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Please save these Polymorphic machines

Dwight Elvey

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Messages
4,991
Location
Santa Cruz
These are in Dallas Texas. If someone doesn't pick them up they'll be recycled.
There are several 8813s, 8810s and one poly88 ( no cover ). He had documentation as well, some keyboards and monitors. These are rare machines. I have system88 software for the 8813/8810s. I also have cassette images for the poly88.
I would easily drive 300 miles to save these from the cruncher but I'm halfway across the states.
See my other post in Others section.
Contact me.
Dwight
 
After four hours of moving, the first load of rescue is complete. He had more equipment than originally thought. I picked up ten 8813’s, six 8810’s, eleven keyboards (six with the numeric keypad), several boxes of Poly boards, and a few hundred disks. Still to pick up on the next trip are about 8-10 monitors, a couple of external drives, and five boxes of original documentation (lots of duplicates).

The condition and completeness of each system is unknown at this point. He recalls pulling boards from a number of systems for other people. But there are also several boxes of poly boards separate from the systems. Drives are missing from some of the cabinets. Ths equipment was not stored in a garage or attic, however, some items had a full 1/4” blanket of dust on them. I need a breathing treatment ;)

Mike
 
Hi Mike
He seemed to think he'd been using double density controllers, for 5.25 disk. I have the binary for the 8 inch controller that I think was basically the same hardware as the 5.25 disk controller, except for component changes to the timing of the PLL and clock separator timing. I know from looking at the data from double density 5.25 that the header data was slightly different than the code used for the 8 inch disk. I'd modified the 8 inch code enough that I could read sectors and modified the 8 inch controller board that I had to work reasonably well with the 5.25 MFM data.
If he'd in fact had 5.25 double density, I'd be most interested in either a controller board or a dump of the ROM on the board.
Dwight
 
After four hours of moving, the first load of rescue is complete. He had more equipment than originally thought. I picked up ten 8813’s, six 8810’s, eleven keyboards (six with the numeric keypad), several boxes of Poly boards, and a few hundred disks. Still to pick up on the next trip are about 8-10 monitors, a couple of external drives, and five boxes of original documentation (lots of duplicates).

The condition and completeness of each system is unknown at this point. He recalls pulling boards from a number of systems for other people. But there are also several boxes of poly boards separate from the systems. Drives are missing from some of the cabinets. Ths equipment was not stored in a garage or attic, however, some items had a full 1/4” blanket of dust on them. I need a breathing treatment ;)

Mike

Thanks for rescuing them! That's a lot of Poly's in one place!

Are the keyboards all for 8813s/8810s? I keep hoping one day to find the actual keyboard Poly provided for the 88.
 
Hi Mike
He seemed to think he'd been using double density controllers, for 5.25 disk. I have the binary for the 8 inch controller that I think was basically the same hardware as the 5.25 disk controller, except for component changes to the timing of the PLL and clock separator timing. I know from looking at the data from double density 5.25 that the header data was slightly different than the code used for the 8 inch disk. I'd modified the 8 inch code enough that I could read sectors and modified the 8 inch controller board that I had to work reasonably well with the 5.25 MFM data.
If he'd in fact had 5.25 double density, I'd be most interested in either a controller board or a dump of the ROM on the board.
Dwight

I see a few DSDD controllers in the boxes of boards separate from systems. The owner also pointed to the two different colored stickers on many of the drives in the systems and said that's how he knew which were SSSD and which were DSDD. So yes, it appears we'll be able to find you a DSDD controller and/or dump a ROM.

Mike
 
Thanks for rescuing them! That's a lot of Poly's in one place!

Are the keyboards all for 8813s/8810s? I keep hoping one day to find the actual keyboard Poly provided for the 88.

The keyboards without the numeric keypad are all Poly branded and look like the one shown here: http://deramp.com/assets/images/p8813-img-6085-1280x720.jpg

I'm not sure if the keyboards shown/sold with the first Poly-88s were Poly-branded keyboards or not. The one shown in the picture referenced above may have been the first keyboard Poly branded themselves, but I don't know.

The keyboards with the numeric keypad look pretty much the same, just wider with the numeric keypad, of course.

Mike
 
After four hours of moving, the first load of rescue is complete. He had more equipment than originally thought. I picked up ten 8813’s, six 8810’s, eleven keyboards (six with the numeric keypad), several boxes of Poly boards, and a few hundred disks. Still to pick up on the next trip are about 8-10 monitors, a couple of external drives, and five boxes of original documentation (lots of duplicates).

