dr.zeissler wrote:

I only get two colors 😀 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T_Ay3ZWYKQ

Nice video. I guess the sound was from a Convox LPT DAC?
I see you have a harddrive? Is this the original HD?

Maybe those 2 pins need to be activated and then make a conversion circuit like hal9000 did on his cga, or maybe those 2 pins are inverted and need a lm1881 or similar circuit. Who knows.

Dac on LPT1, HD20 has errors and did not work for me (very loud either). I use an XT-IDE, you can see the booting at the beginning.
Additional pics here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/94839221@N05/al … 157665135854734

dr.zeissler wrote:

Dac on LPT1, HD20 has errors and did not work for me (very loud either). I use an XT-IDE, you can see the booting at the beginning.
Additional pics here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/94839221@N05/al … 157665135854734

I guess the XT-IDE is connected to the ISA port.
But was do you have on the Printer Port on one of the first pictures? A 32MB SD card? Is the red wire connected to the Serial Port?
I would love to have an external Harddrive (flash card) - i want to use the Internal ISA slot for an EGA card. Or maybe there is another way of connecting serveral ISA devices?

The config shown in the youtube-vid is with the xtide-card in the isa-slot.
The SD-Card on the Printer-Port is working, but it's not bootable and VERY! slow.
My first computer was an EuroPC, but I had the CGA-Monitor with it and I really hated those four color palettes.
I recommend MDA because of the higher Resolutions and the possibilities to run some CGA-Games with an emulator like simcga.

By having only one slot I had to make a decision what is most important for me.
For me having a silent machine and 64MB! space for software in it, was the best decision.
External backplanes destroy the "feeling" of one of the only so called "homecomputers" in the early PC-sektor.

Hi again,

Was searching a bit on internet and as someone mentioned the commodore pc10-III have the paradise pvc4 chip onboard and includes cga composite output, dont know if all pcb´s revisions, but searching the schematic appears. Dont know if replicating the circuit for the euro pc makes the trick possible like hal did with his cga card, but i think looking at the schematic dont look like something else needed to be activated, but hope the experts here looking at this pic can help out :

The circuit looks kinda similar at the same hal did, and the one of the original cga, so if someone want try on a euro pc please let me know, could be nice to add cga composite to the schneider euro pc.

Regards.

Sorry to refloat this.

I'm collecting some information about PCem old computers, and I'm interested about HD20. Can anybody confirm which HDD lies inside that expansion?

Are you interested in one? I have one, that looks very nice (like new) but the HDD crashed and does not work.

Not really. I was documenting original PC configurations of systems emulated on PCem or MESS, and I was tracking which HDDs were used.

The only thing I'd like to know is the exact model of the HDD inside that box. I haven't got any XT (besides an HP 200LX) and I've found on internet pics of an empty HDD20 box, but not the HDD.

Just made two new videos of the Schneider Euro PC for your infotainment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsYdPPHaFao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF-ZrCT5Sws

Today i installed a VGA adapter in my 8088 EuroPC.

I have some time tried to decide how to utilize the 8bit ISA slot. I had three options: 1. IDE CF Card - 2. SoundBlaster and 3. Graphics card. For a while now i have used a EGA card. The reasoning for not using SoundBlaster/Adlib is that so few games from that area uses Adlib/SB. Putting av CF card would destroy the charm of finding a diskette and waiting for it to load. I would also loose the nice floppy disk sound. An EGA card gave me more colors, but i still had the hassle of finding an CGA/EGA monitor. Also i only have one EGA/CGA monitor - my trusted C1084s - which i also use for my C64/Amiga. With a VGA card i could have the machine set up together with my other PC's and a VGA switch.

I tried two card i bought on eBay:
1. Cirrus Logic. I do not know the exact specs. But see picture below. It worked without changing any jumpers. The drawback was that everytime the diskdrive was used the screen would flicker. Maybe the power supply was not delivering enough power?
2. Trident TVGA9000i-3. It worked fine. I had to set the three jumpers to 8bit. No flickering.

