Intro & sad Superboard

[rgjohn]

Thanks heaps Dave for setting this forum up.
I've just found my old SuperBoard 600 rev.D in the roof space and we have just entered another lockdown here in Victoria, Australia. So ... the challenge is to get it going again. Unfortunately, many many years ago, after I passed it on to my younger brother, 240V hit the power rail
Therefore I'm looking for replacement ic's. I've just ordered some 2114's which seem to be getting rare but I have no idea how I'm going to replace the BASIC ROMs and the SYN600 ?? Does anyone still have the capability to burn them? I do have five "new" 2716 eproms ... if these are the correct ones??
Is this restoration an impossible task? I don't know if other ic's are going to be impossible to get.
The board/keyboard is in good condition and I've also got a couple of expansion boards (video and memory) but I'm not really interested in getting them going.
Once again, many thanks for this fantastic resource.
cheers
John Weatherley

[RedskullDC]

Hi John,

Welcome to the OSI forums.

I can burn new ROMs for you if needed, though I would recommend EEPROMs instead (2816/2864).
Couple of jumper changes on the board required to use the 2716/2816 chips.
(I'm located in Northern NSW near Coffs Harbour)

It's almost always possible to repair the OSI machines, and parts are easily sourced.

Any pics of the video/memory boards for us?

Cheers,
Leslie

[rgjohn]

Hi Leslie,
Many thanks for your reply ... and your kind offer to help out.
I've been spending a lot of time today looking for replacement ic's and eprom programmer and eraser.
But I'd be happy to take your advice on using 2816/2864 chips ... although I don't have any.

The other boards that I have are a TASAN video expansion and a Rabble Ozi board (memory, floppy disk controller etc) ... remember KAOS - the Victorian 6502 user group? Also have got the manuals for these boards.

I've ordered 10 (all they had) 2114's from ScribblyGum and I'm about to order some more from eBay plus a 6502 and a 6850. Is there anything I should be careful of to ensure compatibility?
I'll attach some pics.

Thanks again
John

TASAN video

TASAN board.jpg (440.92 KiB) Viewed 19626 times

TASAN manual

TASAN manual.jpg (230.6 KiB) Viewed 19626 times

Rabble board

Rabble board.jpg (582.94 KiB) Viewed 19626 times

Rabble manual

Rabble manual.jpg (181.59 KiB) Viewed 19626 times

My dead Superboard

600D.jpg (465.57 KiB) Viewed 19626 times

[gekaufman]

I'd be surprised if you truly blew every IC on the board without some obvious damage. At least visually the capacitors appear intact.

I'd suggest you consider a small IC tester (there are many on Ebay or AliExpress). While not perfect, they will at least give some reassurance for the common TTL stuff.

I'd then power it up with your original roms in place and see if you at least get a graphic display on the screen.

If needed I can certainly burn you 2716's - but given your location the postage would be more than they would be worth!

[rgjohn]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the unpopulated Superboard is how I got it back from my brother and he can't remember what happened to the chips that he removed. I did see some fragments of ic casings though, so some must have blown their tops.
I think I'll buy an eprom programmer because later I reckon I'll be trying some of the alternate roms that I've read about on this forum. Would a
GQ-4X v4 be a good idea?
I'll take your advice and also get one of these: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Integrated- ... 2862461365