I spent a lot of time in a rural part of South Africa as a kid where we still had a phone with a crank handle that wound a dynamo, and waited for the operator, and it stayed like that till about 1989. It was so rural and small that the whole town only had 3 digit phone numbers and everyone's phone number started with the same number. When they replaced it we got a digital exchange with touch tone phones and we skipped the whole rotary phones with relays thing. Almost every where else had digital exchanges by that time, even years before, but not this little town.

I love watching people digging up old stuff, and I love electronics, so this was awesome.

If feasible for you, testing for read write diskettes would be good, as some 1541 with lever mechanism (Newtronics) could stop working due to moisture into rw head (bad sealant from production or something like that).

JiffyDOS is a common mod to overcome the 64's abysmal disk data transfer rate. There would be a sister ROM in the C64 that replaces the existing kernal. Because they were not 100% compatible with all software (particularly with software protection and disk optimization routines), the user often would install a toggle switch to disable the ROM and go back to the factory ROM. JiffyDOS is still available today and can be bought from the legitimated license owner. I had to look up the RAMboard and it appears to be an 8kb expansion that allowed for additional features & functions that could compliment a 3rd party kernal (including defeating copy protection). I assume the toggle is an enable/disable for compatibility as well.

Thanks for sharing your new find! I've been using my Sorcerer since 1979, and it helped get me where I am now. The young Larry Page also had a boost from his experience with the Sorcerer back in the day - you can Google it (groan). I've restored a few Sorcerers recently - side hobby. From my experience the power switch can get gunked up; I douse with IPA and a paper towel. Your switch must have been worse. I usually replace the fuseholder as the original seems to lose mechanical tension along with corrosion. The weird flux staining on the Molex power supply connector you noted is likely to be caused by heat and subtle arcing over time. I've seen the same: I suggest cleaning the prongs/socket. There are many other things that can go wrong with something this old, but the well-documented tech notes for this machine really help.

Were you able to test the accuracy and see if it actually scores better?

Hell, I have no idea what this device is, but those clear plastic "tubes" are obviously handles with a worm gear to fine-tune those air-capacitors they're connected to without sticking your fingers in something potentially lethal. Look closer and it all makes sense. There's nothing "up and down" about them. I know you're smarter than one of those "710" guys who are clueless under the car's hood.

Vhf transmitter, possibly mobile police late 1940s or so

the plastic rods are not for up and down. they are to tune the pa input and output.

the tune operate switch is for power output amplifier tune up. the rotary switch next to the meter is to select grid current of the stages on tune up. and pa is plate current on the output stage.

thats a jones plug on the imput.

829b is 2ea 6L6 tubes in one envelope. good for about 40 watts on vhf fm transmitter service.

Those rods are to keep your hands away from the plate voltage on that final amp tube. (From it's size I'd expect 500 ~ 1kV) My guess would be a 50w AM transmitter / receiver. 50's ~ 60's era by the construction and components.

It's a vhf FM transmitter . those RF cans are part of the frequency multiplier section. I worked with these types of transmitters in the '70's. It looks restorable to me, with lots of time and updated parts could be usable on the upper bands that are most popular these days.

Looks like a transmitter.2E26, 6146 and 829B are transmitter power amplifier tubes, each stage operates at increasing power. The plug is for connecting a power supply. The meter is for tuning the stages from input to output via the switch. The insulated rods are for tuning the final amplifier without getting your hands too close to the high voltage. The relay underneath disconnects the receiver when transmitting.

It looks like a frequency tuner, like a way to identify what frequencies are short range broadcast, possibly military use

I'd guess its a linear amp for a ham shack.

My guess is: receiver and transmitter on a single chassis. Maybe the relay behind the coaxial sockets switches the antenna between output of the transmitter part and the input of receiver part? The meter works together with the switch on the right, as a multifunction meter.

You sound a lot like Trogly.