After playing some games i can say that most games gained about 10% more speed. Ex. Digger, brucelee and OutRun. But F29 Retaliator and Elite was about twice (100%) faster. WOW! F29 was actually playable on this 9Mhz 8088.

If you want a VGA card that workes in a 8Bit machine take a look at this VGA 8bit Friendly Card list. http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?264 … y-ISA-VGA-cards

Congratulations! Good work! 😀

(PS: I'ver never got a TVGA9000 to work in my 286s. You're lucky having one with an 8088 friendly BIOS! Take care of it 😁)

XT = MDA/CGA
286 = EGA/VGA
386+ = VGA
486+ = SVGA

That's my approach. Interesting thing should be getting CGA-Composit out of the machine. That would be nice 😀
Having XT-IDE in the slot does not stop the usability of the Floppy for e.g. PC-Booter 😀 but it helps a lot for
using Win1x/2x/Geos/Gem etc. 😀

dr.zeissler wrote:

XT = MDA/CGA 286 = EGA/VGA 386+ = VGA 486+ = SVGA […]
Show full quote

XT = MDA/CGA
286 = EGA/VGA
386+ = VGA
486+ = SVGA

That's my approach. Interesting thing should be getting CGA-Composit out of the machine. That would be nice 😀
Having XT-IDE in the slot does not stop the usability of the Floppy for e.g. PC-Booter 😀 but it helps a lot for
using Win1x/2x/Geos/Gem etc. 😀

i Agree, but having a VGA card does not mean i have to choose VGA resolution/Colors. - Can i resist?
I have tried getting composite out from this machine. If you see further up you will see what i tried.
Also using XTLINK i can start some of the larger games from another machine with Null-modem cable.

Luckily i have an IBM 5155 with both composite and XT-IDE. 😀

Let us go back to the Paradise PVC4 Chip...

For me the most interesting thing is using hercules-mode and hercules monitor, but running cga-titles without emulation.
The AT-Small-Wonder has such a Solution with a tool named "MS.COM" which sets the gfx mode.

Does anyone know if there is an equal tool for the PVC4 Chip...that would be...a real burner! for me.

I doubt it to be honest, but I hope somebody proves me wrong. The original floppies that came with Euro PC/PCII/XT don't contain anything like that, then again the Schneiders have a BIOS so they might thought it wan't necessary to include it.

is it really a (big) difference if you have dip-switches for the chip, like the PC-II/III have,
or if these settings a controlled by the-pc bios if you need the software or TSR to switch
it in an other mode staying with the bios-settings and the rest of the hardware like the monitor.

This must not be an indication, that schneider does not have that on any disks. I never found
a Schneider Disk for the EGA High-Resolution-Modes of the TowerAT either, but they exist (Gemini VC1)

Therefore I think searching for such a tool as cross-reverence to the PC II/III or directly for the paradise-chip
is the better way then searching for drivers directly from schneider computer division.

I made a video on how i repaired my Schneider EuroPC
Hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSUf7nCpwTgFbjGmcTYGZEQ

Someone used a gotek on the euro-pc. It's an interesting Option I think. Perhaps I will check this out too.

dr.zeissler wrote:

Someone used a gotek on the euro-pc. It's an interesting Option I think. Perhaps I will check this out too.

Do you know anything about the Gotek on the EuroPC?
I am trying to make the Gotek work, but am not sure on how to make a compatible EXTERNAL floppy cable.

From: http://oldcomputer.info/hacks/fdd_europc/index.htm
This pinout is used with ribbon cable (25 wires) with twist at the end (lines 3-9) going to connector to drive A. Without twist, a DB25 female port is attached for external drive B. That's why there are two MOTOR and DSEL signals.

The pinout of DB25 connector is:
1. /INDEX
2. /MOTORA (not for ext. drive!)
3. /DSEL
4. /DSELA (not for external drive!)
5. /MOTOR
6. /DIR
7. /STEP
8. /WDATA
9. /WGATE
10. /TRK0
11. /WPROT
12. /RDATA
13. /SIDE1
14-16. +5V DC
17. NC
18. PWRON
19-25. GND