by Ron Hopkins-Lutz -- aa747@cleveland.freenet.edu
This FAQ is provided to help owners or users of the NEC pre-MSDOS model PC8201a and PC8300 portable computers. All information is as accurate as I could make it. However no guarantee is made that this information is 100% accurate. It is based on 9 years experience with the model PC8201a, old magazines, and notes taken through the years. For the rest of this FAQ the PC8201a will be referred to as the 82 and the PC8300 as the 83. Please send me any corrections, updates, or technical information at my E-mail address above.
Although this is obviously target toward the Nec machines, it gives useful information about the history of the M100 line, and most of the information here pertains to the whole family of the Kyocera line
All eight variants shared certain features:
The eight models are listed below with their individual variations.
A. The STAT settings are the way you configure the COM or communications port on an 82 or 83. The six digits break down as follows.
|------Baud Rate
||---Parity
|||--Word length
||||-Stop Bits
8N81XS
||-SI/SO flow control
|-Xon/Xoff flow control
Baud rate: 1=75 2=110 3=300 4=600 5=1200 6=2400 7=4800 8=9600
Parity: N=None E=Equal O=Odd I=Ignore
A. On the Internet there are two newsgroups where you can post questions. The first is comp.sys.laptops and the second is comp.sys.tandy. The tandy newsgroup has many participants who have old magazines, etc. and who sometimes answer posted questions.
If you are on America Online there is a support area run by NEC. It has a message board that has a topic area for older and no longer supported portable NEC computers.
If you are on Compuserve there are archives in the Tandy area that include text files and programs for the Model 100. There are also files on how to use these on an NEC. There are some files specifically for the NEC machines.
If you are on GEnie there are archives in the Tandy Roundtable that include text files and programs for the 82 and 83, the kc85, the Olivettis, and the Model 100. There are also files on how to use the Model 100 files on an NEC.
I do not know what the status is on Delphi or Prodigy, but if you are members there it won't hurt to look.
NEC also has a technical support BBS at (508) 635-4706. I do not believe they have any files for the 82 or 83, but they _might_ answer questions.
Club 100 is a BBS in California that also sells some accessories that fit the 82 and 83. They charge for membership and have some files for the 82 and 83. The phone number is (510) 939-1246. See below on the vendor list for mailing address. Their consignment area often has a lot for the 82 and 83, but you must scroll through all of it. One thing they have is back issues of Portable 100 and Pico magazines, which are a gold mine of information. They also produce some products for the 82 and 83. They were still operting as of late September of this year.
The Daily Planet BBS offers both files for these machines and is a contact for Daniel Cohen, a dealer who supports these machines. The BBS number is (808) 572-4856 or 7. The BBS is free. Daniel responded to E-mail on his system in thelast couple of weeks and confirms he has some parts for the 82 and 83 as well as produces a custom ROM for some models. Daniel has had praise from acquaintances who have dealt with him.
If you you can't find a manual, about 90% of the operations of the 82 and 75% of the 83 were identical with the same areas on a Tandy Model 100/102. Old books on those machines should help. Pinouts of the ports are available by E-mail from me at my address below.
Also Marvin Mally wrote a book called "Exploring the Nec PC-8201a." It is out of print, but sometimes Club 100 or others have copies. This was nice because it summarized the NEC manual and was small enough to slip inside the case. It included port pinouts, amoung other things.
A. Yes, believe it or not.
Memory is still available from:
Purple Computing
2048 Southside Road
Murphy, OR 97533
(800)
732-5012
8k RAM chips, Memory cartridges up to 128k
(Confirmed 9/94)
Other miscellaneous stuff can be found from time to time from the following vendors:
Club 100
P.O. Box 23438
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
Phone: (510)
932-8856
FAX: (510) 937-5039
BBS: (510) 939-1246
Also have for
sale area on BBS with occasional things.
(Confirmed 9/94)
(They are
still there - Andy Jan, 1996 - 2400 baud MAX!)
Pacific Computer Exchange
1031 S.E. Mill St., Suite # B
Portland, OR
97214
(503) 236-2949
Buys and sells Tandy and NEC equipment, buys 83s,
sometimes has stuff for 82 and 83.
(Confirmed 9/94)
Daniel Cohen
The Daily Planet BBS
Box 237
Plymouth, NH
03264
Phone: (800) 338-1839 (Sales - Voice mail)
BBS: (808)
572-4856 or 7 (8N1 300/1200/2400/9600)
E-mail: sysop@tdp.org
E-mail:
1:345/111 (Fidonet)
Mr. Cohen has been supporting these machines for years and has many,special products not available elsewhere. He has a FAX on demand service. He provides full support so his prices are reasonable but do not expect garage sale prices. People who have dealt with him report they are very pleased.
A. You need a print formatter, the LIST option from the main screen was designed to list programs. A simple print formatting program came on a cassette with the machine. If you have the cassette you can try it.
There are several excellent formatting programs in the archive on GEnie and Compuserve.
Here is a simple formatter. It is printed in a special format to make it easy to understand how to modify it. Type it in like any other BASIC program though. For example line 21 should be typed as 21FILES:PRINT
======== Program Listing Begins ========
FORM.BA
=======
Print formatting program
from PICO Magazine - June,
1988
Page 8 - Letters column
---------------------------------------
1 CLS
:'Clear screen
21 FILES
:'list files
:PRINT
:'extra screen line
22 W=64
:'set print width
:G=8
:'left margin
:J=1 :'line
spacing
:C=INT(49/J)
:O=W
:'print width temp
23 INPUT "*.DO file";C$
:'file to print
:OPEN C$ FOR INPUT AS 1
:'open file
30 INPUT "Page # [Y/N]";E$ :'number
pages?
34 IF E$<>"Y" AND E$<>"y" THEN GOTO 36
:'if no jump over #
35 A=A+1
:'page number count
:LPRINT TAB(39);"Rick Hopkins-Lutz, Page ";A
:'print page #/name
36 K=1
:'position on page
37 FOR M=1 TO O
:'get line of text
38 H$=INPUT$(1,1)
:IF EOF(1) THEN GOTO
51
40 I$=I$+H$
:IF H$=CHR$(10) THEN N=W
:GOTO
46
41 NEXT M
42 FOR N=W TO 1 STEP -1
43 IF MID$(I$,N,1)=CHR$(32)
THEN GOTO 45
44 NEXT N
:N=W
45 J$=RIGHT$(I$,W-N)
:I$=LEFT$(I$,N)
:GOTO 47
46 I$=LEFT$(I$,LEN(I$)-2)
:J$=""
47
LPRINT TAB(G);I$; :'print margin
:FOR
X=1 TO J :'do line spacing
:LPRINT
:NEXT X
:K=K+1
:'line count
49 I$=J$
:O=N
50 IF K>C+1 THEN GOTO 52 ELSE GOTO 37
:'end of page?
51 LPRINT TAB(G);I$
:'print text line
:K=K+1
:'line count
52 IF NOT EOF(1) THEN LPRINT CHR$(12)
:'end of last page?
:GOTO 34
:'if no new page
53 LPRINT CHR$(12)
:'end of last page
56 CLOSE 1
:'close file
:MENU :'leave
program
======== Program Listing Ends ========
If all else fails you can E-Mail below and I will E-Mail you an ASCII listing and instructions for an advanced Wordstar command print formatter. (At some point I may upload these to The Daily Planet BBS, if requests get too heavy.) E-Mail to:
aa747@cleveland.freenet.edu
Topic: NEC PRINT UTILITY
A. Your 82 and 83 have a small wafer Nickel-Cadmium battery in them. It is recharged by the AC adapter or the penlight batteries when the machine is not in use. They were designed with about a five year life before they wouldn't charge anymore. Yours just died.
You can try a couple of things.
1. You can keep it plugged in or AA batteries in it when not plugged in. A set of AA batteries will keep the memory for about a year if you don't run the machine itself off them. If you do, plug it in when changing batteries.
OR
2. Open up the bottom of the case and take out the little Ni-Cad. Some versions had a single wafer, others two wafers together with heat shrink around them. Go to you favorite electronics parts catalog or service man and see if you can find a match.
OR
3. Take out the old one. Install a small battery holder (the old cell was soldered in) and replace with any Ni-Cad that will fit and is the right voltage and a similar amperage. There's really quite a bit of room in the case where the battery goes.
A. Because any 6 volt DC circuit can run the thing if it has the right plug, just make a battery pack with 4 D cells in it. Take along a set of AAs as a backup. You could also try something fancy with solar cells to recharge batteries, etc., but the size of 4 D cells is more practical. For emergencies, take along a couple of wires with alligator clips and run it off the 6 volt battery in your camp lantern.
A. Try GEnie's Tandy Roundtable or CompuServe's Model 100 area. There were quite a few of these things there last time I looked. The listings are quite long to type in but the text files can be converted using the instructions in the NEC manual.
You can also try The Daily Planet BBS (see above) with your 82 or 83. Since this is a long distance call borrow the fastest modem you can. Progams cannot be downloaded with the 82 or 83 unless you have first downloaded the programs XMODEM.PCH and XMODEM.DO from The Daily Planet. These two files are in a special text format. Any file ending in .ZIP must be downloaded to a PC and unZIPped first. The only one on TDP at the moment that qualifies is the one on using the Tandy Portable Disk Drive
with the NEC machines. If you can't find what you want, E-Mail me at the above address and if I have what you want I'll send it back to you.
Sometimes the simple machines do more because there is no complexity to slow you down
(c) 1994 by Ron Hopkins-Lutz -- aa747@cleveland.freenet.edu
--
"The peace of Allah be with you and in your heart."
Ron Hopkins-Lutz --
aa747@cleveland.freenet.edu