DEC Rainbow 100+

[Pwillard]

I guess I need to do some board level repair.

I inherited a DEC Rainbow 100+. IOn boot, it comes up with the Keyboard Error

"See Owner's Manual - MESSAGE 13 - Keyboard"

So, here's what I have done.

* I've changed out the Keyboard using a spare I LK201 I had - no change
* I've tried the known working LK201 GoldKey keyboard that works on my VT220
* I've changed out the monochrome monitor.

Note Changed:

* The BCC02 cable.


So at this point, I'm thinking that either of the 2 chips used to create the RS422 interface to the keyboard are blown. Am I on the right track?

Pete

 

[PG31]

I think I may have the same issue as yourself. At present I can't read the message on the screen apart from the word keyboard until I can find the time to remove the cataracts.

 

[PG31]

I have the same issue now that I can see the error after removing the CRT cataracts. Looking at the circuit diagram for the VR201 it doesn't have a lot to fail, So I supect something in the Rainbow now myself. Can you point me to the two chips for the K/B I/F?

 

[PG31]

Now that i have a lot of downtime I took the Rainbow out again to troubleshoot the K/B error. I had ordered some likely candidate IC's a while back so thought it is time to get the soldering iron and scope out. I connected up the VR201 and K/B and powered on and low and behold it passes self test now with no K/B error. It also boots the CP/M and the diagnostic floppy and passes the tests on the floppy. The only thing I can think of is that I have the BC202 cable connected the other way around to previous power up. I now have the angled connector connected to the VR201 and the straight connector connected to the base unit. I'm not going to try it back the other way until I've checked a few things and had it working for a while.

 

[tradde]

It just needed some love.