Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-05-07, 07:49:

acl wrote on 2024-05-07, 07:30:

If you're able to swap the ROM, it is still a Z80 + ROM + a serial interface. Swapping the ROM for a custom made one should be p […]
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carlitosbala wrote on 2024-05-07, 06:52:

Interesting. It seems the card is not useful to me in the slightest (except to eventually harvest some components), but still, interesting to get a glance of hardware and systems I'd otherwise not know even exists.

If you're able to swap the ROM, it is still a Z80 + ROM + a serial interface.
Swapping the ROM for a custom made one should be possible.

You probably won't be able to run CP/M but there might be some possible usage (even more if you can slightly modify the card adding some IO bedside the RS232)
A Z80 is a really simple CPU to deal with. You can do a lot of thing by adding a bunch of 7400 series IC and / or shift registers.

Ideas :
- Adding IO pins to the Z80 and wiring them to the Motherboard. You could programmatically control some features (Jumper settings, turbo)
- Emulating any serial device (modem, mouse, sound ?)
- Adapt some of the RC2014 module to the card

The knowhow that a lot of people have here really impresses me. Someone buys a random card without knowing what it is, and you guys have ideas on how to back it!

If it has a Z80 on it then you can be 1000% sure that there will always be someone able to turn it into a full PC, simply one of the best CPUs ever made for home-brew hacky stuff. (The Arduino would be a good second)

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-05-07, 07:49:

The knowhow that a lot of people have here really impresses me. Someone buys a random card without knowing what it is, and you guys have ideas on how to back it!

Exactly why I posted, if I'm to be honest 😜 Ever since I saw Ben Eater's videos in Youtube I thought on maybe some day doing something similar with a Z80, since I've had for a few years an Artisoft LANtastic card which is also based on the Z80. Unfortunately I had to park that idea because the card is now 12000Km away (I moved countries for work reasons and couldn't bring my entire hardware collection and tools with me), so with this one I may be able to get back on that idea. If I ever get it to work as part of an ugly hack of a project, I'll make sure to post it here 😀

Waiting to go pick up a 2005 G4 Powerbook.
PSU + laptop (HDD + DVD), but no DDR ram. I have a bountyful amount of that 😀

Screen has some horizontal lines dead.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-05-07, 07:19:

Not bought "Yet" but this card is in a lot im looking at, best I can figure its some kind of CRT controller card due to the SY6845E CRT IC, does anyone here have some clue what its actually for ?

Unkown STB.jpg

Best bet: STB Mono Plus, an MDA and (maybe) Hercules card.

It has the standard MDA/Hercules combo of DE9 for mono out and a parallel port under it, two VTI chips replacing a lot of the discrete logic on IBM MDA boards.

First card on this page shows same PCB but a lot more populated. Apparently there's an FCC ID EKS56AHT on the back, but not able to find much there (EKS = STB, and we already knew that).
http://www.yjfy.com/museum/video/STB.htm

dionb wrote on 2024-05-07, 13:29:

Best bet: STB Mono Plus, an MDA and (maybe) Hercules card. […]
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Trashbytes wrote on 2024-05-07, 07:19:

Not bought "Yet" but this card is in a lot im looking at, best I can figure its some kind of CRT controller card due to the SY6845E CRT IC, does anyone here have some clue what its actually for ?

Unkown STB.jpg

Best bet: STB Mono Plus, an MDA and (maybe) Hercules card.

It has the standard MDA/Hercules combo of DE9 for mono out and a parallel port under it, two VTI chips replacing a lot of the discrete logic on IBM MDA boards.

First card on this page shows same PCB but a lot more populated. Apparently there's an FCC ID EKS56AHT on the back, but not able to find much there (EKS = STB, and we already knew that).
http://www.yjfy.com/museum/video/STB.htm

Hmm interesting, might be fun to tinker with if I ever get one of them cool Orange Mono CRTs, not sure how it would go on a 386 since I dont own anything slower.

Well it's hardware for retro hardware.

A proper diagnostics card. Needless to say, more chips = better. 😉

The cheapest card (top) works fine in a PCI slot, but in an ISA slot, not so much.

