๐ฏ๐ต NEC PC-8001mkII: Part 1 (First Look) [TCE #0563]
49I've seen these floating around for quite some time ... I've been attracted to them because of their excellent looking keyboard ... and they're usually pretty cheap considering their build quality. Warning: I ramble a little about my mum-in-law's recent passing, so skip from 19:35 to 28:45 to avoid that.
NEC released a few series of machines ... these are in the PC-80 or PC-8000 series and comprises three machines: the original PC-8001 from 1979, this PC-8001mkII from 1983 and the final PC-8001mkIISR from 1985.
The mkII machine added simple colour, a disk interface and expansion slots.
Being an NEC computer, it has mostly NEC parts:
D416C-3 (8x) ... 16KByte of VRAM
D4164C (8x) ... 64KByte of system RAM
D3301AC-2 ... CRT controller (CRTC)
D2316EC ... 2KByte PROM (character data?)
D8251C ... Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (USART)
D8257C-5 ... DMA controller
D780C-1 ... NEC's Z80
D23128C (2x) ... 32KByte ROMs with N BASIC and N-80 BASIC
B6102C005 ... custom NEC part ... unknown function
B6102C007 ... custom NEC part ... unknown function
B6102C008 ... custom NEC part ... unknown function
I don't know much about the machine - I'm guessing I'll need to figure out how to load tape files, and also find out if there's some modern boards created for the expansion slots.
I'd also like to replace the 100VAC power supply with a 240VAC one ... needs to output +5VDC and ยฑ12VDC.
An interesting writeup here (in Japanese):
https://electrelic.com/electrelic/node/201
Excellent details here about a VGA interface (for the PC-88 but should be similar):
https://www.leadedsolder.com/2018/09/24/pc88-colour-video.html
https://www.leadedsolder.com/2018/11/08/pc88-colour-video-final.html
And for the PC-80 series (in Japanese):
https://tulip-house.ddo.jp/digital/DIGITAL_RGB_COMPONENT/index.html
The (Japanese) manual with pinout, etc.
https://archive.org/details/PC8001mk-II-users-manual
00:00 ... Intro
01:40 ... Keyboard closeup
02:30 ... Interface ports
06:53 ... RGB8 or HONDA digital RGB cable
08:20 ... Video pinout
09:50 ... Power on test
13:00 ... Cassette (CMT) pinout
14:28 ... Dismantling the case starts
17:20 ... Keyboard removed
18:24 ... Key cap & key switch
19:09 ... PSU removal
19:35 ... Rambling about my mum-in-law passing & how it's Peter Dutton's fault
24:26 ... Back to dismantling
26:50 ... Removing the expansion cage/chassis
28:45 ... Finally got to the motherboard
30:09 ... Motherboard closeup
33:42 ... Channel thanks & outro
Footnote:
If Peter Dutton were a real man (he isn't) and had an ounce of empathy or compassion (he demonstrable hasn't) then I know with full certainty that my long-suffering mum-in-law would still be alive today, here in Australia with her only real family, and probably would've lived for another ten years (like her dad) ... and not died from pneumonia surrounded by strangers with no chance to say goodbye to her daughter.
--------------------------------
Check out my Patreon for regular blog-type updates between videos - there is a free membership tier and two paid tiers (US$2 and US$5). There is also a one-week trial for the paid tiers so if you don't think it's worth it, then cancel ... no hard feelings ... I appreciate any support, even if it's just subscribing to my YouTube channel!
https://www.patreon.com/TheCluelessEngineer
--------------------------------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
https://karlcasey.bandcamp.com/
ย ย ย /ย @whitebataudioย ย