Building a Clone MITS 8800

[hmb]

Reading the S100 email list/Google group, sounds like I timed it well on acquiring my Altair case from Mike Douglas. Sounds like he no longer has any inventory. Makes me wonder a bit if I didn't luck into the last one he had.

-Kevin

I saw that discussion posting as well. It seems Mike left the person looking to buy an Altair 8800c kit with the impression that additional stock would not be available anytime soon - not even a suggestion to "check back in a few weeks". It is however quite understandable - the financial outlay required to manufacture and stock these kits must be considerable.

 

[troj]

I saw that discussion posting as well. It seems Mike left the person looking to buy an Altair 8800c kit with the impression that additional stock would not be available anytime soon - not even a suggestion to "check back in a few weeks".

I'd imagine Mike has a good feel for what the demand is, based on how quickly they sell. I'd guess the cash outlay for that minimum order of 50 would be upwards of $10K or more. Can't say I blame him, if the demand isn't very high and it would take him years to sell them all.

-Kevin

 

[wperko]

Hi,

I've been designing and building some wood cabinets and when I'm done with that, I'll finish some sheet metal cabinets that will be pretty easy to make at home with less than $100 worth of tools.

The neat thing is I can customize the front and back panels quickly and easily in SolidWorks and export the vector files for people.

The vector files can be used by a laser cutter/engraver, a CNC mill and other CNC tools to cut and engrave woods, plastics, metal etc.

I'll be posting my initial files on my website after I get these two computers built to show off the designs.

The IMSAI-JAIR front panel is made for the Don Caprio mini-Front Panel board. I do have a vector sketch for his full size CP-A panel board too (It's slightly different than the original IMSAI 8080 CP-A board.)

In the last picture, you can see it's computer cabinets and floppy drive cabinets made from sheet metal ...

Walt Perko's brainless.org-anizm

www.brainless.org

.

 

[hmb]

Hi,

I've been designing and building some wood cabinets and when I'm done with that, I'll finish some sheet metal cabinets that will be pretty easy to make at home with less than $100 worth of tools.

The neat thing is I can customize the front and back panels quickly and easily in SolidWorks and export the vector files for people.

The vector files can be used by a laser cutter/engraver, a CNC mill and other CNC tools to cut and engrave woods, plastics, metal etc.

I'll be posting my initial files on my website after I get these two computers built to show off the designs.

The IMSAI-JAIR front panel is made for the Don Caprio mini-Front Panel board. I do have a vector sketch for his full size CP-A panel board too (It's slightly different than the original IMSAI 8080 CP-A board.)

In the last picture, you can see it's computer cabinets and floppy drive cabinets made from sheet metal ...

Walt Perko's brainless.org-anizm

www.brainless.org

.

Which is great, for anyone who already has a front panel board. The IMSAI mini and full size front panel boards were available only as a group buy that closed 2-3 years ago, and the files required to have either PCB manufactured independently have not been made available by the person who designed them.

 

[Hugo Holden]

any of the major PCB houses can provide a card edge bevel in manufacturing, you just have to ask for it

Yes, but not everybody asks for it. For example there is a SOL-20 personality card out there, without it and its very awkward.

 

[wperko]

Which is great, for anyone who already has a front panel board. The IMSAI mini and full size front panel boards were available only as a group buy that closed 2-3 years ago, and the files required to have either PCB manufactured independently have not been made available by the person who designed them.

Hi,

You can buy the IMSAI mini-Front Panel or the reproduction IMSAI CP-A from Don Caprio the designer;

Find the two boards in the S-100 list of boards on this page:
https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=boardinventory

S-100 Front Panel (aka FP Mini)

4

$20

Don Caprio

Front Panel - Full Size (reproduction of a popular classic)

2

??

Don Caprio

.

 

[troj]

I heard back from Martin Eberhard, and the 88-2SIOJP is in the works. Of note for others interested, it's now only sold in board form - he's no longer offering them fully assembled. He sells the board plus some of the harder to find bits, and provides the BOM for the rest of it in the instructions.

-Kevin

 

[wperko]

I heard back from Martin Eberhard, and the 88-2SIOJP is in the works. Of note for others interested, it's now only sold in board form - he's no longer offering them fully assembled. He sells the board plus some of the harder to find bits, and provides the BOM for the rest of it in the instructions.

-Kevin

Hi,

Although I'm pretty good at soldering up boards, I was happy to get my two 88-2SIOJP boards pre-made and tested. I like the monitor on the board, it's perfect for testing RAM and probably lots of other boards.

OTOH, a new reproduction MITS 88-2SIO is in the works, a modernized one might come next to make configurations easier, a new RAM/PROM board is also in the works that will allow the Martin Eberhard monitor ROM and/or pretty much any others to be added into EEPROM or RAM with 1K addressing to fit into almost any other computer RAM board position.

We are looking for more ideas for creating reproduction boards to make the S-100 hobby more attractive and affordable.


.

 

[maxtherabbit]

I heard back from Martin Eberhard, and the 88-2SIOJP is in the works. Of note for others interested, it's now only sold in board form - he's no longer offering them fully assembled. He sells the board plus some of the harder to find bits, and provides the BOM for the rest of it in the instructions.

