USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. 8 Bit HELP! MESSAGES 1 HELP! MESSAGES 1 To: 999 (all members) From: K6X (Cluke) Subject: Please help me I am being driven bezerik by my Cumana Twin 40/80 Disc Drive. Normally when I switch it on it goes " B'dm ", presumably as the heads make sure they are at home ( my printer goes through the same ritual, except it goes"B'zdm" when switched on). Sometimes however, I switch on the Drive and nothing happens at all, well, the switch neon comes on, but thats all folks! On one occasion my wife switched it on and tried to boot a disc; nothing happened except the 'phone rang, so she went and answered it, leaving the Master ( not me, the 128 ) waiting for something to happen. She tells me that halfway through the phone conversation with her Mum ( so it must have been AT LEAST 25 minutes later! ) the Drive suddenly sprang into life and the disc booted. Has anyone else had this happen to them? (the drive fault, not the phonecall from my wife's Mum) The Drive will work fine for several days, it does not seem to matter whether it has been on for a long period, or has been off overnight, it just randomly refuses to work when switched back on the next time. AAAAAAAGGGHHH!!! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: D3M (Simon Cole) Subject: 16032 Second Processor I was wondering if anyone knows where I can obtain the Acorn 16032 second processor. I have heard that it will run the UNIX operating system (and therefore 'C'). Cash waiting... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) + K2F From: 0E7 (Fred Nevin) Subject: The Manual Graveyard Yes John I agree there is one. I am still tracking the CANON PW-1080A Printer Manual and the spoor has gone cold so if anyone sees any tracks of one I would be very pleased to hear from you. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: D3J (PETER BISHOP) Subject: HELP I am one of the next to totally ignorant when it comes to computers whether it be a PC or a BEEB. I bought one of the latter at a boot sale last summer thinking that it was time that I learnt something about them now that I had retired. It was a model 7 and had an OPUS CHALLENER 3 DISC DRIVE which had two ramdisks all of which I eventually began to understand to a certain degree. The ramdisks made Backing up a very quick doddle. However the motor packed up last November. It is of Mitsubishi manufacture. I have had no success in tracing anybody who knows anything about this animal so I wonder if there is anyone within our membership who can suggest how to bring it back to life please? I have since acquired a single 80 disc drive which takes some twenty swops to copy a copy of the magazine which is rather miserable when the Challenger would do it almost in twinkling of an eye. A twin disc drive double sided 80 track would be a welcomed alternative if anyone knows of a source. Many thanks in anticipation. EDITOR......... You may find the fast DFS backup program available on TBI-79 handy Peter. It only backs up the used tracks on a disc. This would not reduce the number of swops on a full disc such as an 8BS issue of course. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: D3P (STRETCH MAYERS) Subject: AMX,STOP PRESS DESK TOP PUBLISHING. HELP WANTED! I HAVE JUST ENTERED INTO COMPUTING BY WAY OF BUYING MY 4 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER A BBC B. SO WE ARE LEARNING TOGETHER, AT TIMES I THINK AT THE SAME PACE. WITH THE BEEB CAME QTY:2 ROMS AND A HANDBOOK FOR AMX:STOP PRESS.UNFORTUNATELY NO SYSTEM DISK OR FONT DISK AS DETAILED IN THE HANDBOOK CAN ANY BODY OUT THERE IN MONITOR LAND HELP? Subject: IS MY BEEB STANDARD? 2.PLEASE FORGIVE MY IGNORANCE AS I SAID THIS IS ALL NEW TO ME, WHEN I TYPE IN *HELP IT RETURNS THE MESAGE DFS 1.20,DFS,DFS UTILS. AS WELL AS ALL THE ROMS FITTED INSIDE : DISC DOCTOR DUMPOUT 3, VEIW A3.0,AMX STOP PRESS, INTERCHART 1.03a. 3. THERE IS FITTED INSIDE A "WATFORD ELECTRONICS 12 ROM BOARD "WITH QTY2 SWITCHES NEXT TO THE CASSETTE MOTOR L.E.D, THESE ARE WIRED TO THE BOARD ONE TO TERMINALS MARKED"wr"AND THE OTHE TO "rd" CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT THESE ARE FOR?(IN LAYMANS TERMS PLEASE) PLEASE CONTACT ME AS FOLLOWS: STRETCH MAYERS 12 CRUMMOCK AVE EDITH WESTON OAKHAM LEICS LE15 8HR. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K3H (ALBERT SCHOFIELD.) Subject: TAPE TO DISC ON THE BBC'B' The last of the programs that I have which will not work without control codes in the filename is DEMON DECORATOR. This is in two parts. Both parts are in basic but are unlistable. To transfer the game to disc, load the first part from cassette. The last few lines can then be listed by typing LIST850, (the comma is essential). Alter the last line 870 to:- PAGE=&1100:CHAIN"PAINTER". Then add an extra line:- 855PRINTTAB(6,19)CHR$(131 )"Press"CHR$(129)"SPACE"CHR$(131)"to c ontinue.":REPEAT:UNTIL INKEY-99<>0 . This line will allow time to read the instructions. Then save the file to disc. If the second file is then transferred to disc as PAINTER the game will then probably work, as the control codes will have been entered during transfer. If the computer is then switched off and on again the game will still work but in a very unpredictable way. To remedy this, load the second file into memory again and delete the following three lines:- 967, 1283 and 1685. These are the lines causing the problem. Save to disc again as PAINTER. The game should now work perfectly. More next month. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K5P (Andrew Fay) Subject: Wanted.... WANTED: Can anyone help with the following: A: ACORN PASCAL STANDALONE GENERATOR This goes with ACORN Pascal and allows you to generate standalone machine code which can be put in a ROM. B: GRAPHPAD II ROM I have recently bought a GRAPHPAD II, but I haven't had complete success with it. I believe I should have had a ROM with it. C: POWER DUCK I am after a power splitter to enable me to connect two items to the power connector under the BBC. Can anyone help... Andrew Fay ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2Q (John Nicholson) Subject: Reading I B M Discs Is there any way that the BBC can read ASCII text files on discs created by a MERLIN Z80 machine on CPM? A friend of mine needs to transfer textfiles written on CPM for use on a BBC with WORDWISE or similar. Can anyone help? Please phone:- John Nicholson EDITOR.... Software by Baksoft. DOScopy. I have tried contacting the company, who now seem to have ceased trading. Which is a great pity as the software is excellent. Anyone with a similar problem should contact me, I am prepared to transfer software for you. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2Q (John Nicholson) HARD DISK DRIVE WANTED S HARD DISK DRIVE WANTED Has anyone any advice on how to obtain and connect a hard disk system to a BBC, for use as a host for a BBS system? I would be very interested in any offers of working equipment. Please contact... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2Q (John Nicholson) Subject: PRESTEL ADAPTER I have come by a PRESTEL ADAPTER but am not sure how to test it. I guess it is a sort of modem, but is it only suitable for certain types of communication. Does it need a sideways ROM to drive it? Has any member experience in using this gadget, or a copy of an instruction manual? John Nicholson ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2Q (John Nicholson) Subject: BBC B+ I also have what I believe to be a BBC B+ machine, with a new switch on the lower right of the keyboard connecting to a now burnt out ROM with testing leads attached to it. There is not any marked OS or BASIC ROM. I would appreciate any help from other B+ users to get this machine going. Has anyone got a copy of the B+ manual? John Nicholson... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2Q (John Nicholson) Subject: COMMS SOFTWARE Thanks John Ilsley for an introduction to the world of comms. I am sending in software for a BBC modem driver. This was written for a local BBC co-authorship network in North Wales. A manual is also available. BBS Software wanted for BBC. Has anyone written a simple BBC BBS operating system that could be set up to receive calls and allocate postboxes etc? Please let me know... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K6N (Brian Raw) Subject: Amstrad Monitor CTM 640 In last months mag there was an article on monitors, which supposes that an Amstrad monitor will connect direct to the beeb. When my Cub bit the dust,in search for a replacment I too assumed this and bought a CPC464 for its monitor which when plugged direct into the beeb is EXCESSIVLEY BRIGHT. Apparently the Amstrad system uses two levels of colour, normal and bright , this being achieved assumingly by two different voltges applied to the colour inputs, this is not then TTL RGB as on the beeb, 5v being greater than that required for the brighter colours. Not being one to be defeated so easily I performed a few experiments putting resistors in series with the colours,I found that around 100 ohms did the job of bringing the brightness down to a reasonable level. So then it would be possible to make a small veroboard up and pop it inside the monitor,but I went for the simpler way of making a lead up with surface mounted RGB socket & resistors on a veroboard. _____ F 1 100 R T R _____ O O _____ M 2 100 G M _____ O B _____ N E 3 100 B I E _____ T B 4 sync O R 5 0v 6 5v RGB pinouts 3 looking into 2 4 the socket 6 1 5 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K4V (Trevor Crapper) Subject: View Professional Tutorial Part 2 In this part I am going to take you through an exercise that is essential if you want to use View Professional fully. You must have the utility disc to carry out the next stage. It must have the following programs on it. PDE, X.DRIVER, T.FX80, and D.FX80. There may also be T.JUKI6100 and D.JUKI6100 as well. For the purpose of this tutorial I will