The condition and completeness of each system is unknown at this point. He recalls pulling boards from a number of systems for other people. But there are also several boxes of poly boards separate from the systems. Drives are missing from some of the cabinets. Ths equipment was not stored in a garage or attic, however, some items had a full 1/4” blanket of dust on them. I need a breathing treatment ;)

Mike

Hi Mike,

did you have photos taken of this lot in situ as found and taken during the move?

sounds like you had major work moving them all

regards
David
 
Here’s the system and monitor stack, arranged semi-neatly and vacuumed, on a pallet so I can move it out of the way as needed. The boxes of documentation, disks, and S100 boards are not in the pic.

1189F80A-131A-4AF8-9C53-1896713EA0B8.jpg

06017ADE-BCBC-443C-BBB7-9D21843CDEB9.jpg

Mike
 
I never in my life thought I'd see so many Polymorphic machines in one place. Did the Poly88 unit have the cassette tape interface and/or the tty serial board?
Dwight
 
How did this guy end up with so many systems and what else does he have that he wants to give away?
 
I never in my life thought I'd see so many Polymorphic machines in one place. Did the Poly88 unit have the cassette tape interface and/or the tty serial board?
Dwight

Actually, the picture does not show a couple of more boxes of equipment that house a Poly-88 chassis (no orange cover), a Poly-88 card cage and power supply (less the transformer), two external 5.25" floppy cabinet/power supply with SA-400 drives, and a few power supply sub-assemblies for the 8813 and 8810.

The Poly-88 chassis does not include the printer (serial) board or the cassette board. However, I found several of the printer (serial) boards and one cassette board piled in with the loose S100 boards.

Mike
 
According to the owner (Chuck), there were over ten very serious Poly users in the Dallas area in the day. Chuck was an avid Poly fan and as each of the other Dallas area users finally gave up and went the PC/compatible route, they brought their equipment to Chuck because he didn't want to see it thrown away.

From what I understand, he still has a number of PC/compatibles to get rid of as well. In his own words, "I've never thrown away a computer." So I imagine he may have some interesting early PC/compatible machines.

Let me know if you want to find out more and I'll put you in touch with him.

Mike
 
Actually, the picture does not show a couple of more boxes of equipment that house a Poly-88 chassis (no orange cover), a Poly-88 card cage and power supply (less the transformer), two external 5.25" floppy cabinet/power supply with SA-400 drives, and a few power supply sub-assemblies for the 8813 and 8810.

The Poly-88 chassis does not include the printer (serial) board or the cassette board. However, I found several of the printer (serial) boards and one cassette board piled in with the loose S100 boards.

Mike

Hi Mike
I suspect you should be able to use my tools to create the assorted tapes. I suspect I'd need to look at the directions I'd made. I recall they were not the clearest. They were intended for someone that was familiar with the cassette format ant the Poly88's monitor. The cassette interface requires a good recorder if you want to do the Poly-Phase ( high speed ) but the slow is just the Kansas data rate.
If the tape recorder used a DC magnet ( actual magnet or head with DC ) it won't work with the Poly-Phase as this will cause too much distortion. Most cheap recorders ( like from RS ) used a magnet that dragged on the tape. This isn't too bad for most recording but causes too much distortion for the high speed format. You should have enough parts to put together a working Poly88.
Dwight
 
Hi Mike
I suspect you should be able to use my tools to create the assorted tapes. I suspect I'd need to look at the directions I'd made. I recall they were not the clearest. They were intended for someone that was familiar with the cassette format ant the Poly88's monitor. The cassette interface requires a good recorder if you want to do the Poly-Phase ( high speed ) but the slow is just the Kansas data rate.
If the tape recorder used a DC magnet ( actual magnet or head with DC ) it won't work with the Poly-Phase as this will cause too much distortion. Most cheap recorders ( like from RS ) used a magnet that dragged on the tape. This isn't too bad for most recording but causes too much distortion for the high speed format. You should have enough parts to put together a working Poly88.
Dwight

Good information - thanks! Actually, I already restored a Poly-88 and have both a working cassette, printer (serial) interface, and floppy drives for it. I probably won't be keeping the one I picked up with all this equipment.

Mike
 
Wow that's a lot of Polys. If you decide to sell some let me know, I'd definitely be interested.

I'm going to run my 88 on this GRI keyboard I got for now, until one without a keypad that looks correct shows up. I've seen 88s with both branded Poly and non keyboards.
 
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