C1P / SUPERBOARD II Expander Kit Manual

[bxdanny]

This is a scan of the manual I got when I expanded my 8k C1P to a C1P-MF back in (I think) 1982.

PDF pages 2 and 3 are the two sides of the Warranty Information card that was stapled to the Limited Warranty certificate (PDF page 4). (Both were cardboard, all other pages were paper.) PDF page 5 (about a subscription to MICRO magazine) is the only page which contained (and was therefore scanned in) color. PDF pages 7 through 14 (pages 2 through 9 of the first part of the manual) were printed double-sided, and so represent just four actual sheets of paper. Everything else (other than the Warranty Information card) was printed single-sided. The Model 610 Schematic (PDF pages 27-37) and the Challenger 1P Mini Disk Users' Manual (PDF pages 38-46) each formed a group of pages that were stapled together. (I removed the staples for the first time just after scanning the first page of each group.) And everything here came in a plastic binder, with a clear front cover and a black back cover. Everything except the order form (PDF page 6) from faux dealership Cleveland Consumer Computers & Components (actually run by OSI employees) was attached to the binder through holes punched in the pages.

The 610 board came with just 4k of RAM, giving the system 12k total. The only software the package came with was Pico-Dos 1.1 (two diskettes, one labeled "Demo" and one labeled "blank", which contained the OS and dummy placeholder programs like " 10 REM PROGRAM 1"). I had already obtained a third-party case with power supply for a 5.25" disk drive, intended for use with the TRS-80, so that is what I installed the drive in. I got everything assembled and connected, then turned the system on and inserted one of the Pico-Dos disks. When I pressed Break and "D", the head went to track 0, then to track 1 - then (I think) back to track 0 and back to track 1 - but nothing appeared on the screen. I tried this several times, with both copies of Pico-Dos (which were the only 5.25" diskettes I had), but the result was always the same.

I turned the system off, thought for a few minutes, and realized that it could be trying to load $2200 and up with 2k from track 0 and another 2k from track 1, which would require memory through $31FF. Luckily, I already had my C2-8P system. So I removed a pair of 2114s from that, leaving it with 47k, and installed it on the 610, giving the C1P 13k. And when I turned it back on and tried again, this time it booted. The manual (first text page of the last section, PDF page 30) says that Pico-DOS should boot with 12k, but that simply wasn't true. Not a sign of good quality control on the part of OSI.