digging in the 9100....

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I have had the recent opportunity to dig inside a couple of 9100's lately
(I bought a few NOS ones) and I kept one to go along with my old 9100. Now
the problem with these suckers is the software is keyed to a serial number
embedded in the EEPROM that is tucked away on the main PCB. It just so
happens that this part (an Xicor X2444 - 32 bytes) is readable by my Xeltek
Superpro programmer so I unsoldered the one in my old base and read it, and
then tried it again in the original base. Still works. So then I decided to
unsolder one from my keeper NOS 9100 and read it tonight.

So what I have is two 32 byte data streams, the first one (old base) is
serial number 4900002 (unknown Site Code) is:
A2 C4 4A 00 42 03 FF FB 01 00 0A 00 03 50 08 40
00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 FE 02 00 00 00 00 BF BE

And serial number (NOS) 4775000 "Site Code 1" is:
58 DC 48 00 42 00 FC 00 FC 00 00 00 03 50 08 20
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FE 02 01 00 00 00 23 0F

The first 9100 has the following options:
4 megs of RAM installed
Sony floppy
Programmers option w/video card
Version 4.X software?

The NOS 9100 has
2 megs of RAM
? Floppy
Version 4.1 software

I'll dig out more from these using the utility disc this weekend.
I think the "40" on the first row last byte is the RAM size, this makes
sense as the second 9100's is only "20" (2 megs), I suspect the first three
bytes are the serial number...maybe...

I accidentally copied the Utilities disc to the old base and it has taken
over the drive from the original operating system. If anyone has 9100 discs
they can be archived and stored via TELEDISK (old DOS or W95/DOS)
program...I'd like a copy for trying to figure this protection out for
archiving. Fluke has completely dropped the 9100/9010 and sold off
everything...the buyer was Shy at Navatek.com who is only too happy to help
with parts etc...

shy@navatek.com

John :-#)#

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Received on Wed Sep 18 23:20:37 2002