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Otrona Attache startup disks?

B

Brillig

New Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
7
Hello,

I am a volunteer at the Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum in Floyd, Virginia (http://bugbookmuseum.blogspot.com/), and I am trying to get a Otrona Attache working for an exhibit. So far I can only load terminal mode since we have no CP/M disks. Unfortunately, we don't have the equipment to load disk images (which I know are available online for the Attache) and it has been very difficult (impossible) to find any Otrona disks on Ebay or elsewhere online.

My question is: does anyone here have the equipment to copy a startup disk for the Attache who would be willing to make it available to the museum (we would cover all costs of course)? Or at least point us in the direction of someone who might be able to provide disks?
 
I can help! I have a working Otrona Attache with boot disks for MSDOS and CP/M. I made the boot disks from Don Maslin's collection. Send me your address and I will forward floppies.
 
cellarcat said:
I can help! I have a working Otrona Attache with boot disks for MSDOS and CP/M. I made the boot disks from Don Maslin's collection. Send me your address and I will forward floppies.
Click to expand...

Oh thank you, I really appreciate it. As soon as I figure out how to send a private message, I'll send you my address.

(You wouldn't happen to know how to send a message, would you? I feel really dumb; I can't find the option anywhere.)

Best,
Grayson
 
Brillig said:
Oh thank you, I really appreciate it. As soon as I figure out how to send a private message, I'll send you my address.

(You wouldn't happen to know how to send a message, would you? I feel really dumb; I can't find the option anywhere.)

Best,
Grayson
Click to expand...

There is a section in the help area that indicates that private messages can be sent and received but when I tried to send I was blocked. I notice we are now best friends (!) so maybe that will allow it.
 
Address

Address

Brillig said:
Oh thank you, I really appreciate it. As soon as I figure out how to send a private message, I'll send you my address.

(You wouldn't happen to know how to send a message, would you? I feel really dumb; I can't find the option anywhere.)

Best,
Grayson
Click to expand...

If you want I can just mail the floppies to the museum at the address on their website.
 
cellarcat said:
If you want I can just mail the floppies to the museum at the address on their website.
Click to expand...

That would be fine, thank you. I added you as a friend in case that was the secret to PMing but it appears that it is not. It must just be disabled on this forum.

Address:
Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum
P O Box 179
Floyd, Virginia 24091

You can send a Paypal request for the s&h to: supermannlich@gmail.com (old email address, don't judge me haha). I really appreciate the help.

Best,
Grayson
 
Brillig said:
That would be fine, thank you. I added you as a friend in case that was the secret to PMing but it appears that it is not. It must just be disabled on this forum.

Address:
Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum
P O Box 179
Floyd, Virginia 24091

You can send a Paypal request for the s&h to: supermannlich@gmail.com (old email address, don't judge me haha). I really appreciate the help.

Best,
Grayson
Click to expand...

Hi, Grayson! I live in Canada, but have a PO address in N. Dakota. I will be there on Tuesday and will mail the floppies. I am sending the CP/M and MSDOS boot disks and the CP/M utils and Demo disks. Have you checked the button batteries in your machine?! Mine were starting to corrode.
 
cellarcat said:
Have you checked the button batteries in your machine?! Mine were starting to corrode.
Click to expand...


Hello all,

I use to service Otrona Attache's both the cpm versions and the even rarer msdos version.

Sadly threw out a some motherboards and NOS cases a few years back.

Kept 1 or 2 machines, but they have not been powered up for years.

One simple problem, they had internal button batteries for a cmos chip. Lot of operational issues were caused as the battery aged and leaked, etc etc, as I sure you know what I mean.

Remove the 2 rear brown feet ( screws hold them on), and carefully slide the insides out of case or case off the outside of the innards.

There are somewhat fragile beryllium copper flexible fingers that are mounted on the inside of machine. They are what makes contact with the outer case as part of the electrical shielding. So as you slide of the outer cover, gently rock the case as you slide it.

Locate batteries, remove with care, NOTE the polarity orientation and clean the battery holder. Plenty of advice on web about doing this type of cleaning.

