I was shocked to find an Acorn Computer monitor in the US

Acorn is the company that came up with the ARM instruction set used in billions of devices. In the 80s they were making home computers like the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron but these machines were primarily sold in the UK and internationally. It seems their efforts to release their computers in North America mostly failed. So, I was pretty shocked when I saw a Acorn Computer branded monitor here in the US. Let's take a look at this monitor and see if I can get it working.
--Info
Acron RGB Vision III
Model Number: KS12R301S-UN
Acorn Computers Corporation
400 Unicorn Park Drive
Woburn, MA 01801
Also known as the Taxan RGB Vision III
-- Video Links
Taxan RGB Vision III manual:
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[@PXAbstraction]

Fun fact about the branding: Kaga Electronics was Taxan's parent company. Taxan was a consumer facing brand they used for products they manufactured, as Kaga is somewhat of a conglomerate. Taxan was closed down in 1991. Even funner fact: Taxan had a subsidiary called Naxat Soft (Taxan backwards) that released a bunch of games in the 16-bit era, mostly for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. Kaga is still alive and kicking today.

[@michaking3734]

fun fact ,german kids call poo..,kaga😅

[@djsquarewave]

Came down here to mention this! Taxan actually released several games for the NES in the US (I had a copy of Star Soldier, myself) but that business stopped before the Japanese Naxat Soft division really hit its stride. It wasn't actually until years later that I found out they made anything other than video games! Blew my mind the first time I saw a Taxan branded monitor.

[@organiccold]

Caga that sounds the same as kaga means to have a dump in Portuguese 😅😅😅

[@organiccold]

​@@michaking3734 same in Portuguese 😅😅

[@roppongi765]

@@michaking3734 No that would be "Kaka"

[@aoughton]

Wow, I've actually been to Unicorn Park Drive as it's just down the road from me. The BBC Micro was my childhood computer, so I'm amazed to see their US office was so close to where I live now!

[@rickedwards6150]

I’ve driven by that building several times. Having lived in the general vicinity, I was amused by the way Adrian pronounced Woburn. It was a good try.

[@hjalfi]

Acorn did actually make a US version of the BBC Micro. As part of the PAL to NTSC conversion, all the video modes got changed from 256 scanlines to 200 scanlines --- 32 to 25 rows of text. Naturally, even though it was possible to query the screen size through the rather good OS, nobody did, with the result that almost no software written for the UK version of the machine would run on the US version. I suspect that Acorn were the only people surprised when the machine completely failed to sell.

[@melanierhianna]

It was quite a bit different inside because of federal RF requirements, not only shielding but the board was layed out differently. In fact that's where the BBC B+ came from, it was an updated B which could comply with multiple region RF requirements.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Interesting tidbits! Thanks for sharing.

[@kwanchan6745]

@@adriansdigitalbasement2 surprised you didn't pair this with the bbc micro you picked up previously

[@Dukefazon]

10:46 - not just the 80's, the Nintendo Wii manual also had similar cute drawings. 24:28 - in the final moment it started to move a little bit, maybe it's on one end of it's scale and not that sensitive there.

[@jaycee1980]

Interesting to see what you guys across the pond got... here in the UK, Acorn computers typically shipped with a monitor from Microvitec - such as the iconic "CUB" series which are pretty much always seen with BBC Micro's especially in schools. Later Acorn monitors (for the Archimedes) were typically either Microvitec or Philips - the Philips ones were pretty much the CM8833 chassis

[@tomgidden]

My dad was head of computing in a Cambridge school, and when we got our first Archimedes -- A305, on launch day -- there weren't any suitable monitors available. So, his technician went about converting one of the Microvitec Cubs from TTL RGB to analogue. We had loads of Cubs and smaller green-screen monitors for the Beebs. I had a plastic-cased Cub for my own Beeb at home -- not sure if it was branded as a Cub, but it was pretty much a Cub 1431 in a curved beige case.

[@jaycee1980]

@@tomgidden Yep the CUBs were highly adaptable to all sorts of input formats - the metal boxed ones had the input circuitry on a card IIRC which could be easily swapped out for various input formats

[@wembleyford]

Love it when Acorn kit gets some love. Honestly, while I will always love my c64 moer than anything else - especially for games - I think the BBC Micro was by a long long way the most capable 8 bit computer - certainly in the UK. It's BASIC, especially, was second to none and has such remarkably extendable hardware. School (back in the eighties) had suites of the things all networked up to fileservers. Not something you'd have seen with anything else till PCs in the nineties.

