Closed FREE - BBC B and Master 128

I have an old BBC B, a Master 128, a monitor to go with them, a disk and various tapes. I'm looking to give these away for FREE to anyone who is willing to come to pick them up from Reading, Berkshire.

I need to get rid of them in the next week or so (by Dec 3rd 2011) otherwise they go to the land fill.

More details...

The Beeb was my pride and joy as a kid and gave me countless hours of fun. It has been sitting in the loft for over 10 years and is no longer booting up. The power supply works. I'm guessing one of the ROMs may be knackered. If you want to give it a little TLC or you're interested in the parts and you can come and get it then it's yours.

The master is in better condition but only just. When you turn it on it prints:

Acorn MOS
Acorn ADFS

But then seems mostly unresponsive, however pressing the shift lock and power lock buttons causes the keyboard leds to change so something is going on.

There's also a Sanyo colour monitor which works and couple of floppy drives (no idea if they work).

As I say, if you have a home for this stuff please get in touch and arrange to come by and pick it up.

@Adrian

I'm a bit of BBC Guru and would love the opportunity to repair and refurbish your 2 Acorn machines to pass back to our community fully working.

Would you be willing to post or send the items by courier, if so please advise the cost of postage / courier to Wales

Best Regards

TC

If you dont mind courier collecting them - I would love to get the Floppy Drives and Monitor if TC doesn't want them... just shove'em in a box and we can arrange a pickup =)

Dagnammit! TC beat me to the Beeb.....

It is great that you guys are interested in keeping the old home computer technology alive.

These machines were from when I was a kid and gave me lots of joy - particularly the old Beeb. They've been sitting in the loft at my mother's house for at least a decade. In the mean time I moved to the US.

Unfortunately my mum is now sick in hospital. I'm over to visit her and to try and clean up her house.

I'm very happy to give the computers away but I'm afraid I don't have the time to package and post it as I have my hands full with other things.

+ By the way - I left the Master plugged in for about five minutes and the power supply went pop and spewed out white smoke. Almost certainly a dry electrolytic capacitor but I'm beginning to think that these machines have reached the end of their lives and would need some TLC.

---------- Post added at 19:45 ---------- Previous post was at 19:39 ----------

+ Zetro mentioned the floppies. Here's more info on them...

There's a 3.5" chinon drive that I bought as a kid. It is not much more than a bare drive that I stuck a rubber feet on. It used to work.

There's also a pair of 5.25" TEAC drives that were pulled from something else. I belive I managed to get these going with the Beeb but it was years ago. These also lack a proper case.

We need a member on the M4 corridor to make a pickup....

+ There's also a couple of beeb manuals, "User Guide" and "The Advanced User Guide" and some literature...
Specs fot the Chinon 3.5" drive
Info about the Watford DFS in the beeb
schematics of the beeb, the master and the sanyo monitor

AShotton said:

+ By the way - I left the Master plugged in for about five minutes and the power supply went pop and spewed out white smoke. Almost certainly a dry electrolytic capacitor but I'm beginning to think that these machines have reached the end of their lives and would need some TLC.

Click to expand...

The one thing I have learned from being on Amibay is with this bunch of guys not much is ever at it's end..

Please, please, PLEASE don't take these to the tip!! These machines can be repaired and restored.

All we need is a means to collect them. Can any AmiBayer around the Berkshire / Wiltshire area help us by collecting these items?

No problem. I'll hold off on taking these to the tip as long as possible.

Unfortunately I fly back to the states on Sunday Dec 4th and will need to have found a home for them before then, either with a enthusiast who's willing to put in the effort to bring them back to life or at the dump.

+ By the way, I also found a green screen Dyneer 12MHC monitor. This accepts a composite video in signal.

if every one drop out can i have it.. i can pick up

I'm down the road in Didcot and could come and collect them and forward them to Amibay members. That is if they are still available?

alexh said:

I'm down the road in Didcot and could come and collect them and forward them to Amibay members. That is if they are still available?

Click to expand...

Alex that would be so kind of you

We will be happy to compensate you for petrol and your time.

Much appreciated.

TC

@ Alexh

Hero

@AlexH,

The stuff is all here, ready to go. Give me a call (snip) and we can work out a time for you to pick it up.
Thanks!!

Edited by Merlin:-

Posting phone numbers on an open forum such as this isn't a wise move. Please PM your phone number to Alex.

alexh said:

I'm down the road in Didcot and could come and collect them and forward them to Amibay members. That is if they are still available?

Click to expand...

AShotton said:

@AlexH,

The stuff is all here, ready to go. Give me a call (snip) and we can work out a time for you to pick it up.
Thanks!!

Edited by Merlin:-

Posting phone numbers on an open forum such as this isn't a wise move. Please PM your phone number to Alex.

Click to expand...

That is awesome guys!

No reply to my PM 3 days ago for the address and availability lunchtimes or late evenings. (Plus quite a bit of lethargy on my part to follow it up with phone calls).

Tonight is the last night I could collect AND I'm in Reading for late night shopping with my better half. If I don't hear anything I think I'm going to have a beer after work and take the train rather than the car.

I think I've missed this one guys. Sorry

You can only try your best alex, I appreciate you trying to arrange that for us.
Such a pity

Thank you my friend
TC

Hello may i ask if at the end someone collected the bbc master or not?

I didn't collect it and I believe it was thrown away. I never heard from them again.