Anyone here an expert about the Outbound Laptop? I have questions

[This Does Not Compute]

1. The keyboard can work either over infrared, or with an attached cable. The keyboard has two ports, an RJ11 (with matching RJ11 on the Outbound itself), and a mini-DIN. What's the pinout of the RJ11 cable? And what's the mini-DIN for?
2. You could get the Laptop with either an internal floppy or hard disk drive. The pin headers for both are present on the motherboard. Will the floppy header work with a normal Mac floppy drive or FloppyEmu?
3. Are there photos of the umbilical cable and host connector card anywhere? The closest I can find is from a scan of the installation manual, but the scan is very poor.
4. Anyone have a spare SCSI/floppy adapter for one of these they want to sell?

 

[This Does Not Compute]

Managed to find some answers. The RJ-11 keyboard cable is officially called the "infrared bypass cable", though I still haven't found a pinout. The mini-DIN jack is for an optional mouse that Outbound sold, which was *not* ADB, and could share the keyboard's IR connection to the main unit. The floppy drive is apparently based off of a standard PC drive, but with a custom pinout -- no doubt there was an interposer board involved.

 

[ScutBoy]

I know there is an interposer board for the external floppy - at least there is some kind of board between the cable and the Citizen floppy drive. Whether that drive is "stock" or not, I don't know, but I suspect yes.

The mouse I have with mine looks like the generic Microsoft mouse of that time, but has a specific Outbound label on it, so who knows if it's been modified in any way.

 

[Drake]

I found this today while organising some donations, I'm curious if it actually is a ROM for an outbound kit?

The roms also seem to be socketed.

 

[retr01]

I found this today while organising some donations, I'm curious if it actually is a ROM for an outbound kit?

The roms also seem to be socketed.

Yes. It is for the Outbound Notebook.

 

[retr01]

I stumbled upon some great information with photographs about the Outbound Laptop. There were TWO models: the Outbound "Wallaby" Laptop and the Outbound Notebook. When Apple introduced and released the PowerBook in 1991, the company that produced those aftermarket laptops whittled away.

I found the Outbound Laptop System User's Guide in PDF too.

Wikiwand - Outbound Systems

Outbound Systems, Inc., was an American computer company based in Boulder, Colorado. Founded by Warren Conner in 1989, the company offered Macintosh clone computer systems in various portable form factors between 1989 and 1991. It left the Mac conversion business in 1992 to build windows-based...

www.wikiwand.com

Outbound Laptop | Applefritter

www.applefritter.com

Outbound Notebook | Applefritter

www.applefritter.com

Outbound Laptop and Notebook | Low End Mac

lowendmac.com

Outbound Notebook System

www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org

Outbound Mac Clones: EveryMac.com

A complete guide of Every Mac and MacOS-Compatible in the world, with detailed technical, configuration, and pricing information.

everymac.com

What's Outbound got that Apple doesn't? - Outbound Systems Inc.'s Notebook System Series 2000, Series 2035, Series 2030E and Series 2030S | Home Office Computing | Find Articles

What's Outbound got that Apple doesn't? - Outbound Systems Inc.'s Notebook System Series 2000, Series 2035, Series 2030E and Series 2030S from Home Office Computing

web.archive.org

 

[retr01]

The Outbound Laptop and Notebook were among several other Macintosh clone laptops and portable Macintosh solutions back in the day in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as the Dynamac and Freestyle.

Outbound & Clones | Applerooters

www.applerooters.net