Replace batteries and good luck.

Worst case is you may need to replace the button battery holder with some new one. That will require desoldering the corroded one and soldering in a replacement.


Also Grayson, you may need to clarify if your machine has 48 tpi floppy drives or 96tpi floppy drives. Machines with 96tpi capable drives can read and boot both densities but 48tpi drives will not read nor boot from 96tpi formatted and system disks
 
Hello,

I just stumbled across this site and it warms my heart to see there is still interest in Otrona computers. So I registered so I could reply.
I am the firmware/software engineer who wrote the majority of the O/S and utility code for the the Attache. Employee #8 and the first software hire.
Pretty much all of the Z80 stuff and 2001 stuff including the BIOS were mine with some exceptions. The 8:16 code for the 8086 was contracted out to Phoenix Software. We were their first "PC Compatible" customer.
In any case I am pretty sure I have a box of floppies somewhere with pretty much all of the stuff we released including the source code. I have no idea what state it is in and I no longer have an Attache but I figure someone could probably put it to good use. I'd like to make sure it goes to someone responsible who will take good care of it and make sure it stays available to anyone who needs it in the community. I'll have to find that box if anyone is interested. Let me know where the best place for this would be.

Steve
 
audiosteve said:
Hello,

I just stumbled across this site and it warms my heart to see there is still interest in Otrona computers. So I registered so I could reply.
I am the firmware/software engineer who wrote the majority of the O/S and utility code for the the Attache. Employee #8 and the first software hire.
Pretty much all of the Z80 stuff and 2001 stuff including the BIOS were mine with some exceptions. The 8:16 code for the 8086 was contracted out to Phoenix Software. We were their first "PC Compatible" customer.
In any case I am pretty sure I have a box of floppies somewhere with pretty much all of the stuff we released including the source code. I have no idea what state it is in and I no longer have an Attache but I figure someone could probably put it to good use. I'd like to make sure it goes to someone responsible who will take good care of it and make sure it stays available to anyone who needs it in the community. I'll have to find that box if anyone is interested. Let me know where the best place for this would be.

Steve
Click to expand...

I'd be happy to take it at the Computer History Museum, if it turns up.

Al Kossow, Software Curator CHM
 
audiosteve said:
Hello,

Pretty much all of the Z80 stuff and 2001 stuff including the BIOS were mine with some exceptions. The 8:16 code for the 8086 was contracted out to Phoenix Software. We were their first "PC Compatible" customer.
In any case I am pretty sure I have a box of floppies somewhere with pretty much all of the stuff we released including the source code. I have no idea what state it is in and I no longer have an Attache but I figure someone could probably put it to good use. I'd like to make sure it goes to someone responsible who will take good care of it and make sure it stays available to anyone who needs it in the community. I'll have to find that box if anyone is interested. Let me know where the best place for this would be.

Steve
Click to expand...

Welcome, Steve!

It's always great to hear from you guys behind the scenes. I have an Attaché 8:16 in my collection that I have mostly working, except for a misbehaving B: drive. I created CP/M and MSDOS boot disks from images in the Don Maslin archives.

I think the ideal repository for your material would be Al Kossow's Bitsavers. Dave Dunfield also makes software images available on his site. Al Kossow frequents these forums. I also have the capability for imaging diskettes, and will pass the images on to Al and Dave.

http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
 
I spoke too soon. We moved two years ago and I thought I knew exactly where the disks were put here in the new place. I just tore basement apart and can't find them. As of now they are lost. My apologies. I will keep looking and if I find them I'll be back.
 
cellarcat said:
Hi, Grayson! I live in Canada, but have a PO address in N. Dakota. I will be there on Tuesday and will mail the floppies. I am sending the CP/M and MSDOS boot disks and the CP/M utils and Demo disks. Have you checked the button batteries in your machine?! Mine were starting to corrode.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to let you know we received the disks and say thank you so much for your help! Unfortunately it seems like there may be more wrong with our Attache than just lack of OS. It reads both boot disks on startup and doesn't go into terminal mode with either, but it doesn't do much else. I cannot even get it to consistently type characters.
 
