Having some time tonight and some peace, I decided to go back to building the Econet and getting all that working, able assisted by the guidelines on on the Beebmaster site.

First up was the EPROM programmer (not strictly part of the Econet but important nontheless). After trying to program some more 27128’s I shifted the programmer to the BBC Model B sitting on the workbench (previously it was connected to the Master 512). Lo and behold, the damn thing programmed a couple of ROMs fine, so I’m blaming either Master incompatibility in the UVIPROM software or the Master’s user port. Either way, I now have new ADFS ROMs done and a copy of the Lancaster Assembler. Just means that the main Model B machine is running at PAGE=&2100 but we all have our crosses to bear.

Secondly I thought I might get the Econet actually wired up with the socket boxes. Over on the Beeb list it’s been suggested that cat5 UTP is fine for Econet wiring. While wiring it up, I noticed a bit of a nasty ozone-y smell coming from the fileserver. “Not good,” I thought again (getting deja vu?), and tried to do a ctrl-break. Nothing. A power-cycle didn’t even boot the damn thing up so I think it’s probably the PSU; no worries, I’ve got plenty of spare BBC Model B units around but irritating nontheless. Meantime, I need to get two 9VDC power supplies (wallwarts will do fine) for the network terminators.

So, current status: ROMs blown properly, station 254 out of action, cabling pretty much done (but not tested) and I’ve even freed up a small bit of worksurface to properly hold the 6502 copro for the fileserver itself.

I’d better do some tidying before Nicky and her sister get home otherwise I’ll be in trouble, but I feel quite satisfied I’ve done some more on this!