The First Acorn Electron ULA for (nearly) 40 Years!

[@redbrook1]

The "banana for scale" 😂 Subbed

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Welcome 😁

[@Mainyehc]

Now we’re getting into a true “Electron of Theseus” moment 😂

[@Mikee512]

Great Philosophy Reference!

[@andrewtaylor4802]

It's great to see new technologies used to keep our retro hardware going 👍👍

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Yes indeed!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Great video as always, Lee. You're a more patient man than me when it comes to SMD soldering - I'd have just gotten [insert favourite PCB fabrication sponsor here] to do all of those horrible little bits and bobs! Anyway, the Electron was our first computer and therefore very dear to my heart - I also have one with a dead ULA so very interested indeed in checking this out!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Thank you Rees 😁 We can talk about getting you a JamSoftElectronULA made up for your broken Elk

[@andygozzo72]

that white 'fur' on the keyboard connector is very common for anything made of that type of plastic, whatever it is, i've seen it loads of times, mostly on piher plastic cased preset resistors and some switches i got from maplin in the mid 2000s, they've gone 'furry' already , it can cause corrosion to copper parts, usually a squirt of contact cleaner and a brushing gets rid of it and hopefully reduces it coming back , its stuff that leaches out of the plastic as it ages, and i think is worse if the plastic is in 'damp' conditions

[@markwrightrf]

For British viewers, retrobriting is easily achieved by leaving the case in a bath of hot water, Ajax, Jif cream and Jeyes Fluid.for two days, regularly reheating the water (as we have no sunlight over here) That space bar would blind you ;-) Great video.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Ah you just described my daily foot hygiene routine!

[@BreakIntoProgram]

Great video Lee - nice to know that if my Elk ever fails it is not beyond repair. Also, appreciated the honest make of the ULA replacement itself. Keep up the good work!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Thanks Dean! We're getting there one chip at a time! :D

[@networkg]

The pillage of Rome by the Vandals was a walk in the park compared to the horrendous hands that ripped these boards apart. But, it is great to see and have documented the restoration of the remains.

[@frozendude707]

Thy needesth a pre-heater/board heater, it's merely a heated metal plate (like those USB tea cup heaters) with a temperature sensor and control board, so should be an easy project if commercial ones are unavailable or too expensive.

[@TheStuartstardust]

A reflow oven or a heated plate, then a 3 dollar solder mask would be worth it for 0402 stuff.

[@TrimeshSZ]

"Thou needest" - "Thy" is 'Yours"

[@frozendude707]

@@TrimeshSZ "needest" is misspellt as well, it was a lingustic joke on my part.

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

What a fantastic ride that was... with some super funky music too. You have the patience of a saint and the hands of a surgeon with those teeny tiny chips. Isn't it amazing that's there are so many clever people having fun and solving problems with these lovely old computers?

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Funky!

[@leesmithsworkshop]

I really do think using a stencil, solder paste and hot air would have made it so much easier to make this board. I remember when Chris first started on this project so it's great to see it actually working and the turbo fix is a fantastic bonus.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Cheers Lee!

[@mogwaay]

Hi Lee Smith! Yes, it's been a long time coming, really glad to get it to a 'release' stage! Ta for your old microscope btw if have never got those first boards made without it! Only issue with stencil and paste is that it's a 2 sided board and I've no idea how you deal with that and a hotplate, hot air probably? Cheers!

[@leesmithsworkshop]

@@mogwaay I was told you use two types of solder paste one with lower temp so 130 on side 1 and one higher 260 on the other. I have not tried this, but it should work.

[@mogwaay]

@@leesmithsworkshop interesting, I have to investigate that, thanks. I think more assembly at JLCPCB is probably the way forward tho as would have to invest more in hotplates, etc... or I crack out my pan of sand that I did first time!

[@leesmithsworkshop]

@@mogwaay It's quite a tricky build with those small components and think Lee is better than most so a good example. having them made would be a better choice IMO so perhaps get a quote and see what interest you have.

[@RetroRecollections]

Great video and a nice build. Some of those bits were tiny! We desperately NEED solutions like these for those machine with aging and failing custom chips. Many have them already and now so does the Electron, but there are still a few gaps!

