Recent content by Scruit

Yeah, the smell is pretty much par for the course on these. I have two SS286s that I call Projects "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee". The plastics on both of mine are so brittle that Tweedledum's case is made up of all the bad/broken parts mix & matched from both computers. It has been...

The newest rom I have for the SupersPort286 is labelled 07/02/90 (C)ZDS CORP MFM-200 Monitor, Version 3.4E I can't immediately check to see max disk capacity, sorry. That laptop is at the bottom of a very big pile of... "projects".... (Or junk, depending who you ask) so I can't easily boot up...

Thanks to all who organized the TA for 2024. Another awesome event. My personal highlights were the tech track events, with special callout to Tim's Logic analyzer session and the Amardeep's disk IO session - I'm very much a bits and bytes kinda guy so they were fascinating. Birt's...

Bomb Threats are almost exclusively fake, however the response is almost exclusively real.

I'm seeing on the news that as a result of ~33 bomb threats against Springfield that they have canceled the culture festival which is slated for the same weekend. Fingers crossed we can still go ahead with this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it winds up being shut down out of safety concerns.

Latest update is that the board still flups, even when connected back into the computer. If I connect an automotive bulb across the 12v rail the power stabilizes and I can get a solid 12v output, but the logic board does not respond yet, and I don't get any hint of raster or brightness on the...

I recapped the board today with the console5 kit, and saw some progress in the feedback circuit. but still getting the cycling with the crowbar. These traces all show one attempt to start. The analog board is disconnected from everything, except I have 47ohm dummy load on both the +12v and +5v...

I figured out the sine wave. Inexperience on my part, and I was probing parts of the circuit that had a different ground reference without remembering that the oscilloscope grounds are all tied together. So I was introducing that sine wave myself.

I know I can probably fix it by recapping it. I have a kit from console5 on the way, but I am trying to learn the WHY the caps are causing the problem, not just trying to get a working board. It's the journey, not the destination. Looking for advice on troubleshooting so far and whether my...

Hugo, Hello. Looking for a little CRT advice, and I was pointed in your direction. I was wondering if you may know off the top of your head if this CRT substitution would work: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/trs-80-4p-substitute-crt-option-sony-ssm-930.1249464/ Thanks for your...

While looking for a replacement CRT for my TRS-80 4P (and only finding drop-in replacements for $200-400) I came into possession of a Sony SSM-930 9" B&W CCTV monitor. The Sony monitor works, the neck pinout is the same as the M24-302 in the 4P except the heater voltage is expecting +12v...

"Parts OF repair" is probably accurate. Lot of alpha-hotels out there building computers from their dead parts bin and selling them on ebay.

Every place you go has prices hiked up. The core of my hobby philosophy is taking old things and making them useful again in an everyday setting. Covid, youtube channels, and the availability of simple/modern mods (SD card adapters etc) have created a sudden wave of new demand, and places like...

And she sang a beautiful Requiem. While looking for a replacement CRT I'll be looking into doing a reversible LCD mod.

TRS-80 4P. Got the PSU up and running, oscilloscope on vsync and raw video seems to be consistent with 3 lines of text appearing in the top half of the screen..? Not familiar with the 4p but does not look like the classic "cass?" prompt. However, no picture on CRT. I noticed that the...