4 Oct
2005
4 Oct
'05
1:24 p.m.
Agreed - all the info I've seen suggests you
provided your own. Just not
sure if the 480Z was the same deal or not (given that it's a much more
stylised machine)
And remember that the 40 column text VDU card in the 380Z even had the
standard Astec modulator can on it, to link to a TV aerial input :-).
The
We had 380Z's at school (heck, that's over 20 years ago!), they had those
little 9" Hitachi monitors that come in a roughly cubical metal case on
them.
Ahh, yep, I got one of those with my 380Z. Perhaps they were a standard
option (contrary to what I assumed above), or they were an option like
that when RML approached schools (or vice versa). While I was at school, we bought one RGB output
module for the RGB board
(you know, the bracket on the back with 4 BNCs).
Reminds me, I need to fix mine (output module) on my 380Z. Can't
remember the details now (and it's a few thousand miles away :) but I'm
reasonably sure I remember it blowing the fuse in the PSU on the -12V
line when the board was connected, but the machine was fine otherwise.
Never got around to fixing it before I left the UK, but I don't imagine
there's much on the board to go wrong!
Of course it could be a fault with the RGB board itself I suppose...
What RGB board? The Hi-Res board has a 8 bit output, that's encoded to
RGB by 3 resistor DACs on the little board behind the BNC sockets. Isn't
that the board we're talking about.
It didn't come with a
monitor, and AFAIK none was speficially recomended. I do remember
dismantling the school's Barco colour monitor, and armed with a circuit
diagram, adding RGB inputs (Back then, schools were not so dumbed down
that the kids weren't allowed to do anything even moderately dangerous,
thankfully!)
Heh, that's still pretty cool though. I imagine most schools of the time wouldn't want people taking expensive bits of kit
apart (even if they
thought the person was competent).The ones I went to would have extended
to people making up their own cables etc. I think, but not delving
inside equipment!
FOr some odd reason they trusted me to take all sorts of fun toys apart
and do intenral modifications. And to doing things after school that
these days would be totally banned (making the CRT was one such project,
I suspect :-().
-tony