Hello!

[deanclaxton]

Hi everyone! 

I'm located in Brisbane and have very recently picked up my first Microbee(s) - a 64K Series II with dual 5.25"floppy drive unit, and also a 256TC.

I'm actively involved with the Apple II community, where along with Jeff Mazur in the USA I developed the ROMX line of products (https://theromexchange.com).

I also have some Commodore gear (C64, Amiga 500, 600, 1000, 1200), and a BBC.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to learning about the Microbee and getting the 64K unit working as I just get a black screen currently, but I have absolutely no idea what it should come up with - should it beep? I've only tried it with an external power pack - havent tried the disk unit yet. Also havent fired up the 256TC as I'll need to aquire or build a power supply for that one.

It seems I need to apply for repository access - I'm keen to lay my hands on schematics to aid my troubleshooting/repair, and also to get some ideas about about what I could develop for this platform

Cheers,
Dean

[CheshireNoir]

Hi Dean,
Good to see you made it here. The team should be able to grant you access shortly. In the meantime, if you're getting a black flashing cursor on the 64k system, that's normal. Means it's waiting for a disk to boot from :-)
(That fooled me too.)

John

[ChickenMan]

Welcome to the forum Dean

As John said, a black screen with a flashing solid cursor top left corner means its waiting for a disk to boot.

Just tried to look at your Apple site but get "Website certificate revoked" error and wont let to go there.

[Ernest]

Hi Dean & welcome to the Forum,
Try holding down the M key when you power up the 64K and regardless of a drive unit fitted or not, if the M key is working and all else being good it should take you straight to the Monitor.
That will at least tell you that it is initialising OK and that the Video driver is working OK.
From there you can test your keys and find which ones are working and which ones may need attention (don't be surprised if many don't work).

You should be able to use the same power pack / cable arrangement for powering your 256TC it will only be in Monochrome being from the 5 pin DIN output, but a good place to start. The TC will boot into a Menu regardless of any boot disks present. From the menu you can run a diagnostic test on the system or into the Monitor as described for the 64K above.
But I would also ensure that the RTC battery is no longer present if one was ever fitted.

Ernest

[deanclaxton]

Welcome to the forum Dean

As John said, a black screen with a flashing solid cursor top left corner means its waiting for a disk to boot.

Just tried to look at your Apple site but get  "Website certificate revoked" error and wont let to go there.

Hi,
in regard to theromexchange.com that certificate issue should have been resolved now - my son was doing some work on the script that updates the certificate automatically, and I think it should be ok now.

I'll give that a go and see if I get a cursor (thanks John  ) I dont think I was getting any output whatsoever but will give that another go.


Cheers,
Dean

---

Hi Dean & welcome to the Forum,
Try holding down the M key when you power up the 64K and regardless of a drive unit fitted or not, if the M key is working and all else being good it should take you straight to the Monitor.
That will at least tell you that it is initialising OK and that the Video driver is working OK.
From there you can test your keys and find which ones are working and which ones may need attention (don't be surprised if many don't work).

You should be able to use the same power pack / cable arrangement for powering your 256TC it will only be in Monochrome being from the 5 pin DIN output, but a good place to start. The TC will boot into a Menu regardless of any boot disks present. From the menu you can run a diagnostic test on the system or into the Monitor as described for the 64K above.
But I would also ensure that the RTC battery is no longer present if one was ever fitted.

Ernest

Thanks Ernest, I'll try M if I get a cursor. I got lucky with the 256TC - the RTC battery has been removed and it looks clean from my initial inspection.

The power pack I have is 12V - I think the 256TC is 10V but I havent looked at the input side to see what it can handle.

Cheers,
Dean

[ChickenMan]

The power pack I have is 12V - I think the 256TC is 10V but I havent looked at the input side to see what it can handle.

Cheers,
Dean

Best is a 9v or 10v power pack for the 256TC.

[deanclaxton]

Ok good news! Its alive (64k machine) and after multiple M presses (the first few times the key was unresponsive) I managed to get the monitor prompt with title "Disk Monitor c85" displayed along the top. There are a heap of unresponsive keys so I guess that will be my first mission - remove and clean ALL of the keyswitches.

Then I'll check whether there is a later monitor I should be burning into the EPROM, and I'll hook up the floppy unit - I dont have any disks though - I don''t suppose there are flux images of any of the Microbee disks that can be written out via Applesauce FDC? Else I guess I'll install a GoTek (or similar).

And then I'll check out schematics (once I have repository access) and take it from there.

That's the plan as of now anyway

[Ernest]

Then I'll check whether there is a later monitor I should be burning into the EPROM......

That's a great start Dean,
To change or not to change the Boot ROM depends on the current revision of Boot ROM, if the Mainboard is a Premium or a Standard etc.
There are boot disk images available in the Repository once you have applied for access and agreed to the terms and conditions.

You may like to start a new Thread in the Microbee Hardware section to go from here, rather than in the Introductions section.

PS As the 256TC uses an internal switchmode power supply, taking the DC input and producing the required regulated 5V for internal distribution, the input (within reason) is not a big deal for short term testing. Long term the supply will run a little hotter with 12V as against 10V however it is very well designed with a very decent sized heat sink. 

Ernest