Whats out there? - Page 2 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

RobinBirch · 3rd Feb 2004, 12:16 am

They are only little things honest. At one stage I had a uVAX2 with a couple of RA82s and an RA60 all in a rack in my upstairs bedroom, now that did take some hiding

10th Feb 2004, 11:30 pm

Heres my list

Acorn Electron (1983) little sister of BBC micro.
3 ibm ps2's (working)
Compaq Deskpro 286 with 20mb hard drive.(working now after the original graphics card went pop and blew smoke out)
1980 ibm pc with dual floppys or a swappable 20mb hard drive runnings dos 5.0 i think.

i also have a few amstrad and commodore computers knocking about plus 2 acorns.

i like my old computers but im also into my modern ones too like this one im on now just blown £1000 on it

hotbulb · 18th Mar 2004, 4:29 pm

Up in the loft I have some circuit boards (packages) and a HUGE disc from the Atlas computer, for which my Father was one of the engineers. This disc is made of light alloy, with a shiny brown coating, and is about 4 feet in diameter. One day I intend to make it into a coffee table!

SteveMorton · 10th Oct 2007, 11:04 pm

Still got an Acorn Atom somewhere up in the loft.... built from a kit, supplied by a small shop in Bedford. Key bounce was the worse part of these machines...

Steve

dave walsh · 11th Oct 2007, 3:16 pm

Despite being a computer duff I've a few old items the most interesting of which is a Rainbow 100. State of the Art in 1982, it has a seperate 9" monitor but the machine itself looks exactly like an electric oil filled radiator so no one ever guesses what it actually is! The 5" floppies go in through a secret door in the side. This design did not catch on.

I wouldn't have bothered to post about this except that today's technology guardian [sorry can't do a link] has a piece about Sellam Israel and his obsession with obsolescent computer gear which he has turned into a Data Transfer and Recovery business based in the giant warehouse that holds his collection in [of course] Silicon Valley! Possible career opportunity for one or more Forum users methinks? Dave

jim_beacon · 11th Oct 2007, 7:19 pm

Sellam is very knowledgable, and often to be found lurking on the vintage_computers list.

Jim.

Ray Cooper · 11th Oct 2007, 7:28 pm

Gosh, this takes me back...

My first home machine was a NewBear 77-68, home constructed: you bought the PCBs from NewBear and populated them with your own components, most of which I already had. For those of you who've never heard of this machine, there's a writeup here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbear_77/68

which describes the basic setup, which was very limited. However, what it doesn't say is that the system was extremely expandable. My final machine ended up with 64K of dynamic memory, VDU driver card (64characters wide - no graphics!), an EPROM board, and an almost totally hand-wired soft-sectored controller card driving an 8" floppy disc. Ah, those were the days.

Even the basic 6800 CPU card was later replaced with one that ran a 6809 processor - probably the nicest 8-bit processor ever marketed, though I'm sure there are those who'll disagree. The operating system was Flex - again, a very nice 8-bit OS.

In those days, we couldn't afford commercial assembler/disassembler software, so we wrote our own - of course.

Later, the shortcomings of this system became all too apparent, so I splashed out on an Acorn Archimedes, later upgraded to 4MB memory and 20MB hard drive. It was a very nice bit of tackle, and a great shame that it never really took off commercially.

These days, I run a dull PC (home assembled of course...)

stuie319 · 11th Oct 2007, 11:30 pm

The first machine I got to play with was the school's only machine...a PET 4032 in about 1980. I loved it! Even when the suite of BBC micros was installed and the 'old fashioned' cbm consigned unloved to the corner I still spent hours playing with the built in assembler ...
About 5 years ago I trolled up to carlisle to pick up an identical unit from ebay that sadly didnt work, its still here, with another ebay win..a new logic pcb - that also doesnt work

one day though

Fond memories though (32k of em)

Stu

RobinBirch · 14th Oct 2007, 3:59 pm

Well fortunately they are micro PDPs so it isn't any worse than a very large old fashioed PC. I've recently given some of them away and sold the two uVAXen as I wasn't using then so they went to a home that would

.

Got to get the working 83 that is set up with BSD 2.11 back home and working as I have had a lot of fun with that over the years.

You got those two mil radios going yet?

)

Robin

dominicbeesley · 21st Oct 2007, 1:55 am

My first machine to keep was a ZX81 - bought for my 9th birthday and Christmas present combined!

I've still got it somewhere but doubt it still works - been in very damp storage.

Otherwise:
Commodore PET*
Acorn ATOM*
Spectrum 48*
ICL One Per Desk*#
Spectrum 128
TI 99 4/A+
Electron
Tandy Model 100 + Disk Drives+
Acorn A3000
Mac Book+
Acorn Risc PC 610
Acorn Risc PC 710
Various PCs
GP2X
BBC Master 128+
Various Freecycle BBC Bs+

(* on loan only - bah!, + donated - YAY!, # I'd love one of these again - brilliant machines!)

I still use a BBC Master in my workshop when doing radio work, usually as a glorified calculator but occasionally for something more useful...I've recently upgraded it with a hard drive and ARM co-processor and am (slowly) trying to get Linux running on it!

I'm also working on building my own design, wirewrap, CP/M Z80 machine, just to keep my eye in but keep getting distracted by old tellys and radios!

Dom

brenellic2000 · 27th Oct 2007, 3:25 pm

Reading Paul Stennings' comments about CAD, I still use the Ormus PC CAD system developed down the road from him! It was one of the best British 2D CAD draughting packages of the early 1980s which we used professionally in office design and Facilities Management. I got the whole of BOC's new 2-storey, 200,000sq.ft HQ onto one 5-1/4" floppy. AutoCad, VersaCad were way OTT and gobbled up endless floppies for no particular purpose! Today's AutoCad users are gobsmacked (a technical term) at the old Ormus CAD!

Designed for a 8086, then 8088, I still run it on my 286, 486 and Pentium 1, on a single screen, but it was also capable of running on 2 screens such as an 19" Aydin monitor and PC 12" screen for data. I still use it for furniture design. with a whopping great Calcomp 2000 A3 digitising tablet!

The beauty about the 286 and 486 is that the screen is slow to refresh so errors jump out at you immediately.

As to MS Widows: pah! spit! rubbish!! I'm a DOS man and still use JetSetter DTP! I gave up with Windows 2.0, which was a very poor imitation of the original Apple-Mac and MS hasn't improved!

Any other JetSetter and Ormus users out there?

Barry

3rd Feb 2004, 12:16 am	#21
RobinBirch Hexode Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cotswolds, UK. Posts: 465	Re: Whats out there? They are only little things honest. At one stage I had a uVAX2 with a couple of RA82s and an RA60 all in a rack in my upstairs bedroom, now that did take some hiding

10th Feb 2004, 11:30 pm	#22
GEC Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Whats out there? Heres my list Acorn Electron (1983) little sister of BBC micro. 3 ibm ps2's (working) Compaq Deskpro 286 with 20mb hard drive.(working now after the original graphics card went pop and blew smoke out) 1980 ibm pc with dual floppys or a swappable 20mb hard drive runnings dos 5.0 i think. i also have a few amstrad and commodore computers knocking about plus 2 acorns. i like my old computers but im also into my modern ones too like this one im on now just blown £1000 on it

18th Mar 2004, 4:29 pm	#23
hotbulb Tetrode Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Wantage, Oxfordshire, UK. Posts: 93	Re: Whats out there? Up in the loft I have some circuit boards (packages) and a HUGE disc from the Atlas computer, for which my Father was one of the engineers. This disc is made of light alloy, with a shiny brown coating, and is about 4 feet in diameter. One day I intend to make it into a coffee table!

10th Oct 2007, 11:04 pm	#24
SteveMorton Diode Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Thouars, France Posts: 9	Re: Whats out there? Still got an Acorn Atom somewhere up in the loft.... built from a kit, supplied by a small shop in Bedford. Key bounce was the worse part of these machines... Steve

11th Oct 2007, 3:16 pm	#25
dave walsh Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex. Posts: 5,817	Re: Whats out there? Despite being a computer duff I've a few old items the most interesting of which is a Rainbow 100. State of the Art in 1982, it has a seperate 9" monitor but the machine itself looks exactly like an electric oil filled radiator so no one ever guesses what it actually is! The 5" floppies go in through a secret door in the side. This design did not catch on. I wouldn't have bothered to post about this except that today's technology guardian [sorry can't do a link] has a piece about Sellam Israel and his obsession with obsolescent computer gear which he has turned into a Data Transfer and Recovery business based in the giant warehouse that holds his collection in [of course] Silicon Valley! Possible career opportunity for one or more Forum users methinks? Dave

11th Oct 2007, 7:19 pm	#26
jim_beacon Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bishop's Waltham, Hants, UK. Posts: 939	Re: Whats out there? Sellam is very knowledgable, and often to be found lurking on the vintage_computers list. Jim.

