Help a budding audio engineer !

Hope you are all keeping safe and well !

My 16 y.o. son has found his creative passion which is technical audio engineering and music technology/production (I have no idea where this came from as both me and my wife are scientists!). His latest project is refurbishing an old BBC production desk manufactured by Studer which spent some of its life over in Canada. It was an Ebay purchase which require hiring a transit and retrieving it in pieces from a dodegy lockup in Cricklewood ! He has spend the last 6 months building, fixing, fauly tracing and reconstructing it - and much to his credit it lives again and works (most of the time!).

It's been a labor of love and has been frustrating and rewarding in equal measure !

He would really like to be able to link it up to a computer to interrogate the boot sequence and further fault trace. Due to its great age it means the all our usual PCs are incompatible - it needs a 386DX motherboard / computer from 1985 era.

If you have either an old 386DX machine, motherboard or components in the loft gathering dust I would happily make a donation in beer tokens, or the forum or named charity.....

Many thanks for any help you can provide - and here are some pictures....... all the best - Tim



https://i.ibb.co/B4Byw8V/72-DFF03-B-...C924484196.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Cvks6zN/E228-AE63-0...-FC068-C59.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/g6zXW67/7-E6-C2-D55...7-EDD5-AA5.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YBg1SsC/E256-AC3-A-...F8-E1-A0-D.jpg

Unless the motherboard is going *into* the production board, isn't what matters the type of interface and the software, not the age of the computer being interfaced? That is, would getting the right sort of interface (SCSI, perhaps), and an emulator for the software work?

Best wishes,
Bob

Is the dog there in a supervisory capacity?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Templogin

Is the dog there in a supervisory capacity?

---

From the withering look, I would say so.

I was going to say, can't you find something on Ebay but there seem to be some fairly strong prices.

Sorry, can't help but what a fantastic achievement! Very clever lad and he'll go far.

Amazing work by your son. I used to install that sort of thing & we'd just call the service engineer in.

I don't have a 386 PC but if you like I'll link your post on a couple of other forums.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Templogin

Is the dog there in a supervisory capacity?

---

There's precedent for that ( Great desk by the way - well done to your son OP)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...%27s_Voice.jpg

If you want to PM me the exact model of the desk, I can see who I know that knows them, I’ve got lots of contacts who used these a lot.

If you could pm me the issue; the where, what, why etc. of what is trying to be achieved, quite likely some modern tools that will do the job (or be repurposed).

Your lad is a diamond in the rough, I run an audio-electronics R&D lab & could perhaps provide some pointers if he wants to turn his pastime into a career.

Best,
Jon


Sent from my Mi A2 using Tapatalk

Thank you all for your kind comments and offers of help - much appreciated. I know too little so had to wait for the slumbering teengaer to awake !

Jon and junglebert:-

1/ It's a Studer 990 desk (1989)

2/ And the 386 is to run the Arcnet automation software so he can store the data in desk RAM onto the 386 disk - and apparently the Arcnet card needs an ISA slot to operate....

Mr Pointy - feel free to link to forum who may be able to help us !

Appreciate your help and support- Tim

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Templogin

Is the dog there in a supervisory capacity?

---

He's the Barking Attendant.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cypermethrin

Thank you all for your kind comments and offers of help - much appreciated. I know too little so had to wait for the slumbering teengaer to awake !

Jon and junglebert:-

1/ It's a Studer 990 desk (1989)

2/ And the 386 is to run the Arcnet automation software so he can store the data in desk RAM onto the 386 disk - and apparently the Arcnet card needs an ISA slot to operate....

Mr Pointy - feel free to link to forum who may be able to help us !

Appreciate your help and support- Tim

---

Coincidentally I’m also called Jon, and work in a similar field. What an odd world this is.
I’ve put the feelers out in a group I’m in that has more of its fair share of ex BBC engineers, who all like a chat, and will all be bored to death at the moment.

To clarify; James has a suitable ARCnet interface card, that is ISA + the associated windows 3.x/MS-DOS driver software.
Therefore, looking for an AT motherboard x86 with ISA slots.

I ask the question because any type of networking would have been add-on (pc motherboards didn't have integrated network PHY until ~ 10 years later) & seems strange to have the difficult to get bit of the ARCnet card + drivers with it not to come attached to the rest of the PC gubbins



Sent from my Mi A2 using Tapatalk

Can anyone remind me what colour the ISA slot is please? I have an old PC at home that is probably at least 16 years old. It may have the correct slot. I dont think it will have a network card though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Templogin

Can anyone remind me what colour the ISA slot is please? I have an old PC at home that is probably at least 16 years old. It may have the correct slot. I dont think it will have a network card though.

---

Try this:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...eaf1ab4ecb.jpg

Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves

James here, cypermethrin’s son.
Thanks to everyone who’s offered help so far, and for the kind words. I’ve sent PM’s out on here to chat and offer some more detail on what exactly I’m trying to achieve;

There are a few arcnet cards available for sale, the software works on Windows 3.1 and as far as I can figure out it relies on ISA to communicate with Arcnet. I think it’s either a case of finding a (mostly) reliable older system or a new solution to this decrepit protocol.
This should enable me to calibrate more components and save scenes on an external device, rather than 3.5” floppies!

Here’s some more photos if anyone is interested:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tPPCoHwrUGrqgGjH7

Thanks again!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks a lot Sish. I would be very surprised if the one at home did not have one of those in it. I will be there tonight so will have a look.

Temp

At work, we have a lot of very old systems, mostly connected to ancient lab analysis equipment.

There is a store room with all sorts of redundant kit in but currently I can't go to site but I'll make a reminder to keep an eye on this thread, if you can't find anything suitable I will look for you when normal service is resumed.

Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves

Sorry folks, it looks like I have let James down. The motherboard only has PCI and some short brown slots. As this PC had a fax modem and a USB board in it I was convinced it would be ISA age, but sadly not.

I think the mini tower in the garage roof has ISA slots. IIRC it’s a P2 motherboard. I’ll have a look later ( It’s nearly food o’clock here)

Dave

1 agp/pci shared (graphics card in AGP) 4 PCI and 2 full sized ISA slots
https://i.postimg.cc/9FQF6nfy/8-AF11...57-EEB3-E4.jpg
Gigabyte GA-6BXE motherboard circa 1998
Pentuim 2 in a slot 1.
4 banks of ram full.
No idea on how much.
Vintage Soundblaster, modem and network card
I probably have a HDD somewhere, currently only has a 3.5” floppy, though if you need a 5.25 drive I have a box of those in the shed...

If you want it drop me a pm to sort out.

Dave