Comment on 'boardswapping' as part of the computer culture.

[Tony Duell]

> > Yes, there is always that :-). I am having peoblems finding space for the 
> > PX8 I bought the other week...
> 
> Epson PX-8? (clears a roughly PX-8-size space)  I can think of somewhere...

Yes, exactly that. I got one with what seems to be a PSU problem -- it 
powers up OK from a bench supply, but if you turn it off it won't turn on 
again without a hard reset. The always-on backup power line is not 
behaving correctly.

One SMD sener has been blasted off the board, so %deity knows what other 
damage has been done. But the rest of the machine, in particular the 
custom gate arrays, all seem to work, so I think I can repair it.

If you are seriously looking for one, they are not that uncommon on 
E-bay. I got this one there fairly cheaply because it was non-working, 
even though the PF-10 3.5" floppy drive was included (this, BTW, is an 
interesting device inside, it's one of the few 40 cylinder 67.5 tpi 3.5" 
units, and the drive elecrtronics (read/write chain, etc) and controller 
(765 + 63A03 microntroller + etc) are all on one PCB). 


-tony