Post by mrgpg on Sept 2, 2021 19:47:22 GMT
Hi all
Thought I'd take a moment and post some initial thoughts on the PC-1 (from the perspective of proposed use in Education -- and if I'm honest, to also use as a Speccy box ;-) )
Purchased via ActiveConsult (UK) -- all arrived swiftly and in good order. Love the packaging of the PC-1 and for the price, the inclusion of the cables, power supply and mouse are a real bonus. For use in Education, all that is needed in a "cheap" HDMI monitor (more about that in a moment).
Power on:
I have both HDMI and VGA monitors. My retro gaming is usually via a VGA switch box -- I can happily connect BBC B, Acorn Electron, Vic20 and C64 via SCART into HDMI and HDMI into VGA adapters -- this adapter stacking doesnt seem to affect any of the functionality. However, the PC-1 wasn't having any of it. The initial boot logo would appear and then the screen flicker and then nothing. I think during this process, that I turned the PC-1 off before the inital setup had finished. From that point, it was 50/50 if the screen would display. Sometimes it would work for 5 minutes, but would drop out at random times and the monitor would show "no input".
So I connected to the straight HDMI and the same dropping in and out continued. At this point I thought it was the HDMI leads and/or the HDMI connector on the PC-1. So I took the PC-1 apart and cleaned the connectors with IPA and a toothbrush --- it didn't make any difference.
After a post here on the Forum, I downloaded the latest firmware and burned to 16Gb card. Whilst the PC-1 would not recognise the card (which was formatted as FAT32). So I went for an old 2Gb card instead. The firmware update was recognised and flashed fairly quickly.
I now have the PC-1 working quite merrily via straight HDMI (actually via a HDMI KVM). To confirm the previous "issue" I again connected via the HDMI to VGA to KVM set up and the screen issues persist. None of that matters -- I now have a 100% functional PC-1 connected to HDMI.
Conclusion -- not sure if the IPA and updating to 1.08 did the trick, but on plain HDMI, everything works a treat.
Initial thoughts on the PC-1 unit:
I find the build quality great for the price of the unit. The keyboard is better and more sturdy than expected. The mouse is functional and once I turned down the sensitivity, was fine in use.
I'm off to"play" evaluate using the device to code / program as this is my main use use.
However, thought it worth posting back the I think I might have a new retro / future techie love.
Cheers
Glen
Thought I'd take a moment and post some initial thoughts on the PC-1 (from the perspective of proposed use in Education -- and if I'm honest, to also use as a Speccy box ;-) )
Purchased via ActiveConsult (UK) -- all arrived swiftly and in good order. Love the packaging of the PC-1 and for the price, the inclusion of the cables, power supply and mouse are a real bonus. For use in Education, all that is needed in a "cheap" HDMI monitor (more about that in a moment).
Power on:
I have both HDMI and VGA monitors. My retro gaming is usually via a VGA switch box -- I can happily connect BBC B, Acorn Electron, Vic20 and C64 via SCART into HDMI and HDMI into VGA adapters -- this adapter stacking doesnt seem to affect any of the functionality. However, the PC-1 wasn't having any of it. The initial boot logo would appear and then the screen flicker and then nothing. I think during this process, that I turned the PC-1 off before the inital setup had finished. From that point, it was 50/50 if the screen would display. Sometimes it would work for 5 minutes, but would drop out at random times and the monitor would show "no input".
So I connected to the straight HDMI and the same dropping in and out continued. At this point I thought it was the HDMI leads and/or the HDMI connector on the PC-1. So I took the PC-1 apart and cleaned the connectors with IPA and a toothbrush --- it didn't make any difference.
After a post here on the Forum, I downloaded the latest firmware and burned to 16Gb card. Whilst the PC-1 would not recognise the card (which was formatted as FAT32). So I went for an old 2Gb card instead. The firmware update was recognised and flashed fairly quickly.
I now have the PC-1 working quite merrily via straight HDMI (actually via a HDMI KVM). To confirm the previous "issue" I again connected via the HDMI to VGA to KVM set up and the screen issues persist. None of that matters -- I now have a 100% functional PC-1 connected to HDMI.
Conclusion -- not sure if the IPA and updating to 1.08 did the trick, but on plain HDMI, everything works a treat.
Initial thoughts on the PC-1 unit:
I find the build quality great for the price of the unit. The keyboard is better and more sturdy than expected. The mouse is functional and once I turned down the sensitivity, was fine in use.
I'm off to
However, thought it worth posting back the I think I might have a new retro / future techie love.
Cheers
Glen