concentrate on T.FX80 and D.FX80 and must apologise to JUKI6100 users. They and any other printer user can still follow the tutorial and use it. I want to recommend using a notebook at this stage, it will save you a lot of time and trouble in the future when you come to use VP properly. We are going to look at the printer driver editor, PDE. A printer driver is used to hold the codes so that the printer can print whatever you have asked it to. Since I am only interested in you learning how to program the printer driver, inputting the code information into VP will have to wait, sorry. Type *PDE this loads in the X.DRIVER program, now type in LO T.FX80 and press the ESCAPE key when it has loaded in. The printer driver editor screen should now appear. Take your time to look at it, our interest lies in the column of number from 1 to 8 on the left hand side. Make a note of each one in your note- note, starting with 1 Underline 27,"-",1 and across the screen to 27,"-",0 these are the codes to turn underlining on and off. The object in the quotes '"-"' is one way of entering this code, I prefer to use numbers myself and in this case it is 45. So this would be entered as 27,45,1 to turn underlining on and, 27,45,0 to turn it off again. You can find this information in your printer manual (the ones I know of).! Look for the give away number 27 to start with. If your manual doesn't use letters then there maybe a cross reference table in your manual. Pick the number 45 which will be in a box and you should see it has '-' in there as well. To alter anything use the arrow keys to move the cursor around the screen and enter the numbers/letter/etc. To exit the printer editor press the ESCAPE key again. For those who looked and have changed anything the story ends here. For anyone making changes exit using ESCAPE and now type SA T. DO NOT USE T.FX80 or you will overwrite it!! Choose your own filename. Now type SD D. use the same one that you have given T.. DO NOT USE D.FX80 or you will overwrite this one too!!! You can type *PDE and press ESCAPE without loading T.FX80. This gives you an empty printer driver to play with. Remember what has gone before and save both 'T.' and 'D.' using SA for 'T' and SD for 'D'. Quick commercial, Chris Richardson sells everything you need for VP. Bye for now. Trevor Crapper ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K4V (Trevor Crapper) Subject: ROM Chips and ROM Images This is a simply loading guide for anyone who may have rom chips in their machine or who may have some rom images on disc. To start with rom chips, to find out if you have any installed type *HELP and look through the list that will appear on the screen. You will find DFS and UTILS and other information. If you do have rom chips fitted then these will be shown on the screen as program names. The simplest way I can explain about finding rom images on disc is to type *INFO *.* and press the Return key. You may see a lot of numbers on the screen. Look at the first set of these numbers. If you can see 3000 or, 8000 in either of these sets of numbers then the program is a rom image. Loading roms, if the rom is installed in your machine you may be able to load it in and run it, some word processors, databases, spreadsheets etc., will load in ready for use. Other roms can be called but nothing happens, in this case you must have the programs on disc that are part of the total operating system of that rom. Usually a rom that will run does so when you type in *, this may be shortened to two letters in a lot of cases. If you have a rom that does not run then you will have to use the disc program associated with the rom to get it up and running. Now for rom images on disc, these must be installed into sideways ram before they will run. The BBC B does not have any sideways ram, this has to be bought and installed in this machine. The BBC B+, the Master and Compact all have sideways ram fitted. Typing *HELP and looking at the screen will tell you if you have sideways ram fitted. It may be an Acorn version or another version. I can only advise you how to load roms using the Acorn and Aries sideways ram. With the Aries sideways ram type in *RLOAD rom name 13 or 14 and press the Return key, you will be asked to press the BREAK key to install the rom. The ACORN sideways ram for a BBC B+ has 4 letters W, X, Y and Z. In the Master there are numbers and these correspond to the above letters, 7 = W 6 = X, 5 = Y, and 4 = Z. To load a rom image from disc using the Acorn sideways ram, type *SRLOAD rom name 8000 W/7 Q and this will load a rom into slot W or 7. The Q is to load the rom in quickly. Sometimes there is more than one rom to be loaded in, always put rom1, romA in the highest slot available otherwise strange things will happen! Finally if you are having problems loading or running a rom please ask for HELP! I am not an expert but have some knowledge on the subject. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, PRESS BREAK