Alpha Electronics IC Tester code needed...

Jul 23, 2013 4 Replies
J

Hi folks,



Does anyone here have a WORKING 1987 Alpha Electronics Dynamic Integrated Digital IC Tester?



See pictures here on recent auction (this unit appears to be dead):



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The problem is the operating system was stored in a DS-1230 battery backed up RAM and they are all failing or have failed. No one at this time that I know has valid code. The designer (Bill



If you happen to have this in your collection of test gear PLEASE backup ASAP - make SURE you only read it as a Dallas DS-1230 or you will be very unhappy with the result - don't ask!



The designer (Bill Green - from Radio Electronics article, Nov 1987) has passed away...



Copies of the article are available if anyone wants a copy...email me. The respond to is valid.



John :-#(#



PS, if anyone has a TAITO TEST TECH manual a friend of mine is hunting for that!


(Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup) John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games) www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."
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N

Is it possible to find where Bill Green died and contact a relative of his or the executor of his estate?

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J

I did try and track Bill Green or archives of his down a year or two ago (many phone calls), just dead (sorry) ends.

I wonder if he ever had a web site? If so then it may have been archive by archive.org - but no Google search that I've tried has turned anything up so far.

John :-#(#

(Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup) John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games) www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."
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N

My old ABI DDS 40XP, hopefully has the operating system stored on a few (for potential magnetic media failure) floppy discs (standrd drive), the last time I checked it worked without resort to loading the floppy . I'll have to check for battery backed RAM but I don't remember one or a battery in there. That tester uses TestBasic for its operation , so maybe off-the-shelf routines if your one also uses that.

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J

I did track down the fellow who dealt with Bill Green's estate and there was nothing there on this item or others from that far back (1987).

I do have some of the code extracted, but the DS-1230 had unfortunately been read with a programmer set to 27512 and this scrambled the reset vector code enough that it simply doesn't boot any more.

I don't know enough Z80 assembly to be able to sort this out...

John :-#(#

(Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup) John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games) www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."
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