Videokarma.org

Go Back   Videokarma.org TV - Video - Vintage Television & Radio Forums > Television Broadcast Gear

We appreciate your help

in keeping this site going.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 12-09-2018, 06:19 PM
DanDudeAmiga DanDudeAmiga is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 2
Exclamation Texscan character generator Z-series

Hello,

I'm reaching out for some help. I have what cable networks used to broadcast back in the 90's. It's a computer in iteself capable of showing news, bulletins, weather alerts, etc. This was before the HD generation. As part of making my own man cave, I wanted to have my guests greet & show bulletins as I take them back to their generation. So, I have here a Texscan MSI Spectragen Z4000 computer. It works, but I cannot get it to edit. And, a while ago, I had the actual manufacturer sent me a specific keyboard with all the shortcuts pre-printed on the keys. Unfortunately, it does not work. I tried other keyboards like XT, AT, etc and it won't let me edit. I tried wiping out the memory as a fresh start and it populated the reserved pages on how to do it but I still can't edit. I accidentally erased the contents inside the NVRAM time clock chip and rendered useless...until I bought another one.

Do you have one of these? If so, what is your setup look like? Or, if you know someone or forum you can point me there. I am also looking for the sofware disk "SG-Edit" or "SG-Edit W" if anyone has not installed it yet. I tried downloading it, but the website is too outdated. They wiped out from existence after I asked support to get a copy. If you have this copy, please let me know.

Thanks,
Dan
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 03-26-2019, 10:14 PM
DanDudeAmiga DanDudeAmiga is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 2
*bump*
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 04-25-2023, 10:56 PM
Nimiq Nimiq is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2021
Posts: 2
Unfortunately they had an interface box that went between the keyboard and the CPU, so even though it looks like the old-school AT DIN keyboard connector goes straight into the CPU - it doesn't. This interface box plugs into the back of the CPU and then the keyboard plugs into the interface box. A few people have purchased surplus Spectragens and run into exactly the same problem.

One complete old auction listing showed everything you need and handily they had a picture of the interface box - Texscan MSI's part number "ZKBI-3 Interface Module." I have never seen any wiring diagrams or reverse-engineering breakdowns of this 'Interface Module' - which may do little more than reassign the common AT/XT keyboard pins to non-standard pins.

I've been looking for one of these character generators for years - but after a bunch of research realize that I won't be able to do much with it unless it comes with this interface box.

**New Info July 2023: I picked up a Texscan MSI Spectragen Z4000 and a ZKB-2 interface box and attempted to use it with a standard AT keyboard. Didn't work apart from recognizing a couple of keys. After looking into it, it would appear the ZKB-3 (ZKBI-3) is the box you need if you want to use a standard AT 5-pin DIN type keyboard - where the ZKB-2 interface is meant to work with the older Ortek MCK-142 programmable keyboard (featuring custom Texscan keycaps), which had rows of extra keys programmed with Spectragen-specific macros. Unfortunately the MCK-142s go for huge dollars on Ebay thanks to their being sought-after by well-heeled "battlecruiser" keyboard collectors. If you look around archive.org in the old Texscan MSI pages you'll find the downloadable program loads for the MCK-142 along with instructions. Sadly, the files for "SG-EDIT W" were victims of robots-exclude and are not to be found on archive.org anywhere.

Currently Texscan MSI corporate appears to be somewhat more than really, really tired of fielding questions by people still using the old stuff and really, really want you to buy the new stuff - so they will not help with any parts, software, manuals or even questions related to legacy systems...and more than a little abruptly too. I think they wound up binning anything and everything to do with legacy systems that was still hanging around after the last ownership change.

Last edited by Nimiq; 07-05-2023 at 12:09 AM. Reason: New information
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:36 AM.



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©Copyright 2012 VideoKarma.org, All rights reserved.