To: 999 (all members)
From: K3J (Tony Hobday)
Subject: SLOGGER ROMBOX
I have a Slogger Rombox which I used
at one time with an Electron. I
believe the Rombox can also be used,
with a suitable connecting lead, with
a BBC B. Unfortunately I do not have
a lead and wonder if any member knows
of the present address of Slogger so I
can buy one. Alternatively, I would
be happy to buy a redundant lead from
any member, or make up one myself if
someone can advise on the connections
(I am handy with a soldering iron).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Telephone No: 0843 597061
To: 999 (all members)
From: K3N (Des Guiry)
Subject: Wanted:OKI manuals
Does anyone have the manuals or any
info on the printer control codes for
the OKI Microline 80, Microline 192 or
Microline 293? These are the older OKI
machines, before they started to
incorporate Epson and IBM emulations.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am prepared to buy the relevant
manuals or pay all expenses for
photocopied info on codes etc.
Alternatvely, would anyone be
interested in BUYING any of these
printers? All of them work on the
BBC. The ML80 is very basic, almost
an antique (1982?). The ML192 is more
advanced, with NLQ, enlarged,
emphasised etc. Unlike these two, the
ML293 is a wide-carriage SERIAL
printer, with NLQ etc. Please write or
phone: Des Guiry, 5A Faraday House,
Grendon Road, Exeter, EX1 2NQ. 0392
79012. Please help if you can. Thanks.
To: 999 & K4V (Trevor Crapper)
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Connecting two single drives
As far as I am aware, you don't need
any special hardware to combine two
single drives into a double. Provided
both have their own power supply (if
they don't, you will have to use a
third-party supply such as the Viglen
Power DUCK) you can remove the cable
from one and attach it to an edge
connector on the other drive's ribbon
cable. This is often fitted on single
drive cables as standard.
The job is fairly simple but I am not
going to go into details, because I
have only done it once and then it
didn't work as expected. (I didn't
remove the terminating resistor from
the first drive and it still worked.)
Someone else may well have sent in
full details, but if they haven't you
could try obtaining a copy of "Using
floppy discs with the BBC
microcomputer" (2nd ed) by Keith
Davis, published by Cumana (ISBN
0 9508762 1 6). If you have some
knowledge of electronics (basically,
if you can change a link or flick a
DIP switch) this should be enough,
although it doesn't go into detail, so
don't go to any great lengths to get a
copy. If you can get one cheaply
enough, a DUCK might well be more
convenient, but it's worth considering
a direct connection - I would
definitely try it that way.
To: 999 & K5A (Robin Moffatt)
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Archimedes mice
I presume it is possible to convert an
Archimedes mouse to work with the BBC
because I have done it the other way
around. I bought an AMX mouse Mk III
for £6, changed the lead for that off
my broken Archimedes original and
saved myself £30 or so on a new one.
If you can get an original Archimedes
mouse, which was basically a cream AMX
Mk III, simply changing the cable for
a BBC one should do - you could either
get one off a broken mouse or wire one
up for yourself, although I don't have
any idea what the connections are.
A third-party Archimedes mouse or one
of the newer standard mice (there have
been at least two designs as far as
I know, apart from the very first one
which was the AMX Mk III variation
refered to above) will presumably use
the same signals since it still has to
work on an Archimedes, but the
connector for the lead inside the
mouse may well be different from that
of a BBC AMX mouse, so you might have
to make your own cable up.
To sum up, you can use an Archimedes
mouse as an AMX mouse for the BBC
provided you change the lead. How to
change the lead is something you will
have to find out for yourself - trial
and error combined with intelligent
guesswork might do it, but you do so
at your own risk. Finally, note that
all this is speculative - I have not
tried using an Archimedes mouse with a
BBC, but I am fairly sure that I am
right. As usual, no responsibility is
accepted for loss or damage, however
caused.
To: 999 & K5A (Robin Moffatt)
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Archimedes picture conversion
I wrote an article on this in issue
29, along with a couple of workable
but slow programs to be used in
conjunction with a copy of !Transltr
on the Archimedes. I have also just
written a pair of short programs for
the Archimedes which will convert
between mode 0 Archimedes sprites and
BBC mode 0 *SAVEd screens without
messing around with temporary files -
one of these supersedes the 0ToTmp0
and Tmp0To0 programs accompanying the
article. These may be on this issue,
but as they are not of use to all BBC
owners they may have to wait for a
future issue or be put on some sort of
PD disc instead.
The conversion process is a little bit
tedious, but is not really difficult -
mastering the various controls on
!Translatr is probably the hardest
part. The pawn file on the last issue
was converted using the techniques
mentioned in the article, as were the
Plus and Table images on issue 27.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K5A (Robin Moffatt)
Subject: View/Citizen 120D
How can I print in bold, italics or
underline from View on a Citizen 120D.
I have the printer driver, but don't
now how to get the effects.
Also, why when I load in a spooled
file to View, does it accept it and the
when I press <Escape> it tells me that
there is "No Text"
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2C (Frank Jones)
Subject: Bar Code Readers
I am interested in the application of
Bar Code Readers in trying to set up a
computer controlled model railway. I
have just got started using the light
pen designed by John Ilsley and Chris
and unfortunately bust the photo
sensor. Has anyone a Bar Code Reader
or a professionally made light pen for
sale? 'phone Frank 0845 (Thirsk)
22241
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2B (Colin Culpitt-Smith)
Subject: Wordwise+ useful tip
From the questionairre, it appears
that many members use this excellent
WP. But if you're like me, 'finger
trouble' is a problem when mistyping
characters in the wrong order, eg Daer
instead of Dear! The following little
program swaps the letters at the press
of a key! Simply type in the progam
whilst in any segment and save to your
WP boot disk or text files disk. Load
the program into say, segment zero each
time you use Wordwise+. Then press
SHIFT+f0 after placing cursor under
the letter 'e' of our example above,
and watch them swaps places in a
flash! Do the same to swap back again.
SEGMENT PROGRAM:-
X$=GCT$
DE.L.
C.L.
TY.X$
DI.1 (upper case i full stop then
number one!)
PRESS BREAK