Restoring an ADDS Regent 200 Data Terminal
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ค. 2024
- Earlier this year, I ventured all the way up to New Jersey to attend VCF East. Aside from the fact that that was just a staggeringly cool event, it put some things in motion that have been awesome to say the least. Once of the things I’m quite excited about is this little data terminal here. I’m an ADDS fanboy, I think they build some amazingly cool looking data terminals, and I’m beyond stoked to get this ADDS Regent 200 back up and looking fresh again. So, let’s just dig into it!
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vcfed.org/
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Intro Music adapted from:
Artist: The Runaway Five
Title: The Shinra Shuffle
ocremix.org/remix/OCR01847
Thanks for watching!
Chapters
0:00 A VCF hoodie
1:59 What are we looking at today?
4:28 A quick test before disassembly
5:39 Ripping it all apart
9:11 Cleaning and painting
13:57 Good googly moogly, that’s a pretty terminal
15:34 Testing it hooked up to a computer
18:14 Still a little left to do, but overall, a massive success!
20:25 Sunny-kun! - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Leave that paper clip in there! That is Microsoft Clippy's Grandfather! He will pop on the screen and answer questions for you!
Nooooo......!!!!!!! Don't do it!
Once he pops on the screen you’ll never get rid of it anymore 😮
That’s a david Murray meme 😂
ArE yOU wRiTiNG a LeTtEr?
Do You Want To Short Your Power Supply?
I was initially against the repaint, but seeing the final result have changed my mind.
I wasn't too sure how it was going to turn out, but after seeing it in blue, I'm so happy I went with the repaint!
Same. The brown/green looked nasty but I reckoned that it should stay the original colour. Then when I saw the close-up, I was like, "Yep! Cover that grossness up now" :)
@@UsagiElectric Yeah, the repaint looks absolutely amazing!
The discovery of that old paper clip just wedged in a high-current area like the power supply made my skin crawl. That was just an electrical fire waiting for the right opportunity. So lucky it didn’t shift into an unfortunate new position on the drive to Texas!
hm,, yeah, that couldve ended very badly!
Yeah, we got very lucky on that one!
When I opened it up in New Jersey and we tested it there, that paperclip wasn't stuck in the power supply like that. It must have rattled it's way into place that place while getting handled and on the trip down to Texas. I never would've thought there would have been a paperclip floating around inside the enclosure. That's why I didn't crack it open to check, because I thought we had already done that in New Jersey!
Puts paper clip back in. Flashing stops. Never mentions it again. 😅
that was my thought lol. mission critical paperclip @@greatquux
@@UsagiElectric I'll bet it slipped inside though the keyboard from a careless clerk. Keyboards collect all kinds of things like paperclips and staples.
When I heard Japanese, I checked all my tabs looking for other media playing. It took me a while to realize it was you all along. I need some rest! Keep up the good work!
i suffer quite terribly with my mental health at the moment, and honestly, just watching you get so fired up and excited and smiling about the projects you are working on actually helps make my day feel a little less gloomy! thank you for your service sir!
I'm so happy to hear that I can help bring a little enjoyment!
Nothing sucks worse than poor mental health, we've been having our fair share of loss and rough patches here as well, and working on stuff in the lab has helped keep me sane. If it can help others as well, I'll keep making videos for as long as I can!
Sorry to hear that you suffer from that 😔 All the best going forward. BR, Per (Denmark)
A bit of warning! As a person who went from working on old computers like this to typewriters from the turn of the century, SimpleGreen is not paint safe on a lot of things. It's better to only use it on non-painted surfaces. On old typewriters as mentioned it can really fuck up any varnish finishes or old soft paints from the 1930's and before, but even on later things where the paint might be a bit thin it will remove it with minimal effort as well as decals.
That was a functional paperclip from 8-bit guy engineering.
Fortunately, Usagi Electric did not need to use a Dremel to open the case. :-)
Too soon! 😂
In the 80's we took an Adds 980, broke it down and created a rack mount installation, it was used for an Industrial Process Control system. When I see the Adds on your channel it brings back memories.
I was given one of those 12 years ago, worked apart from the key contact foam had all rotted. I had to make new contact pads for every key using tin foil, that still works to this day!
Good thing in the ADDS terminal Centurion used in the 1970s-1980s all use Cherry brand keyboard switched, no foam pads to fail.
No noticeable CRT burn-in and after your restoration it looks like new, well done.
Thank you!
The CRT is in immaculate shape, I was blown away by how crisp and sharp it was!
Yeah, I noticed from the VCF footage that the old terminal had some HORRIBLE burn-in.
How about using the blank space to the right of the screen for commonly used commands/example commands? If you're going to take this to different meet-ups I think it'd really add value for users, who're using it for the first time.
Example:
.STA - Show a status display of all drives/screens
.DIR - Directory listing of Drive X
S.KOMPOZ - Simple text editor (?? to exit)
That's actually a really good idea!
Although, with how obtuse the system is, it really just needs an entire book next to it, haha.
@@UsagiElectric Just make sure to use enough sticky tape :P
- Yannick
@@UsagiElectric : Maybe use double-sided tape to stick a wooden "ledge" on the side above the keys, and use that to lean a cheapo tablet with a manual onto it :p ?
While this is a good idea, If I were going to do anything like this, I'd instead mount a bracket to hold a number of prompt cards so that you can switch cards depending on what you're running. Main System (common commands for getting a directory, finding status and so on), and cards for the commonly used programs, showing what commands to use and their format. That way, the user can just pull out the correct card (and turn it to the correct side) and re-insert it at the front to see all of the commands for whatever they're working with.
Very nice refresh. Personally, I would not add a Centurion logo to it, and let the ADDS badge do the talking.
Thanks!
I'm definitely starting to agree with you, the ADDS badge looks perfect on there!
@@UsagiElectric so is the Centurion terminal an ADDS rebrand? Whats with both being nearly identical?
I would just like to point out the hilarity that I am listening to a Usagi Electric video as I clean my apartment in which Usagi listens to an Adrian's Digital Basement video while cleaning terminal parts 👍
That paint job is absolutely gorgeous. I hate to say it, but I'm glad the brushes didn't work. Paint sprayer is the way to go for an even coat. And to my eye the color match is spot on. Wonderful job!
Thank you so much!
I was a bit naive thinking I could just brush it on, but you're absolutely right, spraying is the way to go!
It looks awesome, great job on the painting.
I don't think it needs a Centurion logo on the case.
Thank you so much!
I agree, I think if it didn't have the Regent 200 logo plate on there, it would definitely need something, but that logo plate looks really good and helps break up the ocean of blue.
@@UsagiElectric Yep, totaly agree.
For about $50 you can get a small handheld color scanner which will give you the color values of any surface, typically called l a b values. I found this great for matching paint on retro machines, especially in the case someone has something that's been put away for years and is still pretty much in its original condition as a reference.
I actually just took a spare Centurion panel up to Ace Hardware and they color matched it for me. So the blue that was painted on is proper Centurion blue!
@@UsagiElectric I am a consulting scientist who builds a lot of equipment at home to test things for clients. I'm not endorsing Ace hardware but they seem to have a lot of the stuff that I always need to have, and the cool thing is they don't even blink an eye anymore when I go in there and ask for something like a hose barb.
@@markbanash921 : Beware that not all Ace Hardware stores are made equal. The one in my town is a little lackluster, while another nearby is much better.
My Ace’s are well stocked….if you know what you need, they can supply.
Had no idea such a device exists, soooo handy. Thanks.
paint brushes only kinda work on wood, because it absorbe a bit of the pain and don't leave a lot of stripes. for anything else use a pain sprayer. half the pain, half the time and an infinitly better result.
"I just popped on some Adrian's Digital Basement and got to work"
Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well
Haha I've been doing the exact same thing while working on a Christmas present for my sister. Came here to change things up a bit.
