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Modern 486-class DOS machine with ISA

L

lowen

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Western North Carolina, USA
Ok, here's one for the group.

I contract engineer for a radio station that has a really old piece of equipment called a Davis WeatherTalker. Now, WeatherTalker is just a souped-up ISA 14.4 voice modem running on an old IBM PS/1 486 box. This has been in use for at least 15 years, and is actually one of the most used devices at this radio station (listeners can call it, and get an up-to-date weather forecast as well as live weather readings actually read to them over the phone). Older listeners who don't use Internet love it, and there are thousands of them in this station's listening area.

In any case, the PS/1 finally broke with a fairly major motherboard fault. I was able to pull all the files from the old IBM 170MB drive over to a compact flash card using an Advantech 6144S SBC and then to my Linux box, so I have all the files.

What I'm looking for is a 386/486 system that is as reliable as possible, and I was wondering if anyone here knew of a currently-manufactured system like this that would be a nice DOS box and has at least one fully-functional ISA slot (where IRQ capabilities are absolutely required). I'm looking at using a less-ancient 486 single-board made by Advantech (the same PCA-6144S I used to pull the data off of the 170MB drive), but I wanted to check here to see if I'm missing a less expensive and newer alternative.

EDIT: Oh, and by the way: we have had difficulty finding a replacement product for WeatherTalker. Several other systems get close, but nothing has been as 'nail-on-the-head' for what it does as this old DOS product that is no longer made. The combination of easy-to-record forecasts for the radio staff and live programmable weather readings for listeners is really really hard to beat.
 
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There were decent ISA implementations for the P3 family (e.g. i440BX chipsets). I've found issues with later ISA boards, though--mostly in the area of legacy DMA.

You can (still) get new industrial ISA-bus boards, but they're pretty expensive for what they are.


I can remember seeing at least one USB-to-ISA adapter a couple of years ago. I don't know what became of it.
 
Chuck(G) said:
There were decent ISA implementations for the P3 family (e.g. i440BX chipsets). I've found issues with later ISA boards, though--mostly in the area of legacy DMA.
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For an old DOS program like this a 486 is even overkill. I'm not sure the Xi8088 would be enough machine, but a 486SX-25 (the PS/1) was more than enough machine. A P3? Hmm, I have a PICMG-compatible P3-900 SBC; might have to try it if I can't find a more recent 486. But I'd rather have the 486; then I can use a straight passive ISA backplane I have with five slots, which is also more than enough for this application. The P3-900 I have actually requires the PCI connector to be usable for some reason. I also have a PICMG 486DX/33 that I need to try out, and I have a dozen Evergreen Tech CapCARD 9500 486DX4/PODP-83 boards, but they all need battery replacements in order to boot.

But all of those are old and used.

I can remember seeing at least one USB-to-ISA adapter a couple of years ago. I don't know what became of it.
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Short of a Windows or Linux replacement for the WeatherTalker this would be interesting, if it can be used in DOS.
 
I'm actually curious now what it would take to build a modern replacement for this in software. Does it do anything fancy with the hardware other than the telephony stuff? Even if it's doing speech synthesis or audio stuff on-board, that's easily done in software now. Where does it get the weather information from now?
 
For around $1500, you can get a really nice rack-mount computer with ISA slots. They are designed to be used in industrial environments.

It may be the best option for the radio station. It certainly is in a lot of industrial applications. Depending on the radio station, they may or may not balk at a price like that.
 
kvanderlaag said:
I'm actually curious now what it would take to build a modern replacement for this in software. Does it do anything fancy with the hardware other than the telephony stuff? Even if it's doing speech synthesis or audio stuff on-board, that's easily done in software now. Where does it get the weather information from now?
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It could probably be run on a raspberry pi if it could be coded successfully.
 
pearce_jj said:
It could probably be run on a raspberry pi if it could be coded successfully.
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It looks like the Davis stuff connects to their monitoring stations, so really the question is whether the radio station is dead-set on using their own monitoring equipment, or if the functionality could be replaced with something like OpenWeatherMap (https://openweathermap.org/) data. Otherwise a Pi could definitely run it, though connectivity through a phone line would require an external modem or VOIP solution.
 
kvanderlaag said:
It looks like the Davis stuff connects to their monitoring stations, so really the question is whether the radio station is dead-set on using their own monitoring equipment, ...
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The WeatherTalker software also shows current conditions to the DJ from the locally connected Davis WeatherWizard. Recording of the forecast is accomplished through an analog phone connected to the phone port on the modem. DJ can record a forecast easily. Caller who calls in gets read the forecast, gets the current time, temp, and other conditions, and optionally a sponsorship segment. The whole call is scriptable as to what is said, either through prerecorded audio or through generated audio, although it's a 'snippet' style speech system (IE, it doesn't sound like Perfect Paul). Licensing for the voice samples was part of the rather steep purchase price.

The system was seriously easy to set up and train the DJ's in its usage; virtually every possible replacement we've looked at is far more complex but less flexible.

So the need for a DOS-running ISA system; a 386 or 486 is the Right Thing For the Job (TM).
 
...just pointing out that a P1/P2/P3 system may well be easier to source. I'f you're still looking, I have an Amptron 8600 (think PCChips) P1 board that probably would work as it's somewhat performance-crippled by nature.
 
I've got a twin-P2 board here with pci/isa slots. I can dust it off and see if it runs POST of you can't find anything else suitable.

Phil
 
You can get a 486 board and chip, and build a system from there, they are on ebay and what not. But if you jumped to an early Pentium, like the P-75 or P-120 you'd still get the ISA you need, a pretty good DOS system overall and you'd save quite of money, a P2 or P3 system would save you even more (they are the cheapest retro things on the market at the moment).

486 machines on ebay are going for an insane $200 - $550 from what I have seen, whereas a P1 or P2 system can get gotten for less than $100 in most cases.
 
You say you're in western NC--Asheville/Black Mountain perhaps? There are probably tons of old P1-P3 system hidden away in attics--they do exist. Check estate sales, garage sales and the like. Failing that, I can give you contact information of a relative who might like a challenge.
 
Quite a few 486 systems sold on ebay under $100 shipped (sold not list prices).

P1 prices are going up.
 
If only most businesses weren't so Pfennig wise and Mark schtoopit; as a guy I used to werk for would say.
 
I have several 486 motherboards on my site, along with any other bits and pieces that you might need.

Get an AT-form factor case and PSU locally (it'll save a LOT on shipping costs) and put the new system together.

That's what the "Legacy" in the name means......
 
Chuck(G) said:
You say you're in western NC--Asheville/Black Mountain perhaps? There are probably tons of old P1-P3 system hidden away in attics--they do exist. Check estate sales, garage sales and the like. Failing that, I can give you contact information of a relative who might like a challenge.
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Chuck, yes, near Asheville (where near means less than 50 miles).

I thank everyone for their input. If no one knows of something relatively modern but with a 486-class processor, I think an industrial-style passive backplane (a small one) will probably be the route I go. I have a small number of Advantech boards and a few Evergreen Technologies CAPcards here; all need new batteries or Dallas DS12887 replacements, but that's not too hard. The industrial stuff is well-made and not consumer-grade. I would be open to a nice Pentium box, but would rather have a solid industrial system.
 
If you don't want to use that era hardware for "Because reasons", I'd look at a more modern system with an ISA slot. You can find P3 and P4 systems with ISA, for near dirt cheap, that will still run DOS or whatever OS your machine was running. It would save you some cash, and potentially last longer than equally vintage hardware to what you were running. I know of at least 5-6 P4 boards (socket 423) that still had ISA. Shouldn't be hard to find one for 5-10 bucks with a CPU and RAM attached.
 
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