BBC Micro - Part Two: Full Refurbishment
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- Hi everyone and welcome to part two of our BBC Micro Series. In the last episode we looked into the history of the machine and just what made it special. In this episode we're doing a full refurbishment and detailing job to bring it back to factory fresh condition.
Along the way, we'll discover the infamous Ashtray and deal with some nasty surprises in the power supply.
Thanks for watching - part three (Roms! Roms! Roms!) coming soon!
BBC Scart Lead From:
www.ebay.co.uk...
Glad I found this video today. I just picked up a Model B and Torch Z80 disk drive. They both need a good dose of restoration.
The use of the fine tea-towel for the sake of your art.... that takes guts..... most impressive :)
You have no idea :) Glad you enjoyed it!
@@TheRetroShack absolutely. I'm part way through a C64 breadbin restoration and looking for those important tips. Y'know, like what kind of tea towel to use 😁
05:20 "key soup" was the best quote ⌨🍵
:)
Nice video again.
The keyboard screws should be in the other way up with the nuts on the inside.
Elite was one game I did not like.
That's interesting, and I guess makes sense - little fingers can undo a nut but may not have had easy access to a screwdriver :)
@@TheRetroShack i can confirm the keyboard nuts and bolts went the other way, i serviced and upgraded BBC,s for a company in Essex, i must of done 60+ A to B upgrades, hundreds of DFS upgrades, and a couple of hundred Econet upgrades, we use to supply schools with full networked classrooms, run the cables fitted the junction boxes etc, and the BBC's and peripherals, even had the pleasure of having a doomsday system to "play with" before it was installed at a local library, my brother still has our BBC B, complete with DFS and Speech chips, just needs some TLC as it let out magic smoke when he tested it. hoping to get it from him, when this pandemic is over. cant wait for more videos on the BBC, nostalgia is a wonderful thing.
@@martinoverthrow1857 Hope you get hold of that Beeb, and that it gives you many more years of happy memories! And yep, more Beeb stuff on the way :)
Fantastic video! Takes me back to being an 80s kid, being scared by the witch in Grannys Garden, finding a directory full of games on the school econet and playing games instead of working, one of the micros had a teletext adapter and reading the music news and being so impressed that the BBCmicro could do so much, we moved onto Archimedes after but it just didn't seem as fun
Thanks for sharing your memories :) I love to read them :)
Just watched this video - can appreciate the problem with dirt in that surface texture. I tried lots of things, but discovered that Autoglym Car Interior Shampoo lifts the dirt out with no effort. Now my go-to cleaner.
haha when i got the same games collection for the BBC on my MiSTer, the first game I played was chuckie egg followed by loading elite as well!. hahah.. great video.. looks like new.. i do love the BBC keyboard.. such a nostalgic keypress..
Kindred spirits! I've played Chuckie Egg quite a bit since and have to say I've gotten a lot better :) It's a great game!
How accurate is the beeb core for the MiSTer? Have you had any issues with it?
@@davidste60 Only issue I had was initially it didn't load Elite, but there was a core update recently and it does now.. everything in the collection seen here I've tested - works. It is worth checking out the MiSTer if you haven't got one. It's very good for all those 8/16 bit computers from the 80's. (which was the reason I got interested in it) it does have that feeling (which is hard to pin down) that you're using original hardware. I have a raspberry Pi and that feels like emulation.. the MiSTer doesn't.
@@bazza5699 Yeah I am tempted by the MiSTer. I know what you mean about the Pi. I've got a Pi3, it's tons of fun but not quite perfect. Emulation on PC is damn close though, I can't fault SNES, Megadrive, Amiga etc. And I think there are some fairly accurate Beeb emulators for PC too. I think I'll have to try a MiSTer if only to settle the issue for my own satisfaction. Thanks for the reply.
