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The 80s computer you've never heard of: The NABU PC

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Adrians Digital Basement

The year was 1982 when an innovative and new subscription based computer was released to the general public in Ottawa Canada: The NABU Personal Computer.

Powerful and advanced, it ran entirely off an operating system and software delivered by a 6mbit cable TV connection.

You've probably never heard of it because it was not a commercial success, but let's take a look at the hardware and technical documentation about what makes up this failed computer.

0:00 Intro
3:01 Looking at the outside and inside
9:45 Power Supply
11:15 Keyboard
15:12 Power up test
17:18 The NABU Network and technical information
30:17 Conclusion and outro

Video Links

NABU PC eBay listing: (available as of Nov 20 2022)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/394319978146 (original listing. The seller seems to be releasing them in batches now, so try back later and check for relistings)

Some videos from Leo Binkowski, a software developer for NABU back when the company was operating. News report:
   • NABU Games Programmer Leo Binkowski ...  
Inside a NABU development machine:
   • NABU Archaeology with Leo Binkowski p...  

NABU PC User's Guide: (Color scan)
https://archive.org/details/nabupers...

NABU Technical Manual and Schematics:
https://archive.org/details/nabucomp...

More information from the seller of the NABU: (including untested flash device for it, pics and more.)
https://pellmill.com/NABU/CodeHTML/I...

Some additional history behind the NABU: (from someone's who's family was heavily involved)
   • 04  The "no effort" NABU computer hi...  

NABU Network (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NABU_Ne...

NABU PC and other information:
http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/nabu/i...

York University NABU Reconstruction Project:
https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/nabu

Adrian's Digital Basement Merch store:
https://mystorec82bd22.creatorspr...

Adrian's Digital Basement ][ (Second Channel)
   / @adriansdigitalbasement2  

Support the channel on Patreon:
  / adriansdigitalbasement  

Tools

Deoxit D5:
https://amzn.to/2VvOKy1
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.16...

ORing Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
https://amzn.to/3a9x54J

Elenco Electronics LP560 Logic Probe:
https://amzn.to/2VrT5lW

Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
https://amzn.to/2ye6xC0

Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
https://www.rigolna.com/products/digi...

Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens FlipIn Head Magnifier:
https://amzn.to/3adRbuy

TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
https://amzn.to/2wG4tlP
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33000...

TS100 Soldering Iron:
https://amzn.to/2K36dJ5
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TS10065WMI...

EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
https://www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/

DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
https://amzn.to/2RDSDQw
https://www.ebay.com/itm/USBLogicDS...

Magnetic Screw Holder:
https://amzn.to/3b8LOhG
https://www.harborfreight.com/4inch...

Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF64 test machine)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/14161820...

RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
http://www.retrotink.com/

Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12510PCS...

Heat Sinks:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32537...

Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
https://amzn.to/3b8LOOI

Links

My GitHub repository:
https://github.com/misterblack1?tab=r...

Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA – Portland, OR – PDX Commodore Users Group
https://www.commodorecomputerclub.com/

Instructional videos

My video on damagefree chip removal:
   • How to remove chips without damaging ...  

Music

Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino

posted by kongavaldbk