Adventures with the Nixdorf 8870 Mini-Computer
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8870 / Micro 7

8/5/2015

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Firstly my apologies for leaving this site alone for so long. I've been so busy at work and with other projects that my on-going 8870 adventures have been a long way down the list.

I'm desperate to get more of the information I have accumulated over time onto this site but it's a slow job.

Now, a HUGE thank you to Vaxman and his lovely wife.

I had an Email out of the blue from Vaxman (followers of my blog will know that Vaxman and I have corresponded many times and he has been able to supply me with 8870 related documentation in the past), saying he had found an 8870 / Micro 7. I was very excited for him. The Micro 7 is a lovely machine and it's nice and compact. We exchanged several Emails on how he could attempt to get the machine working, but unfortunately it became clear there was something very wrong. He also didn't really have the time to invest fiddling around with this as he has many other projects on the go, and this was just a distraction to him.
I also secretly think his wife wanted this piece of junk out the way :)
Picture
Anyway, the Micro 7 is now sitting on my workbench and after a few nail biting hours, I eventually got it working... mostly.

I will write more about it soon and include pictures. I've also got some very useful documentation to go with this machine.

So, once again, a huge thank you to Vaxman and to his wife for packing it up so well and arranging it to be shipped to me in the UK. Oh, and to his cat for supervising and making sure the job was done properly.
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Second Chassis

14/6/2014

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Picture
I've previously stated that I've obtained three M25s over the last few years and number 3 pictured above is in a really sorry state. I've no idea what happened to it but it looks like it's either been dropped or a lorry hit it. You can see the crack down the top of the left-hand side. Also, both the top and bottom tier cages are bent. Amazingly the backplanes are intact and all the plates and disk drive were still working when tested in my main machine.

Anyway, this thing has been taking up valuable space so I thought it worth removing anything of value and scrapping the rest. Absolutely everything electrical has been removed including the fans and plastic plate-slot blanks. The outer shell will go to the scrap-metal people.

However, I have a second chassis that's in a perfectly serviceable state once it's been cleaned, so I've decided to construct a second machine.

I'll be taking pictures thought it's rebuilt process, but not during it's tear-down. This second chassis was absolutely filthy and mice had been living in it and I didn't fancy having to keep washing my hands to hold my camera just to take a couple of pictures. You will be able to view the re-build pictures in reverse if you want to see how to tear-down a system :)

As for what I'm going to do with it, it will replace my current chassis as I cut a couple of corners when cleaning it originally, and there are a couple of jobs that I wish I'd done.

Once this second chassis is up and running, I'll gut the first one for all the useful bits and either drop it on Ebay as just an empty chassis (at least it's clean), or off to the scrap metal dealer. Nobody except me seems to what this stuff anyway.



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Back to playing

3/6/2014

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It's been a while since I've done anything with either this website or my 8870's - something that I'm eager to change.

As time allows, I've been slowly collecting documentation, experimenting and just trying to get re-acquainted with how things work. I'm amazed at how much I've forgotten over the years.

So currently, this is the state of play.

I've actually got three 8870 M25 chassis. One is in my workshop and running fine. The other two are in the garage. With one of them at least, I've no reason to assume that if I added plates, PSU and a disk, wouldn't spring back to life, though it needs a darn good clean before I attempt that.

The other chassis is in a real sorry state. I think it's electrically sound but the plastic outer shell is in a terrible state. It looks like it's either been dropped or somebody backed a lorry into it.

I've removed all the "good" stuff from both the above chassis and I've tested all these items one by one in my working machine and so far pretty much everything seems to be working ok. This means that I've got spare disk drives, CPUs, ALMs, PSUs and disk controllers and if I had serviceable chassis I could built another machine if needed.

Still only got the one working DAP4 and no working DAP spare parts which is a worry.

I've got copies of the NIROS 3.3 and 5.0 manuals, and a BASIC 7.0 manual plus some other assorted operator and technical manuals - all in German unfortunately for me though I did have had the NIROS 3.3 manual translated to English.

I've one working ND11 printer, a couple of new ribbons and a SAS cable (printer to DAP). I've got another ND11 that's in the garage right now but I've not tested it.

