Vipersan wrote on 2023-04-08, 13:09:

connector which looks very much like PS2 connection at the rear

Looking at the manual that is a PS2 connection. It does not seem to specify the AC Adapter voltage

I also found https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/ti- … toration.78242/

red-ray wrote on 2023-04-08, 13:21:

Vipersan wrote on 2023-04-08, 13:09:

connector which looks very much like PS2 connection at the rear

Looking at the manual that is a PS2 connection. It does not seem to apecify the AC Adapter voltage

On the left side of the laptop there is a PS2 connection as well...just to add confusion.
Definately not the smartest idea as it could easily lead to plugging the external psu into the wrong port...and bang!!
assuming the one at the rear is for power in of course.
Thanx for the link btw..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134523388602 has a photo of the AC Adapter, but the voltage is obscured. Maybe you can get him to add a photo that shows the voltage

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/i … top_didnt_come/ says 5.2V 4.0A 6.5B 2.2A (DC) 24W Uses AC Adaptor CS712

Powering it by tapping into the battery connections does seem a way forward..
rgds

It looks like AC Adapter supplies multiple voltages

red-ray wrote on 2023-04-08, 13:49:

It looks like AC Adapter supplies multiple voltages […]
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It looks like AC Adapter supplies multiple voltages

As I suspected ..multiple power supply voltages from the adapter..
The PS2 like socket makes more sense now...though I still think it bad design..
Where on earth did you find that info though..?
I'm impressed.

..Pity the actual pinouts aren't shown.
rgds
Evan

Vipersan wrote on 2023-04-08, 13:52:

Where on earth did you find that info though..?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Texas+Instr … TravelMate+3000

red-ray wrote on 2023-04-08, 13:21:

Looking at the manual that is a PS2 connection.

the manual is a hot link

Grabbed myself a copy of that pdf..
.
Also sent the ebay seller a message to ask for a photo of the ac adapter ...which may show a diagram of the pinouts on the casing..
I'm doubtful they will reply...but you never know.
Thanks for your help Ray.
it is appreciated.

From what i saw in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za_e60RpNVA , it can be 'powered by tapping into the battery'.

finding a suitable drive belt to replace the one in the floppy drive is not going to be easy..
I've got it out ...sadly misshapen and loose...but very accessible.
approx 65 > 70 mm diameter
1.8 > 2mm wide
<1mm thick
flat cross section..
any ideas ??

Fingers crossed this gamble is a winner..
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174866801796?hash= … ABk9SR6TI15vsYQ
maybe at least 1 in there that is suitable.

Hmmm...
The hard drive has been checked using a 44pin t0 40 pin ide adapter...
It refused to be recognised..and the drive would not spin up...just a gentle clicking from inside..
A couple of taps on the case with a lump of hard rubber got it going...and is now hooked up to my Compaq portable III running XTIDE.
The Seagate ST9096 80mb hard drive is now recognised ...and I'll later connect up the ZIP100 to the Compaq ..and copy the contents off the HD for investigation and archive.
Chances are there is nothing interesting...but I take this route with all early hard drives.
I'll leave it spinning for an hour to give it a workout.
I hate Sticktion.
rgds
VS

Cant test this yet but I got to wondering how easy it would be to cut a 4.2mm wide belt in half length ways..
Turns out it is possible..
The chosen belt is a bit too thick and a bit smaller diameter than the original.
I have fitted the cut belt and although the floppy disk capstan will turn by hand ...does feel a bit tight.
we shall see..
stretching the belt around a pringles tube using the base edge as a guide to maintain shape/uniformity.....and a very sharp scalpel blade....plus as steady a hand as I can manage resulted in a pretty good split.
rgds
VS

Slowly making some progress with this ...but is painfully slow.
The Floppy is not yet functional...most likely due to that belt.
Though it does move and spin a little.
As previously mentioned..I have the hard drive contents backed up ...and I have removed and replaced the cmos batteries x2 both dead.
This allows me to retain bios info.
The hard drive is now functional after overcoming the stickshun problem ...and I have the laptop powered at 5.5 volts from a bench power supply is drawing about 0.9amps when the display is in sleep mode..
..and about 2.4 amps when active.
Powered by wires directly to the battery terminals.
Not yet worked out how to activate an external monitor using the vga port but still.
I am now in the original MSDOS (4.1 ?) and win 3.1 on the seagate hard drive (82mb)
This was tricky ...firstly had to find out how to enter the bios.
ctrl alt esc ...was the answer.
Then I had to work out what the hard drive "type" should be..
which turned out to be type 36
An odd number of cylinders used ...548...which claims to be an 85mb drive......8 heads 38 sectors.
which was the closest to the HDclone image size I already extracted at 82mb.
All trial and error...but got there eventually.
I do hope I can restore the floppy drive...eventually.
All it needs is a rubber belt of the correct size and tension I think.
Sorry the photos are not the best...but it is afterall ...a primitive mono LCD display.
rgds
VS

