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Any Epson QX-16 owners out there??

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Deltadon,

Interesting reading, I'll have to try some of the link on the thread when I have a bit more free time. My new pump for my computer came in and I'm ready to start trying to fit it tomorrow. The cooling loop is going to have to be reworked since this new pump is larger. Sigh! But it is what it is.

Hopefully I'll be back up and running on my desktop by Wednesday of next week.

Gordon
 
Progress update. I took a closer look at the suspect cap's in my monitor and realized that the tops were domed from epoxy and not due to bulging. So time to move on and see if I could get power to it and try to get video from my QX-16. I removed the red wire from the monitor's molex connector and installed a short wire with a molex pin in it's place. Then a second wire with a terminal when under a ground lead from the circuit board screwed to the chassis. So plus and minus leads for testing. I then pulled out my lab power supply and set it to 12 vdc at 2 amp (it's max), opened a brand new pack of eBay test leads and connected the test leads to my new wires and turned on the power supply. No current draw. So shut down the supply and check my connections. Looked okay. Powered up once again and nothing. Crud! Check voltage at the molex connector - zero volts. WTF! Checked voltage at the clip ends of the new test leads - zero. WTF squared! Checked resistance on the new test leads and they are open, zero copper wire in the leads, I guess. Foreign crap bite again! Pull out my 40 year old leads that I had planned to chuck out, but hadn't gotten around to, and tried again. Monitor was drawing 0.25 amps @ 12 volts. Nowhere near the 1.5 amps claimed on the plastic case. No sign of brightness on the screen and so I turned out the lights and saw a dim glow of the cathode. Lights back on and I assumed that without video signals the CRT won't get high voltage and so I needed my QX-16 and video cable to go to the next step. With video I'll guess the power will go up, but just a guess. About then the boss "suggested" I knock it off for the night and that's where I left things last night.

Gordon, if you plan on modifying your monitor I can send you a molex pin so you can plug in a new wire in place of the red lead coming from the DIN down to the molex.
 
Hey Delatadon,

That's progress!! I will definitely plan on looking at going that route as I really would like to get this thing up and running. I send the girl I bought the computer from a text explaining that according to Ebay I had until the 18th of this month to open a return if she is unable to find the rest of what goes with the system. I explained that I knew she was doing her best, but that my concern was that maybe her Dad never got the monitor in the first place. She hasn't replied to any of my texts since. I think I pissed her off which is frustrating as not only have I tried to be reasonable, but I've spent hours helping her identify stuff her Dad had in storage so she could sell it. She listed the computer as "new in the box" and as "complete" and most people would be lit up to receive a system that has clearly been used and is missing vital components, but I've tried to be reasonable about the whole thing and take it as an honest mistake, but apparently she feels like I should just eat the whole purchase price.

If you can get some video then at least I know it's not a lost cause and can try to work something out with her so I can keep the unit. As I mentioned previously at this point I have no way of determining if it is even functional and the keyboard has some keys that are permanently in the down position, so its not only used, but will need repairs to the keyboard at minimum before it is a functional system.

I am still trying to get my primary system up and running, Got my pump and pulled the old one last night, what a mess. I am going to have to rework the loop, but have been unable to located my heat gun and other bits and pieces I need, (we moved about 10 months ago and have been doing reno on the house so stuff is still packed). I should, hopefully have it back up and running by Friday of this week, that is if Murphy doesn't take a further interest in the project, lol

Keep me informed.

Gordon
 
Success!

I got some time to mess with powering up the QX-16 with the video cable running to the monitor. Turned on the QX and my bench power supply and noticed the monitor was now drawing about 3/4 amp. So far so good, but no visible video on the screen. I dug out the rear plastics for the monitor to be sure the large potentiometer was the brightness adjustment (it is) and cranked up the brightness and rebooted the QX and got a RAM test screen followed by an insert disk into left drive splash screen. Interesting since the right hand drive's red LED was on! So I stuck a blank disk into the left drive to listen for boot attempt. Nada! So I went for broke and stuck my QX-10 CP/M disk into the right hand drive and it booted to display "CP/M-80 R2.2 for the Epson QX-10 & QX-16" plus copyright and more blaa blaa blaa. Down below was drive assignments and the "A" prompt. Success! No idea if someone reversed the drive assignments via jumpers or hooked the cable up wrong, but that's no big deal at this point. The point is that a QX-10 CRT monitor does in fact work okay with a QX-16 if you can supply it with 12 volts DC.