[@QubaMichalski]

Your videos are getting better and better each time. Great edit, fun jokes, brilliant timing. Thanks so much for continued content!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Thank you! Love to hear this 😁

[@Jenny_Digital]

Wonderful to see the Elk getting some FPGA love! This was my very first computer, and the one that I learned to code on as a _very_ young kid. My poor mum marched to Dixons not once, but FIVE times to get mine replaced. Little did anyone know I’d discovered the edge connector could make fascinating patterns on the screen. I was only 7 by that point.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I hope you confessed eventually! :D

[@Jenny_Digital]

@@MoreFunMakingIt over 30 years later, I did.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

@@Jenny_Digital 😆 I bet they acted all shocked

[@Jenny_Digital]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Having figured out my curiosity early in life (everything fell apart in my hands so I could see inside), they weren’t surprised at all. I grew up to be an engineer BTW.

[@stuartaxon2898]

I want to see the patterns (but without sacrificing more hardware)

[@slincolne]

Sometimes the best way to solder SMD parts is not to. I use JLCPCB for many of my project boards, and they have an assembly service which will supply the parts and build up the board. The lesson I learnt was that the parts they sell are often so cheap compared to local sources that the boards often turn out cheaper that way than doing it myself. Next time you are looking at doing something like this, see if your board supplier can do the same and look at the costs.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I very much prefer to take on the challenge myself. Of course you can get the pro's to do it for you, but where's the fun in that? ;)

[@danmerillat]

@@MoreFunMakingIt A good microscope, soldering iron, reflow heatgun, a syringe of solder paste or a laser cut mask and you can place everything and watch surface tension work its magic. Still, after more than a couple boards I'm happy to hand it off to the pros. I've done prototype runs of 10 boards * 150 parts and it's just tedious.

[@fredfred2363]

ULAs, old PLDs, some GALs and old type FPGAs use fuse link technology to wire the logic inside the chip. Imagine a whole bunch of wire links which need to be disconnected, or "blown" like a fuse. During programming, the fuses are individually selected, then blown. The concept works well, but not always in practice. The fuse residue occasionally partially grows back, causing failures. A bit like Nicad battery dendrite growth. It was all replaced using UVPROM cell connections, then later with EEPROM (FLASH) memory.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Brilliant info. Thank you!

[@TrimeshSZ]

Those Ferranti ULAs were mask programmed - it was actually quite a clever system where the only bit you had to change was the top metal layer, which contained a mixture of fixed interconnects and the ones needed to implement the customer logic. It also had a bunch of connections built into the top Si layer which you could connect to via holes in the SiO2 insulation layer in case you needed to cross over two signals since you only had one freely routable layer (the Al top interconnect).

[@TheGunnarRoxen]

Awesome! I don't have an Elk but I loooove stuff like this. It's amazing how these talented people make it easier to support these devices now thatn when they were new!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

So many clever people. And willing to share their hard work for free! Amazing

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

Those small parts... if only you'd have a reversible shrink ray. Enlarge it, build it easily, make it small again. Loved our Elektron. Had just a few games but Tynesoft's Kastle was one of the hardest and most impressive I ever played.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

The only thing getting in our way is SCIENCE!

[@RetroBytesUK]

Finally got to watch the last 10mins (my kids kept interrupting me), fantastic video Lee. Thanks for the shout out towards the end. It's great we finally have a ULA replacement for the Electron. It makes me want to rush out and buy a broken electron just so I can save it. Although I will admit, you are far far more patient with surface mount soldering than me, so I may loose my mind long before I would end up getting the ULA board soldered up. I love that he has implemented a version of the turbo mod in the ULA replacement, I am wondering is there sufficient space left on the FPGA to implement RobC's NULA extension, which lets software re-map the colour pallet. I love that this not only will save a whole bunch of un-fixable electrons, but also opens up a whole world of enhancements for the ELK that are currently BBC only.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Cheers John! There's a lot of stuff in the works by those clever Stardot people. I believe someone is creating a new Electron motherboard with all of the new ULA mounted on it! Wont be long till someone starts implementing even more clever things into the design.

