cluttered
Member
Some time ago I was gifted a S100 system by a generous (former) co-worker. But when I agreed to take it sight-unseen, I didn’t realise how much of a “project” it is!
It looks to largely be home made; the “console” appears to be scratch-built, and it has a built-in 8-inch drive along with an external 5 1/4 drive, plus the S100 chassis itself of course. The processor (Z80) card is wire-wrapped. I have no media or documentation for the system.
I haven’t yet tried to power it up, that seems unwise in its current state. But I suspect that I might be in over my head with this; I’m a software guy, not a hardware guy. I’ve repaired simple TTL stuff before but that’s about my limit.
So I’m after advice for how I should best proceed. My guess is to start by carefully checking each board for obvious shorts, and to work out how it should connect together. Looks like there’s a RS232 output on the back of the chassis, which is intended for connection to the console. There's various spare cables and cards too.
It’s a fascinating bit of kit, someone must have spent many hours building this. The person I got it from bought it from the original owner a long time ago and used it for a while before putting it in storage for a long time.
Thanks!
It looks to largely be home made; the “console” appears to be scratch-built, and it has a built-in 8-inch drive along with an external 5 1/4 drive, plus the S100 chassis itself of course. The processor (Z80) card is wire-wrapped. I have no media or documentation for the system.
I haven’t yet tried to power it up, that seems unwise in its current state. But I suspect that I might be in over my head with this; I’m a software guy, not a hardware guy. I’ve repaired simple TTL stuff before but that’s about my limit.
So I’m after advice for how I should best proceed. My guess is to start by carefully checking each board for obvious shorts, and to work out how it should connect together. Looks like there’s a RS232 output on the back of the chassis, which is intended for connection to the console. There's various spare cables and cards too.
It’s a fascinating bit of kit, someone must have spent many hours building this. The person I got it from bought it from the original owner a long time ago and used it for a while before putting it in storage for a long time.
Thanks!