Fwd: CS-250 started and maybe heading to eBay

[cro memcos]

Dear All,

So, I had a potential UK buyer for my CS250 system but it did not work out.

But the good news is that it provided the push for me to get the system out of storage, connect it up, and of course it came alive to the RDOS (well DDOS of course for XXU) prompt first time  :-) 

So unless I get a UK offer that I can't refuse via this lovely googlegroup it is heading to mr eBay within the next 7 days .

As a guide,  this system will goto ebay for 1000 GBP which I feel is more than fair because ...

I claim to be one of the least ever used CS250 systems in the world.

It was manufactured on May 14th 1990  and was put into a NATO warehouse as a computer for the US navy.  The book price was over 70,000 USD   (yes I really mean over seventy thousand dollars)

It sat there until 23rd February 2007 when I bought it from said US warehouse as surplus, and shipped it to Switzerland.

I powered it on once ONLY to image the system  so its lifetime of powered on hours I would claim to be less than 10 !!!

It was then shrink wrapped and stored in my Swiss climate controlled cave for about 18 years until August 2025

I then drove this system back from Switzerland to the UK where it now sits in Warwickshire UK.

The second Mitsi floppy drive is gone,  I had planned to insert a HxC 2 Floppy Drive 5.25 and 8" emulator (Lotharek) but it never happened.

The original 200 MB Maxtor hard disk is gone and I have a 44MB Seagate to be included with the sale.

Unlike the Z2 with which I am much more familiar with, this has multiple cooling fans above and below the card cage.

This system has all cards intact, never once moved or taken out and all the original Cromemco cables as shown here.

If you are in the UK and interested therefore contact me asap  I can deliver to Warwickshire or to Central London.  (Due to both weight and dimensions it is not possible to post locally in the UK or further away Europe/Canada/USA sorry)

regards marcus b

[Dominique Le Bel]

Hi Marcus,

If it does no go your preferred route,and I understand the value of an original system from a legacy standpoint, would you consider selling the board set and the HDD alone which then would be possible to be shipped to Canada.

Regards

Dominique

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De : crom...@googlegroups.com <crom...@googlegroups.com> de la part de cro memcos <crom...@gmail.com>
Envoyé : 21 novembre 2025 08:21
À : crom...@googlegroups.com <crom...@googlegroups.com>
Objet : Fwd: CS-250 started and maybe heading to eBay

 

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[cro memcos]

Hi Dominique,

So yes,   I had thought about selling the cabinet shell and the cards separately.

I would see this as a last ditch option.

The value of the system is IMHO that it is far greater than the sum of its parts.

The CS200/250 chassis is clearly a huge refinement of the original Z2 with its multiple fan cooling system

And the hard disk bay even has a solenoid so that the removable disk assembly can't be removed whilst the machine is powered on

it is lovely to see the changes they made on this late stage machine so keeping it all together is my first choice.

Also I already had a private email   for the card set  where I said much the same thing but not in public.

regards marcus

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cromemco/PR3P194MB15254BCCCD3AB8A19C601E90A9D5A%40PR3P194MB1525.EURP194.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

[cro memcos]

So having got RDOS/DDOS up and running I thought to connect the MFM hard disk.

So after unpacking the CS250 and testing it in RDOS/DDOS I thought to get the hard disk working ...

The 44MB not original but 2022 fully tested MFM drive I placed into the hard disk chassis and there was confusion as to the connections as when I disassembled it about 15 years ago my labels I put on the cables had fallen off.   So with great reluctance I got my ultra smart Engineering wife and I with a logic problem and we eventually and nervously connected up.   

Can you see that the seek to track 1 and 200 did not return an error so it means that the STDX controller is correctly talking down the ribbon via the removable disk contacts (35 years old) to the MFM disk  and working .     So satisfying.

So the disk is working and also I just found the second 360K Miti diskette that came with the system, although still believe a better install would be the HxC floppy emulator as that will concurrently emulate 5.25 and 8" drives.  And all the images are on github.