@@LittleDancerByGrace Out of curiosity, what kind of Christmas present?
@@clonkex It's a crocheted shawl with a pretty intricate pattern. (Unfortunately not something as cool as a vintage computer.)
@@LittleDancerByGrace Not remotely what I expected from someone watching this channel, lol. But impressive. Crochet isn't exactly difficult (I say with such confidence, having only done simple stuff before) but it's pretty time-consuming.
We all follow the same channels here...
The fact they put the CRT in an easily removed cage is quite thoughtful. Why couldn't they do that with most systems? Love that Isuzu btw.
Thanks! The Bellett is one of my all time favorite cars, I drive that thing like I stole it, haha.
They likely didn't make the monitor. They would buy it frame and all from the OEM and just drop it in.
That terminal may look small, but it took up half the space in our car on the way to VCF MW when we dropped it off in Pittsburgh. Glad to see that in made the rest of the way in one piece
They let the right person have a borrow of it for sure! Great job
Wonderful work! I am so happy that the VCF guys finally did the right thing and let you give this a much better home than their warehouse. I was really anticipating this video. The cleanup and paint job turned out way better than I expected.
Thank you so much! And thanks for the sweater!
We're gonna get to the bottom of the flashing issue, and this terminal will live a long and wonderful life paired with the mini-Centurion!
Extremely cute bunny at the end, I want to give him/her a big cuddle.❤ Interesting video, the terminal turned out very well; looked brand new. I wish I could what you do, I have no technical and practical bone in my body.
that machine blue is one of my favorite colors. it's dated, sure, but that's one of the reasons I like it.
11:50
Thought I was having another stroke. LOL
Flashing is probably due to how this terminal logic board is made. The video decoder cannot access memory while the CPU is writing to it with larger ranges like when clearing the screen or scrolling up. Your other primary terminal probably has more elaborate memory access sharing with interleaved cycles so the CPU can write to it without stopping the video decoder access.
The ADDS Regent 100 and Regent 200 have almost identical logic boards. The only difference between the two are the additional control keys and an aux port on the back. Other than that, they're identical, even using the same CPU, ROM, RAM and overall construction. I think we either potentially have a bad IC on the logic board for the Regent 200, or the internal DIP switches are set incorrectly. It's going to take a deeper dive for sure though.
That was my initial thought. But it flickers on .STA _after_ it has cleared the screen. Also, I would be surprised a period Adds terminal would have such a feature. It could be an issue with one or more of the RAM chips though - just on the edge of failure.
I'd start by scoping the power supply. The old capacitors may be not have what it takes to maintain the 5V power when the logic starts getting busy. There may be ripple or hum on the DC power lines. If there was a logic component bad, I wouldn't expect it to recover like this is.
@@UsagiElectric My first thought is that perhaps the CPU in the terminal can't handle the full speed of the RS-232 connection without using flow control. It looks like the CPU can almost keep up with the data, but every so often it gets far enough behind that it needs to stop doing anything else while it empties its buffer (to the screen RAM) in order to prevent a buffer overflow error and loss of data.
If that's the case, then activating flow control, either CTS/RTS/DTR or XON/XOFF, will fix the flashing.
As the sainted Dave Jones says, "The first rule of troubleshooting is thou shalt always check voltages". But I think if it were a logic-level power issue you'd get freezing and garbage on the screen rather than blanking and then recovering. If it were an RS-232 issue where it can't keep up with the incoming data, you'd get missing and garbage characters after the blank. Same goes for flow-control, I can't imagine the RS-232 decoder having an issue and saying to the video encoder, "I can't handle this much data so just blank yourself while I catch up."
But it's fun to speculate no matter your opinion, and I am happy to be proven wrong! Perhaps @usagielectric should start a poll?
Watching this in my new Usagi Electric t shirt. 🙂
Wow that turned out beautifully! Great job!
Amazing work, it looks fantastic!
Even if the video made me feel guilty for not spending more time working on my Japanese.
