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Pimp My BBC Micro
- b800h 4y agoThis is a lovely project, given that the original Beeb wasn't "damaged" per se. I have a few Beeb mainboards with unrecoverable cases, and this sort of thing might be a very good destination for one.
- 6stringmerc 4y agoHow clever! Getting the introduction section really helped. Glad to check it out, highly recommended!
- TwoNineA 4y agoOh, I knew I recognized that name somewhere. Thank you for the duckyPad, it's awesome.
- 3stripe 4y agoAre there any safety considerations with regards to having the power supply and other innards exposed?
- Bayart 4y agoHaving the PSU case exposed is electrically identical to having a pc case exposed. Having it opened on the other hand is a danger. PSU capacitors are known to be large enough to kill.
- ZiiS 4y agoThe ATX PSU (labeled CX650F here) converts wall power to a maximum of 12v DC. It's metal case is earthed so short of sticking pointy metal bits though the fan grills it is safe to touch. The rest of the system only sees the 12v DC or less which remains completely safe to touch. The PSU can not (and will not due to fuses) supply enough current to risk fire (like a 12v car battery).
- tambourine_man 4y agoGreat project. Caught a typo: > beating even the original IMB PC!
- jagged-chisel 4y ago> Nobody ever got fired for choosing IMB
- tambourine_man 4y agoIMDb
- ectopod 4y agoAlso > low and behold
- DraughtyGap 4y agoVery cool. Reminds me of mikeselectricstuff monster beeb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-sGpTpkxE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-sGpTpkxE
- soneil 4y ago> It's amazing how quickly a simple idea can get out of hand No kidding!
- Malic 4y agoThat statement is somewhat analogous to what is said about software development (in the tone of JFK's "moonshot" voice), "...we do things things not because they are easy but because we thought they would be easy..." :)
- BirAdam 4y agoCoolest part, imho, is the ATX4VC. I rather like to keep my vintage computers as close to original as possible, but the PSU change is super handy!
- outworlder 4y agoGood thing is, those changes are _generally_ reversible. In some computers you might have to cut board traces though.
- pvitz 4y agoReally great project! What I didn't understand was why there is a need for a 7905 to convert -12V to -5V. It looks like that pin 20 should be providing the -5V already?
- dekuNukem 4y ago-5V has became optional in recent ATX specifications, and many newer PSUs don’t have it at all. (including the one I used here) -12V is still mandated and on all ATX PSUs, so it’s more compatible to get -5V out of that.
- rzzzt 4y agoBackplanes of industrial PCs occasionally also have a spot for adding a -5V voltage regulator for the same reason.
- HarHarVeryFunny 4y agoVery nice! Great way to make a Beeb more practical to use as well as give it some drip! Now, if you could add USB storage and an HDMI adapter ...
- richm44 4y agoYou're looking for these: https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI - HDMI adaptor - works nicely with the beeb https://www.gotekemulator.com/ https://www.gotekemulator.com/ - Floppy emulator that lets it use USB storage There are similar addons that can use things like the 1 MHZ bus via SD cards too.
- HarHarVeryFunny 4y agoThanks... very tempting!
- jebronie 4y agoWhat a submission title.
- macshome 4y agoI'm not an RGB sort of guy, but that backlit motherboard is amazing. This whole thing is a great read and an amazing labor of love.
- flir 4y agoThis is glorious.
- FujiApple 4y agoIt is hard to overstate the impact that having a BBC micro in my 1980s rural primary school had on my career, without that I'd almost certainly have had a very different path through life. My eternal gratitude to whichever executive or politician decided to fund that program.
- timthorn 4y agoThe archive of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project, of which the BBC Micro was a key part, is now online. Lots of fascinating programmes: https://clp.bbcrewind.co.uk/ https://clp.bbcrewind.co.uk/
- FujiApple 4y agoStory time: When the BBC micro arrived at my tiny rural school the elderly teacher had been given instructions for how to type in and run a simple "hello world" style program to demonstrate what this amazing machine could do. She began copy-typing in the program and then invited each of us to sit at the keyboard and add our names to what I imagine was a simple print statement. Finally, after quite some time going around the whole class one by one, the program was ready and she pressed return and .. Syntax error The machine was promptly powered off and put back in the box. It would be a few years before it reemerged and, thankfully, captured my interest.
- sshagent 4y agoMost my friends had Spectrums, i was looking forward to gaming when Santa would surely bring me one too. Alas i got an Acorn Electron. Turns out, having the different system that my extended friend group meant i spent time messing about with coding than gaming. So whilst 'young james' was probably unreasonably unhappy with that Christmas, i think in hindsight it was amazing :)
- harry-wood 4y agoSimilar. That Christmas when my dad & I started working through the BBC BASIC manual, I thought that this was the exciting experience of owning a computer which my friends were all on about (and I was excited by it!) ...It was only some time later I learned about loading pre-written programs (games) on it.
- saghul 4y agoThis is incredible. Not only the final result is breathtaking, but the intermediate projects you created to support it are awesome too! The duckyPad looks very nice too!
