12 Nov
2008
12 Nov
'08
9:33 a.m.
--- On Wed, 11/12/08, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
So if it has no monitor & no Sound Box, I'm
likely
to be stuffed? It
does have a monitor cable, but that's just a
standard-ish /style/ D25
or so to similar cable.
I believe the mono machines don't use the odd three headed cable, since they don't
use the seperate sound box.
Define a "sane price", by the way.
That's so
insanely variable as to
be meaningless. For some people, no more than ?5 would be
reasonable;
for some, no more than ?50, and for some, ?500 might be
justifiable.
I remember seeing someone trying to sell one on eBay for somewhere around $75. I really
couldn't justify the cost. I haven't looked lately though.
Assuming that one has a machine - say a mono mk1 25MHz
slab
- plus
keyboard and mouse, and does not have and can not get a
NeXT display,
what do you need to connect a generic monitor and the NeXT
keyboard
and mouse to it? Or, for that matter, a Mac keyboard and
mouse, 'cos
as I understand it, it's all ADB?
It's not all ADB. There were two different types of keyboards/mice used on NeXT boxen.
The early ones were NeXT specific, later ones were ADB. The type of keyboard used depends
on the computer and the sound box. I believe you can use the ADB keyboards on some earlier
computers if you use the ADB sound box - but I think you might also have to upgrade the
ROM in the computer to work with the newer sound box - but don't quote me on that.
I am not familiar with the mono NeXT gear, having never seen any "in the flesh",
but it was my understanding that the "sound box" circuitry is in the monitor on
these machines. So, you wouldn't need the sound box, only the monitor. Of course,
you're still equally stuck, because the computer still doesn't have a keyboard
port.
But, you could still trick the computer into turning on (the NeXT FAQ has instructions),
and then use the RS-232 port with a terminal.
There may be a way to hack something to work - I have never done it, however. Anyone have
schematics or pinouts of the mono machines?
-Ian