been 4K tor a while - maybe the better audio makes the picture look better too? :) :)
That SRAM board - can you get those for the Master?
Great series - and great chanel too! Do you plan to put a VideoNuLA in your beeb?
Well I am *now* ! :) :) Thanks for being that to my attention :) :)
@@TheRetroShack Heh, no worries. :) I've given your channel a plug over on the StarDot forums, so hopefully you'll get at few more subs :)
@@TheRetroShack Another vote for the VideoNULA. It's a really good upgrade. Recommended.
Pin 14 of the right most rom (basic) is out of the socket.
Timestamp? Must be an optical illusion as it's working fine :) I'll open her up later to check :)
@@TheRetroShack 7:39
@@ucmetoo1 Ah, I see. That's not the basic rom, that was the SPI rom and the leg was slightly bent. I removed it anyway and instead I'm using an MMFS rom loaded into a sideways rom bank. Good spot though :) Eagle Eyes!
@@TheRetroShack 😁
The OS ROM isn't a "sideways" ROM - it was mapped into a separate space ($C000 - $FFFF, excluding the three IO pages) from the sideways memory banks ($8000 - $BFFF). It *has* to sit in the left-most socket.
Thanks for clarifying that - I’ll try to remember to add that as an errata in the next video.
Are those ROM's easy to get hold of or are the scarce? A FORTH rom would be nice.........
With the sideways ROM/RAM installed, it’s simply a matter of downloading the ROM file and installing it to a virtual ROM socket :) And yes, FORTH is definitely available :)
Great video. However it is making it clear to me that I'm gonna have a lot of cash standing between me and making my BBC Master as good as it can be ...
Also it's Jerry Rigged FYI :)
Thanks - and good luck with the Master - I've got one on the way so will be doing a feature on them at some point :)
The eBay search doesn't find anything like the sideways RAM module that you fitted. Are there any other sources that you know of?
You should check out www.retroclinic.com :)
As of 2023, I can't find this board anywhere :-( Any thoughts/ideas? :-)
I have just inherited a BBC micro B from my uncle.
Hope this isn’t a stupid question but does the Beeb have an internal clock? And if not is there a way I can install one as I’d like to write a programme that requires one.
As standard, no. But if you add a sideways ROM/RAM module like I did, you get one then :)
@@TheRetroShack brilliant, thanks!
I will look into a sideways RAM.
Very interesting content here... I should probably subscribe to you, hope it's okay. ☺
Welcome aboard!
@@TheRetroShack Thank you very much!
I hate those kind of "chip pullers". I've damaged so many chips using them when one side gives way before the other.
Ouch! Not good :( I just go really slowly and gently and they seem to work ok. Bigger chips get the massive flat blade screwdriver :)
Has anyone built a homebrew Version of the BBC B or Master....As all the components are still available ?.
Still available:
CPU W65C02 (up to 20MHz) (DIP or PLCC)
RAM SRAMs like UM61256-15 IS61C1024 -15.... 15ns
ROM W27C512 etc 45ns DIP/PLCC
6845/6545 /HD63C45CP/HD6445 DIP/PLCC
SN76489 DIP16
FDC Still available WD1773 ??
Teletext Chip is still available
And practically all the other chips can still be sourced ??
Would be great to buy an updated (Faster / Better ) Acorn BBC B/Master .
Another interesting concept! Lots of great ideas coming out here. This one sounds quite achievable to be honest :)
your videos have a serious problem: they are too short.. : )
I’ll have to work on that :) Thanks for watching :)
Just a little advice... You def need to name your (awesome!) videos more consistent. It is extremely difficult to follow your various computer "episodes and series" without any numbering and without any consistent naming. (Why call this episode something like "Acorn" and "Oak" when it is truly part 3(?) of your BBC Micro refurbish? Doesn't make any sense...) Well in a poetic way it does, but we are talking retro tech here! ;)
Just have a look at "RMC - The cave" how to make it perfect.
Thanks for the heads up - I'll have a dig through and see what I can do :)
Econet video please
I’ll see what I can do :)
Or a massive arm
Indeed!