I visited the UK and brought back some computers! Let's see if they work.

hi everyone welcome back to Adrienne's digital basement so it's been a little while since my last video I have actually been traveling and also had a couple really bad colds including one right now I got my box of tissues here because currently dealing with a pretty crappy head cold so I don't want to stop the retro computer love so I wanted to talk about something that's really got me quite excited behind me under all this bubble wrap here is some stuff that I recently brought back from a trip I was on I was lucky enough to go to London England on a business trip for my day job my other job and I decided to buy some stuff while I was there bring it back with me I filmed some unboxing videos while I was in England so let's take a look at those and then we'll get back to the lab in a second alright hey everyone they're unboxing from London I ordered this awesome printer I'm so excited it's a Seiko this photo in okay this is something else that came in the box well let's open this up got my scissors here I'm actually a little worried it's a small thing but this is relatively heavy and I'm not sure how much packing materials in here a whole bunch of glitter I suppose I'd give away a little bit of what I got here so tapes some cassette tapes so in the MIDI box here here we go there it is so it's a Sinclair ZX Spectrum very very popular computer here in the UK it's a little rough and ready this one is not super great condition it's obviously well used to have some kind of printer with silver paper don't really understand that we have the power brick power brick for it so UK plug of course I can't use that but actually this makes it really easy because I could just look up the voltage this puts out probably something like nine volts so I'll just replace this with a with a US version seller also sent me some books does that expect from here's the actual manual which is kind of cool printer instructions and something else and then we got a whole assortment of tapes and look this is like someone's the micro user mini office word processor in database this is actually for the spectrum or for something else spectrum with that six great games in one computer Scrabble got the audio cassette there 48 K required this is a 48 km so all of these games should work fine on their cosmic combat so I'll be very curious to see how well this works I've never used one of these before I have zx81 at home so the old original black-and-white version but this thing will be very interesting so there we go there's my next little project is NX spectrum so I have my BBC micro model B and I bought this off eBay has a ship to the office here I'm working in a London office this computer is a little dirty little dusty as far as I know it doesn't work so it definitely needs some cleanup I'm pretty excited looks like it's in pretty good shape couple chips in the case this is a package just arrived here in the office and actually don't know what's in this let's unbox this take a look inside so reason why I order two of these the first one looking evil rough condition and since they're so impossible to find in the u.s. figure it out just by 2 and that way I could I could put them together and make one really nice condition machine and this one does appear to be quite nice so the keyboard on this one looks really clean the computer itself is absolutely filthy but I wonder why there's this cutout here where the power supply is visible because on the other BBC it doesn't have that but this doesn't look like it was cut that looks like it came that way so I'm not quite sure what exactly is going on there but it's quite amazing how clean the keyboard looks thing looks almost brand new while the whole computer itself looks a filthy mess and we look at the back and this looks slightly different as well can I get a view in there well you push down the case it bends a little bit but overall condition it's not great either but it's better than the other one but anyway so there we go - BBC micros to bring back to the u.s. so I can make myself one a really nice machine so as far as I'm aware everything made it back to the US without incident let's get this bowl wrap out of here take a closer look all right so here they are all three machines together now first of all I want to talk about why I even got these it's basically impossible to find the three of these computers in the United States the BBC micro was sold apparently very early on very limited numbers in the US it was an NTSC machine apparently had compatibility issues because of that I've never actually seen information on the US version so because of that I decided just to buy them in the UK and bring him back they were inexpensive there and I bought two like I said in my unboxing because I figure that I can mix and match the parts of these to make one good machine I really have no idea if you do these work and then on to the ZX spectrum same thing this was never sold in the US it was extremely popular in the UK they did sell a Timex version of this in the US didn't look like this it was silver colour what's bigger also had compatibility issues because it was an NTSC machine and this is a pal machine obviously but I figured I was gonna buy the original the most popular one that from the UK which is the small one with the rubber keys in the rainbow there were later versions of this in the UK as well with more memory or larger size extra ports things like that that were relatively cheap as well but I just saw this one on eBay and it was cheap so I grabbed it as far as what works here this