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Unearthed an Epson QX-10, any users out there?

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bitfixer

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Apr 6, 2011
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San Francisco, CA
Hi there,

I just rescued an Epson QX-10 from a garage in my area. I have the CPU, the epson monitor, and keyboard, and a 10 Meg 3rd party hard disk. I know little about this computer, so I was wondering if there were any users out there. This particular unit is rather dirty and needs some TLC to get it back into shape. After a brief dusting I connected it up, and it does seem to work, except for a strange screen malfunction.
When I turn it on, it reads from a boot disk in drive A, then comes up to a VALDOCS screen and then asks for another disk. I believe it had been set up to run from the HD, which I have not connected up to try yet. But there are several green blocks on the screen where I believe it should be blank. When I get a chance to connect it up again I will take a picture of it. It looks like when it is clearing the screen, instead of clearing to black it clears to a pattern of black and occasional green rectangles. I'm thinking some sort of video memory defect.

Anyway, just checking to see what folks here know about this machine. Posted this in the 'Other' category since I wasn't quite sure where this belonged - I know it is capable of CP/M but not sure if it is classified as a strictly CP/M machine.
Thanks.
 
A very unique machine; it's biggest distinction was VALDOCS--a word processing and spreadsheet application.

The basis of most of the system was FORTH; a CP/M-compatible implementation called TP/M was part of the package.

I think there was a writeup in Byte about the system.

Much source code(!) and documents for the QX-10 surfaced on the web a few years ago; I don't know if it's still out there, but I do have a copy.
 
Thanks for the information, I will read through this and take another look at the QX-10 soon. Then I'll try to address what's going on with those green rectangles.. pics to follow.
 
One of the architects of this system spoke at VCF E this Spring, Rodger Amidon. I am pretty sure he helped build this one while working for Epson in New Jersey USA.
 
I enjoyed his talk there, though I had forgotten that he had worked on this machine.
I just set the system up again so I could take pictures of the screen glitches, and unfortunately now it looks like I have a dead power supply. Now there's no fan, no light, completely dead. Maybe a fuse? Will have to open it up and see.. just part of the vintage computer hobby I guess.
 
something intermittent.

I have the Titan board mentioned above by the way. I can pull it out and take pictures if you'd like. Not sure how I'd extract a rom image, this thing has been buried beneath lots of other stuff for years. IOW never used it. Contact me offlist chrism3667(at)yahoo(dot)com
 
I had the same problem with my video board (strange characters on screen)

when you open the computer the upper board is the video board

P1030838.jpg

remove connectors and wire in red (the picture was taken the
first time I opened the computer ) :D (full of dust)

use antistatic wrist and antistatic mat

the upper board has 16 memory chips 4164C-3

P1020940.JPG

try removing cleaning the pins and plugging them again
if nothing happen
there are some programers like Xeltek superpro that can check the chips

good luck

by the way when I found my qx-10 I was able to get an external 10MB HDD but no cable, no card on the machine.
dou you have any manuals ??
my disk is a Comrex CR-1510
 
Hi,

Thanks for the info on the QX-10.
Things have been busy recently and I haven't had the chance to look further at the QX-10, but hope to get to it soon.
Mine certainly looks like it needs a good cleaning, There is some dust and dirt in and around the openings on the back of the CPU, so I imagine it's mostly the same story inside the box.
I did get a 10MB drive with the computer, and it appears to have a card for the drive in the machine. The cable is built-in to the HD unit. I have no manuals with it, unfortunately. I'll check on the model of the HD when I get a moment..
 
Hi same here
been busy too
Please if you can, take a picture of the HD controller

I found the 1983 microcomputing magazine, but I need to scan the article

the Byte magazine that Chuck(G) was talking about is September 1982 and is here

h**p://pbraun.nethence.com/download/Byte/Other%202/198209%20Byte%20Magazine%20September%201982.pdf

but is a 553 MB !!! pdf
 
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Hi,
woww an epson qx-10.
You know that in france this computer was not very known...
I did some programming when i was 14 in order to to a sales management software for a friend of my father.
I've 2 machine and i've bought one from united states. The us version have valdocs , with us keyboard but no hard disk
(but a pc card extension - 8088 and 512kb onboard)...

The epson was in bad condition so i've made a website about the complete retore of this computer (from unmonting floppy disk , entire machine, ...)

h**p://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/

it's in french, but the photo are fine ;-)

glad to have seen this forum.
feel free to discuss about the epson.



Best regarde.
cls.
 
Hi,

The QX-10 is one of the nicest CP/M machines, I think. Running Valdocs, the QX-10 is maybe very interesting but it's a case of software needing more capabilities than the hardware could comfortably support.

Beware of the battery pack (on the right when you open the case if I remember correctly). It will be depleted and at risk of leaking.

Regards,

Oscar.
 
Hi Oscar,
thanks you for your advice.
I've read this case on internet and the first thing i've done (see my blog )
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/6-Remplacement-de-l-accumulateur-NI-CAD_a9.html

I've replaced the NI-CAD battery pack by a NIMH one.
I've found a shop which sells all kind of battery.
You have to take a nimh to be soldered on wires with also same characteristics (V, A but also C)
It works perfectly !

Anyway thanks for your advice !
The next thing will to test the 8088 extension card !
This machine is really time proof, because of the construction.
(i've a pc of the same period - a logabax persona 1600 (rebranded as AT&T 6300 in united states) which is really a "bad contact factory" ^^)
(sample of an at&t 6300)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivetti_M24

Best regards.
Cls.
NB : feel free to discuss about epson !!!!!
 
Yes, I have one of these machines now too. They are great. I'm looking some of the games that were around for it. These weren't common and don't seem to be on the net anywhere.

Anyway, here's mine.
 
Hello All former and current users and admirers of the Epson QX-10. I had 3 of them together with a Multiplexer connected to a 40MG Harddrive. Yes, the system worked well. VALDOCS was a wonderful system however the machine struggled in the swapping of disks and cranking out responses. For a while I used PeachText 5000 as a wordprocessor and it worked well enough for individual users as the program required insertion of commands to change fonts, paragraphs, pages, and items now taken for granted. Later I added Titan Boards which updated the system to emulate 16bit MSDos and I used Wordperfect which in my opinion offered all the Wordprocessing capabilities anyone major office would need. Now I used Office 365 which is like taking a 747 out of the hanger to go to unch when a Piper will do fine. I want to take docs off my HDD, and 5.25 inch floppies but am without a monitor. If available I would either purchase an Epson Green Screen monitor, or Video Card which would fit in a QX-10 to which a monitor may be connected. Help. Would you be able to advise what video card would fit, and/or guide me in the direction of an available Epson Monitor. Thank you.
 
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