2 Mar
2010
2 Mar
'10
2:09 p.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
Robert J. Stevens wrote:
The NS* is clearly a classic S100. It was introduced in 1978 a while
after the MDS and
the CPU boards.
Being a non front panel machine has always made it tricky for those of
minimum
resources. I know as I have two of them operational plus spare boards
enough
to make another two. Once working they tend to be very dependable. I
know that
as I still have the one that I assembled in 1978 and still use!
The debug process is far simplified if there is either a known working
machine
to test all the pieces with or a CPU boarfd with onboard monitor rom
(and known operational). once you can talk to it most problems are
easily diagnosed to
the board level.
Common problems seen..
Bad sockets, some of the side wipe sockets used in the kits were bluntly
crap and fail with age or insert removel cycles of the chips.
Boards with blown bus IO from insertion or removal with DC on the bus
or not waiting for the power supply caps to discharge.
Bad disk drives and or bad /wrong media. Occasional efforts to boot
working systems with IO area customized for another IO (usually the
serial ports).
And misconfiguration of the various jumpers on boards. That includes CPU,
Disk, Ram, and bus IO area.
Also at least one case of everything OK but the terminal IO at the terminal
end bad never minding wrong cable (incorrect CTS and DIN and DOU reversed).
I've worked on more than a few and all only took a few hours to fully
debug and
fix or in some cases replace really messed up boards.
Allison
I have a S-100 N* Horizon that I have been trying
to get to run for
years.
Is there anyone out there running one or have one or Interested in one.
I also have a bunch of S-100 Vector Graphic Cards, CPU, Memory, I/O
Cards but no FDC's
Personally, I'd love an S-100 machine (N* or otherwise) - I think
they're at about that 'sweet spot' for me where they count as a useful
machine, aren't too complex to completely understand, and allow for a
lot of homebrewed add-ons and boards. (I'm a bit of a graphics nut,
though, so I wouldn't want one unless it had some kind of graphics
framebuffer in it; from purely a software point of view I've kind of
had my fill of CP/M crates and text-mode terminals :-)
I've helped rescue and move more S-100 machines than I care to think
about, but I've never had the chance to own one myself. Maybe one day...
cheers
Jules