Date   : Sun, 08 Feb 2004 14:52:04 +0000
From   : Richard Kilpatrick <oldcomputers@...>
Subject: Domesday Project - progress.

Well, since I'm in the right place...

First, I'll describe my Domesday system - I have Russ Tarbox's old 
machine, which hasn't been working in recent memory. It consists of a 
(now cosmetically restored) proper Master AIV, faulty LV-ROM, Marconi 
RB2 (and Acorn branded one, but some wires have snapped which I plan to 
repairing), Cumana FD, one of my own AKF-11s, one 'brand new' set of 
discs and manuals, one user guide, one half set with a scruffy box and 
National disc, cables and Domesday Display. i think I've got a 
reasonably complete set - I also have the VP415 manual with all the 
FCODE commands listed.

I can't boot a disc. My player appears to be out of alignment - it's 
the best way of describing it I can think of. For example, Frame 2007 
on my regular Sony LD player is Metal Mickey (Side A national disc). 
It's an overlaid mess of some 1066 scrolls (I think) on my 415.

I don't know how to correct this. I can adjust most alignment, but the 
actual 'track' alignment is another matter. A rough guess puts it about 
500 frames out, certainly more than a couple of hundred, and I suspect 
that this is why I'm getting 'mixed' frames.

Sadly the laser assembly from the lesser 405 model lacks one of the 
ribbon cables from the head; I'm assuming this means it will be 
incompatible.

I was very amused to find that my instinct for the data being on the 
audio track was right when I put the CAV side in the domestic player ;)

Richard
-- 
Richard Kilpatrick
Older than most of his computers, but not by enough to know better.
Acorn: '82 to '98. Atari: '79-84. Apple: '84-04 (no Apple //, for 
shame!).
http://www.dmc12.demon.co.uk/retrotech/