S-100 Polymorphic Systems card questions - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

2 Jan 2005

Hi
 The zener is only needed if the keyboard you intend to
use needs a negative rail. Normally most would need
a 12 volt zener but some need a -15 volt level.
You need to check the current of the keyboard to determine
the right value for the resistor.
 As Randy states, the manual is available now. The keyboard
is intended to be connected through this board and this
board has a connection to one of the interrupt lines.
The keyboard is to be a parallel out, 8 bits, w/ + or - strobe.
 It has memory mapped video with either characters ( including
Greek ) or block graphics. The output is standard composite
video.
 If you ever want to get it working, you can contact me
and I can most likely help you some.
Dwight

...
 From: "Randy McLaughlin"
&lt;randy(a)s100-manuals.com&gt;

----- Original Message ----- 
From: &lt;Saquinn624(a)aol.com&gt;
To: &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt;
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 12:38 PM
Subject: S-100 Polymorphic Systems card questions

  I have a S-100 based system that seems to mostly
run, but I have some
 questions on the video card.
 It is a Polymorphic Systems card, but looks different from all the 
 examples I
 could find on the internet

 Markings are: Polymorphic Systems (c) 1976 I.P.C VIDEO rev 0.0, with most
 chips aligned vertically

 The keyboard? port is a 14 pin DIP socket in the upper R.H. corner, next 
 to a
 8212 I/O chip.
 Between this and the VIDEO marking, there are some pads with heat damage 
 that
 have the symbol for Zener diode across one of them. I have no idea what 
 the
 component specs are for these pads.

 Also, 2 questions: does anyone have the DIP switch settings table for this
 card? 7 switches, currently set at 1 1 1 1 0 0 0

 and (2) the 8212 interface makes me think that the keyboard is some sort 
 of
 parallel interface, but the computer came with a DIP header connected to 3
 wires

 (bonus question: this card has some jumper wires and a resistor soldered 
 on
 the trace side of the PCB, is this official, or is this a hack? the joints 
 look
 sort of "hacky" the resistor goes between +Vcc and pin 20 of the 6571AL, 
 the
 jumpers are between some of the 74XXX gates on the L.H. side of the card
 [where the 7805 V.R. is])

 found it at my church garage sale several years ago, so I can't "ask the
 owner"

 Scott Quinn 

You can find the manual for it on my website:

http://www.s100-manuals.net/Harte-manuals/PolyMorphic/index.html

Randy
www.s100-manuals.com 