New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

So I've built quite a few machines and got a few running recently. I've been quite bad at sharing the experiences, so I thought I'd try and make a video each day - one for each machine.

My first is the IBM 5170. This took quite a bit of time to build as I mention in the video.
What I forgot to mention was the hole required in the power supply would have ruined air flow - so a second exhaust fan was added inside the PSU to keep things nice and cool.

I also show off the Syquest SQ555 44Mb removable drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEou9AbTVT0

Also in the video I did a quick demo of the IBM PC RT 6150 (Model 125 which I think was upgraded to a Model 135) because it was sitting RIGHT THERE and plugged in. To the right in that room is the 5160 enhanced, 5160, and 5150 too.

Next ones to do are my Turbo XT clone, and the new tweener.

17 serial ports!?? Gawd...

Yes, I used to use Syquest drives back in the day. I had an external one. Good to have an old girl like the AT running, although somewhat of a Frankenstein machine as you mentioned.

My IBM AT is next in line for a video.

tezza wrote:17 serial ports!?? Gawd...

Yeah it has the standard RT style, and 16 out the back. A ribbon cable extends out of the machine and a large box which can be wall-mounted has 16 DB9 plugs. The machine is configured to provide a console on each - although I have not yet tried logging in through one of them. On the hard drive was custom written software for each company department - Accounting, Sales, etc

tezza wrote:Yes, I used to use Syquest drives back in the day. I had an external one. Good to have an old girl like the AT running, although somewhat of a Frankenstein machine as you mentioned.

I have 3 of them - one external and two internals (200,200, and 44MB) plus a large box of cartridges (mostly 44Mb). I haven't tested my external yet - it's branded as a "Polaroid PictureDrive".

Yep it's Frankenstein alright, I'd had that motherboard sitting there for almost a year, and when I was donated a case lid with a 5170 badge - I had to do something! Right now the only thing I want to change is the video card, because the one that's in there would be much better suited to a early 486 or high speed 386. 1Mb of 32bit DRAM in a 286 is a touch silly. My preference would be EGA + IBM 5154 but I don't see that happening any time soon.

tezza wrote:My IBM AT is next in line for a video.

Looking forward to it

Was short on time today, so i cheated a bit. Here is my new tweener I built last week from parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12HCMwK-qnE

This toy just sits on the floor in the corner of one of the computer rooms. Next to it is my Commodore 64 table, which I'll get to after I fix my 1541 drive!

Not much trouble with this one other than soldering in the LED connectors, and setting up the dual boot with GAG (a really good multi boot program). I haven't watched the video, just a direct upload, so hopefully I haven't said anything 'special' or rambled too much.

Interestingly, I seem to have earned my own channel troll.

- account recently created from NZ
- got to my unadvertised video (so you'd have to search for it, unless say, you read this thread)
- complained about the clearly labelled content

Anyway, on topic, my to-do build-diary videos I want to do this weekend are the Turbo XT and either my XT-FDC build or perhaps I'll try a fresh install on the 6150 with a second hard drive. Not sure what I'll get done, car is currently in bits so I can flush the heater core (waiting on my helper to return with 16mm piping). Also have the 1541 drives to attend to :S I need more time off.

Videos aren't the best, but if I'm picky I end up uploading nothing, so somewhat making it a bit of a build diary.

Yesterday I sorted out my 6157-002 tape drive on the RT.

The rubber capstan had corroded in to a black goo, which was not ideal. I was able to order a brand new replacement for $US25+Postage which will be here in a few weeks, but another member over on VCF was working on his, so I made another quick video to show the inside of mine and to help identify the purpose of the mechanism on the faceplate which appears to be damaged/missing on his unit.

It's an unlisted video, not terribly interesting, but if 5.25" QIC drives rock your socks then https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7e21DO_hEE

The 6157 has a new capstan, and I backed up to a tape last night
I didn't video tape it, but here is a quick picture of the PC RT doing it's transfer to tape (/rhd0 is the boot partition):




And I did some disk backups for someone, so thought I'd show off ImageDisk (although most of you guys probably already know all about this):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRjbVETk8nw

Is there anything you guys want to see created or think could be useful?

Feel free to post any suggestions.