machine actually had pictures on the listing of it working so I know this works this one had no information on whether it works or not and nor did this so these two computers could be broken for all I know so it'll be an interesting project to try to fix those so while I was in England I was staying in a hotel that had a very modern LCD flat screen TV it didn't have any scar inputs it didn't have any RF inputs on it it did have composite but I didn't have any cables with me so I really had no way to even test these I did plug these two into the power and they both turn on in fact the one that supposedly worked which is this one on the left makes the normal beep sound the keyboard lights work this one makes the beep very very faintly it's almost impossible to hear and but the the lights do work on the keyboard here you push the caps lock and the shift lock key and these lights come on and off so I don't know if these lights working means but either way they both seemed to work at least that regard I didn't even try there's that expect to him this does only have an RF output there was absolutely no way for me to test this so I didn't even bother plugging it in I was doing a little digging online to try to figure out a little bit more about these computers I haven't opened them up so I don't even know what's inside but from what I can understand when you look here where it says British Broadcasting Corporation microcomputer system this allows you to trial what issue the computer is and I think by issue it's like a revision from my very limited knowledge there were perhaps issues one two three four and also an issue seven machine and the issue seven machine was the later ones obviously at the higher number and instead of saying BBC microcomputer here it says British Broadcasting Corporation so I think this is probably an issue seven machine we're gonna have to crack the case open and take a look inside to know for sure this machine here besides being really dirty has a few little cosmetic issues this dark brown plastic here just appears to be a sticker and there's a little bit of a kind of a raised section here and there's a chip right there missing from the plastic I think this plastic is literally just stuck on to this cream plastic so it may be something that can buy a replacement of but I'm not too worried the other one has no issues like that there's also a little chip here which actually incidentally I found it came off in the packaging so I saved it so I can potentially fix this with a little bit of glue we take a close-up look at this machine with the chip it's pretty dirty the keyboard doesn't feel very good either sort of scratchy keypresses the other computer here the one with a strange hole where the power supply is I think this is an earlier machine and we can tell by looking at the badge here see it says BBC microcomputer as opposed to it all spelled out I read online that it had something to do with the fact that BBC is copyrighted in other countries so they couldn't sell it anywhere outside of England while it said BBC but that may not be correct information I don't really understand how this keyboard looks basically brand new like it doesn't even I mean there's not even any dirt on it so I can really get what's going on there I think it's used because some of the keys have you can tell where it's been typed on but looks really good but this hole here is just an absolute mystery to me I was taking a close look here and it doesn't seem like someone cut this it looks more like this was manufactured this way so perhaps this is an aftermarket top cover it seems to have a much rougher grain texture on it than this one does this is sort of a smooth plastic I mean while this is very rough but why would there possibly be a hole here for the power supply maybe it's for ventilation but wouldn't there have been slats in this power supply so if you have any idea what might be going on with this top cover let me know in the comment section below now there's an expectorant here I bought this was really inexpensive it didn't say if it worked or not and obviously this was someone's old computer and man is it dirty it doesn't really come across in the in the camera that well but it's really really filthy it's got glitter all over it so um that's weird but it has also scratches like this here I think is this scratching the black plastic and it also has a dent right there so something obviously dropped onto this at some point I don't know if this could possibly work but check out the screws there's a little bit of rust on those so that's not a good sign I haven't opened this up yet so I just don't know but this machines obviously had a rough life so I'm really dying to open up the two bbc's and check out what's inside I know it was very common for people to put modifications and extra roms and stuff on the boards so I really want to see if either of these have any additional roms or the disk controller chips or anything else that's going on inside so let's crack these two open I'm going to put this out expect them to decide well look at this in another video but today we're just going to take a look inside these machines let's see what I can see let's take a look at my older revision BBC the one with a strange hole here it's got a nice complement of ports right on the back including the eco net which is sort of a type of networking that these machines came with pretty cool my other one doesn't have that I think this was optional there's an analogue input which i think is typically used for joysticks there's a cassette port RS 423 port some kind of a serial RGB although