Jan | Jan. 27, 2025

RTC for Olivetti M19 - success

For RTC ISA 8 bits (Very Low Profile)

This was almost plug and play.

After Aitor advised me to download the driver file DSCLOCK.SYS and put this in the CONFIG.SYS file, everything worked instantly.

The Olivetti M19 is a very small low profile 8088 PC with very little room, so this very low RTC card almost seems to be designed for it.

These are the steps I followed, based on the helpful feedback from others in the reviews. Thanks all!

- Plug a battery into the card
- Set dip switch 1 to ON to select default IO address 240h
- Insert the card in an ISA slot (mind the orientation!)
- Start the PC XT Olivetti M19, IBM 8088 compatible which does not have native support
- Download the driver DSCLOCK.SYS from Sergey GitHub repo: https://github.com/spark2k06/RTC8088/tree/main/software
- Edit CONFIG.SYS to include DEVICE=DSCLOCK.SYS (I have it placed in the root C:\)
- Restart the PC, now the Driver should be loaded "DS12885 RTC Driver version 1.1. ...."
- Run "DATE" and "TIME" to set the system time at the DOS prompt
- Restart the PC and now it displays the proper date and time!

Note I could not run the SET_RTC 576 and GET_RTC 576 commands as suggested by others. The system does not recognize these commands. But apparently in my case it is not necessary to run these commands to get the system store and remember the time. Also, I did not edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Very happy with this upgrade of my 40 year old PC.

Response from aitorgomez.net | Jan. 27, 2025

Thank you very much for indicating the configuration detail with DSCLOCK.SYS, I will take the opportunity to update the description with the use of this specific driver that Sergey created, as you have described.

Tristan | Dec. 19, 2021

Extremely useful card.

For Micro XTCF ISA 8 bits (Very Low Profile)

Very useful card. Works great in the XTs I've tried it in.

My one and only issue with it is the switches could have been labelled a little better.

Its had quite a few hours use so far. Completely trouble-free.

Response from aitorgomez.net | Dec. 21, 2021

Thank you for purchasing this product and for this review. I will consider the documentation of the switches in future units.

David | Dec. 18, 2021

Excellent implementation of the ISA CF card "hard disk"

For Micro XTCF ISA 8 bits (Very Low Profile)

I received one of these for use with an Olivetti Prodest PC1. It is a wonderfully compact solution and the low profile works especially well with the PC1. Now I have my eye on some of the other ISA products the seller has!

Response from aitorgomez.net | Dec. 21, 2021

Thank you for purchasing this product and for this review.

José María | Nov. 3, 2021

fenomenal, perfecto. rapido el envio.

For MonochromeVGA

Todo perfecto lo unico que parece que antes se indicaba en la pcb instrucciones del dip y switch y ahora no. sera porque tambien se puede poner(recomendacion) en caja y al ir asi es una tonteria serigrafiar nada en la pcb porque no se veria al menos que la caja fuese de metacrilato/acrilico trasparente

lo que me hubiera gustado es que viniese con un pequeño papel (manual) con esas instrucciones de para que sirve el switch y dip

parece un buen profesional en las soldaduras, encantando.

mirare a ver si tiene alguna otro oshw que me encante y seguro que se lo compro

Response from aitorgomez.net | Nov. 3, 2021

Gracias por la compra. Las instrucciones sobre el DIP switch son muy simples, tan simples, que creo que no requiere mas información que la que he dejado publicada en la descripción del artículo, donde lo indico. Este producto, como otros que he publicado, simplemente ha sido llevado a cabo a modo de hobby. Tienes información más técnica acerca del mismo en el enlace de hackaday.io indicado en la descripción.

En su día mi amigo Agustín Gallego diseñó una carcasa en 3D para contenerlo, pero la demanda no es tan alta para que compense seguir ofreciéndolas, por otro lado, es tan pequeño que no es posible usar una caja de metacrilato/acrílico.

No obstante, agradezco tu interés y espero que lo disfrutes.

Samuel | April 5, 2021

Amazing quality

For MonochromeRGB

Cool way to emulate monochrome colors on a display. As long as it takes analog RGB it's possible to relive the old school way of monochromatic displays.

Response from aitorgomez.net | April 5, 2021

Thank you for purchasing this product and for this review.

Ali | Nov. 28, 2020

An amazing product with full retro-experience

For ZXGo+ 2Mb. ZX Spectrum based on FPGA.

This is an all-in-one modern retro computer that can emulate (using FPGA hardware) many vintage computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64/VIC, BBC, etc. The only thing you need to be aware of is that most of the available documentation (online) is in Spanish. It is based on the more popular ZX Uno platform and if you use the Google translate you will be OK. I installed this inside a ZX Spectrum + case and used a 5v USB adapter to power it up. I faced some issues with running software but all were resolved thanks to the owner of this project (Aitor Gómez García), who was really keen to help and offer advise. He is super friendly and very knowledgable and I owe it to him for bringing this computer up to its full potential. If you are into retro-computers buy this; it's the magic box that will bring you the nostalgia you ever wanted. Apart from the effort in translating Spanish to English (documentation), I will for sure give it 5 Stars; it's an AMAZING product.

Response from aitorgomez.net | Nov. 28, 2020

Thank you Ali for your review and for the purchase. I want to emphasize that the author of this project is ManuFerHi, although I have collaborated in the code of the atmega that controls the keyboard.

Jason | Aug. 25, 2020

Niche product does the job. Some technical hurdles.

For RTC ISA 8 bits (Very Low Profile)

The RTC board works like a champ after some technical support to get it working with my IBM 5155. Get the specific RTC program for it as well (just ask, you'll get links). Works like a champ now. port 70h wouldn't work with mine. It would just lock up. Port 240h works perfectly. No more need to type in date and time at each boot. Just run the RTC program to get the time from autoexec and go. I wish more companies were this helpful.

Response from aitorgomez.net | Aug. 25, 2020

Thank you for purchasing this product and for this review. Initially the project was intended to work on port 070h because it was intended for use with Sergey Kiselev's Micro8088 clone, however it can be a conflicting port in other clones, for which 240h is a perfect I/O port.