Re: [M100] Model 100 boot issue?

[Stephen Adolph]

I recently added 'check the crystal is oscillating'  to my list of basic
checks..
Can you scope it and see if you have 2.4MHZ clk?


On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, Charles Hudson  wrote:

> My Model 100 came to me with some problems and I have addressed what I can
> (replaced memory backup battery and the usual capacitors, for example) but
> this one has me stumped:  After reliable service for more than a year, a
> few months ago it simply would not light up.  I hit the reset button, of
> course, and then checked the PSU voltage and replaced the AAs as first
> steps.  I varied the display pot to see if it had been moved accidentally.
> None of this solved the problem.
>
> Once before it had displayed this problem and I had solved it then by
> splitting the case and unplugging / replugging the display cables.  I took
> it apart again and today after reassembly I inserted a fresh set of
> batteries.  I must have left the power switch "on" because when I turned it
> right side up I saw some characters on the display.  Not the usual menu,
> though.
>
> So I pressed the reset button, and the usual menu appeared , with a prompt
> below that seemed to relate to the code for the DVI: "Select ..."  I
> pressed the reset button again, and the display went blank.  I shut down,
> took out the batteries and turned off memory backup power for about 15
> seconds, replaced batteries, enabled memory power and powered up.  Still
> blank.
>
> I checked my reference materials because I faintly remembered there is a
> cold-start sequence.  I found it on line, at last: SHIFT+CTL+BREAK held
> down together, then press RESET.  That didn't work either.  No sign of life.
>
> I'm posting here in hopes someone has run across this problem and can
> diagnose it or suggest a direction for investigation. Thanks for any
> suggestions.
> -CH-
>
>
>
>
> 
>  Virus-free.
> www.avast.com
> 
> <#m_-680253058579994654_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>

Re: [M100] Dealing with yellowed case

[Michael Kohne]

Interesting approach - unfortunately, we're just entering fall here
(PA, USA) and all the sunny is behind us for a while. If I don't do
something else over the winter, I may try this come spring.

Also, a previous message mentioned automotive vinyl and plastic paints.
The brand on that paint was "SEM Color Coat", and the manufacturer's
web site is https://www.semproducts.com/product/color-coattm-aerosols
That's the part of the line that's in aerosol cans, they also make
quarts and gallons for HVLP spraying.

On Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 7:33 PM Electronics Luckydip
 wrote:
>
> Howdy. An alternative that may be worth trying before any sprays or chemicals 
> is what I know as "airbriting" or "sunbrighting", which is literally just 
> leaving the plastic out to sunbake for an extended period.
>
> I do not have any experience with "sunbrighting" a M100 but in general I have 
> had very good success in restoring the color of all but the most stubborn 
> yellowed plastics by just baking the plastic in the sun for several days. For 
> example, this last month it took me ~8 sunny cloudless days to complete the 
> de-yellowing of a moderately-heavily yellowed compaq keyboard (including 
> keycaps), though I could see results after the first day or two. In a few 
> projects where "sunbrighting" has not completed the job for me it has at 
> least reduced the yellowing substantially. I have the benefit of the Aussie 
> Sun but it's not that much different to other parts of the world.
>
> The technique was recently covered on the Retro Recipes youtube channel at 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P1OVj0IcqY
>
> In that video there is also some mention of using LED lights to help prevent 
> the yellowing from returning, which I believe may apply to both retrobriting 
> and sunbrighting techniques. Incidentally, the room in which I keep my gear 
> does happen to have LED lights and I have not seen the yellowing return in 
> any of my items - though I have only been dealing with this for a short while.
>
> I've recently acquired an NEC 8201A and have been lurking here accumulating 
> info that will be of help when I get around to studying it, but thought I 
> should mention the possibility of "airbrighting" in case it is of use to you 
> or anyone in the same situation.
>
> Regards,
> Ben
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 10:13 PM Michael Kohne  wrote:
>>
>> I've got an M100 with a severely yellowed upper shell, and I'm
>> wondering what remediation possibilities I have.
>>
>> I've heard of retrobrite, but I've also heard that it can make
>> plastics more brittle. For something that's a portable computer,
>> brittle (even if only slightly more than original) sounds like a bad
>> idea.
>>
>> Had anyone ever tried painting one of these shells? Are there paints
>> that would hold up to actual use? It'd be like painting the case on a
>> keyboard, and I'd worry that it was going to chip or rub off very
>> quickly.
>>
>> I poked around the mechanical keyboard community and found references
>> to using Krylon's Fusion paints, anyone have any experience with them?
>>
>> Also, does anyone know what kind of plastic the M100 shell is? I'd
>> like to find some similar plastics to experiment with before I risk an
>> M100 shell.
>>
>> --
>> Michael Kohne
>> mhko...@kohne.org
>>
>> Anything real you do that's important will be scary. Having kids.
>> Getting married. Donating a kidney.  Writing a book. Do it anyway. -
>> Neil Gaiman