Before I modify the monitor I will go back and remove my jumpers and reconnect the red wire to the molex and double check that the monitor does in fact need 12 volts from an outside source. My last attempt was a few years ago and I did not mess with the brightness adjustment. So little is known about this computer and the source that said that the QX-16 monitors need 12 volts or are self powered could be wrong. So stay tuned.

I also opened up the expansion bay cover and discovered nothing. No cards in there at all. So B&W video is generated by the main board without a video card plugged in. It would have been nice to have had a memory card or something in there as a free gift from the former owner(s).

After checking on power from the QX to the monitor is or isn't needed I'll test the drives out and try to make a backup copy or two of my boot disk. Then try to figure out the drive size and formatting (SS or DS, SD or DD, $* or 96 TPI). Plus snoop at the drive cable to see if it is reversed. Since these drives are non-standard I don't know if there's drive select jumpers or not. They too are unicorns, I guess. So I hope they both function.

I understand moving! I moved ten years ago and besides moving our home goods, I had to shutdown and move my computer business PDQ since our house sold in a weekend and the relocation company was sending the moving van for our home goods in a week. I had to hire a second company to box and move my inventory and they did a crappy job of boxing. More or less dump stuff in until full then get a new box. Because of my health issues at the time I was useless at labeling anything and I'm still opening boxes and finding stuff I forgot I had. Wife wants me to get rid of everything. I have the last inventory in the country for Chicony, Alphatop and some Clevo models. They were sold under dozens of brand names in the USA (Prostar, Alienware, AMS Tech, Micron and many others) and not vintage by this forum's definition (Pentium one to Pentium 4), they might be soon.
 
Deltadon,

Outstanding!!! If I give you my email address via pm would you be willing to put together a quick and dirty photo guide? I'm really a noob when it comes to this kind of stuff and I'm more of a visual person. I don't wanna smoke this thing. Once I see how you've done it and get my QX-10 monitor hooked up then I can try to hook up a third party monitor and see if we can get color. That is assuming I can find one that's capable of working with the same frequencies specified for the QX-16. BTW Do you need a laptop power supply? I've got a number of them that might work and can send you one.

I should have my computer back up and running by Friday and can get back to working on the QX-16, (and the two Kaypros, and the Eagle computer, and the two Apple IIe's and the Commdores and the.... you get the picture, lol)

Gordon
 
owensct said:
Deltadon,

Outstanding!!! If I give you my email address via pm would you be willing to put together a quick and dirty photo guide? I'm really a noob when it comes to this kind of stuff and I'm more of a visual person. I don't wanna smoke this thing. Once I see how you've done it and get my QX-10 monitor hooked up then I can try to hook up a third party monitor and see if we can get color. That is assuming I can find one that's capable of working with the same frequencies specified for the QX-16. BTW Do you need a laptop power supply? I've got a number of them that might work and can send you one.

I should have my computer back up and running by Friday and can get back to working on the QX-16, (and the two Kaypros, and the Eagle computer, and the two Apple IIe's and the Commdores and the.... you get the picture, lol)

Gordon
Click to expand...

Gordon,

I must have 100 laptop bricks floating around here, so I don't need one. I'm not sure what band of voltage(+/- X) is to not going to damage the monitor. Remember the QX-10 supplied +12VDC from it's internal regulated supply. I'm having not sure using an unregulated laptop supply is not going to cause a problem being too high or dropping too low. A cheap 1 amp or so regulated supply might be worth the cost ($10 -$15) if the monitor is going to last a long time.

I'm also waiting on a panel mounted jack for supplying the external power. Once that arrives I can take photo's as I finish off the install.

I dug out a blue binder Epson dBase II kit I've had in my possession for about 30 years. If both disk drives work (more testing) I'll see if I can get the QX-16 to boot dBase II. I used to pick up CP/M software at a discount software store down in Orange County, CA and never passed up NOS software with a license when it was dirt cheap. The store had software for everything from TRS-80 to PC stuff and had all the CP/M Users Group and FOG public domain software on 3.5" disks. Most of the brand name CP/M software was Osborne/Kaypro 5.25 format, but I found a copy of dBase II for the Epson QX-10. I used the license to have a legit copy for my S-100 machine. I think I also used an Osborne Supercalc kit to get a license for the same machine.
 
