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What is this thing?

Lutiana

Lutiana

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I picked this up the other day. I think it is a terminal, but I am hoping that someone has more information on it.

All it says on it is Direct 800/A and googling it produces no results

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It powers up, and the screen is a high persistence green screen that is pretty clear.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hmm, aparently I can upgrade it to a stand alone pc with a Z-80 cpu and some micro floppy drives. I wonder how to find info on that.
 
so it doesnt have that already? There was also info on page 16, but I didnt read it all.
 
Jorg said:
so it doesnt have that already? There was also info on page 16, but I didnt read it all.
Click to expand...

I don't actually know to be honest. There are no drives in it and I only powered it up for a few minutes. I'll dig deeper into it at a later date.

But I'd still be curious to know if anyone else has info on it.
 
I am quite certain that socketed 40-pin IC on the rear PCB is a Z80 or some other CPU. The rear PCB is no doubt control-logic, while the front PCB is ROM and RAM. This must mean that the bus-connectors on top does at least contain address and data lines, plus basic memory I/O control lines.
 
per said:
I am quite certain that socketed 40-pin IC on the rear PCB is a Z80 or some other CPU. The rear PCB is no doubt control-logic, while the front PCB is ROM and RAM. This must mean that the bus-connectors on top does at least contain address and data lines, plus basic memory I/O control lines.
Click to expand...

So then the question is how do I connect a drive of some sort to it and run an OS right?
 
lutiana said:
So then the question is how do I connect a drive of some sort to it and run an OS right?
Click to expand...

The first posibility that comes to mind is to first decode what the different lines on the bus are, then you will have to use those signals to make an interface to a disk (this can be quite easy if you use a more recent one-chip FDC solution), then you will need to upgrade the boot code to use the adapter. Eventually you may make a CP/M compatible BIOS, but then you will need to know some low-level information about the video I/O on the system first.

Alternatively you may consider to use N8VEM boards instead of making your own adapter, but you still need to dissasemble the existing firmware for information about the video I/O and use the information to make some new boot code that boots from disk.
 
Hmm, that all is a bit out of my league I think. I may just stick trying to set it up as a terminal at some point.
 
There appears to be no place for mounting or connecting a permanent storage drive which may suggest it's just a ('luggable') terminal. Though that's an awful lot of ROM for just a terminal. A closer shot of the connectors in the lower right corner at the rear of the case would help. Are they DB-25M's?
 
If I'm not mistaken, some terminals can have a cassette recorder attached to them in order to store screens or so. If it can run as a standalone computer, it doesn't need to have a storage device to boot an OS from, it can be in ROM (see ~1000 different Basic computers between c:a 1975-87!) and then some external tape, serial or other way to load and store programs.
 
eeguru said:
There appears to be no place for mounting or connecting a permanent storage drive which may suggest it's just a ('luggable') terminal. Though that's an awful lot of ROM for just a terminal. A closer shot of the connectors in the lower right corner at the rear of the case would help. Are they DB-25M's?
Click to expand...

Yes, they are DB-25, but female. Based on what Jorg found I'd guess that they are RS-232 serial ports.

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Oh, fer gosh sakes! Just google "Direct 800" termcap. It's a terminal--I remember these--one of the few early luggable CRT terminals.

The second DB25 should be for a printer.
 
Chuckster_in_Jax said:
Even though it's supposed to be luggable, it's bulky and doesn't have a handle. Real clumsy trying to move it around.
Click to expand...

That's because you're missing the carrying case.

One reason that there's so much ROM in it is because it's a VT220-compatible unit. I used to have the manual for the thing, but I don't think I still do. I think that Direct also OEMed these to Zentec for awhile.

I'll add that there was a personal computer version of these things with floppies--the 1025--but I think it was built on the somewhat later Direct 825 terminal chassis.
 
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