[@godzzwrath]

i love that you actually go in and tell us what you're doing while you work on it, puts the work into perspective. love from central oregon

[@AntonyTCurtis]

I have one of those monitors... I was also surprised to find it. When I was a kid, my dad had a Taxan monitor which he originally had for an Apple computer and was later for CGA.

[@twilliamc3]

Thanks for sharing! It comes across beautifully on camera.

[@datassetteuser356]

Pretty nice little monitor, awesome! The colors look so bright 🤩👌

[@chriscooper2395]

As a kid in the uk growing up in the 80s and 90s I love seeing anything from acorn being alive these days. Thanks for this video really close to my heart and probably why I’m in IT these days. Thanks buddy. Really good video

[@atkelar]

At some time, the number of ICs, diodes and similar components seemed to be a sales criteria. The Revox pre-amp I restored had a similar paragraph in the owners' manual. It might be a carryover from the tube days, when the "number of tubes" could indicate a certain design quality.

[@GadgetUK164]

What a lovely monitor - it looks new inside!!!

[@Vaskomyr]

Gorgeous little screen. Definitely makes me want a crt for my PC again. Just have a 9" JVC bvm and a couple 19" Sony and JVC TV's that I got for free but in great condition surprisingly.

[@MissAdventuresWithMacs]

I love the dark rich display on this 😍

[@RayBrooks0]

I recently picked up an Acorn AKF17 to use with my Amiga 600. Connected via RGB, it's *gorgeous*

[@maxtornogood]

Love it when a simple reflow does the trick!

[@tedthrasher9433]

I’d love to see how the picture looked when connected to an analog RGB source, like an Apple IIGS. The RGB monitor that Apple sold with the IIGS was so amazing at the time with being able to display crisp 80 column text AND color.

[@LotoTheHero]

What a cool little monitor!

[@shmehfleh3115]

I used to have a Taxan CGA monitor that was gifted to me, along with a IBM 5160. It was kind of a cool monitor: It had a monochrome mode like the Apple II color composite monitor. But it also had a bunch of dip switches on the back that let you select green-on-black, amber-on-black or white-on-blue. I wish I still had that monitor, but alas, that was over 30 years ago.

[@charlesseyle7784]

I remember pictures like that from our Nissan Maxima owner's manual as a boy.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Yeah! We had a 1989 Nissan Maxima and I recall the manual had loads of those pictures too.

[@volvo09]

​@@adriansdigitalbasement2 loved the late 80's maximas.

[@ForgottenLore]

Good memories of when the UK was still somewhat relevant in computers.

[@j__r0d]

excited to see what the Apple II RGB stuff looks like on this guy! also, saying "I'm completely shocked" while touching the inside of the CRT...well played! :P

[@bobblum5973]

I noticed his phrasing as well, but wasn't sure if it was intentional or not! ⚡️⚡️⚡️

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

LOL!

[@WilliamHostman]

Had a JCPenney branded TV/Monitor with the 8-pin RGB rectangular connector; we used it with a Laser 128ex. The cable was off the rack.

[@xliquidflames]

It looks like that control _was_ working. 24:29 the screen does wiggle a little and I think you may have just looked away at just the wrong time and missed it moving ever so slightly. Right after you say, "I definitely have the tool in there." Just as you're saying the word "there" it starts moving. It really moves a lot more as you're saying, "This is probably a fault." Then when you start saying "yeah nothing..." it stops. It is definitely moving the picture a little. So maybe just turning it from the min to the max got things loosened up so the slug could move and it really started working.

