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GRiDCase Laptops

Moonferret

Moonferret

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2003
Messages
489
Location
Northwest (UK)
Hi Folks!

Recently picked up a couple of GRiD laptops. 3x 1520's and a GRiDCase 3 Plus. The 1520's I've managed to get up and running. Had to do the DS1287 repair on two of them and plan on eventually replacing the 20Mb Conner HD's with CF cards (Is there anything in particular that causes the rubber seals to degrade on these old Conner drives? Had a couple that were almost completely gone and some are like new)

The main problem is with the GRiDCase 3. It was fitted with one of those JVC 10Mb hard drives with the 26pin Interface (Is there an actual name for this interface?) which is dead and unfortunately there is no floppy drive. I've created a set of DOS ROMs so I can get the machine to boot up but I'm after suggestions on how I can add some storage to make the machine useful. Floppy drive - Seems to be a non-standard 26pin interface. Hard Drive - Finding a working replacement will be next to impossible and will probably involve removing one from a working machine.

So, could an IDE drive be connected via the Parallel port and drivers loaded from ROM?

There are two 34pin headers on the motherboard (One is used for the JVC controller) and I'm wondering if they are the equivalent of an ISA expansion? Long shot but does anybody have a service / technical manual?

Cheers!
 
The port just under the drive of the gridcase2 is an external drive port, maybe although you have no internal drive there's a port for an external drive. If so, you might be able to attach an external drive to this port, if you can find something compatible. I checked, I don't have the manual. I used to support the GRiD Plus' many years ago when I worked at ICI.
Bill
 
Greetings Fellow GriD-ites,

do either of you have any GRiD specific software, in particular GRiDBASIC or GRiDTerm? I have been looking for GRiD software for a while and keen to find new GRiD software. thanks.
 
Bill,
There is a 25pin D-connector on the side where the internal floppy would sit however, the ribbon cable has been cut inside. Without the pinouts, its not much use. I guess the best option is to keep an eye out for a faulty machine I can pull the floppy from although I really like the idea of building some sort of custom XT-IDE board :)

As for software, I did get some with the machines. Seems to be a complete set of manuals & disks for the earlier compass series, incluiding GRiD DOS, Term, BASIC, Paint, etc. Its all on 5.25" disks which I plan to image this weekend. Is there a site where this can be uploaded?
 
I too have a Gridcase, the hard drive has been replaced with 4 eproms in the front, but it still does not power up. Is there a battery in there somewhere? There is a power supply where the battery used to be. Russ Campbell
 
What exactly GridCase? 1520 not necessary battary for starting, just 16v DC power.
 
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