Trying The First Portable Computer: The Osborne 1
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- The Osborne model 1 is described as the first commercially successful portable computer. Weighing in at nearly 25lbs and sporting a 5" screen, it wasn't really all that portable or convenient, but it did inspire many successive portables, luggables, and laptops.
I recently got ahold of one at an estate auction, and it's in great shape! I did have to replace the vintage power supply capacitors, since those almost always fail on these old computers. I also replaced a faulty floppy drive with a Gotek disk emulator, and made some other small adjustments.
And no, as far as I know, it can't play Doom :-( In fact it does almost nothing modern at all, and is kind of a giant pain to make compatible with anything modern! I did manage to get a few programs onto it, and we might re-visit this in the future. For now it's mostly a fun novelty and a neat way to look at vintage tech.
Some of the resources I used when working on this computer include:
GoTek Floppy Emulator: www.ebay.com/i...
3-D printed adapter for the GoTek: www.thingivers...
Kermit disk image (bottom of the page): blog.nroach44....
Richard Loxley's blog about Osborne file transfers: www.richardlox...
I'd also like to thank Iso-Tip for sending me their cordless soldering iron. It made the capacitor replacement super easy! You can find them at iso-tip.com/ (Use code SMART24 for 15% off!)
You can also see my retro-inspired luggable cyberdeck build here: • Satellite Hacking Cybe...
Saveitforparts t-shirts and other merch at saveitforparts...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @saveitforparts
Or support me via Patreon at / saveitforparts
Check out gadgets and devices I like at www.amazon.com...
Usually I dislike clickbait titles (i.e. "My PC Is Immune To The Crowdstrike Bug!" at the time of writing), but your channel deserves it.
Yeah, this video wasn't going to come out for a couple weeks, but then the Internet broke and I couldn't resist jumping on the meme bandwagon. We'll see if that gets me any extra clicks or not 😝
because technically it's not clickbait :)
not even clickbait
Reaction video: You wouldn't believe what a user commented about bugs! :p
A friend of mine was the technical illustrator for Osborne, making all the illustrations in the repair manuals. He was at a computer show and remembered Adam Osborne telling people who were terribly excited about the Osborne 1 that they'll like the Osborne 2 even better! People said, "Oh? there's a 2 coming?", and decided to wait to buy the coming model 2. Few people bought the model 1 so they went bankrupt. Loose lips sink ships, or shrink spliffs, I can never keep that straight.
And it even got a term for it! The Osborne Effect.
15:06 That misplaced comma gets me more than anything.
NO USER, SERVICEABLE PARTS has the same feel as FREE CONSULATIONS? NO, MONEY DOWN! from the Lionel Hutz business card.
Darn it - now I cannot "unsee" that . . .lol Have to increase OCD Meds now ... lmao
you're the IT guy in the apocalypse
When you see a case like that it's either a computer or a phone lol
I would trust him in the apocalypse to make high tech computers out of duct tape and bubble gum
Thanks! I have an Blue-case Osborne 1; back in the day (1983) I did WordStar, C and ASM programming on it. The first production Osborne-1 had tan cases with a cruder geometry, Electronics was the same. You've motivated me to get mine going again. Thanks again for blazing the trail
Awesome! And thanks for the support! I've been curious about these for a while, My grandpa and I found one at a garage sale with a printer and he set it up for word processing, but it was obsolete even then. I still think they're cool and I still really like the form factor.
I had the blue one two. Also subscribed to the Osborne magazine. I had a couple expansions in it, don't remember all of it but I did have the screen expansion that put 80 characters on the screen to eliminate the scrolling. I'm pretty jealous he was able to just download the space invades game, I had to type in all the code from the magazine.
We had an Iso-tip 7700 on dads workbench back in 1984, it looked exactly the same as the current model. I love that they kept the design.
Gosh, this brought back memories. The caps actually would dry out and buzz before they smoked. Ultimately I wound up throwing away four of my Osbornes since there was nowhere to get rid of them. It was the first computer to flag my spelling errors. It would not fix them or offer you any options it would just flag words it did not recognize. It had word-wrap so your text never went off the screen like you are saying. I remember teaching myself WordStar one summer.
