Dave's OSI page

In the 70's, personal computers were a fresh idea.  Your choice of computer was as much an individual expression as your choice of car.  One of the earliest makers of complete computer systems was a small company called Ohio Scientific.  They specialized in bare boards and kits for hobbyists, later focusing on fully built, integrated systems.  I bought my C2-4P used in 1978, after hanging out at computer stores and drooling over PET, Apple, and the C2-4P for a couple of years.  The Challengers were perhaps the most conducive to hacking because of their spacious layout, modular design, and simple bus structure.  There are other sites that recount the history of these machines and the company that made them (see the links section.)  Recently, I dug out my old C2, removed lots of blue wires, restored many traces (I would like to add a hacks page later) and got my machine back to the familiar C/W/M? prompt.

This archive is a repository for OSI thoughts, tips, tricks, hacks, literature and software.  I'm attempting to arrange it in as sane a fashion as possible.

Your OSI doesn't work?  Don't panic. . .

You can almost certainly fix your machine, perhaps with a bit of help.  Even back in the day, OSI owners have traditionally, as a group, been familiar with the guts of our machines, and most have spent many a late hour chasing down bugs, hacking in hardware mods, and intefacing with foreign objects.  And OSI machines are generally simple to understand and (usually) to fix.

To start, take a look at this article  from Peek(65)  Vol 6, issue 11.   If you have a C1,C2, C4, C8, Superboard, or similar system, then check out the SAMS manuals (in the Manuals section below).  Also, Prof. Mark Csele has a nicely illustrated discussion of some specific debugging hints on his web page.  Also, check out the Tips and Tricks section below.  Post on the OSIweb forums.   Also, there are some online groups of vintage computer enthusiasts that don't specifically focus on OSI, but have accumulated wisdom about computer hardware, and probably more than a couple OSI enthusiasts.  You may get some help on the classic computer mailing list (the cctalk list; check out http://www.classiccmp.org, and also check out the Mid Atlantic Retro-Computer Hobbyist (MARCH) Website and  Yahoo group. You can also contact me directly by email, through the forums.

If you have an OSI, or OSI parts that you just don't feel motivated to repair or maintain, or OSI software or documentation that you would like to share with the world, then consider contributing it to the OSI archive.

If you want to just chat privately, you can email me at my osiweb.org address (dave, of course).  Or register for the forums, and send a private message or email from there.

OSI Hardware
Third Party Hardware
Software
Journals
Manuals
Books
Tips, Tricks, Notes
Links
Credits

OSI Forums

WISH LIST:

I welcome contributions, especially of software and scanned (or paper) manuals, stories, tips, tricks, hacks, and other info.  I am also interested in working and non-working OSI hardware, either photos or the real thing.  I am particularly interested in any information on the following:

• FBASIC by Pegasus Software
• DOS/65 (the CPM-like OS for 6502, OSI port)
  
• the Aardvark BASIC compiler
• FORTH
• Documentation or software for the Generic Computer Products Color-Plus card

Also, any information about, or working or non-working specimens of the following:

• OSI 560Z card - I'd love to hear from anybody who had one of these up and running, even if the card is long gone.
• OSI 460Z card
• Any Mittendorf engineering hi-res kits, or similar Aardvark or other video mods for the C2/4 or for the C1/superboard
  

I'd love to hear from any other OSI'ers.  Please check out the Forums section of the archive, and post any comments, corrections, or memories for all of us to enjoy! You can also email me privately via the Forums section.

News (Dec 2011)

20-Dec-2011:Added 65V-loadable format Memory test utility, and game of Nim from the OSI Small Systems Journal.  Contributed by Philip Lord.

09-Dec-2011:Added the SAMS C1P service manual, courtesy of Bill Degnan.

More News

OSI Hardware:

The most comprehensive listing of OSI boards, with variants and manuals, is the OSI Board Catalog at Mark's Lab. Definitely check the site out.  I have collected schematics of several boards here, many from my own scans, several contributed by Mark, and several contributed by other kind OSI enthusiasts.  Thanks so much to those who have contributed.  I'm always looking out for more high-quality scans to archive here.

Third Party Hardware:

Manuals

Books:

Tips, Tricks, and Notes:

Links:

 More News:

04-Dec-2011: Restored topics and posts from the OLD OSIforum, before it was destroyed by over-spam.  Since the database of legit. posts was small, I was able to reconstruct it by hand, and add them to the existing forum.  If this was a C64 or Apple board, that would be impossible (too big)!  Unfortunately, posting dates and times were lost.  There's some interesting stuff there, however.

02-Dec-2011: Added Josh's guide to repairing OSI keyboard switches. A great, detailed document with many pictures!

19-Nov-2011: Added manual for DAC1 music program (by OSI).  Thanks to Steve Gray for the scan!

17-Nov-2011: Added scans of schematics for the 525 dual port static RAM board, and the 550 16-port serial board.  Thanks to Glitch for the contribution!

13-Nov-2011: Added C1P/C1PMF Introductory Manual, TOSIE and Aardvark Scans, and an interesting C1P ROM replacement (manual in German).  Thanks to Steve Gray!

05-Nov-2011: Added Manuals for D&N MEM-CM9 (thanks to Steve Gray!) and D&N 8K RAM.

11-Oct-2011: Added manual for OSI 560Z card (including software listing) courtesy of Bill Dromgoole.  THANKS Bill!!

9-Oct-2011: Added links to the (nearly) complete Peek(65) journal collection, with annotation of highlights.  Check it out!

9-Oct-2011:  Added manual for the OSI-500 board, the immediate predecessor of the 502 card.  Courtesy of Bill Dromgoole.  Thanks!

Credits:

Thanks to Steve Carroll, our local OSI dealer in Memphis Tennessee, who never complained about a couple of kids hanging out in his shop, and was something of a mentor and teacher to use younger OSI enthusiasts.  I don't know where you are now, Steve, but thanks!

Earl Morris contributed plenty of documentation and hardware to the effort.  Earl also helped make much of that documentation (such as the journals) interesting by contributing high-mileage articles.

Mark Spankus has contributed a heap of documentation, some of which I'm still parsing, as well as expert discussion, including an excellent exposition on the floppy format, and the floppy image format for the emulator.  Also, mark has a fantastic online catalog of OSI boards, with high quality photos, manuals, and schematics, of much value to anybody interested in OSI machines.  He also developed the excellent Win-OSI emulator, which was adapted from Thomas Buescher's original version. 

Douglas Scanned a great number of documents that would otherwise be impossible to find.  These were passed on to me by Mark Spankus.

Bill Dromgoole contributed Manuals and software for the 500 and 560Z boards

Steve Gray contributed scans of the C1P Introductory Manual, TOSIE and Aardvark journals, D&N MEM-CM9 and 8K RAM board manuals, and more.

Graeme  contributed CEGMON and HEXDOS users guides, and scans of several journals.

Glitch contributed some hard-to-find hardware manuals/schematics, including the 525 dual port RAM board, and the 550 multi-serial board.

Philip Lord contributed the Memory Utility and game of NIM from the OSI small systems journal.

I hope I didn't leave anybody out.  If I did, please let me know and I will fix it!