Gordon & Deltadon,
while you're tinkering with your Epsons, can I ask you to please save/dump the ROM contents and boot disks and share them? I'd like to get that machine included into the MAME emulation.

Yours Robert
 
Deltadon,

OK that sounds like a better idea than using a laptop supply. I'll add that to my list of things to buy for it. The girl got back to me last night just to say Hi, so I guess she isn't annoyed with me after all or she got over it. Now I just have to see if we can come to some kind of agreement that the system was not as stated and work a deal.

Robert I'd be willing to help with that as soon as I get mine up and running, but I'll need some guidance on how to accomplish that as I've never done it before.

Gordon
 
Gordon & Robert,

I ran into a major problem (for now) my keyboard has about a 1/3 of the keys not working. I pulled it apart hoping Epson used mechanical keys, but no they when cheap and it is domed foil crap. So I will need to replace 105 foamed foils before I can boot my QX-16 and even read the directory of the drives. The "I" key was one of the dead keys and so no "DIR" command could be issued. Since things were going so well I decided to pull the top half of the case off and see if the CMOS battery was leaking plus snoop around a bit. Battery was not leaking, don't know if it is dead or not (keyboard again) and saw that the floppies each have their own ribbon cable and connectors to the main board. So it appears my two drives are reversed and will be easy to swap back. However, the left hand drive (A drive) has a problem releasing a diskette and might be the reason someone swapped the drive cables. I also see that there's a small connector that brings power to the "on" LED plus feeds the speaker with it's signal. My QX does not beep, so it is unlike the QX-10 I saw in a Youtube video and therefore might have a dead speaker or driver transistor. The disk drive and speaker issues will need to wait until I've got the keyboard working.

As far as reading any ROM's I'd have to find them before committing to reading them. They might be buried under a couple of daughter boards and so I don't know if they are soldered into place or not. Plus they'd have to be readable by my TL866A which may not be able to read ever PROM out there.
 
Deltadon,

I have the same issue with my keyboard. In my case is seems to be mostly the function keys. I read an article where a guy had a similar issue with a QX-10 keyboard with step by step as to how he fixed it. I just scanned it because I hadn't unpacked it yet and didn't know my keyboard had the same issue. So I too shall have to perform that fix. Its not like we can substitute a different keyboard since the Epson keyboard is proprietary like everything else on the system, lol

Gordon
 
I contacted a company that sells keyboard foam replacement kits for Keytronic keyboards in the hopes of receiving a single foam piece to see if it will work in the Q601A keyboards too. If so, then a kit of 105 rings for twenty six or seven dollars that they sell will just do the repair job with no spares left over. Don't know how fast they will reply. If real slow I'll just need to purchase a kit in the hopes of fixing my keyboard. Meanwhile, still waiting on the connector to arrive from China for the final solution to supply external power to the CRT monitor. Gordon, if you are up to it I can put together for my cost a complete kit of parts including an AC adapter for you and all you will need to do is crimp on one pin, mount the connector and drill a hole in the rear plastic case. Once I have a working keyboard I can attempt to copy my boot disk if you need one and include it with the other stuff.
 
Hi Deltadon,

If your willing to do that that would be awesome and yes I could use a boot disk as well if you can make one. Just let me know what the whole kits plus boot disk would cost. Also, if you can let me know the particulars of the keyboard replacement parts as I will need to get the same as my keyboard has dead keys and if I'm going to do it for some of them I might as well do it for all.

The girl I bought the computer from has 4 days to either find the rest of the parts or work some kind of a deal with me before my option to return it ends. Not the approach I want to take, returning it that is, but if she gets stubborn about it and is unwilling to work a deal the time and costs associated with putting it back in working order is not viable without some kind of consideration from her. We'll see. I need to ping her today and she how she wants to handle it.

Gordon
 
Hi Deltadon,

Promised? not exactly what she did say is that the system was new and complete. First off its not new, it has dirt and grime all over the front and sides like it was last used by a little kid who had been out playing in the mud and the keyboard has issues. As far as complete, well the system is missing various items that for this system constitutes complete, notably the monitor and software, she did find at least part of the docs, which she is going to send me. The software I can probably make/get copies of without to much of an issue. The main thing is the monitor which as we've discussed is a integral part of the system. I did buy the QX-10 monitor, but that cost me another $80 which I didn't plan on spending.

All in all, my main issue is that in order to get it all functioning it is going to require a additional time, (not a big deal, its a hobby) and money so I feel that some consideration on her part is reasonable. Not a deal breaker by any means, but certainly worth discussing.

At this point I have just shy of $500 in it. Also, I have no idea if that amount constitutes a bargain or if I've overspent given the limited number of these that show up on the market. There have been a number of "complete" and functional QX-10's that have sold recently in the $200-$300 range, not the same system, but as close as I'm likely to find.

What are your thoughts? do you think that sounds reasonable or am I being a hard ass? I do try to be reasonable, lol, but sometimes need a recheck ;)

Gordon
 
owensct said:
Hi Deltadon,

Promised? not exactly what she did say is that the system was new and complete. First off its not new, it has dirt and grime all over the front and sides like it was last used by a little kid who had been out playing in the mud and the keyboard has issues. As far as complete, well the system is missing various items that for this system constitutes complete, notably the monitor and software, she did find at least part of the docs, which she is going to send me. The software I can probably make/get copies of without to much of an issue. The main thing is the monitor which as we've discussed is a integral part of the system. I did buy the QX-10 monitor, but that cost me another $80 which I didn't plan on spending.

All in all, my main issue is that in order to get it all functioning it is going to require a additional time, (not a big deal, its a hobby) and money so I feel that some consideration on her part is reasonable. Not a deal breaker by any means, but certainly worth discussing.

At this point I have just shy of $500 in it. Also, I have no idea if that amount constitutes a bargain or if I've overspent given the limited number of these that show up on the market. There have been a number of "complete" and functional QX-10's that have sold recently in the $200-$300 range, not the same system, but as close as I'm likely to find.

What are your thoughts? do you think that sounds reasonable or am I being a hard ass? I do try to be reasonable, lol, but sometimes need a recheck ;)

Gordon
Click to expand...

Got'cha. I don't recall what I paid for my QX-16 (maybe $200-$250), but I got it back when there were quite a few QX-10's on the market and 3 or 4 QX-16's too. But it took some time to find the monitor and I think that cost me $100 - $150. So $400 to $500 with monitor and shipping is in the ballpark unless you stumble into one at a local yard sale going for $50. I guess I don't have enough years left to find one like that.

I didn't get any manuals with mine and I purchased the CP/M boot disk off eBay. I was looking for one of these systems for a few years before I purchased mine and didn't realize how hard it was finding out details about a computer made by Epson would be when I first looked into owning one.

I received word back from the keyboard foam repair company and I'm getting a sample foam pieces send to me. So fingers crossed. I assume all the QX-10's will need the same repairs to their keyboards and so TexElec is interested in learning if they have a new market for their products too.
 
Don, thanks for that pointer! Unfortunately the QX-16's ROMs don't seem to be dumped so far, at least I could find only the QX-10's.
The QX-16's technical manual that is linked to earlier in this thread mentions three EPROM parts, one for the Z80, one for the 8088 and the character ROM.

Robert
 
Still in a holding pattern waiting on foam pads for the QX-16 Q601A keyboard. Not much I can do with the QX-16 until the keyboard is working. Working on some other projects including pulling about 100 4116 DRAM chips from an old mini computer board I picked up some time ago.
 
Foam pads arrived, but haven't had time yet to mess around with the keyboard. hopefully, will have time to do all 100+ keys this weekend. Unlike installing them in the Keytronic keyboards the Epson keyboard is a mess since each key has a rubber dome between the plastic key slider & keytop and the circuit board. Many are molded into groups of four or larger, but many are single rubber domes. Locating each one exactly where they need to be to function and then screwing the circuit board to the top housing is going to be a PITA. One key not working and you'll pull it apart and position the domes all over again. Try, try, try again may be necessary.

I did come up with a method to power up the QX-10 green screen CRT monitor with an external AC adapter. OBTW, the in case there was any doubt the QX-16A doesn't not put out +12VDC on its video port and therefore external power is necessary. So that question has been put to bed.
 
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