The Ware for June 2020 is shown below.
Thanks to Bob Parker for contributing this ware.
And thanks to everyone who has been submitting guest wares. Since March I literally have not moved outside a circle with a 3-km (2-mi) radius, and there’s currently no end in sight to that trend. I appreciate the interesting diversity of wares being sent my way, please keep them coming!
On that note, if you have a travel bag of gadgets that has been collecting dust for the past few months, don’t forget to check the condition of their batteries; deeply discharged lithium batteries are never a good thing.
I see a z80 cpu, a max serial chip, and what looks like a serial cable. Im going for a VT type terminal device.
The “Rates” silkscreen keeps throwing me off. Parking meter?
It’s a Z180, not a Z80. The Z180 incorporates a lot of glue the Z80 would have needed–including DMA controllers and two UARTS–which I think are being used here.
Interesting is the memory layout. It’s got a large 32 pin EPROM labeled V5 UNIVERSAL, a smaller 28 pin EPROM labeled PRGRM (on the board). There’s also a 64K bit (8Kx8) EEPROM soldered on the board and labeled RATES. As well as a 128Kx8 SRAM. That’s a lot of memory for something from that time frame. Manufacture dates are all in mid ’96.
So, whatever this is, it needs a lot of temporary storage and a small amount of programmable non-volatile memory (RATES).
There’s what really looks like a phone answering circuit–the CM8870 is a DTMF decoder.
I don’t see any kind of D/A converter. If there was, I would suspect that this thing can play back voice prompts to someone who calls in. There’s a lot of the lower circuit board we can’t see because the CPU board is covering it. A full shot of the lower board would be really nice. :)
What really throws me is that the CPU board has a beeper on it–so clearly it’s meant to be somewhat close to a user–wether it’s part of some kind of UI or just a ‘I need help’ kind of alert.
There’s also a lot of other pretty rugged looking I/O on there with some very diverse connectors. The odd one below the area for J14 is probably a dead giveaway for what this board does as it looks very unusual.
Good luck!
Going to guess that it’s a payphone just by the shape of the PCB and the phone-related circuitry alone.
Looks like an Elcotel Series-5R.
Nice find!
Yep, that looks like it!
https://www.payphone.com/Elcotel-Series-5R-Board.html
I don’t see any documents for it, so I don’t know what the full capabilities of the board are. It certainly seems pretty complex for what it does. I guess you need this kind of equipment if you need to make the phone dial 9 for an outside line or block some calls.
and there’s a nice collection of manuals available at http://payphone411.com/elcotelmanuals.html
I was going to guess an ATM control/COMMS board.
I’m curious, what sort of connector is that on the bottom left?
No idea, looks like a 17-pin plastic micro D connector but those don’t seem to exist.
https://www.payphone.com/images/D/elcotel-board-PSU-01.jpg
It’s a DA15-M
/mike
Digital answering machine?