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Campursoft ROM Board

Started by ComSoft6128, 07:01, 24 October 19

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ComSoft6128

Now all the info in this short video is already available in the Wiki here:

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Campursoft_ROM_Board

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Campursoft

But I thought that the 1995 parts list/prices not in the Wiki and shown at 3:46 might be of interest.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jXOJs6NySg&t=27s

How do they compare with today's prices?



Not emulated - this video was made using a 6128 Plus, the CampurSoft ROM Board and Protext on ROM.

Please note that the aspect ratio for this YouTube video is 16:9 but the CPC monitor has an aspect ratio of 4:3 so you may wish to adjust your viewing device accordingly.

Bryce

Those prices seem extremely low for 1995. I have Irish price lists (admittedly from much earlier - 1981) that would be considerably higher. A single BC547 NPN transistor cost over 2 pounds each in Dublin at the time.

I remember going into town (late 70's) with my pocket money to buy a single transistor and some resistors and then later crying because I fried the transistor the very same day. Then I discovered it was fried because the guy had given me the wrong value resistor. My dad went in to have a word with him and came home with a pack of 10 transistors for free (and the correct resistors). It was like my birthday and Christmas had come on the same day!


Bryce.

TotO

#2
Before euros for a capacitor at my local shop : 0.50FF
After euros for the same capacitor and shop : 0.50EUR
They have just added a little _ to make the F looking E  :laugh: (6.55957 times more expensive)

Another shop on a big city : 0.50EUR for 10.  :-\
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

LambdaMikel

Quote from: Bryce on 07:59, 24 October 19
Those prices seem extremely low for 1995. I have Irish price lists (admittedly from much earlier - 1981) that would be considerably higher. A single BC547 NPN transistor cost over 2 pounds each in Dublin at the time.

I remember going into town (late 70's) with my pocket money to buy a single transistor and some resistors and then later crying because I fried the transistor the very same day. Then I discovered it was fried because the guy had given me the wrong value resistor. My dad went in to have a word with him and came home with a pack of 10 transistors for free (and the correct resistors). It was like my birthday and Christmas had come on the same day!


Bryce.
Nice story - as a kid growing up in Hamburg, I also loved going downtown and browse through electronics stores such as Baderle and Balü Elektronik... they are all history by now unfortunately. And I couldn't afford much of that fancy stuff either.

Only 2 Pounds? NASA had to pay 150 $ per transistor in 1958  ;)
https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2018/09/how-government-helped-spur-microchip-industry

ComSoft6128

Yeah, I remember being dragged around various electronic shops by my father as a kid and in fact Maplin's also had to close all their shops here in the UK just last year.  :(

Bryce

#5
In Dublin, the main (only) place where a hobbiest could buy components was called Peats (of Parnell street). It was a great shop, where you could browse through the components yourself. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, so my mother had to bring me in to town. She hadn't a clue what I was buying, but went along with it anyway, but I often got the "Are you really going to spend your entire pocket money on those little bits?" question. Peats then transformed over the years from components to just TV/HiFi, but they couldn't compete with the multinationals that started arriving and eventually went out of business. Here's a picture of what it looked like back when I was being brought there: https://www.dublincity.ie/image/libraries/ps014-peats-parnell-street
I have many happy memories of getting off the bus, over-excited to be going to my favourite shop again. The side door (boarded up with corrigated iron in that picture) was later used to sell damaged goods. I bought my first 800XL there, which had had a TV dropped on it which cracked both the keyboard and main PCB down the middle. I still own it and it still works from my original repair (glued supports along the bottom and bridged all the broken cracks with wire from an old TV).

Later my dad used to bring home old Radios / TV's and other stuff for me to salvage parts from. My first PCBs were boards from TVs, where I had removed all the components and then pealed the copper tracks off to use the board. I still have some of these disasters. I'll get them out and take some photos when I have a chance.