-Kevin

any update on the 8800c cabinets? still OOS with no plans to reup?

 

[wperko]

any update on the 8800c cabinets? still OOS with no plans to reup?

Hi,

I'm working on it as fast as I can, but I am a low-income senior and it can take me some time to afford even buying the 2' x 2' boards to laser cut.

My test builds do look good though. My first measurement for the card guides was exactly 13mm too high, so I cut out the side panels to drop the card guides down to a proper level. Now I'm thinking it would be better to just use cut to height legs on the inside of the cabinet so people can adjust the height of their card guides themselves.

It takes building test cabinets to see what works and what can be improved. So far I've made two test Altair 8800c cabinets and now I'm tweaking the sketches and as soon as I get completed computer builds built into a cabinet and everything is perfect, I'll post the vector sketches so others can laser cut, CNC mill or waterjet cut etc. their own cabinets.

Yeah, I'm also trying out a few type of wood and stains to see what looks best. Right now I'm looking at MINWAX stains rather than Watco which I've used in the past.

 

[troj]

any update on the 8800c cabinets? still OOS with no plans to reup?

I see Walt replied with what he's working on.

In regards to Mike and the metal cabinets he's done, I don't have insight into any plans he does or does not have.

-Kevin

 

[wperko]

I see Walt replied with what he's working on.

In regards to Mike and the metal cabinets he's done, I don't have insight into any plans he does or does not have.

-Kevin

Hi,

I'm hoping that Mike may get enough people asking for an Altair 8800c cabinet that he does another run ... but I think that would take at least 40 requests. I know I want one more.


.

 

[troj]

Hi,

I'm hoping that Mike may get enough people asking for an Altair 8800c cabinet that he does another run ... but I think that would take at least 40 requests. I know I want one more.


.

If I were independently wealthy, I'd be more than willing to front the cost for a run of 50 - 100 cabinets. I'm not, so I'm just happy to have managed to snag what was likely one of the last few!

I like what you're doing with the wooden option. I do recall your comments about the splintering on the back when you drilled the holes. You can prevent that by clamping a sacrificial board to the back before drilling.

-Kevin

 

[wperko]

If I were independently wealthy, I'd be more than willing to front the cost for a run of 50 - 100 cabinets. I'm not, so I'm just happy to have managed to snag what was likely one of the last few!

I like what you're doing with the wooden option. I do recall your comments about the splintering on the back when you drilled the holes. You can prevent that by clamping a sacrificial board to the back before drilling.

-Kevin

Hi,

Adding a piece of wood to the back and using a Forstner drill bit will make the holes cleaner. The first few cabinet tests I wasn't too worried about the tearing since they're just test cabinets.

I think for the final vector sketches I'll have two sketches for the LED and round switch holes ... a 2mm-3mm center cut into the wood along with the outer ring cut so IF somebody has access to a 40W or more laser machine, they can just cut out the round holes, but like my 20W laser, I can just engrave a nice little hole in the center to guide a Forstner drill bit to center on the holes.

I've also realized that I need to set the engraving power up higher at lower speeds so after staining the wood, the text is easily readable. Using 8% power at 500mm/min. just isn't dark enough text to look good.

I hope to buy some 2' x 2' Oak in the next week or so and first I'll cut the final IMSAI-JAIR cabinet, and build up that computer transferring the boards from the current metal cabinet, then I'll be cutting the final Altair 8800c cabinet and building that one up. I have all the boards for that one already waiting to be installed, I just need to buy the Mean-Well power supplies for both computers.


.

 

[troj]

CPU board is assembled!

Next up is mounting power in the case and running the wiring for it.

 

[maxtherabbit]

In regards to Mike and the metal cabinets he's done, I don't have insight into any plans he does or does not have.

I understand, the only reason I asked is the earlier posts on the matter said he had no plans to produce more "8800c kits" which was ambiguous as to whether the hang up was the cabinet or something else in the "kit"

 

[troj]

I understand, the only reason I asked is the earlier posts on the matter said he had no plans to produce more "8800c kits" which was ambiguous as to whether the hang up was the cabinet or something else in the "kit"

He offered the cabinets, as well as front panel board sets. You could buy just the boards, just a cabinet, or both.

-Kevin

 

[maxtherabbit]

He offered the cabinets, as well as front panel board sets. You could buy just the boards, just a cabinet, or both.

-Kevin

Right I got that, but it sounds like the item that is depleted stock with no plans of replenishment is specifically the cabinet, correct? Getting short runs of PCBs from the many competing chinese fabs these days is trivial

 

[troj]

Right I got that, but it sounds like the item that is depleted stock with no plans of replenishment is specifically the cabinet, correct? Getting short runs of PCBs from the many competing chinese fabs these days is trivial

I'm not sure. I need to give him a call in the next day or two, and will see if he's willing to share any further detail on the current status of things.

-Kevin

 

[troj]

Regarding cases and interface boards, I chatted with Mike a bit when I called to pay for my FDC+.

In a nutshell, he's been in the case business for 10 years now and it's a hobby. It's time to get out of the case business. As someone who's made a hobby into work before, that resonates with me, and I 100% get it.

He did say interface board sets should still be available. Also, he thinks he has one dress panel left, along with the bracket to mount it in a case.

-Kevin