26 Dec
2005
26 Dec
'05
10:01 p.m.
The roms in mine seem to be hand-labeled too, I think
there are three
Are you talking about a PX4 or a PX8? Yes, there's that modem, and I forget what else.
I'd grab it and have a
look but don't recall just where it is at the moment.
FWIW, that techncial manual I mentioned includes schematics for some of
the add-ons. Note that the RAMdisks are rather complicated, they have
their own Z80 processor and a memory control gate array
(similar/identical to the one in the PX8 I think).
Digging in my junk box (again), I found the Epson accostic modem that was
sold for these machines. It's just a plain 300 baud unit with an RS232
interface, but it's nice to have the 'right' peripherals.
The machine
itself contains 2 batteries. In the PX8, there's the main
battery pack (4 sub-C NiCds) and a separate 4.8V backup NiCd soldered to
the PCB.
I wonder if that's the one that's giving me trouble? Considering I am not likely to use these machines
every day, I find
recharageable battereis to be a pain. They are going to self-discharge in
storage and need charging before I can use it, they are going to fail
long before they should due to neglect. I've been running the PX4 on
alkaline AA primary cells anf the PX8 off my bench supply. Yes, I have to
do a hard reser every time and reset the configuration, but...
I've been trying to avoid that, but may give it a shot.