Date : Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:31:34 +0100
From : pete@... (Pete Turnbull)
Subject: Issue 1
On 10/08/2009 18:07, Mark Haysman wrote:
> I've got an Issue 7 board that has every single IC in a socket, and every
> socket and component is hand soldered, as you can tell the difference
> between a flow soldered board and one that's been assembled with a soldering
> iron.
>
> Were Beebs ever available as kits? Or would that be an engineering test
> assembly for the Issue 7 board?
No, never as kits. They were sold as OEM products as just the
(populated) boards, though -- Farnell sold Beebs like that, and later
Master 128 boards too. They tended to be used in control systems.
We had one or two BBC B's that had been completely stripped, usually as
the result of some catastrophic failure that took out all the LS TTL
chips. Useful for fault-finding by substitution, occasionally ;-)
The typical "catastrophic failure", if anyone is wondering, was
overvoltage caused by the crowbar circuit on a Torch disk unit failing
to operate after a short circuit, and occasionally by application of
mains instead of 5V. That would happen if someone got a Torch
conversion, which removed the original BBC PSU, and instead connected a
length of 3-core mains cable to +/5V in the Beeb, terminated in a small
3-pin plug that was supposed to plug into the back of a Torch disk pack.
I've seen more than one where the new owner cut off the "funny" 3-pin
plug, and replaced it with a normal 3-pin mains plug.
I've also seen a very dead BBC which the owner's mother insisted should
be repaired under warranty (threatening legal action when I refused,
though her call to Trading Standards apparently discouraged her from
that idea) after her son had attempted to hardwire the RGB to a
live-chassis TV set (and later admitted that's what he'd done).
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York