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RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

hooker1uk — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:25:59 GMT

[quote][b]Spedley (15/08/2006)[/b][hr]*WIMP

... I believe although it should really boot into RISCOS by default although I think that can be changed but I can't remember how.

Edit: a few keywords for you

RISCOS or "RISC OS"
WIMP
"star commands"
BBC Acorn Archimedes
adfs
A310,A3000,A3010,A4000,A7000,RISCPC
ARM[/quote]

on my a3000 i have to type desktop not *wimp

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

NattyFido — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:50:54 GMT

Cheers Spedley. I suppose you could say that I am 39 years young!!

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

Spedley — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:40:45 GMT

Go on then, you've twisted my arm. PM me your address and I'll put mine in the post for you - it seem silly me keeping something in the loft which I haven't used for at least 7 years. It's been through a few wars and has had a new connector put on it but it should work fine.

P.S. if you are young then ask your parents first !!

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

NattyFido — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:24:31 GMT

That's the same way as the Atari mouse if I remember right, trouble is, they are just as hard to find these days! That helps a lot though, now I just need to find a suitable connector. I might have to trace the connections and add wires direct from the motherboard and bring them out to a better connector, a DB9. Had to do similar 'surgery' on a BBC Micro to use the serial port, but it will be far less painful than trying to find a PS2 style plug with 9 pins.

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

Spedley — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:36:01 GMT

I took my mouse appart years ago and I can tell you that the pins are:

One for each of the 3 buttons, and the up down motion (and left right) is controlled by two bit such that the sequence ...

00,01,11,10,00 is up and 00,10,11,01,00 is down.

The computer does all calculations of mouse position via interrrupts whenever an pin changes

All inputs are normally open and (I think) there is one 5V supply. I can't rememebr if there is a 0V?

You should be able to find a pin-out via Google but if not I can have a mooch in the loft for you (not an easy task).

If there are 8 pins then you can work it out your self, if there are 9 then I don't recommend connecting the 5V to 0V

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

NattyFido — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:39:22 GMT

WOW!! I've found other people with Archimedes computers! I have three, a A3000 and two A3020s. I bought them with a BBC Master for £16.00 on eBay, but they didn't come with mice. They all boot up into the GUI okay and I can use BBC Basic (press F12 for command-line-interpreter and then type 'BASIC'), but I can't do anything else without a mouse.

If anyone knows where I can get a mouse, or if it is possible to adapt a PC mouse to work on the Archimedes, please email me. I am proficient with a soldering iron and could probably knock up a translator circuit (PC mouse input to Arch. mouse output) if I knew what protocol the Arch. expects from the mouse. I've scoured the internet for an Archimedes program that will let me use the cursor keys instead of a mouse, but had no luck.

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

Spedley — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:54:25 GMT

That's right, hold down R and Power-on. The CMOS settings fade after a couple of months so it's invalid and it boots into Supervisor - I'd forgotten that.

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

asktheprophet — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:40:06 GMT

Thanks compaq your a star :D

I am really looking forward to using it. I did read somewhere on ebay that a guy had a 3010 and hadn't used it for a while so it booted in superisor mode. He said he had to fix that and gave the impression that it was a minor change, so im forever hopefull :)

EDIT: Ive found it at Wocki's Acorn Site http://acorn.revivalteam.de/?site=MessageBoard

Hold hold down R to reset it. It then stated into the WIMP :)

For those few people who may be interested;

RESET - reboot A3010, and hold key 'R' (reset config)

CHANGING MONITOR SETTINGS - reboot again with a key from the numeric pad held down (0 -> 5) . . . . . .. 1 (Multi frequency), 4 (Super VGA) or 5 (LCD)

If it's still not ok, it could be a monitor sync issue. (vertical / composite) So reboot A3010, and hold key 'T' instead of 'R' ... and then try the numeric keys.

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

compaq — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 21:22:06 GMT

i have an A3010 myself risc os is embeddded into a rom chip on the motherboard.
on start up it should boot into risc os thats its correct start procedure.
i have the manual for mine kicking about in the loft when i find it i will post back and let you know how to get out of supervisor mode.

if my memory serves correct supervisor mode was a diagnostic utility and you need floppies to run it.

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

asktheprophet — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:34:47 GMT

Many thanks everyone, Ill check out all the info and advice

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

Spedley — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:35:48 GMT

The current version of [url=http://www.riscos.com/risc_os_4/index.htm]RISCOS[/url]

Yep, it's still going

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

logicman — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:13:56 GMT

Well remembered, Spedley.

That got my brain going! (A rare event) ;)

[url]http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?c=75[/url]

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

Spedley — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:13:52 GMT

I bought an A3000 from the school about 15 years ago. It had been stolen and dumped in a reservoir. I bought it back from the insurance for £10, cleaned the mud out of it and reconnected the keyboard and hey presto - it worked ! I used it for many years and now it's sat in the loft all lonely (with the local education authorities postcode etched on it)

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

Spedley — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:06:37 GMT

*WIMP

... I believe although it should really boot into RISCOS by default although I think that can be changed but I can't remember how.

Edit: a few keywords for you

RISCOS or "RISC OS"
WIMP
"star commands"
BBC Acorn Archimedes
adfs
A310,A3000,A3010,A4000,A7000,RISCPC
ARM

RE: Acorn Archimedes A3010

logicman — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:28:44 GMT

Hi, Asktheprophet.

A lucky find. Haven't seen one in years.

Try googling "bbc basic archimedes"
for over 63,000 results. :)

The first page looks promising.

Hope it helps.

Acorn Archimedes A3010

asktheprophet — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 01:45:15 GMT

Hi all.

I have just rescued an old A3010 from a puddle in my local tip. After drying out, it seems to be working ok. When it starts up it boots into a "Supervisor Mode". Does anyone know how I get to the GUI? Are there any Acorn Archimedes users still out there that could help? Ive been hacking at google for days and getting nowhere. :crying: