What is this? Post Photos of Mystery Items Here (vintage computers only)

[Bill-kun]

Can't quite make it out, but is it an IEEE 1284 type C connector?

The connector you show above has 36 pins. The ones I have have 28 pins. So still in need of an answer.

 

[NeXT]

Lower right corner. Calls itself the "External Storage Module". Note the "External Options Adapter" is required to use it. Plugs into the massive docking port on the laptop.

Source - http://www.1000bit.it/ad/bro/compaq/Compaq-LTE-Family.pdf ; page 12.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Thanks for the blow-up. Take a look at connector 3 here Used on Tylink Frame Relay gear as well as other stuff. MD26.

 

[Bill-kun]

Lower right corner. Calls itself the "External Storage Module". Note the "External Options Adapter" is required to use it. Plugs into the massive docking port on the laptop.

Source - http://www.1000bit.it/ad/bro/compaq/Compaq-LTE-Family.pdf ; page 12.

Holy logic circuits, Batman! Now that's a laptop dock.

Compaq LTE Lite 4/25 Notebook Laptop 486 Dx 25MHZ 8MB Docking Station Retro 001 | eBay

We do not give a guarantee for the software. This is due to the reason that in 99% cases software breakdowns are the result of human factor. Therefore it happens so that during transit video cards and RAM memory modules may unsnap from their slots. This happens very rarely but still does. snap...

www.ebay.com

 

[NeXT]

Right?
I love the LTE Lite series for that thing.

 

[Timo W.]

I have a mysterious item as well, which I got many years ago as part of a larger, unsorted lot. Anyone knows that this could possibly be? I have no context at all, it was just a random item in the lot. There are no labels on it either. Inside are just some TTL and PAL chips.

ps: I love how one of the connectors is labeled "CONNECTOR".

 

[Chuck(G)]

I think this is the creature Remote keyboard, monitor, etc. But you only have half the setup--there apparently is a special card installed in the XT.

 

[Timo W.]

That's interesting, thanks. May just have it sit next to my 5150 as a prop.

 

[Chuck(G)]

That Schuko power cord looks ridiculously large for that little box!

 

[Timo W.]

I can't even remember seeing a PSU inside. And it's too light for a transformer. Need to have a look inside tomorrow.

 

[RetroRow]

In regards to the external Compaq Drive, Welcome to this generation of hardware! Compaq was definitely known for this type of nonstandard interface and it was often used for their external drives. If you open up the external case you will likely find that it is a standard drive but this interface cable is something custom. No one wanted you to be able to use other possibly cheaper Hardware from a different vendor so every vendor did something weird and custom like this none of them work with each other. They probably asked Amphenol (AMP) for something with the right number of pins that fit in the amount of space that they had.

 

[JJinLV]

Seems weird to put a whole machine with a brand name in this section but I can't find out anything about this machine except a single reference in this forum to the Turbo Plus motherboard. Anybody can tell me anything about it?

 

[Chuck(G)]

Looks like a generic ERSO-design system to me.

 

[powerlot]

Hey all

In a random IC holder I found these. Can't put a finger on it if they are correlated or just randomly bunched together:




I dumped the EPROM 00693302 PC2 4.7 CHK SUM FF00

The first few strings point to something from Iomega, but I have no idea what:

UªëmIOMEGA00452400ßLCopyright (c) IOMEGA Corporation 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988. All rights reserved.11/09/88éÁ
Re-boot and install loadable driver

Insert bootable disk and press any key
Ï%*ÿP

Putting it out here in case someone has an idea

 

[RetroRow]

Looks like a generic ERSO-design system to me.

A picture of the actual main board would confirm but it looks like a 5150 clone. It's hard to see but there is soldered RAM in the upper right hand corner of the top down picture so that means it's an 8088 clone. Although the name kind of confuses me because Turbo wasn't necessary until the later 286 models.

I'm sure most people know but the reason for the reduction was so that software which was written to clock speed could still run on a faster machine. That's why that feature went away when 486's came out.

 

[NeXT]

Hey all

In a random IC holder I found these. Can't put a finger on it if they are correlated or just randomly bunched together:

[image]

Putting it out here in case someone has an idea

Ooh! This is the boot rom kit for the PC2 version of iomega's original bernoulli ISA card. You get an EPROM with the extra boot code, a chip of SRAM and a PLA. With that you can boot directly from a bernoulli cartridge without needing to load anything from ahard drive of floppy drive.

 

[JJinLV]

A picture of the actual main board would confirm but it looks like a 5150 clone. It's hard to see but there is soldered RAM in the upper right hand corner of the top down picture so that means it's an 8088 clone. Although the name kind of confuses me because Turbo wasn't necessary until the later 286 models.

I'm sure most people know but the reason for the reduction was so that software which was written to clock speed could still run on a faster machine. That's why that feature went away when 486's came out.

Without taking out the hard drive this is what is visible for the main board

 

[dabone]

Generic XT clone, 8088 has been replaced with a V20, most likely a 8Mhz Turbo board.

I love the "COPYWRITE" on the Bios chip

 

[powerlot]

Ooh! This is the boot rom kit for the PC2 version of iomega's original bernoulli ISA card. You get an EPROM with the extra boot code, a chip of SRAM and a PLA. With that you can boot directly from a bernoulli cartridge without needing to load anything from ahard drive of floppy drive.

I'm speechless :O - anyway free SRAM until that drive ever pops up

Without taking out the hard drive this is what is visible for the main board

This is a generic Taiwan 8088 turbo clone, with a 8 MHz NEC V20 in it. Most likely assembled by COPAM. I'd be more interested in that hard drive model

 

[RetroRow]

Yeah only has 256k on the mainboard though. talk about underpowered... you would have to do chip stacking just to make it to 512 k if you could even find those chips. It didn't look like there's a jumper either so you're really looking at one of the external RAM daughter boards if you could find one.

• MN4164P12A
• PC MEMORY 64K 120NS DRAM 16PIN DIP

I agree to a collector the hard drive is going to be actually much more valuable because it's the legitimate hard drive. So many of those were scrapped for either aluminum or heavy duty magnets that not many exist anymore. Also could be interesting for what software was installed.