·· 1802?· That's definately old-school...What I meant about retro-fitting old Z80 boards, is I actually had a standard sized board that I used in most of my Z80-based projects.· I am trying to develop a replacement board which will accept either a 24 or 40 pin BS2 chip, and have all the connectors that the original board had.
·· It should be pretty easy.· It had an LCD Port, actually two, but I only used one.· It had a keyboard interface, but on most applications that wasn't used either.· 3 discrete I/O ports, which would be easy enough to replace and a few other small features.· But as long as I could unplug a Z80 board and plug the Stamp-Based board in it's place, it's all a matter of programming from there.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
I just found this thread, so I guess I can put my two cents in. I remember going to the first computer store in the area that I lived in, 1975 or 1976, and there it was, an IMSAI, S100 technology. Some mystical thing happened, I wanted one those things, bad, but at $800 dollars, if I remember the price correctly, it was just to steep. So, I did the next best thing, a short time later the KIM came on the scene, so I purchaced one of those. Soon the thrill was gone, so my brother and I decided to purchace a·Heathkit computer (a DEC computer).·My brother liked to solder, so he did the board and the CRT, while I put together the paper tape reader. Talk about fun times, loading the bootlaoder tape, and then the 'basic' tape, it took probably a half an hour just to get everything setup.
In one of the·responses somebody mentioned a KAYPRO. With CPM, I thought I was on top of the world. The reason I purchased a KAYPRO was because I needed a moble computer to go along with·one of my RB5X's. Which brings me to the reason why I purchased the BS2, so I can refit one of the RB5X's. The other one will stay in original shape, the 8070 board, in tact, for the time being.
I guess I am a gadget man, if I looked hard enough I could probably still find the hard copy terminal. For those that do not know what I am talking about, think an aluminum suitcase that contains a telephone headset coupler, a built in printer, a built in modem, and a keyboard. This is 1978 vintage I believe, this was used for making of site connections to an IBM 'IRON'. I have to stop before I start getting into the thrill I had when I hooked up a tape recorder to be used as a storage device to one of the 'other' systems that I still have. ·
The timex is the computer I learned assembly on. Yes of course Z80 processor. I think that is why I am so fond of it.
Or it could be some kind of deep mental problem too.
That's when I was in high school, sure there were plenty of kids that could write some BASIC code, buy only me and my best friend at the time knew assembly.
We would write programs out on paper and other people would say "What the hell is that?". Really cool...
Bean.
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"SX-Video Display Module" Available Now.
Bean said...(trimmed)
The timex is the computer I learned assembly on. Yes of course Z80 processor. I think that is why I am so fond of it.
Or it could be some kind of deep mental problem too.
Bean,
·· I'd stick with the, "Deep Mental Problem" theory...·· Seriously though, didn't you find it difficult working with the SX after using a CPU like the Z80?· Separate I/O & Memory, No Bank Switching, Independant IRQ lines?· I am still getting the hang of it.· If not for SX/B, I'd probably stick solely with the Stamp Modules.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
I remember the Kaypro with Wordstar and Calcstar. It was built like a tank. In fact, I think it was the computer system used in US Army tanks of the period.
I've got a lot of respect for those of you that had to enter programs into their computer with a row of toggle switches or a hex keypad. You must have really been determined to get that thing to work [noparse];)[/noparse]
I was introduced to computers in 1980 and bought my first one in 1982. My first computer had a full keyboard, upper AND lower case characters (remember when that was optional?) and color graphics - it was a 16K Atari 800. It also had a cassette tape drive - that worked most of the time [noparse];)[/noparse]
my first computer was the ibm mainfraim we had back in high school i was ajuinor back in 78 they had a computer club with 4 people and said i couldnt join because i wasent in the math club. this was after i quit the fooltball team to join the model rocket club. (my coach was mad)·i had to been the nerdiest burnout ever. finally my pairent called and complained and they let me join. Then my dad knew a guy who knew someone and got a 286 with 2 5.25 floppies 512k memory and no hard drive. I rember wishing for a 20 g hard drive but then they were thousand of dollars. at least my parent were happy all i did was stay home and hack buliten boards. life we so simple then.
