No.028 - Dataman S4 Programmer Restoration

Never hurts to ask a company if they're still around about NOS parts, been successful at that a couple of times myself! Nice job Ian!

Pretty neat. I thought you were crazy at first but it turned out really nice in the end

Looks much better now :) Good job!
Makes me wonder why they would modify it in the first place. Looks to me like their only "improvement" was a bit more rigidity in those stacked modules..

looks great good job

Nice score Ian and nice restoration

Ian, bringer of life to the knackered.

Great job. Again.

That was a marvelous bit of restoration! I'm glad you managed to get an original case, it made for a perfect end product.

When ever I try asking a company for new/old stock they pretty much tell me to shove off. Since it was slapped into a bigger case it must of been part of a assembly line of some sort. Last thing you want is a hand held device getting lost or stolen. Even mounted to a bench so it won't get dropped.

That was a great rebuild Ian, always enjoy some of the stuff you do. This might be a silly question are you going to put a serial number on it. And one more thing why is there a crystal in the zif socket add on board, would that be tie down the speed at which the programmer download the code at ? Cheers from Canada

It's amazing how well some equipment can hold their value; for instance a FANUC Handy File, which is a handheld device with a floppy disk drive to load programs into older FANUC controls, can cost as much as US$3000 used.

Nice stroke of luck with the case Ian well worth the trouble asking if they had one well done and really nice job.

Wow what a stroke of luck getting a case for it! You sound like you're in NE Scotland like me? I'm in Aberdeen. I have a Cambridge Z88 from 1987 if you fancy having a look at it. I think it would make a very interesting project as there are very few of them around and they were ground breaking for their time. All the best and thanks for this really interesting video. I literally took my Dataman S4 all over the world with me!

Nice job, great that you have got a original case

Brilliant job!!! I had doubts about getting a replacement enclosure but certainly proved me wrong, and it's much better reverted to its original form. Looks like new, plus you've got a spare screen and keypad now!

A fantastic find & rebuild, definitely worth a thumbs up.

Are all the pins on that DB-25 actually electrically connected? Was it used for more than just RS-232?

interesting bit of kit, thanks Ian.

Wow. Job well done restoring the S4! - I have an old S3 sitting, i gave it a new set of batteries some years ago, and apart from failing batteries, i's still working perfectly :D

Fantastic score, especially the replacement case. keep the videos coming. Karl

Really enjoyed this was great to see it brought back to its original form.

Nice project, Ian. I always enjoy the professional way you make repairs, and this is no exception. It turned out beautifully.

You lucky bugger on the replacement case, well done for contacting them

Nice result. You've done well there.

Well done surgeon on the S4 operation. Sounds like the patient is doing very well.

Excellent device, I'd love one of those but I think I'll stick with my USB one for now

Great work! Looks good.

rly nice recover!!!! :))) i wonder ... mybe u need copy it and 3d print!!! :)))

Another great video Ian!

Bonus ball! Score! RESULT!

Well done, Sir, and what a nice machine. I had one of these brand new once, and sold it to an arcade owner for fruit machine repair and maintenance. Lovely piece of equipment.

God bless you and your viewers, Happy Christmas to you!

🎄 🎄

Update time! :-P

I know this is an old video, but I just landed here. The thermistor for the battery is supposed to be a surface mounted part that presses against the battery when the case is closed up, but since you got it to close well enough, I don't think it's a problem.
I was given an S4 once, but as I had no purpose for it, I did repair its rectifier after I nearly destroyed it and sold it. That's how I know about the thermistor. Good job and you had an amazing amount of luck with the case.

Great job! The 3V battery is a non-rechargeable lithium cell, for back-up. I see your unit only has 128K RAM, upgrade to 512K is easy.

Wow! Nice find. A "nearly new" Dataman S4 for around £50! Nice to see companies willing to help like that. Try that with today's Chinese suppliers in 25 years time!

hi ian, my friend has one of these, and his device froze while flashing it.

we are looking up the internet to try and find what chip its firmware is stored on, and if possible get a dump to flash onto the device to get it up and running.

dataman wanted £150 just to look at it.

if you still have it, is it possible for some help?

at the moment we dont have it to hand, but when we get it back were looking to getting it up and running.

thanks for any help if you are able.

Insanely fortunate.

Great job. Good on Dataman as well. Surprised you got a display and keyboard with the case.

Nice restoration. I found this video while looking for details of the internals; I'm trying to repair an S4 which had a badly burnt bridge rectifier and some vapourised tracks. I've replaced the bridge and a C106 thyristor, so it now works off the battery but always says "NO CHARGER". I'm still fault-finding.

it's a great little programmer.
joy to see it get a second chance at life :)

Your videos are awesome! Keep doing!