But I have my work cut out for me this weekend though it seems, my Compaq Portable 486C is making the wrong noises and the very wrong smells. Hopefully an expansion card because I don't enjoy power supplies.

Edit: nose says 'power supply' - damn it

Also on the repair bench is the T5200/100 whose, due to cost issues, floppy drive is being repaired - at the moment I've cleaned the rail (singular - not a nice design to be honest) so it seeks nicely but it's only seeking in one direction - so I suspect a bad connection on the DIR pin. It's a 26 pin floppy drive with a unique connector - so I unfortunately have to test it while connected to the dismantled T5200 - should be interesting.

The 6150 looks like a pretty neat machine, didn't know anyone was playing with RISC back that early. According to internet sources it takes a co-processor from the 68xxx series and runs it at a completely different clock speed! That architecture must have been unbelievably complicated at the time.

Would love to see a video of your Toshiba laptops if you've got one you feel is show-off-worthy.

Damn, I just noticed your signature... I donated a complete PS/2 30/286 with original monitor, model M keyboard & 30 MB hard drive with Windows 3.1(!) to a computer museum in Canada during a clear out last year. I wonder what he did with it, it's still not up on the list of machines. Probably wouldn't have been worth it to ship down here though.

Yeah, if only IBM had released it a little earlier they might have sold a few more! A good 386 will beat it performance wise but it has neat things like a full ISA bus (unlike the PC where some of the lines are ignored) - so 16 serial ports? No problem!

I can definitely do a Toshiba video, my '89 T3200SX is in good condition and ready to go. I was having a good game of Wolfenstein 3D on it the other night. Will clear some space and do a proper video on Saturday. Thanks for the suggestion.

haha don't worry about the Model 30 I could probably get one sent from the US but it hasn't been worth quite that much to me just yet. I did get given one at random by a friend a while back, but it's a non-starter, hard drive sounds nice and passes it's self test though so that's a good start just not sure if I need a new PSU or motherboard (need to get a decent scope).

Toshiba T3200SX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meRqRMetq5g

Some things to mention:
- MS DOS 3.2 I really meant 3.3
- also forgot to mention that if you can't find a good IDE drive, you can install SCSI if there is ISA slots in the model you get

I've also built a website but I'll wait until it has more content before I post any links to that.
Got motivated when my 12 month renewal came up and I realised I hadn't built anything.

What a neat little machine! Reminds me a lot of its direct competitor, which I had years ago - the mighty Dell 316LT:



If I remember correctly, it had a 40 MB hard drive, a battery (that never worked when I had it), monochrome DSTN VGA which did a weird reverse colour mode when the screen was primarily black (i.e. at the DOS prompt), and a single half-length 8-bit ISA slot. Now I kind of regret selling it, although I thought I was doing great when I got $30 for it around 1999.

Come to think of it that expandable laptop form factor never went away, it just became detachable in modern docking stations. I still use the direct descendant of my old 316LT as my modern~ish workstation:



It's a great little 12" notebook, but thanks to the dock it runs a second hard drive, 6 channel PCI sound card & MIDI interface, external DVD, parallel port zip & USB floppy (actually a Dell internal floppy but I ran out of drive bays, luckily it has a USB port!) Not exactly 'vintage' though, unless you call 2007 vintage.

SpidersWeb wrote:Toshiba T3200SX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meRqRMetq5g

Looks in great condition! Very rugged looking keyboard as well.

I owned a couple of Toshiba laptops in the early/mid 1990s. A t4500 and T4700(CT?) if my memory serves me right. They were fine Windows 3.1 machines. They had that thumb trackball mouse attached to the side. Good action, but I did get a touch of RSA in the thumb joint so I used to alternate with a standard mouse.

Awesome pic there xjas The one I'd love is the Compaq SLT/286.
This Computer Chronicles clip was pretty fun to watch, I found it associated to my video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew2a74PUxRQ

tez - I have a T4710CS - had to order that mouse attachment from the US! It was a TrashPalace rescue and after a whipe down it looks like new (no yellowing etc). Battery life isn't the best anymore but it's very light, quick, and a nice screen. Great little machine, Caitlin was using it to learn QBASIC on but now I need to open it up and re-solder the power connector.

I think the CT had the even better Active TFT display.

I have a pile of Toshiba Pentium's as well (at least 5 working 100%) and a Pentium III.