It took a longer while to give this board a proper cleaning it deserved, but finally, it's done... Another HAL device which uses the same switch as Elwro Junior ("Unitra-Polam").
The case is made of VERY thick, solid, painted steel - it's the heaviest board I've ever came across (well, maybe except typewriters
). It has a big-a$$ cable, unfortunately the plug has been cut-off... Caps are NOT double shots - it looks like all symbols have been engraved in the plastic and then filled with paint. It makes much sense, as paint will stay on the caps for a longer period of time.
Logic elements on the PCB have '74 mark
But I must dissapoint all of you - it was produced in 1984 by Mera-KFAP union (KFAP stands for
Krakowska Fabryka Aparatury Pomiarowej) for their little-known MK45 computer. It was a very limited run, some sources say ~50 machines were build! More info can be found here:
http://www.elwro.zafriko.pl/kat/mikrokomputery/mera_kfapAnd, of course, "toaster" video of my unit!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ26TqQcJ-YSome more pictures:
http://utensilia.tk/urzadzenia/mera-kfap_mk45-kl.html"Shift lock" and spacebar caps were missing, so I salvaged them from another Junior. Unfortunately, switch placement under the spacebar is different in those two boards, so I've made a quick-and-dirty fix for that, using... modeling clay. Yeah, I know, I wanted to use fiber-glass putty or something pro like this, but I'll get back to that after makeing some improvements to my workshop. For now I just didn't want to make a mess out of it, and caps are so freakin' rare nowadays! Honestly, I would probably start to cry if I've screwed that one up.
How do the switch feel? Well, it's definitely worse than the one used in Elwro - I guess they improved their production process between 1984 and 1988, especially in terms of precision. Caps are obviously better on Elwro, as they are double shots - but here they feel REALLY old-school, almost like the machinery in the first Alien movie
