Hello All!
I've been lurking from time to time and benefitting from the discussions. I finally registered.
I recently grabbed a case from Mike after playing with Altair BASIC VER 1.0 on an IMSAI and teletype. It felt like perfect timing to work with an Altair, and one thing I haven't done with S-100 systems is build a computer from scratch.
I got the machine up and running after a few weeks of off-and-on building. What a great project! I want to thank Mike for doing the work to create a case and front panel / interface card. For me, it's a perfect combination of old and new. My IMSAI is usually running CP/M 1.4 with two 8" disk drives and an ADM-3A terminal. I'd like to keep the Altair more bare bones running with the teletype. Sort of like what Paul Allen might have encountered when he flew to Albuquerque. (Minus the flakey DRAM.)
There are still a few kinks to work out. My machine is starting up with a low voltage on the CPU board regulator. The 12V output also starts low and slowly increases. As it "warms up" the clocks start intermittently, at about 500kHz. After a few minutes, everything "locks in" and it becomes steady. Bad cap? Wrong resistor somewhere? The only boards I'm running right now are the CPU, interface board, and a Processor Tech 4K RAM. Other than startup, everything seems solid so far. Once it's finally running, I can deposit / examine, etc. Still have some work to do to figure this out!
Eric