There's no such thing as a coincidence. Decided to test the RAM on the 68k board from the Cifer. So far, ALL of the chips on the lower row have failed, and ALL of the chips on the top have passed... Hmmm. #cifer1887 #retrocomputing

Well, shit. Messing with the Cifer I found some ICs were getting, to coin a phrase, bloody hot. After a bit of head scratching the penny finally dropped. I'm fairly sure there's a f*#!ing short to ground on the 5v rail. Shit.

Probing between 12v and ground gives a blip then rising resistance. Probing between 5v and ground gives virtually no resistance and immediate constant beep.

It's not the boards as they don't have the short without the power cable in. Arse.

#cifer1887 #retrocomputing

Testing the apparently dead Cifer keyboard. Took one of the key stems out of it and prodded at the circuit board while probing the first chip on the PCB...
#retrocomputing #cifer1887

https://youtu.be/bZlTZxTWME0

It didn't blow up! 😁
But it doesn't work either. 🙁
But there is a raster so it's not the CRT! 😁
But the hard disk doesn't seem to spin up. 🙁
But it HAS got the 68000 card for UNIX! 😁
But work/other commitments means it's likely to be months before I can properly look at it. 😢

They don't make 'em like they used to..

#retrocomputing #cifer1887 #cpm