🎉 I think it goes on a Delorean. Something like a flux capaster?? 0:59 could be misthanken😊

Filling in the gaps: RCA passed on the opportunity to buy the rights to the Odyssey and were thoroughly salty that Magnavox (then a competitor, especially in TV sales) was having success. So they set to work creating something similar using their in-house developed microprocessor and video IC. The clunky switchbox was in response to the FCC shooting down an earlier market release due to excessive RF leakage.

We have one boarded up in my church, started smoking a number of years ago and we went for individual switch dimmers. (we dont have historically great luck with fire) unfortunately someone sawed the handle off but its still in the wall just covered by a board 🤷‍♂️

I'm another person who had an Exidy Sorcerer as his first computer. I loved it, and it really was the best choice back in 1979. Unlike caps-only computers of the time (TRS-80, Apple II, Commodore Pet), the Exidy had true upper and lower case characters as well as the excellent keyboard you pointed out. It also had a business friendly 64x30 screen which was very easy to read on a monochrome monitor. Mine was 48 kbytes of RAM, which was contiguous. The memory map left room for an 8 kbyte ROMpac, 2 kbytes of character RAM, 2 Kbytes of character ROM, and a 4-kbyte ROM providing a system monitor to let you examine memory, registers, etc. I had the Basic, Assembler, and Word Processor Pacs. The characters were all 8x8; there were 256 of them copied from the character ROM to RAM at bootup, and used from the RAM. This allowed you to completely redefine the character shapes, allowing limited and indirect bitmap graphics. The cassette interface was rock solid dependable when running from the monitor (which loaded games and other programs from tape). But the Microsoft Basic in the ROMpac was horribly unreliable when you tried to save and retrieve information via your Basic program. Also Microsoft never finished the ROMpac, and contracted features like the cassette GET$ and PUT$ instructions were not even implemented. My guess is that the programmer who was tasked with implementing that part gave up when the Basic's underlying cassette routines proved unreliable for them as well. Weird that they didn't save on ROM memory and use the already excellent cassette support in the monitor. I found a hack to convert a ROMpac to a RAMpac, so for most of its life, my Sorcerer had 56 kbytes of RAM when not using a ROMpac. Even though I had the Basic and Assembler Pacs, I mostly programmed in Forth, which I loaded from external storage. This meant the Forth had 56 kbytes to work with. The Pac I used most was Word Processor, which was excellent. I eventually got a floppy drive and even a 5 MByte (with an M!) hard drive for it. These attached via the S-100 bus connection. Sadly, the system is no more.😔

I don't think it matters how you hook the switch up. It is going to work regardless. The switch is going to interrupt the flow of electricity when the switch is off. And let it flow when the switch is on.

A computer with a margin release key, now I've seen everything

one of our cats is blind. the blowing works from pretty far to get him to perk up. it also works when going to grab them or touch them so that they know it's not some sis of them they don't like.

Subscriber 268 here! 🌟 So glad I stumbled upon your channel. Watched your Exidy Sorcerer video and subscribed immediately! I’m reserving the rest of your videos to binge-watch this weekend. Keep up the fantastic work - looking forward to more great content! 🚀

I used to own one of those. Flipped it on ebay so I could buy other stuff for my computer collection. Now I kinda regret it.

This was my second computer. The first was a UK101. I purchased mine at a bankruptcy office computer suppliers sale. It came with the S100 expansion box, which supported a dual 5.5 inch floppy disk drive interface card and a set of external two bay drives. As well as the basic pack there was a word processor pack. The drive OS was CPM and MBasic. As I recall my computer had 64K of memory, with holes for the 8k ROM pack and video memory. The graphics looked good for the time, but it cheated, because it relied on redefining the higher numbers of the ASCIi character set to produce what looked like "high resolution" graphics display. ( That is high resolution for the Time.) It did allow impressive graphs to be displayed. The version in the UK had an American mains transformer that ran hot. One of the first modifications was to replace this transformer with a 240 volt version from RS components. I spent most of my time configuring CPM to work with the computer hardware, adding features such as sound and speech. The sorcerer has a black and white display with a video output. In my case the computer came with a small black and white analogue PAL TV that had been modified to accept a video signal input. I eventually replaced the sorcerer with a BBC micro. This gave a full colour graphics display and sound.

