Hacking A Military Surplus Laptop - IBDS HCI Computer From UK MOD - EDS / DRS Technologies
saveitforparts 22:12
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This massive beast is a military-issue computer in an EM-shielded enclosure designed as a portable "laptop". Weighing in at 30lbs, it's not something you'd want to actually carry around or use on your lap! The system is a Pentium 3 from around 2007, running at either 466 or 700MHz depending on its mood (or maybe on the input voltage).
It can run from 18-32v DC, with the DC connector on the back wired as positive on the A pin and negative on the B pin. It can also run on AC, but I haven't been able to find a cable that matches the weird Amphenol connectors.
Mine arrived missing the battery and hard drive, and has a strange connector for the drive caddy. I managed to modify a standard laptop adapter into it with minimal cutting. It works with various low-resource Linux distros, although it's still very slow! And yes, it does play Doom.
The system also features a huge VGA flatscreen, CD drive, SuperDisk floppy drive, PCMCIA slot, fiber ethernet adapter, SCSI board, and serial outputs. Notably it does not have USB, so getting new software onto it was a little harder.
The system is quite power hungry, needing something like 5A at 18v or about 3A at 30V.
Big thanks to viewer Rob in the UK for hooking me up with this!
(I wasn't able to find the Instagram account I mentioned for the goat I met at Ax-Man, if anyone knows, drop me a comment and I'll add the link!).
Saveitforparts t-shirts and other merch at https://saveitforparts.myspreadshop.com/
Join this channel to get access to perks:
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Or support me via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/saveitforparts
Check out gadgets and devices I like at https://www.amazon.com/shop/saveitforparts
It can run from 18-32v DC, with the DC connector on the back wired as positive on the A pin and negative on the B pin. It can also run on AC, but I haven't been able to find a cable that matches the weird Amphenol connectors.
Mine arrived missing the battery and hard drive, and has a strange connector for the drive caddy. I managed to modify a standard laptop adapter into it with minimal cutting. It works with various low-resource Linux distros, although it's still very slow! And yes, it does play Doom.
The system also features a huge VGA flatscreen, CD drive, SuperDisk floppy drive, PCMCIA slot, fiber ethernet adapter, SCSI board, and serial outputs. Notably it does not have USB, so getting new software onto it was a little harder.
The system is quite power hungry, needing something like 5A at 18v or about 3A at 30V.
Big thanks to viewer Rob in the UK for hooking me up with this!
(I wasn't able to find the Instagram account I mentioned for the goat I met at Ax-Man, if anyone knows, drop me a comment and I'll add the link!).
Saveitforparts t-shirts and other merch at https://saveitforparts.myspreadshop.com/
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNLRcEn78Vc62C3GkMvBgtA/join
Or support me via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/saveitforparts
Check out gadgets and devices I like at https://www.amazon.com/shop/saveitforparts
Category (YouTube): Science & Technology
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