In this post, I build a Basic Flash and RAM board the the HP 9000 series of computers: Purpose Lately I’ve been playing with old HP computers such as the 9836, 9920, and 9000/310. These computers typically do not come with ROM basic or any other ROM operating system. Without a ROM board, you have …
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Web Server Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana
Prometheus exporter for apache log files, used to monitor traffic to a website using Grafana, as well as notes about using blackbox exporter and node exporter.
Read MoreAssembling a thin client to serve as an HPDrive
In this video, I put together a T5745 thin client with a PCI expansion adapter and a GPIB adapter. Background I’ve started playing with some HP 9000 computers, both the series 200 (9836, 9920, etc) and the series 300 (model 310). With a few exceptions such as the 9836, these computers often don’t include built-in …
Read MoreRaspberry Pi Floppy Controller Board
This floppy controller hat for the raspberry pi allows you to connect vintage floppy drives (360K, 720K, 1.2MB, 1.44MB, etc) to your raspberry pi model 4B.
Read MoreHP 27201A Speech Output Module, first speech synthesizer designed by a major computer manufacturer!
Teardown and reverse engineering of the HP 27201A speech output module, which uses the TMS5220 speech processor IC and was designed to be used with the HP 1000 and HP 3000 series minicomputers.
Read MoreThe VTEK Small Talk Plus Epson HX-20, World First Laptop — Talking!
In this video, I tear down and repair a unique variant of the Epson HX-20 Laptop, the VTEK Small Talk Plus What might it be, and where did it come from? I’ve been looking for an HX-20 for a while to add to my Vintage collection, and one day I came across a listing for …
Read MoreThis is Digitalker! … and Jameco JE520 too. Vintage Speech Synthesis.
In this post, I create a board for the Digitalker speech synthesizer chipset Background The digitalker chipset by national semiconductor was popular during the 80s as a way to add speech capability to products and projects. The chipset was sold by Jameco and other electronics parts resellers. Here’s an excerpt from a typical Jameco catalog: …
Read MoreCloning the ET-3404 6809 adapter for the Heathkit ET-3400
In this video, I make a clone of the ET-3404 6809 adapter: Purpose I’ve become somewhat of a Heathkit ET-3400 enthusiast lately, after building my ETA-3400 memory/io clone. I decided to also clone the ET-3404, which is a 6809 adapter board for the ET-3400. Why? Simply for completeness sake. The official “experiments” for the ET-3404 …
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