22 Apr
2002
22 Apr
'02
12:05 a.m.
It has been my mission for some time to bring a BBC Micro back from
England. I would need some way to adapt British plugs to US sockets
and convert the voltage, and I would also need a PAL monitor. (No, I
don't want black-and-white NTSC. Yes, I could bring a montior back from
England along with the computer. I'm not sure if I want to do that.)
Does anyone have experience with these things? I am hoping to save
money ($500 would be above the top of my price range) but I don't want
to fry anything either.
Oh yes, and if anyone has an extra Beeb hanging around that would be
nice too.
-- Derek
22 Apr
22 Apr
9:27 a.m.
You could buy a 110-220 step-up transformer, and that usually has the
european two prong plug built in. I myself would see if the power
supply has a split primary for the mains power; then rewire/flip the
switch for 110 operation and just use a US style power cord.
Monitor: If it is an RGB with seperate outputs, the NTSC/PAL question
is moot. I know that US RGB monitors for the Amiga will sync to PAL
rates (625 lines, 50Hz) with no problems. The conflict arises only when
the video is composite, as the color information is encoded
differently. I have seen small converters for sale, that change PAL
video to NTSC and vice versa. I've never seen how good/bad they work,
but that is a viable alternative, if your only output is composite
video.
Gary Hildebrand
St. Joseph, MO
Derek Peschel wrote:
It has been my mission for some time to bring a BBC Micro back from
England. I would need some way to adapt British plugs to US sockets
and convert the voltage, and I would also need a PAL monitor. (No, I
don't want black-and-white NTSC. Yes, I could bring a montior back from
England along with the computer. I'm not sure if I want to do that.)
Does anyone have experience with these things? I am hoping to save
money ($500 would be above the top of my price range) but I don't want
to fry anything either.
Oh yes, and if anyone has an extra Beeb hanging around that would be
nice too.
-- Derek
6:57 p.m.
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7:26 p.m.
On Tue, Apr 23, 2002 at 12:57:32AM +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
I was hoping for a Master (after I found out that most Model B games
run on it, I decided there were few disadvantages). A second processor
would be nice but I understand those are harder to find even in the UK.
It has been my
mission for some time to bring a BBC Micro back from
Darn good idea. IMHO the BBC micro is one of the best designed 8 bit
machines out there. There are serveral models, though...
I'd avoid the Model A (== Model B with chips missing). So many of the
'standard features' -- like the user port, ADC, and even 16K of the
memory -- are not fited. If you go for a Model B (32K RAM) (which is probably
the easiest to find),
try to get one with the disk interface chips fitted. The 8271 disk
controller is almost impossible to get now, as are the kludgeboards
containing a 1770 that some disk upgrades used.
Aren't disk systems with the 1771 (or maybe 1793) still easy to find?
And IIRC the Master usually has a 3.5" drive -- what controller chip
runs that?
There's also Econet but with one machine that's kind of pointless.
There's also the B+ (64K RAM) and various versions
of the Master series.
Be warned that on these large sections of the logic are put into custom
ULA chips (mind you, the Model A and B have 2 ULAs for serial and video).
"on these" = the B+ and Master? So which is the latest machine with
the smallest amount of custom logic?
Alternatively, you could use a step-up transformer (or
even an
autotransformer) and not modify the PSU at all. Some SMPSUs (and I think
the BBC one is likely to be amongst them) will run happily on 300V _DC_
input. You could use a couple of diodes and capacitors (say raided from
an old PC power supply) to voltage-double your mains. But I guess if you
knew how and why to do that, and how to check if the PSU could handle it,
you'd not be asking about this :-)
I need to reread the thread to make sure I understand all the details.
Didn't I read that SMPSUs will generate their own 50Hz frequency? I don't
want to change the timing of the machine because then all the good games
probably wouldn't run.
RGB. This is a 6 pin DIN socket carrying TTL-level
R,G,B and composite
sync. Realistically this is the one you should be using. If you've got an
RGB monitor that can handle UK TV rates, then there _will_ be a way to
hook it up.
I had forgotten (when I posted my original message) that RGB output was
available. So yes, that sounds like the easiest way.
But it's probably simpler to find a monitor in the
States that can handle
UK rates (15625Hz horzontal, 50Hz vertical) with RGB inputs.
And that is what I was thinking. If the number of scan lines comes out
the same and all the colors come through (which they should) then there's
no need to ship a monitor back from England or run it on 240V.
$500 for what? A BBC micro would be a lot less than
that. So would a
monitor (at least over here where every TV set can be used as an RGB
monitor!). A step-up transformr of suitable power would be perhaps $50
(but you don't need that if you can convert the PSU).
I was thinking $500 for a PAL composite monitor. Using RGB avoids that
expensive trap.
-- Derek
9:12 p.m.
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