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Floppyshop 2
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1989-04-05
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7KB
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165 lines
*****************************************
* *
* UPGRADING THE TIWANESE BOX O' TRICKS *
* ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ *
* (with a little help from my mate Ron) *
* ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ *
* by John Ash *
* ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ *
*****************************************
So Mr Taxman got it wrong, well at least he is honest and admitted it and
sent me all the money back with interest! (I wonder if I would have done
the same?)
With a rush of blood to the head I decided to squander some of it on one
of Eveshams memory upgrades. A quick phone call, furtive mutterings of
secret numbers and within a few days, a smart box arrived containing:
a booklet,
a large chip/socket like a big black caterpillar,
2 more squarish items with PCB, assorted wires and connectors
the SIMMS board itself with 2 tiny devices (1/2 MEG MEMORIES!)
Following the book I stripped the ST to its bare essentials, and then
extracted the motherboard from its casing, removing the power supply and
disc drive enroute.
Prising open the tin box in the centre of the board to get at the video
shifter -<Consult book>- Carefully lever it from its socket and taking
note of position locate adaptor into the socket and replace the chip.
Right lever out chip... uh?, This aint plugged in, its soldered in! Now
what do I do? Pack in for tonight, that's what and phone Evesham in the
morning.
'Hello Evesham?'
'Hello Surr' responded the American tones of Eveshams Atari Whiz
'Er this Video shifter. Is there a piggyback adaptor for the soldered
version?'
'Can you quote the version number of your board sir'
'Er yes its.........'(The book does tell you to have handy)
'Well no Surr it does need removing and the new piece resoldering in....
Can I suggest you send it to us sir? We have very moderate charges....'
' Er well, I'll think on it' I replied. And so would end the sojorne into
hardware manipulation for many a feint heart...
...But not for me, because I have my friend Ron the electron freak with
a house like an electronic Steptoes yard. Remember?
Meanwhile two more events were happening (its amazing how these things
occur simultaneously).
A letter arrived from Working Title informing me that they were re-
jigging Calligrapher and here was my chance to upgrade for a mere forty
notes.
Young Andrew our junior salesmen asked me what 'RAM' was and how much was
there in his machine, because he said he wanted to obtain a car racing
game and it needed a full megabyte. I was able to inform him that his
machine only had 520K but he did have TOS 1.4.
I sent my money to Working Title and went round to see my friend Ron. He
sat me down at his dining room table, (It hasn't seen a dinner in years),
upon which was a green plastic cover. Placing my machine on the plastic
he manacled me to the machine with a yellow elastic wristlet.
Placing a glass of Jamieson alongside for company he told me to take the
ST to bits and do as much as I could while he had his dinner. After a
while Ron returned examined the video shifter chip and said Ummmm, left
the room and I had got as far as I could. So I sat reading the booklet
some more.
Ron returned with a TELEPHONE saying it would save the day. Whereupon he
promptly disemboweled it and showed me a circuit board with the longest
chip and socket I had ever seen. 'You can leave it to me now' said Ron.
Meanwhile something I had read in the booklet had given me a money
saving idea. To put it simply the booklet said:
'With the 2 meg up grade, if the machine is a 520 carry on as instructed.
But, if the machine is a 1040 half a meg has to be disabled in a certain
way leaving two banks of memory in each half in limbo.
Well... If my 1040 could be reverted to its original 520 configuration by
rearranging the resistor banks to original layout I should then have a
520 upgrade to remove just as it went in. Would be able to install it
into Andrews machine for a small consideration. Hmmm...
LATER.....
A letter arrived from Working Title. 'We do not recommend the upgrade for
application with TOS 1 because of a disk reading bug please phone
us.......
'Yes, I have TOS 1'
'Ok we'll send your manual and cheque back...'
How much is a TOS upgrade? Phone Evesham:
'Well Surr', said our American friend, '£40 for the upgrade and we have
really good fitting service for ...'
'Yes, ok, OK. I'll think about it...'
MEANWHILE BACK AT RONS...
The shifter chip is in ok. 'How did you do that then?'
'Well, I took my little hacksaw and lopped the big socket from the phone
and bobs yer uncle. Now if you will put it all together while I have My
dinner...'
So with a tumbler of water from the Emerald Isle alongside to help me,
the bits all snapped together the SIMMS sits nicely along the top of the
main shield just below the ridge and the leads all run nice and tight.
The bridging leads supplied are a bit naff and nice soldered connections
are better if it can be managed.
- AND WE HAD A PIECE LEFT OVER -
- JUST LIKE GRANDADS ALARM CLOCK NOW WHERE DOES THAT GO?-
Phone Evesham again. It was simply the alternative MMU fitting because
there are two types, just throw it away said our friend.
What? Ron throw something away? No chance!!.
LATER STILL.....
'Ah Andrew, how would you like a nice half meg upgrade for free-'
'Oh yes!...What's the catch then?'
'Nothing really... I'll swap your TOS swap for mine'
'Does it matter then?'
'Not for you Andrew but it would help me'
So with Andrews machine under arm we march back to Ron. Fork out £6 for
a set of sockets for the RAM and a quick TOS swap.
There we are, Andrew can play his one meg games and do home accounts, and
I now have 2,5 meg RAM and TOS 1.4 it was dead easy...
If you have a mate named Ron, that is.
~~~OOOO~~~