Greetings again Brian and everyone, > I would never ask to break something. > > If it has screws or obvious snaps, and you're comfy then fine, otherwise > don't think one second about it.
My sincere apologies! I didn’t for a moment think that you were asking me to break anything; my post was simply me lamenting my emerging but nascent skills! The case appears to be quite well stuck together, and I was hoping that I might’ve been able to crack it open without needing to hot glue it back together (ugh, my glue gun chops are awful!). But… I did take a peek at the 256Kb IC cards and sure enough, there’s not only a battery compartment that easily unscrewed, but also an on/off switch! Pretty cool stuff, so I took some more photos and added two slides into the PDF (pages 12 and 13, in particular). This also shows the other 32Kb IC card I have (sure enough, it initialized and works!). This should be a direct link to the updated PDF with the additional photos, for convenience (if this doesn’t work, the link to the folder is in the thread, below): http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=Gold Card 7.10 Photos and 1988 Review.pdf&directory=Steve Baker& Next for me with the Goldmine (clearly, I like giving things nicknames) is in the software; I'd like to figure out more about the ROM Eliminator feature chronicled in the article (slide 17). Might they have a precursor to REX? While mine is probably not the industrial interface ($100 option) perhaps the ability to save and restore Option ROMs is available? Onward we go, SB -- Greetings from Steve Baker “Gravity brings me down…” > On Jan 11, 2021, at 6:54 PM, Brian White <b.kenyo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I would never ask to break something. > > If it has screws or obvious snaps, and you're comfy then fine, otherwise > don't think one second about it. > > Thanks for dumping the rom and the pics. > > On Mon, Jan 11, 2021, 5:07 PM Steve Baker <stevebake...@gmail.com > <mailto:stevebake...@gmail.com>> wrote: > From Brian K. White: > >> Could you look a little more at the cards? >> Do they come apart to see the board inside? >> Is the battery permanent or a removable coin cell? >> >> Does the main unit with the sockets come apart to see that board? > > > Good questions and thoughts @Brian thanks for your follow-up with this! In > the next day or two I’ll poke around a little bit. I’m a bit squeamish to > crack open stuff, not for fear of discovery but for fear of naively breaking > brittle rare stuff! I’ll do my best to do what I can (if I see something I > can open and/and detach, I certainly will!). > > Whatever I’m able to learn on the hardware side, I’ll take additional > pictures and update the PDF (and post here letting you and others know). I > also happen to have a Tarjeta IC Card MF3132-003T originally for Noritsu > machines that I wanted to use in my Tandy WP-2 (sadly, it doesn’t work) so > I’ll see if it works in this fella at all. > >> I love how thin the unit is. > > > Yes, the black plastic case is incredibly thin and I could see how convenient > it would be to have it affixed under the Model T (especially if the user has > two of those groovy little legs installed as kick-stands of sorts). I’ll > probably replace the battery and caps on this particular T102, retr0brite the > case, and nickname it Goldmine. ;-) > > Cheers, > SB > > -- > Greetings from Steve Baker > “Gravity brings me down…” > > > >> On Jan 11, 2021, at 1:17 PM, Brian K. White <b.kenyo...@gmail.com >> <mailto:b.kenyo...@gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> This is very cool. >> >> Could you look a little more at the cards? >> Do they come apart to see the board inside? >> Is the battery permanent or a removable coin cell? >> >> Does the main unit with the sockets come apart to see that board? >> >> I love how thin the unit is. >> >> -- >> bkw >> >> >> On 1/10/21 5:25 PM, Steve Baker wrote: >>> Thanks! Yep, it’s very well-built and I’m looking forward to digging into >>> it once I (finally) put together my MVT100 kit that you sent me months ago! >>> (I’m perhaps too cautious…) >>> By chance, is Mo still associated with King Computer Services (that’s one >>> of the companies mentioned in the credits screen)? I sent an email to them >>> and attached the PDF too. >>> https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm >>> <https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm> >>> <https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm >>> <https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm>> >>> It’d be great to learn more about the history of this project, how long it >>> was on the market, if the manuals are available somewhere, etc. (looks like >>> I’ve found my next windmill). >>> Cheers and again, thanks, >>> SB >>> -- >>> Greetings from Steve Baker >>> “Gravity brings me down…” >>>> On Jan 10, 2021, at 5:10 PM, Stephen Adolph <twospru...@gmail.com >>>> <mailto:twospru...@gmail.com> <mailto:twospru...@gmail.com >>>> <mailto:twospru...@gmail.com>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> very interesting! Never seen that before. >>>> Well Mo Budlong wrote some very good software, I'm sure it is really a >>>> good device. >>>> thanks for putting that together! >>>> Steve >>>> >>>> On Sun, Jan 10, 2021 at 4:06 PM Steve Baker <stevebake...@gmail.com >>>> <mailto:stevebake...@gmail.com> <mailto:stevebake...@gmail.com >>>> <mailto:stevebake...@gmail.com>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Quick update on my (previously mysterious) Gold 7.10 chip. I >>>> dusted off the corresponding hardware (an interesting case with >>>> two 256Kb IC cards that plugs into the system bus) and was able to >>>> get it working. It offers two banks of 256Kb storage plus some >>>> utilities to format and test IC cards, copy cards, transfer files >>>> to/from RAM, and so on. >>>> >>>> Today I made a quick PDF that has (a) photos of the software >>>> running on a Tandy 102, the chip itself, and the IC case and >>>> cards; and (b) a two-part article written by Mike Nugget in the >>>> Oct/Nov 1988 issues of Portable 100. Thought it might be >>>> interesting to read a more robust hands-on review, as I’m just >>>> starting to figure out what this does. >>>> >>>> The PDF is stored here in my Club100 folder: >>>> >>>> >>>> http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve%20Baker&; >>>> >>>> <http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve%20Baker&;> >>>> >>>> <http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve%20Baker&; >>>> >>>> <http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve%20Baker&;>> >>>> >>>> … along with the HEX and BX files of the chip itself. Now I’m >>>> totally curious about what I have… given the chip has a >>>> hand-written label, is this a pre-production version? Or were all >>>> of them shipped like this, thereby asserting a relatively low >>>> volume (the 512k set had a list price of $550 back in ’88)? Well, >>>> it’ll be fun to see what I can do with it. >>>> >>>> Cheers and here’s to a good week, >>>> SB >>>> >>>> >>>> — >>>> Greetings from Steve Baker >>>> “Gravity brings me down…” >>>> >>>> >>>> >> >> >> -- >> bkw >
