Hello from sweden! :D

[Oxidewolf]

I logged in recently after finding a microbee at the local trash sorting facility, it was in the electrical appliances container, covered by a few cables, and still in the box. i hadnt heard anything about the microbee, nor was i aware of the existance of it, so finding a microcomputer that i hadnt heard of before, that was still in the packaging, and seemed really unique, was really thrilling to me. I immediatly asked if i could buy it, but ended up getting it for free! 

The model seems to be a 
series II 32K personal communicator

Opening it up revealed three things:
. The board was in tip top condition
. The CMOS battery was completely rotten (now removed) 
. A modification had ben made in form of a volume knob on the inside for the speaker. as well as some resistors soldered between the main board and the ram. (wich i first mistook as being some crude attempt at a password or something before paying some more attention)

And starting it (after soldering a power supply to an AC jack) revealed it was still working! Im fairly new to retrocomputing, so this is my first ever microcomputer to boot!

I really just have two questions:
1.why is 1 print "hello"
                2 GOTO 1
   Not working?
2. Is the microbee supposed to generate ANY heat around the power connector whatsoever?

Thanks in advance!

[Robert]

1.why is 1 print "hello"
                2 GOTO 1
   Not working?

Thanks in advance!

What does it do?

[CheshireNoir]

Hi OxideWolf,
Welcome to the Microbee community. Just be warned it can be addictive :-)
(I went from wanting a single unit, to having four different models, as well as designing upgrades and buying and assembling new "core" boards.)
On your questions about heat, depending on the model, there can be a voltage regulator just behind the power connector. Now the 32k models don't usually have one right there, but it is on that side of the board, but closer to the keyboard. It might be that you're feeling the heat from that coming out as that's one of the few places it can escape.
It's possible the PSU is running a bit higher voltage than you need, and I know a lot of us "tweak" the power input to be closer to 9.5-10V (Depending on a range of things) to extend the life of our systems and eliminate heat.
I'll pull out a BASIC 'bee tonight and see what happens if I type in your simple program and report back.

Cheers!

John

[CheshireNoir]

Hi Oxidewolf. I tried that 2 line basic on an appropriate Microbee and it worked fine for me :-)

John

[ChickenMan]

Hi and welcome to the forum

That Hello program should work if Basic is running. The computer should also sound a beep when it enters Basic soon after you turn it on. Have you been able to measure voltages from the Regulator. Are you able to remove the top cover and take a photo of the coreboard and also what you see on the video screen and paste them here?

[Oxidewolf]

Hi OxideWolf,
Welcome to the Microbee community. Just be warned it can be addictive :-)
(I went from wanting a single unit, to having four different models, as well as designing upgrades and buying and assembling new "core" boards.)
On your questions about heat, depending on the model, there can be a voltage regulator just behind the power connector. Now the 32k models don't usually have one right there, but it is on that side of the board, but closer to the keyboard. It might be that you're feeling the heat from that coming out as that's one of the few places it can escape.
It's possible the PSU is running a bit higher voltage than you need, and I know a lot of us "tweak" the power input to be closer to 9.5-10V (Depending on a range of things) to extend the life of our systems and eliminate heat.
I'll pull out a BASIC 'bee tonight and see what happens if I type in your simple program and report back.

Cheers!

John

Thanks for responding CheshireNoir!

The voltage im using does indeed seem to be too high, (dont worry im not going to use the bee untill i have a better adapter) im using a 11v 1amp dc adapter from an ol jvc cam with a DC jack soldered to it. And one of the ram chips was becoming quite warm during extended usage. 
Seeing as you said that heat should only be coming from the voltage regulator, i know for sure i need a different adapter 😀 thanks a lot!

Also sorry for not responding back so soon! I dont get the forum notifications for some reason...

Cheers!

---

1.why is 1 print "hello"
                2 GOTO 1
   Not working?

Thanks in advance!

What does it do?

If done correctly, should start spamming "hello" all over the console. (Goto basically tells the program TOGO back (or forwards) to a specific numbered code line and continue from there)

---

Hi Oxidewolf. I tried that 2 line basic on an appropriate Microbee and it worked fine for me :-)

John

Thanks for trying! I guess im just doing something wrong! 😅

[CheshireNoir]

Hi Oxidewolf,
No worries it all!
I think Robert was asking was " Instead of spamming "hello" down the page, what happens? Does it give an error message?
When it starts up, does it give you a welcome message? It should be something along the lines of:

Applied Technology MicroWorld Level II Basic. Ver 5.10

Copyright Matthew Starr 1982 for Microworld

>_

but may be a bit different depending on the version of the ROMs.

If you're not getting that, are you getting a solid block cursor? (The system may have been upgraded to a DRAM disk unit, later on in it's life.)
If you're getting a block cursor, try holding down the M key while you turn it on. Should take you into the machine code monitor. This will show if the system is working.

Cheers!

John

[Oxidewolf]

Hi and welcome to the forum

That Hello program should work if Basic is running.  The computer should also sound a beep when it enters Basic soon after you turn it on.  Have you been able to measure voltages from the Regulator.  Are you able to remove the top cover and take a photo of the coreboard and also what you see on the video screen and paste them here?

So this is the rumoured chickenman everyone has ben talking about ...

Thanks for responding chikenman! 

No i havent measured the voltage from the regulator yet but will as soon as i can! I also struggle to upload anything, the images are to large, and the website doesnt seem to insert google drive URL's as valid images, so i will have use my pc later today, ill be back soon with photos! An thanks yet again for the response!

---

Hi Oxidewolf,
No worries it all!
I think Robert was asking was " Instead of spamming "hello" down the page, what happens? Does it give an error message?
When it starts up, does it give you a welcome message? It should be something along the lines of:

Applied Technology MicroWorld Level II Basic. Ver 5.10

Copyright Matthew Starr 1982 for Microworld

>_ 



but may be a bit different depending on the version of the ROMs.

If you're not getting that, are you getting a solid block cursor? (The system may have been upgraded to a DRAM disk unit, later on in it's life.)
If you're getting a block cursor, try holding down the M key while you turn it on. Should take you into the machine code monitor. This will show if the system is working.

Cheers!

John

Thanks for pointing that out! I really misunderstood his message 😅 also, the machine is booting fine, i get the message, the cursor is normal, and the machine is not a disk unit. When typing a program in basic, i write a command, press BREAK to go down, and press RETURN to run it, after making my initial post i noticed that when pressing ENTER it would only run the last written command, should i use other keys? Or is something wrong with the machine in this case?

[CheshireNoir]

Hi Oxidewolf,
Just hit "RETURN" after each line, and after any commands you need like "run" or "list". The "break" key is used to break out of a running program.
So I would type the following (with the "enter" key represented by [RETURN]:
10 print "hello world"[RETURN]20 goto 10[RETURN]run[RETURN]
and that should enter and run your example file.

(Edited because sometimes I am an idiot)

Hope this helps!

John

[Oxidewolf]

Hi Oxidewolf,
Just hit "RETURN" after each line, and after any commands you need like "run" or "list". The "break" key is used to break out of a running program.
So I would type the following (with the "enter" key represented by [RETURN]:
10 print "hello world"[RETURN]20 goto 10[RETURN]run[RETURN]
and that should enter and run your example file.

(Edited because sometimes I am an idiot)

Hope this helps!

John

Thanks! I will try it out as soon as i can!