6 Sep
2004
6 Sep
'04
2:11 a.m.
Has anyone ever seen (or heard of) an RML380Z with Econet network
support (rather than the usual coaxial that RML used for its CHAIN
network)?
I picked up an SJ Research MDFS Econet fileserver the other day which
I'll have running at the museum. However, the docs at one point (and one
point only, it seems so far) mention RML380Z fileservers and 380Z
machines with Econet. (I've got an RML380Z fileserver, but naturally it
has a CHAIN network board and not Econet!)
As I collect Torch, Acorn and RML stuff (and Torchnet is at least
electrically compatible with Acorn's Econet) it's of particular interest
as it implies one day I might be able to connect machines from all three
manufacturers.
I've never seen mention of Econet support in any of RML's documentation
though, so have a feeling it was maybe a product that never saw the
light of day...
cheers
Jules
6 Sep
6 Sep
4:13 a.m.
On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 11:11:05 +0000, Jules Richardson
<julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Has anyone ever seen (or heard of) an RML380Z with Econet network
support (rather than the usual coaxial that RML used for its CHAIN
network)?
I picked up an SJ Research MDFS Econet fileserver the other day which
I'll have running at the museum. However, the docs at one point (and one
point only, it seems so far) mention RML380Z fileservers and 380Z
machines with Econet. (I've got an RML380Z fileserver, but naturally it
has a CHAIN network board and not Econet!)
As I collect Torch, Acorn and RML stuff (and Torchnet is at least
electrically compatible with Acorn's Econet) it's of particular interest
as it implies one day I might be able to connect machines from all three
manufacturers.
I've never seen mention of Econet support in any of RML's documentation
though, so have a feeling it was maybe a product that never saw the
light of day...
cheers
Jules
Turned this up on google :
MACE system
REGARDING Mr Taurin's letter (Micromail, October 1983) concerning the
use of 380Z disc drives in a network of BBC Micros, MACE
(Microelectronics and Computers in Education) have a network which
will allow up to seven BBC Micros to use a 380Z as a file server and
as a printer.
I have used this sytem for some time and find it an excellent one and
quite reasonably priced.
Apart from this single, and may I say uncharacteristic, error, I have
found your magazine to be the best on the market.
Indeed the articles on Body Building are especially useful and other
periodicals are particularly weak in this area. - J.A.McBride,
Deramore School, Belfast.
That's it i'm afraid.
Dan
11:05 a.m.
On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 14:13 +0100, Dan Williams wrote:
Turned this up on google :
MACE system
REGARDING Mr Taurin's letter (Micromail, October 1983) concerning the
use of 380Z disc drives in a network of BBC Micros, MACE
(Microelectronics and Computers in Education) have a network which
will allow up to seven BBC Micros to use a 380Z as a file server and
as a printer.
Ta for finding that. I contacted someone else who has an MDFS Econet
fileserver, and interestingly they have two releases of the
documentation. The 1987 version is like mine, and mentions RML380Z
machines with Econet. By the 1992 release, the relevant section has been
rewritten and the references removed. (Of course by 1992 RML were
presumably offering Nimbus machines and the 380Z/480Z line was dead)
I wonder if Econet for the 380Z was vapourware? I'm not sure when RML
first released their CHAIN network (and thus the proprietary thin-wire
network boards for the 380Z). Makes me wonder if there was a point in
history when RML were considering using Econet - somewhere around 1987 -
and instead built their own proprietary network...
Info that's lost in the mists of time I suppose! :-/
cheers,
Jules
11:32 a.m.
On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 20:05:46 +0000, Jules Richardson
<julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 14:13 +0100, Dan Williams
wrote:
I read that as a third party board which was available and worked
well. It came from here (I should of put that in the first post)
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/themicrouser/micromail/01-11.htm
Maybe you could speak to them and see if they remember, it was 10
years ago though.
Dan
Dan
Turned this up on google :
MACE system
REGARDING Mr Taurin's letter (Micromail, October 1983) concerning the
use of 380Z disc drives in a network of BBC Micros, MACE
(Microelectronics and Computers in Education) have a network which
will allow up to seven BBC Micros to use a 380Z as a file server and
as a printer.
Ta for finding that. I contacted someone else who has an MDFS Econet
fileserver, and interestingly they have two releases of the
documentation. The 1987 version is like mine, and mentions RML380Z
machines with Econet. By the 1992 release, the relevant section has been
rewritten and the references removed. (Of course by 1992 RML were
presumably offering Nimbus machines and the 380Z/480Z line was dead)
I wonder if Econet for the 380Z was vapourware? I'm not sure when RML
first released their CHAIN network (and thus the proprietary thin-wire
network boards for the 380Z). Makes me wonder if there was a point in
history when RML were considering using Econet - somewhere around 1987 -
and instead built their own proprietary network...