Thank you so much!
And don't feel bad, I have a cheat in that my significant other is Japanese, makes it easier to get my practice in :D
Thank you for putting in a good word for the Vintage Computer Federation and Vintage Computer Festival East! So glad that we could lend this to you. You did a fantastic job in restoring it! Glad that electronically it was for the most part working. Keep us updated on the "E" key and the flickering screen!
Looks great!
Very cool! Glad to be part of the process to get this machine in your hands!
Thanks for another great video, whenever I see a new upload in my feed from your channel I just know that it is going to be a good day. Looking forward to the next one 👍
Thank you so much!
You mentioned it in the Bendix computer video, but man, you have MUCH more faith in old electrolytics and reforming them than Mr. Carlson. I always replace caps that are that old, unless they're mica. Mr. Carlson is probably the smartest EE on youtube, and if he is recommending replacing the electros, I'mma do what he says.
It's almost as if the terminal pulling the CTS line from the computer to logic low (i.e. +12V) also makes the screen go blank for some reason.
That paint job is gorgeous by the way! Excellent job.
feels like the Powerball spinning everytime, Buddhist luck is on your side. :)
It's gorgeous! Nice job.
Thanks man!
This was a really great video. That regent 200 looks absolutely amazing
Thanks man!
It really shined up nice!
When i seen you brushing that paint on i was like REEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Man, what I would give for a terminal like that! I'd 100% use it for Linux shenanigans if possible.
Once we solve the flashing issue, it'd totally be possible!
As long as you can get your Linux to play nicely with 80 x 24, it'd be perfect for it!
Would love a video tour of your very cool cars!!
superb!
Usagi! We still need to get your Centurion on the radio! You don't even need to have your ham license as long as someone who is licensed is present when transmitting. One way it could be done is with KISS protocol to a TNC so that the Centurion itself can have a custom program written so that it can handle multiple users over the connection since packet radio is designed for that anyways.
How fast can you send data?
@@Frisco1355 legal limit for HF is 300 baud, though that may change soon. For VHF and up you are pretty much limited by bandwidth of the radio you are using. Typically it's 1200baud.
The centurion could run a BBS during events, and it would be really cool to see when and who are posting messages live on a terminal while there.
We could have two TNC connected to it at the same time. One for local VHF/UHF packet, and one for long range HF packet. Generally anything above 300 baud on HF struggles to get through due to noise and especially multi-path.
06:34 - has a certain other Texas TH-camr named David been in here? ;). Just kidding! A great restoration - it looks so much better! Wishing you and yours a great Christmas and New Year!
Looks great! I'll bet if you put the paper clip back in the flashing problem will be resolved.
My thought too
(joking of course)
man that crt display looked like new, great job
More Bunny. The Mainecoon demands it.
That lucky Paperclip should become part of the computer, maybe make a paperclip emblem on the machine..just an interesting thought "The paperclip Edition"
Awesome restoration job! If I'm ever down in Texas, I know where to get my car re-painted :)
Would be really good to do a video exploring how the terminal logic board works, and perhaps compare to the Centurion to see if they're the same?
I looked briefly at the terminal boards for the Regent 100 and Regent 40 in a previous episode. They're quite different actually. The Centurion uses AM2901 Bit-Slice ALUs and a whole lot of microcode to build a complex instruction set architecture, whereas the ADDS terminals are based around 8085 CPUs. They're essentially, really simple computers on the inside with minimal RAM for the screen buffer and that's about it!
@@UsagiElectric Using the 8085 as a terminal CPU makes sense since, iirc, the 8085 has built-in RS-232 serial processing which only needs level-shifting hardware to make it complete.
I am as much tech as you are. Old school and all. But I just love rabbits !!!
As what Canadians call a 'cold person,' I completely relate to your story at the beginning. My husband actually got me a (new and improved) Oodie for Christmas specifically for me to wear at relatives' houses (I have somehow been born into AND married into families of exclusively warm-blooded people).