This is a good time to explain to people why the hard drive is called the 'C' drive. Since the 'A' drive is one on the left with the one on the right being the 'B' drive and when hard drives came out they became the 'C' drive! It's been that way ever since.
I still miss a lot of the CPM commands since there were global and filtered commands that are just not available in Windows.
I had about 3-4 of those soldering irons back in the 80s too and they sucked so I wound up throwing them away too. I went to the gas soldering irons.
I sold my Trash-80 on eBay a while ago.
This should be the top comment.
I love old tech coming back to life. Appreciate the video Gabe.
Love how predictable the capacitor blowout's were 😅
I am very pleased that the cats show such great interest in the computer. At that time, there were no computer viruses yet, a very interesting machine. The good old Z80, unfortunately, its production is being discontinued. I think people were stronger back then because 11 kilograms is not a lightweight. A very nice project, Adam Osborne built something exciting there. Those were devices I could look at at trade fairs.
Another great video! Thanks for sharing that journey and keeping that computer alive!
I love this channel! This is the kind of content I come here for. Just when I think the adventure is going to end, you take another dive down the rabbit hole. I love that you are constantly pushing the envelope with these projects and testing the limits of what you can do.
Thanks! I jump around between interests a lot, so my videos are kind of all over the place :-)
@@saveitforparts You're basically me if I had better camera charisma, more storage, and didn't have 4 kids to wrangle.
Pretty much my only claim to fame was getting Windows 3.11 (with Internet access) running in VMware. Somewhat similar troubles with floppy disk images. Also, literally nothing works in Internet Explorer 5.0.
I think the camera charisma comes with practice, my videos from 4-5 years ago are baaaad 😅And I have a pretty small house, so the storage is also a problem! But yeah no kids helps, just have to shoo the cats off my work surface before they steal small components 😝
You are absolutely correct about the three caps (RIFA'S) but looking at C18 the round electrolytic that is just next to the heat sink that is in the center of the power supply board TS 07:27 you finger is right over the top of it.
It looks like it has gotten hot, Judging from how much of the sleeve has shrunk down. If you look at the other caps their sleeve is still over the top of the can. This is a dead give away that it has gotten hot. another failure is the top will be bulged up. also any signs of fluid leaking out of the top of the creases of the can and the bottom of the cap.
Man, I love your content and personality
“We wore 25pin serial cables as belts, it was the style of the time…”
Waaaaayy back in the early '00s I worked in a metrology lab calibrating precision instruments. Our bread and butter was backflow test sets, torque wrenches, and digital multimeters. We had those Iso-Tip soldering irons all over the lab and while I'm sure there are now likely better battery soldering irons, they were pretty dang decent!!
Still want to pet the kitties. Love seeing them pop up in videos "helping."
I think it's really cool that they included storage for all the essentials like floppy and power cables, that would mean you wouldn't have to lug around another briefcase or bag just to use the machine. a true all in one.
Man this was awesome. Mad props for trying to get them talking together. An old friend of mine gave me some of his really old PCs when he retired and moved out west. I think the oldest might have been a PC Jr. I have alot of old 5.25 floppies for that old stuff he gave me.
Love it! That's a fantastic piece of history you have, really jealous - I have a couple of Kaypro's but would love an Osborne in my collection. I told my wife, as we watched this episode, "That RIFA will pop in about 30 minutes" and sure enough the magic smoke escaped right about on time! Love your channel, keep 'em coming!
The zig-zag lines on the CRT are due to the beam re-trace. That is, the electron beam returning to the top after scanning down to the bottom of the screen. Normally, the beam should be blanked during this time so that the lines do not show up. Your monitor must have a fault either in the retrace blanking circuit or in the overall brightness. Could be more capacitor troubles, or it could be a resistor in a high-voltage area that has changed in value.
Wow, I can't believe you have that iron! I have been looking for that iron forever. My brother had one of those years ago and taught me a lot about electronics. He has since passed away. I have wanted one of these every since. I figured it was long gone. I'll be contacting them to order one! Thanks so much for showing the soldering iron!
Galvin was the first, but they were sued by Motorola and forced to change their name. Motorola was called Galvin Manufacturing before they developed their car radios. I saw a Galvin in a store, but it was being shipped back to the OEM to be re-labled and change the BIOS chip to display the new name.
Those are 5.25" floppies, not 5,5"
I have several working Commodore SX64 color portable computers,
I just got an SX64! It's in rough shape but I hope to get it working.
@@saveitforparts There are several important differences in it and any C64. First, its 60Hz clock signal comes from a crystal oscillator module. with an internal divider to provide a 60Hz TTL clock. Second, the keyboard cable uses a special 23 pin connector that is very difficult to find. One of the ROMs is also different, in that you can load the first program on a floppy with just two keys. I believe it also used a slightly different VIC chip because the video was much better than most C64.
I used one of mine 30 years ago to emulate all the patterns on a Tektronix master sync & test generator when I was building Ch 58 in Destin Florida. All they had was a building and a transmitter so I had to bring my own test equipment.
You should stick a fan in there too if you can solder in a ac-dc stepdown where the power comes into the shell. Easiest adapter is an old usb charger. It might not need it but pc fans are so efficient it couldn't hurt!
Video says it was posted 19s how is ur comment 11h ago?
@@wordnet7 mightve been unlisted for a while to edit something
@@wordnet7 or time traveller, could also be
@@PT-mj3bk yas yas
I post most of my videos early on Patreon for supporters :-)
A wise man once said, Do not get between a cat and its dinner
Tip on bringing back to life old electronics.
Cut power on for no more than 5 sec. Let sit for 10 to 12 hours or more; repeat ON/OFF cycle at least one more time; maybe leaving on for 10-15 sec if no caps blowing or getting hot. After two or three days, the caps should be reformed and you should be good to go. Good luck!
That iso-tip soldering iron looks like a prop from star trek TNG :)
I had a Zorba portable computer in the mid 1980's. Fast double drives with a padded cover. Also CPM machine and I used Peachtree software with it. Thanks for sharing. Charles
Oh, wow! Haven't heard about CP/M in years. A friend of mine did programming in CP/M way back in the day. I imagine I'd get serious eyestrain from trying to read from that tiny monitor.
That brings back some memories.
I used to drag one of those around with me when I was making my rounds of northern Ontario radio stations.
And, yeah, that Isotip looks almost identical to the one we had at the shop at the same time.
I've used a flash stick to floppy drive converter for work at a multi million dollar company, lol. CNC torch and plasma table. ESAB Sabre, yes, it's spelled the British way. Last time the software had been updated was 1998. I think I last worked there in 2020, they might have updated, but I doubt it. That thing was built like a tank! Used it to cut out flanges and webs to build bridge girders. I think the thing was about 95 feet long, if I remember right.
Nice! I grew up with one of these. I may still have it (although probably in very rough shape now).
I had a Compaq like this as a kid, I remember not wanting to move it😢
Back when I was a kid my dad had one of those for programmer for programming plcs
Ah yes, The dreaded RIFA capacitors.
A menace to many enthusiasts of ancient technology.
That thing is screaming raspberry pi. Or some other transplant. Replace the screen with a nice color screen. Large front panel for all kinds of stuff. Great video
Hell YA! Please make more videos on using this with SDR or SATELLITE stuff.
I'm not sure if this can handle any satellite stuff, but it would be fun to try!
Display lines are called retrace lines, thats the high voltage electrolitic capacitors (probably 600v) in the high voltage power supply, you'll find them close to the flyback transformer.
While in there look at the sawrooth waveform (now you can use that oscilloscope) distirtion there will also cause retrace.
Congratulations! You have now become acquainted with the infamous Rifa capacitors! 🤣
Lots of old computers ad had cats in them, you so retro with donny
man those things are so cool.. i was an apprentice in industry around the 2000ths and they still used one of those to debug the PLC controllers
You get a like for my trauma response to the title, after only sleeping for like 4 hours, this is the first thing i see on youtube.... Well Played.
3:12 I wish I could get my grubby little mitts on a PC that used those 8 inch floppies.
I have an 8" disk around somewhere, but no drive or computer for it. Can't even remember where I got it, probably from a dumpster someplace!
My Dad worked for Texas Instruments and we had a Portable Professional Computer (TI PPC) this very much reminds me of that old machine. Love the "magic smoke" joke, wonder if those caps were made by Lucas.
I heard of the legends too. They say in the past you use to have leg room and be treated nicely in flights. Personally, I think is fake news, having legroom in an airplaine is physically impossible.
your awesome .. very cool old school computer good stuff ... i luv how much effort you put in to get some of these things going / working ... big thumbs up 👍😃👍
Very informative. I had one. They were fantastic. Wise words of caution on safety with their handling.
Great memories. My first work computer was the Kaypro II. Of course I was also writing Assembly code and using punched cards. So, maybe not GREAT memories. But just the way you worked back then!
Mr. Donnie working hard to inspect each piece of equipment.
To get the two talking, verify baud rate and true ttl logic. You may need a small converter cable. Also nul modem, but i think thats fine
I'd be trying to make it make music.
Sam Battle (Look Mum No Computer) needs one of these for his museum (This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete. I'm a patron.)
I never had a chance to use an Osborne. I did use both the original and color PC version, but in the day I suspect only the PR guys called them a "Luggable", those of us in engineering just called them "Boat Anchors". They were handy to take places, but weighed a bloomin ton.
Very cool, sorry i don't have any Osborne advice, although I'm just about old enough, the first portable or luggable I remember was an '86 maybe? My mom worked as the payroll clerk for what's now called 'Burlington Stores' but used to be known as Burlington Coat Factory (originated in Burlington, New Jersey - next town over from me) anyway she brought home an IBM portable 'portable, sure' system.. 5" amber (I'm pretty sure, maybe red) CRD, 2x 5.25" floppy drives, folding down keyboard.. That was the day I fell in LOVE with computers.. my parents then bought a Goldstar (became LG) XT PC Clone. So yeah, that was 1987 I think.. I became a computer nerd, learned Dos and Windows and then networking and Mac stuff, all the goodies.. : ) Became a HAM in
2016 (FINALLY) haha.. yeah I'm into all the same stuff you make videos about so I subscribed! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your hobbies! 73 Kt0nyb
I cant imagine needing to oil change my PC.
If the osbourne can run a flavor of msdos then you may want to investigate the clarkson packet drivers for use with the rs232 serial connection.
The Haircut makes the man! You look younger and happier with this length. 👍
Amazing to see this beast come to life and your hacks on replacing the floopy drive , i still remember when that size floopy were new...How you have problems with electronics building i have on programming ,i did grow up learning Dos but thats it ...its like spock is talking when your explaining the code ~! ; 0 )
You might want to try old-school Unix. It was designed for older machines like the Osborne there and it might work.
I worked with a computer store to find a copy of LISP that would run on my Osborne. Took almost a month.
Weird to imagine how different tech today could be if things like Osborne had taken off instead of Apple or Dell
My Windows 10 work laptop wasn't hit by that awful flaw as well. The bad thing was: I had to work that day, while others didn't. Crowd strike was installed.
8:14 hey, 80s PCs are COOL. Everybody loves them.
I found this very interesting.
Thank you.
☮
I'm hoping big companies see this video and start to roll out Osbourne 1's nationwide
I enjoyed the fake Southwest airlines post about running everything on a C64 😂
Back in the 1980s I used CP/M all the time. PIP Peripheral Interchange Program, you can copy but also send files to the printer or serial ports. The disk copy function is revered to DOS, specify the DESTINATION first! It's been too long, I can barely remember my name, let alone provide instructions, sorry.
My friend inherited a similar one, not sure if it was this or another model, definitely very similar looking though. Unfortunately its floppy drives weren't working but it did turn on. We cleaned up the dust from inside and ended up selling it to a collector of vintage computers so that one definitely got a good home.
Hope to see a detailed repair or fixing video series on this
That Hamms Beer 🍺 gets me. I remember as a kid wanting that cool refreshing Hamms. Never came true but that's advertising to kids with cartoon commercials
What a pleasure to watch. I learned a lot. Thank you.
I’d love to see a video on the first true laptop.
I love luggables. The 1980s was a time of really crap tech, but as a kid it was so exciting. When my friends and I used to format a disk or move a file into a sub directory with a DOS command we felt like we were in Blade Runner 😆
Back in my day:
25-pin serial ports
Bag of onions hung on your belt
I had a friend in high school (1980s)who had a Kaypro 1. We used to play The Adventure on it.
XYZZY
That crt needs the electrolytics changed out. (cap kit) will improve the contrast quite a bit and you wont have to crank the brightness to the point you can ee the beam return path.
