19 May
1999
19 May
'99
12:58 a.m.
Doug,
I just revived my GRiD 1530 (and it was a pain)... Tandy still sells parts
for these (not many and pricey too!)
I bought a new mother board (only to later find out that my old one just
lacked memory) and a technical reference manual (what a waste of money).
What are you trying to find out?
Arfon
At 07:59 PM 5/18/1999 -0400, you wrote:
You guys and gals are probably getting tired of my little GRiD updates,
but here goes anyway...
I am typing this message on the GRiDCase. So the modem works. 2400bps.
I found Rob's GRiDBoard website, and from there found out that AST keeps
the configuration files for a lot of old GRiDs on its website.
I downloaded conf1520.exe from there.
Now I have my doubts about this machine even being a GRiDCase 1520. Most
of the configuration options don't work or are meaningless to this
particular machine. Like the thing to set the backlighting on the display
- my machine has a gas plasma display. And it seems to be telling me that
my machine doesn't have a modem... so what the heck am I using right now?
It did let me configure my expansion RAM from EMS to XMS... or was that
the other way around? And it let me change my processor speed. But it
wouldn't let me do anything with the hard disk and a whole bunch of other
weird things.
It's a '286 machine, magnesium alloy case, 1.44MB floppy, had a 20MB HD in
it, has a 2400bps internal modem, standard PC ports, gas plasma display,
two ROM sockets under a trapdoor above the keyboard... could this thing
be anything other than a 1520?
Note that is says "GRiDCASE 1500 Series" above the display.
Now I suppose it's time to see if I can have the machine work *without* a
hard drive installed. I just got a _very_ scary message about JVC drives
seizing and taking HD controllers with them. (Thanks for the warning,
Jason!)
Of course, as the drive that was in the machine when I got it was seized
up, the damage may already be done. And maybe that's why I'm still unable
to access the HD. :(
--
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
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6 Jun
6 Jun
4:22 a.m.
On 19-May-99, Arfon Gryffydd wrote:
Doug,
I just revived my GRiD 1530 (and it was a pain)...
Tandy still sells
parts for these (not many and pricey too!)
Do they have a parts list somewhere on the Web?
I bought a new mother board (only to later find out
that my old one
just lacked memory) and a technical reference manual (what a waste
of money).
That bad, huh? :)
What are you trying to find out?
For the 1520, for starters, I'd like to know how to get the darn thing
to work without a hard drive connected. And I'd like to know which hard
drives I can use with the thing, and how to get it to recognize the
drive. I'd also like to know what was available for the ROM sockets
located under the trapdoor above the keyboard.
Oh yeah, and while we're at it, what about the "external peripheral"
connector on the back. And the specs for the CMOS battery. And whether
I can still get battery packs for the machine, and how to recharge them.
Regarding the Compass, I'd like to know what the machine expects to talk
to via the GPIB connector, and how it does so (what commands it uses).
Also whether GRiD-OS, GRiDVT100, and GRiDWrite are in ROM, or on the
Bubble device (seems to be the latter for GRiDVT100 and GRiDWrite, but
I'm not sure about the OS). And I'd like to know what the pinouts for
the weird serial connector on the back.
Arfon
--
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
7 Jun
7 Jun
8:40 a.m.
New subject: GRiD 15XX answers!
Do they have a parts list somewhere on the Web?
I never found one. I had to call Tandy's RSU and deal with some REALLY
dumb and uncaring people. They do not have all the parts and the mother
board I bought was a used board (I worked though).
I bought a new
mother board (only to later find out that my old one
just lacked memory) and a technical reference manual (what a waste
of money).
That bad, huh? :) What are you
trying to find out?
For the 1520, for starters, I'd like to know how to get the darn thing
to work without a hard drive connected. And I'd like to know which hard
drives I can use with the thing, and how to get it to recognize the
drive. I'd also like to know what was available for the
ROM sockets
located under the trapdoor above the keyboard.
