Bought some Kaypro Computers...one is modded...

[jdgabbard]

Well, I bought a couple of Kaypro Computers (A Kaypro II and a Kaypro 2X) today for $60 and a few hours drive time. The Kaypro 2X seems to boot ok (I do not have a boot disk to verify), as it asks you to place a disk in the A drive. However the Kaypro II appears to be modded. I'm assuming it was some type of ROM banking (there is a toggle switch that goes to the back on the computer). Does anyone have any idea what is going on here? I can probably dump the rom, but I'd hate to desolder it without having a replacement (I do not have any 2732 eproms). See the attached photo.

 

The computer is dead at the moment. At first when I tried to boot it I heard a high frequency chirping coming from the power supply, and there was no power on the rails. However, I disconnected the power cables from the floppy drives and it appears to stop chirping and there is now power on the rails. However, the CRT does not power up. So this is likely going to take a little work to get going. I gotta be honest, I know nothing about CRTs.

 

All things considered, if the one still works I'm still happy with the purchase. But I'd like to get both working.

 

 

[TheTIGuy]

Neat! BUT BE VERY CAREFUL AROUND CRT DISPLAYS! Got it?

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, I'm deathly afraid of High Voltage. So no risk of me poking around with that thing until it's unplugged and discharged. I do not like anything over 36v DC, lol

 

Here is my blog post on the acquisition: http://retrodepot.net/?p=158

Edited September 24, 2017 by jdgabbard

[TheTIGuy]

Ah, good. Although you would be surprised how little 120VAC @ 60hz and 3 Amperes hurts

ANYWAY, also try the computer, fully assembled, with all possible switch combos.

DO THIS WITH A SURGE PROTECTOR!

Edited September 24, 2017 by TheTIGuy

[jdgabbard]

I've been undoing the work by the original owner, mostly because it seems to be unfinished (broken IC legs that are needed, unsoldered pins on the legs of exposed ICs, etc). Doing this in an attempt of getting the board working so that I can troubleshoot the rest of the computer. I decided to pull the ROM and dump the contents. This is in fact a custom ROM, and appears that the guy who originally wrote it is/was a professor. And appears to be alive but retired from the data I can gather.

I'm going to work on trying to get some contact information so that I get some additional information about who owned this and what the ROM was. I'll be posting details on my blog.