SPARCstation rescue giveaway (Was: Kei cars and motorcycles (Was: Rick Dickinson, ZX Spectrum designer, RIP))

[Alan Perry]

On 4/27/18 3:03 PM, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 1:55 PM, Alan Perry via cctalk
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>> - SPARCstation 1. Chassis is intact. It has a bad IDPROM; aside from that
>>   it passes onboard diagnostics. It has 12M memory, no HDD now, and a 3.5"
>>   floppy drive. It has no SBus cards. Aside from the IDPROM, it doesn't
>>   have any issues (but I haven't run an OS on it yet). Like the SS2, it
>>   needs a bath. A small portion of the plastic cover over the rear of the
>>   case is broken off.
>>
>> What are these "actual parts expenses"? IDPROMs are around $25 on Mouser.
>> SCSI HDDs start around $70 shipped on eBay and SCSI2SD are $60 plus
>> shipping to me plus the SD price. Given the price of 25 year old HDDs with
>> a stated service life of 5 years (according to one spec sheet that I read),
>> SCSI2SD looks pretty attractive.
>>
> When you say IDPROM, is that a Dallas built-in battery NVRAM type of
> thing? I have an SS1 with a dead NVRAM thing. Are the currently
> available versions of those new at Mouser fully compatible? Those are
> one of those things that the new versions aren't always fully
> compatible with the old versions for some systems, even though they
> are supposed to be.

Yes.

The better option is to repair the NVRAM to use a replaceable battery. 
As noted elsewhere, the new ones on Mouser aren't completely compatible, 
but they work good enough in my experience with the lunchbox systems and 
SS5/20s.

>
> My SS1 is also in the Seattle area. If there is much demand for those
> it's probably one of those systems I'll never get around to doing
> anything with it myself. I also have a 4/110. Those seem to be a lot
> less common, and maybe more collectible.

I don't think there is much demand. The SS5s and 20s that I got from 
Pete's place were claimed quickly. No takers yet for the SS1 or SS2. If 
there ends up being no takers, I will still refurb them and make them 
into nice running systems.

alan