11th Oct 2007, 7:28 pm	#27
Ray Cooper Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Porthmadog, Gwynedd, UK. Posts: 199	Re: Whats out there? Gosh, this takes me back... My first home machine was a NewBear 77-68, home constructed: you bought the PCBs from NewBear and populated them with your own components, most of which I already had. For those of you who've never heard of this machine, there's a writeup here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbear_77/68 which describes the basic setup, which was very limited. However, what it doesn't say is that the system was extremely expandable. My final machine ended up with 64K of dynamic memory, VDU driver card (64characters wide - no graphics!), an EPROM board, and an almost totally hand-wired soft-sectored controller card driving an 8" floppy disc. Ah, those were the days. Even the basic 6800 CPU card was later replaced with one that ran a 6809 processor - probably the nicest 8-bit processor ever marketed, though I'm sure there are those who'll disagree. The operating system was Flex - again, a very nice 8-bit OS. In those days, we couldn't afford commercial assembler/disassembler software, so we wrote our own - of course. Later, the shortcomings of this system became all too apparent, so I splashed out on an Acorn Archimedes, later upgraded to 4MB memory and 20MB hard drive. It was a very nice bit of tackle, and a great shame that it never really took off commercially. These days, I run a dull PC (home assembled of course...)

11th Oct 2007, 11:30 pm	#28
stuie319 Pentode Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK. Posts: 229	Re: Whats out there? The first machine I got to play with was the school's only machine...a PET 4032 in about 1980. I loved it! Even when the suite of BBC micros was installed and the 'old fashioned' cbm consigned unloved to the corner I still spent hours playing with the built in assembler ... About 5 years ago I trolled up to carlisle to pick up an identical unit from ebay that sadly didnt work, its still here, with another ebay win..a new logic pcb - that also doesnt work one day though Fond memories though (32k of em) Stu

14th Oct 2007, 3:59 pm	#29
RobinBirch Hexode Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cotswolds, UK. Posts: 465	Re: Whats out there? Well fortunately they are micro PDPs so it isn't any worse than a very large old fashioed PC. I've recently given some of them away and sold the two uVAXen as I wasn't using then so they went to a home that would . Got to get the working 83 that is set up with BSD 2.11 back home and working as I have had a lot of fun with that over the years. You got those two mil radios going yet? ) Robin

21st Oct 2007, 1:55 am	#30
dominicbeesley Octode Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK. Posts: 1,885	Re: Whats out there? My first machine to keep was a ZX81 - bought for my 9th birthday and Christmas present combined! I've still got it somewhere but doubt it still works - been in very damp storage. Otherwise: Commodore PET* Acorn ATOM* Spectrum 48* ICL One Per Desk# Spectrum 128 TI 99 4/A+ Electron Tandy Model 100 + Disk Drives+ Acorn A3000 Mac Book+ Acorn Risc PC 610 Acorn Risc PC 710 Various PCs GP2X BBC Master 128+ Various Freecycle BBC Bs+ ( on loan only - bah!, + donated - YAY!, # I'd love one of these again - brilliant machines!) I still use a BBC Master in my workshop when doing radio work, usually as a glorified calculator but occasionally for something more useful...I've recently upgraded it with a hard drive and ARM co-processor and am (slowly) trying to get Linux running on it! I'm also working on building my own design, wirewrap, CP/M Z80 machine, just to keep my eye in but keep getting distracted by old tellys and radios! Dom

27th Oct 2007, 3:25 pm	#31
brenellic2000 Octode Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Rye, East Sussex, UK. Posts: 1,647	Re: Whats out there? Reading Paul Stennings' comments about CAD, I still use the Ormus PC CAD system developed down the road from him! It was one of the best British 2D CAD draughting packages of the early 1980s which we used professionally in office design and Facilities Management. I got the whole of BOC's new 2-storey, 200,000sq.ft HQ onto one 5-1/4" floppy. AutoCad, VersaCad were way OTT and gobbled up endless floppies for no particular purpose! Today's AutoCad users are gobsmacked (a technical term) at the old Ormus CAD! Designed for a 8086, then 8088, I still run it on my 286, 486 and Pentium 1, on a single screen, but it was also capable of running on 2 screens such as an 19" Aydin monitor and PC 12" screen for data. I still use it for furniture design. with a whopping great Calcomp 2000 A3 digitising tablet! The beauty about the 286 and 486 is that the screen is slow to refresh so errors jump out at you immediately. As to MS Widows: pah! spit! rubbish!! I'm a DOS man and still use JetSetter DTP! I gave up with Windows 2.0, which was a very poor imitation of the original Apple-Mac and MS hasn't improved! Any other JetSetter and Ormus users out there? Barry