BP6 + BeOS & Haiku

[mmu_man]

Hi everyone,

I've been a BeOS user for like 10 years, and developer, then moved to Haiku which tries to rewrite it as Free Software. I'm also a Debian user.

I was given a BP6 to help me develop software for BeOS faster than on my K6-2 350 looong ago, before I had more powerful machines. I kinda liked it, except for the vacuum cleaner noise, but I guess that's part of the charm and I probably shouldn't try to fix it. It also came with SCSI disks which didn't help. The case is a quite plain middle tower, which I once brought with me on the train to Germany for a BeGeistert event, and gosh, it's heavy. When I first got it, I was so excited I forgot it came from the US and plugged it right away. I then had to change the PSU.

Last Christmas I tried booting it after like 15 years and it worked, sometimes, but not with all RAM sticks, so I knew I'll have to recap it, and I just ordered the parts for it. I shall take some pictures then. Then I intend to see how latest Haiku runs on it.

I'm also thinking about building some blinkenlights for it, much like the BeBox CPU usage LEDs. The case front has some vents that'd fit LEDs quite well.

I also just got a PowerMac G5 dual for the Haiku PPC port, which also happens to have holes on the front which just fit LEDs perfectly. So I think those three running BeOS & Haiku would make a very nice picture.

Meanwhile, just a quick pic, from my bedroom

IMG0941C.jpg

[Derek]

Nice work! Great to see some of them still running (and useful!).

I've shifted my focus slightly, building mining farms. It has brought back the fun of playing with hardware, which is exactly what the BP6 did for me!

Derek

[mmu_man]

This week-end I participate in the MicroAlchimie event (online event of course these days), so I showcased my machines…

I have 3 wonderful dual processor machines:

• BP6,
• BeBox (dual PowerPC 603e),
• MacPro G5 dual 2.0GHz

.

BP6_BeBox_G5_DSCN0693.jpg

BP6_BeBox_G5_DSCN0695.jpg

BP6_BeBox_G5_DSCN0697.jpg

My BP6:

BP6_DSCN0698.jpg

BP6_DSCN0699.jpg

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BP6_DSCN0701.jpg

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Oddly one of the CPUs seems glued to the heatsink, not sure if I can remove that glue to put fresh thermal paste.

I'll be recaping the BP6… Actually they don't really look bad, but since they are 20 years old and have a bad reputation and it didn't always boot last time I tried, I'll recap it anyway.

BP6_DSCN0707.jpg

BP6_DSCN0708.jpg

Hmm not that easy, solder pump doesn't work well on it, need to heat and gently pull one leg, then the other, then back the first one… then use solder pump to remove the remaining solder.

BP6_DSCN0709.jpg

BP6_DSCN0710.jpg

First row done, but I'll have to stop there, the only tool to cut legs I have is my old fingernail cutter, which doesn't cut well anymore.

Better wait and borrow the right tool next week than screw up.

[mmu_man]

Hmm, while checking with the multimeter I noticed there was 50 ohm on EC10, I hope I didn't create a short. But maybe that's normal because of the surrounding circuit. Anyone can check on theirs ?

[mmu_man]

Ok all done! Some pads were in the middle of ground planes and were very hard to empty, I ended up heating and gently pushing the new cap leg inside since I couldn't get my pump to get the solder out.

I was tempted to replace the few smaller ones left, I probably would have if it wasn't as cumbersome. They aren't as close to heating components anyway.

The last ones I replaced, the 1000µF, had bent legs from factory, I had to fix the spacing, and I figured it would actually be simpler to not have them flush with the board anyway, in case they must be replaced again. One could just cut the legs and resolder on them directly instead of risking destroying the board. I highly suggest doing this for all caps in case you attempt it yourself.

BP6_DSCN0738.jpg

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Crossing fingers…

BP6_DSCN0743.jpg

YAY, I didn't burn it!

Now I need to clean the thermal paste, and try to remove unglue the second CPU, I'll just see if I can dissolve the compound, else I'll just leave it as is.

[mmu_man]

So, I redid the thermal paste on the right one, the left one still has its heatsink glued as I didn't feel confident in trying to remove it. I cleaned the fans, and found enough RAM to get to 512MB. A friend has 3*256 ready for when we meet.

I suspect some RAM DIMM to not help with stability, it was only detected as 128MB so I dropped it. Maybe the recap wasn't necessary but well, it's done. Now it starts up everytime.

While there's not internal USB header, I noticed an SMBus header, which doesn't have pinouts in the manual, however I found this which has some ABit schematics from some other board and gives a hint. So I'm thinking of using it to address some I2C chip to drive the blinkenlights. If they sticked to the same pinout it should be:

1 SMLINK0 = SMBCLK
2 NC
3 GND
4 SMLINK1 = SMBDAT
5 +5V

[Derek]

^ Nice find for the schematic.

[mmu_man]

I'm wondering if the 350W PSU I have in the box is really enough…

Oh, and there's room for a 2.5x2.5mm badge on the case front, I wonder if there are any already out there or we could make a batch maybe?