My dad would like his paperclip back, he was wondering where it went.
Lol. Was feeling a bit lethargic. Thanks for waking me up :D
My father learned to program on a Televideo 920c that was his fathers. I forgot the name of the service he used to dial into, but he used to use an acoustic modem with it.
I love the name "regent" seems like something Gordon gecko would use or some other 80s macho business man
They found Clippy!
I'm surprised that you weren't prepared for the cold in the North East, I grew up on Westerns, (1970s & 80s) and so was not prepared for Houston in February.
The restoration has turned out amazing. And you haven't used a real computer until you've used a multi-user one, miss my time working in an office with DEC micro-VAXes and Alphas; although being able to close your laptop and go home to work does have its advantages!
My go-to for keycap cleaning is to put them all in a plastic jar with some hot water and purple power or castrol superclean, and shake vigorously a few times over the course of an hour or two, then rinse, dry under a fan, and apply 303 protectant.
Only time i had to go further was my old northgate omnikey which has really deep pores in the texture. Removing all of those stains involved a long time in a heated ultrasonic.
Microdata midrange systems and the Pick operating system relied on ADDS Regent protocol's Vertical Cursor Addressing (Control-K, y) and Horizontal Cursor Addressing (Control-P, x).
lovely silks on the mainboard.
Also: really nice work :)
Dude, your japanese is almost perfect.
Can you translate what he said? I was able to pick up a few words, but not the full meaning.
Did you feel like you were at the factory assembling a brand new machine from all those shiny parts? Amazing work!
ADDS! That, Control Data Dasher, and Hazeltine 1500 were what I grew up on (well, after teletypes).
Definitely needs a matching Centurion logo.
Wasn't the brown layer chipping away? If so, wouldn't that cause issues for the blue paint down the line? Looks great though!
The brown layer was only chipping away underneath the ADDS Regent 200 logo plate. Other than that, it was pretty smooth and not chipping, it was just in rough shape. The primer seemed to key in and stick really well, but if I have trouble in the future, it's easy to disassemble and repaint!
I was initially feeling not great about the repaint, but then I saw the condition the paint was in, and you mentioned you'd have to repaint it anyways, and so I said to myself "Well, it'll have to be repainted anyways which means it won't be the original color no matter what, so why not let it match?"
That was exactly what I was thinking the first time I saw it in person!
And I think that's why the VCF guys agreed to let me repaint it as well. Plus, if it had been immaculate brown, I wouldn't have paired it with the Centurion, I would have let someone else get a crack at it instead.
"Honey, have you seen my hairdryer anywhere?"
8-Bit Guy was in this power supply.
A paper clip stuck on the power supply? nice jab to the 8-bit guy XD
Okay, what. I understood most of your gratitude to your father in law :O
He got a new jersey from New Jersey!
I wonder if the screen flashing is due to bad caps ? Supply can't deliver the load when its doing a lot such as scrolling etc.
You've got two ADDS terminals, so diagnostic of that should be fairly simple :-). Either with a power / logic board swap or with a scope on the supply output.
A dream of mine is to modify one of these unibody terminals to act as a thin client for a Linux server. Would be super cool imo.
You wouldn't even need to modify it, just make sure your Linux is happy with 80 x 24, then set the dip switches on the back of the terminal to the right baud rate and bit count, and you'd be off to the races!
Another ADDS model can be seen in the 1975 Hawaii Five-0 episode "The Computer Killer," which is, so far as I know, one of the earliest credible references (by TV standards) of computer hacking. Lots of terminal text, and hooking up an ADDS terminal to an acoustic coupler...in a car. Definitely check it out.
I'm from Costa Rica, so I have never heard of simple green, other than you showing it here to wash cases like you did here.
Funny thing, I'm cleaning a +100 year old double bass made in CZ, and what did master luthier restorer Chuck Traeger recommended for cleaning up antique double basses without any fear of damaging any type of finish? Simple green. (Specially for the petz rosin)
Quick search and I was able to find the product in Costa Rica, so wish me luck!
