2 Feb
2015
2 Feb
'15
12:03 a.m.
Hi Kyle,
While I certainly cannot claim any level of expertise in the matter, I do
happen to have a functional EC-130 here. Or I should say, it was functional
the last time I examined it, which was around one year ago. My machine was,
likely still is, suffering from one malady that yours is not - my keys will
not hold-down during long computations. As you might be aware, the keypad
lock-out feature was implemented due to the fact that a talented keypunch
operator could frequently get 'ahead' of the machine - which would result
in errant output.
Likewise, I have no service documentation for it. But if I can be of any
assistance, so far as providing voltage / resistance / component readings,
I'll try to do my best as time allows.
They are fascinating machines - all the more amazing, considering that they
were almost entirely designed by a single engineer.. save the analog /
display portions, as I understand it.
On Sun, Feb 1, 2015 at 10:23 PM, Kyle Owen <kylevowen at gmail.com> wrote:
A friend of mine gave me a Friden EC-130. It's in
pretty good shape, though
it's missing quite a number of screws, as well as the bottom plate.
Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/OjxCn
As you can see from the pictures, I don't get any distinguishable digits on
the CRT. Thankfully, most of the logic does seem to be working; entering
too many digits before the decimal place as set by the rotary switch
results in an overflow upon hitting enter. Entering thirteen 9s and
dividing by 1 takes about 2 seconds (the button stays depressed; quite
cool), whereas simple adding and subtracting returns the result right away.
Keyboard feels good, and you can see the CRT modulate differently depending
on what's to be displayed.
I've tried the obvious thing of reseating boards and rotating the pots back
and forth a bit, to no avail.
My understanding is that schematics are not available for the unit. Is that
still correct? It wouldn't be a hard unit to reverse engineer; it's just a
whole lot of components.
If anyone has any advice to offer, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Kyle