I have to say, there is one GLARINGLY annoying design-flaw on this thing...

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But first some lead-up.

The keyboard clamps to the front, over the screen and diskette-drives when it's closed, for portability. The handle's on the back. So when you pick the thing up, the screen's facing downward, and when you set it down, the entire system rests on the bottom-side of the keyboard. That's kinda cool. Suffice to say, it's "built like a tank."

The keyboard connects to the system via a coiled phone-cable. That's kinda cool, too. Easy to replace, if nothing else.

What's NOT cool is the fact that the phone-connector on the keyboard is exposed to the elements when the system's closed-up. The stupid connector was broken from the housing and I had to open the keyboard to fish it out.

What's also NOT cool is the fact that the cable connects to the *back* (or top, near the handle, when lugging) of the system. How does that make any sense, when there's plenty of space up-front for a phone-connector?

So that means every time you pack-it-up for lugging, you have to remove *both* sides of the keyboard-cable, making it easily lost. And meaning that it has to be *stored* somewhere when in-transit. And where, then, would it be stored...? Between the screen and the keyboard, of course.

If it was designed differently, the cable could be connected to the front-panel and never need disconnecting from the system itself.

If it was designed somewhat more differently the same could be done at the keyboard-side. Just open it up, plug it into a power-outlet, and get-going. And there'd never be a problem of fishing a broken connector out of its housing.

The first design change seems relatively easy... I've got a nibbler-tool and a drill. Or I could just feed it right through the opening where the logic-analyzer probes enter the system (and are stored).

The second design-change is a bit more difficult. The connector can't be exposed during lugging, otherwise we'll be right back where we started... It must've been banged into something, or something shoved up against it. That problem would've been compounded by leaving the cable *in* the connector when lugging. So, the cable/connector need to be completely enclosed between the keyboard/screen when lugging. Thus... the keyboard-side connector would have to face *up*, and the cable would stick out the *top* of the keyboard when using it.

Not in favor of that idea, the modification ideas I've come up with would be somewhat severe, requiring cutting a pretty large slot in the keyboard's housing. (And don't forget that the keyboard is a structural-component, when lugging!)

The only solutions I've come up with, so far, require modifying the casing... And I'm hesitant to do something like that with what seems to be not only a vintage system, but also a unique one, at that.Other less-permanent solutions would be hackish, but revertible. E.G. Maybe I could squish the cable where the two metal sheets meet and just not install a couple screws.

And, frankly, it's plausible I'll never find reason to use it again, after (if ever) I finish #sdramThingZero - 133MS/s 32-bit Logic Analyzer. It's not like I've some nostalgic-attachment to this system; this is, in fact, my first experience with CP/M. It's a tool, a useful one (still, today!), but one that will likely be replaced by a "better" one in the not too distant future.

So, as it stands, the thing's sitting out on a wooden plank stretched across my couch. Its guts exposed, screws probably being lost... floppy-drive removed and "temporarily" (three+ weeks, now) attached to a Pentium running Linux. Keyboard still opened for the fishing-out of the connector, and not yet repaired/closed... I suppose if I had a yard, I'd have a few old junker cars sitting on the lawn. Who'da thunk I'd be that guy? OTOH, I *have* been working on it, quite a bit, in fact. It's just taking *way WAY* longer than I ever imagined.

Almost long enough to start considering these sorts of modifications, since the blasted thing's already open and has already consumed so much time and has apparently made itself a large part of my life, these days.

---------Either way, kinda makes you wonder how something like this, which sold, as I recall seeing in some old magazine-ads 'round the interwebs, for something like $4000, could have such a design-oversight!

------ Back to diskette backing-up ------