Great OSI resource!

[Steve Gray]

Dave,

Just a note to say what a great job you are doing with the main site. It's great to see the additional info and scans. I like how you've taken the time to go through old journal issues and pull out the interesting articles! It will make finding things much easier. The main page seem more inviting as well. Good work!

Steve

[nama]

Agreed. I would have been totally lost (and I'd imagine many others too) if it wasn't for this site.

Phil

[dave]

Thanks, guys! I had let the site sit for a long while, and I have accumulated material that really only has any value if it's shared, so I figured I can carve out a few minutes here and there to put it all up.

Also, I have realized that all of these old computer sites really are only as valuable as long as there are people with old computers looking for something to do with them. So I think it should be a priority to lower the energy barrier for turning the "untested, as-is" ebay purchases into useable machines. I'd like to have a page of debugging tips. It would be nice to post debug logs on the forums (like Philip did), and perhaps set up a new subgroup just for repairs and logs. I think it's possible to post pictures directly to the forum as well, so everything can be a resource for the next guy who comes along.

Finally, I think that what you two (Phil and Steve) are doing now--making a paddle board--is part of a really worthwhile effort. I would like to come up with a few little "connecting pieces" of hardware and software that someone without a soldering iron could use to connect the most bare-bones machine to a PC; or use a more commonly available 1.44M floppy. I think that this will be straightforward. First, a floppy paddle board, and instructions on interfacing a USB to TTL serial module to the OSI for those who don't have a PC serial port, or aren't comfortable adding serial to their OSI.

There are a couple of pieces of software out there that I have never actually seen on an OSI, but which I would love to port.

Finally, there are a few additional hardware projects I have in mind, if I ever get enough time.

Best regards,

Dave

[Steve Gray]

I thought it would be cool to design a little floppy controller board with built in data separator, standard pc floppy connector, and maybe 32K ram for the superboard that would connect to the 40 pin expansion. Or, basically a 610 replacement/enhancement. A single 32K sram chip is a couple bucks now.
I can't bear the thought of having to go back to cassette to load/save programs

Steve

[dave]

I agree. There are a lot of superboards out there. Some kind of easy solution to get these machines up and running would be nice.

Best regards,

Dave