·· Just so I don't mislead anyone, I was around in the late 60's early seventies, in that I was a baby!· So by the time I got into computers, they had Color Graphics!··· So I too have alot of respect for those who had to use tape punch and switch entry.· BUT, as a side-note, my mentor in the early 90's believed I should know what it was like to use a switch entry system, and so that was the first thing I built.· He refused to teach me anymore until I could appreciate hand-assembled machine code with switch/step entry.·· All I could do was blink 8 LEDS to count up and down in Binary.· But hey, I got the point!
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
Does anyone remember TIM (The Information Machine)?
This was a very crude Assembly Language originally designed for punch card
systems. In 1983 (high school freshman) I was in the first year computer class
at our school where we learned about this language. I wrote an "Emulator" for
the Atari that would run TIM as a script language. After that the teacher let me
help design the "network" which consisted of 23 Atari computers. I say network
very loosely because ALL 23 computers shared the same external disk drive
and/or cassette drive. From the disk drive everyone had FULL polled file sharing
capabilities. Very dangerous by today’s standards, but back then very few people
in our class even knew how to do "Hello World" programs. Cassette was read only
except from one main computer (the server) mainly because of the manual human
requirements of operating a cassette.
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Beau Schwabe - Mask Designer III
Ahhh the cassette drive, My first computer was the Timex Sinclair 1000, Black and white with 2k of sumpious memory. You could upgrade to 16K if you had the money [noparse]:)[/noparse]
In high school our first computer class (I was in) used TRS-80. The first program I did in that class was a boxing game it looked kind of like this:
>Your oppenant throws a Left hook....
>You_ (insert flashing curser)
>Block
>Your Block is missed.
and so on...ahhhh those where the days. Does anyone use any kind of Basic anymore? Oh wait ...j/K
I am not an old school hacker, just an old school tinkerer. I sort of wander in and out of many technologies. So, is there any room for us or is this just for pure hackers?
I studied Electronics when I was 12 years old at summer school in San Francisco's Lowell High School [noparse][[/noparse]about 1960]. I had to take the bus for two hours everyday, but loved it. Had a slide rule too. Later I tried to get a Ham License, but you really are unwelcome as a Ham in any large city. No one wants the RFI ruining their TV reception. And, it is really hard to put up a long wire antenna. So I gave it up. I still remember Morse Code though. In college I learned FORTRAN on an IBM 360 with punch cards. Never got a Timex Sinclair, but had a RadioShack computer that did Basic programing and used your TV to display color. Had the cassettee tape drive for recording programs. I waiting for the IBM PC to come out and my first real personal computer was an ITT 8086. Had several HP calculators that I really loved with the RPN. Built a little CPM computer for fun and bought loads of 2nd hand computer stuff in the Silcon Valley Ham Swapmeets at Foothill College. You could get almost anything there. And I sold a lot of it through Nuts and Volts [noparse][[/noparse]I have a life-time subscription].
·· I don't remember TIM, but I do remember all the Tape Drives that were the primary storage device on many of my first computers, including the VIC-20, Coco·and the TI-994A.
· I always disliked Tape Drives, but again, in hearing about all the Tape Punching, I guess I shouldn't complain!· That was state-of-the-art at the time!· Of course, my Apple had 2 5-1/4" floppy drives...I don't remember seeing a Tape Drive for those, but they probably had them.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
Anyone ever retrofit the Case from one of these dinosaurs to house something newer?
I've seen C=64's converted to Atari 2600 platforms, but never a C=64 converted to a PC.· Or better yet, let's put a BS2 and Video Module in there.· Okay, maybe that's a bit silly!
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
Chris Savage (Parallax) said...
Kaypros...CP/M...Tandy Pocket Computers...<sigh>
Anyone ever retrofit the Case from one of these dinosaurs to house something newer?
Only L33t types thinks it's cool to gut a classic and stuff it full of 'modern' electronics.
The same types also likes 12V fans with neon lights...
(Sad isn't it?)
In a few years, what was 'modern' when they put it in, will be considered obsolete, and all they have left is the sorry remains of what was once a collector's item...
