0073 There can't be many of these in North America: The KC 85/3
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- Опубликовано: 21 ноя 2023
- On today's super mini mail call, we have a very interesting computer which I'm looking forward to digging into. It's the Kleincomputer 85/3 also known as the KC 85/3. This is the 3rd iteration of the KC 85 series of computers which sports a Soviet clone of the Z80 and Basic and was sold in East Germany in the 80s.
Let's see what this computer is all about!
-- Video Links
Read more about it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC_85
floooh.github.io/virtualkc/p0...
Adrian's Digital Basement Merch store:
my-store-c82bd2-2.creator-spr...
Support the channel on Patreon:
/ adriansdigitalbasement
Adrian's Digital Basement (Main Channel)
/ @adriansdigitalbasement
-- Tools
Deoxit D5:
amzn.to/2VvOKy1
store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.16...
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
amzn.to/2ye6xC0
Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
www.rigolna.com/products/digi...
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
amzn.to/3adRbuy
TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
amzn.to/2wG4tlP
www.aliexpress.com/item/33000...
TS100 Soldering Iron:
amzn.to/2K36dJ5
www.ebay.com/itm/TS100-65W-MI...
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
amzn.to/2RDSDQw
www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-DS...
Magnetic Screw Holder:
amzn.to/3b8LOhG
www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
www.ebay.com/itm/14-16-18-20-...
RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-5-10PCS-...
Heat Sinks:
www.aliexpress.com/item/32537...
Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
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--- Links
My GitHub repository:
github.com/misterblack1?tab=r...
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR - PDX Commodore Users Group
www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino
The japanese newspaper was put in purposely from me, as I had packaging material from my used computer orders from japan. I knew you will recognize it :-)
IRM is East-German Engrish for Video RAM. The East-German term was “Bildwiederholspeicher” and this was translated to “Image Recall Memory” (or even “Image Repetition Memory”).
There's so much information I want to add .. where to start? I did my first steps in BASIC on machines like that one.
This is so exciting for me. Because I'm from the former GDR and I indeed had my very first experience with this computer. And then the wall break down and I moved on to the the C64 and then to a PC and now I watch this video and a lot of heartwarming memories came back. I absolutely love it!!
Tesla was once a Czechoslovak company making all sorts of electronics across whole Czechoslovakia, from tv's to lab equipment, oscilloscopes and electronics parts and even 8-bit computers like Tesla PMD 85-2 and many other things, almost anything electronic. They where extremely popular because they where so wide spread. Almost every household had something made by them, most offen an black and white tv like Tesla Merkur or an radio like Tesla Domino 2
Hey Adrian, this is the first time, i am commenting a video but this time I really couldnt' resist. I've been wainting for such an episode for so long! I even considered sending you such a piece of east german technology. I am a child of this era and also of this eastern side of the iron curtain. So this stuff takes me back to my childhood, when we only had these kind of devices.. or not even these. Sure the others here mentioned it already but I have to say, that these computers were super rare back in 85 so they were only available to schools universities or even the industry. The haven't been sold to private people or only in very very low numbers. They also have been very expensive l (maybe 3500 Mark (GDR currency) while people earned barely 1000 Mark a month or even less).
Another info: VEB FSO Oberlungwitz is an inventory sticker of the VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb - people-owned company) FSO (Feinstrumpfhosenfabrik - fine stocking manufacturer) of the city of Oberlungwitz. So it was part of the computer which was used commercially.
As for the price of this computer in the late 80s: I saw this computer in an East Berlin department stores' in 1987 for a price of 4,900 east german marks. By comparison, a C64 cost around 6,500 east german marks and was only available in second-hand shops (to be fair, these computers were brand new). At that time, a labourer had a salary of around 900 marks a month. The price level in East Germany at that time was completely different from that in West Germany. A typical 3-room appartment had a rent of around 60 marks a month (including heating costs). So these machines were anything but cheap for us ;-)
Hi Adrian, that STAEDTLER is a rubber head pencil which is very good for polishing oxidized metal, such as Gold Fingers or contact point of switch.
I have a working one here in the SF bay area. I brought it with me (grew up in east germany and did my first coding on it in school)
The tape player is the data version of a tape player originally made for music cassettes. They were quite common around here in the 80s. The weird stylistic black bars on top is where the music player had volume and tone control sliders. The music version could be used with batteries, this one can't, itös just that they used the same plastic moldings for the case and left everything non essential off. Weird that it still has a speaker though.
Hi Adrian, what a surprise to me to see THE Computer of my childhood on your channel. As far as i know they changed the name from home to compact Computer due to the availabilty and price that system had. In the first years the biggest part of the production went into schools and public Institutions. To close the circle i can tell, that your videos on repairing such old 8 bit machines helped me to get my KC85/3 working again!
If you need space Adrian, I will pay the shipping for anything you want to send my way ! I am sure most of your fans feel the same way, anything to help Adrian !!! You keep the Retro real, keep it up and we will be forever grateful.
Hi Adrian, what a great presentation, never thought to see this machine being reviewed from someone in the US.
Technically speaking this tape is almost the same as audio cassette. It is compatible with ECMA-34 recording standard at 63 flux transitions - more or less 800 ftpi. It uses Phase Encoding so technically it is an analog medium but the recording is digital. It was used with East Germany Robotron tape devices and Polish Meramat PK-1 and PK-3 tape devices among many others also on US market
The IC U807 inside the keyboard is a "processor" for IR TV remote control. The serial data signal output is sent to the computer over the same cable which powers the keyboard. The Datacord is a rare device even in eastern Germany. I got two different of them in my collection. The Datacord is a modified Geracord 6020. These were made for export to western europe labeled as "Bruns Monocord" and sold even in GB.
The Geracord models are made to work with batteries as well. This model is a stripped down model especially for homecomputers. Other of the 6000 Geracord cassette players have equalizers and work with batteries. It should be convertible pretty easily.
Congratulations on this very rare GDR home computer. Not even in Germany is it easy to get hold of a model like this !
I learned programming on one of these in the late 80s. Once you started programming them in assembler and got to know some of the undocumented port adresses you could do quite a lot with these. They ran at double the clock rate of a C64.
The V.24 vas the German nomenclature for RS232 and the IFSS is basically a 20mA current loop serial like on teletypes.