PD2JK wrote on 2024-05-07, 14:12:

Well it's hardware for retro hardware. […]
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Well it's hardware for retro hardware.

A proper diagnostics card. Needless to say, more chips = better. 😉

DSC_8937.JPG

The cheapest card (top) works fine in a PCI slot, but in an ISA slot, not so much.

I can't recall how many times I've shown & said it nor if I already told you, so here it goes again.

Throw that top card away or at least cut the ISA part off.
It will never work on ISA because the traces are going nowhere.
They route underneath the chip and end there.
No connection whatsoever.
Second thing about that card is that the chip identifies as a pci device, which is not that important
but
Third thing is that the ISA slot, at least on mine, was about a millimeter too short, and the pads are also weird
Which allows for them to under some circumstances to SHORT OUT your data signals with power lines
Which in all likelyhood will kill your mainboard.

Placed an order for a Polaris iPB-T board, sold as not working. A quick inspection shows bulged Licon caps (oh nyo 😀 ) and a broken socket clip.

For nearly $13 (price including shipping), I consider that a steal, given not many 815EP boards are out here for cheap. I do have a good ASUS CUSL2 for the Coppermine side, but wanted something natively supportive of Tualatin 😁

weedeewee wrote on 2024-05-07, 14:59:

I can't recall how many times I've shown & said it nor if I already told you, so here it goes again. […]
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PD2JK wrote on 2024-05-07, 14:12:

Well it's hardware for retro hardware. […]
Show full quote

Well it's hardware for retro hardware.

A proper diagnostics card. Needless to say, more chips = better. 😉

DSC_8937.JPG

The cheapest card (top) works fine in a PCI slot, but in an ISA slot, not so much.

I can't recall how many times I've shown & said it nor if I already told you, so here it goes again.

Throw that top card away or at least cut the ISA part off.
It will never work on ISA because the traces are going nowhere.
They route underneath the chip and end there.
No connection whatsoever.
Second thing about that card is that the chip identifies as a pci device, which is not that important
but
Third thing is that the ISA slot, at least on mine, was about a millimeter too short, and the pads are also weird
Which allows for them to under some circumstances to SHORT OUT your data signals with power lines
Which in all likelyhood will kill your mainboard.

Yeah that card is sitting in the trash already. I was aware of the wrong ISA dimensions. But thanks for pointing things out. Again. 😉

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-05-07, 13:46:

[...]

Hmm interesting, might be fun to tinker with if I ever get one of them cool Orange Mono CRTs, not sure how it would go on a 386 since I dont own anything slower.

I tested one in a P3. So long as the ISA bus isn't running at crazy speeds you should be good. MDA text is really, really nice, even when compared to VGA.

So, I think I hit the jackpot. I've only ever found one 486 board in my area. Never seen anything older that wasn't going for a crazy high price. But the other day someone posted this on FB for FREE!

They both had Vartas that were exploding, but I think I got really lucky. The top board only looked to have a bit of crustiness near the battery terminals. The lower board looks to have leaked some more and you can see some discoloration on some of the pins in the top ISA slot. There was also some crust on the pin header block and the chip legs above it. But some vinegar has done a decent job cleaning up the worst of it. I'm certainly wary of damage that I can't see under the components, but aside from some spots on that big trace running down the left side, I'm not really seeing any board damage. I haven't turned them on yet because I'm being very thorough waiting for them to dry. And also I think I'm supposed to watch out for exploding tantalums, so that's got me a little worried too. 😁

The video card has 15 pin VGA and 9 pin EGA outputs. I haven't found any details about this specific card, so hopefully the dip switches are set to VGA because I don't have a 9 pin compatible monitor.

And the other card appears to be an MFM card from what I can tell. Never used one before.

I'm assuming these will work with the MFM card, but we'll see.

Chips as far as the eye can see. Those foam sheets have just as many chips on the other side as well. After a quick look, they appear to be DRAM chips. One of these motherboards doesn't have any installed, but after I've installed those, I have no idea what I'll do with the rest. 😀

There are also a number of 30-pin SIMMs, but the ones on the left all seem to have pins on the bottom. I've never seen that before.

