Archimedes A3000 - It Lives!! ( nearly )

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TGHC
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Post by TGHC »

Charlie wrote:
Ok - I'm angry now. Nothing will prevent me from
seeing the fruit of my loins burst forth in all its glory!
WAAAAAAAAAAH!

Charlie wrote:
I have to admit many of my projects start with good
intentions, move through unexpected expence, and
finally end with me going crackers with a power tool
of some description-


The six phases of a project:

Enthusiasm
Disillusionment
Panic
Search for the guilty
Punishment of the innocents
Praise of the non-participants
The Grey Haired Commander has spoken!
OK so I'm a PC user - "you know whats scary? Out of billions of sperm I was the fastest"
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Dr. Nil
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Post by Dr. Nil »

LittleBear wrote:
Taking pictures of it on the bed with its outer caseing removed, does give the thread as sort of "Readers' Computers" theam! :shock:
Charlie wrote:
It's had years of hard use from new and was very dirty.
Not a suprise, had its top off quite a bit!
8)
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300 billboards in Your Ad Here!
Astromines and more in Commies.
AVAILABLE HERE along with other Oolite eXpansion Packs.
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Charlie
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Post by Charlie »

*Edit*
  • Yet another keyboard has arrived that I can't use!! :( :roll:
    Anyone seen something that will do?

    Please don't let me resort to rewiring the A3000 keyboard! That would be too horrible to contemplate!
*Edit*

PS
I didn't kill the GFX card when I took a Dremmel to it. :wink:
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Post by Charlie »

Sony Vaio Keyboard now on the way...
99p :shock:
@ this rate I'll have to open an eBay shop. :roll:
'Keyboards aRse' maybe?

Dremmeling, dremmeling, always dremmeling...
Judging by the volume of shavings I must have made six computers by now. :lol:

Currently working on the IO plate - very tedious, very fiddly. Not much to show for it.
A few piccies in a bit...

Image
Serves me right for not wearing protective goggles!
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Post by Charlie »

Another day, another keyboard... :roll:

The rest of the computer is now functioning! :D :lol: :lol: :lol:
-think of some suitable music from a 'scary' 50's monster movie-

One last stab @ butchering a semi-functiong keyboard out of my increasing pile of spares then I'll have to bite the bullet & rewire the old one!
[shudder]

-I'm going to have to finish this soon, I've not done anything with my various Oolite projects in weeks-
-Oh, and my wife is getting a little concerned about my taking saucy photo's of my hardware on our bed!-
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Post by Captain Hesperus »

Charlie wrote:
-Oh, and my wife is getting a little concerned about my taking saucy photo's of my hardware on our bed!-
It's not the taking of photos, it's the shouts of 'Yeah, baby!', 'Wiggle that PCI!' and 'You know I turn you on!' that come through the closed door... :wink:

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Post by Charlie »

Another Update:
( Bet you thought I'd given up! )

The story so far...
The brave and possibly insane Charlie had an idea:
'I've had an idea!'

'I'll take my Acorn A3000 and replace its guts with PC
components:
Retro gaming heaven, and a proper pute on which to
play Oolite!' 8)
'It will be my magnificent Octopus!!'

Besides the keyboard is near identical to a modern PC
one. That should make it easy. :roll:
Well, much keyboard-induced frustration later and I'm
on the last lap!

So, here goes:

The Return of the Spring
or
-I'll be buggered if I'll rewire the original keyboard-

Bottom line:
Acorn keyboard is both incompatable with and a
little smaller than a PC one despite appearances. :twisted:

So I decided to cut a standard one to bits and make a
suitable one with the aid of the much used Dremmel
and vast quantities of super-glue. :shock:

Plan A - Nice Pussy:
Image
Sony Vaio keyboard. Nearest match for dimentions.
Function keys too close, slightly over-size, PS2 instead
of USB... But I have a plan!

Ooo - Pink Nipples:
Image
Now you've got the idea. :wink:
Chop that b*gger to bits, glue it back together slightly smaller
than before, and move the funcion keys further away...

'What about those pink nipples?' I hear you ask.
Well, yes it's a shame to cover them up again, but they should
be soft enough to move about a little while firm enough to
retain their perkyness when you fiddle with them. :D

Um.., oh, and yes. Sorry, miles away... This all means when a
keyboard is reconstructed a little undersize the membrane
should work without modification. ( all part of the plan to aviod
much fiddly re-wiring )

Much dremmeling later...
Nope - I don't like the colour! Not a good match. So start again
with expensive Cherry keyboard.

Days more fiddly tedium later...

Ta-da:
Image
Neat-o eh?

Closeup:
Image
-Cut that keyboard up... ( Yes, made extra-tricky by the cover
being part of the mechanism! :twisted: )
-Hours & hours of Dremmeling, measuring, re-Dremmeling, etc.
-Glue it all back together. ( just a bit smaller but with the F-keys
much closer for this one )
-Check those nipples are sufficiently malleable but perky. :wink:
-Much more Dremmeling to 'massage the fit'.
-Wire the keyboard controller directly into the motheboard.
Phew!

Other bits & bobs:
ImageImage
Original power switch reconstructed and functional...