@@davidste60 I used to have a Megadrive in the early 90's, never had a SNES. Loading up Golden Axe on the Megadrive core of the MiSTer felt like I was 17 again, it played exactly as I remembered it. I haven't tried PC emulation apart from WinUAE and a spectrum emulator. I've used WinUAE to help set up hard drives for the MiSTers Minimig (amiga) core. The spectrum core is also great, gives you the option of 48k and plus 3.. but the real joy in the MiSTer I find is using machines I never had access to before, like the Archimedes, the NeoGeo or even classic Macs.
The number of arcade games available is increasing all the time, from staples like bombjack and pacman to street fighter.
The biggest positive though is the community, which sounds corny as hell.. but when you read the forums and now discord posts, everyone helps everyone else, it's so positive and the fact it's open source is incredible. I've not had this level of enthusiasm for a platform since the 80/90's..
Great vid! Cleaned up brilliantly. Just 1 thing.... I would've kept those QA stickers. Just a personal preference as it's provenence for the board. Keep giving us great content on old computers. Thank you!
As Fred, Jim and Sheila (along with Andy and Hazel on the B+) where the internal (but commonly used) names for memory ranges (normally mapped to IO), it feels like Judith should be one too ... but it isn't.
You know how much I'm hoping Judith actually contacts the channel? - Lots! :)
My beeb has a sticker with the name "Wendy" stuck inside, I always assumed Wendy was in the inspection and test department!
Great video. Would just add that when washing the top case section its very easy to damage the black keyboard surround.
Also when checking the power supply also check the -5V output.
Hi there - Yes, not sure why I didn't mention it in the video - the purple cable carries the -5v to the mainboard and I did check the voltage before refitting the cables :) I mentioned about not going too vigorously, but good point - careful of the stick on bits :) Glad you enjoyed the video :)
Amazing ! Thanks for these great videos ! Very much looking forward to ROMS ROMS ROMS and best of luck with your channel.
Hi Alex and thanks for your support! Part three had a last minute name change as there was just more to fit in :) Up later tonight ;)
Nice job, and I loved Chuckie Egg back in the day on the Electron Level 25 was the highest I could reach.
Thanks very much and thanks for watching! I’ve gotten much better since I filmed that - honestly :) :)
Hi, you can use baking soda powder to remove dust on the plastic case.
Great tip!
Ian McNaught-Davis would have been very proud to see this restored.
That’s praise indeed! Thanks for watching!
@@TheRetroShack I worked on a few of those shows at the Beeb - and Now the Chips Are Down ! ( but only made a copy for backup. )
Grear video. Gonna have to dig my BBC out!
I approve on the attention to detail on the cleanup progress. I did a similar thing with A600. If you put the extra time in you get the results you see here. Great example.
Thanks very much :) Got an A500 getting some very special treatment coming up later in the year :)
That turned out nice!
Thanks! I really do love my Beeb :) :)
Great video series. Being from the states I'm quite ignorant about this machine. Would love to own one, one day.
Thanks for watching and glad you’re enjoying the series :)
There was a USA model with speech built in, but I don't think that it sold very well.
@@trickysoft If I get one it will be from across the pond. People here want an arm and leg for one. I'm sure. So many flippers here.
6:36 This zip tie is a safety feature. The regs at the time (and still?) said that if a wire came off the switch the loose wire should not be able to reach any other metal work. The simplest way to achieve that was to zip tie all the switch wires together.
Thanks - great piece of info!
Did you ever play Pentominoes or Kidtoms ? They so nearly got sold in Smiths, but two weeks before they hit the shelves, WH Smiths was bought by Robert Maxwell. So close ...
Nope! Will have to look those up - thanks! :)
A very interesting machine. Well done of the refurb!
