HX-20 the wonder of Epson

From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_netwiz.net>
Date: Tue Mar 9 19:30:28 1999

>I have the HX20 service manual....

And I thought I was good at tormenting people. ;)

Hopefully I won't have any repair questions, but I can't imagine the
battery pack is still OK after years of sitting, but didn't give much
thought to checking them. Both of the hamfests I attend each month have a
couple of battery guys with tons on old nicads etc., plus Radio shack sells
them $7.95 a pair new.

>There is an internal NiCd battery, it's 4 Sub-C cells soldered/welded
>together and wired to a plug on the mainboard. It's not hard to make a
>replacement pack if it fails. The 'regulation' on the Vcc line depends on
>the fact that the NiCd will limit the voltage when it's on charge (the
>entire machine is CMOS, so regulation isn't that critical). So don't
>attempt to charge the machine without the battery in place.

Can you tell me much about the AC adapter? (why is it the adapter always
gets lost. I didn't get one with the PowerBook 5300CS I bought last
Saturday either.) I wonder if a generic adapter will be OK to use?

>Skiwriter is an option, presumably an extra ROM plugged into the spare
>socket inside. There should also be a machine code monitor in ROM (select
>1 from the startup menu). The BASIC is pretty standard Microsoft, with a
>few extras (that I can look up) for things like controlling the cassette,
>turning on/off individual pixels on the display, etc.
>
>The printer is, indeed 20 characters wide.
>
>The 'serial' port (5 pin) is used to connect the machine to a TF20 floppy
>disk drive normally. You can also (IIRC) interconnect 2 machines by this
>port.

That sounds like an item nice to find, but I am figuring out a scheme to
hook many older systems up via an inhouse BBS running to the serial ports.

>The RS232 port is what it claims to be. It's an 8 pin DIN, and plugs are

I remember this as the number one feature, so people could use these as
remote terminals controlling all sorts of odd bits. I may not find a
correct cable, but finding a connector should be easy in this surplus rich
part of world. (SoCal is a huge dumping ground of old gear).

BTW how on earth do you end up with a HX-20 service manual and no HX-20?

Thanks, Mike Ford
Received on Tue Mar 09 1999 - 19:30:28 GMT