Rusty 3.0
glenn.f...@gmail.com
Almost 13 years ago, thanks to a generous sale by Bill Loguidice, I was able to obtain a rather rusty H8 system, together with a full set of the “Les Bird” H8 replacement boards (https://groups.google.com/g/sebhc/c/v-lSYfnCels/m/4w9KAKj5kOkJ) plus some other wonderful Heath computing gear. The H8 boards had been assembled by Jack Rubin but Bill had never been able to complete a system with them. Going to get Bill’s collection was a particularly memorable event. I lived in Northern VA at the time and got up very early, traveling north through DC, Baltimore and up the NJ Turnpike to Bill’s home address. Loaded up the lot and headed back to my office in McLean, VA, starting my workday only slightly late (if not a bit weary, yet excited about all the new “toys” I would have to play with!)
I proceeded to clean up the chassis and use the new boards to populate the computer. I dubbed the system “Rusty”, due to its moisture-laden history, and painted it in an unusual tan/brown livery – “Rusty 1.0” was born in February 2013: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gUTwssYczRJxecfn2
I even documented this restoration in an article for Jameco’s newsletter:
Heathkit H8 A Love H8 Relationship by Glenn Roberts
In the ensuing years I tricked Rusty out with many new features including 10Mhz Z80 CPU, H17/H37/67 storage, Z67-IDE+ USB/VDIP, and Epson RTC. For many years “Rusty 2.0” was my main Heath computing platform. It was always a rock-solid performer:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/i1vLT4SPNvY6vj438
In 2022 Terry Smedley joined forces with several of us and did a small bulk order of a custom H8 cabinet made by Protocase Inc., and I gradually shifted over to making the Protocase be my main system (seen here beneath a traditional H8 chassis):
Meanwhile Rusty sat on a shelf and became …. dusty.
So I’ve decided to restore Rusty as much as possible to an original H8 configuration and have been working on that this week. here’s progress so far (“Rusty 3.0!”):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HXBwhyeV3VGPzTVB7
The hardest part was replacing all the backplane headers with modern gold-plated contacts (Phoenix Enterprises HWS3002). The one part I couldn’t source was the steel band that Heath used to secure the capacitor, however a zip tie seems to work just fine. So far, the system passes the smoke test and is producing the correct voltages on the buss. Now to add a front panel and some boards and do some “burn in” testing…
In redoing this system I’ve followed Heath’s legendary step-by-step instructions in the H8 Assembly Manual. A little bit of a trip down memory lane.
Once things are done I plan to find a new home for Rusty, meanwhile I’ll follow up with a more complete picture and description of the final product….
Happy Heathkitting! …
- Glenn
Joseph Travis
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SEBHC" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sebhc+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/008901dbb1f7%24471d1b90%24d55752b0%24%40gmail.com.