Briel Computers support forum

I received my kit today. Thanks Vince!

The build quality looks real good.

I was thinking of finding a place to paint he case blue.

- J

Yes I received my kit on Monday. The quality of the pcb's and other parts looks to be excellent! I'm ready to start my build. I'm am old electronic guy (since 1963) but I haven't built a kit of any sort for many years. I "broke out" my tools and found my soldering iron does not heat up well so I'm off to Radio Shack (or internet) to purchase another one.

I too received my kit. It hurt like crazy not to be able to start on it last night, but life got in the way. I hope to start on it tonight.

How do you guys like the panels? This was an important feature that was difficult to get right.

Hello fellows,


Good news the kits are rolling out..........I'm jelous as hell.


Best wishes and mind those HOT irons

Mick

vbriel wrote:How do you guys like the panels? This was an important feature that was difficult to get right.

It looks awesome. You did a great job on them. I'll be proud to have this on my desk.

Jay

The panels look great!

Excellent panels!

Hi Everyone,

Got home from work today to find that I had missed the Postman !!!!!!!

My Kit has arrived UK. £31.00 customs tax


Will have to pick it up from The Post Office tomorrow.


Thank you Vince.

Must admit I was getting worried that my 88 was lost in the post.

Will post First impressions tomorrow: TTFN

I am like a 9 year old on Christmas Eve. Going to bed early !


Mick

hal2710 wrote:Hi Everyone,

My Kit has arrived UK. £31.00 customs tax

Oh man, that's just silly, how do they expect the world economy to improve with that high of customs tax. Sad thing is they have been talking VAT tax over here too.

Vince

Hi Vince,

vbriel wrote:Oh man, that's just silly, how do they expect the world economy to improve with that high of customs tax. Sad thing is they have been talking VAT tax over here too.

Vince

Picked up my kit from Post Office after paying £31.00 (£23 import tax + £8 UK Post Office Handling fee !!!)



Anyway Taxes aside Good Golly Miss Vincent. This kit is amazing !



Totally impressed with the quality of the components; printed circuit boards Rev 0. The Front panel is excellent.I can understand now how all the other kit builders have found the switches and LED's fiddley....


Full Marks for your efforts, I will have to take my time on the Build to do you true justice. I will probably start the build on Sunday, fingers crossed all goes well.


Thanks Once Again, Michael.

hal2710 wrote:Anyway Taxes aside Good Golly Miss Vincent. This kit is amazing !

Miss??? Lol, ok.

You can do what I do with the front panels. I took a piece of 2X4 wood and using the front panel as a template, marked with a dot the center of all the holes for the switches. Then I drilled holes in all the marked spots with a drill bit just bigger than the threded part of the switch and smaller than the square base. Then I could put a switch into the pcb, then set it down in the board and solder. Others have told me they use styrofoam.

Enjoy, read all the posts including the one reguarding the 20mhz CPU issue.

Vince

Hello Vince,

vbriel wrote:
Enjoy, read all the posts including the one reguarding the 20mhz CPU issue.

Vince

I have read ALL the posts here while waiting for my kit to arrive. I don't know yet what firmware is on my Altair 8800 micro, but just a thought;

vbriel wrote:
I found some chips are inconsistant in their timing for writing to memory. This may cause issues loading BASIC. I'm going to release a firmware revision by this weekend to fix the issue.

As I stated here and elsewhere I am a serial "Overclocker" of PC's.

If I understand you, what you are saying about "Micro-Soft" Basic not loading properly is in effect the first possible occurance of a BSOD; Just without the BLUE or the SCREEN ?

I don't have any experierence of the ATMEGA8515 but this "Not Loading" does sound like an "Overclock" related problem. Is HEAT a factor ?

If I get a 16Mhz crystal and Downgrade to Rev1 Firmware will this help stablise the ATMEGA8515 ? Is Rev2 firmware a more stable Code ???


Just thinking "Out Loud". Will Build my Kit and post back any "Altair 8800 micro BSOD"


Mick