Good luck!
I didn't know you had lops among the usagi! Cute!
Restoration!
You forgot to re-install the paper clip 😀
Usagi: "This CRT looks better than that CRT"
That CRT: 😪
I'd check the high volt transformer of the CRT for damage / fissure.
Great! Looks like you might have unregulated beam current.
on that top white part.. to get the bright white look it use to have..
their is a technique of using hydrogen peroxide, distilled water (i think thats all) and leave it submerged in the straight sun light for couple hours....
im sure theirs a name for this.. im just loosely remembering how to do the process.. this process gets the white back better and quicker than any degreaser or cleaner and a rag.. maybe this will help in the future 🤪
the same can be used on the backside of the keyboard cover as well
btw.. that paint isnt going to last long if their is heavy use... or touching.. shouldve used a high grit of sandpaper on what you painted... not just going straight to primer
Cat spotted at 12:53
wow )))
It looks just like an intertec superbrain QD (My fav CP/M machine.
Cleaning up a keyboard whilst watching Adrian Black... ... ... cleaning up a keyboard??? ;)
Great looking restoration! For the long term, do you think it would be good to replace the power supply capacitors? Seems like it's old enough where that could become a concern.
Really felt 11:23 ; that would have happened to me too. ....not even an audio track so I can learn some new words? ;)
I'm surprised you didn't have 8-Bit Guy in to help retrobrite some of those yellowed keys.
Retrobrite can be a bad idea, retrobrited things tend to get yellow really fast after being retrobrited, so its best to avoid it.
@@freeculture I'm using that in a very generic sense. I know there are other techniques than retrobrite. Do you have a link to someone who had issues after retrobriting?
You did a great job, although I personally wouldn't have changed the colour. Feels like turning it into something it never was?
The vertical linearity seems off... just like the other one. The lines are farther apart at the top of the screen than they are at the bottom of the screen. You should get Adrian to take a look at that for you. 😉
That paperclip....
So what sort of paint was that? Alkyd Enamel, perhaps? A two-part epoxy would have been my choice after a test in an inconspicuous area. If the plastics are ABS, it would have bonded well, and, properly mixed and thinned, would still show the texture of the original substrate.
All that aside, this does look very good, and that shows a steady hand with the sprayer. Well done!
When you first got the Centurion you had two terminals but only restored one. What happened to the other one?
Was it "blinking" at VCF when on the mini unit ? Poss cap disturbed on disassembly (or that paperclip was really important
Yeah, that paperlclip did look like it was being used as a bodge.
Yup, when it was at VCF we had the same issues, so I don't think the paperclip can be blamed, haha.
caps arent to blame for every fault, you know!!!
@@andygozzo72 but a screen re-draw "error" does sort of wander ones way in that direction. though a diode or resistor setting also might be expecting a diff voltage on a 2000 compared with the 1000 the technical drawing comparisons should give an idea
@@highpath4776 i'd think more chip 'issues' maybe a bad gate in a ttl device, or partially bad ram chip, i've come across a pc133 ram module that wont work at that speed anymore but tests perfect at pc100 speeds, also any of the dc supply lines may be out of tolerance.... not necessarily due to capacitors but maybe bad zener, i've had this a few times also..
When the terminal was apart was a good time to run some photogrammetry. Does anybody know if there are drawings for the plastic housing? I've looked but haven't found anything, but my Google-fu has become weak...
Did you bring in that Bellett from the UK? I'm sure they didn't sell them here.
Japan actually. I bought it and restored it when I living there, then it brought it back with me when I moved back.
I wonder if the ADDS terminal needs X-On / X-Off or RTS/CTS flow control? Maybe if it’s not configured on the ADDS terminal it’s getting overrun and is flashing to complain!
You would lose text if it was a flow control problem.
Vertical deflection of the CRT looks not linear. With flashes maybe something with power supply/connector contacts?
Did it flash like that with the clip in? :)