Date   : Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:53:18 +0100
From   : "BeebMaster" <beebmaster@...>
Subject: Re: Zif thingy

The ROM Box I have was made by Micro Pulse.  There are some pictures of
it here:

http://www.beebmaster.co.uk/GreatestFind/ROMBox.html

Actually it's a terrible picture taken with my original digital camera
over 2 years ago so it's
overdue for an update!!

I haven't taken it to pieces but I should think it's a fairly simple design
which could probably be
replicated for a home project.  I would warn you about the problems I have
had with it though.  It
really did cause havoc with the Master it was attached to; squiggles on
start-up, unusual errors,
sudden crashes etc etc so I would only do it if absolutely necessary.

What is your "Stealth Master"?

Best wishes,



Ian




----- Original Message -----
From: neil f
To:  "'BeebMaster'" <beebmaster@...>
Sent: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 09:06:14 +0100
Subject: RE: [BBC-Micro] Zif thingy

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Majordomo List Manager [mailto:majordomo@...] 
> On Behalf Of BeebMaster
> Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 12:14 AM
> To: info@...
> Cc: bbc-micro@...
> Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Zif thingy
> 
> I think the original idea for the ROM socket on the BBC 
> keyboard was part of the Speech Upgrade, to allow you to put 
> in additional Phrase ROM cartridges, although none were ever 
> issued.  The only Phrase ROM is the Kenneth Kendall one which 
> fits on the BBC B/B+ motherboard.  It could also apparently 
> be used for "serial ROMs" (I'm not sure how these differed 
> from "paged ROMs" which is how the standard BBC ROMs are 
> known because they are paged in and out of the same bit of 
> the memory map depending on which one is being used at the 
> time) but I don't think any of these were ever produced.  The 
> socket was (I think) a connector suitable to take a little 
> cartridge with an edge connector rather than being a 28-pin 
> ROM socket.  This was connected to the BBC motherboard by a 
> 10-way ribbon cable going from a plug on the BBC keyboard to 
> the right of the speaker which would be added as part of the 
> speech upgrade to the plug on the motherboard just below the 
> speech chips.
> 
> Viglen brought out their cartridge system which, similar to 
> what Sprow has described below, was a ribbon cable that 
> plugged into a spare ROM socket on the motherboard and then 
> went round to the keyboard socket hole ending in an edge 
> connector for the black Viglen cartridges.
> 
> I have found this system very unreliable as I think the 
> length of the ribbon cable causes problems with the Beeb's 
> timings giving unpredictable results.  For a long time I had 
> a ROM Box connected to my Master 128 (similar thing with a 
> ribbon cable connecting either to one of the motherboard ROM 
> sockets or to an empty socket in a ROM cartridge as I had it, 
> and ending in a box which could take
> 8 ROMs and a dial to select which) but I recently removed it 
> because it made the Master very unstable.  And of course 
> turning the dial on the ROMBox and then trying to type 
> something before pressing CTRL-BREAK was always amusing...
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> 
> Ian
> ----- Original Message -----

Ian, was your rom box a diy affair or a commercial design? I'm thinking
of making something similar for occasional use with my 'Stealth Master'
as it only has the one keyboard rom socket available. It would be
interesting to know if a published design existed.

-Neil F.


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