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Got another old system - From an Automobile Alignment Machine!

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First post, by tizzdizz

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Well, most of it anyway. This 486 used to operate an alignment machine for cars, but it became outdated and couldn't operate with newer vehicles so it was given away, and then I couldn't NOT take it off the guy's hands.

He took it completely apart because he was going to part it out on Ebay, but didn't end up doing so.

Unfortunately it's missing the metal shell for the case, so I probably wont keep that.

So far, the parts I've identified are:
-486 Socket 3, can't tell speed without prying off the heatsink.
-Cirrus Logic CL-DG-5422 1MB ISA video card
- Elitegroup UM486V AIO motherboard
-Hunter IO card, presumably to talk to the alignment machine
-Future Domain SCSI Cd-rom card Tmc-1610m
-Toshiba XM-3501B Caddy CDrom (4x?)
-Matching Hunter Engineering Keyboard (very grimy!)

I don't have much info on it yet, but here are some pictures:

IMG_2132.JPG
Filename
IMG_2132.JPG
File size
612 KiB
Views
496 views
File comment
loot
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
IMG_2133.JPG
Filename
IMG_2133.JPG
File size
920.34 KiB
Views
496 views
File comment
Cirrus Logic
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
IMG_2136.JPG
Filename
IMG_2136.JPG
File size
1.27 MiB
Views
496 views
File comment
MOBO
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
IMG_2135.JPG
Filename
IMG_2135.JPG
File size
984.09 KiB
Views
496 views
File comment
Mystery Hunter Engineering Card
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 1 of 6, by cj_reha

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Neato black case. What are you going to do with the parts? Sell them off? Reassemble it and use it as a DOS machine? etc

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Reply 2 of 6, by tizzdizz

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Good question - I really don't know yet. I just enjoy seeing if I can get these things working. I have a few other machines that are ahead of it in line. But if I can get it going I may pass it along to another enthusiast.

Reply 3 of 6, by shamino

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I'm confused how an alignment machine became outdated and wouldn't work with newer cars, but I've never used one. Something to do with very large wheel diameters maybe?
Cool acquisition regardless. I wonder if there's anything customized about the motherboard BIOS, or if it's just standard.
Looks like it's missing the cache, but based on the jumper markings maybe 64KB is built-in?
Looks like that proprietary ISA card has all of it's custom programmed parts in sockets and could be dumped, but I don't know who in the world would want the files.

Reply 5 of 6, by Jade Falcon

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shamino wrote:
I'm confused how an alignment machine became outdated and wouldn't work with newer cars, but I've never used one. Something to […]
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I'm confused how an alignment machine became outdated and wouldn't work with newer cars, but I've never used one. Something to do with very large wheel diameters maybe?
Cool acquisition regardless. I wonder if there's anything customized about the motherboard BIOS, or if it's just standard.
Looks like it's missing the cache, but based on the jumper markings maybe 64KB is built-in?
Looks like that proprietary ISA card has all of it's custom programmed parts in sockets and could be dumped, but I don't know who in the world would want the files.

Likely to do with the change in wells and car design, a lot of alignment machine for wheel alignments use preset data for aligning cars.
You go into the system and pick what car you have and make the adjustments until its in speck.

On the other hand cars now use much larger and wider tires, Low profile tires are a big thing theses days, perhaps that could be a problems too.

More then anything I'd like to see what's on the hdd.
If OP was selling and had the alignment machine I may buy it. 😀

Reply 6 of 6, by clueless1

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I can't see the battery on the motherboard, but I see a spot for a coin battery on the Hunter card. Could the card have been keeping system time?

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
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