🇺🇸 Osborne 1: Part 1 (Quick Look) [TCE #0501]

Let's have a quick look at this Osborne OCC1 computer from 1981, a luggable Z80-based machine with 64KBytes of RAM, dual 5¼" floppy drives and a built-in 5" monochrome screen.

It only runs on mains power - as this one has come from the US I need to use a stepdown transformer to power it. It has an interesting array of ports on the front - full featured really: an external battery (DE9 socket), video output (edge connector), IEEE488 port, RS232 serial (DB25) and a modem port ... with modem.

This particular machine apparently couldn't boot from the disks, but at the moment it doesn't seem to be showing any output on the screen either. It has travelled from the US so maybe something has come loose within the machine ... not that I needed much excuse to open her up.

{Update: watching some other videos it seems that I either need to install a shunt on the "EXT VIDEO" port to connect the top-side signals to the bottom-side of the board ... or I should've installed the external video out dongle that it came with!}

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

[Brfff]

Update: watching some other videos it seems that I either need to install a shunt on the "EXT VIDEO" port to connect the top-side PCB signals to the bottom-side of the board ... or I should've installed the external video out dongle that it came with! I left the dongle off because I wasn't sure which way it should be installed.

[WacKEDmaN]

what a beast!.. love how the disks are bigger than the screen! :P

[MrWaalkman]

Or HPIB...

Be sure to write protect those disks!!

Nice looking machine. :)

And busted by the wife!

[bikeforever]

I do not mind admitting being just a bit jealous. Nice machine.

[RudysRetroIntel]

Cool computer but a pain to work on because opening the case and get the boards out is a major pain. Thanks for sharing

[MichaelEhling]

I used one of these when I had a student job at my highschool, building an alumni database from paper records. I don't think I've ever seen the insides of an Osborne. Looking forward to seeing your repairs.

[vanhetgoor]

Whatever got into the bright blesses minds of the developers at Osborn, I don't know. One extreme small screen on which it is impossible te read anything. It is a totally useless machine, too big and too heavy. On location you could not work on this, at home or at the office there must have been a big screen. Exactly this mistake was a few years later also made bij Commodore Business Machines, the portable Commodore 64, an impossible to watch screen. What they should have done was: diskdrives in upright position and a bigger screen. Osborn ended up without a success, not that strange actually.