PicoRC

Osborne 1 PicoRC Installation: Early Version (Side Latch)

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Kit Assembly

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Installation

• 🚨🚨 This guide is for EARLY MODEL (SIDE LATCH), CLICK ME FOR LATE MODEL (TOP LATCH) 🚨🚨

Some disassembly is needed, make sure to take plenty of photos along the way!

Take a photo one before removing a screw or unplugging a connector! It never hurts to have reference.

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I’ll be using a new-to-me and untested early Osborne 1 for this guide, excuse the dust!

With Apple stickers! 😅

• Put it on a soft towel

• At the back, remove 6 screws on the power panel

• Also two screws on the handle

• Organise your screws!

• At each stage, put em in a bag with labels to avoid mix-ups.

• Unlatch and unplug the keyboard.

• Remove Brightness and contrast knob, use a small allen key.

• Undo the 7 face plate screws

• Remove the face plate

• Remove the two side screws

• Take out the entire innards

• Flip it over and remove 4 screws holding the motherboard

• Rest the motherboard on the table.

• Take some photos of all the connectors’ orientation!

• Unplug the motherboard if you want, makes things easier.

• Undo 4 screws on the old PSU

• Unplug all the cables on the old PSU

• Put it away for safekeeping along with all the other removed items. =

• Don’t throw anything away!

• Undo 4 screw holding the CRT, make sure it doesn’t drop on the table.

• Flip up the chassis, the CRT should remain in place.

• Take a photo of connector, then unplug the CRT harness.

• Now we want to remove the old power harness

• It’s a bit fiddly, but definitely doable.

• Unstick and unplug thermal fuse

• Also unplug all the green grounding blades on the harness

• Now you should be able to pull it through the CRT opening

• Also unplug everything on the power panel

• Now you should be able to remove the harness entirely

• Pop out the two green wires on the power connector by inserting a small flatblade screwdriver on the metal latch and gently pulling outwards

• Cut the zipties on the harness, and separate out the the only part we need.

• Which is the Red/Yellow/Orange motherboard power cable

• At this stage, it might be a good idea to give it a test!

• There should be one (or more) 4-Pin power connectors, with RED, ORANGE, and YELLOW wires. One pin is unpopulated.

• Plug it into the power connector on the adaptor.

• Make sure to match the colours shown on the PCB.

• Plug the other end to the motherboard

• Refer to the photo you took earlier

• Also plug in the CRT

• Turn it on and see what happens!

• Mine works! It even says “Osborne System One” instead of simply Osborne 1 like the later BIOS.

• The RAM tends to go bad a lot, so start there if not working.

• At this age, it’s a good idea to do a teardown and clean anyway.

• Blow out dust, lube the floppy, check for cracked solder joints on the CRT board, etc.

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• Anyway, after you’re done, we can start putting it back together!

• Install the adapter and blanking plate in the power panel as shown.

• Insert the screws from INSIDE, and tighten the nuts on the outside.

• Bend the cable inwards, insert the barrel jack through the hole and secure with locking ring.

• Hook up the motherboard power cable

• That’s pretty much it! Now you just have to put it back together!

• Refer to the photos you took, make sure all connectors are plugged back in in the correct orientation.

Questions or Comments?

Feel free to ask in official Discord Chatroom, raise a Github issue, or email dekunukem gmail.com!

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