Those early "portable" computers are pretty cool. I have an Osborne Executive, and it's one of my favorite vintage computers. It weighs a ton though, you definitely would NOT want to carry that thing around!
My family and I are all from Huntsville, Alabama, where these were built and my family worked building these machines. I was actually just given one that a family member who passed had in storage. It's been sitting for decades. It appears to be all in great shape, however, I have not tried to power it on as of yet. I've broken it down and good thing I did as there was some dirt dobber nests inside that needed removed. Also, on the CRT, that main red wire that comes out into that plastic container, will the cap popped off that and some sticky fluid had leaked onto part of the board, chassis, and case. So, I'm in the processes of getting everything cleaned back up. I don't know much about CRTs, but is that some sort of coolant in that little reservoir?
I have the screen, machine disk drives, working but the screen is doing weird things.. wrapping oddly. I think I need some new caps on the CRT board and perhaps on the main board. I used an electrolytic capacitor in the board board to replace a tantalum so I might need to change that. Its largely working but not quite yet.
Thanks. Picked one of these up and this video will be heads up before the tear down.
Those early "portable" computers are pretty cool. I have an Osborne Executive, and it's one of my favorite vintage computers. It weighs a ton though, you definitely would NOT want to carry that thing around!
My family and I are all from Huntsville, Alabama, where these were built and my family worked building these machines. I was actually just given one that a family member who passed had in storage. It's been sitting for decades. It appears to be all in great shape, however, I have not tried to power it on as of yet. I've broken it down and good thing I did as there was some dirt dobber nests inside that needed removed. Also, on the CRT, that main red wire that comes out into that plastic container, will the cap popped off that and some sticky fluid had leaked onto part of the board, chassis, and case. So, I'm in the processes of getting everything cleaned back up. I don't know much about CRTs, but is that some sort of coolant in that little reservoir?
I have just acquired one of these computers. Interest to know how you went with your unit.
I actually owned one. It was a gorgeous machine. I don't remember what happened to it.
The Z80 is used as the UART (serial IO) chip, which is why it's not 100% compatible with the IBM PC which used the 8250.
What happened next? Did you manage to get it working? I had one of these in the mid-eighties, but I think it ended up being trashed, sad to say.
I have the screen, machine disk drives, working but the screen is doing weird things.. wrapping oddly. I think I need some new caps on the CRT board and perhaps on the main board. I used an electrolytic capacitor in the board board to replace a tantalum so I might need to change that. Its largely working but not quite yet.
@@robingrosset6941 Good luck finishing off.