Televideo TS-806/20

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Fri Jun 11 21:45:37 1999

The computer has bays for two floppy and two hard disk drives. You do have
to open it up to see them, but if you've seen the controller board, and if
you've seen the dip switches, you must know whether or not you have the
winchester drive(s). A -20 normally had a single 20MB drive, which, for
those days, was pretty decent. Two of them - WOW! that was a BIG machine.
If you haven't got hard disks in the box, or if they're disconnected, you
should probably connect them up and try to see if they boot. That "IPL . .
." message is what you get when it sees there's nothing in the Floppy Drive.
Do you have a floppy drive? Let's figure out what's on this machine before
we go off half-cocked.

The boot disk is no big deal to create, though my '806's are both sitting
outdoors, having had their HDD's cannibalized years ago. I can probably
read the things with my AMPRO, which means I should be able to write them as
well.

I need to know whether your floppy drives are 48TPI or 96 TPI drives, since
both were in common use.

Next time you're inside the box, see what else is inside. Are there any
daughterboards, or are there any empty sockets?

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Devon <bobcaar_at_cyberdude.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, June 11, 1999 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: Televideo TS-806/20


>I hadn't known thats what they were for (winch)...If I ever get some, I bet
>I can rig something up. After fiddling around some more (thanks for the
>info, all), I've got it to work...kind of...When it starts it now says
>"System IPL from Hard disk in progress". Then no more... I know the disk
>booted before ...I could type garbage back when I was getting garbage
>(about 4 times before it quit)... It would be great if you could send me a
>boot disk... Televideo hasn't replied to my e-mails yet...I'll give them a
>few more days..
>
> T.H.x.
> Devon
>
>At 06:24 PM 11/06/1999 -0600, you wrote:
>>Well, I'm not sure I agree about the relative importance of cables with
>>which to interface a hard disk. That's probably the one thing that makes
a
>>computer compute fast enough to be useful.
>>
>>First of all I'd try 9600 baud before anything else, since I believe
that's
>>the default. I don't remember what the board switches do, but I can hunt
>>around for the manual and get back to you. I wouldn't use PCAW, as a
>>terminal, myself. I haven't had good luck with it. How about
Hyperterminal
>>of Procomm. I've used both of those in connection with a PC and had
better
>>luck than with PCAW, though I've had good luck using PCAW for file
>>transfers, etc.
>>
>>This box was ostensibly a file server and probably contains VERY important
>>software, e.g. the MMMost (or whatever it was called) network OS, which
>>isn't around any longer. This box is capable of serving as a single-user
>>system, but if you still have the HDD, from which it should boot all by
>>itself if it hasn't been roached up, you might want to preserve it.
>>
>>Well you're in luck . . . I got a phone interruption after which I thought
>>of a place to look for the manual...Oddly enough, that's where it was.
>>
>>The manual says the "upper" four bits of the dip switch is used for baud
>>rate settings. The lower four bits (5,6,7,8) are unused except for
position
>>8 which is reserved for diagnostics. Obviously, the one who wrote this
>>manual was on drugs. A closed switch is a zero.
>>
>>The baud rates go from 19.2K down to 75, with ascending values from 0000
to
>>1000, remembering that a 0 means CLOSED. Switch 1 is the lsb.
>>
>>I hope that helps you get it going!
>>
>>If you need a boot diskette, maybe I can help you there as well.
>>
>>Televideo, by the way, is still in business, so it's not inconceivable
they
>>might be able to help too, if you ask them.
>>
>>Dick
>
Received on Fri Jun 11 1999 - 21:45:37 BST