1990 Mercedes T1 208D AutoTrail Navajo Camper Van

Fair enough...will swap them around!

-- -- --

A brief tangent here as some of you seem to find the occasional bits of obscure, ancient or otherwise noteworthy technology to be interesting.

In a moment of weakness a couple of days ago I caved and bought another old computer on eBay. This is something I've generally been trying to avoid doing...but I've a serious weakness where early portable machines are concerned, the odder the better.

This was a bit of a gamble...the listing was shall we say, minimalist, and had only a handful of photos most of which looked to have been taken with a late 90s webcam. Often these end predictably with the item not really being fit for anything aside from a complete restoration or to simply be a parts donor. Occasionally though the gamble does pay off. The price though was right so I put the order in...we'd just have to see what turned up.

Fast forward to this morning when a box turned up. This was an encouraging start as unlike the last two packages containing fragile technology it didn't look like it had been dropped from low earth orbit without a parachute.



Compliments to the seller on that count, this was actually very well packed.

So...we were saying that sometimes this sort of buy can be a disaster or bargain. Initial signs seem to suggest this is the latter.



The carry case was in all honesty a bit gross. Very dusty and in a few places mouldy...which I didn't reckon boded well at all for what was inside it.





What emerged from the case though was quite a pleasant surprise.









I've obviously given everything a wipe over given the current situation, but didn't remove anything visible aside from a bit of dust around the carry handle...



Even the keyboard was pretty much spotless.



Biggest surprise so far...the screen detent actually works! Can't remember the last time I came across one of these where something hadn't had to be improvised to hold the screen up.



So far the only damage found is a tiny what looks like a cigarette burn on the carry handle and a missing foot on the one end.



...Which I'm pretty sure has actually just been pushed into the case as there's something which sounds like that rattling around in there.

The extremely flimsy hinges on the port cover are all fine.



Likewise the catches for the battery tray. No rechargeable tech here...if you want to take the off-grid you need to track down TEN C Cells...which will be good for an hour. Ish.



I initially thought the badges on the case were peeling before realising that no...they still have their protective film on.





The usually grubby area around the power switch tells a story of very little use I think.





This was also in the box.



Which includes the original software discs *and* sensibly, backups of them.



Plus what looks to be a spreadsheet program.



Remember when the manuals shipped with software were that big? The 640 page one for Windows 3.0 always sticks in my mind. Looks like this software shipped with both 3.5" and 5 1/4" discs...these have probably never been used.



I was quite surprised by how heavy this thing isn't. It's hardly a MacBook Air, I'm guessing around 5kg...but by the standards of portable computers in the late 80s it's perfectly reasonable. An amusing "but" to that is that they have managed to make a reasonably light portable computer...and then shipped it with a transformer power supply that weighs over a kilogram itself!



Of course anyone who knows computers of this age knows that looking tidy and being in working order are two very different things...so there were no guarantees that it would power up or the two double density floppy drives would work.





Promising start...

Stuck the DOS system disc in there...





We appear to be in business! ...Really quiet drives too.



The display is hilariously bad. The actual LCD doesn't seem bad, but it desperately needs a backlight.

Only had a really quick poke around but all the main software I got seems to work fine.

Tasword.



Which appears to be about as friendly for new users as VIM.



Can I have a help file to help decipher the help file for Tasword please? Information overload much?





Mirror II, which looks to be a file transfer/backup program with network support.



PPC Organiser, which looks to be a combined diary, word processor, contact list type deal.



I've got quite a few old DOS programs I've been waiting on finding a machine old enough to run them properly on...so looking forward to experimenting.

The carry case was emptied and unceremoniously dumped in the washing machine on a delecates cycle...I just didn't want to touch it otherwise.



I was worried it might disintegrate...but it seemed a risk worth taking as it was unlikely to get used otherwise...

Came out unscathed though, looking (and smelling!) infinitely better.





Have only had a chance to very briefly investigate it so far, but definitely pleased with it so far...and as someone with a soft spot for early portable machines it's definitely worth having.

World's away from the Toshibas though... they're built like tanks. This is very much creaky, squeaky, bendy plastic and obviously built down to and below a price. No less interesting though...and still has a surprisingly nice keyboard (which both looks and feels so similar to the Acorn A3000/3010/3020 ones that I'd be startled if they're not made by the same OEM).

So that's my one eBay gamble win for the year used up then!

As I recall some Toshiba machines around that era did have the ability to use an area of memory as storage. Off the top of my head I can't recall if it was dedicated or just a chunk of the main system memory...

If you ever decide to part with it...well, the above post says it all doesn't it. Toshiba machines are probably my favourites...my T5200 is without doubt my favourite out of the ones I own.

next time I have a sort out its yours

Mo' betta.

