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I am just researching parts I will need to finish this Altair. In the parts manual they mention the front panel LEDs as being 'RL-21'. Google is useless on this one as RL-21 is a popular part...

Thank you! Yeah this wouldn't be copy protection.. this is a disk that was made by a fellow that was helping me figure out how to boot up and use the sign. It's just a standard DOS disk with...

I am trying to make an image of a boot disk for my JVF Signboard (pics here) before it dies.

The disk seems to read fine, I can copy all files off. But when I run winimage (ver 6), after it (I...

Many thanks! That is a most useful photo!

I might be game to desolder that cap and see what happens.. my Tek 4051 had some shorted tantalums and wouldn't operate.. but when removed it worked...

Anyone know what value C98 should be? I think I can make out 10UF on the top part.. I think. it's pretty burnt.

All I know is, the computer made this horrible wailing death sound before going silent. I'll get some replacements and see what happens. I'm not good with soldering smd stuff so this could get ugly....

And that's enough to bring the whole machine down huh?

I should check my failed TL too. It did something similar.. but additionally it blew out one of the caps in the psu. Also smoked a 74ls244...

Thanks keenerb!! Really appreciate this!

I think I found our culprit right here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15pvV6JNN-WzFjvUigFsn0WvWyaKFBLSr/view?usp=sharing

C98 looks like. Can't make...

Yeah it looks like the PIA-1 is just a general purpose parallel card. My machine has a version from a company called JPC products... I assume it would all be pretty similar.

It's probably all of those things. As a client, I could forgive them that - covid has messed with everyone - *if* they'd been upfront about it. If they'd said they were suffering delays and other...

Interesting! I have an actual catalog from them and it doesn't mention that. I just linked that other one for convenience but didn't catch that. Thanks!! I think my machine has that card but I'll...

So MyUS emailed me - the box has been lost. They are going to refund me the full purchase price, so no money is lost - but I was really hoping to get that dg stuff, especially the EPROM board and...

I know this is a longshot - but does anyone out there have a copy of the PROM programming software for the MSI (Midwest Scientific Instruments) 1702A PROM programmer/reader? I just picked one up...

Hahaha... apparently it comes with a roll of cheap white wire so we are set there. :) Wonder what gauge that is? It looks tiny.

I'm thinking I will rig up a crude chassis out of metal, unless I...

Yeah, and I think I read on Grant's site that the original drawings and specs for the case were lost... I'd have to get access to an original to measure things out and make my own parts. I could...

Thanks Mike. I guess I'll have to rig something up and hope a chassis appears one day. Haven't seen one yet though. I know Grant Stockly went to some trouble to reproduce the chassis to 100%...

Quick question.. is the internal chassis of the Altair metal or some kind of wood/melamine sort of thing? This picture purports to be an original altair and the chassis apart from the side rails...

My original rule was that everything had to fit in one room. That was how I hoped to prevent myself from descending into hoarding. I did expect the collection would grow fairly large as that was...

Altair is a different story.

But yes I actually have been doing some downsizing. I've sold two of my Falcons and an Explorer 85, a couple of Apple IIs.. I am paring things a bit. The Altair was...

I don't know if I did good, bad or in between on this - I offered $1500 and that carried the day. I don't think my price was too far out there - I know what individual components have sold for in...

Interesting. Ok yeah I was just trying to ascertain how likely a high school student was back then to have any sort of computer access. I wonder if California high schools are representative of the...

I'm currently working on a little documentary of the digital group, and it has taken some interesting turns, including one to the Cabrillo High School where David Bryant was a student. Bryant as...

Yeah I'm having a hard time nailing down the location of the burnt smell. It is interesting that it made the horrible noise.. like the sound card was dying. When the smell was fresh it did kind of...

I'm not actually sure I saw a RIFA.. but it's definitely not that. RIFA has that burnt popcorn smell.. burnt ICs have that nasty plastic kinda smell. I really tried to find it by nose but it's a...

It happened again! I just got a Tandy 1000 RL in. The seller said they had fired it up before shipping so I didn't worry.. I turned it on and there was this awful disembodied tone that died away,...