Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

In this forum you can write about anything that does not fit in other forums.
This includes generic Oric talkings and things that are totaly unrelated but want to share with people here :)
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Dbug
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by Dbug »

A new Oriclopedia video, this time about the Oric Microdisc (3" Floppy Disk Drive)
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by coco.oric »

Excellent, thanks for this hardware story. As i'm not very experienced in Oric disks (i left Oric in 1985 before going back with 2nd hand hardware later), it's very interesting
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by ibisum »

Man how I drooled over the Atmos and the Microdrive whenever I saw them in a magazine ..

Nowdays I'm a bit more excited for Cumulus and ORICSD though .. ;)

Pretty amazing that there are still Oric-related hardware projects going on. Probably more now than there ever was ..
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

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New Oriclopedia video, this time about Severn Software:
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

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And the associated blog post article with all the videos on the same page:
http://blog.defence-force.org/index.php ... &ref=ART65
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by coco.oric »

New Oriclopedia video, this time about Severn Software:
Thanks a lot
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by Dbug »

First Oriclopedia video of the year, about SCART to HDMI conversion:
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by iss »

Thanks, Dbug, very cool video!
I have some comments:
- I know everyone is aware of this simple rule, so just a remainder: Safety first! Avoid to plug/unplug cables when devices are powered-on! ;)
- Your Oric got frozen twice in very specific condition - whole (video) memory filled with 0x55 except the bottom-right cell at #BFDF - when repairing Orics this definitely means broken VIA. Of course this is not the case by you, probably the modified Erebus ROM is playing tricks.
- In video you are using 50Hz text/hires modes - it would be interesting to see how the converters behave with 60Hz attribute, what will be the screen aspect ratio and does circle still looks like ellipse?
- The facebook link in the description points to something not related to Oric.
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by Dbug »

iss wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:53 pm Thanks, Dbug, very cool video!
I have some comments:
I know everyone is aware of this simple rule, so just a remainder: Safety first! Avoid to plug/unplug cables when devices are powered-on! ;)
Well, I did power off the Oric and the scan converter each time I changed the connectors, at least I think I did?
Your Oric got frozen twice in very specific condition - whole (video) memory filled with 0x55 except the bottom-right cell at #BFDF - when repairing Orics this definitely means broken VIA. Of course this is not the case by you, probably the modified Erebus ROM is playing tricks.
Yeah I don't normally have the issue when the Erebus is not connected.
The facebook link in the description points to something not related to Oric.
That's true, and I have no idea why, the link was copy pasted from the Defence Force facebook page!
I fixed it, for some reason the "org" part was missing, guess I'll have to check all the other videos...
In video you are using 50Hz text/hires modes - it would be interesting to see how the converters behave with 60Hz attribute, what will be the screen aspect ratio and does circle still looks like ellipse?
So I did a quick check with the OSSC, and indeed the shape gets different!
ossc_50hz.jpg
ossc_50hz.jpg (468.15 KiB) Viewed 10387 times
ossc_60hz.jpg
ossc_60hz.jpg (439.96 KiB) Viewed 10387 times
Something similar happens with the cheap converter, but not as strongly (it's still a bit too wide in 60hz)
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by kenneth »

Interesting 8)
I like the principle of comparing different things to make the best use of the computer, it can avoid some disappointment with some bad converters. I would like to compare the joystick interfaces in video to show the worst of all called PASE, but I do not have the original interfaces.
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

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Today's Oriclopedia surprise video :)

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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by Symoon »

There have been several Nova 64 for sale on Ebay the past few years, staying there for a while.
I guess most Oric users assumed there was no real difference with the actual Atmos, apart from the logo.

So it will be interesting to see your investigations results ;)
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

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Symoon wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:04 am There have been several Nova 64 for sale on Ebay the past few years, staying there for a while.
I guess most Oric users assumed there was no real difference with the actual Atmos, apart from the logo.

So it will be interesting to see your investigations results ;)
I must have been missing then.
The first thing I can say, is that some of the power supplies have their fuse blown, so I will have to find replacements :)
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by iss »

Wow, I'm totally speechless! :shock:

Congrats for Oric Nova64's - they look in very good shape and making them work should be easy.
IMO, you may definitely do something with the power boxes - it's pity to have such big case only for power supply.
If you already have a Gotek can you check how it fits in the box then I can prepare for you upgraded versions with OLED display and FlashFloppy firmware (specially customized) ;).

About the keyboard - the story with RadioShack relation is very interesting indeed. I saw it on eBay too and I was really tempted to buy it, but price was bit high.
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Re: Oriclopedia: A series of videos on all things Oric

Post by Dbug »

iss wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 1:37 pm About the keyboard - the story with RadioShack relation is very interesting indeed. I saw it on eBay too and I was really tempted to buy it, but price was bit high.
Well yes, the price was too high, which is why I contacted the guy and asked him why these keyboards was at twice the price of the TRS-80 he had, that I really would like to have one, but between the ebay global shipping, import tax, and high price, that would be bad for my budget.

And the day after Christmas he told me that because I was very passionate about these machines and he respected that, he was ok with doing it half price and using a bubble wrap enveloppe through USPS instead of a box!
iss wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 1:37 pm Congrats for Oric Nova64's - they look in very good shape and making them work should be easy.
IMO, you may definitely do something with the power boxes - it's pity to have such big case only for power supply.
If you already have a Gotek can you check how it fits in the box then I can prepare for you upgraded versions with OLED display and FlashFloppy firmware (specially customized) ;).
I did some disassembly this morning: The power supplies are terrible, the solders are all dried out, and the wires detach just by looking at them, all the fuses are gone, one is missing the actual transformer coil but the bubling plastic of the case tells a story of overheating, so yeah, pretty bad build quality... but there's definitely room for a floppy emulator... assuming we can get a controller board in it.

Regarding the machines, I will have to wait for the diagnostic cartridge from Vyper, but what I can tell you is that the motherboard uses 2 memory chips
(tms4464-15nl) instead of the usual 8, and nowhere is written "Designed by Tangerine Computer Systems Ltd" (but there is a "ORIC 1".

One of the machines is missing the ULA and the ROM, one does boot and start, you can type, you can hear the sound of the clickety, can zap,explode, etc... but the display is garbled, like if the ULA was not decoding the right locations for the display.
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