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Need help determining best portable+CGA+808x for modern air travel

From United:

Carry-on baggage allowed

Each traveler can bring on board one carry-on bag plus one personal item free of charge.

Maximum dimensions for a carry-on bag are 9 inches x 14 inches x 22 inches (22 cm x 35 cm x 56 cm), including handles and wheels
Maximum dimensions for your personal item, such as a shoulder bag, backpack, laptop bag or other small item, are 9 inches x 10 inches x 17 inches (22 cm x 25 cm x 43 cm)

Please see our Carry-on Baggage page for more information.


I just measured my Compaq Portable I

9.25" x 16.5" x 20.5"

It's a little deep, by 2" for the overhead bin, but the taper (placed in handle-first) that the case has would probably allow it to fit. Makes me wonder what they have stuffed behind the overhead bins in the refits of the cabins to lose a couple inches of space.


--Phil
 
PhilipA said:
I just measured my Compaq Portable I

9.25" x 16.5" x 20.5"
Click to expand...

Thanks for measuring. I got my 5155 out of storage and measured it; its dimensions are roughly 8" x 17" x 19.75" which means, astonishingly, it will fit -- but without any padding. Half of me is terrified of scuffing a vintage system, and the other half of me wants to treat the 5155 like the tank it is and declare it a "working artifact" (actual museum term) and just bring it on the plane. I think the former half is winning, because I'm not sure how much abuse the CRT can take, and I have no idea where I would find a replacement tube if it broke.

A forum member graciously offered to drive to my future location and hand-deliver a lended system for my use, so I'll likely take him up on his offer. But this is all good information to have -- thanks guys!
 
Just print off Compaq's promo materials with the Man In Suit carrying Compaq Portable being welcomed aboard by Smiling Hostie.

It was good enough in 1983, why isn't it good enough now?! Make a scene, get on youtube, local news highlight etc.


Joking aside, glad to help. (The computer's sat about 5 feet away from me so access is fairly easy :) )

--Phil
 
I don't see why it wouldn't take an external card with the external ISA bus thing. There's a post here that sounds like it works, just might take a jumper change and an annoying screw driver.

Re:5155 though, hell yeah I'd drag it on a plane! :) I mean I suppose there were travel cases for it if yours is immaculate but it's a portable computer. It's meant to be carried around with ease and put on the train or plane floor while you travel in style. I think you need that and a newton on your hip.
 
arrow_runner said:
I honestly thought that you could put a different video card in the Portable IIIs expansion bay.
Click to expand...

You can. I have had and run a VGA card in mine, but the onboard CGA output on the back of the motherboard is only TTL output and not composite.

--Phil
 
I had no idea that was possible! If the internal card+monitor of the Portable III can be set to MDA, then all I'd have to do is find a CGA card with composite output that is not full-length (I have the expansion chassis, which isn't full-length) and I should be all set. Hilarious! I'll investigate that further if I have time.
 
Trixter said:
then all I'd have to do is find a CGA card with composite output that is not full-length
Click to expand...
The ATI Small Wonder/Graphics Solution is a good option, if you can get your hands on one.

There is one, allthough slightly pricey, on Ebay right now. It has all the components for composite, but the external connector needs to be hacked in. http://www.ebay.com/itm/191072848778
 
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I have an Epson Q205 CGA card you could borrow, its 9.25" long and has a composite video output. However, it did falter a bit with the MC6845 tests with your CGA_COMP program. Something that would need to be considered for any clone card, depending on what registers you are (ab)using.
 
Trixter said:
I had no idea that was possible! If the internal card+monitor of the Portable III can be set to MDA, then all I'd have to do is find a CGA card with composite output that is not full-length (I have the expansion chassis, which isn't full-length) and I should be all set. Hilarious! I'll investigate that further if I have time.
Click to expand...


I believe you can set it to be either CGA/MDA on one of the red/white jumpers, but it's been a while since I dug that information up. There's a funny quirk that it needs to be set a particular way to get a video card in the expansion carbuncle to work properly, but I ran Win 3.11 quite happily in 640x480x256 VGA (using an old plug-n-pray Trident) so it should in theory work..

