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Loaded Altair 8800 discovered yesterday with tons of paperwork & punch tape programs

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aaron7

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Loaded Altair 8800 discovered yesterday with tons of paperwork & punch tape programs

Well, this happened. This was the crown jewel of that estate I cleaned out a couple weeks ago. Barely made a dent in the pile, but had to post this up.

Sadly, it'll need a full restoration. Mice have been living in it for DECADES... and their pee/poo turned to a hard brown tar sludge. What a mess.

I know -nothing- about S100 systems, but looks like she's pretty loaded.

Punch tapes are very cool. I've never held something like this before.

I did find a Royal punch tape machine as well, not sure if that's what they were using with this system.

Also found a TON of old paper ephemera. Every issue of Computer Notes from Vol1 Issue1 April 1975 on. Byte magazine. You name it.

The machine is NOT for sale. I will be selling anything that was not original to the system however as I want it to be as it came from the factory (aside from being a kit that is!).

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Ugh, too bad the mice took up residence in there! Hopefully it cleans up alright for you.

My advice would be to keep the board set that came with it -- going back to "factory" is 256 bytes RAM and the CPU card, that's it. Not very useful. Essentially no Altair 8800 was ever an "all-MITS" machine in its time, MITS was too slow coming out with the boards people needed, and their designs were not as good as third-party designs. For instance, the Solid State Music IO-4 serial/parallel board you have in there is not only a better design than MITS' 88-2SIO, but it also includes parallel, and if you want you can even configure it to act just like an 88-2SIO for software compatibility.
 
The IO-4 is a really good "go to" board for early systems. I use it in both of my IMSAI and Altair machines. No software setup required since they use a UAR/T rather than an ACIA. Configure the jumpers and you're good to go. You can use one of the parallel ports for a parallel keyboard (something I've been seeking for a while).

I would agree with Glitch's comment on what "factory" means versus what people actually did. I'd start with an 8K memory board (or two 4k boards for an earlier feel) and the IO-4. That way BASIC can run with some usable space and is still period-authentic. That's the angle I use when I display my items at VCF -- how would a "typical" user have had it configured.

I've always liked the CompuPro boards for overall reliability (the "Econoram" boards are the earliest boards), but Solid State Music made a nice board, which I've used. There were many other manufacturers though.
 
Thanks for the advice. Not sure what the plans for it are I suppose. Initial idea was to clean it up and display it at my shop, but looking at this... not sure I can handle such a restoration. Or want to. Sigh.
 
Seems a fantastic find to me. Given its historical significance, I think you should restore it, or at least attempt to restore it. You'll get lots of advice from this forum...
 
Congratulations on the find!

One of the first things I'd do is to try to read the paper tape over to binary files, and then you might use a modern computer with a serial card (and maybe a current-loop adapter) to load software once you get the boards cleaned up and going.

I have no personal experience with systems inhabitated with mouse, but many of these boards are well documented and repairable. What I would expect is a few corroded traces or pads which might need repair.

At last, I would be carefull about scrubbing to heavily. Try to rather use some solvent that is known to work nicely for cleaning electronics.
 
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Dwight Elvey said:
Do get the mouse gunk off. The longer it is on the boards, the more the damage.
Dwight
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Yeah, it's corrosive to circuit board stuff. If it's relatively fresh it just washes off with hot soapy water (DO BLEACH EVERYTHING THOUGH!)
 
I tried a few mild cleaners... and a plastic scraper... this stuff is solid as a rock. Very disheartening. But thank you for the encouragement! Not sure what the plan is as of yet.
 
aaron7 said:
I tried a few mild cleaners... and a plastic scraper... this stuff is solid as a rock. Very disheartening. But thank you for the encouragement! Not sure what the plan is as of yet.
Click to expand...

You need to soak them. It takes time. It took year to dry out it'll take some time. Soak them with water and dish soap.
Dwight
 
I don't think it's a good idea to soak anything with circuitry in plain water. You could use deionized water to avoid charge-carrying minerals from building up on sensitive components. You'd still have to let it dry out extremely thoroughly, of course, but it'll also begin or accelerate the process of corrosion. Soaking in rubbing alcohol might be a better idea, but if there are any stickers (covering the UV port on EPROMs, for example), they'll likely dissolve even more quickly in that solvent than just water.
 
JNZ said:
I don't think it's a good idea to soak anything with circuitry in plain water. You could use deionized water to avoid charge-carrying minerals from building up on sensitive components. You'd still have to let it dry out extremely thoroughly, of course, but it'll also begin or accelerate the process of corrosion. Soaking in rubbing alcohol might be a better idea, but if there are any stickers (covering the UV port on EPROMs, for example), they'll likely dissolve even more quickly in that solvent than just water.
Click to expand...

Circuit components are pretty hardy. If they have survived mouse poo I am sure they will survive washing in water. If the stickers have mouse poo on you probably want them to dissolve after taking photos...

https://www.electronicspoint.com/forums/threads/cleaning-pcbs-dishwasher-rinse.20092/
 
He has to try something to restore these boards. Rather than proposing this liquid or that, might we ask the unusual question "What's best for dissolving solidified mouse poo & wee?"

I'll wager it isn't alcohol.
 
Hot soapy water is the way to go, in my experience. No, you will not harm most electronics with it, that's how they get cleaned in industry. The only thing you have to watch for are items that have hollow spaces inside, like DIP switches or trimpots. Blow them out with air before/during drying.

I dry everything in a forced hot air drying cabinet which I believe was originally intended for some photo process, but a household oven works well too. Set it on the lowest setting and leave the door ajar. Of course, being as how this is mouse mess stuff, you'll want to probably put something on the oven rack *and* wash the oven out afterwards. You can also leave the boards out in the sun on a hot, dry day.
 
Dish soap is intended to loosen organics and it most likely the best for mouse poo. As glitch says, remove or be willing to replace pot and dip switches.
Dwight
 
99% isopropyl alcohol does the trick - and its cheap online. Use a toothbrush to scrub, anything tougher might cause damage. Use WD40 Electrical Contact Cleaner for electronics.
 
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