Old 8086 Amstrad

From: Jim Strickland <jim_at_calico.litterbox.com>
Date: Wed Oct 13 01:11:30 1999

>
> >
> > WOW! Great Timing on the infor for the Amstrad Website..
> >
> > I can't believe you guys are on the subject of Amstrad PC6400..
>
> A PPC640 ? At least that's what it was called in the UK.
>
> > I just purchased one at the local Thrift store yesterday for $4.04
> > and when I got to the checkout line the lady told me it was half price
> > day so for only $2.02 I got this really cool Portable XT dual
> > 720KB floppies, and a nice LCD screen..
>
> It's a reasonable machine. I've been known to use mine as a terminal, or
> to run a drive exerciser program (with the parallel port connected to
> some signals of the drive-under-test), etc.
>
> I have the manuals for it (somewhere), including the software tech manual
> and the service manual. It's pretty close to one of the Amstrad desktop
> XT clones -- it's even got the same ASICs in it IIRC.
>
> > Very impressive machine for 1987..
> > And it appears to run on standard D batteries for portable use..
>
> I thought it was C cells, but I might be wrong. Do you have the 2 plastic
> tubes that hold the cells together? I've never tried running it on
> batteries, since it takes 10 cells (!) and they don't last long.
>
> On the back are 2 power input connectors. The coaxial one is for a
> 12V-ish input, centre +ve, which is what I normally use (from my bench PSU).
> The 14 pin DIN is a power input (all sorts of _regulated_ voltages) from
> an Amstrad PC monitor. It's probably best to ignore this.
>
> Oh yes, the power switch on the top is really a changeover from batteries
> to external PSU. It seems a little odd at first.
>
> -tony
>
I have one of these things. I wanted one since they started going on deep
discount in the late 80s, but I couldn't afford one then. My sweety found one
on e-bay for not a lot.

(By the way, if anyone has a dead ppc640 or 512 and wanted to sell me the case
and handle assembly, I'm interested)

It takes C cells and runs for quite a while on them, 8-12 hours. No hard disk,
no backlight to eat battery power.

I run Caldera DR-DOS 7 on it when I run it.

I can probably come up with the manuals - I have them somewhere - if someone
wants specific info from them.

-- 
Jim Strickland
jim_at_DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
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Received on Wed Oct 13 1999 - 01:11:30 BST

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