[@mikepartin571]

the Micro Men + LOTR nod definitely earned a sub 😂

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I was a little bit pleased with myself with that bit 😆

[@mikepartin571]

@@MoreFunMakingIt and rightly so lol

[@JulsGeekPI]

Thanks for taking care to preserve hardware

[@fredfred2363]

I used to repair Electrons a while back... To fix a dead Elk, simply increase the value of the two current limiting resistors next to the ULA. Never fails to work.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I'll have to look into that. Might not have fixed my last Elk with failed RAM 😜

[@stuartaxon2898]

Lovely stuff, it's great to see replacement ULAs happening.

[@scriptguru8]

Thanks for the excellent video. The part with soldering would look even better with Benny Hill music in background (no offence!). In my experience, using solder paste (which is a mix of solder and flux) and hot air for the initial soldering, and then a soldering iron to fix solder bridges (if needed) works best. Not that I am pro at soldering, but I've successfully assembled a few SMD boards, and tried different methods. The approach I've described above worked by far the best. I've seen people successfully put just enough solder paste where it was needed, but I never could do that. I've always used a toothpick to put the right amount of solder paste where it was needed, or put it there with a syringe and then removed the excess with a toothpick.

[@bazza5699]

blimey, lee, that soldering is very impressive, i don't know how you have the patience...i'd have lost my rag with it haha..

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I find it strangely satisfying!

[@00wheelie00]

Impressive. Have you tried just tinning the pads then soldering the components on with the heatgun? Or was the ground plane soaking all your heat? Edit: never mind I'm now further into the video and you did justbthat on a couple of components.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

In that aspect , we Atari 8bit users are screwed. We have a custom Freddie chip, a custom Antic chip, a custom GTIA chip, a custom Pokey chip, a custom MMU , a custom delay line chip and a custom 6502 Sally chip. Jay Miner went overboard with the custom silicon used in his first computer but at least the quality of those chips has been proven really good. There are modern replacements but they are getting expensive (fpga in some cases) and availability is a constant issue.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

These things will work themselves out in time. More people will turn their attention onto the other projects as the low hanging fruit gets solved.

[@frankowalker4662]

I managed to pick up a working Elk about 5 years ago off ebay for £15 with 15 tapes. I did the colour composite output mod and got an SD card interface. It's fun to program.

[@franciscomeza8905]

Thanks for the info MFMI as I like to tinker on my elk cheers.

[@DimasFajar-ns4vb]

peace be upon you sir

[@Graham_Wideman]

Mr More-Fun -- I admire your persistence in the soldering department, but... let me add my 2p to the advice given by others. A soldering hot plate can make your life easier when soldering tiny parts to pads connected to large area of ground or power copper, especially if thermal reliefs are missing. (They are available for about $40 for a 100mm x 100 mm unt.) One way to use the hot plate is as a poor man's reflow oven: apply paste to the pads, and place the components on, the stick the board on the hot place etc. However, an alternative is as an assist to hand soldering with an iron: There you sit the board on the hot plate and heat it up something below soldering temperature, say 150 to 180C. Then when you go to solder with the iron, the tip has a much easier job heating the pads to soldering temp, even when they're attached to a larger area of copper. In this role the hotplate stands in for a proper (and more expensive) rework station.

[@yandyyay]

Very nice, great to know a solution is now possible

[@LiamGoodison]

Your face when it was working...priceless

[@homr836]

Quality video as always Lee. It's great to hear that a simple(ish) ULA replacement is now available for the Elk. I just need to get the power supply working on mine to see if the rest of the board is toast or not. Yes, I also bought mine from a questionable FB seller.......

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Thank you! And good luck with your repair. My original Elk had a broken PSU. Turned out the board was cracked by the power jack.

[@homr836]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Cheers Lee, I reflowed all of the solder joints and I'm at my wits end with this one. I found a blown power amp at Q5 but that blew again after a few minutes of prodding around with the fluke. My attention is drawn to IC1 but I have no idea what the replacement is. Maybe another repair video is in the air 🤔..............

[@RetrogradeScene]

Great project and expertly covered!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

How dare you call me an expert sir! ;)

[@brianwild4640]

Now we need these clever people to do this to the antic chip in the Atari 8 bits especially the pal version which is getting harder to find

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

So many Atari chips need this treatment!