[@twocvbloke]

Certainly a decent find there for sure, and very different to the Microvitec Cub monitors we had to endure (very loud flybacks, especialy for us young 'uns who had to endure them with our then-full hearing range!!!), would have much preferred these over the Cub monitors, but the latter were probably much cheaper for the government of the time to stump up for, even if they strained our developing eyes and ears... :P

[@MechanicaMenace]

They were also from a (then) British manufacturer which was important to the UK government at the time. Microvitec did make some amazing kit though. The pic on the Cub was best in class for a while (very important for the BBC) and the much lauded Atari ST/Mega ST/TT "hi res" monochrome monitors were all actually Microvitec.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Heh yeah -- seemed like back then we just all had to put up with the sound these old monitors made --- or just not watch TV or use computers :-)

[@williamsquires3070]

Yes, the little block with the HV wire going to the anode cap is a tripler (most likely, a Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier) which has a series of diodes and capacitors in a sort of ladder configuration. It works directly off the AC from the flyback, so doesn’t need a separate HV rectifier like old tube TVs had. I believe this was done so they could design the flyback to have fewer windings, and thus cheaper and more reliable as there was less risk of arcing between the windings of the secondary. The downside of this design, is that the focus and contrast controls (potentiometers) were often baked into the same potted block, so you couldn’t fix them if the controls became dirty (so no DeOxit F5 to the rescue!) ☹️

[@jmaloney619]

My high school in San Diego used Acorn computers. Pretty nifty units back in the 80's.

[@charlesjmouse]

An actual US model rather than an import! I wouldn't have suspected that such a beast would exist, but here it is. FWIW: At least here in the UK Acorn monitors were usually models rebranded from top of the range devices from reputable manufacturers - I've still got the AFK85 multisync that came with my first RiscPC, working just as well as the day I got it.

[@martywhiskersdoggity9392]

this looks like my first crt, for my C64 ....TAXAN label, but also works for a early dos computer, has the same holders for a the flat acrylic panel

[@dre52]

I recognize Taxan due to playing a few of their developed/published games on the NES as a kid in the 80's. I never knew they did hardware, or even existed outside of videogames.

[@professor-josh]

Nice, the film exposure sticker tickled one of my other interests, film photography. Love it when worlds collide. A half-second exposure means you're gonna need a tripod so the picture won't be fuzzy. Also "Vision III" is a film stock from Kodak, nice coincidence.

[@richardpurcella7206]

NEC PC8001A was indeed sold in USA. I have one in my collection, but without an appropriate monitor. It is TTL RGB, 8 colors.

[@wearwolf2500]

The PC-DOS 3.30 manual has a bunch of pictures of a bird working with the computer. It's amazing.

[@freeculture]

I have it in Spanish (with disks, etc). I can confirm the presence of a yellow bird and text has color too. Those were the days i guess.

[@KAPTKipper]

A 82A colour correction filter cools the ambient light entering the lens by 200° kelvin by adding blue to the overall exposure.

[@BottIsNotABot]

Love the look of that monitor, would love to see it paired up with a BBC in a future video!

[@_droid]

That's a really clean piece of gear you got there, nice! Maybe it was used in a lab/hospital with filtered air?

[@SparksNZeros]

what a beautiful thing, im genuinely jealous, i have an Acorn AKF12 myself but would love an AKF30. this looks very similar to later 'CUB' model monitors to go with the BBC Micro after they moved from the boxy CCTV monitor appearance

[@Zeem4]

The boxy metal Cub monitors and the curved plastic ones were available side-by-side and were just part of the range of options that Microvitec sold. I think the metal ones were popular with schools because they were tough. Microvitec was making the metal box monitors well into the early 2000s but with different internals and SVGA resolution.

[@Renville80]

Another issue when trying to adjust a coil with a metallic tool, if it contains ferrous metal, it will change the inductance of the coil while it is inserted, making accurate adjustment impossible (and that's before considering residual magnetism).

[@CossieChris]

Adrian, I'm one of your UK fans with a love of Acorn kit. I have an Acorn Electron which needs some TLC and would go well with this monitor, you're totally welcome to it if you'd like it.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Thanks Chris -- I luckily have an Electron already (donated by another viewer) so it'll be making an appearance on the channel soon.

[@ceebee23]

Now you need an Acorn computer!!!!

[@richardkelsch3640]

My High School in Santee (San Diego), CA had Acorns.

[@krnivoro1972]

Adrian, try that face image at 25:42 with composite output. AFAIK is designed to be seen that way. It'll blow your mind (even more).

