VOGONS


Industrial PC (EPSON IM-425) as Retro Gaming Device

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First post, by derSammler

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So I got this:

file.php?id=43565&mode=view
file.php?id=43564&mode=view

This is an EPSON IM-425 industrial PC used for POS applications - this one was part of a cash register. Specs are quite nice:

* EPSON SBC with AMD 486DX4/100, CHIPS F65545 VGA (1 MB), OPTi 82C463 MV chipset (MV = mobile), standard 72-pin PS/2 for RAM
* 4x COM, 2x LPT (half of them provided by a removable module on top)
* 3.5" slim-line floppy
* internal 2.5" IDE hard disk bay
* 1 ISA slot and one local bus slot (looks like PCI, but is apparently VLB in a custom form)

This thing is just perfect for playing DOS games from the 486 era. I'm going to add a hard disk and a sound card with a Dreamblaser S1/2, upgrade RAM to 32 MB, and install some version of Win9x (not sure which one yet).

But first, it will be disassembled and cleaned, and the case will get some nicer look. 😁

Last edited by derSammler on 2018-02-10, 12:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 64, by appiah4

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I have a 486 UMC board that apparently comes from a similar POS computer type device. Mine is severely crippled with regards to memory access, making it impossible to use with any sound card I have for anything but Ad-Lib music and MIDI - DMA access and digital sound completely hardlocks it. Fingers crossed for you, hope your board isn't as cut down as mine.

Last edited by appiah4 on 2018-02-06, 21:55. Edited 1 time in total.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3 of 64, by CkRtech

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Following this for sure.

You could consider some black screws/washers for that top to streamline the look a bit. I suppose you could also sand and paint or create a sticker friendly plastic or acrylic shell for it.

I never really do much in terms of case customization, but it does have quite the industrial look to it at the moment. I also realize I am shooting the breeze by sharing potential ideas for step 100 when you are probably on step 3. Ha!

Man... the more I look at it, the cooler it is. And that is just the outside.

Displaced Gamers (YouTube) - DOS Gaming Aspect Ratio - 320x200 || The History of 240p || Dithering on the Sega Genesis with Composite Video

Reply 4 of 64, by derSammler

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Well, I'm not planning to hide the industrial look too much. I'm going to make a custom face plate for the front and also add some rubber feet, but that's it most likely. It will have a rough, but awesome look then (hope so at least).

Reply 7 of 64, by RobertJ

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Very cool project. Interested on how it turns out.

8-bit Collection: 4 64Cs, 6 1541-IIs, 1 C128, 2 1571s, 1 C128DCR
Vintage DOS: Dell Optiplex G1, ATI Rage IIC, Sound Blaster CT4520, Thrustmaster FCS Mark II, Gravis PC GamePad
Monitor: Dell 20" 2007FPb

Reply 8 of 64, by derSammler

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Started to re-assemble everything. There was a small damage by battery leakage on the lower side of the PSU board, but no other surprises. Also greased and re-sealed the fan (almost inaudible now). Only the floppy drive is still left for cleaning.

Last edited by derSammler on 2018-02-10, 12:06. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 9 of 64, by derSammler

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No HDD and sound card installed yet, but did a quick test to see how the case looks now when assembled. Not too bad. Have to cut the hole for the top I/O module still, but I don't think I'll re-attach this.

Last edited by derSammler on 2018-02-10, 12:06. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 10 of 64, by CkRtech

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Any concerns about the surface mount caps?

Displaced Gamers (YouTube) - DOS Gaming Aspect Ratio - 320x200 || The History of 240p || Dithering on the Sega Genesis with Composite Video

Reply 12 of 64, by amadeus777999

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I have two similar ones.
Cache is, as far as I know, only available as a supplementary card(brown slot) - so the performance is not too great with games like Doom. It's cool for programming though.

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Reply 13 of 64, by derSammler

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No, the brown slot is VLB and for a PCMCIA controller only. Well, it could be used for other cards, but the connector is custom due to the size of the whole thing and EPSON only made a PCMCIA controller card for it.

There's no L2 cache, but that only costs about 10% of performance. It's something like having 39 fps in DOOM instead of 43 fps (real values), which I don't care about at all. One cool thing is that you can not only disable L1 cache in the BIOS, but also half the clock. This will get you near XT/AT speed for very early games.

Reply 14 of 64, by derSammler

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Done mostly with putting all parts back together. Added an ESS 1869F sound card with a Dreamblaster S2. On the secondary IDE port of the sound card, I'm going to connect a slot bracket with external CF card access (already ordered). Hard disk is still a problem, since the BIOS has E-CHS only, no LBA, so I'm limited to 8 GB. That rules out the 32 GB SSD and the 40 GB IDE hard disk that I had in mind. Have an Apple-branded drive too, but that's only 500 MB...

Since the HDD caddy is very tight and made of metal, the IDE->CF adapters I have don't work either (causing shorts on the solder joints since it's touching the frame). So the last and final solution is using an IDE->mSATA adapter, which I bought some time ago for no reason. 😉 Fits nicely. Now I just have to wait for the 2 GB mSATA card to arrive.

Reply 16 of 64, by DeafPK

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Quick question on the VLB / Cache COAST stuff: Is there really a big difference between the two? I have seen COAST modules for 486 systems that has the exact same dimensions as the VLB connector, in fact I have a mobo in my collection that has this COAST slot right next to its VLB slot, it looks like the traces on the motherboard connects many of the corresponding pins. I do not have the COAST stick though. Does anyone have some information on this? Would it be theoretically possible to add cache memory in a VLB slot?

"an occasional fart in their general direction would provide more than enough cooling" —PCBONEZ

Reply 18 of 64, by DeafPK

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OK, thanks for clearing that out. Wishful dreaming from my side, there 😀

I'd also like to add that this project looks cool! Have you thought of building some sort of a case for it? Like cutting out thin MDF wood plates or something?

"an occasional fart in their general direction would provide more than enough cooling" —PCBONEZ

Reply 19 of 64, by derSammler

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I'm going to make a face plate for the front, but no full case.

Some screens from Dr. Hardware. BIOS is odd; it's from 1997 but has no PnP and no LBA support. Not that I care much...

IMG_20180209_142051275.jpg

Performance is great, just what one would expect from an AMD DX4/100. (ignore the 120 MHz it shows, speed is correctly shown on the CPU info page)

IMG_20180209_141914089.jpg

Graphics is fine as well. It's using local bus and has VESA 1.2 and VBE 1.1.

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