Ferguson BigBoard revived!

From: Curt Vendel <curt_at_atarimuseum.com>
Date: Tue Jan 27 12:56:30 2004

As far as I know, yes.

I can measure it for you.


Curt


Tom Uban wrote:

> Is the BigBoard II the same form factor as the BB I?
>
> --tom
>
> At 01:15 PM 1/27/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> I've got a spare Big Board II if anyone is interested in buying it or
>> trading, I will post it up on to VCM with some pics
>>
>>
>>
>> Curt
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Tom Uban" <uban_at_ubanproductions.com>
>> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
>> <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 10:16 AM
>> Subject: Ferguson BigBoard revived!
>>
>>
>> > I owned a BigBoard in college, but gave it away when I moved from
>> Champaign
>> > to Boston. It is a pretty cool SBC with integrated single density
>> floppy
>> > controller and video. A friend (thanks Bob) gave me an old BigBoard
>> which
>> > he had laying around a while back and I started making it work
>> again last
>> > night. So far, the crystal circuit was dead (temporarily replaced
>> with an
>> > oscillator until new parts arrive), an address buffer was dead
>> (purchased
>> > a NOS 74LS241 off the shelf at the local electronics store, mounted
>> on a
>> > piece of cardboard which is all faded from age), the video drive
>> XOR was
>> > dead (replaced with new 74LS86 from my stock bins), and all the ICs
>> needed
>> > to be re-seated in their sockets.
>> >
>> > So far, I have the video section working and the board boots the
>> system
>> > monitor, displaying the output on the overly tiny 3" diagonal CRT,
>> which
>> > is the only monitor that survived my numerous moves over the years.
>> I've
>> > purchased a new-to-me monitor for use on this board, but this tiny one
>> > will have to due until it arrives.
>> >
>> > The next step will be to attach a SSSD 8" floppy and if that works
>> with
>> > some scratch floppies, I will try to boot the CP/M system floppies
>> that
>> > I got from Don Maslin oh so long ago.
>> >
>> > I still have a couple of articles about modifying the BigBoard to
>> use a
>> > double density floppy drive. I may have to try that at some point
>> in the
>> > future.
>> >
>> > --tom
>> >
>
>
>

-- 
Curt Vendel & Karl Morris
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Atari Museum
http://www.atarimuseum.com
The Atari Explorer
http://www.atari-explorer.com
Received on Tue Jan 27 2004 - 12:56:30 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:36:48 BST