I had a stroke of luck this morning. A random internet search turned up some software that's supposed to emulate a BA80 terminal. Whilst it was downloading, I switched on the 8870 which hasn't been used for a couple of months; it powered up fine and was showing status 26 (VDU Does Not Reply) within a few seconds. Unfortunatly, the DAP4 I have refused to power up correctly; it won't allow me to enter it's keyboard parameters. It' been flaky for a while and looks like it's now given up the ghost.

Later on, I'll open it up and see if I can get it going again. I've got several spare CPU boards I can try - no idea if they work or not, and it could be a PSU fault.

I had a very quick look at the new software I found but I'm going to have to experiment with the cable to PC connections a bit I think.

I really need to find  BA80 - they always seemed much better than the DAP4s and more robust.

I've got a pile of pictures and notes that I've been taking and I'm now getting around to uploading them, but it's going to take some time.

My 8870 is "currently" running fine with my new found operating system and I've started to translate parts of it from German to English; but's its very slow work.