[Milsurplus] CP-1995/U Computer Software

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Aug 22, 2017, at 1:46 PM, AKLDGUY . <neilb0627 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> You could try XMODEM running on top of DOSBox.
> DOSBox runs on modern computers and emulates a DOS environment. I have used it and it works
> very well. It allows you to run DOS programs in the modern computer.

I would not be surprised if the designers used XMODEM or something similar as the transfer protocol for loading programs into the machine. I plan to try things like that once I finish my breakout box for the machine's interface connector. Here are some pictures of the work in progress:

https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/896982721167212544
https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/896983490062729217

I am also investigating whether I can temporarily connect a regular PC keyboard to the unit in place of its built-in keypad. The built-in keypad doesn't include keys such as CTRL, backslash, SHIFT, etc., making it a bit challenging to interact with regular DOS stuff in the MS-DOS shell. I'm side-tracked on making a crimper for the PicoFlex connector used on the keyboard ribbon cable; the manufacturer's hand crimper costs around $1500 new, and I'm hoping to mill a suitable arbor press die out of a few bucks worth of Delrin. Once I can nondestructively plug into the internal keyboard header, then I hope that either the interface is electrically compatible with the PC-AT keyboard interface, or it's something else that I can reverse-engineer enough to adapt a full-sized keyboard to the unit. I expect to need to spend a lot of time poking around to have any chance of figuring out any of the radio interface hardware.

The display is pretty awful in 80 column text mode, as was common on 640x480 monochrome LCD panels of the era. The unit appears to have an EL backlight. The memory backup battery is dead. I have a replacement, but I haven't gotten around to installing it yet.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/