Xerox 820 lives!

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Mon Sep 23 18:04:00 2002

Hey Glen,

   That's good news. I never got around to testing that 820. I did have a box of disks and docs for the 820s but maybe Mike or someone else got it. ZCPR is a replacement command processor for CPM. In simple terms, it is to CPM what DR DOS was to MS DOS. It should run all the normal CPM commands plus others. I'm using an enhanced version of ZCPR on my SB-180. I have a printout of a help file that you can borrow or I can copy the file the next time that I have the SB-180 setup and running. BTW ZCPR usually includes on-line help. Try typing in HELP and see if it's there. You should be able to find info on ZCPR on the net. I know that I did when I first got the SB-180. There's also a book called "ZCPR, The Manual" by Richard Kahn (sp?). I had a copy but it didn't tell any more than what the disk help files did. I think I gave that book to Bob Rief but he can't find it.

    What kind of drive is in the 820?

   Joe

At 06:43 PM 9/23/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Greetings to all --
>
>About a year ago, Joe Rigdon very kindly gave me a number of old machines
>(thanks, Joe!), among them a Xerox 820. At the time he gave it to me, the
>unit didn't power up, but today I finally found the time to give it a
>second look. After I reconnected a loose lead inside the box it came to
>life! This is my only machine with 8" disk drives, so I'm interested in
>finding a good use for it.
>
>I could use some help from the list members, though. I found *no*
>technical data via Google, and have *no* real docs for this beast. After
>poking at the 820 for a bit, here's where I'm at:
>
>--> The "B" drive is faulty. Disk initialization fails, and it will not
>consistently read disks created on the "A" drive. Any pointers on
>replacement drives? Even if a thorough cleaning revives this drive, I'd
>like to obtain a spare.
>
>--> Assuming I can't revive the "B" drive or find a replacement, how can I
>duplicate diskettes? The CP/M utilities all seem to want two drives in
>order to do their job.
>
>--> Two of the boot diskettes which I have boot up a pretty normal looking
>version of CP/M 2.2, with a normal "A>" prompt, but another diskette
>displays the following upon boot:
>
>"Good Day! ZCPR 2.04 SYSTEM READY"
>
>and the prompt is "A0>" (obviously user group 0). What is this "ZCPR"?
>
>--> Some of the utilities on the boot diskettes (FMT, for example) refer to
>hard disk drives. What's involved in attaching a hard drive to this
>system?
>
>--> The flimsy "User Manual" which I have states that the RS232 port may be
>configured to attach to a terminal or to a modem. How?
>
>--> Lastly, does anyone have any documentation on this thing? If you can
>part with it, I'd be glad to pay a fair price.
>
>Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Although this system
>doesn't appear to be special or unique, it does seem to be a sort of nice,
>friendly critter, and I'd like to put it into use.
>
>Later --
>
>Glen
>0/0
>
>If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?
>And if not now, when?
>-- Pirkei Avot
>
>
Received on Mon Sep 23 2002 - 18:04:00 BST