The above pics taken January 2006.
Images as of today 17 years later.
ScuzzBlog: Diaries August 2023
Entry 3rd August 2023: Post 1: Acorn A3010 - Taking a RISC.
Acorn A3010 - Taking a RISC.
I have long held the view that the biggest killer in respect of
case yellowing is heat. Having spent my working life designing
and detailing buildings I am all too aware of the risks associated
with fire. The surface spread of flame has to be controlled and
this often means intumescent additives or coatings. Therefore
when I first came across the yellowing of computer casings I had
always suspected some kind of controlling additive in the paint.
Paint surfaces tend to simply fade and become faint. Whereas a
chemical reaction trapped behind a surface may cause discolouration.
I recall a whole wooden ceiling on a project going white because
the temperature in the shower area had caused the intumescent to
react.
It follows that I try to keep my computers out of sealed containers
and in dry coolish environments. I also use tissue/kitchen roll to
cover the machines which allows the surface and inside of the
computers to breath. The only risk is physical damage and also
insect attack. My methods appear to have worked. Sadly I did leave
a rare C64G system in a box and sure enough it has gone very yellow.
The last two years have been lethal for computers here and I moved
a lot to the shade of the lower level. Seems to have worked albeit
has made some of my working areas a little congested.
In 2006 I purchased a few Acorn computers and one of those is the
one featured today. The A3010 with the ARM250 32-bit RISC. This
computer was released in Sept 92 some 14 years before I acquired
her. It has been over 17 years since I obtained the A3010 and from
my early images the surface does not appear to have degraded. It
is the same with all my Acorns. The keys have faded a little as
has the label, but on the whole she looks good as new.
I tend to think that some manufacturers of the casings for the
Amiga were a little over zealous with the fire coating. Interestingly
the later A1200s made by Escom in Germany are still almost white.
Anyhoo I'll feature a few more notable casings to computers over
the next week or so to make the comparison. Normally I just switch
my machines on at this time in the month to check they are working.
I guess I can take a few pics for record purposes.
On that RISC or should I say risk issue I have the Acorns stacked
like books in the lounge separated by tissue. The Acorn has the
power cable hard wired to the computer so can be a bit of a trip
hazard. I also have to avoid kicking them as I walk by. Haven't
had a problem thus far, but is always a bit of a risk.
These computers have the OS in ROM. Sadly you lose the CMOS/BIOS
or whatever when you remove the internal battery. To boot the
system you simply hit the DELETE repeatedly when switched on and
after an orange light to the floppy and a short beep you should
get the green light and boot into the RISC OS. When I first had
these machines I thought they were all broken until I discovered
the battery for each was dead and needed this boot process. They
all responded and further you have to activate the hard drives
from the internal software or it will appear invisible without
the battery. Pretty cool having the OS on ROM.
Acorn A3010 - Taking a RISC.
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Last updated 3rd August 2023
Chandraise Kingdom
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