This Weekend's Finds

Hi there everyone! I went to the car boot sale again yesterday. For once, there were lots of computers on offer: two ZX Spectra (original 16K); one Spectrum +2; an Atari 620; any number of Commodore 64s in late-style cases. I bought: A TI-99/4A (Not as lucky as Roger M - I paid L12 with no joysticks, manuals or cartridges, but I did get the UHF thingy) But the real find: A British Telecom Microscribe for L1 This object is a solidly built sub-notebook (about 7 in square by 1 thick) with a dinky keyboard and a palmtop-sized LCD. It has 32K of RAM and 16K of ROM, and the processor is an Hitachi HD63A03XP single chip microcomputer. THE LCD looks as if it might be 200 or 256 by 64 pixels (40 characters by 8 lines?) - I haven't powered it up yet because (a) the NiCd battery is flat and (b) I have yet to work out what voltage to feed it (3.5mm jack with tip negative). All I know is that it must be smoothed DC, since there is a diode but no smoothing capacitor in the input stage. The battery is 4.8V, and somewhat inconsistently marked 0.8 Ah - charge at 50mA for 14 hours (I make that 0.7Ah less charging losses), so the power supply (which feeds a linear regulator - transistor in parallel with 82 ohms) must be greater than this. I would guess at something in the region of 9V given the size of the resistors in the regulator circuit, but... The manufacturer's label on the back suggests it is a Microscribe Model 320, made by Microscribe Ltd at Cwmbran in South Wales. Since they had the forethought to put an address and 'phone number on the label, I shall try and contact them this week (DV). Meanwhile, does anyone have any info on this? In particular, what voltage do I feed it? Philip. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Philip Belben <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Das Feuer brennt, das Feuer nennt die Luft sein Schwesterelement - und frisst sie doch (samt dem Ozon)! Das ist die Liebe, lieber Sohn. Poem by Christian Morgenstern - Message by Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk