• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Time Spectrum 384 Multifunction Board?

M

mykrowyre

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2019
Messages
171
Location
Saint Augustine, FL
Is anyone familiar with this board? I've seen a lot of them around, and got one in my Compaq Portable.

Unfortunately, the system doesn't see the memory and I am not sure of the dip and jumper settings.

I've searched and the only thing I could find is this:
stason.org

TIME-SPECTRUM MULTIFUNCTION BOARD IO card Settings and Configuration

TIME-SPECTRUM MULTIFUNCTION BOARD, IO card, memory, data bus, user configuration, chipset and other specs
stason.org stason.org

But this is very different from my board.

Also, I removed the leaky battery. Is it possible that the board will not operate at all if the battery is missing? Seems like it would only effect the clock, but machines like the Tandy Model 100 wouldn't boot with a dead memory battery.
 
Last edited:
mykrowyre said:
But this is very different from my board.
Click to expand...
There is a Time Spectrum, a Time Spectrum 384, and a Time Spectrum 384L.
The information that you found is for the Time Spectrum (photo at [here]).

mykrowyre said:
Also, I removed the leaky battery. Is it possible that the board will not operate at all if the battery is missing? Seems like it would only effect the clock, but machines like the Tandy Model 100 wouldn't boot with a dead memory battery.
Click to expand...
In my experience, the only effect of removing an RTC battery on an expansion card, is that the card's RTC functionality loses the ability to remember the date/time when the card gets unpowered.

Motherboards are a different story.

mykrowyre said:
Unfortunately, the system doesn't see the memory and I am not sure of the dip and jumper settings.
Click to expand...
Even if you knew the switch settings, be aware that if the card is placed in an XT-class computer, in most cases, the computer will not 'see' the card's RAM if there is one (or more) faulty RAM chips in the first RAM bank.

I may have a Time Spectrum 384 in storage. I will take a look.

Maybe someone else here knows the settings. Maybe the Time Spectrum and Time Spectrum 384 share the same 'RAM starting address' switches and settings.
 
modem7 said:
There is a Time Spectrum, a Time Spectrum 384, and a Time Spectrum 384L.
The information that you found is for the Time Spectrum (photo at [here]).
Click to expand...

My board is very different but does not say 'L', it's just labeled Time Spectrum 384

modem7 said:
Even if you knew the switch settings, be aware that if the card is placed in an XT-class computer, in most cases, the computer will not 'see' the card's RAM if there is one (or more) faulty RAM chips in the first RAM bank.

I may have a Time Spectrum 384 in storage. I will take a look.

Maybe someone else here knows the settings. Maybe the Time Spectrum and Time Spectrum 384 share the same 'RAM starting address' switches and settings.
Click to expand...

It's possible I have a bad ram chip somewhere. The motherboard has 128K and reports correctly that size when I run the MEM command.

Hoping someone has one of these with the instructions tucked away in a closet.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5149.jpg
    IMG_5149.jpg
    373.9 KB · Views: 13
mykrowyre said:
The motherboard has 128K ...
Click to expand...
mykrowyre said:
Unfortunately it didn't work I still only see 131072 bytes free when I type MEM from DOS 4.01
Maybe this card is not working.
Click to expand...
Based on the document that Chuck located, on the Time Spectrum 384, you should have:
* Switch 1 = on, switch 2 = off, switch 3 = off (i.e. starting address = 128K)
* Jumper E7-E8 installed (i.e. starting address between 64K and 512K)

( See [here] for examples of different types of switch blocks. )

You have a "Compaq Portable". Did you change the relevant switches on the system board to reflect the new amount of total RAM ?
 
modem7 said:
Based on the document that Chuck located, on the Time Spectrum 384, you should have:
* Switch 1 = on, switch 2 = off, switch 3 = off (i.e. starting address = 128K)
* Jumper E7-E8 installed (i.e. starting address between 64K and 512K)

( See [here] for examples of different types of switch blocks. )

You have a "Compaq Portable". Did you change the relevant switches on the system board to reflect the new amount of total RAM ?
Click to expand...

modem7, thanks for the help, yes thats how I have it set up. I did just discover that I actually have 256K installed on the system board. Unfortunately no matter the switch settings (3 & 4), it does not see the ram in banks 2 & 3. I also tried setting it for 192K using only banks 0-2, and still not luck so I am guessing bank 2 has a problem. I swapped the ram chips between banks with no improvement.

I'll check continuity on all the address and CS lines for those sockets and check for a broken trace. I do have the paper schematics.

I see 5V on VCC but thats as far as I went, it's getting late and my office is not very well lit.

Oh, and I also set the dips switches to 128K on the system board, disabling the last 2 banks, but still the Time Spectrum 384 was not recognized.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my questions.
 
Are you aware of the information at [here], which affects how the switches are set.

Of course, "If the serial number is above 36792, then it is a Rev. C, and if it is below, then it is a Rev. B.", does not consider that a user may have upgraded the BIOS from B to C.
 
modem7 said:
Are you aware of the information at [here], which affects how the switches are set.

Of course, "If the serial number is above 36792, then it is a Rev. C, and if it is below, then it is a Rev. B.", does not consider that a user may have upgraded the BIOS from B to C.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I hadn't seen that addendum, but the service manual I have appears to be slightly later than that and matches my machine.

Mine has one switch block (SW1) and the ROM version is C (verified in debug)

I'm certain I have the dip switches set correctly.

This machine arrived DOA and was a project. Took quite a bit of work to get it to power on.

There was also a shorted buffer chip just off the CPU and it may have destroyed another chip when it died.
 
Ok, I found that bank 2 on the system board had no signal on RAS2. Traced that back to U30 and found that this was the buffer (7400) chip I replaced previously, but I missed the output pin when I soldered it in. Fixed that and bank 2 came alive. Found some bad ram in bank 2, probably damaged when U30 shorted initially, replaced that ram and now have 256K onboard. So that's an improvement. Still unable to get the Time Spectrum board to work though, will need to check the pins on the ram there for activity.
 
I found all of the sockets on the TS384 to be rusty with broken and missing spring tabs. I replaced all the sockets feeling pretty positive that this would fix the board, but still no joy. Repaired a few broken traces but nope nothing.

Time to find another memory expansion.
 
modem7 said:
In my experience, the only effect of removing an RTC battery on an expansion card, is that the card's RTC functionality loses the ability to remember the date/time when the card gets unpowered.

Motherboards are a different story.
Click to expand...
My (limited) experience is similar. However the Time Spectrum 384L I have is an exception to this, as might be with the non-L variant.
I had taken off the battery of my Time Spectrum 384L to prevent it leaking over the card. I recently started using the card again and the RTC would not be found by any clock utility regardless of DIP switch settings (two different addresses selectable).

I checked a couple things on the card. No shorts, DIP switches worked fine, the RTC chip received good power when the system was on, the crystal looked alright, reseating it didn't help. I found a replacement chip and ordered a new battery (a NiMH type instead of NiCd nowadays). After soldering on the battery I plugged in the card. Ran David Mutimer's CLOCK utility and quickly it informed me it found a functional RTC! :biggrin:
So my original chip was still good, the battery just needs to be present and good for the RTC to functional.

Hope this helps someone fiddling with this card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top