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Found Ti VPU 200, any info?

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Niku-Sama

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
the net has failed me on this one

earlier tonite i came across a Texas Instruments Video Programming Unit 200 (VPU 200). friend of mine and i have plugged all applicable numbers on the out side of the case, all 3 of them including VPU 200.

the most we know is its mainly for automation but this it self is a self contained computer, a luggable (aka portable , lunchbox ect.) computer.
it was arround a rack full of out put carts, part number 500-5011 i think was the output carts. and we are talking easily 30 of these outputs as well as some other 500 series controllers and analog devices.

right now we are mainly focused on the VPU 200. i have not booted the thing yet, it was in an abandoned charcoal factory and i thought it might be a good idea that i clean it out before applying any power to it. but since theres a bunch of charcoal dust in it, it was pretty well preseved. i inspected alot of connections and not one was corroded so thats a plus.

i can get some pics tommorow.

i'd say its roughly 50 lbs, its set up like a breifcase, the face or front of the computer unclips at the top when layed down flat and the front folds down revealing a keyboard on the under side of the lid that folds down and a 5 inch CRT and a 5 inch floppy drive in the rest of the unit.

after taking the top of the case off i found that its an XT style motherboard except this piticular motherboard has a bulit in floppy drive controller instead of the controller being on an expansion card like....well the rest of the computer. no dates inside of the computer except for one intel chip copy righted in 1971 and referenced to be a memory controller. i think it was a 16 legged chip, was definitly ceramic.

one processor board with a thin white long ceramic chip made by Ti with a gold cap over the die and a gold stripe running half the legenth from the gold square.

at least 2 other boards, one might be math co processor, the other i dont know. possibly some sort of rom program boards. the floppy drive from the sparse info on the net suggest that they were mainly used for backing up the automation data but that could be way off.

speaking of floppys, the 5 inch drive is one i have not seen before, took me a while to figure it out:
http://oldcomputers.net/heathkit-h8.html

this is the best example of the drive it self, first picture after the banner ad about half way down theres a big of a silver box with 2 black boxes in it each with one red LED on it. the drive in this VPU 200 look like these sans red LED.

i've not seen 5 inch floppy drives like these before. mabe that could help pin down the age, does any one know when this style drive was popular?
i'm guessing its not able to read HD discs, probably single sided 384k max readable?

even though this was found at an automation box theres probally other uses for it, i just think it would be neat to get it working. its definitly an 8 bit computer and not just some sort of terminal you plug in to get to the real computer, it is the commanding computer for sure.

i dont know, lots of funkyness on this one. its cool. donw know when i am going to be able to clean it out and boot it....if it powers up.

edit:
kind of a similar set up:
http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html

keyboard not detachable though
 
Last edited:
Well, it's not really a general purpose computer... it's specifically designed as a logic controller for industrial automation. FWIW, though, here's a programming manual for it.

Oh, and just a warning, apparently some of them use a special 3.3MB HD floppy disk format, which seems to have an infamy for being incredibly fragile. Might wanna make sure exactly what you have before messing with that too much. If it's not the weird HD format, though, then it's most likely a standard 360KB DSDD.
 
no its not but its still a regular computer in a breifcase, it has regular hook ups on the back for other devices, some specalized some not.

come to think of it i have a box that hasnt been opened of 5 inch disks, they might be HD disks. i bought it off of wally worlds clearence rack about 6 or so years ago
 
the net has failed me on this one

earlier tonite i came across a Texas Instruments Video Programming Unit 200 (VPU 200). friend of mine and i have plugged all applicable numbers on the out side of the case, all 3 of them including VPU 200.

the most we know is its mainly for automation but this it self is a self contained computer, a luggable (aka portable , lunchbox ect.) computer.
it was arround a rack full of out put carts, part number 500-5011 i think was the output carts. and we are talking easily 30 of these outputs as well as some other 500 series controllers and analog devices.

right now we are mainly focused on the VPU 200. i have not booted the thing yet, it was in an abandoned charcoal factory and i thought it might be a good idea that i clean it out before applying any power to it. but since theres a bunch of charcoal dust in it, it was pretty well preseved. i inspected alot of connections and not one was corroded so thats a plus.

i can get some pics tommorow.

i'd say its roughly 50 lbs, its set up like a breifcase, the face or front of the computer unclips at the top when layed down flat and the front folds down revealing a keyboard on the under side of the lid that folds down and a 5 inch CRT and a 5 inch floppy drive in the rest of the unit.

after taking the top of the case off i found that its an XT style motherboard except this piticular motherboard has a bulit in floppy drive controller instead of the controller being on an expansion card like....well the rest of the computer. no dates inside of the computer except for one intel chip copy righted in 1971 and referenced to be a memory controller. i think it was a 16 legged chip, was definitly ceramic.

one processor board with a thin white long ceramic chip made by Ti with a gold cap over the die and a gold stripe running half the legenth from the gold square.

at least 2 other boards, one might be math co processor, the other i dont know. possibly some sort of rom program boards. the floppy drive from the sparse info on the net suggest that they were mainly used for backing up the automation data but that could be way off.

speaking of floppys, the 5 inch drive is one i have not seen before, took me a while to figure it out:
http://oldcomputers.net/heathkit-h8.html

this is the best example of the drive it self, first picture after the banner ad about half way down theres a big of a silver box with 2 black boxes in it each with one red LED on it. the drive in this VPU 200 look like these sans red LED.

i've not seen 5 inch floppy drives like these before. mabe that could help pin down the age, does any one know when this style drive was popular?
i'm guessing its not able to read HD discs, probably single sided 384k max readable?

even though this was found at an automation box theres probally other uses for it, i just think it would be neat to get it working. its definitly an 8 bit computer and not just some sort of terminal you plug in to get to the real computer, it is the commanding computer for sure.

i dont know, lots of funkyness on this one. its cool. donw know when i am going to be able to clean it out and boot it....if it powers up.

edit:
kind of a similar set up:
http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html

keyboard not detachable though
 
I can assist you with info on the VPU 200-3104 programming & troubleshooting terminal. Just drop me a line if you need info...
Thanks,
-Koby
 
Hello,

I used this kind of console at least a decade.

I used it for use 5TI automata, PM550 (8 loops and 16 regulations) and "TI520,525,530,535,560 and 565 (the latter was a big capacity PLC: 8192 entries I / O)

The use is doing in two stages:
1) loading the OS
2) use of the floppy drive for the program

The console was relatively heavy and very strong (military technology: -70 + 125 degrees)

I used it on the Solvay site in Tavaux (France) from 1988.

We had 2 models:
a VPU 200 3102 (360k in 5p1/4) and a VPU 200 3104 (3,3Mo in 5p1/4)
The VPU 4104 was a 3,3MB of disk drive and we had to buy special disks, which were very expensive.

PS:
I do not speak English, so I hope the Google translator will be enough.
 
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I know that the subject is "old" and I do not necessarily responding to the person but to future people, this type of equipment is very old and quite exclusive.

If one day someone reads the post, she can learn things and possibly contact, internet is eternal ... no? ;-)

But if necessary, I can remove my contribution.
 
very cool thanks for the info. I just happened to notice this today going through my latest started threads. I still have the thing this many years later but I still haven't done any thing with it
 
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