Latest find: Ampro Little Board hidden in dual floppy drive case

[Soupwizard]

I was browsing ebay for vintage floppy drives and found a listing for a Double Floppy Drive: two FH 5.25" floppy drives in what looked like an old 60's style instrument enclosure. Good condition, silver-grey paint on metal excellent, fake wood vinyl covered front around floppy drives... three DB25 connectors in back? Marked "CRT", something I couldn't read, and "PRT"? Sounds like there might be a computer in there. So I said "what the heck", made an offer that was accepted, and $50 (incl. shipping) later it was mine, it showed up today.

And indeed, there was a computer in there: an Ampro Little Board, model A13001 Rev A from 1983! Mostek Z80 4Mhz, etc. Dual Tandon TM100-1A SSDD drives. Linear power supply tucked away in the back. That slight damp basement smell you get from US midwestern basements.

I've always wanted one of those, and now I have one in a nicely done homebuilt retro case. It'll need some tlc (capacitors I'm sure) but when/if I get the dust blown off it and it's up and running it should look pretty cool. Photos below:

*** *** ***

 

[Soupwizard]

I'm going to take back that "nicely homebuilt case" comment I made above: turns out the fake wood vinyl covered front trim was bolted to the case, but the brackets that floppy drives were screwed into were *not* bolted to the case! The brackets rested on the bottom of the case, and were attached to front trim piece with cellophane tape and glue! Luckily the drives and bracket were almost friction fit in there, but I'm sure they bounced around a bit - which explains the bent connectors on rear of the ampro little board!

*** ***

 

[Soupwizard]

The power supply was nearly impossible to get out of the case - the case is bent by a little tiny bit at the bottom center giving just barely enough room to wiggle it out of the case again. I don't want to try to get it back in the case. I'm 75% sure I'm going to replace it with a modern smaller switching power supply to make more room inside. This computer has absolutely no history (it came from a vintage stuff seller in Wisconsin; it prob came from an estate sale so I have no idea about it's history) so I don't feel bad about swapping power supplies.

 

[tipc]

there's no way of scaling it, but that looks like a beefy transformer, not to be trifled with

How can this thing drive a crt display?

 

[ldkraemer]

It doesn't drive a CRT Display directly. Rather it sends the Video out via a RS-232C Port to a Terminal, such as a Hazeltine 1500.

I use mine with a Computer's RS-232C Port, and a Communications Program. This RS-232C Port is wired appropriately for DTE or DCE.

Also, the Markings on your Ampro are likely:
CRT - RS-232C to Terminal (Display)
MOD - RS-232C to Modem
PRT - Parallel Printer

I've interfaced Teac 3.5" Floppy's to my Ampro. I can send you that detailed document too!

http://www.classiccmp.org/cpmarchives/
http://www.retroarchive.org/maslin/disks/ampro/
http://z80cpu.eu/mirrors/oak.oakland.edu/cpm/ampro/

Larry

 

[geneb]

Here's more Ampro stuff: http://www.retroarchive.org/hardware/ampro/index.html
http://www.retroarchive.org/docs/hardware/ampro.html

I've got two Ampro Littleboards in Series 100 enclosures. They're neat little machines.

g.