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Epson PX-8

FWIW, (I don't know if it means anything, but...) there is an internal switch that toggles in/out the charging timer (normal behavior is to stop charging after 8 hours (by the system rtc), to prevent overcharging). The switch inside the battery compartment just toggles the charging circuit to the backup battery.

--T
 
Yep, the first 4 set the keyboard code page and the 5th one sets whether the PX-8 does a check for an external RAM disk. I forget what 6 does and the last two do nothing according to the manual.

There's a blue two pin jumper (empty) that is labeled "test".

Some have said that they replaced the internal battery with 4 AAA cells. What kind of battery holder fits in there? 2x2 side-by-side, 2x2 back-to-back, etc. Did NiMH cells work ok or do you have to use NiCds?

I'm thinking of using these new low self-discharge cells but the Sanyo Eneloop blurb mentions that they have a higher terminal voltage than regular NiMH cells. Is the PX-8 very sensitive to backup pack voltage? Some poor designs from that era used to use the NiCd pack as a voltage regulator (that's usually why the charger circuit can't power the machine directly, as it relies on the battery pack to limit the voltage). Certainly, the original Epson PSU is a cheap rubbishy pack with no regulation.
 
In my Geneva, I replaced the internal pack with a brace of 2x side-by-side AAA holders from RatShack (I couldn't find a 2x2, but if you have one, even better). placed end-to-end, and populated with NiCads. There is room enough in there for this arrangement after the old battery has been removed.

--T
 
T - did you see this:

linkage ?

Win32 emulator for PX-4 and PX-8 !!!

080320-5.png


T
 
Now, on ANOTHER front, no promises, and it's in discussion, but I'm trying to get the creator of this amazing device to make it support the Epson PX-8, as a TF-20 emulation, NOT PF-10, which will make it PX-8 and HX-20 compatible. No worries, they use same protocol, and basically same storage capacity!

If you DON'T know, it is meant as a replacement for the aging Tandy Portable Disk Drive and Drive 2. It plugs right into the serial port on the M100/M102/NEC 8201a, and is seen as a PDD, and it uses an SD card which can be written/read on a standard WinTel PC. As you can see now, TF-20 or PX-8 emu makes absolutely no difference, as I think the PF-10 was created to be a mini-version of QX-10 / TF-20 5.25" disks (40 tracks, 16 sectors, 256bytes per sector)

Cool stuff.

I am going to get a PX-8 ready for him (all batteries rebuilt, etc..) and send it to him in China to develop with. Should be super cool! Especially if it can ALL be integrated in the same firmware, with maybe a switch of some sort, or protocol autodetection!

Dude has skillz - and if you're an M100/M102/NEC buff, check out Stephen Adolph's amazing stuff, especially the ReMem at:

ReMem and Rex info. This is SUPER cool. It is an add-on that replaces onboard ROM+RAM, and actually creates 8 "Virtual Model 100's".

Yes, virtual. Think "VMWare" and you're close. 8 separate machines running, with their own ram+rom, each doing their own thing.

I think Rex is a huge RAM add-on for the trapdoor socket, which will hold multiples of the option ROM's.

T
 
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