Aral BalkanOooooh, guess what just arrived 😍
Looks like there’s a tiny fault with it where the video signal cuts out intermittently. Looked it up and it’s possibly got to do with X1 16MHz oscillating crystal having gone bad so I just ordered one (ok, 50x so if any of you need any, let me know) 🤞
Wish me the luck, the little guy’s going under the knife… the video signal cuts out intermittently so I’m going to try changing the 16MHz oscillating crystal.
🤞
✅ Step 1 (the easy bit)
(The X1 oscillator is circled in white.)
(Did I mention I’m a nervous solderer?) :)
So mine’s apparently an Issue 4 from 1982. Although there’s a sticker in it that reads 1 Nov 83 (maybe when it was sold/serviced?)
The board’s out and yes, I was a bit of a barbarian and, since I’m not going to be using the composite out, cut the wires to it instead of desoldering them. If I ever need it, I can just connect the wires again.
Now the bit that scares me…
Right, well, oscillator replaced. No solder accidents.
Going to put it back together and try it out.
🤞
Note, if you will, the beauty of this design:
There are seven places where the power supply attaches to the main board but there’s no way you can get it wrong as the lengths of the wire won’t let you. (You still have to know black is 0v.)
Right, about to turn it back on…
If you don’t hear from me, there was probably smoke :)
Setting a stopwatch now but so far, it seems to be stable. And I swear it appeared so much faster than before :)
Geoff Mackenzie@aral good luck! Hoping for a happy boop-bip
@radicalabacus There was a very happy boop-bip – thank you! :)
Jessie Kirk@aral OMG this gives me hope that I might breathe new life into two dead 70s Pong consoles I have if I keep studying electronics, good job!
@thejessiekirk Hey, if I can do it, anyone can (I’m by no means a hardware whiz) :)
tecteun
Brad Macpherson@aral 😬 Slow is smooth, smooth is fast...
@brad Thanks, Brad :) That is exactly how I took it :) The journey is the destination and all that :)
Michael@mhp Thanks so much Michael, still can’t believe it worked straight off the bat :) 💕
Chris Trottier@aral I’m just impressed you still have a BBC Micro.
MostlyTato
Ivor Hewitt@atomicpoet @aral I need to go back home and hunt. I'm sure mine is in my parents attic somewhere....
@ivor @atomicpoet Good luck :) Let us know if you find it :)
@atomicpoet Bought one off of fleabay ;)
Eslam Family🕊️❤️@aral Why are my comments being ignored like this, brother?!🥺😔😔
Matthew 
@matty It’s an RGB to Scart cable and a Scart to HDMI converter.
DamonHD@aral Now I *really* want to hear again the #Stranglers' #GoldenBrown as played through its synth chip!
@DamonHD It’s loud too. No volume control. I’d forgotten that (maybe wasn’t as loud in a classroom setting) :)
Russell Garner@aral bloody hell. I can send you my floppy with Elite on it if you want but you'd never work on Kitten again
Matt@aral /brad decamps to shed to get the Model B he bought off eBay a year ago up and running 😂
I tell ya, if it wasn't for work there'd be no end of fun to be had!
@brad G’luck :)
@aral Coooool. Lovely machine.
Jae
Ben Hammond
David S
spdrnl
two slightly distorted guitars
DataKnightmare@aral woooot?!? yay!
dch 
@aral *and* the book. I'm jealous! Back in the day for the beeb, I wrote in assembler a ring-buffer network packet sniffer... got me into a *lot of trouble*. I wish I'd thought of preserving the code somewhere.
@dch I’m almost more excited for the book :) I want to make one like it for Kitten :)
mathew
Matt Tutt
C. Anthony Lewis@aral I still have mine from back in the day in its original box... I wrote my PhD on it so it's a bit precious. I still have 5 1/4" drives and disks but it's at least 3 decades since I fired it up.
@morgrugyn Nice :)