It's on the back side of the video card with a printed message that
basically says "if you're a user, don't plug anything in here". I
assume
that it is a Video Card ROM.
Oh yeah, and while we're at it, what about the
"external peripheral"
connector on the back.
I've got the pin-outs... I need to type those damned things in... That's
the external drive (A&B) connector.
And the specs for the CMOS battery.
This battery is available from Tandy for $15.00. I bought one and I
haven't bothered to install it yet. It's a axial leaded, 1/2AA, Lithium
battery, 3.6V (Tandy Part#:10586378). This battery mounts on the top of the
right-most edge of the PCB under the keyboard.
And whether
I can still get battery packs for the machine, and how to recharge them.
Yes, sorta. You can still get the batteries (10.8V (I know), 1800mAH(?)).
Now, your GRiD has a weird slot with four contacts at the end but, the
batteries are just C cells heat shrunk together with three wire leads. You
have to make a casing with contact pads to put the batteries in. I cannot
find anywhere that sells the batteries in the weird GRiD casing. ****AGAIN
if you use the CP3104, you cannot use the battery.
Other issues:
1) The memory is SIPP and you can only use 256 or 1M chips. The slots are
ALTERNATING!!! So, if you use only 4 SIPPs, you skip the 1st, 3rd, 5th &
7th slots.
2) The memory is smaller than normal. I had to get the small 256K (the 1Ms
were too tall) SIMMs, add pins then trim the edges down.
3) The power: 10-20V DC (I use a Dell 18V adapter plugged into the power
connector on the back). (center pin is +)
4) COM1 is for the internal modem and is not useable for anything else
(unless you can figure out the mother-board pin-outs).
5) The 100Mb drive uses a different interface board (internally) than the
20/40Mb/floppy drive laptop.
6) Note: there is a set of 16bit ISA slots (using a weird connector of
course) behind the internal battery contacts (I have the pin-outs if you
want but, I have no clue about where to get a mating connector).
7) To use external floppies, you need to do a bit of splicing magic with
the I/O connector and a floppy drive connector.
8) On the I/O connector there are two power pins that were intended to
supply power to the drive. It was later decided that this was a bad idea
so, the GRiD external floppies have a little circuit that makes the +12V
and +5V for the drive.
Ive got M$DOS on my GRiD and I have found it to be a useful little laptop.
Regarding the Compass, I'd like to know what the
machine expects to talk
to via the GPIB connector, and how it does so (what commands it uses).
Also whether GRiD-OS, GRiDVT100, and GRiDWrite are in ROM, or on the
Bubble device (seems to be the latter for GRiDVT100 and GRiDWrite, but
I'm not sure about the OS). And I'd like to know what the pinouts for
the weird serial connector on the back.
No clue about the compass.
Arfon
----------------------------------------
Tired of Micro$oft???
Move up to a REAL OS...
######__ __ ____ __ __ _ __ #
#####/ / / / / __ | / / / / | |/ /##
####/ / / / / / / / / / / / | /###
###/ /__ / / / / / / / /_/ / / |####
##/____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ /_____/ /_/|_|####
# ######
("LINUX" for those of you
without fixed-width fonts)
----------------------------------------
Be a Slacker! http://www.slackware.com
Slackware Mailing List:
http://www.digitalslackers.net/linux/list.html
9:35 a.m.
New subject: GRiD 15XX answers!
On Mon, 7 Jun 1999, Arfon Gryffydd wrote:
HARD DISK GUYS, explain this:
I put the GRiD's CONNER CP3104 (100MB drive) in K6 Desktop and I could not
get DOS to load onto it. I put it in a 486 machine (IDE not EIDE) and DOS
loaded fine.
I put a 402Mb Conner drive into thr GRiD and forced the geometry
using a setup program and I kept getting a BOOT DISK ERROR. WHY?????
Probably because it was formatted under a different geometry. I would
suggest fdisk'ing the drive (delete and re-create the primary
partition) on whatever computer you want to install it on, then re-format
it under DOS.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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arfonrg＠texas.net -
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca