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AT&T UNIX PC enthusiasts out there?

This last VCF I dragged-in all four of my UNIX-PC machines. I cleaned them up and powered them on. It wasn't too bad to get three out of four working. The fourth motherboard is known good but the monitor cable is damaged and I don't have a fourth keyboard/mouse, so not too motivated to do more. I sold off one machine as well as the expansion chassis and I still want to keep at least one machine for a while.
I have imaged one of the drives, one is dead, one is dying, and one is fine but needs imaging, so that's the next project. It was fun to run one again, they really were pretty impressive for the era.
 
Teletech said:
It was fun to run one again, they really were pretty impressive for the era.
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Definitely a cool machine. They must have been pretty cost prohibitive when released which sounds like why a lot stayed for internal use at AT&T/Bell Labs and offloaded to colleges for cheap.

That expansion box is really something- three slots already seemed fairly reasonable to me, hah.
 
developer said:
How many people here own the real hardware?
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Thanks for fixing FreeBee. I too was wondering where are the FreeBee bug fixes posted?

I have owned UnixPC 7300, and 3B1. I think they are the best looking single enclosure microcomputer. Aesthetically speaking, they resemble a grown up Commodore PET 2001. Does any one else see the resemblance? Jim
 
agentb said:
Definitely a cool machine. They must have been pretty cost prohibitive when released which sounds like why a lot stayed for internal use at AT&T/Bell Labs and offloaded to colleges for cheap.

That expansion box is really something- three slots already seemed fairly reasonable to me, hah.
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US gov't was a big customer, as were many Fortune 500's. You would be surprised.
 
shirsch said:
Things changed over the past couple of decades, for sure. Folks were giving these away during the 90s, which is how I came upon my first two units. Then someone found a bunch of NOS 7300s in a warehouse somewhere in the Midwest and I was able to pickup a brand new, sealed system for $150. Today, I'm sure they are bringing stupid prices. Couldn't even find one on eBay. Over the earlier years I was able to accumulate one of the very rare ethernet adapters, tape drive w/ interface, expansion box and a DOS-73 board. Somewhere I have a StarLAN board, but have never used it.
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I've got one of those NOS Unix PC 7300's, probably from the same lot. I'm hesitant on recapping it or powering it up to try to maintain the NOS status, so I just leave it in the box for now. I do have maybe 3 ram cards for it as well that I purchased years ago. I had a 7300 or 3B1 back in the 90's and it was a lot of fun. So when I cut a deal with someone on this machine I was happy to get another one finally.... I really do want to recap it and power it up. I am not sure if the HDD & Floppy works.... heads are probably stuck for sure. I have many of David G's MFM emulator board on other types of Unix machines.. they are wonderful. I bought a DREM for it years ago... but David's MFM emulator is really great!
 
These capacitors are from the mid 80’s. They may have not been prone to leaking on these machines but they could be dried out. I typically recap anything that old.. electrolytic capacitors are like batteries.. they don’t last forever.. the voltage values could be all out of whack. I did not see any RIFA caps on any photos. If and when I do my machine I will also do the crt analog board besides the machines main board and power supply.

This could be the issue some machines are not working from other posts.

My first rule on retro computers and electronics is cap replacement. That’s just my personal position on this. Id rather get the caps done and eliminated first before I begin troubleshooting. You don’t have to do it on your machines if you don’t want to.
 
Wow that’s intense! I’ve always loved this machine I’m not sure I could ever let it go.. even though it’s still in the box lol 😝
 
Yeah the whole shipping thing is just another Ebay rip off. I guess they avoid the Ebay final fees or something?
 
I figure the shipping might actually be $150-200 and the seller pockets the rest without having to pay a percentage.
 
Nah eBay got rid of that loophole many years ago. Fee is on everything - shipping, item, and i think even sales tax.
 
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