New finds

[arjoll]

A couple of weeks ago I was onsite with a client sorting out an issue they were having with one of their PCs, and they asked what they should do with an unused one - an old DEC Pentium. I suggested they wait until the next local e-waste disposal day, and that I'd take the hard drive and destroy the data for them.

They mentioned that they had a couple of other old computers in a storage area and took me up there to have a look. The first thing I saw was a Commodore CBM PET 8032, and what I thought was a box with a monitor and keyboard turned out to be an Amstrad CPC6128. I arranged to go back and help clear out the "junk" - two Lancer stationwagon bootloads

I've ended up with:

• IBM PC 5150 with hard drive, IBM monitor (haven't checked model yet) and model M keyboard
• HP 85
• Amstrad CPC6128
• Commodore CBM8032, 8050 drives and printer
• Apple IIe, 2x Disk IIs and Monitor III
• Compaq LTE Lite 4/25 with dock and monitor
• Various expansion cards, 3.5" and 5.25" floppies

And as a result of posting the find on Facebook have also scored a Commodore C64C with three floppy drives, a datasette and lots of software.

All up not a bad haul Unfortuantely there are no 3" disks for the Amstrad - it was never that popular here and disks are scarce, so I'll be keeping an eye out for those!

Photos soon!

[KeithsTV]

I had an Amstrad PCW8256 with a 3" drive but the discs were expensive as they never really took off compared to the 3.5" drives. Also the drives were not too reliable although I never had any problems with mine.

The 3" drives came in 2 flavours. 180k single sided and 720k double sided. I can't remember whether there was any compatibility between the two but it may have been possible to read the 180k discs in the 720k drives but not vice versa.

I did fit a 2nd drive to it but instead of the 3" fitted a 3.5" drive. There were many articles around at the time about fitting alternate drives including replacing the 3" A drive with a 3.5" drive but it did involve creating new boot discs as there were some small differences in the drive parameters.

Later versions of the Sinclair Spectrum, after Amstrad took over, had 3" drives but it was also possible to fit a 3.5" B drive to them as my father in law did.

Keith

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by KeithsTV

I had an Amstrad PCW8256 with a 3" drive but the discs were expensive as they never really took off compared to the 3.5" drives. Also the drives were not too reliable although I never had any problems with mine.

The Amstrad machines or later Spectrums were never that common here, with the C64 taking over the lower end of the market from the mid 80's onwards, so I'm pretty sure the 3" disc would have been even rarer here. Saying that I did see some for sale just a few weeks ago, if I'd known I'd find an Amstrad I'd have picked them up!

[arjoll]

Here are the first batch of photos - I haven't gone through anything in great detail, nothing has been unpacked, cleaned or tested - it's all basically as it arrived. Apologies for the phone camera photos.

[arjoll]

And the rest...

[KeithsTV]

Now those CBM8032 pictures bring back some memories as I briefly worked with one of those back in 1979 interfacing it to a digital cassette data recorder. It was used for analysing wave data, taking all night to do a FFT on the data with only a 1MHz CPU clock.

We had the dual disc drive and the printer as well.

Later we moved onto the Apple II.

Keith

[gingpeakin]

If you ever need to free up some space I would love to have the HP85!

Ging

[Nickthedentist]

And I'll have a few of your Garrard 401s that are taking up all that valuable space

Seriously, nice haul, well done for saving them.

[SiriusHardware]

A friend over the road had the 6128, which I thought was a nice machine - it even ran CP/M programmes as far as I remember.

On Unst, the northernost of the main Shetland islands, there is a famous bus shelter (yes, that's what I said: famous bus shelter) which the locals have decided to outfit like a typical living space, so there is a comfy sofa and all kinds of other domestic junk to enjoy and look at while you wait for your bus. When I was last there a few years ago someone had added a 'computer' which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be an Amstrad CPC6128.

I think the content has been changed many times over since then.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by KeithsTV

The 3" drives came in 2 flavours. 180k single sided and 720k double sided. I can't remember whether there was any compatibility between the two but it may have been possible to read the 180k discs in the 720k drives but not vice versa.

