Acorn Electron

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Introduction

The Electron was easily expandable and a number of 3rd parties also produced upgrades. Here are two examples.

Manuals and documentation

See Electron Computers 

Acorn Electron No. 1

 This is a standard Electron with Acorn Plus 1  and Acorn Plus 3  expansions. It has an Issue 4 motherboard. I can't remember how I acquired the Electron, but I bought the Plus 3 in October 2001 on ebay. Here are some photgraphs:

Electron with ALF03 Data Recorder

Electron with Acorn ALF03 Data Recorder . Most people probably used a TV but this picture shows a Microvitec colour monitor. The screen shows a program loading.

Electron with Plus 1 and Plus 3

Electron with the Acorn Plus 3 and Plus 1 expansions. The Plus 3 is at the front with the 3.5" disc on the right. The Plus 1 is at the back with the cartridge slots.

Electron opened

The Electron opened. At the bottom front is the case top with the keyboard attached (upside down). There is a ribbon connector from the keyboard to the motherboard in the case bottom, which it at the top of the picture. The power supply is on the top right. The motherboard is an issue 4 board. The pale rectangle in the middle of the motherboard is the notorious ULA. You can see that there are far fewer components than there are in a BBC Micro.

Specification:

Acorn Electron No. 2

This Electron has been expanded with a Slogger Turbo Driver and Slogger ROMBox+  with Slogger Electron Expansion ROM  installed. I bought this Electron in Jul 2002 on ebay and bought the ROMBox at the same time. I did a simple test for the web site with a BASIC FOR...NEXT loop and it was about 40% faster in Turbo mode. Here are some Photographs

Electron with Slogger ROMBox+

Electron with a Slogger ROMBox+ which has 2 cartridge slots (compatable with the Acorn Plus 1) and space for 4 sideway ROM/RAM chips and a printer interface at the back (out of sight). The ROMBox+ has the Slogger Electron Expansion ROM installed.

 Electron opened to show Slogger Turbo Driver

The Electron part opened to show the Slogger Turbo Driver daughterboard (the short wire to the switch on the left side makes it impossible to open fully). The 6502 is desoldered from the motherboard and replaced with a socket. The Turbo Driver goes in the socket. This Electron has an issue 2 motherboard.

Specification: