PhilipA
Experienced Member
Uncovered this in the back of the warehouse here at work, long since written off.
It's a 1978 Lanier (AES Montreal rebranded) Model 103 "No Problem" word processor.
Pulled the fiberglass top covers off and had a bit of a look after a brief stint with the vacuum cleaner.
It's an 8080 based machine. Unfortunately there are no discs with it, and I've been informed that it's CP/M based on hard-sectored discs (16 sector apparently), so I'm on the hunt for software.
A rapid "action" shot showed that there was at least some life upon powering up with a Variac. Got HT and something resembling a raster:
Pulled the video logic card out.
The ceramic capacitors appear to have been dipped in something green at the factory at the very top, and something had gotten in (I'm thinking an insect) and had eaten the top off every single one:
Replaced them with modern equivalents, and did the tantalums on the board at the same time.
Cleaned up a few contacts and that got the raster a bit better but it was still very dim when pushed to overdrive:
Took a looksee, and there are three parts to the VDU, the tube, the power supply and the output boards, mounted here.
With a few photos taken and a bit of work undoing wires, the module comes out.
Everything looked in fairly good condition, but ordered replacements nevertheless as a few of the electrolytics tested bad.
All rebuilt with new electrolytic and film caps:
Net result, superbly bright, stable raster.
--Phil
It's a 1978 Lanier (AES Montreal rebranded) Model 103 "No Problem" word processor.
Pulled the fiberglass top covers off and had a bit of a look after a brief stint with the vacuum cleaner.
It's an 8080 based machine. Unfortunately there are no discs with it, and I've been informed that it's CP/M based on hard-sectored discs (16 sector apparently), so I'm on the hunt for software.
A rapid "action" shot showed that there was at least some life upon powering up with a Variac. Got HT and something resembling a raster:
Pulled the video logic card out.
The ceramic capacitors appear to have been dipped in something green at the factory at the very top, and something had gotten in (I'm thinking an insect) and had eaten the top off every single one:
Replaced them with modern equivalents, and did the tantalums on the board at the same time.
Cleaned up a few contacts and that got the raster a bit better but it was still very dim when pushed to overdrive:
Took a looksee, and there are three parts to the VDU, the tube, the power supply and the output boards, mounted here.
With a few photos taken and a bit of work undoing wires, the module comes out.
Everything looked in fairly good condition, but ordered replacements nevertheless as a few of the electrolytics tested bad.
All rebuilt with new electrolytic and film caps:
Net result, superbly bright, stable raster.
--Phil
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