In May of 2024 I added an Acorn ATOM to my collection - it was the first non-rackmounted 8-bit Acorn machine, released in March 1980.

This ATOM came with several modern expansions:

• AtoMMC v4 internal storage (by Roland Leurs)
• YARRB-M2, a.k.a. “Yet Another ROM/RAM Board” (by Roland Leurs)
• Acorn Atom 8K Video RAM and Noise Killer (by David Banks, a.k.a. ‘Hoglet’)

Power supply

One of the issues with the Acorn ATOM is that the dual 5V power regulators get very hot - this explains the discoloration in the rear of the top case. To work around this, you can fit links LK6 and LK7 to bypass these regulators and use a regulated 5V, 3A power supply instead. The DC jack is a 5.0mm / 2.5mm barrel connector (center pin is positive 5V).

Next steps

• Replace the linear power regulators with a buck DC-DC converter to reduce waste heat - for example the HX1314G
• Find a proper DC jack plug, or replace the DC socket with a more common diameter