Speaking of refiting, I started a project, doing just that. Back in 1983 I purchased a couple of RB5X mobile robots, to my surprise the company is still around, selling the exact same thing today that they were selling back in 1983. The old technology has some pluses, but new technology basically guts the inside by 90%. On old tech plus side the 8070 that runs the robot can be accessed via a dumb terminal, has access to 16k of ram , or more (keep in mind 1983), expansion via the four slot (44 pin edge card)·card cage, so on and so forth. My first successful project, I had the thing running at a minimal with a BS2. Now I am in the first steps of implementing some SXxx chips, or maybe a mixture of SXxx and BS2, have not fully decided just yet. I know I am driving the guys in the SX forum crazy with my general questions.
·· I don't have 12V fans with Neon lights in my PC, but in all honesty at one time I had the Blue LED Antec Case fans installed...Not because I am "1337" or thought they were cool, but because I had 4 Hard Drives, and 2 fans cooling them, and the filter in the front of my Antec Case kept getting loaded with dust because I had no way of knowing it was full...
·· What I realized was that by putting Blue LED fans in there, I could "see" the dust from the front of the case, and the less light I saw, the more dust was on the filter.· Same effect with the side and rear fans.· However, I recently removed them all but one, since I realized the more fans were sucking·more dust.
··
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
Replace the filter mesh with one made of a conductive material, then use a BS1 to check for changes in capacitance or resistance...
Maybe that's an idea for a kit from Parallax?
And yes, dust-buildup inside a computer IS hazardous.
In my work(Public Roads Administration in Norway) I get to go to some weird places...
I once replaced a PC at a local firestation(it was used to monitor tunnels), and I couldn't help noticing that it was full of dust...
(1/4" inch layer on the motherboard)
One of the blokes on duty then told me that earlier that year, another PC there had actually burst into fire...
·· A little OT, but as a side-note, one of the main reasons I wanted to get out of my previous business was the sheer number of computers I had to work on daily that were loaded not only full of dust, but more commonly coal-dust, cigarette smoke/tar, cat/dog hair, and believe it or not, coffee stains and bug juice (As in little brown dots all over the case where fly excrement had dried on).
·· Yeah, you're probably right...I should really come up with a BASIC Stamp solution to my dust monitoring problem.· Replacing the screen wouldn't be a bad idea either, considering I brok the mounts the first time I tried to take it out.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
Ray, Gadgetman and Chris I've still got my Sharp PC1251 with the cassette interface and thermal printer. The charger in the interface is hooped so I have to dig into it but otherwise it's good to go and fully functional. I almost bought a 16k ram expansion piece on EBay the other day but the madness must end somewhere. I will post some pics when I get a moment.
On the topic of PC with far to much dust etc... I have a Pentium 233 MMX that will not die running one of our file/printer Mac/PC networks. It doesn't have to do much but run 24/7. About 2 years ago I pulled it apart and found that all of the fans had stopped turning; Power Supply, Processor and an extra one I put in. The ribbon cables had become slightly charred and everything had a thick coating of duct on it.
A new case, power supply along with a complement of new ribbon cables and it's stuill running. I've had that same machine for about 7 years and it has run pretty much every day non stop.
And... It also had those little bug stains in it too.
·· The different with an old Pentium 233 is that machines of that area could typically get away with the fans failing.· They didn't generate the amount of heat prevalent in today's computers.· Not only do we have 400 Watt Power Supplies, 3.0+ Ghz processors and High-Speed Hard Drives, all which generate enormous amounts of heat.· But the Video and Sound Card processors are so advanced now they even they have to have Cooling fans on them (Well, the GPUs do!).· All this adds up to a single fan failure potentially bringing the entire system down.
·· I must admit, I DO miss the days of the Pentium 233s and such...Okay, well I don't miss Windows 98!
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Chris Savage Parallax Tech Support csavage@parallax.com
Our latest Mac is abou the size of a stack of coasters and rips along at breakneck speed (Mac Mini) and I'm eyeing the new G5 dual processor. My best PC was great a year ago; HP P4, 2.8GHz, 1Gig Ram, 200Gig H/D, Audigy, Radion 9800 Pro (Nice card with a big fan and lots of memory).
I have more fun with my Toddler Boe and SX chips though
I've seen my fair share of keyboards soaked in Coffee or soda, filled with cigarette ash and whatnot...
Smokers now knows better than to careless near any of the computers at the office...
I want one of those Mac mini's too....
One of my PC's is a 133MHz Pentium machine, custom built for me.
(Using a maxi-tower with 5 x 5.25 and 2 x 3.5" drive bays in the front and another 4 internal 3.5" bays)
One of these days I'll probably upgrade it to 233MHz Pentium MMC, but don't know when...
It's not as if it needs it, as the current setup with 96MB RAM and 1.2GB IDE + 32GB SCSI drive(D: where the swap file is located) and 8MB ATI RAGE Pro card is more than enough to run OS/2...
It has served me faithfully since 1996 when it was more powerful than even anything the CAD people at the office used...
Yes, I run OS/2, the ecomstation build, bought from www.mensys.nl
(In fact, I was one of the Beta testers for the distro
Mostly it is used to play games such as X-wing.
The only thing the PC has any problems with is running AROS, which doesn't seem to like serial mice, and only accepts PS2 types.
see www.aros.org
(AROS = Amiga Research OS)
The first computers I used were back in the early to mid 90's. They were the Apple ][noparse][[/noparse] E. I really liked the simplicity of it. I learned the basics of Apple BASIC in highschool just a few years back. I got really good with the progamming stuff, I still have quite a few programs on floppies. My favorite project was using the Koala Pad to make drawings, then I used the (8bit?) speaker to play back music. It was a hard project that took me a good long time to finish in class. I also did the Line plotting, using a sheet of graph paper to plot my stuff like HLIN 10 VLIN 10, etc.. Now I'm pretty suprised how much PBASIC is similiar... I'm finding it easy to write programs, true they are simple, but I already am working on a program of my own for my boe-bot... I'm just happy Chris got me into PBASIC!
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ My Computer Specs
_______
"I had no professional training, I gave it my all, I have no regrets" -William Hung
_______
Comments
·· 1802?· That's definately old-school...What I meant about retro-fitting old Z80 boards, is I actually had a standard sized board that I used in most of my Z80-based projects.· I am trying to develop a replacement board which will accept either a 24 or 40 pin BS2 chip, and have all the connectors that the original board had.
·· It should be pretty easy.· It had an LCD Port, actually two, but I only used one.· It had a keyboard interface, but on most applications that wasn't used either.· 3 discrete I/O ports, which would be easy enough to replace and a few other small features.· But as long as I could unplug a Z80 board and plug the Stamp-Based board in it's place, it's all a matter of programming from there.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
In one of the·responses somebody mentioned a KAYPRO. With CPM, I thought I was on top of the world. The reason I purchased a KAYPRO was because I needed a moble computer to go along with·one of my RB5X's. Which brings me to the reason why I purchased the BS2, so I can refit one of the RB5X's. The other one will stay in original shape, the 8070 board, in tact, for the time being.
I guess I am a gadget man, if I looked hard enough I could probably still find the hard copy terminal. For those that do not know what I am talking about, think an aluminum suitcase that contains a telephone headset coupler, a built in printer, a built in modem, and a keyboard. This is 1978 vintage I believe, this was used for making of site connections to an IBM 'IRON'. I have to stop before I start getting into the thrill I had when I hooked up a tape recorder to be used as a storage device to one of the 'other' systems that I still have.
·
Or it could be some kind of deep mental problem too.
That's when I was in high school, sure there were plenty of kids that could write some BASIC code, buy only me and my best friend at the time knew assembly.
We would write programs out on paper and other people would say "What the hell is that?". Really cool...
Bean.
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"SX-Video Display Module" Available Now.
www.sxvm.com
"A problem well defined, is a problem·half solved."
·
·· I'd stick with the, "Deep Mental Problem" theory...
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
I was introduced to computers in 1980 and bought my first one in 1982. My first computer had a full keyboard, upper AND lower case characters (remember when that was optional?) and color graphics - it was a 16K Atari 800. It also had a cassette tape drive - that worked most of the time [noparse];)[/noparse]
Free kevin
oh they did already.
.
·· Just so I don't mislead anyone, I was around in the late 60's early seventies, in that I was a baby!· So by the time I got into computers, they had Color Graphics!·
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Does anyone remember TIM (The Information Machine)?
This was a very crude Assembly Language originally designed for punch card
systems. In 1983 (high school freshman) I was in the first year computer class
at our school where we learned about this language. I wrote an "Emulator" for
the Atari that would run TIM as a script language. After that the teacher let me
help design the "network" which consisted of 23 Atari computers. I say network
very loosely because ALL 23 computers shared the same external disk drive
and/or cassette drive. From the disk drive everyone had FULL polled file sharing
capabilities. Very dangerous by today’s standards, but back then very few people
in our class even knew how to do "Hello World" programs. Cassette was read only
except from one main computer (the server) mainly because of the manual human
requirements of operating a cassette.
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Beau Schwabe - Mask Designer III
National Semiconductor Corporation
Latest Company News
(Communication Interface Division)
500 Pinnacle Court, Suite 525
Mail Stop GA1
Norcross,GA 30071
In high school our first computer class (I was in) used TRS-80. The first program I did in that class was a boxing game it looked kind of like this:
>Your oppenant throws a Left hook....
>You_ (insert flashing curser)
>Block
>Your Block is missed.
and so on...ahhhh those where the days. Does anyone use any kind of Basic anymore? Oh wait ...j/K
Ray
I am not an old school hacker, just an old school tinkerer. I sort of wander in and out of many technologies. So, is there any room for us or is this just for pure hackers?
I studied Electronics when I was 12 years old at summer school in San Francisco's Lowell High School [noparse][[/noparse]about 1960]. I had to take the bus for two hours everyday, but loved it. Had a slide rule too. Later I tried to get a Ham License, but you really are unwelcome as a Ham in any large city. No one wants the RFI ruining their TV reception. And, it is really hard to put up a long wire antenna. So I gave it up. I still remember Morse Code though. In college I learned FORTRAN on an IBM 360 with punch cards. Never got a Timex Sinclair, but had a RadioShack computer that did Basic programing and used your TV to display color. Had the cassettee tape drive for recording programs. I waiting for the IBM PC to come out and my first real personal computer was an ITT 8086. Had several HP calculators that I really loved with the RPN. Built a little CPM computer for fun and bought loads of 2nd hand computer stuff in the Silcon Valley Ham Swapmeets at Foothill College. You could get almost anything there. And I sold a lot of it through Nuts and Volts [noparse][[/noparse]I have a life-time subscription].
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G. Herzog in Taiwan
· I always disliked Tape Drives, but again, in hearing about all the Tape Punching, I guess I shouldn't complain!· That was state-of-the-art at the time!· Of course, my Apple had 2 5-1/4" floppy drives...I don't remember seeing a Tape Drive for those, but they probably had them.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Guess what's waiting for me at the postoffice?
a KayPro 10
(That's the model with a HDD)
Yayyyy!!!!!
It should look nice next to my Osborne 1...
I really loved my Radio Shack PC-2 pocket computer too. Thoses are long gone now...
Bean.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"SX-Video Display Module" Available Now.
www.sxvm.com
"A problem well defined, is a problem·half solved."
·
Ray
Oh, you mean the Sharp Pc1500?
http://home.c2i.net/trygveh/english/gadgetman/pocket/sharp/pc1500.html
It's a nice enough machine
The Pc-4 was a Casio PB-100 in disguise, and it's even odds that the PC-6 also was a casio.
http://pocket.free.fr/html/tandy/pc-4_e.html
I got the Tandy PC4 in 1984 and thought I was a bada-- well you know, I even had the thermal printer for it. (the thermal printer has long since died.
Ray
I really need to finish inventorying my collection and update my website...
(It's just that with 150+ items in the collection, it's a mammoth task...)
Anyone ever retrofit the Case from one of these dinosaurs to house something newer?
I've seen C=64's converted to Atari 2600 platforms, but never a C=64 converted to a PC.· Or better yet, let's put a BS2 and Video Module in there.· Okay, maybe that's a bit silly!
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Only L33t types thinks it's cool to gut a classic and stuff it full of 'modern' electronics.
The same types also likes 12V fans with neon lights...
(Sad isn't it?)
In a few years, what was 'modern' when they put it in, will be considered obsolete, and all they have left is the sorry remains of what was once a collector's item...
So many hacks...so little time
·· I don't have 12V fans with Neon lights in my PC, but in all honesty at one time I had the Blue LED Antec Case fans installed...Not because I am "1337" or thought they were cool, but because I had 4 Hard Drives, and 2 fans cooling them, and the filter in the front of my Antec Case kept getting loaded with dust because I had no way of knowing it was full...
·· What I realized was that by putting Blue LED fans in there, I could "see" the dust from the front of the case, and the less light I saw, the more dust was on the filter.· Same effect with the side and rear fans.· However, I recently removed them all but one, since I realized the more fans were sucking·more dust.
··
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
You don't use LEDs to detect dust buildup...
Replace the filter mesh with one made of a conductive material, then use a BS1 to check for changes in capacitance or resistance...
Maybe that's an idea for a kit from Parallax?
And yes, dust-buildup inside a computer IS hazardous.
In my work(Public Roads Administration in Norway) I get to go to some weird places...
I once replaced a PC at a local firestation(it was used to monitor tunnels), and I couldn't help noticing that it was full of dust...
(1/4" inch layer on the motherboard)
One of the blokes on duty then told me that earlier that year, another PC there had actually burst into fire...
·· A little OT, but as a side-note, one of the main reasons I wanted to get out of my previous business was the sheer number of computers I had to work on daily that were loaded not only full of dust, but more commonly coal-dust, cigarette smoke/tar, cat/dog hair, and believe it or not, coffee stains and bug juice (As in little brown dots all over the case where fly excrement had dried on).
·· Yeah, you're probably right...I should really come up with a BASIC Stamp solution to my dust monitoring problem.· Replacing the screen wouldn't be a bad idea either, considering I brok the mounts the first time I tried to take it out.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Ray, Gadgetman and Chris I've still got my Sharp PC1251 with the cassette interface and thermal printer. The charger in the interface is hooped so I have to dig into it but otherwise it's good to go and fully functional. I almost bought a 16k ram expansion piece on EBay the other day but the madness must end somewhere. I will post some pics when I get a moment.
On the topic of PC with far to much dust etc... I have a Pentium 233 MMX that will not die running one of our file/printer Mac/PC networks. It doesn't have to do much but run 24/7. About 2 years ago I pulled it apart and found that all of the fans had stopped turning; Power Supply, Processor and an extra one I put in. The ribbon cables had become slightly charred and everything had a thick coating of duct on it.
A new case, power supply along with a complement of new ribbon cables and it's stuill running. I've had that same machine for about 7 years and it has run pretty much every day non stop.
And... It also had those little bug stains in it too.
·· The different with an old Pentium 233 is that machines of that area could typically get away with the fans failing.· They didn't generate the amount of heat prevalent in today's computers.· Not only do we have 400 Watt Power Supplies, 3.0+ Ghz processors and High-Speed Hard Drives, all which generate enormous amounts of heat.· But the Video and Sound Card processors are so advanced now they even they have to have Cooling fans on them (Well, the GPUs do!).· All this adds up to a single fan failure potentially bringing the entire system down.
·· I must admit, I DO miss the days of the Pentium 233s and such...Okay, well I don't miss Windows 98!
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Our latest Mac is abou the size of a stack of coasters and rips along at breakneck speed (Mac Mini) and I'm eyeing the new G5 dual processor. My best PC was great a year ago; HP P4, 2.8GHz, 1Gig Ram, 200Gig H/D, Audigy, Radion 9800 Pro (Nice card with a big fan and lots of memory).
I have more fun with my Toddler Boe and SX chips though
Smokers now knows better than to careless near any of the computers at the office...
I want one of those Mac mini's too....
One of my PC's is a 133MHz Pentium machine, custom built for me.
(Using a maxi-tower with 5 x 5.25 and 2 x 3.5" drive bays in the front and another 4 internal 3.5" bays)
One of these days I'll probably upgrade it to 233MHz Pentium MMC, but don't know when...
It's not as if it needs it, as the current setup with 96MB RAM and 1.2GB IDE + 32GB SCSI drive(D: where the swap file is located) and 8MB ATI RAGE Pro card is more than enough to run OS/2...
It has served me faithfully since 1996 when it was more powerful than even anything the CAD people at the office used...
Yes, I run OS/2, the ecomstation build, bought from www.mensys.nl
(In fact, I was one of the Beta testers for the distro
Mostly it is used to play games such as X-wing.
The only thing the PC has any problems with is running AROS, which doesn't seem to like serial mice, and only accepts PS2 types.
see www.aros.org
(AROS = Amiga Research OS)
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My Computer Specs
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"I had no professional training, I gave it my all, I have no regrets" -William Hung
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