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Epson PX-8 mods and upgrades

S

Sharkonwheels

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2006
Messages
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Location
South Florida
I'm going to start offering up some mods and upgrades for the PX-8 and accessories, which will include rebuilding main and backup battery packs, upgraded PX-8 main ROM (most have the original, which had a few bugs, and disn't treat the RAMDisk nicely), and....most important...

ZIF socket upgrades!

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of the stupid Molex chip carriers.

This will be on the PX-8 itself (2 sockets) and the MultiUnit-64 (1 socket), as well.

I will also be offering custom ROM creation, and with the ZIF sockets, it will be easy to swap stuff in and out, as opposed to now.

I have hunted high and low, even offering to buy 500-1000pcs of the carriers, but it seems they may have all gone to recycling/dumps.

In case you're interested, the Molex part number for the standard black carrier was 50-39-5288.

T
 
Sharkonwheels said:
I'm going to start offering up some mods and upgrades for the PX-8 and accessories, which will include rebuilding main and backup battery packs, upgraded PX-8 main ROM (most have the original, which had a few bugs, and disn't treat the RAMDisk nicely), and....most important...

ZIF socket upgrades!

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of the stupid Molex chip carriers.

This will be on the PX-8 itself (2 sockets) and the MultiUnit-64 (1 socket), as well.

I will also be offering custom ROM creation, and with the ZIF sockets, it will be easy to swap stuff in and out, as opposed to now.

I have hunted high and low, even offering to buy 500-1000pcs of the carriers, but it seems they may have all gone to recycling/dumps.

In case you're interested, the Molex part number for the standard black carrier was 50-39-5288.

T
Click to expand...
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Just curious: are these 24-pin ROMS or 28-pin, or ?

I've been throwing the 24-pin carriers out after extracting the EPROMs.

m
 
MikeS said:
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Just curious: are these 24-pin ROMS or 28-pin, or ?

I've been throwing the 24-pin carriers out after extracting the EPROMs.

m
Click to expand...

Terry - that's EXACTLY what I plan to do - I have the dBase II .COM files that were on a diskette that came with my PF-10 :)

If you happen to have a MultiFunction Unit (64KB Ramdisk, modem, and ROM port) then you can actually stuff a 512kbit (64KB) EPROM in there, which should hold a decent amount of stuff!

If you have a capsule that you want to sacrifice, I can put whatever you want in it - ie, I think the BASIC capsule is a waste - it's the ONLY thing on that ROM!


MikeS - 28-pin Molex carrier, p/n 50-39-5288

Can't find any of them...


T
 
I only have the 128K RAMdisk, but I have been planning to do the same as you, swap-in a zif socket in the PX-8. Hell, if ya send me the dumps, I can burn my own ROMs.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
The dBase, and/or whatever else ya make up.

--T
Click to expand...

You know making ROMs for the PX-8 ain't hard, right?
You can actually do what I do, which is import the stuff into MyZ80, make the images with PXPROM2, and then export back out to the win filesystem.
Then just burn-n-go.

PXPROM2 support the PX-4 and PX-8, PROMFO/PROMFORM support PX-8.
with PROMFORM you can make up to a 2x32kb image, where 2x27c256 show up as 1 drive letter with 64kb, and PXPROM2 will do a 27C512 for use in the MFU socket. It support a 1M image, but I have yet to see a 28-pin 1MBit PROM/EPROM/Flash of any sort. Even the 29C512 512Kbit (64KB) chip is 32 pins.

I was actually thinking of trying some 29C256 Flash chips, as they are low-power, same (running) voltage, and same capacity. And when I do the ZIF mods, reprogramming is faster than EPROM erasing and re-burning!


T
 
You know....

To avoid future BS, I think I'll just use the cable+connector from my dead RB201 battery pack, and graft it onto this. This way, I don't have to worry about rebuilding battery packs, etc... Should fit, with room to spare, and AAA NiMH cells can be had up to about 1300-1400mah, but I found some 1200's, which is almost a great match.

This way, all is good, if they go bad just get some more, and pop 'em in.
No pack rebuilding! Looking at doing the same for the RAMdisk units...
Might just go ahead and use NiCD there, as the OEM AA NiCD's were 500mah, and those are dirt cheap...

T
 
Tried it, didn't quite fit. Two triple-As set end-to-end works tho. Just hold 'em together with a shrink tube. The RAMdisk won't work either, even after modifying the carrier and the RAMdisk. (It's that wedge shape that gets ya).

--T
 
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