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for watching :)
Very satisfying to watch this refurb, and what a fine looking machine at the end! I'm so glad there are people like yourself with the skills to do this - I bought a refurbished Beeb recently and am quite sure I wouldn't have the skill or confidence to do what you've done here! Well, I could probably manage the scrubbing, but that's my limit 😆
Thanks very much - glad you enjoyed it! :)
Superb video on the BBC Micro and a fine example you’ve found there. Definitely my favourite computer and the best version of Chuckie Egg on this machine. Aren’t you going to replace the dodgy old mains plug? Those old uns without insulated pins give me the fear 😉
Well I hadn’t even thought of that! And now I have the fears too - guess that’s a job for this week :)
if you want to make it less faded and back o the original colour you use hydrogen peroxide and a uv light box, soak for a while and dry to find a nice clean and original coloured machine case
Yep, it’s called ‘Retrobrite-img’ and I’ve done it a few times on different machines in the past - to varying degrees of success :) This Beeb didn’t need it as there was no difference in colour from the inside of the case to the outside - so no evidence of discolouration due to the nasty old sun :)
I used my wife’s “Emma bridge water magic tea tower” once. It removed the dirt from my c64 but is now blood stained.....you win some you lose some
We play a dangerous game, don't we? :)
Chuckie Egg was good, but there was a separate program you could buy which modified the code to give you super human jumps and speed. I think it was by a company called Bit Twiddlers. Chuckie egg was awesome with this patch.
I'll have to look that up! Thanks for that :)
The BBC micro was a very solid built computer (and hence expensive), well the Apple II was likewise an expensive 8-bit computer and yet did well in the commercial market. Probably early on VisiCalc had a lot to do with that - but one should not dismiss the factor of the Cult of Apple effect that the two Steves gave rise to. Maybe the BBC micro and Acorn should have more deliberately pushed its backstory and the personalities involved to mythological grandeur - as marketing and promotion.
You may be right there. In the UK at the time, Clive Sinclair was the British Steve Jobs - A great marketeer and a real celebrity. :)
that looked a pretty mint beeb if a little grubby, but its internals and powersupply looked pristine.
Yep - it's sitting here on my desk (writing the next episode on it..) and I keep thinking how 'new' it looks :)
@@TheRetroShack used them in school and they were really the benchmark. But Zx81 and Spectrums were more affordable. I loved the BASIC.
@@TheSudsy Having procedures on the Beeb at school meant going back to goto/gosub on my Spectrum at home was painful. Especially as there was no renumber function in ZX Basic :(
Great video, thanks! May I ask what monitor you are using? The graphics look superb on it.
Thanks! The monitor is actually just an older LCD TV :). Polaroid 28" P28RN0117E. I use it because it has RGB/Composite/RF/SCART inputs and seems to run display everything I throw at it :)
Thank you very much for your work at the BBC.
I am looking forward to seeing new videos about it.
You already have another subscriber.
Greetings.
Thank you so much for watching and subscribing - you're going to love the video this coming weekend ;)
I purchased a Beeb on eBay some years ago and I’d like to use these two videos to fully refurbish it. I’m not over confident with soldering, I’ve done some (successfully, more through luck than judgement) so I think I’ll send the psu off for recapping. Thanks for a great video!
Thanks for watching and hope the refurb goes well.
Great vid, but you should have replaced that mains plug though with sleeved live and neutral pins.
Can I make a case that I was staying true to the original? ;) Ok, I guess not! Safety first - I’ll do that very thing :)
superb restoration.....got some nostalgia looking at that list of games
funny how the bbc's dont seem to yellow like other tech of the era....maybe it was its pretty yellow origional colour
Thanks :) - normally yellowing is caused by uv rays reacting to the bromine in the plastic - different machines - different plastic compositions I guess? Might do some research on that for a future episode :) Thanks for watching!
Lovely video! Can't find the ROMs ROMs ROMs video though, is it deleted?
Here you go: ua-cam.com/video/-VJEN1dwd1c/v-deo.html
Bought my 1985 Beeb back into my life again after 25 years of none use, had the psu refurbished but sadly get a continuous beep and nothing else. Sad...