there's a red line cross over that so I hope that doesn't mean it's broken this machine will not work anyways video out which is a BNC Jack UHF out so this will be the RF out not compatible with TVs in the US anyways the built-in power supply which I heard I can open up and modify so it runs on 110 volts hundred 10 220 and strange as I pointed this out in my unboxing video is there's a big gap here where I don't know what it is for ventilation or wires to come in and out of but when you push down the case it it bends the other one has a little extra structural support here plus sort of a the way the plastic is moulded you can't just stick your fingers straight inside so maybe the old earlier ones look like this and the later revisions had that extra support for when you put stuff on top of the case I gotta say for a 1981 computer this thing has just the most amazing expansion capabilities under the machine here there are tons of extra connectors for more expansion so something here is called the tube which i think is for connecting secondary processors like the original ARM processor was a development bore I think that would work on this through this interface or a second 6502 or other types of processors at 80s stuff like that so that's what the tube port is used for there's a 1 megahertz bus connector which obvious some other kind of expansion a user port a printer port floppy drive disk drive port this is 34 pins very similar to what a PC would use I think you can use a gotek Here I am concerned there's an X there as well sort of like on the RGB port so maybe this port is bad and right here is a power output port which I far as I understand is driven from the power supply and perhaps if you have external floppy drives you connect to this and the floppy cable you can have outside the computer you wouldn't need a separate power supply cool here is it says industrial design by Alan Boothroyd probably mispronouncing your name sorry Alan assembled in the UK s pretty sweet does have a serial number sticker here I know a lot of these apparently are missing these says a B electronic systems 140,000 22 plus a sticker here says much maybe it's Welsh something technics limited and a service number so perhaps this was serviced at a computer store or maybe this is some kind of a safety inspection sticker anyone knows what this is you put a comment in the comment section below alright so let's see if I can open this thing up I'm gonna take out all the screws that I can see and hopefully that opens the case those two went into plastic yes I can see it's already a bit loose on that side I imagine that these two probably take care of the back and here ladies and gentlemen is the inside of a BBC micro first time I have ever seen this with my own eyes so there it is interesting now right off the bat yes that weird hole look at all this glue that's on here so I surmise there was probably some type of plastic cover here and it was attached with some adhesive and over time it broke off that's what we got there so perhaps I can 3d print something to fill this gap and try to find some creamy colored spray paint to fill that in looking inside the computer here it's pretty darn dirty but this keyboard is so oddly clean all over but I think it's been cleaned it just looks like someone gave it a good clean job at some point I found this nut right here which is just lying inside the case right there and it looks like it was from this spot here there's a matching one there so taking a look inside here it looks like it's in alright shape it's uh an issue for computer says this u4i here on the motherboard that looks pretty good though got the eco net populated here I think that's just not populated on my other machine has space for a reset switch here but there's no hole on the back through the plastic but has the spot on the motherboard it's definitely a little cruddy dirty here but it's probably from just crap falling inside the case it's entire life I love dusty here and there the composite output doesn't see we connected to anything there's these two wires they're just sort of here these green wires I know it's a common mod to connect this to something else I think you need to put a kid pass etre in and you get color otherwise it's a monochrome output I'm not sure what's going on there we'll take a look at how the other computer looks but luckily there seems to be a good amount of information online and I can probably just Reese odder these onto the connector if I neat we're testing from a ROM perspective I am not sure if these two sockets over here are normally populated but they are unpopulated but over here there is one extra chip that has a sticker over it looks like an EEPROM assume these are just standard this is the UL a uncommitted logic array is that what that stands for it's got a heatsink another gets hot I really know so a little about this machine might think this is a Ferranti part it just runs really hot so it's good that the heatsink was on there these wires here are the power rails it runs five volts to these three locations on the board and then there's a little blue wire here off the power supply that is negative five volts oh really though this is a +5 volt board so we're going to look at the RAM chips there's 16 of them so here's 10 and there's another 6 right here we look on this board it's just a random assortment of things that are socket and things that aren't so you don't really understand what's going on with a ram why some of it is in socket so I wonder if there's have been a good number of repair but clearly with these these wires here there's something than going