Cromemco Dazzler - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

20 Feb 1999

There are supposed to be three of these board sets, though I saw one or two
for the first time in 20 years yesterday.  One appears to be complete with
doc's and software, though the others, which I know were "played with" by
my associates, may not be as complete, and some duplicating may be called
for.

I'm pretty certain that I can lay hands on two of these sets more or less
right away, including one set of doc's and software, which I believe I held
in my hands yesterday.  The quandary arises out of the fact that there is
at least one other board set, and i don't have a running CP/M box, since
I'm not a collector.

I've had a couple of modest cash offers, but would rather leave $$$ out of
the equation if possible.  If you have anything swappable, I'm interested
in single-board computers, preferably small and simple, with documentation
and firmware so I can USE them for something.  

If you're a Cromemco addict, you may be interested in the fact that I have
a couple of functional PERSCI floppy drives, which were commonly available
(though EXTREMELY expensive at the time) with the Cromemco systems back
when Computerland used to sell them.  These are single-sided (model 277)
drives, of which one is packaged as an external unit complete with power
supply, while another enclosure is in some less-than-functional state and
extensively disassembled.  I've recently looked at the power supply and
noted that the regulator circuitry is missing.  I also have parts of a
third unit which is useable as parts only.  What's probably more
interesting is that I have the maintenance documents for these PERSCI
drives.  These are voice-coil-driven rather than stepping-motor-driven
units, (for which provision was made on the later Western Digital floppy
controllers) capable of stepping microseconds rather than milliseconds.  

I also have quite a few enclosures, power supplies, cardcages,
motherboards, and other boards, mostly CPU's, FDC's, memory and I/O, some
as yet unassembled, some under repair, some fully functional.  

Does this give you any suggestions?

regards,

Dick

----------
...
  From: Lawrence LeMay &lt;lemay(a)cs.umn.edu&gt;
 To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
...
  Subject: Re: Cromemco Dazzler
 Date: Saturday, February 20, 1999 9:30 AM

 [Charset ISO-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]
 > I was digging throught the pile of "stuff" from days of old, and find I
 > have a board-set (S-100) which is a Cromemco (remember them?) Dazzler video
...
  > board set.  I don't remember using this for
anything.  What probably
 > happened is that I read the doc's and determined it was indadequate for
my
...
  > purpose and set it aside . . . the box (the
cardboard box in which it was
...
  > pacakged by Cromemco, looks like sh*t but the
contents were apparently
 > unharmed by the passage of 20 years, of which most were spent in the junk
...
   pile.  
 The Dazzler produces a 128X128 resolution color raster image on a color
 monitor, or TV set if you use an RF modulator. It was the second board
 that Cromemco produced.

 Is anyone interested?  

 Sounds like something interesting to put in this Cromemco computer that i'm
...
  upgrading, so i'd be interested in it. Do you have
the documentation, or
 any of the software (the game of life, kaleidoscope, dazzle writer)

 -Lawrence LeMay 