Oh, there were lots of Morse code projects in electronics kits here in the US back in the 80's, when I was a kid. I had at least four multi-project kits that included a code key. It's a nice, simple thing to work with, easy for kids to understand, and also has a neat historical angle to it. In fact, my city's local museum has (or at least did, the last time I visited about five or six years ago) a couple "telegraph offices", on either side of an exhibit on railroads, each equipped with telegraph keys and receivers, with which visitors (kids being the main target) could try sending and receiving coded messages with their friends on the other end of the room. It is really interesting to see what the Soviet equivalent (one of them, at least) was at about the same time.

LOL, no, appreciate it. I think I was positioning the microphone wrong so have tried a new position. I recently got a pair of Røde mics (Wireless GO) ... one connects to my iPhone 13 that is recording and the other clips to my shirt. I've started positioning the shirt mic. more towards my shoulder rather than directly under my chin. I think that solves the "heavy breathing" issue, but then I get a bit too loud when I'm looking to my left and looking at my computer screen (most recent video, TCE #0555). Ultimately, I'd like to get one of those mics on its own articulated arm ... maybe in January!

I must thank Google Translate. I had two words to work with ... "konstruktors" and "varianti". The box came from Slovakia so I initially tried Slovak & Czech, but there was no match for "varianti" ... but "konstruktors" suggested Latvian. Ahhh! I definitely knew it wasn't Estonian as that's quite similar to Finnish and I can tell a Finn a mile away, so when I got into the box and tried "instrukcija" as Latvian, it translated with no issue. Then, of course, the Russian on the back of the booklet also mentioned Latvian SSR which confirmed it. In hindsight, maybe the "article" ID on the back of the box might also have indicated it ... it ends with ЛАТ ... Latvia? And thanks for pointing out Lithuania ... didn't even think of that!

@@Brfff Yeah Estonian is totally its own thing but I wouldn't be surprised if it has a few Russian loanwords that Finnish doesn't have. "Varianti" could be Slavic. But the Latvian SSR and the ЛАТ took away any confusion of course. There's different diacritics in Czech, Slovak, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian, but when none of the words have any diacritics you have to rely on other clues.

Latvian and Lithuanian parted from Slavic ≈2000 years BC, AFAIK. (Yes, I’m right, that’s the main hypothesis now.) And they lived in close neighbourhood, and they are important sources on history of Slavic languages. Estonian is really different language close to Finnish.

@@Mercury13kiev Yes exactly right. If you're not sure what language you're looking at Estonian has lots of double vowels but has õ while Finnish uses no diacritics. Latvian and Lithuanian both have familiar-looking words that look strangely plural because -s has a different function than in English. But Latvian has a lot more ā, ē, ī, ū than Lithuanian that only has ū but has Polish-looking ones like ą, ę, į, ų that Latvian lacks. I think but I'm not positive that Estonian doesn't have double consonants while Finnish does too.

Oh, good idea! I'll do that!

Oh, of course! Didn't even occur to me that it might be a transmitter option as well ... handy for spies ... "I just built a kit to learn electronics, honestly comrade!"

That would be page 28 (6:03). It's not really a transmitter, just a tone generator and amplifier

Ah, you noticed that! I should've lingered on it more but, yes, they definitely decided to make it a OTP! I've found a simple internal 8KB upgrade that I'm going to try - designing a PCB for it. The machine has a standard 16KB RAM upgrade but this isn't visible to the VDG (separate bus to the expansion connector) which can address up to 8KB www.waveguide.se/?article=expanding-the-trs-80-mc-10-internal-ram

I'd say that you've done well with that purchase. AFAIK that would be the 32k version Alice with built in ML monitor (as it came in the case). A brilliant little system, It's easy verify if it's the 32K you've got it's got an * printed on the bottom label and a ?mem will let you know anyway. Good luck with it

@@8bitsinthebasement Yes it does have the * at the end of the serial number. I might finally have time over Christmas to power it up. Maybe the MC-10 I bought 3 years ago as well :(

I stumbled upon a French auction site - looks like a few available there, but mostly "pick up" or delivery only to France maybe ... :( www.leboncoin.fr/recherche?category=15&text=Matra+Alice&shippable=1&kst=k

Yes, definitely a nice find! I'm assuming that it should be compatible with the Alice 4K/MC-10 even though it has a different (better!) video chip? Same BASIC ... it doesn't really mention anything here: alice.system-cfg.com/hardware.php I find myself starting to fall down the rabbit hole ... "gotta collect them all!" 😇

@@Brfff I didn't know about the 90, must..resist.. purchasing

It should do ... the Master is just a better Model B ... ? More RAM and other tweaks. I'm planning to add a DFS ROM (although you can also load it from the Welcome disk into sideways RAM) so I can access all the DFS disk images

Oh, it was definitely released in the UK! I'm actually surprised I found this one in Australia. It just wasn't very popular from what I understand ... 3½" drive & ADFS meant all of the existing DFS software on 5¼" disk was out of reach (although trivial to sort out today), and useful ports like cartridge, User, 1MHz, Tube and cassette were also removed, with some functionality provided by an expansion edge connector. Interestingly, Olivetti did release a version called the Olivetti Prodest PC 128 S.

I found i site with schematics for pmd 85 in today's quality but It won't let me post it here

Even If I try web dot domain it deleted

Web is sapi and domain is cz

Dot cz

The rest is /pmd-85/pmd-85 dot php

The green pad would've fixed it as well I think because those pins wouldn't have been resting on the stand-off directly!

Yep! Re-ran the diagnostics and everything passed. And more importantly, I could actually load some software - before it was crashing because of that faulty RAM chip.

Thanks - I should be getting back to this fellow later this week - I have some test PCBs for the video interface arriving, so will have a proper look at the rest of the system

Thanks. I need to take another look at this as I've got a machine I can install the Windows software on now. If you had a keyboard and could load the BASIC interpreter software on your Saturn, then you might be able to load it from the cartridge (CRAM). Has anyone made a keyboard converter I wonder so a normal keyboard could be used?

@ you can use the official Saturn keyboard

As he said - it's gonna find a nice home :) Right next to some beloved 128/256k clones from .ru.

Actually I did use tape - I put it on one of the stand-offs so it would stick to where it touched the underside of the board ... and that's where I found a pair of damaged pins! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGKZZpR8gdljbpY

Yeah ... maybe I should cut the green pad to size so it fits in the bottom case, then try putting the motherboard in! :)

@@Brfff That's it! Or get a new motherboard. :)

Earlier I found that flexing the bottom left corner (where the audio circuity is) would kinda-make it work (posted on my Patreon with video) ... but I'm at a loss as to why putting it in the case with NO screws holding it down also doesn't work ... definitely something is marginal somewhere! Even outside the case it doesn't boot on first power-on as seen in this video ... I need to give it a hard reset with [CTRL] + [BREAK] to get everything in order ... I know the VIC has a 555 timer circuit that holds the CPU in reset briefly to allow everything else to come up first ... I wonder if there is similar here ...

Yep - this is what I was talking about on my latest Patreon post! But even if I don't put any screws in, it's not happy ... weird, weird! www.patreon.com/posts/bbc-master-2-dec-117138815?Link&

Asuin Suomessa melkein kolme vuotta 1998-2000 ja olen työskennellyt Nokialla 26 vuotta

The board is the «Москва 128» design and everything else is homebrew/DIY ... definitely nothing out of the factory apart from however the motherboard was produced ... I'm assuming the case is a one-off

Don't know ... I should've taken a closer look at them in the Part 2 video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2nRomVth5yerq8) ... but I will try to remember in a possible Part 3 (installing reproduction «МОСКВА 128» board) github.com/romychs/moscow-128k

Soviet cash registers were mostly electro-mechanical, and their keycaps were engraved, with paint poured inside (looked like a very advanced comptometer). They are probably from some military equipment: I actually saw a couple radar control stations, they did not have exactly these keycaps, but something like. Laser etching or dye-sub were too hi-tech for that time, and double-shot - does it make sense for military? And it’s cheaper (e.g. in cars, where production numbers are great) to engrave and pour paint, like in cash register.

@@Mercury13kiev I feel like I've seen them somewhere, it is a bit of a mystery. A lot of western stuff was making its way over in the early nineties, it looks like they've thrown this together with whatever they could find

@@kenknight5983 Such keycaps are widespread on modern computer-based cash registers. When cash register was an advanced comptometer… they had no room for user’s reprogramming.

@@kenknight5983 Also military and aircraft needed button backlighting, and when they were backlit with bulbs (very small 12V bulbs with two wires sticking outside), the keycaps needed to be physically removed.

Yep - it's a well made case, but the inside is a mess. I imagine it would've been quite a chaotic place at the time (just after Soviet breakup), and Moldova remains the poorest country in Europe, hence why I was impressed that "Leonid" aka Лёня managed to get built at all :)