ImageImage
As is the reset switch. Also floppy blanking plate made and glued
in.
Ok, so I could have taken more care with making the screenshots
line up a bit better.

A voice speaking in the wilderness:
Image
In stereo!
Well the A3000 has stereo internal speakers... So they had to be
put back and duly wired to the mobo.

Now, just in case you thought all of this was B.S:
Image
She may be pretty brainless. But she has a pulse, and doesn't she
look great with her top off!

Top on:
Image
A more wholesome image for those who prefer their computers as
Acorn intended. ( sort-of :wink: )

I'm on the last lap now. More fettling to be done - could do with a
bit of 'lippy' round the function keys.
A custom build of WinXP is going well and will soon be installed...

Maybe the next update will show the finished arictle..?
Last edited by Charlie on Sat May 05, 2007 3:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Commander McLane »

What a show!

:D :oops: :D :oops: :D
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Post by JensAyton »

Looks like you need to paint some of the keys… and install an emulator. :-)
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Post by Charlie »

Ah - Yes! Got that covered:
-Modded WinXP.
-Virtual RPC.
-Man-made facbric dye should do for the keys.
( What the R.C. car mob use to mod their cars )
( Also to personalise lacrosse sticks it seems... )

Oh, and I'm looking forward to posting this baby on the English Amiga Board running WinUAE.
I'll title the thread: Modded A3000
Should cause some comment. :wink:
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Post by Captain Hesperus »

Charlie wrote:
Oh, and I'm looking forward to posting this baby on the English Amiga Board running WinUAE.
I'll title the thread: Modded A3000
Should cause some comment. :wink:
Let's hope that they are receptive to extreme modding like yours or it may be fibre-glass vest and asbestos pants time....:wink:

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Post by Charlie »

Another day, another update...

Nearly done! :D
OS's to install and a bit of tidying to do.

So, epilogue aside, here's the final chapter:

I could go on endlessly about my struggles with
my captive nuts, or how hard my hard drive was,
but for now I'll stick with cosmetics.

Bear in-de-house:
Image
Today B-in-TBBH is modeling this summer's in colours:
Dylon Tangerine 39 and Elephant Grey 21.
B-in-TBBH says he likes doing the cha-cha-cha while
wearing a necklace of small chiildren's teeth! Well if
you had to be so damn chirpy for the little buggers
24-7 and you were a large bear, you would probably
eat the odd one too! :twisted:

Porridge has something to say:
Image
'Don't worry kiddies. As you can plainly see they are
just plastic keys from the keyboard Charlie has been
valiently struggling with.'
'Just B-in-TBBH's little joke...'

'What do you mean? 'where can I get toddler-grade
dental-floss from?'.'


So... Here's the plan:
1) Get some Rit-dye. ( Evil stuff that will change the
colour of just about anything... )
Ah - not available in any country that gives a damn
about the enviroment! Oh well, maybe Mr Bush was
onto something when he wouldn't sign up to Kyoto!
1a) Get some general-purpose Dylon dye and keep
fingers crossed. If it's good enough for those tie-dye
tree-hugger types, maybe it will be good enough for
my recycled computer...
2) Tie the keys onto a bit of string for easy removal
from the 'vat'. The RC website suggested that would
be the best way to get them out when the desired
shade is reached...
3) Wait for 'her-indoors' to vacate the house, fire-up
the stove, get out some pans, and start a-bubbling...
( Don't forget the rubber gloves. Ooo, I like a bit of
rubber. )

Hubble-bubble:
Image

And the resluts?
It took a good few hours of simmering rather than
the 20mins the packets sugested, as the Dylon dye
seemed to need the time to fix properly. The final
shade didn't change much during the process so I
scrapped the string.

Reminds me of a dentist I once knew:
Image

Success:
Image
I bet you can't tell which are the Acorn's and which
are the dyed ones. 8)

Fired with enthusiasm I set-to with the 'more subtle'
elephant-grey shade for the remaining keys that
required some tinting...

Great steaming elephant turds!:
Image
So elephants aren't quite the shade you'd expect on
planet Dylon! :shock: :roll:

'Don't be upset.' consoled Porridge. 'I think it looks
quite groovy."
'By jingo, me old mucker. I think you may be onto
something there!' I replied. 'Let's set up for the
showroom shot.'

Showroom shot:
Image
'Just leave yer clothes in the corner and drape
yerself over the car luv...'
.
.
Just remember boys and girls: When boiling nasty
chemicals for hours on end in your wife's pots and
pans, do open a window for ventilation or you may
find conversing with stuffed toys quite reasonable.
( And believing elephants are blue! :roll: :lol: )

TTFN.
Last edited by Charlie on Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by JensAyton »

Also, consider budgeting for new pots. :-)
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Re: Archimedes A3000 - It Lives!! ( nearly )

Post by reeferjon »

I don't suppose anyone has the images for this post? I'm getting ready to start modding a dead a3000 and it would really help to see how I can shoehorn the various PC components in the case.
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Re: Archimedes A3000 - It Lives!! ( nearly )

Post by Cody »

You've resurrected a very old thread, which is probably why there's been no response - but welcome aboard.
I would advise stilts for the quagmires, and camels for the snowy hills
And any survivors, their debts I will certainly pay. There's always a way!
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