-- 
Michael Kohne
mhko...@kohne.org

Anything real you do that's important will be scary. Having kids.
Getting married. Donating a kidney.  Writing a book. Do it anyway. -
Neil Gaiman

[M100] Model M102 board

[Robert J. Hutchins]

I am looking for a Model 102 board and a Model 100 LCD.

Any offers?

 

Thanks

Robert

Re: [M100] Dealing with yellowed case

[Electronics Luckydip]

Howdy. An alternative that may be worth trying before any sprays or
chemicals is what I know as "airbriting" or "sunbrighting", which is
literally just leaving the plastic out to sunbake for an extended period.

I do not have any experience with "sunbrighting" a M100 but in general I
have had very good success in restoring the color of all but the most
stubborn yellowed plastics by just baking the plastic in the sun for
several days. For example, this last month it took me ~8 sunny cloudless
days to complete the de-yellowing of a moderately-heavily yellowed compaq
keyboard (including keycaps), though I could see results after the first
day or two. In a few projects where "sunbrighting" has not completed the
job for me it has at least reduced the yellowing substantially. I have the
benefit of the Aussie Sun but it's not that much different to other parts
of the world.

The technique was recently covered on the Retro Recipes youtube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P1OVj0IcqY

In that video there is also some mention of using LED lights to help
prevent the yellowing from returning, which I believe may apply to both
retrobriting and sunbrighting techniques. Incidentally, the room in which I
keep my gear does happen to have LED lights and I have not seen the
yellowing return in any of my items - though I have only been dealing with
this for a short while.

I've recently acquired an NEC 8201A and have been lurking here accumulating
info that will be of help when I get around to studying it, but thought I
should mention the possibility of "airbrighting" in case it is of use to
you or anyone in the same situation.

Regards,
Ben


On Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 10:13 PM Michael Kohne  wrote:

> I've got an M100 with a severely yellowed upper shell, and I'm
> wondering what remediation possibilities I have.
>
> I've heard of retrobrite, but I've also heard that it can make
> plastics more brittle. For something that's a portable computer,
> brittle (even if only slightly more than original) sounds like a bad
> idea.
>
> Had anyone ever tried painting one of these shells? Are there paints
> that would hold up to actual use? It'd be like painting the case on a
> keyboard, and I'd worry that it was going to chip or rub off very
> quickly.
>
> I poked around the mechanical keyboard community and found references
> to using Krylon's Fusion paints, anyone have any experience with them?
>
> Also, does anyone know what kind of plastic the M100 shell is? I'd
> like to find some similar plastics to experiment with before I risk an
> M100 shell.
>
> --
> Michael Kohne
> mhko...@kohne.org
>
> Anything real you do that's important will be scary. Having kids.
> Getting married. Donating a kidney.  Writing a book. Do it anyway. -
> Neil Gaiman
>

[M100] Model 100 boot issue?

