Insert funny title here - Cifer Series 1 model 1887G.

I couldn't think of a funny title. Never mind.

My most amazing colleague has been at it again and has given me a small consignment of retro computer goodies.

Oooh! Nice! ...What is it?

This time it's a small black computer with integrated CRT, floppy drive and 'Winchester' disk. That should give you an idea of the era this thing comes from. Yes, it's the early 1980s (actually a bit later for this particular machine).

It's a Cifer Series 1 model 1887G. Nice. It runs CP/M, can act as a slightly less 'dumb' terminal or can (allegedly) run an early version of UNIX although I suspect it would need the additional MC68000 processor card for that. 

UNIX you say? Really?
I look forward to seeing if that's true!

It's a manual. For maintenance.
(I have Technical one too.)

Lots of brochures and price info. Cool.

Other than the free spiders, there was a lot of documentation and many discs provided with the unit, but it may be a while before we get to them. The unit was reported as having booted the last time it was switched on but after a few minutes there was a 'POP' and wisps of magic smoke emerged from the case. Anyone who knows anything about retro machines will immediately suspect that there are RIFA capacitors that have gone bad somewhere inside in the power supply section.

Rear view. It has composite output!

Power supply box at the back.

Unit tested August 1987.

Floppy drive on the left.
Winchester on the right.

And so it came to pass that this suspicion was correct.. There are five RIFA caps in the power supply and four are badly cracked and ready to pop. The fifth, and largest, is the culprit for the previous popping event. Fortunately, these caps are readily available and so an order will be going in to whichever online shop charges the lowest small order handling fee (gah!). 

Power supply removed and opened.

"Well, there's ya problem!"

Culprits removed.

The rest of the machine is in fairly good condition. The keyboard uses the dreaded 'foil and foam' type contact with the keycap return being a simple spring. Fortunately, the foam has NOT degraded at all. Whatever material they used I'm glad they did as replacing those pads would have been a nightmare (see HERE and HERE for YouTube videos of Adrian's Digital Basement and the 8-Bit Guy respectively doing exactly that). 

Not microswitches. But the foam is still
intact. Yay!

And so until I receive the caps there's not much else I can do here. It looks awesome and I'm hopeful that the CRT with its flyback and the Winchester disk - all 10Mb of it - will still work once the power supply is back up and running. 

We shall see.