Phil

Right...for the best part of the last two years I have been trying to ignore this mess.



I had already pruned quite a bit out of here by the time I took this photo.



After a couple of hours of multimeter bingo I'd figured out where *almost* everything went. We've still got one mystery red wire. That has been left disconnected and safely terminated until I figure out what (if anything) isn't working. It's quite likely the answer is "nothing" as there has been a huge amount of bodgery going on in here. I've pretty much decided that this side of things will be gutted and rewired at some point down the line. Because everything disappears into (by this point in time very brittle) ducting the moment it appears under the floor it's nigh on impossible to follow anything without some pretty major destructive surgery.



It's still hardly pretty...but everything is securely connected, is labelled and is sensibly fused.

I'd really like to know where all the ground wires come from as it seems utterly unnecessary...it wouldn't surprise me is 50% of the voltage drop we see when high power things like the water pump are used is because the ground lines run the full length of the van and are unreasonably skinny. I may well see if I can improve things in that department a bit.

While tracing the wiring out I did find continuity through to what appears to be the split charging relay in the other battery box.



The split charging system has never worked since I've had the van. This far I've never really done much to investigate this as it seemed a bit of a lost cause given the state of the spaghetti surrounding the leisure battery. Having sorted that out though it was worth a look.

Turned out the 5A fuse in that white fuse holder, running to one of the coils in the relay had blown. Not sure how that could have happened...though given the degree of messing around I've seen it could have been hooked up wrong at some point. Replacing the fuse and starting the engine resulted in...



Yep...the split charging system is now working again.

I need to route this lot under the floor to the battery box at some point or enclose it in a little duct to tidy things up. Once everything was back together and we'd gone over everything with the vacuum cleaner looked a bit tidier.



While I had the vacuum out I gave the cab a going over as everything was covered in a fine layer of sawdust from the kitchen work.

I don't really mind electrical work...but trying to figure out what on earth historic bodgery was about is always a challenge. This included highlights such as a red wire (crimped onto by two strands of copper) which disappeared under the floor, went into a Scotchlock connector, continued about three feet, changed into a black wire via another Scotchlock connector...then returned back to exactly where it started.

Think I've figured out the mystery wire I was left with now though - I'll bet that's the original living area DC feed...as there appears to be a break in that line which is why there's another separate wire feeding that circuit. I'll bet this is the battery end of that broken wire which is why I couldn't find continuity to anything.

I have made a start on de-rusting and painting the front apron on the van as it was getting to look embarrassingly rusty... obviously waiting on a top coat now but we're getting there.





The bonnet skin has had it, I'll get a repair made to that corner shortly, though longer term the panel needs to be changed. Don't worry about the slight overspray on the bumper by the way, it needs painting too but will be removed to do that.

This work on the apron isn't intended to last forever, the panel will probably be replaced somewhere a couple of years down the line, I just want to get it looking presentable and try to stop it visibly dissolving day by day for now.

Made a bit of a step forward with my planned audio upgrades when I stumbled across these in a box in the loft.



I bought these back in 2007 as part of a kit including all the fittings, wiring etc and both the sub and amplifier which are still in use, hooked up to my stereo downstairs. I'd completely forgotten I still had these though, I thought they were still in the Saab which I passed on to a friend years ago. While they're not exactly a prestige name as far as I'm aware they definitely exceeded my expectations performance wise. These should do nicely in the van I reckon. They're a lot less conspicuous than they were when new as after a couple of years in use the almost neon green colour of the cones faded to what you see now.

I'm usually one to try avoiding cutting holes in things, but I like my music and there's not really much option if I want some better speakers in place. The position I'm planning to install these will be about as discreet as I can possibly make it though.

Look out for rot in the floor of the living section. They go first at the back usually, unsurprisingly behind the back wheels. Roll underneath on your back and have a prod around.
Then look for any signs of spongeyness in the ceiling, particularly around the roof vents.
The walls hide rot well, so look out for any sign of damp inside too.
Finally, the cabs rot around the vents under the windscreen and at the bottom of the bulkhead which you can see with the bonnet up.
Mechanically they are pretty bulletproof, and spares are generally easy to find.

I hope not to put you off, most of the surviving vans have been well looked after or repaired by now.

Thanks for the quick response, screen shot it and will check list is out. Thought I should have got myself a moisture detector, can grab a stanley one of amazon for 20 bucks!
Head says talbot talisman, but bah. Haha!
Damp and rot worries more than the engine on these for sure. Fingers crossed like you said, it's all been done over the years. Body work looks very tidy which is always a good sign.
I won't hijack the thread anymore, but thanks again!