[Charles Hudson]

My Model 100 came to me with some problems and I have addressed what I can
(replaced memory backup battery and the usual capacitors, for example) but
this one has me stumped:  After reliable service for more than a year, a
few months ago it simply would not light up.  I hit the reset button, of
course, and then checked the PSU voltage and replaced the AAs as first
steps.  I varied the display pot to see if it had been moved accidentally.
None of this solved the problem.

Once before it had displayed this problem and I had solved it then by
splitting the case and unplugging / replugging the display cables.  I took
it apart again and today after reassembly I inserted a fresh set of
batteries.  I must have left the power switch "on" because when I turned it
right side up I saw some characters on the display.  Not the usual menu,
though.

So I pressed the reset button, and the usual menu appeared , with a prompt
below that seemed to relate to the code for the DVI: "Select ..."  I
pressed the reset button again, and the display went blank.  I shut down,
took out the batteries and turned off memory backup power for about 15
seconds, replaced batteries, enabled memory power and powered up.  Still
blank.

I checked my reference materials because I faintly remembered there is a
cold-start sequence.  I found it on line, at last: SHIFT+CTL+BREAK held
down together, then press RESET.  That didn't work either.  No sign of life.

I'm posting here in hopes someone has run across this problem and can
diagnose it or suggest a direction for investigation. Thanks for any
suggestions.
-CH-




Virus-free.
www.avast.com

<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

Re: [M100] calling Ron Weisen

[Stephen Adolph]

Well no word from Ron huh.
I can say, as I'm sure everyone suspects, he is a very clever programmer. I
spent some time taking apart his TEENY.DO loader for TEENY.CO
It is quite a thing.  It is a 2 stage loader.  First a program simply coded
as hex ascii loads up stage one, which then reads back and loads up TEENY.CO
which is heavily encoded to enable re-location.
I didn't reverse engineer it all; all I needed to do was make a single byte
change in the 2nd stage data, to remove the SIM opcode from the resulting
TEENY.CO.

I have my own much less fancy loader now that creates NTEENY.CO at 62213,
and runs on NSC800.

..Steve

On Fri, Oct 9, 2020 at 2:01 PM Stephen Adolph  wrote:

> Hey folks,
> Has anyone heard from Ron lately?
> Is he on the list still?
>
> I disassembled Teeny to fix it to work on Z80 and I'm mostly done, but it
> would be nice to let Ron know what I am up to.
>
> thanks
> Steve
>

Re: [M100] Dealing with yellowed case

[C.Magaret]

I’ve done some painting of portable electronics (specifically an Alphasmart 
Neo) with good success.  I followed the advice of using automotive spraypaints, 
designed for dashboards, upholstery, etc.  I’m not intimately familiar with the 
chemistry, but allegedly the paint bonds with the plastic for better longevity, 
and is slightly pliable, so it’s less likely to chip off.  I’ve had two Neos 
painted this was for years now, and they both look great.

Here’s an example of what I used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4678615243/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8=1

CAM

-- 

C.A. Magaret

Sent from my newfangled mobile technogizmo.  Please forgive any typos, 
inelegant brevity, or nonsensical auto-corrections.

