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Need information/manual for obscure XT Clone - KayPro PC

I

inaxeon

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2017
Messages
61
Heya folks

I recently came across this most unusual XT clone, apparently a "Kaypro PC", which has its mainboard split across two ISA cards, and via a simple backplane.

I cannot for the life of me find any information on it. Does anyone else have one? A manual? Anything? Really just trying to find out what the dip switches do at present!

Pics:
http://techmattmillman.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_1519.jpg
http://techmattmillman.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_1521.jpg
 
Al Kossow said:
A Google search for "Kaypro PC" lights up like a Christmas tree.
Click to expand...

Never even thought to try...

I do appreciate there are quite a lot of KayPro manuals around the internet, but this particular model, haven't found anything yet!
 
Al Kossow said:
A Google search for "Kaypro PC" lights up like a Christmas tree.
Click to expand...

Sure, but Google is different for everyone. When I search, the first 10 pages of results had nothing at all to do with the Kaypro PC. Lots of stuff about other Kaypro models.
 
KC9UDX said:
Sure, but Google is different for everyone. When I search, the first 10 pages of results had nothing at all to do with the Kaypro PC. Lots of stuff about other Kaypro models.
Click to expand...

The quotation marks make all the difference in the world. Problem is, how are we to know whether a poster intends to indicate that they should be used in the search, or is just using them to quote his search terms.

I propose a convention: Use proper quote marks for the former, apostrophes for the latter. So, if we are referring to a search on the terms "Kaypro" and "PC" we write it as 'Kaypro PC', while if we are referring to a search on the phrase "Kaypro PC" in quotation marks, we write it "Kaypro PC".

What do you think?
 
Well, to be entirely correct, it's worth observing that what you're using for a single quote is really an apostrophe and that real quotation marks are directional--that is, there's a symbol for the opening of a quote and a different symbol for close-quote. The double-quote is sometimes referred to as the typewriter quote or ambidextrous quote

And symbols for quoting vary widely, depending on language.

WikiP Quotation Mark.
 
And I haven't seen Google treat any delimiter properly in well over a decade.
 
okey dokey...

Picked the wrong forum here clearly!

Guess I've got myself a new project.
 
I think these were common but I don't have any docs.

Searching for "KayPro PC" with the quotes in google does produce much better results, but most of the hits are for old sales literature or revues.

If you don't get a sensible reply on here the only other place I would try is the "CCTALK" lists (sorry don't have a link) but even there the folks are more mini/mainframe.
 
i have a pile of documentation for the Kaypro PC at my parents' house, as this was our first computer.
 
I just picked up a Kaypro PC, I have the system manual for it, There are no jumper settings listed in the manual. What other information are you looking for?

It's badged as a 'Kaypro EXP+' The Manual says 'Kaypro Expansion Unit Plus'
 
Hi John,

I suspect you have picked up an ISA Expansion Unit, not a "Base PC". In concept it sounds similar to the IBM 5161:

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/21352/IBM-5161/

The purpose of these devices were to get more "shtuff" into your computer. When you only have 5 slots, there was not much room the grow.

Several vendors of the period used these Expansion Chassis to extend their systems.

This is the first I have heard of the Kaypro Expansion Chassis, I'm curious it it's 8bit ISA (1 Segment slot) or 16 bit ISA (2 Segment Slots)

I shot you a PM if you would like to chat about things.

JA
 
The machine I have has both 8 and 16 bit slots, I find it interesting as the card with the CPU on it is in an 8-bit slot, my assumption was they made a 286 card that would use the 16 bit slots.

I feel like my PC was sold as a PC, it has a keyboard connector on the backplane, the manual that came with it describes the machine I have pretty well.

I'll respond to your PM.
 
Figured out some of the switches on the CPU board

SW1:
1: Open: 8087 Present. Closed: 8087 not present
2: Don't know
3: Don't know
4: (Number of floppy drives)
5: (Number of floppy drives)

4/5 Closed: 1 drive
4 Closed, 5 Open: 2 drives
4 Open, 5 Closed: 3 drives
4/5 Open: 4 drives
 
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