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binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Binary Dinosaurs
@binarydinosaurs.co.uk
1.1K followers 120 following 2K posts
Collecting, repairing and preserving vintage machines since 1998.

W: https://binarydinosaurs.co.uk
F: https://Facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
M: @binarydinosaurs.oldbytes.space

"The king of old weird stuff" - Fuzzweed.co.uk, Nov '25
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binarydinosaurs.co.uk
This may be exciting news for my AlphaServer DS10 😃
bluescsi.com BlueSCSI Ultra @bluescsi.com · 2d
#BlueSCSI v2026.02.08 - HUGE release
* 16-bit Ultra Wide SCSI
* CD audio S/PDIF/I2S
* Fragmented images are fast now!
* SCA drive bay
* 11.5x BlueSCSI Toolbox speed boost
* SCSI bus timing fixes
* 520-byte sector imaging
* No Arduino deps
* 2287 unit test assertions
& more github.com/BlueSCSI/Blu...
February 9, 2026 at 8:57 AM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Today I’m mostly channeling @annierat1.bsky.social on the calculator front with this Sharp EL-1185 which is currently not well, I’m guessing because the power switch contains porridge. Based on the feel of it anyway.
The Sharp Elsi Mate EL-1185 printing calculator.
February 8, 2026 at 5:51 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
WOOHOO! 🥳

Readers may remember a basket case STC Executel 3910 that was utterly and completely dead a few short weeks ago.

It would like to say hello.
An Workbench earlier. On it is a nude Executel 3910 sans keyboard (it’s over by the wall on an extension cable) or PSU because it’s running on my custom Meanwell PSU made specifically for these machines by me. Boot screen of an Executel 3910 when it has no tape to load from. At this point you can still use viewdata as well as the phone, diary and calculator. It says CHANGE CASSETTE because it has no idea that the tape transport isn’t currently hooked up.
February 6, 2026 at 7:20 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Caution! Contains me 😁
February 5, 2026 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Binary Dinosaurs
janbeta.net
The #Amiga3000T restoration continues. Successfully pulled the 68882 FPU and cleaned up the corrosion underneath. Still some traces to fix and vias to bridge but I have high hopes that it’s going to boot at some point. #InTheLabDoingStuff
Closeup photo of an Amiga 3000T mainboard. The 68882 coprocessor is removed and there are some areas where the solder mask and corrosion have been removed.
February 2, 2026 at 5:40 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
New toy has made it absolutely unscathed from Texas thanks to excellent packaging 😁
A polystyrene box covered in bubblewrap. What it contains may be very useful indeed!
January 31, 2026 at 1:10 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
How did I miss this last year?!
c-engelbart.bsky.social Christina Engelbart @c-engelbart.bsky.social · Jan 30
Jan 30, 2025 - It's Doug Engelbart's 100th birthday! We're celebrating online free-range style with some gems from his remarkable legacy.
Join Us: dougengelbart.org/Dougs-100th
January 30, 2026 at 9:47 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Splendid, I think I’ll take a Philips P2000C portable CP/M machine this time.
rageretro.bsky.social Rage Against The Retro @rageretro.bsky.social · 13d
We’re back! Looking forward to the first meet of the year
computinghistory.org.uk The Centre for Computing History @computinghistory.org.uk · 17d
Retro Computer Club is back! 🖥️

Come along for a relaxed, friendly chat with fellow retro computing fans, led by our volunteer Will.

🕙 Sun Feb 8, from 11am
📍 80s Classroom
Bring something to show, enjoy a surprise machine & grab a cuppa ☕️
🎟 Museum entry £12

#retrocomputing #retrogaming #retrotech
January 30, 2026 at 11:29 AM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Huzzah! Any excuse to get my own out :D
My ZX80 complete with manual, PSU and a '30 programs for the Sinclair ZX80' book.
January 29, 2026 at 8:21 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Wish I understood as much about the 8085 as I do about the Z80 or 6502. This thing is just acting bizarrely, like there's a slip in the timing somewhere, or something is clobbering the address bus. But only sometimes.

Interrupts disabled. READY is high, /INTR and TRAP aren't connected. /RESET good.
Compute side of an STC Executel 3910 phone system from 1983. Every single one of these that remain is battery bombed, but this one escaped with only corroded sockets it seems, plus a few dead gates on the chips on the very right hand side. Each power up makes it act differently, and sometimes it will run the very basic RAM checking routines in the ROM. But most of the time it free runs indicating it can't latch 0x0000 on the address bus when it comes out of reset.
January 25, 2026 at 9:59 AM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
I’ll be giving this a go on my home machines later on.
corbin.io Corbin Davenport @corbin.io · 29d
I'm excited to release Just the Browser! It helps you remove AI features, ads, shopping integrations, and other annoyances from desktop web browsers.

This project includes configuration files, a simple setup script, and guides for manual installation. It supports Chrome, Firefox, and MS Edge.
Just the Browser - Just the Browser
Remove AI features, telemetry data reporting, sponsored content, product integrations, and other annoyances from web browsers.
justthebrowser.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:29 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Since I’ve done the PT502 then let’s also have its predecessor, the PT501. This was a microprocessor trainer SBC and came with a stack of books that look impressive but just try to cover the whole gamut of computing for the absolute beginner.*

This one is serial 6969.
Since the OU didn’t have classrooms you learnt at home meaning the computer kits were mailed to you in boxes like this. The little PT501 on top of the Experiment Book which has some example code and explainers on how it works. Serial number label. It says GR6969. A pretty rainbow of all the books that came in the box with the machine. They all have a PET on the front but one of them tries to describe a mainframe which seems a bit of a stretch to someone learning how a microprocessor works.
January 17, 2026 at 2:04 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
I needed to test some 8085 CPUs, @devilishdesign.bsky.social suggested the Open University PT502, aka HEKTOR. Splendid. My Hektor pics are 24 years old so it’s time for some new ones.
Note to self, don’t put your tongue on that fuse on the PSU because it’s 240v 5A 🫣💥
The Hektor-II complete with its Curry’s tape recorder and a blinkenlights experiment board. Plus that lovely PSU with live contacts on the top. They should have a plastic cover but I’m guessing that was one of the first things that got lost. Hektor is an 8085-powered machine for learning how computers work, it was the follow up to the single board PT501 CPU trainer which only spoke hex. The spacebar key switch is very broken, and replacing it will be a proper pain so I’ll leave that until hektor is going to go on display. Don’t put your tongue on that fuse when it’s switched on.
January 17, 2026 at 12:19 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
I do like getting these in the post. We can play a game of ‘which particular mangling of the name TEXTOOL will it be this time?’

So far I’ve seen

TFXTDOL
TEXTOQL
TEXTODL

any more?
A clone of the mighty 3M TEXTOOL ZIF socket, this one is a TEXTODL because of course it is.
January 16, 2026 at 1:52 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
The Philips P2000C portable doesn’t have a plain video feed to its CRT, it has a terminal which talks to the main board via RS232. It also has an external monitor connection as well as the internal one.

In my machine’s case, the external connection has a video signal but the internal one doesn’t.
The P2000C’s terminal board, a separate computer with its own Z80, RAM and ROM. At the top of the board is a red socket where the internal monitor plugs in. Below it is a set of pins denoting where the external socket is soldered. I’ve plugged in a monitor and I can see the machine works fine but the internal CRT does nothing. I’ve discovered the video feed to the internal CRT is dead so it’s time to get the scope onto each pin in the path to this socket. Fortunately Philips provided full schematics and circuit descriptions for everything except the CRT, which is a Mitsubishi NT-1002XU. Zero documents about that online.
January 10, 2026 at 12:57 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Can I keep it? It followed me home 😁

(Cheers to @petescircuit.bsky.social for the tipoff)
The Philips P2000C portable computer from 1982. It’s about the same weight as the Osborne 1 and Philips were so confident in its portability that they gave it a carry strap. The manual is sitting on top of it. Keyboard and a piece of foam that amazingly hasn’t fallen to pieces, this sits between machine and keyboard to protect both from each other while in motion. Keyboard feels very membrane-y but has a nice action. The front of the machine, showing the CRT, twin TEAC FD55 drives and because Philips a broken power button. Fortunately it’s stuck on and this is how the previous owner got it to explode. Hopefully just a tantrum on the 12v rail. There’s a gap between CRT and floppy drives where floppies can be stored so I’m assuming the CRT is shielded 😄 A view of the whole front of the machine. It’s very clean and tidy and non-yellowed.
January 4, 2026 at 6:20 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
What’s got two thumbs and has just spent half an hour zapping EPROMs only to realise it didn’t turn the bloody lamp on 🫣😆
Picture of a ‘stag’ EPROM eraser from the 1990s so it’s a lovely shade of brown. Hard to believe it used to be cream coloured. In front of it is a pair of 2764 chips destined for a Camputers Lynx from 1984.
January 4, 2026 at 1:12 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Question. The STC Executel 3910 has an Intel D8741A microcontroller for the tape drive. If you remove this controller from the machine it stops everything. No address or data bus activity. Nothing. Only the clocks are active.

Datasheet doesn’t give me any clues as to why this might be. Anyone?
January 3, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Binary Dinosaurs
bluescsi.com
Announcing BlueSCSI Ultra, Ultra Wide and (coming soon) SCA.

bluescsi.com/ultra
BlueSCSI Ultra & Ultra Wide Announcement
Announcing BlueSCSI Ultra and Ultra Wide - 68-pin 16-bit Ultra Wide support, integrated RP2350B, Front Panel support, and more.
bluescsi.com
January 2, 2026 at 11:04 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Happy new deer everyone. Having stared at this deer's face for far too long whilst working on the pic I can't help but think it's a bit miffed about the state of things.

Never mind. Just half a day's debauchery to go then it's back to the grind. Cheers 🍻
Photoshopped pic of a deer with nice smily new teeth and a 'NEW!' sticker on its side. The strapline is 'Happy New Deer' and I've put a little exploded capacitor in the top corner since that appears to be my logo now.
January 1, 2026 at 12:24 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
#ExecutelJapes it’s been a while since I’ve had an Executel 3910 on the bench, thankfully my Copious Notes helped setting things up a bit. Here we can see an immediate issue with AD0, AD1 and AD3 being so scatty they’re not recognised as active by my HP 1660a logic analyser. /2
The tendrils of the logic analyser are surrounding and probing the Intel 8085a CPU of the Executel 3910. Lots and lots of wires, and it’s only going to get messier as time goes on. HP1660a logic analyser screen showing which lines it’s tracing are active. Underneath ‘master clock’ there’s a series of arrows showing everything is active apart from pins 3, 1 and 0 on Pod1. These lines are mapped to AD3, AD1 and AD0 respectively.
December 31, 2025 at 6:55 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Because it's the quiet time of year, and because I have two more STC Executel 3910s in for repair I thought it was high time I redrew the first schematics I did manually back in 2017 using Fritzing, finishing JUST before I was given the originals 😆

KiCAD doesn't have a Fritzing importer, soooo...
KiCAD schematic of the CPU, Timing, Clock, Tape and LUCY (SAA5070 viewdata display controller) of the STC Executel 3910. It's not electrically complete by any means, and some of my pin assignments are dodgy but it almost passes the rules checker if you exclude some gaping violations 😆
December 27, 2025 at 7:45 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Nowt like the brisk Norfolk coast to blow away the cobwebs of a Boxing Day. A few hundred other people also had the same idea 🌞
View south along the front at Hunstanton, tide is on the way out. Lovely day for a walk in the sea breeze and it seemed like a few hundred other people had the same idea.
December 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM
binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Happy Xmas you lot, I've dressed up an exploded RIFA accordingly.
A photo of an Astec power supply where the mains RIFA transformer has utterly exploded - this one took the mains fuse with it. But all was well afterwards so I've put a Santa hat on it because it's Xmas.
December 24, 2025 at 7:57 PM