I used one of those when I was in the 7th grade. Back in the day, there was a computer store called Computerland that used to let students come hang out at the store and use computers....
Still have mine! It was my first decent computer! I had the external monitor!
If I knew in high school what I know now I would have had a LOT more fun with the few that were around campus.
@2:58 Correction: Those are 5.25" (five and a quarter inch) floppy disks.
Source: I'm old
it is gorgeous 🤩
4:11 MMMMMMM CHUNKY. Like Campbell's soup.
19:10 Zork!!!! Awesome!
Omg, this was the first computer i ever witnessed, my father brought one home somewhere between 1987 and 1991.
“Helpful” 😁😁😁 and smoke and cp/m in the same video, what’s not to love 👍😃
"I did have to replace the vintage power supply capacitors, since those almost always fail on these old computers." - Always replace them, regardless, before power up. If you haven't operated the device in years, change them. It's not worth the bigger things that usually go with psus when they die.
Like for example, i had a TV, NOS in the box, never opened. My dad needed it, so i helped him set it up. Just before i'd put it in the plug i said "you know, magic smoke will come out" - and so it did.
I had a vendor give us a lugable as well call it a bit like that from the 90s with it had protocol card like frame relay , sdh stm ATM, e1, protocol decoders, test and decodes realtime worth about half a mill , one rep said one day car got broken into they tried running off with one , but dropped it as I weigh about 20 kilos
I used to use an Osborne many years ago. I thought it was really fancy back then! :-)
It was actually called a transportable. Had one -- learned a lot from owning it!
i was around in this era..strangely one complaint from users was the ports being on the front..yes it makes it easier to plug things in but if you have a lot of cables plugged in they tended to lay across the keyboard..which was irritating to users...
These things being portable are roughly equivalent to the early _"brick phone"_ cellular telephones.
This came out in my last year of high-school. I very much wanted one. But a couple of years later, I started working full-time in high-tech, and bought myself a PC clone instead....
I used a Kaypro on CP/M in 88. Very similar. Tough machine.
power supply same as in TRS Model 3-4..Astec was in their peak supplying power supplies to a lot of the computer industry..
Don’t let Curious Marc hear this!
I grew up a few blocks from one of the men that was an electrical engineer that worked for Osborne and was instrumental in its design. One of the systems that I cut my teeth on.
I think you can get rid of the lines on the screen if you turn the brightness down a little bit.
You probably cut away kicking the cat away xD
I don't have much personal experience with them but I've heard it's not a question of if rifa caps will blow, but when they will blow.
Back in the early 80s they thought this joint was futuristic.
For the serial port, you need a dongle in the middle with LEDs on it. You need to make sure that you have Rx and Tx swapped, and you need to make sure they're both using the same form of flow control. Probably best to use xon/xoff (software) flow control. After that, you need to play with parity, data, and stop bit sizes and port speed. Start with N,8,1, 300, and go from there. No way that port is faster than 2400.
I think I have one of those serial port dongles around somewhere...
@@saveitforparts cool. For DB-25, 2 is tx, 3 is rx, 7 is common. 2,3,5 for a DE-9. You need a null modem cable or physically swap lines so that rx off one side goes to tx on the other, and visa versa. As for hardware flow control, good luck. I hardly ever used it, and couldn't remember them. I think maybe rts goes with cts, and cd is pin 1?
I read somewhere that you don't want null modem for this, or maybe that was another computer I was working on. I do have a few of those as well, plus Ye Olde Laplink cable.
@@saveitforparts if it's dcs equipment, it's already swapped inside. That's why you need the LED dongle. Tx will light the LED for that side. You want to see Tx and Rx lit, else both sides are connecting Tx on the same pin, which obviously won't work.
I suppose you could use a meter, but it's helpful to just leave it inline during the whole process. Plus, you can see the flow control lights go off and on based on settings during the comms, and that's kinda fun. Those old ports were so slow, sometimes it feels almost like you could decode the bytes manually.
I've heard a null modem cable called a laplink cable. I think they're the same thing.
Personally, I always liked the null modem cable that has a Y with 9 and 25 pin connectors on each end. You could talk on the 9, and connect the dongle on the 25
Very cool!
If looks like a tank control dashboard 😄