- Grazester 4y ago"BBC Micro motherboard requires two voltages: +5V and -5V. The former powers all the chips, and the latter only for sound and serial communication. Fortunately, 5V is readily available on a ATX PSU, and -5V can be derived from -12V with a simple 7905 linear regulator" The power ATX power supply also supplied -5 volts. Why did they need to use a linear regulator to on the -12v line derive -5v? Edit:// my question was previously asked an answered.
- adrian_b 4y agoSince 2003 (ATX12V version 1.3), the -5 V rail has become optional. Most recent power supplies no longer provide it.
- JaDogg 4y agoVery good project. duckyPad looks good as well. guiltily look at few raspberry pi I have lying around
- reaperducer 4y agoIn 1990 I did something similar with a Commodore 64. Mine wasn't as slick and well done as this one, but it had a C-64, two floppy drives, internal modem, RAM expansion, and three cartridge ports selectable via push button, in a case intended for an IBM clone. I was never able to find a good case for the keyboard, so I ended up putting it in a cardboard cookie box until I could find something better. After that experience, I got into the world of build-your-own IBM clones, and I don't remember what ever happened to the 64. Kinda sad.
- Phelinofist 4y agoWhy does it have a 650W PSU? I would assume the components are quite light on the power consumption. To be clear: that is an amazing project and I don't want to take anything away from it, just wondering.
- tenebrisalietum 4y agoIs it a fair heuristic that higher wattage PSUs are higher quality? Also since the desktop market is pretty much servicing mostly gamers at this point, can you even get a ATX PSU under 500W anymore?
- TheRealPomax 4y agoLooks at his pile of spare PSUs I'd probably have stuck an 800W in there just because that's what's sitting unused in the cupboard =D
- madengr 4y agoGlass PC cases; so much for EMI compliance. The old computers had metalized plastic cases for a reason.
- TheRealPomax 4y agoHilarious as the submission title is, it should be updated to match the article's title, which is "Pimp My Beeb" =)
- Arathorn 4y agoawww - https://github.com/dekuNukem/RGBeeb/raw/master/photos/torch.jpeg https://github.com/dekuNukem/RGBeeb/raw/master/photos/torch.... was my second ever computer. never thought i'd see one on HN; i miss the yellow-on-blue wonders of CPM :(
- outworlder 4y ago> It might be relatively unknown outside UK They are well known to anyone that was interested in Elite. BBC Micro has the best Elite version, after all :) That said, that ATX4VC thing looks fantastic. I have recently restored a MSX computer back to life, but I think the power supply is unstable and crapping up when the machine warms up. It also contributes significant noise. Maybe it's time to replace with a modern PSU instead of spending time trying to fix the wimpy transformer-based PSU. EDIT: I realize that cheap devices like this already existed. But this one seems to be much more complete (and trustworthy!). It's too bad that many printers use 24V rather than 12, otherwise this would be helpful for those scenarios too.
- harry-wood 4y agoStrong nostalgia whenever I see the BBC Elite opening screen! These days we can re-live it easily in the browser: https://bbc.godbolt.org/?autoboot&disc=sth%3AAcornsoft%2FElite.zip# https://bbc.godbolt.org/?autoboot&disc=sth%3AAcornsoft%2FEli... Although I can also recommend "oolite": http://www.oolite.org/ http://www.oolite.org/ which is an open source modernised elite with game play kept quite faithful to the original (I'm currently hooked on this and wasting more my life trying to get that "Elite" rating all over again)
- hkgjjgjfjfjfjf 4y ago
- watmough 4y agoNot sure I like that knock-off copy of WordWise. The original company Computer Concepts, now renamed Xara GMBH are amazingly still around! Wonder if they did a 40 years in business celebration?
- hinkley 4y agoI wonder if those floppies are a standard connector that would accept an upgrade to more compact designs.
- gorgoiler 4y agoMy teachers at University were involved in the project. If you were one of that influential cohort who developed this machine, you were rewarded with your initials being included on the silicon die. Pretty rad. A major piece of Beeb history was also the manual. Without a doubt the most important book of my childhood.
- rbanffy 4y agoAfter playing with a C64 Maxi replica (mine has the VIC-20 colors) I can't think of using a vintage computer without a matching keyboard (and often mouse). The experience is not only the pixels on the screen and the sounds of the speaker, but the whole spatial relationship with the physical object. It probably doesn't need to be an almost perfect replica like the 64 Maxi, but having the keys in the same places (even if there is no ESC key - looking at you, DEC LK-201). On my desk, my two daily drivers are a Sun Type 7c (Type 7 is in storage, waiting for its rotation) and an IBM/Lexmark/Unicomp PC-122 Model M, and I can say each of them provides a unique experience, tactile, spatial, and, on the Model M's case, auditory. I'm thinking about learning how to build keyboards and make a couple DIY ones. Switches can't be the same, but, at least, physical layout, keycap shapes, labels, and colors can be matched.
- jamiek88 4y agoThis thread and memories made me tear up. BBC micro and econet were amazingly hackable and still have fond memories. Bruteus you in this thread? It’s Apollo here! (Bruteus and Apollo fucking owned our econet. Until we got suspended and banned of course. Hard to emphasize how scared of computers and our superior ability with them our teachers were).
- mrlonglong 4y agoI had an amstrad PC1512 with a 32MB hard card. This was awesome for college and uni as everyone used x86 machines.