Latest find & haul...Kaypro 16

From: Mzthompson_at_aol.com <(Mzthompson_at_aol.com)>
Date: Tue Sep 28 21:27:52 1999

First, a big thank you to Gregory Watson, gjw_at_access.digex.net for the
history lesson on Kaypro. I look forward to the PC side.

A couple of years ago I did a little contract work for the school system
in the next county. It was then that I visited one of the no longer used
school buildings. It had been turned into a storage shed for anything
the school did not know what else to do with, including the Commodores,
a couple of Kaypros, a few Lasers, & a mess IBM brand PC's, just to name
a few.

I had all but forgotten about it, figuring no way to pry those machines
loose from the school system. It turns out that they sold the building
to a someone about a year ago and he is now looking for a buyer himself.
I called him and he invited me over for a look around at what computers
were still left. He said that if this perspective buyer wanted the
entire contents that would be the end of it. If the buyer does not
want the computers then I can have what I want. I think he expects
me to take it all.

Most of what is there is IBM brand PC's. I did not write down model
numbers and all that, just looked around as he gave me the tour of
the building. These IBM's are what I would call educational machines.
I know the school system is big on IBM and gets the usual educational
discount. Many of the machines are just dual 3 1/2" floppy machines,
with some having around 60mb hard drives in place of one floppy.

I did notice that the floppy drives had a 40 pin edge connector instead
of the expected 34 pin. IIRC, the hard drives had the same edge connector
as the floppies. Anybody out there got any insights on these?

Apparently, he had a schoolyard sale and most of the Commodores are long
gone, but did see some stuff. Since I am not up on that, what should
I be on the lookout for in the way of goodies?

On the way out, I stopped to admire one machine. He said that I could
have it if I wanted it. A token I guess. We had to go to the next
floor and the other end of the building to find its keyboard. Just as
we got back to the machine, he commented that he never could find the
cover for it. This just as I was snapping the keyboard back in place.
So I now have a working Kaypro 16, complete with OS, namely DOS 2.1.

I had the cover off briefly, enough to realize that it appears you
have to dismantle the thing to put a board in an expansion slot.
In the expansion slots are a a modem & what I assume is a secondary
video board with 9 pin D female connector and RCA jack. Another card with
a 25 pin D and a 9 pin D, both female, parallel and serial I assume.
The fourth card has no I/O connectors, so not sure until I can get at it.

One thing I would like to do to this is to put in a battery and clock
chip. I have long since forgotten what was available then. Any
suggestions?

I won't know until mid-October if the buyer wants the computers or not.
The way I figure it, they probably won't want them. Face it, if they
are not a subscriber to this list, then they are not nuts enough to
consider what I am consdiering, right? ;-)) Then there is the issue
of where do I store 100 or so machines, at least long enough to sort
it all out.

Mike Thompson
Received on Tue Sep 28 1999 - 21:27:52 BST