Tektronix 6800 'Developer Computer'

[Brad H]

Thanks Pete.  I believe the person that sold this to me contacted Tek Museum and the best they could say was it 'looked like' a board bucket, that had been upgraded a little later on.  But not much info beyond that.

I emailed Rick Bensene also.  Hopefully he might have a clue.

Thanks for the very useful tips!

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Pete Lancashire
Sent: Thursday, August 4, 2016 12:58 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Tektronix 6800 'Developer Computer'

There is a rare chance I might have some information. At Tek anyone could order a system, and if wanted one for you own use everything was at cost.
The chassis you have does not look like the one I use to see the most, that chassis has a much simpler front and back that was the same height as the sides.

They were made to introduce microprocessors to the engineers within the company, "bit bucket" comes to mind but "board bucket" may have been the name. There were CPU boards for just about every uP, and a list of 'standard' I/O boards, and accessories like 5-1/4" floppy drives.

One thing that help with their internal success was Tek was a very vertical company, they made their own metal work, PCBs, transformers, etc, and being a major buyer of components the cost for parts was much less. For example many Motorola part prices were based on aggregate quantities.

When I started at Tek in 1977 the list of what you could order was quite extensive.

Back to what you have. It may predate the buckets. It has been way to long.

As to getting anything from the current Tek, forget it. The company was sold and the current owners couldn't give a d*** about the past.

The one board I can make out a P/N on  is an engineering number and those archives were dumpstered long long ago.

On the flip side here is what I would do. Contact the Tek Museum (which is not tied to Tek in anyway), www.vintagetek.org. And send me an email I will see what I can dig up, maybe a couple emails of Ex Tekkies that can help

-pete

PS SWTP was the most common O/S for the 6800/6802/6809 buckets.



On Thu, Aug 4, 2016 at 9:25 AM, Brad H <vintagecomputer at bettercomputing.net>
wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
>
>
> In addition to that 6800 SWTPC I got, I also picked up this 'board bucket'
> from ebay:
>
>
>
> http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/unclefalter/library/
> Tektronix%206800%20Dev
> eloper%20Computer?sort=3
> <http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/unclefalter/library/
> Tektronix%206800%20De
> veloper%20Computer?sort=3&page=1> &page=1
>
>
>
> It's a 6800 system of sorts and has BASIC and 'DDE' ROMs.  I've tried 
> hooking it up to a terminal but no response.  I think the system isn't 
> fully
> running.    This is a video I took:
>
>
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YSUuF6xTAg
>
>
>
> Hard to see with the camera, but when you hit and hold reset the 
> little display looks sort of normal.  When you release, it's like some 
> of the segments are half-on rather than fully on or off. I tried 
> pulling RAM boards and such but no action yet.  Step button on the CPU 
> card doesn't do anything.
>
>
>
> If anyone has seen one of these or has any ideas on getting her 
> working, I'd be most interested.  I sent an email to Tektronix to 
> inquire about it as
> there are part numbers and stuff on the boards.   Hopefully they can answer
> questions.
>
>
>
> Brad
>
>
>
>
>
>
>