Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

drlegendre . drlegendre at gmail.com
Mon Aug 17 17:44:08 CDT 2015


Any sense of what PC models / controllers are capable of this task? Despite
my recent comments to the contrary, I just recalled that I do, in fact,
have a few old and (iirc) working PCs around here.

Here's what I think I have available. Please - anyone who might know - tell
me if one will fit the bill? All have at least 1 - 5.25" drive.

1) Compaq Portable III (286 @ 12 MHz?)
2) Tandy 1000 EX (XT clone, I think)
3) IBM 5155 luggable (PC or XT?)
4) Another portable XT clone, with an IR remote keyboard and a tip-out LCD
screen. Can't recall the brand, same size as a Compaq Portable II/III

Heck, there might be more. In fact there's also a 5120 and a 5145 but those
are both big lugs and would need a proper setup and sufficient real-estate
on already corwded work tables. How did I forget I had all this stuff?!

On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 5:04 PM, Jules Richardson <
jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 08/17/2015 03:31 PM, drlegendre . wrote:
>
>> Hey Jules,
>>
>> Ah, so your O1 also has the weird screen artifacts prior to hitting
>> 'return'? Weird.. wonder what's up with that?
>>
>
> No, sorry! I meant the "boot error" scrolling up the screen (e.g. it's not
> the result of some kind of stuck key fault or anything).
>
> I've only detected activity from drive A (LH side).
>>
>
> As Mike mentioned, try the shift-quote trick and see if the other drive
> behaves differently.
>
> It definitely does
>> spin, the LED lights up, but I haven't been able to detect any head
>> movement. You mention that the head on yours steps back & forth
>> (indefinitely?)  with no disk present - does it behave any differently
>> when
>> the drive door is open vs. closed?
>>
>
> It's the same whether the door is open or closed. Probably indefinite - I
> got bored after a couple of minutes of listening to drive heads crunching
> :-)
>
> In any case, one of us needs to find boot media..
>>
>
> Aha - I have it now... *somewhere*. I just didn't have any about a year
> ago when I stopped goofing around with the system that you now have.
> Unfortunately I don't immediately know where my CP/M disks are; Wordstar
> and the xdiags disk were in one of the little cubby areas below the drives,
> so I'm not sure why I didn't leave the CP/M disks there, too.
>
> IIRC I got mine from images on Dave Dunfield's site and wrote them on a PC
> (but you'll need a PC with a controller capable of writing FM density). My
> todo list is about nine miles long right now, but I can probably rustle you
> a set of disks eventually if nobody else gets there first!
>
> cheers
>
> Jules
>
>


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