Great to see this. I have the original Sorcerer that my dad brought home in 1979. I learned to programme on that (and played a lot of Space Invaders) and went on to a career in software and tech consulting. I restored the Sorcerer to working condition a couple of years ago, and have plans for new Sorcerer projects soon.

We had one of these at Townmead school, West drayton, UK. I spent practically every lunch break on it.

After you finish programming in basic, don't forget to rewind your cartridge.

I know you can't see it because it's camouflaged.. Whattt 🤣

could have tried to clean the original switch?

Bought one of these late in 1981, was my first computer. I needed it for Uni so got it with the word processor pac and 48 kilobytes of RAM. Was only meant to have 32 kb on board but I’d didn’t complain that it wasn’t exactly as per my order. Converted a 12 inch tv to composite video input to use as a monitor. Added a Microline 80 dot matrix printer to round out the system. Set my teaching career off to a good start!

I've yet to see the whole video, but it's a great computer. My father used to have one, and I took my first baby steps into computing on it, learning Basic, CP/M and Z80 assembly. A year ago, my father had to make room in his house an now I own this set, including dual 5 1/4" diskettes, cassette deck and Epson matrix printer (with tractor-fed paper!).

These were sold in Australia as the Dick Smith System 80. I'm lucky enough to have one!

I still have our original Sorcerer in the study along with a multitude of other old treasures. Your's looks very tidy. By the way @15:50 if you don't wear it all the time then don't bother at all because what you are doing by just "discharging yourself when you walk in or out of the room" is almost pointless sorry. Either wear it and protect the equipment you are handling - not just when removing chips - or don't. If you do wear it then I hope it is either attached to the common equipment being handled or to a proper ESD dissipative work mat. The whole focus of ESD protection is staying at the same potential as what you are handling. Not the same potential as "ground" necessarily but things are "grounded" in an ESD protected environment because it is a convenient common point for you test gear and iron etc as well. Many decades of professional training and experience, seriously not trolling you. Cheers.

Oh wow, I haven't even heard of the Exidy Sorcerer since they were originally on sale, back in the late 70s. (I think?)

As the long time friend of a Shorty Jack (sadly, passed at 15 years), I take offense for all Jack Russel's over the statement that they are bad dogs. They are just smarter then us, much smarter. They will never forget the honking duck toy you took and put on top of the fridge at 3am. A Jack will figure out how to rescue it's beloved toy at all costs, find an unlikely unthinkable route to it's goal, like say a grandmother's china cabinet, that made an exquisite staircase giving them access to the top of the fridge. After all, you never told them to stay off the china cabinet, just the kitchen countertops. If I was a smarter Jack Russell owner, I would have anticipated this, and made sure that the china cabinet was included in the "you don't touch" list. It was my failing, not the dogs. 🎉 Miss that crazy dog I do, miss him a lot.

yes!!! i still have my keyboard.

My apologies for the lateness of subscribing. Bought a flight helmet from ya a little while back. A surprising haul with the condition some of the items came in.

Was that a yellow coke straw in the box too? That definitely fits in with the 8-track era !

I had a KB with these switches, can confirm, have tried like hell to find something that matches the feel and sound, and it's been effectively impossible.

Bwahahahaha… I used to own that model of keyboard. I was a fan of those switches. Now I type on the screen and hate it. 🤓🤣😏😎

Way back then, I was strangely "fixated" on The Sorcerer... no idea why... maybe your retro-overview thingy might be able to explain. :)

yo! great video! love to see a weird old computer from an up and coming channel that has decent editing and recording skills! the whims of KZbin brought me here by chance and i'm quite glad for it.

I'm in your region, in Portland. Do you sell retro computers? Lived seeing the sorceror!!

What a collection!

I learned a lot. Thank you for this video.