Witchy wrote: I have one, but not a spare! :-( It's in an ICL One Per Desk, and of course is capable of pulse-dialling only. Have you considered repairing the one you've got? Has someone tried to desolder the chips? The damage looks like it's consistently opposite the pin 1 end of all the DIL parts. I'm sure we could work out what's missing if you want to attempt replacements. -- John Honniball coredump(a)gifford.co.uk

I've been told they do tone dialling too, based on the unsupported DIP switches in the telephony module. Haven't tried it though; all of my OPDs are downstairs in boxes. There's too much track damage unfortunately; whoever was removing the RAMs really didn't care about the donor machine. Of course, anything's possible with some sockets and wire-wrap, but TBH I only bought that machine for the extras that came with it like spare microdrives and extended ROM pods with a different version of Xchange. cheers -- adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans

I think they were seeing how much damage they could do! Thinking about it, even some harsh desoldering couldn't do that sort of damage could it? Even if you were levering the chips bodily out of their mountings I'd expect the legs to break before the solder. Be easier if I tested it up here first. Just got to dig out the low-res monitor from its hiding place....the hi-res one is too high up and underneath too much other stuff for me to easily get! This is true. Looks like everyone had fun! cheers -- adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans

At 18:47 08/03/2003, you wrote: I would, of course, be interested... :) I'm in London at the moment, but could probably collect in a fortnight, depends where you are in the NW? Drop me a line off-list if you want to discuss. Cheers, Ade. Confirmed OPD addict :)

On Sun, 9 Mar 2003, Dave Brown wrote: Are these actual computers or just dumb terminals with a telephone built-in? I have a Northern Telecom unit like this. It's a smaller terminal with a phone handset and keypad on the base. A keyboard tray pulls out of the bottom of the base. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

At 15:02 09/03/2003, John Honniball wrote: The application software in Yep, a loadable telephone directory (so you could have different ones on different MDVs), two terminal types (a Prestel & "glass teletype") which would operate over the built-in modem - capable of a whopping 1200bps or 600bps half-duplex, and 300bps full duplex; also capable of a 75bps "back channel" at 1200/600 speeds. It does have a really nasty voice synthesizer built into it, though, so it will take a call unattended, and play the pre-recorded messages. It lacks the ability to say things like "Good morning" though... I think it's also limited to a single auto-answer setting, which can be set to automatically come on between certain times, and (possibly) overridden. I've yet to experiment with that side of it. -- Cheers, Ade. Be where it's at, B-Racing! http://b-racing.com

At 14:18 09/03/2003, you wrote: Your question is already answered, but what the heck... The ICL OPD (One-Per-Desk) and Merlin Tonto (identical machines internally) were a derivative of the Sinclair QL, featuring the addition of a telephone handset, better keyboard, slightly improved microdrives (sufficiently improved that they are, apparently, incompatible with QL mdvs; something I've not checked yet), and a much bigger ROM. That ROM contains a telephone directory, and a few other utilities to boot. Add-on ROMs included messaging (I'm unsure as to what that is yet, although mine has it), Psion Xchange (Quill word processor, Easel graphics - well, graphs, Archive database and Abacus spreadsheet). Xchange also featured on the CST Thor[1], and was also ported to the PC, IIRC. The QL suffered along with the original separate packages until its demise. My OPD also has a 3rd-party addon disk interface (which plugs into the ROM pack), which is rather nifty, and a lot more reliable (and faster) than microdrives. The machine itself, however, is quite painfully slow. I'm not entirely sure what they did to it to make it that slow; the QL seems to trot along much more quickly. Maybe ICL just didn't write decent software... [1] BTW, does anyone have a CST Thor (especially if you're willing to part with it). Any make/model considered, working or not. I'll even pay cash[2] for it. I'd /love/ to get my hands on one! [2] What's more, I'll even pay more than 75p[3] & a packet of Rolos! [3] or 85p, counting inflation. -- Cheers, Ade. Be where it's at, B-Racing! http://b-racing.com

Adrian Vickers wrote: I paid 85 pounds for a Merlin Tonto a few weeks ago. Plus 30 pounds postage. Inflation is high in the Netherlands. I will not sell my Tonto. In fact I'm looking for more sinclair-clones. I already got a CIP03, Robik, HC91, HC2000, Jet, Sintez II, 2 Olimpiks, TC2048 and TS2068. A russian spectr 48 is on it's way. Robert

----- Original Message ----- From: "Witchy" <witchy(a)binarydinosaurs.co.uk> To: <cctech(a)classiccmp.org>rg>; <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 11:20 PM Subject: RE: ICL OPD/Merlin Tonto snip I have some here-may even be multiple copies of some stuff- All user manuals though, no "real" tech refs. I better go dig it out and let you have a list of what's here. They were 'state of the art' for a very short time. We (NZPO) sold/leased them to unsuspecting customers at the time and I got given a complete new system (c/w the larger colour screen and thermal printer) to play with for reasons I can't recall. Anyway, I still have all of it, plus several other partial systems I have come across along the way. DaveB NZ

At 10:52 17/03/2003, you wrote: I'm planning to use mine as my main 'phone too. I have, at hideous expense, acquired another one (sans monitor) which is apparently in GWO; it's a Tonto (as opposed to an OPD), so I just have to decide which main unit looks the marginally more attractive... Shame it can't do CLID though. Maybe I shall have to try to retrofit my Pace 56K modem into it, then bodge the ROMs to read the CLID.... Then add the TCP/IP stack that's recently been developed for the QL, adapt a browser, and presto - an internet-capable OPD! Lemme see, on current form, I should have finished that project by about 2019... -- Cheers, Ade. Be where it's at, B-Racing! http://b-racing.com

At 20:53 17/03/2003, you wrote: Not really - the OPD screen blanks after 10 mins of inactivity anyway, and switches on again for an incoming call, if you pick the handset up or press a key. Aye, that would stop the CLID from being useful... -- Cheers, Ade. Be where it's at, B-Racing! http://b-racing.com

At 09:27 09/03/2003, Dave Brown wrote: I'm not really sure. It's entirely possible that there's very little to no difference between the modules, but the UK versions would have had to pass the extraordinarily strict BABT approval process - which was very expensive, and essential if you wanted your kit to be "BABT approved" and therefore legal to use on the UK 'phone system. Also, there was some fairly hefty licencing restrictions, e.g. in the front of the OPD manual it states the functions it's been licenced for. I'd be willing to try an NZ module, if it's got standard BT-like connector jacks on the back of it (same type as used by Sinclair on the QL - did he get a job-lot of sockets to go with the OPD plugs, I wonder?). I know bugger all about the NZ 'phone system, but as my NZ cousin is currently over here, I'll ask him tomorrow. Definitely; the 3-alphanumeric "short code" is also a staggeringly useful thing. In fact, I've decided to use the OPD as my main telephone, if I can get a reliable telephony module for it. Much like the QL, really. Also, one shouldn't underestimate the marketing clout IBM had when their early PC's were coming out; really, did anyone stand a chance against them? -- Cheers, Ade. Be where it's at, B-Racing! http://b-racing.com