> On Oct 13, 2020, at 05:25, Erik van der Tier  wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I’ve done the retrobrite on my T102 with some success. I have no idea if it 
> really made the plastics more brittle, but it didn’t get rid of all the 
> yellow although it was a huge improvement. But two weeks ago, I’ve gone 
> another direction with it and spray painted it mat-black. I’m very happy with 
> the results. I had actually sent a mail to this list, but it never seemed to 
> have gotten through. I used basic ’Spectrum spray paint’ and Spectrum primer. 
> After about 2 weeks of regular work I haven’t seen any degradation of the 
> paint job so far (I did go for many layers). Anyway, I can recommend this 
> approach as for me, I’m very happy with the result. The T102 looks like a 
> completely new machine. You do lose the decals below the function keys (not a 
> problem for me…).
> 
> Erik
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On 13 Oct 2020, at 13:13, Michael Kohne  wrote:
>> 
>> I've got an M100 with a severely yellowed upper shell, and I'm
>> wondering what remediation possibilities I have.
>> 
>> I've heard of retrobrite, but I've also heard that it can make
>> plastics more brittle. For something that's a portable computer,
>> brittle (even if only slightly more than original) sounds like a bad
>> idea.
>> 
>> Had anyone ever tried painting one of these shells? Are there paints
>> that would hold up to actual use? It'd be like painting the case on a
>> keyboard, and I'd worry that it was going to chip or rub off very
>> quickly.
>> 
>> I poked around the mechanical keyboard community and found references
>> to using Krylon's Fusion paints, anyone have any experience with them?
>> 
>> Also, does anyone know what kind of plastic the M100 shell is? I'd
>> like to find some similar plastics to experiment with before I risk an
>> M100 shell.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Michael Kohne
>> mhko...@kohne.org
>> 
>> Anything real you do that's important will be scary. Having kids.
>> Getting married. Donating a kidney.  Writing a book. Do it anyway. -
>> Neil Gaiman
> 

Re: [M100] Dealing with yellowed case

[Erik van der Tier]

Hi,

I’ve done the retrobrite on my T102 with some success. I have no idea if it 
really made the plastics more brittle, but it didn’t get rid of all the yellow 
although it was a huge improvement. But two weeks ago, I’ve gone another 
direction with it and spray painted it mat-black. I’m very happy with the 
results. I had actually sent a mail to this list, but it never seemed to have 
gotten through. I used basic ’Spectrum spray paint’ and Spectrum primer. After 
about 2 weeks of regular work I haven’t seen any degradation of the paint job 
so far (I did go for many layers). Anyway, I can recommend this approach as for 
me, I’m very happy with the result. The T102 looks like a completely new 
machine. You do lose the decals below the function keys (not a problem for me…).

Erik



> On 13 Oct 2020, at 13:13, Michael Kohne  wrote:
> 
> I've got an M100 with a severely yellowed upper shell, and I'm
> wondering what remediation possibilities I have.
> 
> I've heard of retrobrite, but I've also heard that it can make
> plastics more brittle. For something that's a portable computer,
> brittle (even if only slightly more than original) sounds like a bad
> idea.
> 
> Had anyone ever tried painting one of these shells? Are there paints
> that would hold up to actual use? It'd be like painting the case on a
> keyboard, and I'd worry that it was going to chip or rub off very
> quickly.
> 
> I poked around the mechanical keyboard community and found references
> to using Krylon's Fusion paints, anyone have any experience with them?
> 
> Also, does anyone know what kind of plastic the M100 shell is? I'd
> like to find some similar plastics to experiment with before I risk an
> M100 shell.
> 
> -- 
> Michael Kohne
> mhko...@kohne.org
> 
> Anything real you do that's important will be scary. Having kids.
> Getting married. Donating a kidney.  Writing a book. Do it anyway. -
> Neil Gaiman

[M100] Dealing with yellowed case

[Michael Kohne]

I've got an M100 with a severely yellowed upper shell, and I'm
wondering what remediation possibilities I have.

I've heard of retrobrite, but I've also heard that it can make
plastics more brittle. For something that's a portable computer,
brittle (even if only slightly more than original) sounds like a bad
idea.

Had anyone ever tried painting one of these shells? Are there paints
that would hold up to actual use? It'd be like painting the case on a
keyboard, and I'd worry that it was going to chip or rub off very
quickly.

I poked around the mechanical keyboard community and found references
to using Krylon's Fusion paints, anyone have any experience with them?

Also, does anyone know what kind of plastic the M100 shell is? I'd
like to find some similar plastics to experiment with before I risk an
M100 shell.

-- 
Michael Kohne
mhko...@kohne.org

Anything real you do that's important will be scary. Having kids.
Getting married. Donating a kidney.  Writing a book. Do it anyway. -
Neil Gaiman