Exciting times.

marcus

[Peter Higgins]

Marcus - I agree, it would be a shame to have to sell the board set and enclosure separately. However I think many people outside the UK (myself included) would be willing to buy just the board set for the 1000 GBP that you were thinking of listing the entire system for on eBay.

[Walt Perko]

Hi,

 

Is the system more than 50lbs/23Kg? 

 

It shouldn’t cost all that much to ship the full system in a create.  Maybe $500? 

 

 

 

 

 

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From: crom...@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of cro memcos
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2025 1:16 PM
To: crom...@googlegroups.com
Subject: CS-250 started and maybe heading to eBay

 

So having got RDOS/DDOS up and running I thought to connect the MFM hard disk.

 

So after unpacking the CS250 and testing it in RDOS/DDOS I thought to get the hard disk working ...

 

The 44MB not original but 2022 fully tested MFM drive I placed into the hard disk chassis and there was confusion as to the connections as when I disassembled it about 15 years ago my labels I put on the cables had fallen off.   So with great reluctance I got my ultra smart Engineering wife and I with a logic problem and we eventually and nervously connected up.   

 

 

Can you see that the seek to track 1 and 200 did not return an error so it means that the STDX controller is correctly talking down the ribbon via the removable disk contacts (35 years old) to the MFM disk  and working .     So satisfying.

 

So the disk is working and also I just found the second 360K Miti diskette that came with the system, although still believe a better install would be the HxC floppy emulator as that will concurrently emulate 5.25 and 8" drives.  And all the images are on github.

 

Exciting times.

 

marcus

 

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[Chris LaFond]

Marcus,

I would like to buy the whole system. This looks like a great machine. I live in the US and I am sure there is some extra costs to get it here but I think it would be worth it. If you don't mind packing it up for a journey I would like to make you an offer on it.

Thanks,

Chris Lafond

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[Mike Stein]

What's this DDOS? A replacement for the XDOS ROM or a disk file?

[Mike Stein]

Yeah, unfortunately I have the same issue;I'm scrapping a CS-3A chassis and a CS-300 because shipping is so expensive and such a PITA, compared to selling the cards.
The CS-1s are still in limbo.

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[cro memcos]

So the Good  (or bad news) depending on your perspective on my CS250 system is this

The buyer who had spoken to me has reversed his decision to pull out and drove over to me today in Warwickshire England.

We shook hands on a  sale and I said enthusiastically that I would try to install an HxC diskette emulator

So I bought one of the emulators

Then I studied the pinouts and remembered (doh!) that of course this is not the same as the 5.25" edge diskette cable

so I will have to find or make a new cable.  from 64FDX to this device and possibly a physical 3.5" and 5.25" drives

I also further remembered that I need to make a single wire READY line mod to the 64 FDC or in this case 64FDCX card

so that the 5.25" diskette drive cable that I will be using for the HxC can be used for 8" drive emulation also

See this    https://smpl.fyi/2009/03/cromemco-z2-now-using-525-hd-diskettes/

I am currently overcommitted so no idea when this will start  but I have a plan to better YouTube document it this time.

If all goes smoothly then once the HxC is up then 8" Github Cromix 172 images from 

code/disks/HxC and then be put onto the flash card of the HxC and quickly be used to populate the hard disk.  I believe the

STDX controlled hard disk is working. So ....

Going to be easy right ?!?

Random comment:  This system has the DIAG card in it, populated with a LOT of ROMS.  But I still have no idea how to use it.

Also thanks to various about shipping ideas.   Even to friendly Canada     (i.e. not to hostile USA ... sorry that is our European perspective) the shipping would be rather expensive.  But moveover I would worry about the chances of it arriving at destination since I dont have a wooden pallet box to enclose it and protect it.

regards marcus

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[Dominique Le Bel]

Marcus,

very happy for you and the system which will avoid the torments of shipping.

This is a very unique sytem.

Dominique

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De : crom...@googlegroups.com <crom...@googlegroups.com> de la part de cro memcos <crom...@gmail.com>

Envoyé : 27 novembre 2025 12:03
À : crom...@googlegroups.com <crom...@googlegroups.com>
Objet : Re: CS-250 started and maybe heading to eBay

 

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