Brillig said:
Just wanted to let you know we received the disks and say thank you so much for your help! Unfortunately it seems like there may be more wrong with our Attache than just lack of OS. It reads both boot disks on startup and doesn't go into terminal mode with either, but it doesn't do much else. I cannot even get it to consistently type characters.
Click to expand...

That is a shame! Have you tried reseating the ics that are in sockets? I had to do that to mine to get it to run reliably.
 
fsaleh,
The OATTACH.TD0 (OATTACH.IMD, OATTACH.RAW) has a directory listing of:

larry@debian:~/Downloads/cpmtools/cpmtools-2.20$ cpmls -f otr1 -d OATTACHE.RAW
DISK COM : FORMAT COM : MUSIC COM : D COM
BACKUP COM : TIME COM : XTYPE COM : XDIR COM
MDM707 COM : NULU COM : DDT COM : SYSGEN COM
PORTS ATT : CHARTON COM : BRUN COM : CHARTONF
XF COM : AUTO COM : BARSAMPL CHT : VALET VL2
SORTV COM : SYSDUP COM : PRINTER VL2 : MODEM COM
STAT COM : PIESAMPL CHT : MBASIC COM : PORTS COM
LINSAMPL CHT : SQ COM : DAY COM : USQ COM
EPSFIX COM : EDFILE COM
larry@debian:~/Downloads/cpmtools/cpmtools-2.20$

If my cpmtools definition is correct.

# OTR1 Otrona Attache - DSDD 48 tpi 5.25" - 512 x 10
diskdef otr1
seclen 512
tracks 80
sectrk 10
sides outout
blocksize 2048
maxdir 128
skew 1
boottrk 0
#DIR @ 7800H = 30720
offset 30720
os 2.2
end



larry@debian:~/Downloads/cpmtools/cpmtools-2.20$ cpmls -f otr1 -d OTR-SRCE.RAW
-BIOS : ANADEX ASM : ATTACHE BAS : AXIOM ASM
BIOS225 LBR : BOXES BAS : CITOH ASM : D COM
DATE BAS : EPSON ASM : VALET ASM : GRAPH-N BAS
GRFLIB MAC : GRFTST BAS : MANNS ASM : MAP BAS
MONX ASM : MX100 BAS : Z80LIB MCR : OKI83 ASM
PORTS BAS : TIME BAS : TIMESET ASM
larry@debian:~/Downloads/cpmtools/cpmtools-2.20$


larry@debian:~/Downloads/cpmtools/cpmtools-2.20$ cpmls -f otr1 -d OTR-UTIL.RAW
-MASTER UTL : ASLOADGO SUB : ASM COM : ASUB COM
AUTO COM : BACKUP COM : COMPARE COM : D COM
D HLP : DDT COM : DISK COM : DOCTOR COM
DU COM : DUMP COM : ED COM : EPSON COM
EX COM : EX DOC : FILTER COM : FINDBAD COM
FINREP COM : FORMAT COM : GO COM : GS COM
HRDSFT COM : HRDSFT DQC : I END : I HLP
I SUB : LOAD COM : LST COM : NULU COM
OPTIONS FN : P COM : PAIR COM : PATCH COM
PCODES BRO : PCODES EPS : PIPX COM : PRINT COM
PRINTSQ COM : QK COM : R COM : REPAIR COM
RESCUE COM : RULER : S COM : SAP COM
SCRAMBLE COM : SDUMP COM : SETTIME COM : SORTMRG COM
SORTV COM : SQ COM : SS COM : STAT COM
SYSDUP COM : TELL COM : TIME COM : TYP COM
TYPEMEM COM : UNERA COM : USQ COM : V COM
VALET VL1 : WC COM : XDIR COM : XF COM
XSUB COM
larry@debian:~/Downloads/cpmtools/cpmtools-2.20$


Larry
 
Last edited:
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