- Thread starter indy4x
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indy4x
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@Keith 66
Not great with electronics, the 160 ran off a PC and from what I have read you can keep the stepper motors, junk the Boxford electronics and retro fit modern stuff in there, just hard to find a definitive guide
I did have the PC offered to me but stupidly didn't take it
@pedrobedro yep, that's the one
Not great with electronics, the 160 ran off a PC and from what I have read you can keep the stepper motors, junk the Boxford electronics and retro fit modern stuff in there, just hard to find a definitive guide
I did have the PC offered to me but stupidly didn't take it
@pedrobedro yep, that's the one
@Keith 66
Not great with electronics, the 160 ran off a PC and from what I have read you can keep the stepper motors, junk the Boxford electronics and retro fit modern stuff in there, just hard to find a definitive guide
I did have the PC offered to me but stupidly didn't take it
You can get a BBC emulator programme that allows you to run these from a modern pc, i have no idea how reliable this option would be. My thoughts on these small ex school machines, Quite a few about, they were intended for educational use & were mostly used with plastics such as acrylic & aluminium. Using them to machine steel would push them hard unless light cuts only. They used Boxfords own software & regular upgrades cost a small fortune. At the college we applied for funding to upgrade them for years & every year got told it was too expensive, last upgrade price we had was 7k, the year after Boxford told us it was obsolete & no longer supported. These costs meant not many schools upgraded & they fell into disuse.
The limiting factor on how reliable a BBC Micro emulator is usually the platform it's running on, an emulator such as BeebEm is fantastic but if (for example) Windows has a hissy fit then you're still screwed.
Personally I still use the original BBC Micro, apart from changing the caps in the PSU and one of the 6522 VIA chips it's been totally reliable. I still use floppy discs but also use a SD card adapter for storage these days.
There's a rather nice FPGA implementation of a bbc model b emulator coming to maturity slowly here that I've been contemplating dabbling in for different reasons (nostalgia), so not sure how well it supports the needed ports etc:-
https://forum.mystorm.uk/t/bbc-model-b-implementatation-for-mystorm-blackice/258/59
Having said that, I'd retro fit it with modern steppers and a control in a flash already having done the same with my bridgeport interact. My uncle has two of the little training milling machines and not sure if he has the lathe too, they had been retrofitted by a control when they were still in school but it needed doing again. I'd be tempted by the lathe because I would like a cnc lathe and being small I could use it alongside my bigger harrison , but I'm sorted on the mill front or I'd twist his arm into taking a offer on them.
https://forum.mystorm.uk/t/bbc-model-b-implementatation-for-mystorm-blackice/258/59
Having said that, I'd retro fit it with modern steppers and a control in a flash already having done the same with my bridgeport interact. My uncle has two of the little training milling machines and not sure if he has the lathe too, they had been retrofitted by a control when they were still in school but it needed doing again. I'd be tempted by the lathe because I would like a cnc lathe and being small I could use it alongside my bigger harrison , but I'm sorted on the mill front or I'd twist his arm into taking a offer on them.
Dieselman 63
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I pulled a listing recently for a Woden wood vice. There was four days left in the listing and I decided as I'd not seen another before I would keep it. I don't regret it. Bad luck if you didn't bid earlier tbh.
