HC-1032

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Octoport

This is the kit I intend to build. I will add pictures as I progress.

This was an insert on the order form of the Summer 1990 catalog.

Christmas 1990. The politicaly correct term was a holiday catalog.

Article from REMark magazine, September 1990.

Finished construction. Final test produced 2 problems, missed solder connection and a bad SIO/2 chip.

Day 1 of construction.

Day 2 of construction. I am taking my time.

Day 3 of construction. More resistors.

Day 4 of construction. All the taped components are installed.

Day 5 of construction. Socket installation started.

Day 6 of construction. All IC sockets installed, wire pin jacks, ferrite beads and most of the 3 pin jumpers.

Day 7 of construction. Most of the small parts are installed. 3 power transistors remain. so far there is a missing .1 ufd and a 3 pin jumper.

Day 8 of construction. All small parts are mounted. Wiring & IC's remain.

Day 9 of construction. All parts on the board are mounted except for the ICs.

Day 10 of construction. The unit is finished except for testing.

Day 10 of construction. The unit is finished except for testing.

Day 10 of construction. The unit is finished except for testing.

Day 10 of construction. The unit is finished except for testing.

horizontal rule

The construction time was not sequential days but a period of about 2 weeks.

 

This unit was first available in the summer of 1990. Since Heathkit only lasted about another year it really did not have time to become real popular.

Here are a few thoughts about the kit.  It was pretty clear soon into the construction that this was not the Heathkit of old.  The quality control was not there.  I had 3 small parts missing, fortunately I have a pretty good junk box.  The manual had several areas where the assembly order was not well thought out and would have made assembly a little harder if I had not put a lot of Heathkits together.  The final assembly of the PC board, IC installation, left out the installation of 7 ICs.  I thought at first they left out a page and then I thought they installed them later.  Nope!!  They completely left out the ICs and there was no addendum/correction page for the manual.  They also changed from the familiar blue model/serial number label to a white silverish label. The serial number is now just the production date which I assume more then one was produced on the same day, mine was 6/27/91.  Consider the fact that this was introduced in the summer of 1990 and mine was produced a year later and the errors still had not been corrected.  They were obviously shutting the operation down and did not want to be bothered. I will fire up one of my old Zenith computers, load the software and test it next.

 

bulletHC-1032 PC software ZIP format 4.3 megs
bulletAssembly/Operation manual    10 megs (part number 595-4090)
bulletIllustration booklet    3 megs (part number 595-4090)
bulletSchematic    861 KB (part number 595-4090)
bulletEPROM firmware 444-852 This is a HEX file in ZIP format.     7 KB  I have not tested it but it is a copy from my working HC-1032.