Last thing I'll say is that everything is remarkably clean. I'm guessing it was all barely used, if it was used at all. There's so much to fiddle with here, I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start.

~50-60MB of ram. We are looking at ~$10K in 1987 money here 😁

danieljm wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:31:

And also I think I'm supposed to watch out for exploding tantalums, so that's got me a little worried too. 😁

The Tantalums won't explode until you apply power to them and then they either work or not. Sometimes with a bang and smoke, sometimes just smoke, no bang.

danieljm wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:31:

There are also a number of 30-pin SIMMs, but the ones on the left all seem to have pins on the bottom. I've never seen that before.

They are SIPPs. Less common than SIMMs, but the pinout is the same. A SIPP is just a SIMM with pins on the connectors.

danieljm wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:31:

So, I think I hit the jackpot. I've only ever found one 486 board in my area. Never seen anything older that wasn't going for a […]
Show full quote

So, I think I hit the jackpot. I've only ever found one 486 board in my area. Never seen anything older that wasn't going for a crazy high price. But the other day someone posted this on FB for FREE!

mobos.jpeg

They both had Vartas that were exploding, but I think I got really lucky. The top board only looked to have a bit of crustiness near the battery terminals. The lower board looks to have leaked some more and you can see some discoloration on some of the pins in the top ISA slot. There was also some crust on the pin header block and the chip legs above it. But some vinegar has done a decent job cleaning up the worst of it. I'm certainly wary of damage that I can't see under the components, but aside from some spots on that big trace running down the left side, I'm not really seeing any board damage. I haven't turned them on yet because I'm being very thorough waiting for them to dry. And also I think I'm supposed to watch out for exploding tantalums, so that's got me a little worried too. 😁

cards.jpeg

The video card has 15 pin VGA and 9 pin EGA outputs. I haven't found any details about this specific card, so hopefully the dip switches are set to VGA because I don't have a 9 pin compatible monitor.

And the other card appears to be an MFM card from what I can tell. Never used one before.

drives.jpeg

I'm assuming these will work with the MFM card, but we'll see.

chips.jpeg

Chips as far as the eye can see. Those foam sheets have just as many chips on the other side as well. After a quick look, they appear to be DRAM chips. One of these motherboards doesn't have any installed, but after I've installed those, I have no idea what I'll do with the rest. 😀

There are also a number of 30-pin SIMMs, but the ones on the left all seem to have pins on the bottom. I've never seen that before.

Last thing I'll say is that everything is remarkably clean. I'm guessing it was all barely used, if it was used at all. There's so much to fiddle with here, I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start.

Wow that's quite a haul, I've got a similar 286 with Chips chipset and a Suntac, they both feel like a very different era of computing from anything with SIMM / SIPP sockets 😀 Still trying to get one of them working actually. If you have the option to do so I recommend using some kind of current limited power supply for initial testing to avoid shorts from tantalums causing damage. I use a chinese clone of a PicoPSU and a current limiting bench power supply @ 12v to test most AT & ATX boards now.

The other day I got this HP Compaq NW8000 for pretty cheap. It was sold as for parts because the 7200RPM Travelstar 7k60 hard drive worked but extremely slowly and with tons of bad sectors. That and both optical drives were broken - it's a 3-spindle laptop!
I'm hoping I can get SBEMU working on this or see how well win98 can work since it's perfect for XP gaming and should be good for dos/98 era if soundblaster emulation can work.
Specs are:

• Intel Pentium M Dothan @ 2.0GHz - I've been on the lookout for this CPU for a while, this CPU alone costs more than I paid for this computer
• 2GB memory - currently causing issues with attempting to test win98
• 60GB Travelstar 7k60 7200rpm IDE hard drive - replaced with MSATA SSD to IDE adapter. I'm keeping the bad drive because my Thinkpad X32 used to have the same drive 😀
• ATI Mobility Fire GL T2 128MB - should be the same as a Mobility 9600 pro
• 15" 1600x1200 LCD
• Integrated DVDRW & Compaq MultiBay slot - now with a floppy drive installed in the multibay
• Really big front firing speakers which sound great, with volume control / mute buttons on the front with them

Just got an offer for a new in box dock for this too, which adds PS/2 and DVI ports.