Bryce.

||C|-|E||

Quote from: Bryce on 09:30, 24 October 19
In Dublin, the main (only) place where a hobbiest could buy components was called Peats (of Parnell street). It was a great shop, where you could browse through the components yourself. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, so my mother had to bring me in to town. She hadn't a clue what I was buying, but went along with it anyway, but I often got the "Are you really going to spend your entire pocket money on those little bits?" question. Peats then transformed over the years from components to just TV/HiFi, but they couldn't compete with the multinationals that started arriving and eventually went out of business. Here's a picture of what it looked like back when I was being brought there: https://www.dublincity.ie/image/libraries/ps014-peats-parnell-street
I have many happy memories of getting off the bus, over-excited to be going to my favourite shop again. The side door (boarded up with corrigated iron in that picture) was later used to sell damaged goods. I bought my first 800XL there, which had had a TV dropped on it which cracked both the keyboard and main PCB down the middle. I still own it and it still works from my original repair (glued supports along the bottom and bridged all the broken cracks with wire from an old TV).

Later my dad used to bring home old Radios / TV's and other stuff for me to salvage parts from. My first PCBs were boards from TVs, where I had removed all the components and then pealed the copper tracks off to use the board. I still have some of these disasters. I'll get them out and take some photos when I have a chance.

Bryce.
It would actually be really cool to see those disasters of yours  :D   

I think that I was already born in a time when components were much cheaper than you say. Actually, I believe that the only mod I could not do back in the days was to install a blue led in my 6128, in the early 90s. In my usual electronics shop they were asking for something like 5000 pesetas for one (30 euros  :-\ ). Funnily enough, this shop is still open and remains intact to these days, I tend to go there quite often to re-stock a few things when I travel to Spain.

Bryce

Blue LEDs only became commercially available in 1993, so they were cutting edge at the time and would have cost a fortune. Unfortunately, 1992 to 1995 was a time where I did zero electronics due to the fact that I was living a long way away from a city (or a stable electricity supply for that matter). I think the first affordable blue LEDs were probably around the year 2000.

Bryce.

||C|-|E||

This was 1995-96. Back in those days, the LED was more expensive by far that the Amstrad, since I was able to find them (the computers) in all the flea markets and even in public bins...  :-X it was for the better at the end, I stopped liking blue LEDs when they started to be everywhere!

Gryzor

Quote from: Bryce on 07:59, 24 October 19

I remember going into town (late 70's) with my pocket money to buy a single transistor and some resistors and then later crying because I fried the transistor the very same day.

Ah yes, I remember when I also cried when I fried some electronics...

...only, it was a little robot instead of components on a breadboard.

Hm, and I think I actually pushed it down the stairs, so it broke, it didn't fry.

Scratch that, it was wooden scooter.

But other than that yeah, same thing.

/runs off

1024MAK

#10
Ahh, blue LEDs in 1993...

In the U.K. Maplin Electronics had blue LEDs available in their 1992/1993 catalogue. Here are some photos of the catalogue and of one of the blue LEDs that I bought at the time.







[Note photos are recent, but the blue LED is over 25 years old!  ;D ]

Mark
Looking forward to summer in Somerset :-)

1024MAK

In the same Maplin Sept 1992 - Aug 1993 catalogue, a single BC547 NPN transistor cost 8 pence £0.08) including VAT.

Of course, for most people, this was via mail order, and there were postage and packing charges. But in 1992 they did have 20 shops in the U.K. including one in the nearest city to me, Bristol, which I visited whenever I could.

Mark
Looking forward to summer in Somerset :-)

Bryce

I remember there being a mail order company in the UK called Watford Electronics. They sent you a little yellow photocopied catalogue and some order sheets if you sent them an SAE (Stamped Addressed Envelope). You then ordered using a "postal order" which was the 80's answer to PayPal and waited about as long as I do now when I order something from China.
By '93 I was living in Africa and did zero hobby electronics, so I've no idea when the prices started to fall. I only picked up electronics as a hobby again around 2000.


Bryce.

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