The good news is that I can switch to an external monitor running in VGA.
It does appear ...like the compaq portable III it is an either/or situation..
I dont believe both the internal LCD and an external monitor can be run at the same time.
The switch can be done within windows using an ICON ...or by entering ALTVID at the MS-DOS C:\> prompt.
current drawn after switching is 1.5 amps.

The reason I'm monitoring the current so closely ..is that I will eventually fit a barrel jack so that I can use a suitable 5v switch mode power brick and it appears this will need to be at least 3 amps total....assuming I stick with the mechanical hard drive and dont use CF.
rgds
VS

RESULT !
Took the rubber drive belt I made for the floppy drive out again ...and reduced its width by approximately 20% ..
So ..the diameter remains the same as does the thickness/cross section...but the belt is effectly running in the motor and idler pulleys with less friction...so overall a fraction slacker..
Result after re-fitting...reads the directories of both 720K and 1.44 mb floppy diskettes.
My assumption is that it will improve even more as the belt stretches fractionally with age and use.
😀

And I have also an exact clone copy of the original seagate 80mb hard drive running from a 120mb CF card which is nice.

So...
Having decided to use with either CF or HD...I needed to give the CF card access externally.
This meant anchoring the card reader (for this I used Nylon nuts and bolts)
..plus a slot cut into the body of the laptop.
TBH I dont like making permanent changes ....but WTF...why not ...
It's not like it's that unsightly.
🤣

The CF card mod turned out pretty well, I think it sticks out a bit far but that probably won't be an inconvenience to you in use and it's a big improvement in usability. 😀
I've got a couple of similar late 386 / early 486 laptop and since they predate PCMCIA, moving files off them is a pain. Having something other than the floppy drive is a really big help. Btw nice job on the Citizen floppy drive belt replacement, I've done similar with 3d printed belts to get the dimensions right, they all need new belts now.

The screen looks great on your laptop, the polariser is okay, the backlight is working well enough and there's no pixel ghosting lines so it probably uses solid state capacitors rather than electrolytics in the screen. I'm kind of fond of early / low-end LCD panels from that era - I've got an AST Bravo NB 486/25 with a similar mono screen but the capacitors on it needed replacing, then the polariser started to break down so the screen is useless right now.
It'll be interesting to see if that happens on more of these screens over the next few years - it seems to be quite random how it happens and at this point I think it's down to cleaners used on the screen or storage conditions.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-04-22, 15:24:

The CF card mod turned out pretty well, I think it sticks out a bit far but that probably won't be an inconvenience to you in u […]
Show full quote

The CF card mod turned out pretty well, I think it sticks out a bit far but that probably won't be an inconvenience to you in use and it's a big improvement in usability. 😀
I've got a couple of similar late 386 / early 486 laptop and since they predate PCMCIA, moving files off them is a pain. Having something other than the floppy drive is a really big help. Btw nice job on the Citizen floppy drive belt replacement, I've done similar with 3d printed belts to get the dimensions right, they all need new belts now.

The screen looks great on your laptop, the polariser is okay, the backlight is working well enough and there's no pixel ghosting lines so it probably uses solid state capacitors rather than electrolytics in the screen. I'm kind of fond of early / low-end LCD panels from that era - I've got an AST Bravo NB 486/25 with a similar mono screen but the capacitors on it needed replacing, then the polariser started to break down so the screen is useless right now.
It'll be interesting to see if that happens on more of these screens over the next few years - it seems to be quite random how it happens and at this point I think it's down to cleaners used on the screen or storage conditions.

Many thanks for your vote of confidence mate..
I too have a thing for these older laptops and luggables.
It does feel good when one lives again.
cheers
Currently fitting a shugart full height 360k floppy drive in a tower PC ..
Just so I can format and reuse some old floppy disks...I have used a 1.2mb floppy drive...but this doesn't always erase and format cleanly due to head size.
..and I dont own a half height 360.
Pretty much unobtainium here in the UK.

as one project draws to a close...another starts.
🤣

Haha that's a rare sight in a modern-ish ATX tower case 😁