Date   : Wed, 09 Oct 1985 02:07:04 EDT
From   : Rex Buddenberg <BUDDENBERGRA@USC-ISI.ARPA>
Subject: SB180 quirks

Some experiences with the Ciarcia SB180 computer board.
The SB180 board has some gotchas attached.  It is a solid machine,
but not without some rough edges.  Here is what a couple of us have
found:
       Reset.  A cold boot doesn't always.  The system is supposed
to come up in monitor if no disk is present in A: (or no drives
attached).  System is supposed to reboot CPM if the disc is loaded.
In both cases, it often takes several resets to get action.
       Discs.  Read the manual carefully.  Few drives come correctly
configured out of the box.  If you put an 8" drive on the system
(eg as C:), you gotta turn it on every time you use the machine.
If you don't (or turn it off without shutting down the rest of the
system), you get this Gawd-awful buzz in the 5" drives.
       Configuration.  I hooked up a couple Qume 542's and found
that you want to pull ALL the shunts except the drive
select strap.  Regarding 8" drives, a Qume DT8 came up
OK after fiddling around with the settings for a bit.  
A Tandon half height has yet to decide to cooperate.
       Kermit.  And modem programs.  Haven't yet figured out the
I/O.  The CP4 'generic' Kermit will not talk to the modem for
some reason.  Yes, I tried all the port settings.
If someone gets a Kermit front end for this thing, let me
know...  
       ASCI ports.  You get a terminal and a modem port.  The basic
bits come right out of the 64180 and only the 1488/1489 RS-232
drivers are between your terminal and the CPU.  Which is just
enough.  My printer is wired as a DTE, but the modem is a DCE.
So to avoid fooling around with null modems and such, try this.
Get a 26 pin crimp-on connector to attach the
ribbon to the board.  Get your length of ribbon cable and crimp
the connector to it in the middle.  Then wire each end to the
DB-25s however you need them.  I got one female DTE and one male
DCE so both peripherals plug in correctly.  
       Z-DOS.  You have to sort thru all the stuff on the masters
and figger out that you don't need the 4 directory programs
supplied -- 1 will do nicely.  Unfortunately there isn't a lot of help
in setting up a usable working disc configuration.  Take out
too much and you get warmed over CPM.  Put in too much and you have
disc-bloat.  Not obvious where to discriminate.  But I guess this
is a bit like inheriting your million and not knowing where to
spend it all.
       There is no readily apparent way to get from CPM to the monitor.
The reverse is obvious.  
       Summary.  This board did not come up quite as slickly as my
AMPRO Little Board, which has become my workhorse for
general stuff.  But it is in the same league.  
               b