on inside this computer all right here we have the other machine the one without the hole on the topsis will be an issue 7 from my understanding looks the same on the bottom there is no serial number here but I think that's pretty common these stickers come off so let's pop the cover of this baby well here we are on the other machine and yeah it's actually an issue for as well so no real difference that's good for me though because that means totally interchangeable parts between these two so I can hopefully make at least one fully working computer the two keyboard modules I have look identical other than the filth on this one kind of mess with white keys underneath there there who makes this but it seems to be somewhat mechanical I've got a PCB back here as opposed to some kind of membrane does say acorn computers 1981 there strangely this one has a little speaker grille held on by these pegs the other one doesn't have that at all speakers in the same position otherwise all right so keep in mind that this is the working computer but check out this funky-looking corrosion here I wonder if that scratches off stuff here oh look it just scratches away so that's just some kind of a dirt wonder if this got exposed to water at some point there's a lot of unpopulated chips down here there's also nothing here which I think on the other one was the disk controller chip there are two less rom chips here as well so I wonder if the other one is equipped with the floppy drive and the disk file system ROM that needs to go with it to control the disk drive this board has entirely soldered ram chips that are not socketed whatsoever and the composite output is properly connected to the motherboard so at least that kind of shows me how it should be connected sorry I don't know why on the other one it was ripped off maybe someone dismounted the board at some point and they never reconnected those wires eco nests not populated but it we knew that I'm not gonna use that anyway so it's really no big deal so these are the power supplies from the two bbc's and they both seemed about the same to be honest they're both as tech supplies they both are made in 1983 this one is the 42nd week 83 and this one is the 50th week so almost the same switching power supply designs pretty cool for the time I think the really early BBC micros had linear or the big transformer in here they got really hot well this will be a lot better and more reliable clearly so I'm gonna need to try to switch these over 110 volts and then give them a test so the capacitors on these two supplies look really good and I found from my experience I have a lot of old computers in the early 80s is capacitors from the early 80s are very reliable it wasn't until electrolytic in the late late 80s and then to the 90s where they started getting unreliable and then we had a real problem in the 2000s with really bad caps but these ones probably all work reliably what does go wrong though is these paper filter caps these do crap out this one looks okay I don't see any cracks in it but I've had lots of these go out on power supplies and lets out a horrible smoke so I could have I have a new supply of these so I can quickly pop that out and replace it strangely enough this one it doesn't have that paper cap it's using this type in the same spot the design of the PCBs is exactly the same between these I guess some of the components are just interchangeable it does have a replaceable fuse right there and few slur so that's pretty nice and it may be hard to see but it looks like there is some provision here for a voltage switch it says 115 volts and 230 volts and there are some holes there so I'm gonna dismount the PCB from this chassis here and take a look what's on the other side see how that's wired up from what I understand I've read that you just put a jumper in there like a little strap between those two pins and it will wire in a voltage doubler which should enable this to work here in the US okay here's the power supply remove from the chassis and just in case you're ever working on one of these make sure you before you touch the bottom here you short out the capacitors on the bottom especially the ones on the high voltage side which is this side these can hold a real wall up especially if you're in a 240-volt country so I've gone ahead and replaced these two paper caps with newer modern replacements that won't let out this horrible smoke 10.22 which is this one right here the other one is 0.01 which is that one right here and then on the board I have strapped together those two pins so see I wrote hundred and fifteen volts there flip it over there we go so I've joined that all together and I'm gonna plug this in and we are going to see if the magic smokes gonna come out I'm not gonna connect to the computer to it I will run it first with nothing all right so I'm ready I'm ready for testing i bypass the switch for now because I haven't rewired the original cord but I have just connected a u.s. cord is very unsafe it's not grounded so I'm not gonna touch this I have the ground leads not connected but I mounted the board back in the chassis just in case it shorts out I will be wearing safety goggles before I test this out in case this thing pops with the multimeter here for doing a little testing so first off let me put the safety goggles on okay so I'm gonna plug this into this power strip over here and I'm going to keep it off so I will be using the switch that is on the power strip here we go I'm about to turn it on will it pop okay no weird noises so let's take these test leads and let's see if there's any voltage it's being generated