website/content/museum/kaypro-robie.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Kaypro Robie	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1984	Z80A	name company company_name specs tabs photos links docs comments related oc_id source Robie /companies/kaypro Kaypro label value NAME Robie label value MANUFACTURER Kaypro label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1984 label value KEYBOARD Detachable, 72 key typewriter style keyboard with 18 programmable keys. label value CPU Z80A label value SPEED 4 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Motorola 6845 (video controler) label value RAM 64 kb ? label value ROM 4 kb ? label value TEXT MODES 80 x 25 label value GRAPHIC MODES virtual 160 x 100 through graphical characters + real graphic resolution label value COLORS built-in 9'' non-glare green phosphor screen label value SOUND Beeper label value I/O PORTS two RS232C serial ports, one Centronics-type parallel port, communication socket (built-in modem, RJ11C modular telephone jack) label value BUILT IN MEDIA 2 x 5.25'' high-density, double-sided disk-drives (2.6 Mb each)\ 5 MB & 10 MB optional hard disks label value OS CP/M label value POWER SUPPLY PSU built-in label value PRICE $2295 (USA, january 84) photos links docs title subtitle text image COMPLETE SYSTEM null title subtitle text image RUNNING SYSTEM #1 Notice that this Robie has a Kaypro II keyboard. The Robie is running a graphic form of a clock, written in Microsoft BASIC. null title subtitle text image RUNNING SYSTEM #2 The left floppy drive has been replaced with a Kodak drive. The program displayed is what the Robie originally booted to. It's a program called "masmenu.com" and could be configured the way the user wanted by editing a file called "masmenu.txt". null title subtitle text image REAR SIDE **(1)** General purpose serial port\ **(2)** Second serial port dedicated to a printer\ **(3)** Keyboard RJ11 connector\ **(4)** CRT brightness adjustment\ **(5)** Power switch, fuse ans socket\ **(6)** Cooling fan\ **(7)** Reset switch\ **(8)** External modem RJ11 connector\ **(9)** Parallel printer connector Thanks to **LaVerne Kreklau** for most of the pictures null title subtitle text image REAR SIDE #2 Although Kaypro had a sales subsidiary in Europe, very few (maybe none) Robie were sold in Europe. null title subtitle text image ROBIE MAINBOARD null title subtitle text image FLOPPY DRIVES The high-density floppy drives offered a storage capacity never seen before on a 5.25" drive. null title subtitle text image MASTER DISKETTE In addition to the CP/M OS, the Master diskette held more than 10 various software. About the diskettes to be used with the Robie, an addendum to the Robie manual specifies:\ DISKETTES FOR YOUR KAYPRO 4X and ROBIE. The diskettes used on your KAYPRO 4X or ROBIE are not the standard diskettes used on most other computers. The diskette drives are high density (they hold a lot more), and must be pur­chased pre-formatted. When you buy high-density diskettes, be certain you get formatted 17-sector, 192 TPI diskettes. More than one diskette format is available, you MUST get 17-SECTOR, 192 TPI PRE-FORMATTED DISKETTES, others will not work. Brown Disk UHRII, or the Maxell equivalent, is the format to specify to your dealer. The ROBIE and KAYPRO.4X can read diskettes written by other KAYPRO computers. .You can transfer files from standard KAYPRO diskettes to ROBIE diskettes, but it cannot write anything to these other diskettes. null title subtitle text image SOFTWARE LIST null title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com title url cover text KAYPRO TECHNICAL MANUAL null /media/museum/docs/couvs/kaypro_technical_manual.jpg **KAYPRO TECHNICAL MANUAL**\ written by Kaypro  compiled/archived by Unknown\  type of document : Online reader **... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :** author date text Glenn (Hilo, HI) Friday 18th May 2012 We have a working model here at a computer store I work at. It POSTS but the system disk or drives must be shot because it doesn''t boot :( We also have a Kaypro 4+, Kaypro 2000, Atari 800, Commodore 2000, Commodore 64 on display! author date text LaVerne Kreklau Thursday 13rd October 2011 I am the owner of the Robie pictured here. Back in the early ''90s I sent the keyboard to a place in I believe North Carolina to be repaired. I never seen it again. If anyone knows where I can find one please let me know. I have searched e-Bay for a replacement for a long time but have never found one. Thanks. author date text Diego Barizo (Uruguay) Saturday 2nd January 2010 A Robbie can be seen at David Addison''s office in "Moonlighting" second season.\ It''s a nice show to spot old computers! :-) author date text Gary Herring (USA) Thursday 1st June 2006 I actually bought one of these. It was the first computer I ever actually owned. This was in 1985; the owner of the computer store was pricing them to move and I thought I was getting a bargain. It took me a couple of days to figure out that I'd outwitted myself. I eventually replaced the thing with an IBM PC-XT. A friend of mine bought the Robie; miraculously, we remain friends. The Robie was certainly durable. Short of an axe or a shotgun, nothing was going to break the thing, but it was a better boat anchor than computer. /museum/kaypro-1 /museum/kaypro-10 /museum/kaypro-2x /museum/kaypro-4 /museum/kaypro-ii /museum/kaypro-iv 278 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230202173901/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=278 2023-02-02

The Kaypro Robie was presented at the Las Vegas Comdex in 1984. It was the first non-portable Kaypro machine.

Except from its strange case design, the main feature of the Robie was that it had two 2.6 Mb floppy drives. Apart from that, the motherboard was basically the same as the Kaypro 4, with a 300 baud modem, rough graphics, real-time clock, etc.

Thanks to LaVerne Kreklau for most of the pictures

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Michael Robinson reports:
I worked at Kaypro at the time. The big shortcoming of the Robie was the too-advanced (at the time) high-density drives. The drives would literally eat through very expensive pre-formatted proprietary floppy disks. After a long enough time in the drive, you could hold a floppy up to the light, and see through the directory track where the drive heads had scraped all the oxide off the mylar substrate. Eventually, this was tracked down to a manufacturing defect that left diamond dust on the heads during the polishing step, but by then the Robie was more or less doomed.
The industrial design on the Robie was done by Janice Kay (one of the Kay clan), the architect (of sorts) who also designed the Kaypro lobby.

Dave Domanski adds:
Robie was definitely commercially available. I had it for sale in my computer store (Matrix Computers in Dearborn, Michiga) in the early 80s, seems to me it was prior to 1984 but perhaps that is about right.
An ill-advised attempt by Non-Linear Systems (nee Kaypro) to broaden into the desktop market, Robie was the only not-specifically-portable Kaypro, but like the others it ran CP/M on a Z80 family processor. This was, of course, at a time when IBM's PC and MS-DOS were steadily crushing all else before them.
As you can tell from the picture it shared a lot of hardware with its "sewing machine case" Kaypro siblings. If I recall correctly it had a whopping 5 MB hard disk. I do remember that it was jet black, unlike your photo.
It never sold well anywhere near as well as the portable Kaypros, I think mostly due to its freakish appearance.

Allen Cobb's memories:
I remember the Robie from a shop I worked at (WordMovers - Lawndale, Ca) while in school. Time frame was right about 1984, it had two high density 5.25 inch drives - I believe somewhere in the vicinity of 2 megs per drive w/ specially formatted floppies (supposedly available from your KayPro dealer). From what I remember, the Robie did not sell well at all (I never saw one move from the store that sold a high volume of Kaypro products). The only sound was a beep emanating from the keyboard. The Robie made a great paperweight.