[@paulstubbs7678]

Wow is that a clean unit, that focus pot assembly was usually quite black dust covered by the time they hit my repair bench back then. As for the dark part been too dark, give the screen pot a tweak to bring up the background a bit, maybe that'll make it a bit better for you.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

I actually tried -- it's odd the issue seems to be it lacks a contrast control, so really the white levels are too hig compared to black levels. I need to take a closer look at the circuit to see if I can reduce the whtie level a little so I can up the brightness for better grayscale performance.

[@Funkylogic]

That hygroscopic acrylic staking compound has always been a bugbear. It turns from a tan to a dark brown colour and becomes electrically conductive and causes all sorts of issues. Had this friend that bought a whole pallet of down light buck converters and they could possibly start a fire. Most recently found that gunk in this GW insteak 3504 psu had to recap it and scratch of all the copper sulphate that stuff had caused.

[@StevenIngram]

Wow, that Planet X3 splash screen really pops.

[@taffeylewis]

I remeber one of my first "I.T." jobs was at TAXAN here in Bracknell, UK. Basically, removing Euro plugs from mains leads and fitting UK 3 pins. LOL. I won't forget how heavy those monitors were though :-) Nice to see that Acorns grew on the other side of the pond too.

[@TheUAoB]

I wondered why I was familiar with Taxan even though I can't remember seeing one if their products. I also live and grew up in Bracknell, so I probably saw thei logo on their building hundreds of times, along with the other big computer names that based their UK operations here!

[@jdebultra]

That's a real gem

[@raycreveling1583]

I've worked on many Japanese knitting machines from the 80's, including one I have interface with my 2021 MacBook Pro. The manuals have similar cartoons.

[@octacilioalvares5879]

I would love to see you exploring more about mode 2 and 3.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Yes, will do! Defintiely on my list now I have this beauty.

[@seancurtin6103]

I'd like to see it in analog mode on an Amiga or something. I used to pick up old monitors back in the 90's at auctions because I was on a quest for the best monitor to use with my Amiga 1200. I had at least one Sony with that funky Japanese connector on it. It was definitely wired for RGB. I think I just replaced it with a properly wired DB9. Scored a massive monochrome workstation monitor that I never could get to sync to any computer I had, a HUGE cube-shaped 24" 15khz analog RGB monitor like the kind they used for timetables in airports. It had a little drawer that pulled out with all the adjustment pots. I hacked a Commodore 1300 genlock to be a standalone composite to RGB converter and we used it as a TV in my college apartment. Got it for 5 bucks because nobody wanted to carry it out it was so heavy. I eventually did strike gold with a Mitsubishi multisync that would take pretty much anything I threw at it. Don't remember the model.

[@Wormetti]

I was on edge watching this, based on the title, I thought you might get zapped. I’m relieved that’s not what you meant 😂

[@Chrisa850]

The connector is an EIAJ-8. It was commonly used on 70's vintage Sony VTRs.

[@bobblum5973]

That's it! I was trying to recall the name of it, it's been years.

[@Bobbias]

Happy to see someone named it in the comments. Less happy at how far I had to scroll before I saw it.

[@srfrg9707]

I had the same monitor under the brand Taxan. This one is missing the front tinted glass that made wonders removing reflections from the face of the tube. I used it with my Oric Atmos and later with my Amiga 500 but the color resolution was not good enough to display the Amiga's plethora of nuances.

[@georgefriday4872]

This monitor absoulutly is a rebranded Taxan monitor; Used to work for the UK distributer of Acorn computers. There was a short period when we where peeling off the Taxan labels and sticking on the Acorn labels when Taxan had supply / demand issues with the Acorn branded version. This was for a conract with the home office providing BBC computers & Econet into the education centres in prisons in the UK as part of the computer initiative of the late 80's.

[@retropuffer2986]

Like numerous others have already stated, i'd also love to see you try the Apple RGB with it! ☺

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Yeah I absolutely need to get that going, both with the Apple III and also the Analog mode (on the Apple IIe and IIgs)

[@channex8179]

These old Acorn branded monitors are great monitors as are the old CUB branded ones.

