What retro things have you done today?

Retro6 · 6 Nov 2021 at 00:32

I've been attempting to diagnose the problem of an old 1980s broken keyboard. Its one I've had for years and has never worked. I really want to get this working. It would look good with my 486 PC. I've checked all the simple things first with a multi meter such as the lead and other connections and all is good so the fault is clearly one of the 7 chips, either that or it was made to work on only one type of computer more likely to be one of the chips.

Its a FERRANTI keyboard which has the following numbers FT09
PC1 002631
55-02823-197 251-B

On the PCB it says A65002823-174 PCB 251B

If anybody knows anything at all about this keyboard any info would be helpful. The PCB has a year of 1979. I might have to ebay it for parts otherwise.

Armageus · 6 Nov 2021 at 06:52

Could be that it's an XT or type1 keyboard rather than an AT keyboard - physically the same din connector but different protocol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_keyboard

Retro6 · 6 Nov 2021 at 09:16

Armageus said:
Could be that it's an XT or type1 keyboard rather than an AT keyboard - physically the same din connector but different protocol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_keyboard

That would make sense and is a strong possibility. I'll have to look deeper into XT and type1 keyboards, maybe there is a converter I could build to make it work as an AT keyboard.

Guest2 · 6 Nov 2021 at 17:53

Something I always wondered but never questioned in this thread... Why?
Everything 'retro' I do I do for a purpose. e.g. playing a retro game or program, clearing space, downsizing or re-sale.

I find doing something with no end goal meaningless. Then again if its a hobby building up a retro collection of computers then maybe its there is no 'end goal'

I'm interest to know the purpose of if some of these projects have an end goal, be it re-sale, display or otherwise

When I see a family friend that makes random things I ask "what's the point" in no short words and usually get an earful. The end point usually comes down to "something to save money" but I feel the time spend could be put to better use. In that case its more of a hobby / addiction and nothing about the money saving

Retro6 · 6 Nov 2021 at 18:53

Guest2 said:
Something I always wondered but never questioned in this thread... Why?
Everything 'retro' I do I do for a purpose. e.g. playing a retro game or program, clearing space, downsizing or re-sale.

I find doing something with no end goal meaningless. Then again if its a hobby building up a retro collection of computers then maybe its there is no 'end goal'

I'm interest to know the purpose of if some of these projects have an end goal, be it re-sale, display or otherwise

When I see a family friend that makes random things I ask "what's the point" in no short words and usually get an earful. The end point usually comes down to "something to save money" but I feel the time spend could be put to better use. In that case its more of a hobby / addiction and nothing about the money saving

The goal is to build retro computers, its fun and its very rewarding. An end goal isn't always about money or selling it. There is not much creativity today. Its a hobby. I'm building quite a few because I want to have a collection for the next coming years. Its all about nostalgia and vintageness. There is nothing particularly joyful about modern times.

Guest2 · 6 Nov 2021 at 19:26

Retro6 said:
The goal is to build retro computers, its fun and its very rewarding. An end goal isn't always about money or selling it. There is not much creativity today. Its a hobby. I'm building quite a few because I want to have a collection for the next coming years. Its all about nostalgia and vintageness. There is nothing particularly joyful about modern times.

So purely a collecting hobby like collecting anything else, e.g. old coins and stamps.
I can see why people enjoy that but it’s not for me as need an end goal ‘collect all the football stickers’ / stamps, action figures etc.
Played some Heart of darkness tonight. Great game, reminds me a bit of Shadow of the beast. Chilled out evening after a few midday drinks

Retro6 · 8 Nov 2021 at 01:03

I might set myself a challenge with the end goal of seeing how much I could sell it for. Although building a computer to sell for profit maybe costly on postage plus praying it gets to the buyer in one piece. Sending computers in the mail isn't always practical and collection only sales never sell. Anyway just an idea which I quite like, setting myself the challenge of building a retro computer from the TV episode "Look Around You" a computer called Bournemouth. I can build a real one full size with functioning 5.25 floppy drives none of that Raspberry Pi Micky mouse stuff. I can build a proper vintage Bournemouth computer.

http://www.starringthecomputer.com/feature.html?f=216

paradigm · 8 Nov 2021 at 07:45

Not exactly "computer" retro related, but I was clearing out my late mother's house and stumbled upon this beauty that I'd forgotten I had:

!bluetonic! · 8 Nov 2021 at 11:42

Why?

All I'm doing this for is to relive my childhood.

Those powerful memories, sights and sounds of a box PC booting, the whir of a CD Drive. The beginning of multimedia applications. The facination of the internet. The fretting of getting configuration sorted to free up base memory.

And the hobby for me, has got out of hand.

Far too much stuff that I can't bring myself to sell.

I want to be that guy who has all the 'wow' kit that I use to be jealous of when I saw it for the first time.

I present my Amiga 1200 at the South West Amiga meet where I can.

almoststew1990 · 9 Nov 2021 at 18:06

I put my 4600 on eBay at £65 after I watched another auction for £62 and it's now sold in a few hours which is great. What can I spend my £65 on now hmmm....

Retro6 · 9 Nov 2021 at 22:33

!bluetonic! said:
Why?

All I'm doing this for is to relive my childhood.

Those powerful memories, sights and sounds of a box PC booting, the whir of a CD Drive. The beginning of multimedia applications. The facination of the internet. The fretting of getting configuration sorted to free up base memory.

And the hobby for me, has got out of hand. Far too much stuff that I can't bring myself to sell.

I want to be that guy who has all the 'wow' kit that I use to be jealous of when I saw it for the first time.

I present my Amiga 1200 at the South West Amiga meet where I can.