I've a working Niros 7.0/03 operating system (German again unfortunately) but at least it didn't have User Administration installed, and I eventually managed to find somebody who knew the system password - my memory is terrible.

Interestingly, the first system that I obtained was running Niros EX but the disk was corrupted and the system eventually failed - it was deleting more and more files every time it booted which was a real shame. However, the curious thing was that it had a 1537 CPU fitted, not the latter 1559 that we were always told was a pre-requisite for Niros EX.

My current plan is to harvest the back planes and everything else removable from the damaged chassis, and I'll probably sell the other one as just an empty chassis as I'm not letting any of my spare parts go.


Anyway, that's the situation currently


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An 8870 at last...

17/2/2011

6 Comments

 
One of the things I’ve been after is an actual 8870 machine. I regularly search EBay and other auction sites and often spend several hours surfing the net trying to track down old equipment and information, and you’d be surprised what turns up if you kick enough rocks over.
Picture
8870/M25 with SMC and 8' Floppy Disk
A couple of months ago whilst looking for 8870 pictures, I stumbled across a picture that somebody had posted to an automotive related bulletin board and asked, in German of course, what sort of computer was shown in the picture. Well, it was an 8870/M25 with a DAP4 screen and what looked line an ND11 printer. Unfortunately the post was rather old; May 2010. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I sent Johannes an Email, asking if he still had the computer, and he replied a couple of days later that he had, but didn’t know anything about it.

So, I replied telling the basic history of Nixdorf, and a little something about the computer he had, and, if he would be willing to sell it and what I intended to do with it. To cut a long and very happy story short, yes, he would be willing to sell it.

Now Germany isn’t really that far, but it’s amazing how difficult it is to arrange to get a box the size of a small refrigerator from German to the UK. The shipping company wanted to know the dimensions, weight, required that it be securely mounted on a pallet and then boxed up.
Johannes of course is a busy chap, and it’s not fair to expect him to bundle the machine up like that, but, he offered. I will be eternally grateful for him doing this as the only other solution was for me to go there and get it. It would be cool to have pictures of the machine as it was found and packaged and then shipped and Johannes has taken lots of great pictures. It also shows how much work he’s had to do to get a pallet, cut it down to size and then pack everything in as tight a space as possible.

Today I received an Email from Johannes telling me that the transport company will be collecting the computer tomorrow and it should take between two and five working days to get to me.
From what I’ve seen from the all the pictures, I’m not overly confidant that the computer will be actually working, and getting spare parts is almost impossible. However, there are only really three things that can go wrong; some more serious than others.

The 8870 uses a completely propriety VDU and communication protocol, so if the single supplied terminal is faulty, I’m not going to be able to boot the system. There’s a good chance that any large electrolytic or X2 capacitors in the main PSU have dried out, or that the hard drive has either become corrupted of gets damaged in transit.

The simplest of these to rectify are dried out capacitors. It’s just a simple matter of finding replacements of the same specification. A faulty VDU may be repairable depending on what the fault is, but a dead hard disk is a real problem. Remember that all hardware is proprietary so it’s not a matter of finding a disk unit that’s compatible with the controller, its finding a drive that capable of behaving exactly like the original drive. Then there’s the problem of locating an operating system. Johannes has checked and there are no backup tapes stored with the machine. Still, no point in worrying about it just yet.

The plan is once the machine arrives to photograph it, and then strip it down. This will be a bit of a challenge as we don’t have the cabinet keys for it so I’m going to have to drill the locks out. I’ll then remove and open up all the plates and clean out all the dust that always accumulates. Next I’ll remove all the fan modules and clean them. I’ll also open up and clean the PSU. Once that’s all been done, I’ll replace the PSU and fans and switch the PSU into service mode. Hopefully with the load from the fans, the PSU will start up and then I can check the voltages to make sure it’s running within expected parameters. I’ll leave it running like this for an hour or so to make sure there are no small explosions. All being well, I can then reassemble everything and attempt an IPL.

However, working or not it's a great find and will give me a chance to document and photograph the hardware.

Watch this space.

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    I'm a software developer, an engineer and I love vintage computers, but the 8870 has a very special place in my heart.

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