This Weekend's Finds

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Mon Aug 18 08:53:17 1997

Hi there everyone!

I went to the car boot sale again yesterday. For once, there were lots
of computers on offer: two ZX Spectra (original 16K); one Spectrum +2;
an Atari 620; any number of Commodore 64s in late-style cases.

I bought: A TI-99/4A (Not as lucky as Roger M - I paid L12 with no
joysticks, manuals or cartridges, but I did get the UHF thingy)

But the real find: A British Telecom Microscribe for L1

This object is a solidly built sub-notebook (about 7 in square by 1
thick) with a dinky keyboard and a palmtop-sized LCD. It has 32K of RAM
and 16K of ROM, and the processor is an Hitachi HD63A03XP single chip
microcomputer.

THE LCD looks as if it might be 200 or 256 by 64 pixels (40 characters
by 8 lines?) - I haven't powered it up yet because (a) the NiCd battery
is flat and (b) I have yet to work out what voltage to feed it (3.5mm
jack with tip negative). All I know is that it must be smoothed DC,
since there is a diode but no smoothing capacitor in the input stage.

The battery is 4.8V, and somewhat inconsistently marked 0.8 Ah - charge
at 50mA for 14 hours (I make that 0.7Ah less charging losses), so the
power supply (which feeds a linear regulator - transistor in parallel
with 82 ohms) must be greater than this. I would guess at something in
the region of 9V given the size of the resistors in the regulator
circuit, but...

The manufacturer's label on the back suggests it is a Microscribe Model
320, made by Microscribe Ltd at Cwmbran in South Wales. Since they had
the forethought to put an address and 'phone number on the label, I
shall try and contact them this week (DV).

Meanwhile, does anyone have any info on this? In particular, what
voltage do I feed it?

Philip.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Philip Belben <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

   Das Feuer brennt, das Feuer nennt die Luft sein Schwesterelement -
 und frisst sie doch (samt dem Ozon)! Das ist die Liebe, lieber Sohn.

Poem by Christian Morgenstern - Message by Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk
Received on Mon Aug 18 1997 - 08:53:17 BST