Re: Programming the Fluke 9100 - Am I out of luck?

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It would appear that a standard IBM keyboard MIGHT work, but it has to have
the RESET line wired in! In my old IBM PC ADVANCED TROUBLESHOOTING book
(1987) it mentions that older keyboards sometimes had a RESET line, but
this was no longer common, and if you check the schematic of the 9100 (page
163 of the 9100_svc_part2.pdf on the FLUKE CDs) you will note that the
RESET (pin 3) is used, and the pin that is ignored is the request/CLOCK
(pin 2)! So now I'm going to rewire my ancient keyboard...stay tuned!

If anyone would like that pdf, it should be up on www.spies.com/arcade in
the technical section

John :-#)#

At 12:56 AM 15/04/2002 -0400, Corey Stup wrote:

> > According to the docs you can copy from the hard drive to a floppy, however
> > there is no way to copy the operating system from the hard drive onto
> > another hard drive, it appears that Fluke used a copy protection system to
> > prevent that. The docs mention that the floppy used to upload the new
> > operating system must have their write-protect tab set to write, and then
> > you can't reload the new operating system. I tried to hook up a second hard
> > drive to the outboard SCSI port, but the system did not appear to identify
> > it, wouldn't even ask if I wanted to format it. My W2K SCSI card did not
> > identify the drive in the 9100 either...rats...
>The software is keyed to the serial number encoded on each machine.
>After install, even if you could copy it, you'd have to break the
>protection scheme to use it on another 9100. Although I had emails from
>previous members (maybe not on Techtools, but another list) of someone
>that had found never-installed disks and was going to make images of
>them for others to download.
>
>Also note that both drives in my 9100's are MFM. They have a WD1006
>"adaptor" card which translates them into ESDI, which is a precursor of
>SCSI.
>
>Also, from what little poking around I've done of the original code, the
>software is keyed to several drive types. If a new drive installed
>doesn't match specific parameters, it won't recognize it.
>
> > Certainly an IBM keyboard will plug in, and it is set up correctly for the
> > power, but with no schematics on the 9100 I can't tell if the signal lines
> > are configured correctly. Neither the AT or PC settings work, although the
> > PC setting will allow the Num/Cap key LEDs to lit on/off.
>I believe this has been investigated before. I think the
>implementation is different enough to not allow a PC keyboard to just
>plug in. An adaptor (as suggested, perhaps using a simple PIC) would
>probably have to be developed.
>
>Also note that when using the keyboard, you also have to use the
>external monitor. The internal display is only used for "operation",
>the monitor/keyboard for "programming". Kinda wierd.
>
>I have a keyboard, perhaps if I get time (and it would help someone) I
>could poke around to see how it works.

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Received on Sun Apr 14 23:12:43 2002