[@RetroMarkyRM]

Always good to see more love for the Elk. :)

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

An undiscovered gem of the retro world

[@RetroMarkyRM]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Definitely. I might pick one up I think. Good work with the videos

[@albert_vds]

So does that mean that the Acorn Electron is now the cheapest home computer to recreate? My favorite unintentional wordplay of the day is "This driveway covered in electrons".

[@PixelOverload]

I've gotta assume the snapped ceramics are from being roughly jammed in a box full of other scrapped boards, maybe the mangled keyboard connectors were being used to train new techs?

[@SiaVids]

Each ground connection could have done with being a pad with several thin traces linking it to the ground plane. It would have made things so much easier.

[@SobieRobie]

Great video! Nice lights BTW ;)

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

❤️ Thank you!

[@LisiasToledo]

The real problem on the ELK's ULA (that piles up with the general problems already present on the ULAs built on that time) is that Acorn **made a mistake**. The 6502 doesn't even try to help the HW designer on avoiding short circuits on the databus due hysteresis. Whoever designed the ELK, didn't combined PHI1 e PHI2 in order to prevent the hysteresis from playing havoc on the data bus between reads and writes. This millions of pretty small short circuits taxes the ULA's components over time, leading to it's irremediable demise sooner or later. If this ULA replacement doesn't handles PHI1 and PHI2 correctly, there's a chance this will end up happening to it too on the long run (besides probably way long run, as these things uses a voltage converter between them and the system's data bus, alleviating the problem a bit)

[@ocsrc]

That looks a lot like the Color Computer

[@Rockythefishman]

Great video Lee, its an aGreat video Lee, its an great product that really does fill in need. My soldering skills are not good enough for that level. My hats off to you mzing product that really does fill in need. My soldering skills are not good enough for that level. My hats off to you Great video Lee, its an amzing product that really does fill in need. My soldering skills are not good enough for that level. My hats off to you

[@willyarma_uk]

I bought a tiny hot plate for PCBs a while ago, I have yet to test it out on anything but I'm wondering if it would have helped you if you had one. I'd never go smaller than 0805 on anything I design, 0402 is ridiculously tiny!! Well done!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Thank you! I think a hot plate is a good idea too. Others have said the same kind of thing.

[@andygozzo72]

replace the bbc video ula with modern parts?? oo how!! didnt know it had been done!

[@tejp5101]

I can feel my blood pressure rising in sympathy watching the SMD soldering.....

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Deep breaths!

[@kwanchan6745]

@@MoreFunMakingIt just tin the pads and use hot air whilst pinning the component down with a pin or tweezers to prevent it moving under the airflow

[@tejp5101]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Perifractic's SMD video was really helpful kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJiqcn1rordjmLc

[@jnharton]

Depending on the exact chip packaging, it may be sufficient to tack down the corner pins and then do drag-soldering followed by cleanup with flux and desoldering wick. Not always as clean or pretty, but it does work.

[@RayBellis]

The lack of 5V parts these days is such a PITA - it makes interfacing with these retro systems *so* much harder :(. I really hope the next iteration of the RP2040 comes with 5V tolerant GPIOs!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

For sure. There must be a market for this!

[@jnharton]

It's not that difficult to make or purchase a "level shifter/translator", you just have to make sure it will do for your particular use case. The simplest method involves using one transistor in each direction for every I/O line (8 bits -> 16 transistors) where the transmit line of device A is used to switch a transistor the drives the receive line of device B. Ideally you want to use identical circuitry to match the characteristics/timing so that you get reliable communications. ----- You could always design a custom Pico board that includes that functionality. I know we all want the easy route, but that doesn't help you learn anything.

[@RayBellis]

@@jnharton yes, I know how to do level translation. However I've seen numerous retro projects that are made significantly larger and/or more complicated by the requirement. I expect this particular project could probably have been done on a single PCB instead of a two PCB stack if the FPGA was 5V tolerant.

[@donpalmera]

The pads going to ground should have a trace to the ground fill instead of being part of the fill really. If the board was done in kicad he needs to check the thermal relief setting for the ground fills.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I will pass that on to Chris :D

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

Agreed. The thermal reliefs for grounds and common connections on the resistor pack are far too chunky for hand soldering. They'd be find if soldering using a hot plate though.

