IBM 5155 teardown + portable Model F repair. IBMs first Portable PC

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Tools I regularly use
DeoxIT D5 Contact Cleaner
Hanstar 861DW Rework Station
Pro'sKit SS-331 Desoldering Station
UNI-T UT61E Auto Ranging Multimeter
UNI-T UT890D Manual Ranging Multimeter
MESR-100 mk2 ESR meeter
PINECIL Soldering Iron
PinePowerPSU
TS-100 Soldering Iron
AMTECH NC-559-ASM Flux
MaAnt Grinding Pen
Multicore 60/40. 0.38mm and 0.5mm solder
TL866 II Plus Programmer
Tektronix 2246A 100 MHz four-channel analog scope
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

[Epictronics]

Support my work on patreon.com/Epictronics

[RichMye-wxob]

I admire your patience! From the risk of breaking the plastic I would keep my fingers away unless it was really not useable. Great video :)

[thomasives]

That dead bug looks like a carpet beetle larvae (baby). Aw, soooo cuuuute! Cheers!!

[podnaponom]

I bought one 5 days ago. It's amazing, just waiting for the IBM PC DOS 2.10 to arrive from USA.

[partycatplays]

What a fiddly thing! Goodness you have a ton of patience

[SnipE_mS]

Just ordered one as well! These things are super cool. Kind of on a portable kick lately :)

[sumplais]

I picked up a Compaq Portable from a fellow who was also selling a Kaypro II I bought for my father. A few months later I found someone selling a 5160 for cheap...I didn't really have a need for it, but I just had to have the Compaq Portable and the 5155 running side by side.

[johnas]

Thanks for the video, I openned up my 5155 PSU to check for Rifa caps, thankfully none there (some PSUs have them on the filter board apparently). At 13:28 can clearly see that the drives are bolted into slots. You only need to remove one long bolt from the other side of the floppy drive and just loosen the other three bolts with a spanner. The floppy drive then slides back and can be removed (if there are no ISA cards in the way) - no need to remove the CRT.

[Rivenworld]

Love your videos man, brings back some memories of working on XT's and AT'. Love this.

[BigBadBench]

Beautiful work on that keyboard restoration! Very cool that you had the same RAM expansion board that I had in my 5150. Looking forward to the next part!

[jordanleewalker]

I enjoy replacing the foam in Model F keyboards, but it's very difficult with the 5155 Model Fs. The plates are made out of a lighter, more flexible metal than the rigid steel assemblies of every other Model F. This means new foam does not compress as the metal isn't strong enough to do this. The amazing key feel of a Model F comes from the plates and foam pressing the switch housings tightly against the PCB.

[johnackley]

I had a luggable Compaq similar to this. Thought to make it a sleeper, but never did.

[tony]

Wow that's a project! How many pieces and screws and bits do you have scattered on your desk now? :) That keyboard restoration was epic, I'm not sure I would have had the patience to do that! The capacitor soldered on the mains socket should be to avoid sparks when the mains cable is plugged in. You'll see it on modern PSUs as well. Something @TheTechknigt taught me :)

[jamesmaxwell]

Good to see the miniscribe isn't a brick. But it maybe as useful as one if it decides to not cooperate.

[nickwallette]

No notes on the video content. :-) Just loving the new set, the useful teardown / assembly documentation, and the awesome theme music that makes me feel nostalgic for something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. 👍 I guess it just feels like the early 90s. <3

[crabdonkey]

Critters looked like meal worms. We had to buy them to feed our chameleon!

[sergioaguayogarciara]

14:50 Yes, the drive cage is indeed a bit too narrow compared to a regular size computer. What I did with my 5155 is to sand the sides of the front plate of the drive. It doesn't have to be perfect because the sides are covered by the 5155's front panel.

[JenniferinIllinois]

I just love the 80s idea of portable. Sure, it's portable if you don't mind back pain afterwards. 🤣

[Wombletronix]

Watching the disassembly of the 5155 was a painful kind of entertainment - what a lot of frustrating design decisions. Though maybe slightly easier than glued-together modern garbage.
Really appreciated seeing the servicing run on the keyboard though. I am working on restoring a Model F 122 and not gathered the courage to tackle the foam yet, due to it being totally disgusting. A little more courage now. Spacebar advice sure is handy too. Thanks.

[THEtechknight]

I have never seen a Model F restoration video, so seeing this was awesome. Luckily the foam pads are available according to google, just pricey. Also, the belts are melting on my FDDs for my 5155 so Console5 now stocks those. And yeah, the drive cage opening is too narrow before the later XT/AT standards defined things. the HDD probably has a stuck stepper because it was flashing an error code in your video.

The other problem I am having, the black coiled keyboard cable is also melting so i need to fabricate a replacement for that.