here should be five 5.18 look at that it's working and this blue wire here should be negative five volts so let's get on the ground there test that hmm well that's weird wonder why that five volts well that negative five is not working so there's three power rails I'm just gonna test them all here first one is working five point one five point one not sure if these are just common together they might just be comment if that's the case no point for me to test here five point one so there's some kind of a problem with the minus five supply I'm gonna probably pull this board out and I will take another closer look okay try number two there was a broken there was a bad solder joint on this regulator here so I have fixed that let's see if that fixed the minus five let's turn this on I don't have it in the metal chassis since it didn't blow up last time so far no blowing up okay let's test out the negative five so that made absolutely no difference okay here's the other power supply put the same strap on there I didn't need to replace the caps this doesn't have the paper type on it so we're good to go so let me turn it on there's smoke let's check the five volt rail 5.07 looking good right so let's check the minus five yeah minus four point three three nine so other power supply definitely has a fault when it comes to the minus five all right well anyway so this is working enough that I can put this back in the BBC and we can actually test one of these and see if it works okay so power supply is precarious but connected the motherboard is interesting because it has marks like zero volts for ground VCC three VCC to of ECC one for the 5 volts and then over here on this part of the motherboard that's where the minus five connects there's a single wire there I have the composite output with the BNC adapter connected to my HDMI scart converter which has a little bit of a mod so I can just do composite every Z so it's right here no signal we have 120 volts connected to the power supply switches bypass one can use this switch here on the board so when I hit this or either gonna get smoke and we're gonna get a working computer hopefully with an image pal you have a cursor so I have a flashing cursor up on the screen here but nothing else so that's good I suppose let's turn this off and on again maybe the keyboard needs to be connected like I said this was the pot this was the computer that did work and it being a beep I couldn't plug it into a monitor so when I turn this back on let's see if it makes the sound now the speaker's connected okay and look at that BBC computer oh yes thumbs up so at least one of these is working to some extent so the voltages are looking okay on this particular power supply the other ones not giving out minus five but let me just transfer this over to the other BBC and see if that one's working let me just turn this off and on a real quick yeah that's that works as normal cool alright so same power supply the other computer and the other keyboard I'll connect it up see what happens when I hit the power switch okay I just realized my own are not gonna work because the video cable it's not connected but the sound chip initialized we heard the sound so not sure why I wasn't hearing it when I tested in the UK although maybe this power supply is from the other computer I came over which good power flows from which but let's connect the video and I will see if we have some picture all right right number two on the second machine I've recited the wires on there we go wow it works as well an acorn DFS so this file says I think that stands for so this definitely has the disk controller ROM in there as well oh man thumbs up see if out of this pipes I think the keyboard is gonna need a little cleaning to key doesn't work yeah - is not working on this one okay well so the keyboard while it looks very clean it is not fully functional so one of the cables I got included with this was this scart I think this is the scar cable for the BBC micro came with one of the two computer so I'm gonna test this out because I can use scart on my little converter box and we'll see if I get our GB colour out of this one this is the one this one uh the X drawn over the RGB connector okay the RGB is connected I unplug the composite so see how this works oh yeah that works - oh it looks really sharp - well I think I'm gonna stop for today both these computers are working and that has me really excited I really wanted to just test today and see if the power supply's could be modified for working in the US which I was able to do so at this point I have lots of cool stuff ahead of me to work on with these machines you'll be seeing some future videos with more on these computers as I clean these up and get these fixed up and working really well and I'm also gonna make a video where I test out does that expectrum see if that thing works and then clean that up as well so I'm looking for suggestions and tips on what I can do with these computers how I can modify them make them better of course hook up devices so I can play games and stuff on them so definitely put those suggestions down in the comment section below you can subscribe for more videos I'll be making more on these and the ZX Spectrum in the near future thanks for watching and I hope next time I'm over this cold because it's really annoying alright take care bye

Channel: Adrian's Digital Basement

Views: 184,979

Keywords: BBC Micro, beeb, BBC Micro Model B, ZX Spectrum, bedroom coders, retro computers, vintage computers

Id: KnkHdvjtBmA

Length: 29min 39sec (1779 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 22 2019