It is indeed possible to read a 180K disc in a 720K drive. Actually, the 180K disc is really two discs as it is reversible.

I can probably spare a 3" disc for testing purposes, but I don't know how much it would cost to send it to Aotearoa - though weighing in at about 30g (unwrapped) it shouldn't be prohibitive. Contact me by PM if you wish to pursue this.

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by KeithsTV

Now those CBM8032 pictures bring back some memories as I briefly worked with one of those back in 1979 interfacing it to a digital cassette data recorder. It was used for analysing wave data, taking all night to do a FFT on the data with only a 1MHz CPU clock.

Interesting stuff - this gear all came from a medical lab which had lost the DHB contract about 6 years ago. This stuff escaped the clear out, probably because it would have been stored right at the back of a storage area in the ceiling space when they moved in around '95.

Originally Posted by gingpeakin

If you ever need to free up some space I would love to have the HP85!

At the moment the plans are to hold on to everything - see what condition it's in, get anything working that I can. Seeing I've been an HP reseller since the late 1990's I think I might hang on to the HP, although there will be some bits I'll probably dispose of (such as a Sega catridge which came in the box of C64 bits).

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

And I'll have a few of your Garrard 401s that are taking up all that valuable space

Funny you say that - I still want to build up two good ones on plinths (it's only been four years since I got them...!) and seeing I have five I may need to dispose of two or three. It's a matter of working out what condition they're actually in and what's involved with fixing them!

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

I can probably spare a 3" disc for testing purposes, but I don't know how much it would cost to send it to Aotearoa - though weighing in at about 30g (unwrapped) it shouldn't be prohibitive. Contact me by PM if you wish to pursue this.

I'll see what I can find closer to home, but will PM you if I can't track anything down. I don't think international shipping of discs will break the bank and would be happy to buy a few if anyone does have spares.

[DragonForce]

The 3" Amstrad floppes were known as "CF2" disks and you can still get them, sometimes NOS on ebay. If you have an old Amstrad wordprocessor, take the double sided drive out - it'll work very well on a 6128 or a Spectrum +3 - formatting the floppies will be an issue but there is public domain software to do this on a +3.

DSDD CF2's are known as CF2D by the way.

[electronicskip]

I use my 6128 on a weekly basis, it's a lovely little machine,
Was lucky a couple of years ago, I found a "tea chest" rammed full of CPC software and 3" disks.

[Zelandeth]

Nice little haul that!

What flavour's the Model M keyboard that came with the IBM? Were quite a few versions of them!

That HP looks like an interesting beast, they were really powerful machines in their day weren't they?

[arjoll]

All the equipment is still boxed up in the garage - I've been actively clearing out other stuff from the workshop so I can start working on these. The only thing I've done is sort out what was in the disorganised pile of C64 hardware and tidying it into a couple of boxes.

I've also managed to pick up a pile of Amstrad software on both disk and cassette on Trademe, so I have a bit more to work with there when the time comes.

In terms of the IBM keyboard - when I start work on the 5150 I'll report back

[arjoll]

Forgot to add - the HP 85 looks like it was a very good machine for scientific uses in its day, although I suspect the small 5" screen counted against it. I'm pretty sure dad said it was one model he looked at when they were looking for computers to do survey calculations on at the local council - I think the summary was Apple II was underpowered, Apple III or IBM PC too expensive, HP had a silly screen, so they settled on a Sord M23. That early exposure to Sord is why I've got so many in my collection

[Herald1360]

We used to use HP85 at work in the early '80s. It did HPIB so it was useful for logging stuff as well as general calculating. Later on things like the Tatung Einstein were used by the software geeks developing stuff for the Z80s used in the control side of some of our stuff.

[Radio Wrangler]

I used an HP85 in anger back when it was current. It was a nice improvement on my old 9825A!

You need to look round the back and see what function extension proms it has fitted in a plug-in adaptor.

David