--Phil
 
The Sinclair PC200 (a.k.a. Amstrad PC20) is an 8 MHz 8086 "keyboard computer" (like an Atari ST or Amiga) with a CGA composite output on the back and two ISA slots, but there is no room inside the case for the cards to actually go, so in use the cards would be sticking up on top -- nice for a demo, to show off what you're using.

Sinclair_PC200_Rear_s1.jpg


sinclair_pc200_5.jpg
 
That is perfect! I will start looking for one (although it is not strictly needed for my upcoming June demo).

Update: Looks like the Amstrad model doesn't have composite output. It also appears at the Sinclair model was on the market for a grand total of 3 months which would make it exceedingly rare to find, especially for someone in the USA. Oh well.
 
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There's also the Dell System 100, a larger variation of a keyboard computer with 3 ISA slots (two full-length and one half-length) -- although it's probably also very rare, as I've never seen or heard of one aside from this ad:

5x0fti.jpg


1e1ljl.jpg
 
Tandy 1000EX and 1000HX also have similar form factor and aren't too hard to find. I don't know how CGA compatible they are though but IIRC they had composite out, both had proprietary expansion connectors (though electrically are ISA), so sound card install would take some adapting, but I imagine one could be made to work.
 
RWallmow said:
Tandy 1000EX and 1000HX also have similar form factor and aren't too hard to find. I don't know how CGA compatible they are though but IIRC they had composite out, both had proprietary expansion connectors (though electrically are ISA), so sound card install would take some adapting, but I imagine one could be made to work.
Click to expand...

The Tandy's color composite output shows very different colors from an IBM CGA card.
 
Perhaps it was proposed before - but how about using a 8088 (or whatever you like) motherboard + some ISA cards with it (CGA, Sound Blaster, XT-IDE, FDC). It shouldn't be too difficult to construct a "bench style" case for that (basically a base plate + bracket to hold ISA cards in place). Use a small PSU - either the NanoPSU mentioned above, or just a compact +5V/+12V/-12V power supply (SB might need -5V... use LM7905?!) Attach a small cheap composite TFT display (7" or 9" one normally marketed for cars).
 
Shame you can't find one of the clone knockoffs of the Compaq portable III -- a number of vendors carried them in the late '80's and early '90s... Early models had a 8 bit CGA card with them and all of them took real PC motherboards. They were all called PC3's...

In the '90's I worked for a few years at a Boston 128 belt company that put them together for a company that did portable EEG machines. They started out as 386/40 but later models were 486/66. AHA 1542B SCSI with removable drive bays, typically with 540 meg maxtor drives. They'd scan in the data and ship the swappable drives for analysis by the experts.

I thought they were really cools since they accepted half-length desktop cards and Baby AT form factor motherboards.

A VGA one went by on e-fence not too long ago... oh, it's been relisted. Rat**** bat**** Ape**** insane price though.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291099099030

Here's another one, similarly nutjob price.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/370596234271

But they're small, and you can put whatever cards you want/need in them.
 
gslick said:
comiccardsnmore, what is that guy smoking?
$45,000 for this??? http://www.ebay.com/itm/390794812672
Click to expand...
$450, not 45K... still a crazy price for a IIe, easily four times the upper limit I'd even consider with the crappy little IIc monitor.

But yeah. A lot of sellers have crazy 'buy it now' prices. I'm often shocked at how many lowball offers I make on crazy priced items like that which are accepted. A year ago when I was looking for a C64 the one I got was listed as 'buy it now' at $350 when all it had in addition to the machine itself was a bag of broken joysticks (all of which I was able to fix in one way or another), and one floppy. I made a lowball offer of $30 and it was accepted. :/

I think a lot of people don't make offers for fear of offending the seller; I'm pretty insensitive when it comes to people's feelings so...

But then, that IIe does have three offers on it... probably never going to sell in that case. Could be an owner who wants to keep it and the wife doesn't... though that five grand for a fairchild and 1200 for a H89 is... yeah, pretty noodle-doodle.
 
Well, close to the Sinclair PC-200, you can also take a look at the Schneider Euro PC. It's a pretty good machine that fits perfectly your description.

A bit easier to find than the Sinclair; but also hard tho.
 
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