[@polymatt]

"Oh come on, America" 😂

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

😆

[@EC5ABG]

Muy interesante, y como siempre gran trabajo.👍

[@arminth]

Banana for scale made me almost pee my pants! 😂

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

🍌

[@sydmichel]

looks like you could do with one of those pads to pre-heat the board.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I think so too. I will look into it

[@vincei4252]

I had an Electron. Someone borrowed it and never gave it back, then disappeared.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

It wasn't me!

[@vincei4252]

@@MoreFunMakingIt LMAO. It was a loooong time ago. The image of the guys face has faded from my memory. I don't even remember his name. I did kinda regret getting an Electron as opposed to a full blown BBC Micro which is why I lent it out. Oh well. Good to see these computers getting second lease on life instead of landfill.

[@Graham_Wideman]

Perhaps it met a Proton, and now it's part of hydrogen and floated away.

[@4bSix86f61]

16:20 SMT components should be reflowed and 0805 -or 0603- resistors would be more sensible.

[@TheDavidPoole]

I had an Acorn Atom that I built. Maxed out to a "massive" 8kRAM and 12K ROM! Or was it the other way round?. With FP ROM! I always wanted a Beeb, but my mate had one and I was always round his house playing Elite 😀 Obviously, I transitioned to the Amiga after. 500 then 1500 and 1200. When they went silly, I moved over to PCs.

[@67amiga]

The pads that you had issues with the solder flowing, probably had some oxidation on them. Best way to deal with them is to remove the component and pre-tin the pad with flux and solder; just like you did with that first resistor array. Use of the round solder tip just takes practice to get used too. But I say, Do what works for you.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I gave both boards a good scrub with IPA, and it was only the resistor arrays that were a problem. Chris had exactly the same issue with them. I think they're just a tricky part and need a bit more attention.

[@another3997]

Great video. You're extremely patient... I can't solder to save my life. As for the boards themselves, there really are some very clever, very patient and also very generous people out there. The time and effort that goes into research, designing, building and testing is amazing. 🫡

[@colincurrie9151]

I would never have though such a small board could suck up so much heat, and make it that difficult.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

It surprised me too!

[@TechMadeEasyUK]

I’m gonna be all over this like a bad rash, desperately need to get my Elk working

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I got you mate

[@TechMadeEasyUK]

@@MoreFunMakingIt 😮

[@simmo1024]

Cool. I've been waiting for an electron ULA. Next though, replacing the 4-but memory completely with 8 bit. Since it is all handled by the ULA anyway, should be doable. I wonder if you can just desolder the onboard ram, and drop another chip on the ULA daughter board...

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

There is another project in the works to do just this.

[@markwrightrf]

At last... the British Adrian's Digital Basement 🙂 10:46 "It's only flippin' workin', ain't it, guv'nor!" Now, I just want to see you opening up some American candy and complaining that it's not British ;-) For the more serious minded, wonderful, intricate work.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I did get sent some American "sweets" recently and they were bloody lovely! :D

[@Gastell0]

15:00 - Not really soldering myself, but it seems like you need a heating pad for the PCB itself to avoid these issues?

[@Ucceah]

you have the partience of a zen master, to tend to ancient machine spirits with loving dedication. not even dreading to risk your organic soul, though the heresy of innovatiion. (that would make some sick, cringy 40k nerd dad rap lyrics :"D ) may the omnissiah light your path. for the machine is immortal!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I might have to plug this into an AI music generator

[@outaspaceman]

I’m just about to replace the PSU caps..😃👍

[@alexloktionoff6833]

For me it looks overcomplicated, 0805 at least could be used instead, they are much more DIY friendly than 0402

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

Yes. Even 0603 is just about manageable, but I see no benefit in going smaller.

[@jasejj]

I'm guessing it should be possible to buy these in from the like of JLC with the SMD stuff already soldered for not much more than the cost of the boards and parts. Great to see these old machines getting a new lease of life.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I think thats possible. One thing I forgot to show in the video is the other side of the top board is covered in tiny components already soldered there by the PCB manufacturer. Not sure they do assembly on both sides?

