my first project of 2019 is now planned, and I am going to take a look at the Amstrad NC-100 (Alan Michael Sugar Trading) Notebook from the Mid 1990s.
Ebay Find
The Amstrad NC-100 is not to hard to find as there were a lot made but they are becoming a collectable item. My machine cost £25 and £4 postage.
Condition
This Amstrad NC-100 needs a fair bit of work that is evident from how it looks. A liberal amount of IPA will hopefully resolve that. Other area’s that may need attention are the battery bay and Backup battery.
Not Just any old Project
For me this is not just any old project the NC-100 holds quite a few memories for me.
I remember using Amstrad NC-100’s in 1995 when I was at school and there was a dedicated special needs and support system.
to aid students like myself they had a few of these machines for student’s to book out and use in lessons. The computers could also be booked out for an entire day and returned to the base station at @ 3PM (15:00 hrs)
And then collect your work after being printed out with the use of one of the school’s BBC micro’s.
So what tools will I need for this one?
At this stage its impossible to know exactly.
I will need to obviously check the unit over once I receive it and then do the repair work before doing the project pieces on here but in terms of basics I do know those.
- My Trusty Electric Screwdriver – I will likely have to unscrew something (knowing my luck)
- IPA – I could use Baking Soda that works pretty well but I have access to the above so I will just use that.
- Time – unlike previous projects my time is something that is short right now.
- RS232 USB Cable – the RS232 Port is obsolete thanks to wi-fi and USB but there is a lot of legacy devices & Calibration equipment that still need the port. and the cable so the likes of Fluke Calibration and a bunch of 3rd parties now make RS232 to USB cables.
and pretty much every chipset manufacturer have got
That brings my Preview Piece for this project to a close but keep your eyes peeled for the project itself piece in a few weeks.
This is a link to a digital copy of the manual for the Amstrad NC-100 which is over 200 pages
https://www.ncus.org.uk/m100/NC100_Manual.pdf
