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Orac running with a BBC computer will it upgrade ?
Posted: Wed 17 Oct , 2007 14:40 pm
by bradders
I have recently found out that the old BBC computer running the ORAC has died!!.
I need to get a copy of the software that runs the machine and ask a few questions as to what I need to run it on a newer pc
Posted: Thu 18 Oct , 2007 15:20 pm
by Denford Admin
I'm pretty sure the only upgrade available is to Mach3 or something similar - people like davidimurray and sweep have done this to their machines.
It'll need a fair bit of electrical modification though, to get it working on a PC.
Posted: Thu 18 Oct , 2007 23:29 pm
by davidimurray
I thought the Orac's all had their own control system and it was the Starrturn 4 and 8 that relied on having extenral computers connected?
Posted: Fri 19 Oct , 2007 7:32 am
by bradders
The initial comment was from a school, i was hoping Mr Magoo would be online to answer, as it was his era at Denford's
Posted: Fri 19 Oct , 2007 8:36 am
by Denford Admin
As far as I know, there is also some hardware (at least an EPROM) inside the BBC. If thats missing or damaged, then the BBC software will be of no use anyway.
Posted: Sat 20 Oct , 2007 0:20 am
by Mr Magoo
The Orac did have it's own controller - so the BBC is just for the offline programming / simulation.
I think there is a PC DOS version in the download section.
No way to get your old BBC CNC programs back though
