J.E.Lawrie HINTS-16. V.4 Input socket problem. Do you get BATT LOW showing when you know that you have the power coming from the P.S.U.? Loose wire, faulty P.S.U ? Probably not. It is more likely that you lost the connection in the input socket for just a fraction of a second but BATT LOW will not go off until you switch off and on again. The connection was lost because of a poor connection between the plug and the socket. Unfortunately, if the connection IS lost for a long period the battery is being drained and you don't know until the voltage gets down to 5 volts. It is possible to fit a small LED on the face of the Z88 which will only glow when the incoming supply is getting through. (If you want details, please ask ) but prevention is better than indication. Occasionally, probably not more frequently than three months, take a very fine, square file (preferably one with a tapered end) and rub this over and around the pin and the strip inside the socket VERY GENTLY to remove oxidation - very simple and most effective. Disc drive There are five of us who now have the XOB disc drive unit operating with their Z88. All except one have been obtained by me and passed on to the others, together with a Basic program for it and details of the modification to the connecting cable. I have offered these units to some of you, at no profit to myself I must add, but not everyone is interested. If you are interested then you should try and obtain the "Portable Disc Drive 2" Model No. 26-3814 as supplied for the obsolete Tandy computers 100, 102 and 200 - don't pay more than £50 (offer 40!) and be sure it includes the connecting cable! I can provide details of the change to be made to the cable, and the Basic program of course. The unit uses 3.5" discs, Double Density - Max of 40 files in each of the two banks, with a max. of 200kb. One bonus is that you only need retain one EPROM when you have the drive and selling off your others could even result in a profit! Page Length. You may, like me, change the page length in the Options from 66 to 60 since this number of lines suits the sheet size better. However, there are times when it would be better to use 66 lines to avoid running on to another sheet of paper. This can be done, in the same page length, by compressing the lines just a little. Use the third code, the Ext. sequence for this, putting in - 27,65,11 and 27,65,12 and No At the top, left corner of the first Pipedream page put in the highlight code 3 i.e <>PX - as was done for this page! END Back to HINTS-INDEX