looking to buy working 286 Computer

[smartinez]

I work in manufacturing, we manufacture electrical motors here in the US. We have a few Micafil winders that only a 286 computer is compatible with. So when the PC is down were down no there is no production. We can't upgrade machine to costly 120,000 so I keep looking for 286 PC. This works perfect with the serial transfer rate. A 486 or Pentium will not do the job

[Terry Yager]

Why does it have to be a '286? Is it a speed problem? What speed of 286 do you need? What are you using now?

--T

[mryon]

have you checked into something like a PC104 or other such embedded/modular computer?

They may still be available as a 286.

I found a 386SX after a couple mins google work:

http://www.acrosser.com/products/ar-b9612.htm


might worth looking at?

[rhblake]

I likely have a gob of different and hefty 286's - I know for sure I have half a dozen or more IBM 5170 AT machines, I think they run 10 mhz 80286. Those are hard to kill and rather cheap in the long run.

He needs to send me a reply to the PM I sent him for the particulars. Can get costly to ship a 50 lb IBM.

I sold a Tandy TRS-80 model 4 to a well known aspirin maker on the east coast a few years ago - they were also working on an upgrade to both hardware and software but didn't have it done and debugged yet so rather than shut down a line they doubled what someone else was going to give me for the machine - sold it for sure.

[barryp]

I have (somewhere) a slick 286. It has an LED display on the front that shows what's going on during POST, etc. When you format a diskette it shows which track it's on.

[Terry Yager]

I used to run an old Everex EISA-based '486 that had an LED panel on the front that was programmable. You could scroll the MessageOfTheDay or whatever on it. I recently kicked-up it's carcass in ComputerHell, with the little display still intact. I'm wondering if I could adapt it to another computer, like a laptop. It's programming interface is straight serial, so it might be do-able (of course, I could never write the software for it tho).

--T

[Mad-Mike]

I have (somewhere) a slick 286. It has an LED display on the front that shows what's going on during POST, etc. When you format a diskette it shows which track it's on.

I suppose you are talking about the Wyse/Amdex 286/a. I got one of those awhile back (2003) for $2. I got rid of it as I could not find or adapt a keyboard. I might snatch up another one one of these days, they seem highly popular in the Medical Field.

[Terry Yager]

I think I have some Wyse keyboards.

(I guess, in a pinch, you could hang a terminal off the serial port).

--T

[barryp]

I have (somewhere) a slick 286. It has an LED display on the front that shows what's going on during POST, etc. When you format a diskette it shows which track it's on.

I suppose you are talking about the Wyse/Amdex 286/a.

No, I'm fairly certain it's Dell. And it uses standard ISA cards and standard AT keyboards.

[Mad-Mike]

I have (somewhere) a slick 286. It has an LED display on the front that shows what's going on during POST, etc. When you format a diskette it shows which track it's on.

I suppose you are talking about the Wyse/Amdex 286/a.

No, I'm fairly certain it's Dell. And it uses standard ISA cards and standard AT keyboards.

Dang, I was not aware there was another make/model that had that feature, I might have to look that up.

The Amdek uses standard cards. I think the Amdek also had a backlit LCD instead of an LED panel on the front. On the one I had it showed black text on an indiglo green background. I might look up that dell tonight, that sounds neato.

[Terry Yager]

I've got a very interesting mainboard, but if your software is clock-sensitive, you probably can't use it. It's a 20MHz '286, and I think I have enough 1Mb chips to populate it up to 4Mb.

--T