Current Machines
BBC Master 128
| Acquired via | eBay (Cambridge Centre for Computing History) |
| Acquisition date | August 2020 |
| Work done | Cleanup PSU recap |
| Current state | Working! Possible RAM issue |
| Restoration blog posts | part 1, part 2 |
This BBC Master 128 was acquired in an eBay auction which was to raise funds to keep the computer museum open due to Covid-19. It has a “BBC Radio” branding stamp on it, the history of which is unknown. It is speculated that the machine was used to communicate with broadcasters about incoming callers.
Amiga 500 Plus #1
| Acquired via | Gumtree |
| Acquisition date | August 2020 |
| Work done | Removed leaking battery (and cleanup) Fixed keyboard membrane (caps lock LED) Cleanup Replaced rubber feet Repaired external floppy drive Replaced internal floppy drive with Gotek |
| Current state | Working! PSU to be rebuilt |
| Restoration blog posts | part 1, part 2, part 3, external floppy drive, Gotek installation |
This Amiga 500 Plus came with hundreds of disks and many accessories. The accessories alone were worth what I paid for it. I know it had changed hands at least once before and person I had bought it from had never turned it on. It has been fully restored and is my main home Amiga.
Amiga 500 Plus #2
| Acquired via | eBay |
| Acquisition Date | September 2020 |
| Work Done | Basic diagnostics Removed leaking battery Large corrosion cleanup |
| Current state | Black screen at power up Gary socket destroyed, needs replacing (maybe Gary too) 74LS244 and some passives may need replacing F-Key missing on keyboard PSU, keyboard and floppy drive untested A lot of cleanup needed |
| Restoration blogs | Coming soon |
I acquired this Amiga 500 Plus relatively cheaply on eBay (in fact I was the only bidder!), known faulty on purchase. It was still warranty sealed when I got it, had a 512KB memory card in it (working and now in my first Amiga 500 Plus). It also came with some disks including Workbench and Soccer Kid as well as a foot peddle game controller.
Past Machines
Amiga 500 #1
| Acquired via | eBay |
| Acquisition date | August 2020 |
| Work done | Remove corroded trapdoor board Cleanup board corrosion Cleanup machine Rebuilt PSU Replaced damaged resistor Repaired floppy drive Replaced keyboard (bad membrane) Break in PCB trace RST line wire patched Replaced trapdoor connector Corrosion removed from metal frame and spray painted primer & gunmetal |
| Current state | Working! For sale on eBay |
| Restoration blog posts | part 1, part 2, part 3, PCB diagnosis, part 4 |
The Amiga 500 was acquired faulty and rather dirty to give me something to learn to repair Amigas with (and something to play on). It has proved a little bit of a challenge as there has been so many issues with it. But it has now been fully restored. It has a rev. 6a board with kickstart 1.3.
Amiga 500 #2
| Acquired via | eBay |
| Acquisition date | September 2020 |
| Work done | RS232 port replaced A501 shell removed (battery had broken itself off already) |
| Current state | Yellow screen on boot (suspect 74LS373 failure) About 1/3rd of the keyboard doesn’t work (bad membrane) RS232 line driver (MC1488 IC) faulty Metal parts are very rusty Floppy drive faulty Stripped down for parts |
| Restoration blog posts | part 1, part 2 |
I managed to acquire this Amiga 500 cheap in an eBay auction. It is machine only (no PSU) and appears to have an official trapdoor A501 memory card in it and is going to require a restoration job. Unfortunately it is going to cost too much to repair all the faults so this will be stripped down to repair other machines.