[@MikeSmith-sh3ko]

Normally in the variable inductors they use to put a rubber band on one side to hold the thread of the ferrite core . With age they can be a bit reluctant to move .l use to repair TVs back in the days

[@fumthings]

surely the inductance will be highest when the slug is in the coil, coming out from top or bottom will only be lower inductance.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Heck yeah, a crossover between old Acorn stuff and CRT tinkering! Entertainment purposes fulfilled :)

[@deplinenoise]

The auto industry term “badge engineering” comes to mind :)

[@thawedcrumpet1682]

Your sweater matches the colour of the screen!

[@jamesdecross1035]

Interesting, I've got that strange video connector on the back of a tiny little 5" Sharpe colour monitor, too. Also, a Kodak-Wrattan 82A filter is a bluish colour correction filter - but I wonder which film-stock was in use. Perhaps it was a tungsten-balanced film designed for indoor use.

[@pkneeyahx]

At 2:15. My Sony PVM monitor has one of those connections labelled as VTR.

[@Jimmy666James]

I have just been given a taxan (cannot remember the model right now) in the box never used… turns out it’s monochrome but with a vga connection which I have never seen before

[@joseluisarenasperez3855]

Hello Joe I purchase my Apple II+ in 1981 with the Taxzan RBG monitor visón 210 and the Taxan RGB apple II card in Slot 7, and le me tell you is the same a the one you are fixing from Arcon computers

[@jmcarp0]

very nice, ty!

[@yosi1989]

7:40 The 8001 and 8801 are sold as 8001A/8801A in the U.S.

[@tra-viskaiser8737]

Meby give us a weight of this monitor? I am curious now... Thank you for all the work you do for the channel and our entertainment/need for history.

[@naysmith5272]

Adrian, if you ever found an American BBC B that would be a doozy.

[@BartKliebert]

That lazy Susan is an excellent addition to the Basement!

[@franksemi_modular]

Haha that one of those 'poor man's scart' connections😂 Better quality though🙂 - I remember I from the NEC as it says.

[@franksemi_modular]

I remember that I had a switch box for those connectors and had some kind of faders so you fade the colors on and out like it was ment for production or something like that. Not exactly sure about that but I got an NEC (not sure about the 8001) but even keyboard was made of metal and was so heavy. They came from a bank when they got new equipment. Those where the "client" machines, but the "mainframe" part filled up a hole garage 😅

[@67restomodder]

My Jr. High School in Phoenix in 1985 or so had an Acorn computer lab. I remember they were quite proud of it. Of course they also had a lab full of Apple ]['s.

[@deniseunicorn]

Oh hey! 400 Unicorn Park Drive? Notch one win for us unicorns! :)

[@tookeydookey]

Cool monitor! I love tech that we never get in the U.S.!😁👌

[@area73blog]

Wow I actually have a virtually identical 12" Taxan monitor that I"ve had sitting around for at least 20 years now. It's seen better days, but last I checked it ws still working though could probably use a cleaning and maybe a recap. The only difference I see so far is that the one in this video has different inputs. Mine has a composite video input and the Japanese-style RGB input. In fact the only reason I haven't gotten rid of it is because it's the only thing I own that does composite color without a converter.

[@ionwerks]

I had one of those (Kaga branded) on my BBC Micro, really sweet monitor for the time. Yours appears to be missing the flat front glass I had on mine (the clips at the top hold this). EDIT: Oh you mentioned this.

[@cairsahrstjoseph996]

My fav monitor has got to be the 1701. It is heavier, beefier than the 1702 or 1802 and had a good bass sound

[@mwk1]

Interesting fact is that TAXAN was also a game dev for the NES for some time in between '80 and '90 :-)

[@Clavichordist]

I know exactly where that is located. Unicorn Park is located on a former golf course that was situated next to Interstate 93 just off the Montvale Avenue exit. The entrance is located right next to the I-93 northbound entrance.

[@nickolaswilliams935]

Doubler and tripler modules contain diodes, so they also rectify.

[@kevinwright7931]

I do notice that it is canted on the top over to the right.

[@xrayspx8725]

In the depths of the 2001 web bubble crash, I had an interview in that Unicorn Park building with the fly-by-nite'est place, they wanted someone to be a Senior Admin for their "servers" that live in on-site construction trailers. It was like $25/hour with the job site being wherever the job site is in Mass. I ran and didn't look back. I did consult for some super sketchy players in those lean years though, phoof.