-

First one for me. Never owned VIA/Cyrix CPUs before.

Seller from China packed it very well.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-05-07, 07:19:

Not bought "Yet" but this card is in a lot im looking at, best I can figure its some kind of CRT controller card due to the SY6845E CRT IC, does anyone here have some clue what its actually for ?

Unkown STB.jpg

I saw this listing myself and looked it up the other day. I believe it is an STB Chauffeur or STB Chauffeur HT.

https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/stb … s-needed.79426/

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:49:

~50-60MB of ram. We are looking at ~$10K in 1987 money here 😁

At the rate that retro prices are going, I could wait 10 years and they'll be worth that much again. 😉

weedeewee wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:50:

danieljm wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:31:

And also I think I'm supposed to watch out for exploding tantalums, so that's got me a little worried too. 😁

The Tantalums won't explode until you apply power to them and then they either work or not. Sometimes with a bang and smoke, sometimes just smoke, no bang.

Thanks for the confidence boost. We'll see how it goes.

debs3759 wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:58:

danieljm wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:31:

There are also a number of 30-pin SIMMs, but the ones on the left all seem to have pins on the bottom. I've never seen that before.

They are SIPPs. Less common than SIMMs, but the pinout is the same. A SIPP is just a SIMM with pins on the connectors.

Okay cool, good to know. Now that's another thing for me to go down a rabbit hole. 😀

Thermalwrong wrote on 2024-05-07, 19:30:

danieljm wrote on 2024-05-07, 18:31:

So, I think I hit the jackpot. I've only ever found one 486 board in my area. Never seen anything older that wasn't going for a […]
Show full quote

So, I think I hit the jackpot. I've only ever found one 486 board in my area. Never seen anything older that wasn't going for a crazy high price. But the other day someone posted this on FB for FREE!

mobos.jpeg

They both had Vartas that were exploding, but I think I got really lucky. The top board only looked to have a bit of crustiness near the battery terminals. The lower board looks to have leaked some more and you can see some discoloration on some of the pins in the top ISA slot. There was also some crust on the pin header block and the chip legs above it. But some vinegar has done a decent job cleaning up the worst of it. I'm certainly wary of damage that I can't see under the components, but aside from some spots on that big trace running down the left side, I'm not really seeing any board damage. I haven't turned them on yet because I'm being very thorough waiting for them to dry. And also I think I'm supposed to watch out for exploding tantalums, so that's got me a little worried too. 😁

cards.jpeg

The video card has 15 pin VGA and 9 pin EGA outputs. I haven't found any details about this specific card, so hopefully the dip switches are set to VGA because I don't have a 9 pin compatible monitor.

And the other card appears to be an MFM card from what I can tell. Never used one before.

drives.jpeg

I'm assuming these will work with the MFM card, but we'll see.

chips.jpeg

Chips as far as the eye can see. Those foam sheets have just as many chips on the other side as well. After a quick look, they appear to be DRAM chips. One of these motherboards doesn't have any installed, but after I've installed those, I have no idea what I'll do with the rest. 😀

There are also a number of 30-pin SIMMs, but the ones on the left all seem to have pins on the bottom. I've never seen that before.

Last thing I'll say is that everything is remarkably clean. I'm guessing it was all barely used, if it was used at all. There's so much to fiddle with here, I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start.

Wow that's quite a haul, I've got a similar 286 with Chips chipset and a Suntac, they both feel like a very different era of computing from anything with SIMM / SIPP sockets 😀 Still trying to get one of them working actually. If you have the option to do so I recommend using some kind of current limited power supply for initial testing to avoid shorts from tantalums causing damage. I use a chinese clone of a PicoPSU and a current limiting bench power supply @ 12v to test most AT & ATX boards now.

That sounds like a good idea. I've been meaning to look into the PicoPSU, and this sounds like a really good use-case for it. Thanks!

Today I grabbed two things. First was a cute little Blue Lightning.

I don't really have a place to put it yet, but I'm sure it'll find its way in to something at some point. The more interesting find was the PPro board, complete with a 200/256k processor. I'll probably throw it in to my ATX case and do, uh, something with it.