Hi all !
Two years ago, a friend of mine gave me a micro which was the first one to use Unix commercially back in 1981.
He told me that there was problem with the power supply. With the harddisk connected, a short circuit is produced.
When it's disconncected, the Onyx doesn't work correctly, the system isn't stable.
He gave me 15 QIC-Tapes with it, unfortunately no documents.
Ok, so far about his information...
On the internet, there's little information about the Onyx but nothing what could help.
Last week, I decided to resurrect this machine, and to be honest: It's not in a good condition. :-(
Things I did until now:
- Replaced the fuse which was blown (somebody used the system by bypassing the dead fuse with a cable...)
- Replaced the broken reset switch
- Replaced the reel of the tape drive (the rubber one near the read and write head which
transports the tape
What's in this micro ?
- CPU: Zilog 8002 _at_ 4 MHz
- memory: 256-512kb
- HDD: IMI 7720
- Tape drive: DEI (Data Electronic INC) Qic-Tape drive (you can find the document at Al's
collection)
- 8 terminals can be connected
Moreover,serveral tapes are corroded.
One of the two memory boards is not connected to the mainboard. There is a notice dated from '84 wich sais that the board is defective.
With the HDD disconnected, the machine turns on, the voltages at the power supply do not leave the 5% tolerance-This leaves me to the conclusion that the supply is in good working condition.
I connected a VT420 as a console terminal (there's a port for that purpose) which emulates a VT100 but nothing appears on the screen (I tried out several baud rates...).
There are lots of test points on the board, serveral of these are used to messure the voltage level.
And at the I/O-Board where the terminals are connected appears another problem: the 5V test Point gives out 4,15 V...
There's some work to do to bring the C8002 back to life.
It seems to me that this machine is very rare and that it's therefore worth to invest some work to resurrect it.
But what I mostly need is your help. Is anybody familiar with the Onyx computers ?
Of course, one important thing are the documents, as there are many LEDs on the boards and I just don't know their meaning. Scanning these (if they exist) is not nessecary, email communicatio n would be enough for me. Same for the IMI hard drive...
I could make some photos is anybody is interested.
Best Regards
Pierre
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Received on Wed Jul 14 2004 - 04:36:25 BST