a blast from the past, twice.

[rans6andrew]

I was looking for something up in our loft earlier when I came across my first computer or rather two of them. The good old BBC Micro Model B which I blew most of my student grant (remember when you got them?) on when they were first launched. At the time it saved files to a tape cassette and displayed in colour via a standard TV. It ran rings around the computers we got to use at the University at the time, monochrome display Commodore Pet machines. Before long it was upgraded to have a hard drive and a proper colour monitor, a step which made the text easier to read on the highest resolution. Loved it at the time and learned a lot playing with it. Had some cracking video games as well.

Oh, and it was a doddle to programme.

Anyway, times moved on, the Model B was superceded by another Acorn machine, an Archimedes RISC which really flew. The Model B went into storage.

Now, many generations of computing have been and gone and standards have changed I was just wondering if the good old model B would still work. I have the disc drives last used with it but not the colour monitor. TVs are no longer compatible since terrestrial broadcasting ended.

Does anyone know if any of the current computer monitors can manage the voltage, frame and scan rates of the Model B?

Ta,

Rans6.....

[PJD1]

You can get 6 pin DIN to SCART leads that enable you to plug it into any TV or monitor with a SCART input. Just searched on eBay for "BBC B to SCART" and they seem to be available for about £12.

[jimjim1]

I am not arguing that the SCART solution is not likely the optimal one however I thought that TVs still had analogue UHF inputs. Certainly did not many years ago. Well there is one aerial socket and you can tune up analog channels.

BBC UHF modulator defaults to channel 36 I seem to recall. Of course so did the video recorder, .....
The video quality will be shocking of course.

I sold my BBC micro in the '80s.

Best plan might be to leave it in the loft and download a BBC simulator for your modern PC:-)

[PJD1]

Yes, as long as the TV has a normal coaxial aerial socket (I don't think I've ever seen one that doesn't) then it should be possible to connect to that. From what I understand this will only work in black and white and not produce very good results but would be OK just to test it and at least make sure it works.

[rans6andrew]

Thanks for the responses. I remember the TV picture being in monochrome until a capacitor was soldered across two pads in the video circuit of the Beeb. When in colour the picture was still a bit poor. We solved our bad pictures by recycling a video monitor out of a pub table video game bought cheap at a sale.

If the scart option is a goer I can knock up a cable to do the job, I have the parts in my junk box. I have a tv with scart input, I wonder if any of our spare monitors have scart?

Rans6.........

[PJD1]

If you are making your own cable up it needs to include some resistors, the BBC output is 5v peak to peak but the scart input needs 1v peak to peak. Some info on how to do it here Connecting BBCs and Monitors - MDFS::Info.Comp.BBC.Monitor.BBCtoTV

[jimjim1]

OOPS - I checked, my 3 year old v cheap TV has no analog tuning.

I think that the composite video (BNC connector) should work if connected to the Yellow (usually I think) Phono video in connector on a TV. This is Monochrome only unless the BBC has been modified (one capacitor added or just a link on later models)


Sprow's webpages - how to series
How to connect a standard PC VGA monitor to a BBC micro (see conditions)
How to change the composite video output to colour

I am not an expert but the signals on VGA and SCART are not million miles apart.