Lucky UK vacation find
Posted by Far_Relationship_742@reddit | retrobattlestations | View on Reddit | 40 comments
On vacation here from Texas, where English computers are rare as hens teeth, and found this on Marketplace two miles from my hotel.
peddersmeister@reddit
niiiiiiiiice!
My first computer.......
Cant remember what model i had though but i did have a floppy drive instead of a tape deck.
TrekChris@reddit
Just a heads up, you won't be able to use that as-is. You need a PAL TV or monitor, and a step-up power convertor with sine wave convertor. If you just plug it in with a plug adaptor, it'll blow up.
Starshipfan01@reddit
Those are problems yeah. Uk is 240v, us 120. So, ship it to me in uk, I got the right power, haha.
Blah-Blah-Blah-2023@reddit
BBC Micro PSU has an internal soldered link you can change for 110V. I have a BBC Model B here in Canada and it works fine like that. You will need a PAL monitor or one of those HDMI converter boxes that accepts PAL.
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
I’ll probably use it with an RGB monitor, so skipping the PAL issues.
Hard_Loader@reddit
IIRC CGA monitors usually manage to sync at 50Hz so you should be fine.
Starshipfan01@reddit
Never knew that! Ty
monkeyboywales@reddit
This is true, simple mod for us voltages. But if it was found in the states my guess is it's already configured that way, especially islgnit beeps?
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
Found in the UK, on vacation here. Has a UK mains plug on it.
gmitch64@reddit
And if you're not using the HD, nor the speech processor (I don't think the sound uses -5V), you can do a bit of re-wiring and run it off a 5V USB adapter.
HeadPristine1404@reddit
Adrian's Digital Basement on YouTube had a series of videos where he converts a BBC Master for use in North America. Might be worth watching that. He manages to get it to display NT
SC colour as well.
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
Appreciate the warning, both for me and anyone else reading.
Useful_Resolution888@reddit
Should be export restrictions on these 😉
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
My sister said I should come back with a suitcase full of Tandy and Commodore and turn it into a suitcase full of Acorn and Sinclair.
Hard_Loader@reddit
We're not too short of Tandy or Commodore machines in the UK. We need to set up an exchage program(me) to swap Acorns for Apples!
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
o_o7
Hard_Loader@reddit
I think gaming culture diverged between the US and UK. While the US were playing on Atari and Nintendo consoles, we were on Spectrums and C64s. I think relative costs and ease of cassette piracy had some influence here. The upshot was that we had a ready market for 16 bit computers rather than consoles when we wanted to upgrade.
AsanineTrip@reddit
Don't forget the DRAGON!
Useful_Resolution888@reddit
Good idea but there's plenty of Commodore stuff here. What we're missing that you seem to have a lot of is Apple II and also old unix stuff like SGI. Bring me an Indy and you can take whatever you want.
nicoleole80@reddit
I am so doing this with an Amiga 600 if I ever went to the UK
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
those appear to be just laying around the place based on Marketplace searches
johnlewisdesign@reddit
Ahh man I used to use these at school!
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
I don’t have a lead to connect it to a TV, but it goes “beep boop” when I power it on and no horrible smells come out, so I think I done good.
Merjia@reddit
No smells is a good sign! Or pops. lol
No-Succotash-9576@reddit
the filter capacitors in the psu exploded on my dad's one. must replace.
ivejustbluemyself@reddit
Mmmmm Magic smoke
No-Succotash-9576@reddit
Yes lol. it smelled bad.
rayui@reddit
Sounds like it's working!
FallenBehavior@reddit
(installs Ubuntu Linux and eats a ham sandwich)
growntree1@reddit
There are lots of modern upgrades for BBCs now. Google startdot and join the forum. I seem to remember there are a couple of Texans as members already.
Hjalfi@reddit
There is a very rare US-model BBC Micro which is converted for NTSC and 60Hz. Acorn, in their almost unique ability to turn any good idea into a bad one, changed the size of all the screen modes due to the differing number of scanlines in NTSC; so all the graphics modes changed from 32 lines to 25 lines (256 pixels high to 200 pixels high). This meant that almost no UK software would run on the US machines. Then they were surprised that they didn't sell.
doublejay1999@reddit
thats a steal. legendary class room staple. great basic, and, if you ever get more than one - master/slave ECONET networking.
Lumpy-Valuable-8050@reddit
It's not really a lucky find... these show up on marketplaces all the time
Far_Relationship_742@reddit (OP)
Not in the US they don’t.
muse_head@reddit
That's a great price, I've never seen one on marketplace or anywhere else that cheap... Cheapest one I found was £30 from a car boot sale (but was in awful condition, and not working). Usually they go for around £70 to £100 on their own.
magnificentfoxes@reddit
I LIVE here and can't find one for £20! Lol. That said, I got an A1200 for free so maybe I used up all my luck.
MegaboostGcG@reddit
That looks like an old BBC Micro B keyboard
jepstone@reddit
Congratulations! I've gotten a Model B+ working here in the US and am currently working on restoring a Master Series. The power supply fix for the Model B+ was pretty simple: I replaced the RIFA capacitors and bridged the 115V jumper: https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/collections-gallery/foreign-market-personal-computers/bbc-model-b-issue-4/bbc-micro-model-b-restoration
I haven't been able to find the RGB to VGA adapter that I originally bought for the Model B+, so for the Master, I picked up an RGB to SCART cable from cool-novelties and an SCART2VGA SCART To VGA Adapter board from retroupgrades, both on eBay.
Starshipfan01@reddit
If you don’t want, sent to me :)
ken_the_boxer@reddit
Or me :)