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@@petriko_ it doesn’t, it will only output for a few seconds at a time, after a countdown. It would be quite frustrating trying to use a tyre compressor with it!

No, this is the only one I’ve ever used.

@@richardloxley Thanks for getting back. Just ordered the Baseus 3000 but know nothing about it.... Cheers..

@@dat1song410 I don’t know. I did test trying to start the engine with the battery disconnected, and it couldn’t do that. So it seems to need some charge in the battery. I guess it depends how “dead” the battery is. I’ve used it twice to start engines where the battery couldn’t turn over the starter motor, and it had no problems starting the car.

Yes, Sureflap replaced mine with the dual scan version which did indeed stop the problem for me

@@richardloxley I'm have a petsafe flap which only locks one side (you can lock the other side as well but then it's a permanent lock). I'm wondering if I should update it to something better.

The foam board corner struts are hot glued to the top and bottom foam board pieces. Then the filters are pushed into the frame afterwards and are held there by friction. The filters have soft foam around the edges which help make a seal (although I also added draught-excluding tape behind the filter to seal it further). It's worth noting that you need to use the filters as a guide when gluing the pieces together to make sure it's a tight fit! There is considerable leeway in the sideways positioning of the struts to get a good fit. However the top and bottom fit is determined by the length of the struts, and I found that the length in Rob Wissmann's plans was too short for my filters. I had to melt all the hot glue, cut new struts, and start the build again! I don't know why mine were different - perhaps Ikea changed the size of the filter slightly? I suggest you also watch Rob's video tutorial here: ruclips.net/video/Ird0-orsSGM/видео.html

@@richardloxley Thank you so much! Rob's tutorial also heped a lot much appreciated

Yes, the very first Genie didn’t have the four arrow keys that the TRS-80, instead they had three different keys with different symbols. One of the mods was to connect in a switch for the fourth key. It was still difficult to play fast games I gather because the positioning of the keys wasn’t right. The model we had was the second version that replaced those three keys with four arrow keys, like the TRS-80. I’ve now got examples of each type to compare (first version Video Genie, second version Video Genie, Genie I, Genie II).

Yes, I eventually saved up for a 4 channel Rigol oscilloscope. Although I also got a very cheap 16 channel USB logic analyser and I’ve found I’ve used that far more than the oscilloscope! I think calibrating the floppy drive was the only thing on my Osbourne project that needed the oscilloscope. I use an M1 Apple Mac Mini for my main computer. I wrote those Osborne file transfer scripts for the Mac, but they will probably work in Linux too. For Windows they’d probably need extensive modifications.

@@richardloxley Thank you for your reply. I'll look to source a Mac Mini, which might be the easiest option, as I can simply follow what you have done. My Linux isn't great. :D

@@makeshift75303 the scripts were just something I wrote to make modifying the files a little easier. I think there are equivalent methods of manipulating the files on Windows machines. I wouldn’t have thought it worth buying a Mac just to run those scripts!

@@richardloxley holy crap! Just saw how much a M1 Apple Mac Mini sells for! Yep, will seek other options. 👍

Nice one - it’s good to have other options! I now have three Osbornes and have fully repaired the first two I got. I’ve got a Gotek/FlashFloppy drive in one so that’s now my go-to way of transferring files to floppies. I do also have an IBM XT so your information may prove useful in the future :-)

The original revision had Osborne 1 on the side, with catches on the side and a ribbon cable for the keyboard. The later revision (commonly called the Osborne 1a in some literature) has no writing down the side, catches on the top, and a coiled cable for the keyboard. I have two of the Osborne 1a which I restored in my videos, and recently got an original Osborne 1, although I haven’t had a chance to restore that yet.

@@richardloxley Thanks!

You might find my blog post useful where I explained some of the basics: www.richardloxley.com/2018/04/27/osborne-restoration-part-16-transferring-cpm-software/ There’s also loads more about the Osborne on my blog. The link to the Osborne index page is in the video description :-)

Excellent!

Hey whats up edward booth!! You beat up a cocopuff today?

I'm afraid I've reached the limit of my CP/M knowledge! I believe there are programs that do binary serial transfers, but I don't think there are any supplied on the boot floppies. As you say, there may be a way to convert hex to binary, but I don't know enough about it to advise how. If there isn't anything supplied that can do the conversion it might be possible to write a BASIC program to do it? Another option is to get someone with an Osborne to copy an appropriate transfer program onto a floppy for you? In the end after this video I got a Gotek/FlashFloppy USB drive emulator working with my Osborne so I now use that to transfer files.

@@richardloxley Thanks for the response. Supposedly there is a GENHEX program (which I don't have) that can make the .HEX file, which you can then use LOAD to convert back to a .COM file. So I may look into that. I also found that the "[O]" option on PIP can transfer binary files (and is used also by default when xfering a .COM file), but I didn't have any luck with it. PIP never closes the file after the xfer. What I was able to do, after following instructions elsewhere, was chunk a .HEX file for Kermit into 4 pieces, transfer them over, cat them back together with PIP, and then use the SAVE program to generate a kermit .COM file. So now I have kermit on the Osborne. But need to get myself a Kermit client for linux which I haven't solved yet. Seems like that may be my best option right now since kermit should be able to handle file xfers. I've order the really cool floppy adapter that Wayne Visser made based on your great work getting the Gotek working. So next up I'll get the gotek running once I get all the parts. But for now I've been enjoying the challenge of how to get MBASIC or ZORK onto the system with all I have which is the serial cable and two floppies lol. Thanks again for your Osborne articles and video!

@@ocprime thanks for this info, it’s very helpful! I might try this same thing soon, any further updates or advice?

@@johnsledge3942 great to hear! My solution to the problem I posted over on the VCFED forums. Search for “how to transfer .COM via serial port”

I used RS part number 123-9566 (Alps Alpine UE200011). I'm not 100% sure if it's the same length as the original, but it fits well, and has a very similar aesthetic to how I remember the original buttons.

@@richardloxley Great, thanks for that.

I found it on Aliexpress by searching for 1602 LCD and just scrolling through the results. It's quite hard to search for as the most common colour is black on a light yellow/green background so searching for 'green' just finds those. It's one of the 'inverse' or 'reverse' displays as the dark background is created by the LCD, and the dots of the characters are actually where the LCD isn't turned on, letting the green backlight shine through. It's much more common to find such inverse displays in a blue colour with white letters, or occasionally black with white letters (which also looks quite good for a retro display). I had a quick look on Aliexpress now and didn't find the exact module, although I did find some inverse displays with a RGB backlight, so those could be make to look the same if the backlight was set to green - but I don't know if that has to be done in code rather than on the board - if so that means it's not a direct substitute. I also found some where the display looked similar but they were listed as OLED. I don't know if they were really OLED with a font made to look like a dot matrix LCD, or if they were actually LCD and the seller just put OLED to try to get listed in searches for OLED displays! Either way, those might be useful.

I searched a bit more and “LCD 1602 negative” seems a good search term. I found some negative displays with green backlights, and also looked at the negative with RGB backlights, and they seem to just have three pins to activate the backlight (RGB) giving you 7 colours depending on which combination of the three pins you wire up, so you should be able to get the same effect with them by only connecting the green pin.

Entity I’m not sure which sound you’re referring to. I can hear a dull rumble throughout (which is probably something like my fridge running in the next room). And then the intermittent buzz which is the simulated head-step sound from the floppy emulator. Other than that I can’t hear anything else - but I am in my 50s now so I probably don’t have as wide a range of hearing as I had in my youth! The Osborne does of course have a CRT which the camera is right next to. I always used to be able to hear the high pitched whine from a CRT but as I get older I don’t notice it as much. I can’t hear a CRT whine in this video (but that’s not to say it isn’t there).

@@richardloxley i dunno but it kinda gave me a headache but i love these old computers

​@@entity9742i think you're talking about that cathode screen static sound, it's completely normal

Found it! www.amc.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire/exclusives/colossal-cave-adventure

@@dogcat2347 Sorry for my delay in replying! I was about to say, almost all the early adventure games were derived from Colossal Cave Adventure. There were lots of subtly difference versions, but any of them should provoke the same nostalgia. I first encountered it as Pyramid 2000 on the TRS-80, which was the same cave adventure, but supposedly in the catacombs under a pyramid! Have fun adventuring :-)

I don't have a disk drive for the Dragon. I don't know much about the Dragon, but it doesn't seem to have a disk interface, so I presume it needs some form of expansion unit to provide a disk interface so you can connect a disk drive. The website archive.worldofdragon.org/ seems to have a lot of information about the computer, so you might want to look there for answers. Hope that helps, Richard

@@richardloxleyhello thanks many thanks about the dragon 64 there was a small type in game from 1983 for it called grand prix but i cannot find this anywhere if you see it can you let me know thanks ?? thanks my dear friend

I'm afraid my total knowledge of the Dragon is what you see on these videos - it's quite new to me! So I don't really know the answer to your question - sorry.

ct92404 yes, it's a Commodore PET 8032 (actually CBM 8032 as they were branded in Europe, but we all called them PETs anyway). Sadly it isn't working. I got the motherboard fixed as it had intermittent problems, then I found half the keys didn't work, and just as I was about to investigate that the monitor died! I will try to get round to fixing it at some point. You can see a full list of my current collection here: www.richardloxley.com/my-retro-computing-collection/

Yes, there's a zip file on my corresponding blog post here: www.richardloxley.com/2018/04/28/osborne-restoration-part-17-text-adventure-games/ There are also lots of other posts about the Osborne. The index page is here: www.richardloxley.com/2018/03/30/retro-challenge-2018-04/

It's an ancient Dragon 64 from the 1980s donated by a friend of mine who had it as a teenager. I'm afraid this is the first time I've used a Dragon so I don't know any of the technical tricks (yet)!

@@richardloxley Ok many thanks bless u lots - about the Dragon 64 theres a small address finder program which tells u the addresses of different machine language programs etc thanks...............

Omega TI as far as I know, no one has made anything like that. I use a Gotek floppy drive emulator, but for that to work with the Video Genie you need the disk expansion interface, which is pretty rare. I was quite lucky to find a working one on eBay. There are some hard drive emulators available for the TRS-80 model 1. The Video Genie is an almost exact clone of the TRS-80 model 1, but it does use a different pin-out on the expansion connector, so any of those solutions would need a special cable at the very least. But it's possible that they might work. So it might be worth you having a search for information about them. Incidentally, most of the information on the net about the Video Genie uses its Australian/New Zealand name of System 80, so search under that as well. Terry Stewart has a really good System 80 website.

Sure :-) The button caps were "Alps Electric" part number UE200011. I got them from: uk.rs-online.com/web/p/push-button-caps/1239566/ The drive belts were generic 70mm diameter (220mm circumference) rubber belts with a 1mm square cross section. I got mine from this eBay listing: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/70mm-Rubber-Drive-Belt-for-Cassette-Deck-Player-CD-ROM-DVD-Player-etc/192420653294 (I don't know how long that eBay listing will stick around for, but a search for "70mm cassette drive belt" should find the right part.)

@@richardloxley many thanks I recently acquired a very dirty genie1 amazingly it works fine but have cassette issues its doesn't rewind so hoping a belt will sort it. Just ordered one now fingers crossed.