• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Otrona Attache Mega Haul

T

TanruNomad

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
563
Location
San Diego, CA
So I was running an errand the other day and saw a nice, big green Estate Sale sign and thought, "Well maybe I'll just drop by on my way back home." It's been years since I went to an Estate Sale and my life has different priorities than in years past with a family now. So I venture in and an impressed by the sheer quantity of "stuff" they have there. The garage was fool of tools, some practically new and of course tons of household stuff and kitchenware. Upstairs, I made my way into the office. The place was crowded with people and I suddenly remembered why I stopped going to Estate Sales. I peeked in the closet since the other side was just too busy. In it was a bookshelf with tons of early 80s computer manuals and some software. Full volumes of Database software, LOTUS 1-2-3, etc. Then I saw 3 binders with "Attache" and "User Guides" printed on them. "Score!" I actually bought an Attache back in like 2013. I had no software for it, so I could just run it in terminal mode. I thought that if there were binders, then maybe, just maybe, there could be some software. I ventured to the other side of the room. Voila! Several containers of Otrona Attache software along with miscellaneous CP/M and DOS disks. I was under some time constraints, so I was just about to head to the door when I saw something in the corner of my eye. An actually Attache computer, just sitting there. It was in suitcase mode and upright, so people must have just walked right by it all morning probably thinking it was a sewing machine or something. Upon a quick inspection, I could tell this was one of the 8:16 models with the 8086 coprocessor expansion board installed to function as an IBM compatible in addition to a CP/M machine. I grabbed it and walked downstairs and over to the front to pay. I asked how much for all this stuff and told them they all go together. He responded, "How's $30?". Yeah, that was the easiest buy of my life.

The next morning I drove back there as it is only a few minutes drive from me. I wanted to make sure I got everything relating to it. I am sure glad I went back. I found 3 more containers of disks and tons of manuals and additional boxes of software. There was even a framed disk and serial plate that I am sure must have some backstory. Perhaps I will try to contact the person listed on the old business card attached to it.

Here are some pictures of the haul. Amazing stuff. There is still much more there if any locals want to go there. Mostly DOS manuals and a bunch of programming books on BASIC and PASCAL. I can't wait to get some more time to play with all of this. I'd also love to archive some of the software that is not online already. Lots of local user group stuff.









 
Very nice! I love how those Otronas look like something off the set of Space 1999.

How much of the software is Otrona Attache specific?
 
Would be interesting to know who this was.
There must be a Don Maslin / San Diego Computer Society connection there.
 
Excellent setup! They are neat machines indeed, RetroHacker_ has mine nowadays. Very advanced design for its time.
 
I know someone not far from here who has one has well. Given how he does not shut up about it, the power supplies are supposedly not the best.
 
SomeGuy said:
Very nice! I love how those Otronas look like something off the set of Space 1999.

How much of the software is Otrona Attache specific?
Click to expand...

I believe there were about 35 disks with "Otrona" or "Attache" specifically called out on the label. This disk could be significant:



Al Kossow said:
Would be interesting to know who this was.
There must be a Don Maslin / San Diego Computer Society connection there.
Click to expand...

This was the estate of Russ Oyler.
 
Nice find! If you discover that you have duplicates of any of the official Otrona manuals, I might be interested.

Does your machine have the optional 8086 coprocessor board installed?
 
mloewen said:
Nice find! If you discover that you have duplicates of any of the official Otrona manuals, I might be interested.

Does your machine have the optional 8086 coprocessor board installed?
Click to expand...

Yes, it does have the 8086 coprocessor board along with a IEEE-488 parallel port connected to it. I wonder just how compatible it was. Some of the disks mention source codes for 8086 MS DOS 2.11. I may have duplicate documents and/or disks. I still need to examine it all, perhaps this weekend.
 
SomeGuy said:
Very nice! I love how those Otronas look like something off the set of Space 1999.
Click to expand...

The ADDS Envoy is the computer that gives me that Space 1999 feel.

ADDS_Envoy-1.jpg
 
The attache ran CPM originally and would have run most anything written for CPM back then. The 8:16 board was added as an attempt to make the machine compatible with the IBM PC which came out shortly after the Attache. It turned out that most of the IBM software was written to access the hardware directly on the PC so a lot of it did not work on the Attache. A new model was designed to be hardware compatible (the Otrona 2001) but funding ran out before it went very far.
 
Looks like a good haul. Any chance I could get a copy of a boot disk? I still have my Attache (my first software job was at Otrona) but no disks for it.
 