[@jorgelotr3752]

24:48 at the end there, there was a little bit of a change, although it was very slight.

[@groovyfaith]

Hey Adrian, is it possible to run a Nintendo NES or Atari 2600 on one of these monitors with the right connector?

[@megasous]

Used to have an acorn electron when i was a kid

[@oliverw.douglas285]

Just a quick question Adrian. Is the disclaimer at the front of the video more CYA, or did someone get hurt, which warranted adding this to the video? Just curious. Thanks for the videos, & keep up the good work! :)

[@LordOfNihil]

compact design makes things feel heavier. my 12l sff computer is freaking heavy when you carry it. you expect a large machine to be heavy but not a tiny one, but its all the same parts just more compact.

[@owenvogelgesang7314]

I think that weird Japanese RGB connector is called an EIAJ connector. I'm on the lookout for a Sony monitor with one in order to use it with my Betacam deck!

[@johnk7302]

why are the bars diagnonal at first they were horizontal

[@criggie]

I wonder if the Veteran's link is that it was to run some UK-based Acorn software, perhaps listing Commonweath veterans ? And a photo of the screen was the only way they had to do a dump to paper?

[@denverkimberlin3275]

Wow! I used to own one of these monitors. I may have bought this from Jameco Electronics, but not absolutely sure.

[@captainchaos3667]

24:30 - the width _was_ changing at the end there!

[@stevencarlson5422]

so glad that it works what a neat crt would love to rock something like that

[@reidster87]

I'm guessing that the monitor was photographed to make colour slides for presentations/slideshows: text, graphs, charts, etc.

[@fumthings]

could you make pictures of the conversion board in case anyone wants to reverse engineer it?

[@dglcomputers1498]

As has been said until the release of the Archimedes range it was rare to see an acorn branded monitor, generally we had either the metal cased Microvitec CUB or a Plastic cased Philips. Acorn generally used RGB with composite sync, so similar to analogue RGB over SCART, I can't remember if it's digital or not but I would guess it was analogue so it was somewhat broadcast compatible. Those Japanese video connectors can have RGB on them, there was a Sharp monitor that is mentioned in the manual for the Roland S330 that uses that style connector for RGB video.

[@melanierhianna]

BBC Micro RGB was digital 5V. The 32 bit machines were analogue.

[@dglcomputers1498]

​@@melanierhianna​ In the end I thought it might be digital, I don't remember much about the Model B I had in the late 90's/00's though I did later acquire a few Archimedes machines from school that unfortunately broke, annoying as I had about 3 A7000's at one point 😞with genuine monitor, keyboard and even had a compatible Canon BJC600e and Fastrax PCB software, luckily the A7000 used PS/2 keyboard and mice so any three button PS/2 mouse will work. I did have a SCART/DIN Acorn monitor that I temporarily used with my Roland S330 though I now just use a SCART adaptor with either a SCART LCD TV or via a RGB SCART to HDMI adaptor.

[@briangoldberg4439]

There is a "Nanao" label on the PCB. That's EIZO. I wonder what the deal is with that, I supposed they could have provided the PCB components. It also makes sense that it's a NEC PCB because EIZO has used NEC displays. I think maybe this is a rebranded Nanao 7030?

[@stephmaccormick3195]

TAXAN was a brand of Kaga Electronics Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.

[@Xsses]

Finding an Elektronika computer in the US would be even more bizarre, which is actually kinda sad because those things were PDP-11 clones, so there are very interesting from the design perspective. Elektronika BK - home PDP-11; Elektronika 40 - Tetris machine.

[@andrewsuvorow6818]

PDP-11 instruction set was very popular in the USSR, but not all CPU's were clones. K581 Soviet chipset was the exact clone of the LSI-11/23 and K1811 chipset was the clone of the DEC Professional 350. But BK0010 used K1801VM1 and it was not a direct clone of any DEC chip. It differs from ther DEC CPU more or less like NEC V20 differs from 8088. Same were K1801VM2 and K1801VM3. There were hadhard version of these chip and CMOS low power versions and they also were not the clones. Electronica 60 used the K581 and was very similar to LSI-11 but not BK0010

[@hardlyworgen71]

What's that City of Industry address for Taxan?