BeebControl>>Welcome

There are plenty of excellent websites that cover the internal workings of the BBC B and Master micros in great depth. BeebControl, by contrast, is more concerned with what goes on outside the box than inside it. The intention is for BeebControl's pages to specialise in the experimental and control capabilities of Acorn's 8-bit micros, plus related hardware, software and documentation. While I've found one or two very useful sites that specialise in a particular item of equipment - for example the Armdroid robot arm - there's been no general Beeb experiment and control website out there. Until now, that is.

Some of the material I've got lined up may also be useful to owners of later RISC OS machines fitted with suitable podules or when running adapted programs via the parallel printer port (or via USB on the Iyonix). And because much of the equipment to be featured here was designed to work across a range of micros, even owners of a PC, Mac, Commodore, Atari, Spectrum or Tandy (Radio Shack) may be able to glean useful information when adapting hardware items or control code to work on their particular platform. Note that the site is still under construction so the non-underlined links above are for pages I haven't populated yet. Please have a wander round and explore the content to date - you can always return to this page by clicking on the BeebControl owl.

Encouraging enquiring minds

Inevitably, most surviving Beeb compatible equipment seems crude by today's standards, often rescued from school or college skips because it no longer meets modern requirements. But its very simplicity leaves it open to study, adaptation and 'fixing' in a way that would be impossible with the latest 'black box' equivalents - you can literally watch the wheels go round. The manufacturers of old 8-bit equipment positively encouraged user involvement, often to the extent of supplying schematics, software breakdowns and dismantling instructions with each manual. Perhaps it's no wonder that kids were so interested in science lessons then and are so disinterested now.

Keeping things 8-bit simple

To paraphrase a recent posting to a BBC discussion group: "My interfacing gear got chucked into a skip at my old school a few years ago along with the last BBC Micro. The "modern" replacements for PC measurement and control are sitting on the shelf as Windows XP won't run the Windows 3.1 software for one lot of devices and the Windows 95/98 version crashes as soon as the devices are accessed. The new machines also lack printer ports. If you try to use a parallel port USB dongle the software crashes. It was so much easier with a Beeb!"

The leg bone's connected to the knee bone...

Take this see-through drawing of the Atlas robotic 'manipulator' for example. You can study its detail to work out how its many motors, gears, drive rods, couplings and sensors interact. But you can also remove almost every casing panel from the real thing and it will continue to operate - it's fascinating to watch the whole mechanism in action. The same goes for the open mechanics of its wrist and gripper - Terminator II's skeleton arm has nothing on this one. Then again, it would probably give a modern-day school safety inspector nightmares.
 
 
 
 

What BeebControl will cover (and what it won't)

The main focus of the site will be on robotics (mostly arms and manipulators), buggies, control equipment, interface boxes and probes. CNC lathes/mills were also commonly Beeb controlled in the eighties and plenty of equipment survives in workshop use even today, so I'll post what CNC info I can find too. On the other hand, the purely functional uses of the Beeb's interfaces won't be covered. By functional, I mean interfacing to second processors, hard discs, floppy drives, tape decks, printers etc. Some items are borderline, for example eprom programmers, light pens, plotters etc, so may be featured where the relevant info is available.

The BBC micro was probably the most 'connectable' micro ever designed, and for this reason was very popular with schools and college science departments. Consequently, most equipment manufacturers in the UK ensured that their products had the necessary sockets and software to be run from a Beeb. Some even ignored other 8-bit micros entirely, relying on a widespread installed computer base which allowed them to design their add-ons exclusively for the BBC B. You can explore the Beeb's ports and interfaces via the 'Interfacing' link above, to find out if your equipment is BBC B or Master compatible.

I've been collecting together add-ons and interface gear for some time now, but before I could experiment with any of it I needed a suitable piece of hardware to run the programs on. So I began by putting together the best combination of size and power I could muster, using redundant BBC B and Master parts. I nicknamed the result 'StealthMaster'. As you can see from this picture, it looks like a standard Beeb on the outside but inside lurks a Master Series motherboard and OS. (The only giveaway is the Master's keyboard layout.) There's a GoMMC memory card board in there now too. Having said all that, a simple BBC B micro is all you really need to get started. I'll add some pictures of StealthMaster's internal arrangement when I get a chance. In the meantime, here are a few more details of its construction.

Here's a list of potential topics I'd like to cover eventually. Check the navigation bar at the top of the page to see which areas are already live.

• Armdroid robot arm, made by Colne Robotics
• Cyber 310 robot arm, made by Cyber Robotics
• Atlas robot arm, made by LJ Electronics
• TQ MA2000 robot arm and controller box (made for the Open University)
• Alfred robot arm
• Mentor robot arm
• Neptune robot arm
• MicroGrasp robot arm
• Beasty servo controller and robot arm
• Beasty tracked carrier for the robot arm
• Trekker buggy, made by Clwyd Systems
• BBC Buggy, made by Economatics
• Zero 2 turtle/roamer
• Jessop Ralph turtle/roamer
• Valiant turtle/roamer
• Unilab interface
• Interbeeb, by DCP Microdevelopments
• BEPL Primary Control System
• Minor Miracles interface
• Commotion Control Box

• Deltronics type control interfaces
• Sense IT serial interface
• Probes and measuring devices
• Lego Dacta interface
• Stepper motor drive demonstrators
• Boxford CNC control
• Red Boxes mains control network
• Eprom programmers
• Delta specialised joysticks
• Concept keyboards
• Light pens
• Barcode readers
• Analogue port uses
• Userport uses
• Printer port uses
• 1MHz bus uses
• Using BBC accessories under RISC OS (planned for future: RISControl)
• Using BBC accessories on a PC
• Mike Cook's Micro User Bodybuilding articles

If anyone has documentation or software relating to the above or similar types of equipment I'd be happy to obtain copies for possible feature on these pages (I can scan docs, copy software and return).
Email me: beebcontrol at anf dot nildram dot co dot uk

Also if anyone has any redundant BBC or RISC OS interface or control equipment they'd like to find a good home for, I can suggest a suitable address ;-)

I've set up a related Yahoo discussion group for people who'd like to post questions or give answers on BBC Micro control related topics.


Click to become a member of the
BeebControl Yahoo group

-Neil F.

Finally, if you happen to have an interest in metalwork matters, try visiting my workshop pages too.