exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Back home after a "quick" trip down to Cornwall and back.

The second Kaypro 4 has come back with me along with other stuff, but I'll look at that after I've worked on the LC III. Hopefully it will just need a clean, the RIFAs removed and a bit of lubrication for the floppy drives.

Too tired to do anything tonight though.

So, the second Kaypro 4...

The floppy drives are definitely after market and newer than the system. The pop riveted blanking plate between the drives was obviously fitted after the drives were installed, making it extremely difficult to remove the top drive. The lower drive is impossible to remove without removing the CRT first as one of the screws is behind it. So, I had to service Drive B as best I could.

Replaced the RIFAs, which were all ripe and ready to blossom.

Powering on I thought the display wasn't working as it seemed blank even with the brightness turned right up... until I turned the lights off. Unfortunately this particular monitor board (unlike the one in the other Kaypro) has all the adjustments right in the middle of the PCB meaning that you can't adjust the thing in situ, it would have to be removed from the chassis, along with the CRT, to do so!

The system runs the drives, tries to boot from a floppy but none of the floppies I made work. This isn't surprising given how out of standard alignment they probably are by now.

I've also bent the external cover back to almost the correct shape.

I think I'll leave the system at that for the time being and probably leave it alone until I give it away in May.

stephen_usher wrote: 17 Mar 2024 20:16 So, the second Kaypro 4...



Replaced the RIFAs, which were all ripe and ready to blossom.

I like that phrase Stephen, I mean it is spring after all :lol: That's a pain RE monitor board. Its not like the Mac is it and there being a small hole through the PCB for the adjuster?

PhilC wrote: 18 Mar 2024 09:31 I like that phrase Stephen, I mean it is spring after all :lol: That's a pain RE monitor board. Its not like the Mac is it and there being a small hole through the PCB for the adjuster?

Unfortunately not. All the four adjustments are at 90 degrees to the PCB in the middle of the board. Two need to be adjusted from the "front" and two from "behind", with one of the behind ones just in front of the flyback transformer and with less than a centimetre offset so you need a particularly long non-conductive screwdriver to reach it and not get zapped. It's almost as if the designer was trying to be evil.

Ah, lucky you. I'll not volunteer with my shakey hands.

PhilC wrote: 18 Mar 2024 09:50 Ah, lucky you. I'll not volunteer with my shakey hands.

:)

stephen_usher wrote: 17 Mar 2024 20:16 So, the second Kaypro 4...

Powering on I thought the display wasn't working as it seemed blank even with the brightness turned right up... until I turned the lights off. Unfortunately this particular monitor board (unlike the one in the other Kaypro) has all the adjustments right in the middle of the PCB meaning that you can't adjust the thing in situ, it would have to be removed from the chassis, along with the CRT, to do so!

Always nice when they put the adjustments in a spot that risks life and limb...

Seeing as I'm waiting for parts for the LC III I've got the second Kaypro back on the bench.

Opened the top and connected a Gotek to the floppy interface header and turned on... No boot. It says that it can't read the disk. "Ejecting" the virtual disk does as it should have wait until the disk is "inserted". I can see side 0 and side 1 being accessed.

I've cleaned the nastily corroded pins on the floppy controller chip and that's made no difference. Oh well.

Oh and to show just how dim the screen is, even with the lights off and it almost dark outside I can only just read what's on the screen.

Well, that'll be why it can't read the disks... The FDC9216B clock/data separator chip is dead. Both the clock and data output pins wibble a bit when the drive is reading but it's not a real signal.

Oh, and just to show how dim the display is...

No BlueSCSI V2 in the mail today. *sigh*

Supposedly the 68882 and FDC1962B are now in the post.

More courier pergatory.