21 Aug
2006
21 Aug
'06
2:51 p.m.
On 21/8/06 20:29, "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
Tony Duell wrote:
The MK14 wasn't *really* a Sinclair product anyway, it was only sold under
the Science of Cambridge banner and wasn't touched by Uncle Clive's fingers.
Wasn't it also a clone of the Nat Semi SC/MP demo board aka SCAMP?
I bought an MK14 back when it was current. That
put me off Sinclair for
life...
Out of interest, what was so bad about them that wasn't typical of that class
of machine around that time? Admittedly without having been involved at the
time, it seems with hindsight that there were an awful lot of similar machines
around that sort of era with odd design quirks, very limited power,
poor-quality PCBs etc. More common is that the regulators have been bypassed
or removed entirely and
an external supply is used. It's rare-ish to find an Atom with regulators and
heatsink still intact (maybe 25% are like this). Rarer still is to find an
*waves* :) Mind, the one I'm thinking of has a Bloody Great Big Switch
underneath the keyboard that switches out the regulators. If I hadn't been
blessed with a few hours with Nick Toop himself while he looked over that
machine and sorted it out I'd have toasted it.....
I must post a picture of the PSU that came with that Atom, it's nearly as
wide/deep as the machine itself and twice as thick.
--
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?