Oh no! Hope you manage to get it fixed! A continuous beep could just be that one of the ROMS isn't seated properly - give 'em all a push :)
@@TheRetroShack thanks for your interest. Unfortunately the rom's are soldered in rather than pushed in. I did buy some new ones plus a soldering station but have not had the nerve so far to attempt the job as I have little experience and don't want to damage anything. Maybe one day...
I use a magic eraser on the textured bits, it cleans them out without chemicals.
A friend of mine mentioned Magic Erasers to me the other day - I'll order a couple in and give them a go! Thanks for the tip!
Looking at Ben Eater's building a breadboard 6502 computer, and how slow it is, makes the Elite graphics more impressive.
There's no doubt that Elite was an incredible accomplishment at the time - and a fascinating store behind it - I might do a whole episode on it :)
Great video. I have just started out myself and this is one of my favourite computers. I have just finished editing a psu refurb myself! 😊🕹️
I'll check it out! Thanks for watching!
@@TheRetroShack it will be up tonight.
Chuckie Egg? For me it would have to be Repton. Superior in every way. 😉😁
What about the adapter that plugs into the tube connector that has a Raspberry Pi zero on board to simulate a co-processor
Keep watching ;)
I was going to ask, but I could see Defender (modifies) is listed in the games.
BBC Micro ‘Planetoid’ is, in my opinion the best Defender clone on any machine :)
Any idea? on removing yellowing to the case tia
Why you didn't wash the power supply in the warm water and soap. So disappointing :(
I'll remember for next time ;)
Hello, I just opened a model b issue 7 to check the internals and now I can’t get the case back on properly. The keyboard cable wasn’t bent exactly like yours, but it also doesn’t seem to be fouling the lid when I look inside. Any idea what it might be? The keyboard screws were on backwards when I first opened it, so i got confused and tried loosening them first. Maybe that affected something? Argh
Hmmm - difficult to envisage what might be going on there. If you've not resolved it already - drop some pictures to me by email and I'll take a look.
@@TheRetroShack thanks for getting back! Somebody told me the lid is incorrect, as it's missing the plastic guard and just reads "BBC Microcomputer". Someone in a school computer lab or something must've mixed up some lids about 30 years ago - blast! Hoping I can just force it back on again somehow, not easy to find replacements. Not keen on trying to open the others now to check if they've been mixed up too...
Why do so many youtubers use these screwdrivers that are uncomfortable to hold and the bits are wrong for the type of screw?
Not sure how you're determining my level of comfort but thanks for looking out for me :). In all seriousness I don't know why I use this other than I've been using it for a few years and guess I just kind of like it :)
@@TheRetroShack I didn't mean your comfort specifically, more that a decent "normal" set of screwdrivers are more ergonomic in my experience. At the end of day, if it works for you, please carry on. Just select the correct size philips bit next time ;)
Great content and presentation though. P.S. got a BBC Master in the loft and an A500 plus arrived this morning!
I wonder if the power supply unit could be replaced with a USB power connector.
Not sure there'd be enough amps? I'll have to look that up :)
@@TheRetroShack It could probably be done with USB-C and a different power supply to downconvert, but feels like it would be moving backwards in terms of reliability and ruggedness.
When you were replacing the keys after cleaning, how did you resist the temptation to not replace the keys spelling a rude word, asking for a friend?
Mrs Retroshack said exactly that! I said i would in the next one :)
This may require a significant amount of swearing... :D
:) And it did...
Your toothbrush is going to taste horrible after that.. :P
What makes you think it was mine ;) :)
From a purists point of view the keyboard nuts should be on the inside. Personally I'm not a purist but a power user therefore to save tinker time my keyboard isn't fixed. The case does a more than adequate job with the lid on or off as long as the barbarians aren't allowed too close.
I’ve corrected the keyboard nut faux-pas since filming this :) Your inner purist can relax :) Thanks for watching!
@@TheRetroShack Excellent work. I shall be following with interest to see the new tech from RetroClinic in action.
if only the 6502 had floating point code would have made games and other programs run faster.
T's !!!