Info that's lost in the mists of time I suppose! :-/
cheers,
Jules
1:24 p.m.
you could try asking on the BBC mailing list.(if you aint already on it :D)
the link for it is here
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/bbc/netresource.php3
i'm sure some1 on there would know.
regards
charles
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 12:11 PM
Subject: Econet for an RML380Z?
Has anyone ever seen (or heard of) an RML380Z with Econet network
support (rather than the usual coaxial that RML used for its CHAIN
network)?
I picked up an SJ Research MDFS Econet fileserver the other day which
I'll have running at the museum. However, the docs at one point (and one
point only, it seems so far) mention RML380Z fileservers and 380Z
machines with Econet. (I've got an RML380Z fileserver, but naturally it
has a CHAIN network board and not Econet!)
As I collect Torch, Acorn and RML stuff (and Torchnet is at least
electrically compatible with Acorn's Econet) it's of particular interest
as it implies one day I might be able to connect machines from all three
manufacturers.
I've never seen mention of Econet support in any of RML's documentation
though, so have a feeling it was maybe a product that never saw the
light of day...
cheers
Jules
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8 Sep
8 Sep
5:58 a.m.
I've just got a 380z chain network server. Without keyboard alas. The
tv and monitor cables are not connected to anything. There is a cable
but I can't see where it goes. Dp you have one of these you can have a
look for me. I think someone might of taken out one of the boards. But
any way whilst searching for info on this found :
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=32673…
Which says :
Yep. We had 4 bbc model A's at that time, complete with those
little cream tape recorders, while the 380Z had twin floppies.
There was a small network filesystem on cassette the beebs had to
load after power-on, then they connected via rs-232 to a couple
of pins on the *parallel* port of the 380Z. I can't remember
exactly (this was 1984 and I was half the age I am now!) but I
think you could still use the 380Z normally.
Dan
8:15 a.m.
On Wed, 2004-09-08 at 15:58 +0100, Dan Williams wrote:
I've just got a 380z chain network server. Without
keyboard alas. The
tv and monitor cables are not connected to anything. There is a cable
but I can't see where it goes. Dp you have one of these you can have a
look for me. I think someone might of taken out one of the boards.
Is that the one that was on EBay a few days ago? (In which case I'm glad
it went to a recognised collector!) I'll assume for the mo that it is...
I've got a CHAIN network server identical to that EBay one, except that
mine has a Winchester disk controller in it (actually a SASI controller)
and a seperate Winchester cabinet containing a drive and a SASI-ST506
bridge board.
I contacted the EBay seller for the one that was on EBay the other day,
and he swore that it never had a fixed disk, so you're stuck with the
capacity of the 380Z's floppies for shared storage I'm afraid!
As for keyboard and monitor, it doesn't use one. My system's the same
regarding the disconnected video cables inside. All the network code's
in ROM on the server; enough to allow clients to connect assuming that
you have a bootable disk in the floppy drive anyway.
For maintenance mode, what you do is as follows (from the Network
Release 2.0 Design and Istallation Manual):
Hook a regular 480Z (possibly 380Z, but the docs I've seen only mention
480Z stations) up via the serial line to SIO-4 on the back of the 380Z
server. Turn on the server and the 480Z, then hit T on the 480Z to drop
into terminal mode. (I can't see a reason why this can't be any old
terminal)
At this point, insert the network maintenance disk into the 380Z's drive
A (left hand or top drive, depending on drive orientation). Go on,
suprise me and tell me you got one of those! :-)
Hit reset on the fileserver, and it should boot from the maintenance
disk and give you a command prompt in the 480Z's terminal emulator.
Now, originally the fileserver came with three floppies - the network
server disk, working server disk, and network maintenance disk. The
working server disk is used for a running network and gives you mail,
BASIC, printer sharing, display network status etc. - with the network
server disk essentially being a master copy of this.
The maintenance disk contains utilities to format a floppy, set file
flags, delete files, reset the server etc.
The critical file on all three disks is MPM.SYS; that's the server OS
and I think your system's something of a boat anchor if you don't have
it :-(
We need to give Paul Williams a prod as I believe he has a copy of the
three floppies needed (at least for a floppy-based server; I'm still out
of luck with the hard disk side of things) - we coupld probably both do
with copies of those :-)
hope that helps a little anyway. At some point I'll make an effort to
scan the manuals I've got and that Paul doesn't have.
Which says :
Yep. We had 4 bbc model A's at that time, complete with those
little cream tape recorders, while the 380Z had twin floppies.
There was a small network filesystem on cassette the beebs had to
load after power-on, then they connected via rs-232 to a couple
of pins on the *parallel* port of the 380Z. I can't remember
exactly (this was 1984 and I was half the age I am now!) but I
think you could still use the 380Z normally.
Ta for that - that actually further seems to imply that the Econet board
for the 380Z may well have been vapourware!
cheers,
Jules
7252
days inactive
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6 comments
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participants (3)
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charlesb＠otcgaming.net -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
williams.dan＠gmail.com