NeXT said:
I know someone not far from here who has one has well. Given how he does not shut up about it, the power supplies are supposedly not the best.
Click to expand...
I apologize for necro'ing an old thread, but I've recently acquired an Otrona Attache and it seems that the power supply has gone bad in some way I can't diagnose... there's power in some areas, but not others, and the points I really want to test aren't very accessible when the board is mounted to the supply, and I'm awful leery of messing with high voltage on a "loose" PCB. Did this guy ever mention what in particular he was having problems with?

To the OP, belated congratulations, your haul is much nicer than mine and at a lower price! I figured I might be able to revive at least the display and keyboard, then wire it up to some modern system, but I'd much rather run the original hardware.
 
The power supplies and analog board absolutely need to be recapped at this point. Otrona was very bleeding edge at that point and to make it all fit the physical and electrical tolerances were tight.
 
I figured as much, did a basic ohmmeter test on the electrolytics and there were several that seemed bad. I ordered a full set of replacement electrolytics, except for the two big 1000uF 200V ones immediately after the D1 rectifier because Digikey didn't have any appropriate replacements (only snap-in, no through-hole). I'll report back if that fixes it, otherwise I may just throw my hands up and see about fitting something a little more modern.
 
I have an Attache that has a flakey A: drive. I need to swap A: and B: to see if I can get some of my software off of diskette. I want to try to install a Gotek (or maybe two?). Trouble is, I can't get a handle on the diskette format. Seems very strange to me. Anybody have a CPMTOOLS disk definition for the Attache? There are two definitions in the old 22DISK software, but neither seems to work for my diskettes. I've dumped tons of floppy images using CPMTOOLS, and it is very handy for that task. When I try to use CPMTOOLS with my Attache diskettes, I keep running into a stone wall. *frown*

Roger
 
Roger,
Sure, try these definitions as they work for me to get directory listings from *.RAW Images (Sector Dumps).

Code: 
# OTR1  Otrona Attache - DSDD 48 tpi 5.25" - 512 x 10
diskdef otr1
  seclen 512
  tracks 80
  sectrk 10
  blocksize 2048
  maxdir 128
  skew 1
  # boottrk 3
  boottrk 0
  offset 30720
  os 2.2
end

# libdsk
[otr1]
description = OTR1  Otrona Attache - DSDD 48 tpi 5.25" - 512 x 10
sides = eagle
cylinders = 80
heads = 2
secsize = 512
sectors = 10
secbase = 1
datarate = DD

#Flashfloppy/GOTEK
[otr1]
cyls = 80
heads = 2
secs = 1
interleave = 1
bps = 512
id = 1
#rpm = 360
rpm = 300
rate = 250
mode = mfm
iam = no

# OTR2  Otrona Attache - DSDD 96 tpi 5.25" - 512 x 10
diskdef otr2
  seclen 512
  tracks 160
  sectrk 10
  blocksize 2048
  maxdir 128
  skew 1
  #boottrk 3
  boottrk 0
  offset 30720
  os 2.2
end

# libdsk
#ORDER CYLINDERS
#
[otr2]
description = OTR2  Otrona Attache - DSDD 96 tpi 5.25" - 512 x 10
sides = outback
cylinders = 160
heads = 2
secsize = 512
sectors = 10
secbase = 1
datarate = DD

#Flashfloppy/GOTEK
[otr2]
cyls = 160
heads = 2
secs = 10
interleave = 1
bps = 512
id = 1
#rpm = 360
rpm = 300
rate = 250
mode = mfm
iam = no


$ cpmls -f otr1 -Traw,otr1 -D ATTBT225.RAW
Name Bytes Recs Attr update create
------------ ------ ------ ---- ----------------- -----------------
AUTO .COM 2K 6
BACKUP .COM 2K 12
BARSAMPL.CHT 2K 3
BRUN .COM 16K 121
CHARTON .COM 26K 200
CHARTONF. 6K 46
D .COM 2K 11
DAY .COM 2K 10
DDT .COM 6K 38
DISK .COM 6K 44
EDFILE .COM 12K 86
EPSFIX .COM 12K 91
FORMAT .COM 2K 6
LINSAMPL.CHT 2K 3
MBASIC .COM 26K 195
MDM707 .COM 18K 132 R
MODEM .COM 20K 146
MUSIC .COM 10K 72
NULU .COM 16K 120
PIESAMPL.CHT 2K 2
PORTS .ATT 2K 3
PORTS .COM 14K 101
PRINTER .VL2 28K 224
SORTV .COM 2K 9
SQ .COM 14K 106
STAT .COM 6K 41
SYSDUP .COM 2K 6
SYSGEN .COM 2K 6
TIME .COM 2K 16
USQ .COM 10K 79
VALET .VL2 28K 224
XDIR .COM 4K 19
XF .COM 8K 62
XTYPE .COM 10K 70 R
34 Files occupying 322K, 74K Free.

