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Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 11:26 am
by rubber_jonnie
It's a shame the Apricots have had to go away, I was looking forward to more 'episodes'
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:29 pm
by stephen_usher
Hehe. They'll be back. I think I may try to get a couple of Goteks for the F1 and fit them in instead of the Sony drive. The only issue is access to the media and control. I'll have to think about that. I might need someone with a 3D printer to help me out too.
It would also be a good project for an internal RGBtoHDMI board, so I may have to investigate getting those fabricated by PCBway with the surface mount stuff pre-installed. It's a pity that I can't find anyone selling the pre-built boards on-line. (Getting the Rasp-Pi isn't an issue.)
I may try pulling the '8" floppy/5.25" floppy' switch pin on the controller low so as to reduce the data rate back to the normal 300rpm standard so that I don't need an extra image format in the FlashFloppy configuration. It may even be possible to fit a Gotek and a newer standard drive in the machine, with the real floppy being drive B. We'll see.
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:01 pm
by rubber_jonnie
stephen_usher wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:29 pm
Hehe. They'll be back. I think I may try to get a couple of Goteks for the F1 and fit them in instead of the Sony drive. The only issue is access to the media and control. I'll have to think about that. I might need someone with a 3D printer to help me out too.
It would also be a good project for an internal RGBtoHDMI board, so I may have to investigate getting those fabricated by PCBway with the surface mount stuff pre-installed. It's a pity that I can't find anyone selling the pre-built boards on-line. (Getting the Rasp-Pi isn't an issue.)
I may try pulling the '8" floppy/5.25" floppy' switch pin on the controller low so as to reduce the data rate back to the normal 300rpm standard so that I don't need an extra image format in the FlashFloppy configuration. It may even be possible to fit a Gotek and a newer standard drive in the machine, with the real floppy being drive B. We'll see.
Sounds like a few good things to come then. I may well also be in for some RGB2HDMI boards so let me know if you do decide to go down that route as we could perhaps share costs on a batch.
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 12:54 pm
by stephen_usher
This morning there was a partial eclipse of the Sun and working from home I was able to get the Meade LX90 telescope and solar filter out...
So, here's the Moon eating the Sun... Note that you can just make out the mountains on the edge of the Moon as tiny lumps and bumps.
- IMG_2339.jpg (18.9 KiB) Viewed 6726 times
This was taken using my iPhone through the 40mm eye piece,
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:12 pm
by rubber_jonnie
stephen_usher wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 12:54 pm
This morning there was a partial eclipse of the Sun and working from home I was able to get the Meade LX90 telescope and solar filter out...
So, here's the Moon eating the Sun... Note that you can just make out the mountains on the edge of the Moon as tiny lumps and bumps.
IMG_2339.jpg
This was taken using my iPhone through the 40mm eye piece,
Nice. I bloody missed it!
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:37 pm
by JezC
We had a short break in the clouds just after midday, so saw the last stages of the eclipse...then 5 minutes later we had solid cloud cover again
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:04 pm
by stephen_usher
It's not just Falcons which have clock chip issues, Sun workstations have them too.
For the older machines the M48T02 and M48T08 chips are still readily available but for the later Ultra machines they use the M48T59Y chip which is very similar to the M48T08 but also has the ability to send an interrupt to the machine at a certain time. Unfortunately they're not quite pin compatible with the previous chips and they're no-longer in production.
So, the only way to revive them (and the machines) is to Dremel away part of the package until you get to the internal connection to the epoxied in coin cell and piggy-back a CR2032.
This is what I've done today with the chip from the Sun Ultra 80 I had donated to me a few days ago.. not pretty but it works.
- IMG_2341.jpg (69.12 KiB) Viewed 6705 times
- IMG_2342.jpg (64.81 KiB) Viewed 6705 times
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:05 pm
by stephen_usher
After working out which of the four CPU modules was half dead, discovering which RAM DIMM had an iffy parity chip and reprogramming the NVRAM I now have a fully working Sun Ultra 80! with 3GB of RAM.
(I'm pretty sure that the previous owner just wanted it out of the house. I believe that he offered me the machine a few years ago but I said no as I knew I had nowhere to store it... but now I have the storage unit.)
- IMG_2343.jpg (83.76 KiB) Viewed 6669 times
(Note: the machine is on its side.)
There's no way of putting this heavy lump upstairs and in the loft. OK, I did take it up and down the stairs once but it almost killed me. The thing must weigh about 60Kg! So, it'll be off to the storage tomorrow, if I can lift it in and out of the boot of the car that is!
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:53 pm
by stephen_usher
I’ve just discovered that the planning application for my workshop and model railway outbuilding has been refused. Apparently the top of the roof was 40cm too high (architect should have known this and not made it so high) and the planning officer thought the building too big and could be inhabitable. They didn’t ask if it would have any services such as water, which it won’t.
Bah!
Should have found a proper architect rather than one suggested to me as this one is obviously only good for minor extensions.
Re: General Stuff(tm)
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:31 am
by rubber_jonnie
stephen_usher wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:53 pm
I’ve just discovered that the planning application for my workshop and model railway outbuilding has been refused. Apparently the top of the roof was 40cm too high (architect should have known this and not made it so high) and the planning officer thought the building too big and could be inhabitable. They didn’t ask if it would have any services such as water, which it won’t.
Bah!
Should have found a proper architect rather than one suggested to me as this one is obviously only good for minor extensions.
Ahh, that's rubbish, can you re-submit with the 40cm lopped off?