WTB: Data I/O 29b with Unipak 2b

I've got a S22 or a system 19 if your interested.

I would suggest pursuing a Unisite or at least a System 2900 instead. Support is much better (as in still available) than that on the

Happy hunting.

Ack! Support is still available, but are you aware of what they charge! That, combined with the fact that the Unisite takes *at least* 15 minutes to boot up, makes it impractical except for commercial operations.

Alex

Huh? Where'd you get the 15 minute figure? Mine boots and is ready to go within 3-4 minutes. Even the floppy-boot mode takes less than ten minutes to come up.

Anyway... Yes, I'm aware of what DIO charges. However, I've also seen Unisite software come up for bid on Ebay (older versions, yes, but it still makes it usable). Data I/O doesn't seem too worried about it, as I've not seen any of those auctions pulled.

There are also alternatives. Advin makes excellent programmers, and their software updates are free for the downloading.

Keep the peace(es).

Actual use - granted, that's booting from a floppy because we never succeeded in gettting it to boot any other way.

My understanding was that the updates are serialized (like Fluke did with the 9100 systems), so if the hardware and software's S/N's don't match then it's a no-go (rendering the updates on eBay useless). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...

Alex

Ahhh. At one time, yes, that was the case, but it was in the earliest days of the Unifamily programmers (A group made up by the 2900, 3900, 3980, and Unisite). What happened is that, with each update, you would receive a set of floppies and a specially-programmed (and security-locked) PAL chip.

You booted from the new system floppy, and then installed the PAL in the programmer socket when prompted. The boot program would read the PAL, and then deliberately destroy it and proceed with the upgrade. God help you if the PAL arrived defective (many did, apparently).

Data I/O stopped that practice some time ago. These days, what you get is a CD-ROM containing the latest revision of TaskLink (for Windows), and a full set of updates for the entire Unifamily, including self-extracting floppy images.

So, there you have it. Given all that can be found on the Internet, I wouldn't be surprised if someone, somewhere, has at least part of the Unifamily software up for download, though it's probably an old version. Heck, I think even Data I/O put up Unisite ver. 5.3 for free d/l from their FTP site.

The upshot of all this is that the Unisite is now practical enough to make for a good buy on the surplus market.

Keep the peace(es).