$ cpmls -f otr1 -D AttBt225.IMD
Name Bytes Recs Attr update create
------------ ------ ------ ---- ----------------- -----------------
AUTO .COM 2K 6
BACKUP .COM 2K 12
BARSAMPL.CHT 2K 3
BRUN .COM 16K 121
CHARTON .COM 26K 200
CHARTONF. 6K 46
D .COM 2K 11
DAY .COM 2K 10
DDT .COM 6K 38
DISK .COM 6K 44
EDFILE .COM 12K 86
EPSFIX .COM 12K 91
FORMAT .COM 2K 6
LINSAMPL.CHT 2K 3
MBASIC .COM 26K 195
MDM707 .COM 18K 132 R
MODEM .COM 20K 146
MUSIC .COM 10K 72
NULU .COM 16K 120
PIESAMPL.CHT 2K 2
PORTS .ATT 2K 3
PORTS .COM 14K 101
PRINTER .VL2 28K 224
SORTV .COM 2K 9
SQ .COM 14K 106
STAT .COM 6K 41
SYSDUP .COM 2K 6
SYSGEN .COM 2K 6
TIME .COM 2K 16
USQ .COM 10K 79
VALET .VL2 28K 224
XDIR .COM 4K 19
XF .COM 8K 62
XTYPE .COM 10K 70 R
34 Files occupying 322K, 74K Free.

I'm also having trouble extracting files from the images.



Larry
 
Roger,
in looking at the image Al posted on bitsavers, I discovered that you should use
the switch for sides=alt versus eagle (raw outout = rawoo).

Code: 
# libdsk
[otr1]
description = OTR1  Otrona Attache - DSDD 48 tpi 5.25" - 512 x 10
sides = alt
cylinders = 80
heads = 2
secsize = 512
sectors = 10
secbase = 1
datarate = DD

It's also interesting to see that Track 39 Head 1 didn't contain any data. This is also
missing in several images for the Otrona Attache in the Maslin Archive.
IMageDisk Utility 1.18 / Mar 07 2012
IMD 1.18: 8/04/2013 0:19:39

otrona

attache

boot

2.2.5

Assuming 1:1 for Binary output
0/0 250 kbps DD 10x512
1 6 2 7 3 8 4 9 5 10
D D D D D D D D D D
0/1 D D D D D D D D D D
1/0 D D D D D D D D D D
1/1 D DE5 D DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 D D DE5
2/0 D D D D D D D D D D
2/1 DE5 D DE5 D D D D D D D
3/0 D DE5 D DE5 D DE5 DE5 D DE5 D
3/1 D D D D D D D D D D
............
37/0 D D D D D D D D D D
37/1 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5
38/0 D D D D D D D D D D
38/1 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5 DE5
39/0 D D DE5 D DE5 D DE5 D D D
79 tracks(40/39), 790 sectors (196 Compressed)
Click to expand...

This makes each .RAW Image (Sector Dump) 5120 bytes less than the 409600.
404480 Sep 3 2021 016.RAW
404480 Sep 3 2021 014.RAW
404480 Sep 3 2021 013.RAW
404480 Sep 3 2021 012.RAW
404480 Sep 3 2021 011.RAW
404480 Sep 3 2021 010.RAW
404480 Aug 22 2021 Attache_Boot_2.2.5.RAW
Click to expand...


Larry
 
No joy! This is what I think that I encountered when I tried this before.

This following diskdef gives what appears to be a good directory listing, and it finds the first file (and reads it) OK:

diskdef otr1
seclen 512
tracks 40
sectrk 20
blocksize 2048
maxdir 128
skew 1
boottrk 0
offset 30720
os 2.2
end

Attempts to read any other file on the image don't give any usable output. I think what is happening is that the image goes "trackwise" (i.e. t0s0, t0s1, t1s0, t1s1, etc.), but cpmtools is trying to decode it "sidewise"? I don't know cpmtools very well. Is there a way to force it to read differently (I think that is possible with 22DISK?)? Changing tracks to 80 and sectrk to 10 doesn't even give a valid directory listing. It doesn't help that most of the files on this diskette are .COM files (so difficult to see if the content is correct).

I'd hate to have to try to figure out how to take this image apart by brute force, and piece the files together manually!

Roger
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top