Osborne anyone?

[KennyPowers]

I'm thinking about going to Starbucks and plopping one of these down on a table amongst all the laptops and getting my WordStar on



These both looked like the one on the left before I fixed them up:

 

[JustG]

Very nice! I received on as part of a lot. It's supposed to have "something wrong with it" but I haven't gotten around to even plugging it in. Are there any good troubleshooting resources online for them machines?

 

[KennyPowers]

Very nice!

Thanks. One of these two is interesting in that it has a homebrew 1MB RAM upgrade that my dad had a local guy perform back in the mid-80s. Probably the only one left like it. The same guy provided custom RAM-disk software with the upgrade that makes it a fairly speedy system. Just remember to save to floppy before your power goes out!



The upgrade is just a mess of bodge wires and stacked RAM ICs:

I haven't gotten around to even plugging it in.

You may want to recap the power supply before attempting to turn it on. There are RIFA caps in there amongst others.

Are there any good troubleshooting resources online for them machines?

Not really...not like there are for more popular machines. There is this handy video though:

 

[MacAttack]

I sold 2 Osborne 1's and and executive at the VCF swap meet back in September. You might see a video from Action Retro on the executive one day.

 

[Daniel Hansen]

Yes please! Osborne 1 is on my get list because a) I don't have a CP/M machine and, b) early portables are my kink

 

[KennyPowers]

a) I don't have a CP/M machine and, b) early portables are my kink

You'll probably like this little guy then...CP/M card for an Apple IIc Looking forward to trying it out when I get around to restoring my IIc's.

 

[KennyPowers]

I got an Osborne 1 awhile back that I just finished restoring. Here it is next to one of its Executive brethren right after I got it home.



It mostly worked, though the B drive was hit-or-miss and it was just really filthy and yellowed. I also didn't want to run it too much before getting the RIFAs out of it.



I did the usual complete recap, adjusted the drive RPMs, retrobrited it, and thoroughly cleaned it inside and out. Looks and runs like new!

 

[KennyPowers]

I recently got an Old Net WIFI modem and just got it working with one of the Executives using myterm. Most of the work was getting the downloaded myterm binary copied over serial to the Osborne (getting the serial port configured right, converting to hex, converting back to a binary on the Osborne, etc). Connected to a few BBS's, "browsed" this site, and played some zork