[@jasejj]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Going to have to look into it - I really need to get an Elk while they're still £35 lol. Damn you for spending more of my hard-earned lol.

[@stephenu-x2w]

Man for me it was zx81 zx spectrum the BBC model 2 another mate had a c64 at high school we had an Econet of 12 BBC micros. One had a disk drive. That was the one I played elite on I ha e a copy of Elite for the BBC micros it has the key thing you put over the function keys I could take this all day ! N!

[@bzuidgeest]

Get a hotplate. And a stencil for that board. Would have saved you hours by looks of that soldering mess.

[@WistrelChianti]

Yay!!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Woohoo!

[@gorak9000]

It looks like you're using crappy solder, lead free solder, or really poor flux, or some combination of all of those. That soldering looks PAINFUL!

[@andygozzo72]

i sold a working electron plus psu and a few tapes for £60 a few months back, i have another one that has video glitching issues, but its not a bad ula, as i tried swapping them over before i sold the other machine, no different

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Could be the socket?

[@Pantelwolfube]

Do you have a minute to talk about our lord and saviour heating plate + solder paste?

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

*Smacks solder paste out of doorstoppers hands and slams door*

[@jackcybersecurity]

Hi Lee are you the developer of CFR? If so i would like to to build my own Java decompiler and was wondering if you had any recommendations of resources for building a basic one?

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Sorry. Not me! :D

[@aldob5681]

2years of work to play galaga!!!!

[@frankowalker4662]

I hate SMD soldering. My eyesight is failing and my hands shake more than they used to. LOL

[@FhargaZ]

Stupid google autotranslate the title to Bellota electrones and i was thinking "what the hell?" 😅

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Probably a better title 😂

[@ZXSpectrum128K]

320x256 with 16 colours like nula for beeb is that 40kb video ram on a 16k computer?

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

You're asking the wrong person 😆

[@leetucker9938]

you said willy

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Or wont he?

[@jnharton]

It would be nice if solutions like this were not totally dependent on yet another technology which is kind of a black box and will likely evaporate some day...

[@watchmakerful]

These problems with soldering scream bad solder quality.

[@wimwiddershins]

Agree, something's not right.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Simple explanation is bad workmanship. The solder is very good quality loctite multicore

[@watchmakerful]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Also it can be bad PCB design. The ground plane must be connected to the parts by long enough traces, unless they carry high currents.

[@charlesspringer4709]

You need a Kester flux pen #2331-ZX and get rid of that jelly stuff for tiny parts. Solder wet the pads and use no more solder. Have you checked how much voltage your meter is using for continuity?

[@charlesspringer4709]

By the way, if you are not doing so, make your life easy and use tin/lead 37/63 eutectic solder and always have easy-flow and never get a cold joint.

[@watchmakerful]

What are those four long chips around the FPGA? RAM? Why does a ULA need RAM if it is a bunch of logic?

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Level shifters

[@soaphelps]

its gotta be a slight troll to use the smallest smd's to get retro stuff fixed. haha

[@rog2224]

Does it work with Elite?

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I did not try that one! I'm sure it does though. Chris had not found anything that wouldnt run on it.

[@rog2224]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Be interesting to see if the speed boost helps with large debris fields

[@cbmeeks]

Not sure I understand the "mostly free" remark on Linux. I've been using Linux as my main OS for many years doing software development and I have yet to pay any money. Well, except for IntelliJ but that's not a fault of Linux.. 🙂

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

As I said I'm not even close to being an expert on Linux. But I do seem to recall there being paid versions of distros such as Red Hat? Happy to be corrected 😁

[@cbmeeks]

@@MoreFunMakingIt No, that's not true. Sure, you can pay Red Hat (or other companies) for support but it is not required. Red Hat does have some enterprise tools that cost money but again, not required.

[@paul_boddie]

@@cbmeeks Red Hat Enterprise Linux is effectively a paid-for distribution. Yes, the money is ostensibly being handed over for support, and you can get most of the distribution from other sources for free, but you will struggle to get the complete product for free, especially since Red Hat's changes in their kernel distribution policy. And Red Hat also takes a notoriously dim view of people exercising their rights to redistribute the software. Historically, there were distributions that included proprietary software and cost money. Even today, the Raspberry Pi distribution includes proprietary software - I'm not talking about binary firmware - but they aren't charging for it. The only difference between now and twenty or so years ago is that fewer people need to obtain physical media, and so the opportunities for selling distributions have diminished.

