• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Informer Portable Workstation 213 374 208B

I won't say no to a better scan of the manual, though it looks like they only added one feature the 1.7 rom from the 1.6 rom - the ability to configure "Host Alarm (Bell)". I'll have to flash this onto one of mine to validate what exactly this does, though it's probably just to enable/disable.
As for the capacitor, if it's the big 400v one, I replaced one of mine with an EPCOS / TDK B43547A9107M000 to good effect.
Thank you again for providing these also!
 
Changing the cap, and now after getting used to the bizarre placement for control and esc "keys" really start linking the terminal very compatible. Cursors keys at least work out of the box in vt100 mode on IRIX
 
Dear all,
I've recently got one of the same Informer 213 374 208B. Surely it's the IBM varient. But I've successfully modified the VT100 firmware for 213AE to be run on this machine. Long story short, the Informer 213 uses different address mapping for its NVRAM bank switch and SCC chip comparing to 213AE, but the keyboard and display system are almost the same. I used the simulation in MAME and IDA disassembler to understand and modify the firmware, and changed all the addresses for accessing NVRAM and SCC. I didn't care about the modem module though, because it is mostly useless, and from the pictures I found online, the modem for 213 and 213AE looks quite different.
I will write a blog soon with the information and the firmware, and I'd like to thank everyone who provided the firmware dumps and MAME emulation.
Best regards,
BD4SUP
 

Attachments

  • photo63257.jpg
    photo63257.jpg
    210.1 KB · Views: 7
  • photo63258.jpg
    photo63258.jpg
    199.4 KB · Views: 6
  • photo63259.jpg
    photo63259.jpg
    178.9 KB · Views: 7
  • photo63260.jpg
    photo63260.jpg
    179.3 KB · Views: 6
BD4SUP said:
Dear all,
I've recently got one of the same Informer 213 374 208B. Surely it's the IBM varient. But I've successfully modified the VT100 firmware for 213AE to be run on this machine. Long story short, the Informer 213 uses different address mapping for its NVRAM bank switch and SCC chip comparing to 213AE, but the keyboard and display system are almost the same. I used the simulation in MAME and IDA disassembler to understand and modify the firmware, and changed all the addresses for accessing NVRAM and SCC. I didn't care about the modem module though, because it is mostly useless, and from the pictures I found online, the modem for 213 and 213AE looks quite different.
I will write a blog soon with the information and the firmware, and I'd like to thank everyone who provided the firmware dumps and MAME emulation.
Best regards,
BD4SUP
Click to expand...

Hello,

I've just picked one of these up and it's a 213-374-208B. I was wondering if you could link your blog post or provide the modified ROM so I could make mine VT100 compatible? Would really appreciate it,
Thanks
 
entaled said:
Hello,

I've just picked one of these up and it's a 213-374-208B. I was wondering if you could link your blog post or provide the modified ROM so I could make mine VT100 compatible? Would really appreciate it,
Thanks
Click to expand...
Sorry I was too busy to write about the process, but in case you need the firmware, here is the link:
http://nas.7400.me:7400/Informer213/informer213_modified_AE_ROM.zip
And here is a demonstration of my machine mimicking the famous Portal 1 ending:
https://​​​​​​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XouXuGO8YCQ
I would also like to say thanks to soviet9922 for dumping the firmware of the 213AE. Without his work I won't be able to do the modification.
Hope you enjoy this nice little machine :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top