I know exactly what you mean. I miss Windows 95. I've just been sorting out a little small form factor 200MHz MMX PC on the kitchen table, No CD ROM and nowhere to plug one in on the board I couldn't even use an IDE cable because the board uses the two IDE connectors on the cable. Its a weird setup, hard to explain. The only way to do it was taking out the hard drive and plugging the hard drive into another computer then copying the Windows 95 files to the hard drive from the CD ROM then putting the hard drive back into the other computer and starting the windows 95 setup. I had forgot to put in the sound blaster card I had for it before running the Windows 95 setup but it don't matter I'll have to find a driver on floppy somewhere. Anyway I ran into a problem where Windows 95 screwed up the COMMAND.COM file and the Windows 95 setup would not continue. I eventually got there in the end by replacing the bad files and then I was able to finish installing Windows 95.

Seeing the Windows 95 start up screen is pure gold for me and the computer has a manual on/off power switch so I get to see"Its now safe to turn off your computer" message when shutting down.

The most amazing thing is that I got true 24 bit color in 1080/720 resolution.

I look forward to getting the sound blaster going on it. I want to hear those start up sounds.

Retro6 · 10 Nov 2021 at 00:54

I've been looking at USB PCI cards for the Windows 95 computer. It would be very handy to have a USB port for reading a flash drive as there is no CD Rom drive on it and there are many things I want to install that wont fit on floppy disks.

Just to clarify would I need a driver for the card? I'm running Windows 95 with USB Support. I have the Win95 flash drive drivers. Would the actual PCI USB Card need drivers?

!bluetonic! · 10 Nov 2021 at 06:15

Retro6 said:
I've been looking at USB PCI cards for the Windows 95 computer. It would be very handy to have a USB port for reading a flash drive as there is no CD Rom drive on it and there are many things I want to install that wont fit on floppy disks.

Just to clarify would I need a driver for the card? I'm running Windows 95 with USB Support. I have the Win95 flash drive drivers. Would the actual PCI USB Card need drivers?

There's a thread here on Vogons that should help:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=52151

!bluetonic! · 10 Nov 2021 at 06:16

Does anyone have a spare £775?

Legendary Original 1980s Packard Bell 386SX Legend Vintage Desktop PC & Monitor:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114364943622?hash=item1aa0ae8d06:g:DWwAAOSwQPdfPQaS

Retro6 · 10 Nov 2021 at 11:27

Thanks... I came across that thread last night while searching.

Wow 775 quid for parts not working and collection only. :cry:

Retro6 · 10 Nov 2021 at 23:07

I've been on the Windows 95 PC. I still can't play Sim City 2000 I get an Error to say that the game needs 4MB of Ram I have 32MB of Ram. I don't get it. I've seen people able to play this game on computers with much more Ram than I have on this one. I got the exact same error on the Windows 98 PC and assumed I just needed less Ram but 32MB is still too much? How do other people get this game to run?

Kurgen · 11 Nov 2021 at 07:15

Retro6 said:
I've been looking at USB PCI cards for the Windows 95 computer. It would be very handy to have a USB port for reading a flash drive as there is no CD Rom drive on it and there are many things I want to install that wont fit on floppy disks.

Just to clarify would I need a driver for the card? I'm running Windows 95 with USB Support. I have the Win95 flash drive drivers. Would the actual PCI USB Card need drivers?

I use a network card with a static ip connected to a 2nd network card on a windows 11 PC to transfer files

Retro6 · 11 Nov 2021 at 18:17

Kurgen said:
I use a network card with a static ip connected to a 2nd network card on a windows 11 PC to transfer files

Thanks. I may end up going down that route. Another thing I thought is I could get an IDE cable with 4 connectors or more then I could put a CF drive inline which could then make transferring files easier with it mounted at the back for easy access I have a CF adapter that screws on the back where the cards go.

paradigm · 11 Nov 2021 at 18:38

Retro6 said:
Thanks. I may end up going down that route. Another thing I thought is I could get an IDE cable with 4 connectors or more then I could put a CF drive inline which could then make transferring files easier with it mounted at the back for easy access I have a CF adapter that screws on the back where the cards go.

You won’t get an IDE cable with 4 connectors. IDE is two devices (master/slave) per channel, so three connectors maximum. Either use the CF as your C: or D: and just mount it to a spare PCI bracket. Alternatively use a GoTek. Both are methods I use to transfer files to my 9x and DOS PCs. Though I also have an NT4 file server on a sandboxed network for larger transfers.

Retro6 · 11 Nov 2021 at 18:46

Today I went on the hunt for some retro computing PC stuff.

I bought a nice monitor for 6 pounds in Cash Converters. Its a flat wide screen so its a bit modern but could still be classed as retro I guess. I could not believe it was 6 pounds. That was a bargain.

I bought an old PC keyboard for 10 pounds in its original box and packaging from 1999 and still new looking plus a 90s mouse included with the sale but unrelated to the keyboard. This would fit perfectly with my Windows 2000 PC.

I bought some USB flash drives, plus any cheap CF Cards I could round up at the CEX stores. I got a 2GB CF Card for 3 quid. There was also another CF Card 4GB. 3.50 but annoyingly that CEX store didn't want to sell it but I found a 16 GB CF card at another CEX for 7 quid. Plus a couple more cheap USB Flash drives.You can never have to many flash drives.

I dunno why some CEX stores get a bit funny with not wanting to sell certain products they have in stock and never seem to update there online stock. I almost had that 4GB CF card. I guess one of the stuff figured out it was worth more than 3.50 but only by a few quid. Oh well I got two CF cards today so its all good.