[@vanhetgoor]

I rather watch successful SMD soldering, a little bit of flux, then a thingy to keep the part in position, then a small soldertip heating up the part, then solder that has not been approved by the loony bunch in Bruxelles. You can't do it with two hands, a mechanical third hand is needed to keep the part in place, or else a light breeze of breath will blow the part away. Don't show horror porn of partially decapitated computer boards. I don't want to see it. Old computers should be kept in a box, waiting for a revival.

[@rimmersbryggeri]

Those resistor arrays seem to be difficult even if you have a hotplate. Wouldnt want to event try without. You are very persistent.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Stubborn is another word :D

[@rimmersbryggeri]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Yeah could be. :)

[@ntal5859]

30 yrs soldering SMT... For the love of god 3.2 mm spade bit for everything.. get your head around size...it makes no difference 402 or 805. That tip is totally wrong hence your problem.... Spade has two flat sides never use round tips will not help... Flux is you friend and if you tip is bigger then part you can solder both sides same time.

[@fizzyade]

I think those tips are garbage, I think somebody with a channel has been seen using them and then everybody else has followed in a pyramid scheme. You need to hold (or push down on) the component with tweezers on resistors and caps while soldering the other side, the heat conducts straight to the other side hence why you kept losing the component when doing the other pin. Alternatively tip the pads, add flux and with your heat gun on low start apply heat, as the temperature rises the flux will keep the component in place and you can just heat until it reflows and the component pulls into place.

[@jaybee813]

This changes nothing. bla bla bla

[@bazzaar1869]

This is going to come across as blunt and rude, but , you need to learn how to solder.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

You're absolutely right... Not about the soldering bit 🤣

[@beardedsonofnelbeardedsono3877]

Says the guy that has ZERO soldering videos on here 😂🤣😂

[@anoirbentanfous]

Forget about soldering iron and use paste and hot air!

[@TheImperial109]

Really great video and equally great soldering skills. The new ULA will hopefully put a stop to people using poor dead elk key switches in BBC masters! We are lucky to have such skilled and dedicated folk making new stuff for old machines. I seem to recall similar work ongoing for the Amstrad Gate Array replacement.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Thank you! Hopefully this new ULA will see a bit more attention on this deserving machine

[@douro20]

Mogwai? Mogwai is a transliteration of a Cantonese word meaning "monster", "evil spirit" or "demon".

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I'll let him know he's a monster!

[@Zeem4]

Unfortunately, GrandOldIan's Github page that you linked doesn't seem to make any mention of the Electron-PS/2 keyboard adapter, only one for the Amstrad CPC. It piqued my interest, in case there was also a version for the BBC Master 128, because I've got one of those with no keyboard.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I'm sure it will be there in time. I gather this is a new device and he might not be ready to share it yet

[@jnharton]

Worst case you could build one with any old microcontroller as PS/2 is a fairly simple serial protocol. The only real trick is interfacing to your retro computer, but with enough digital I/O lines ( or an I/O expander ) you can easily present high or low signals to a matrix scanning design. ----- IIRC there is even a Ben Eater video demonstrating a way to get input from a PS/2 keyboard via a shift register and some basic logic chips. I think it requires some software assistance from the actual computer end though.

[@Zeem4]

@@jnharton I've seen designs that use a crosspoint switch IC to control the keyboard matrix. I was hoping that the linked GitHub repo may have contained some info that was a bit more novice-friendly, as there are some suitable designs on the Stardot forums but it all went over my head a bit.

[@kajyakuzonik9130]

With so much space left on that board there's really no excuse to use such tiny components - this isn't an apple phone after all! *smh*

[@SeanBZA]

Those broken caps are from being tossed a few times into a pile, either getting lots of other boards slammed against it, or it hitting on the tall parts which are the caps.

[@oshinoyoshida]

lack of flux !

[@xenoxaos1]

The TL866 should be able to flash the flash for the FPGA.