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ZEOS 386 laptop- A/C Adapter needed!

J

johnorun

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2008
Messages
174
Location
Chicago, IL
I found a ZEOS 386 laptop :)on the curb last week, during annual "Spring-Cleanup" days in the town next to mine.
It's in good physical condition and I bet it works, but I need an A/C adapter with an eight-pin connector to bring it back to life.

Anyone have a source for one with a connector like that?:eek:
 
Can you google the pin assignments on that connector? I would asume you have a seperate sense lines and power to charge the battery there and should only need 2 pins for actually powering it up.
 
I'm good at taking laptops apart, but I'm not an EE so how do I determine the connector pin assignments?

Unknown_K said:
Can you google the pin assignments on that connector? I would asume you have a seperate sense lines and power to charge the battery there and should only need 2 pins for actually powering it up.
Click to expand...
 
You google around hoping there is a picture of the connector and what each wire is. Best bet is to just buy one on ebay, or maybe the same laptop that just happens to have the power brick with it. ZEOS went out of business a long time ago and its name has been purchased by a company to use selling new junk.
 
Unknown_K said:
You google around hoping there is a picture of the connector and what each wire is. Best bet is to just buy one on ebay,...
Click to expand...
I tries Ebay- no luck. That's why I posted here. This is an ancient machine, so not many parts around, i guess.
 
johnorun said:
I found a ZEOS 386 laptop :)on the curb last week, during annual "Spring-Cleanup" days in the town next to mine.
It's in good physical condition and I bet it works, but I need an AC adapter with an eight-pin connector to bring it back to life.

Anyone have a source for one with a connector like that?:eek:
Click to expand...
You can go to store to buy a Universal AC adapter such as eBay
ux_a08052200ux0002_ux_g.jpg
 
IIRC the Commodore 386 l-t used the same power supply. Another mfgr (perhaps Sanyo) also. There was a german site on The C 386 which had a pin-out for it and how to make the cable, long lost unfortunately but a search might turn it ip. I searched for a cable about 2 years and after determining that the C 386 worked sold it on EBay. I think there where 3 different voltages, one of which was for charging the battery.

Lawrence
 
I received the 16v. AC adapter from Ebay, but the 8 pin connector is slightly different and doesn't fit in the ZEOS socket!
Back to square one....
I still need one, so if anyone has access to one for sale, let me know. Thanks.
 
As I said above there were several LT companies using the same power supplies. A quick google search came up with info that the Zeos, Commodore 386 LT, Everex, and Sanyo used the same batteries. That jibed with my recall of them using the same PSU with the 8-pin Din connector.
The connector used 2 or 3 different voltages for the LT's requirements so buying any regular adaptor is simply wasting your money since it wont work. Latter-day Commodores were produced in Germany and I think that was the hook for the website which included the Commodore 386 LT.
It also had the Specs for it and a description of the connectors pin-outs. Most companies buy models produced elsewhere and then simply package them with their own style and logo. One example is of a Tandy LT which was the same as a DEC, Grid, and AST(?).

Now I don't know if the German Commodore enthusiast web-site which had the pin-outs still exists but the above info should give you a god starting point for a thorough Google.

Lawrence
 
I'm just happy seeing a happy little power supply that says I excel. That's my motivational poster for the day. How about taking a picture of the power connector needed? Then if someone here recognizes it they may help. I'm a bit stuck with you, I ended up with a power-supplyless Gateway2000 486 palmtop rig, I started trying to see if I could figure out the pinouts but got lazy and never did with the generic but non-matching gateway power supply I did pick up at a goodwill. My only trick would be similar for finding it on feebay is try searching descriptions not just titles, and maybe try a google search with site:ebay.com and site:craigslist.org to search for folks with one. It may show a lot of deleted posts though but still gathers some good information if it can.
 
I managed to find the folder in one of my old computers. It has the pinouts as well as some Zeos setup files.
The original mfgrs. model was an Impulse 3L/25N. Zeos, Commodore (the German company after CBM failed), Everex, and Sanyo repackaged it. I am attaching a BMP image for any future seachers since the OP seems to have abandoned the thread.

Lawrence

The attachment appears not to have loaded. It found and loaded the bmp file after I resized it but doesn't show up on this post. I've easily made attachments before. Is there some new wrinkle in the latest forum version ?

L.
 
Last edited:
Micom 2000 said:
I am attaching a BMP image for any future seachers since the OP seems to have abandoned the thread.

Lawrence

The attachment appears not to have loaded. It found and loaded the bmp file after I resized it but doesn't show up on this post. I've easily made attachments before. Is there some new wrinkle in the latest forum version ?

L.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but No, I haven't abandoned the thread. I just haven't received any email notices about new posts in this thread for several months, which is unusual!
Maybe it's another "new wrinkle" with the forum version??:mad:

LATEST news--I found a generic A/C adapter on Ebay for my rescued ZEOS 386 laptop but I had to modify the 8-pin connector housing in order for it to fit in the ZEOS power socket.
At least it powered up the old laptop and it booted up to the hard drive (which carelessly contained the former owner's contact data for hundred's of his well-connected business contacts!):lookroun:
I plan to do a clean install of the OS and then try to use it for testing old software and maybe add some vintage games.
Anything else I could do to make this ZEOS useful in the modern age? ;)
 
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