Experience With Quantel Paintboxes?

[dexterslab]

hi,

I am in the process of attempting to reverse engineer & repair a Quantel Paintbox V-Series machine from the late 1980s and i am in desperate need for any documentation as i would like to get it back and working.

A user on another forum suggested i should ask here in case there are any engineers around that might have used or worked on this hardware back in the day.

I would give me left arm for a service manual, but any info would be useful.

Thanks, Mark

[davezawadi]

How lucky you are, I am a member of the design team! I also have access to the service department (G8GLQ) so it shouldn't be a problem. What is happening and what have you done so far?

Regards
David

[dexterslab]

Great! Thanks for your reply

I really would like to get this running!

There is a bus error a short time after power on, like less than 150 ms and i have traced the faulty addresss with a logic analyser.

I think the fault is with the glue logic on the cpu board as there are regions of the address space that cause a bus error.

Do you think i would be able to get some techy info?

[dexterslab]

i don't suppose anyone else on this forum has any contact details for davezawadi or is able to contact him? - he's not logged into the forum since posting his reply to me a month ago.

I would really like to make contact with him.

[G4KLB]

You could try sending a Personal message, (click on his user name when you are logged in) and then click on send a PM.

[dexterslab]

You could try sending a Personal message, (click on his user name when you are logged in) and then click on send a PM.

thanks for the suggestion G4KLB, i sent a PM about two weeks ago but it's still unread, maybe he doesn't have email notifications turned on?

hopefully he'll remember to login soon!

[dexterslab]

Sorry to bump this thread but i wanted to let people know that with the help of many i now have a working paintbox! I can tell you it was not an easy task!

If anyone stumbles across this thread in the future and needs help with a paintbox you can track me down by sending me a message here or googling for dexterslab2013 where you will be able to find my blog and youtube channel.

Running Quantel Paintbox

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[gm1mfn]

Congratulations, it looks great.

[Wolfie G8VAT]

It certainly does, you should give yerself a big pat on the back for that, many would have baulked.

I went to an Auction some years back where a TV Facilities company was being sold off in lots, there was a Quantel in a huge 19in rack probably an early version but still went for several hundreds £.. . my ridiculous (Yorkshireman offer) didn't get a look in.

[dexterslab]

thanks everyone,

TBH it was a collaborative effort so i can't take all the credit! It involved many hours of work slowly picking apart the architecture

The one i fixed is a 'Harriet' which is pretty much the top of the line when it was released i think in the very late 80s. I do also have the Ramcorder option as well but it's not even been powered on and i have no cables for it so i have no idea if it's going to work!!

All Paintboxes came in 19" rack form, though some had external plastics so they could be stood on their side for 'deskside' use.

If the one you bid on looked like the attached picture below then yes that was a first generation one, the ones from the 1990s are usually 3 or 6U and somewhat more stylish and typically beige. The one featured in the picture below is actually mine as well, it's a DPB-7001 which is basically a first generation Paintbox with a couple of tweaks. But it's a behemoth and it's 14" winchester disk is just as imposing!

Quantel DPB-7001 Digital Paintbox

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