Aral BalkanOooooh, guess what just arrived 😍
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 :)
Yep, it’s been half an hour and no dropouts… I’m calling it, my lovely new BBC Micro B is fixed :)
Yay! Soooo excited to play with it tomorrow 🥳
Here’s a before video:
https://vimeo.com/1181523949#t=26
And an after:
https://vimeo.com/1182284426
And the issue, for anyone else who stumbles on this thread, was the 16MHz oscillator circuit (marked X1 on the main board).
Also, I could only find a lot of 50 of them, so if anyone needs one, just hit me up and I’ll send it to you :)
Huge thanks to the folks on the stardot.org.uk for sharing the fix: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=246304#p246304
#BBCMicro #BBCMicroModelB #video #dropout #issue #fix #x1 #oscillator
Screen flicker on BBC micro scart/hdmi adapter
Andre Louis@FreakyFwoof You know how loud the speaker on this thing is, right? :P
Dr. Abed From Gaza🇵🇸@aral
I wish you success
I wish you success
@abed_in_gaza123 Thanks so much, Abed, it worked :)
@aral
You are a wonderful person with a kind heart, and you deserve success. I pray for you.
You are a wonderful person with a kind heart, and you deserve success. I pray for you.
Professor_StevensThat still looks cool.
@Professor_Stevens It’ll never be not cool ;)
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@aral maybe you can snip it and solder on the other side (haha you already said that.. reading is hard)
Ken Milmore
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?!🥺😔😔