🇫🇷 Thomson TO8D: Part 1 (First look)
20Let's have a look at the ordinateur français Thomson TO8D. This is a 2nd generation Thomson machine, an improvement on the TO8 by including a built-in 3½" floppy disk drive but still using a 6809 clocked at 1MHz. It has 256KBytes of RAM and can run BASIC 512 or the original BASIC Microsoft 1.0 (common to all MO and TO machines). The BASICs are included on the internal ROM, meaning no MEMO7 cartridge is needed (like on the TO7).
This machine has a built-in power supply generating +5V and +12V DC. I'm planning to add a 2.1mm DC power socket (centre positive) so I can power my MK90.090 cassette recorder or LEP (magnétophone or lecteur enregistreur de programmes) via the machine.
The machine does power on but the only response I get from the boot menu is when I press [E], taking me to some sort of RAM disk screen ... ?
It has a 5-pin DIN for the cassette as well as a 14-pin DIN for a second floppy disk drive (pin out seems different to the Atari ST ... from my quick check).
I want to give the whole machine a good clean, which includes dismantling the keyboard. Maybe there is some issue with the keyboard membrane (probably not because they NEVER fail, do they kids?).
To be continued, obviously.