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DG SystemsBytemaster
 System Cards
 Keyboard
 Printer A & B
 Phideck
 Disk Drives
 Documentation
 Software
 Flyers
 Magazine Ads
 
Mark-8 MinicomputerApple-1
 MOS Kim-1
 V C F
 Imsai 8080
 Kenbak-1
 TV Typewriter
 LSI ADM-3A
 ASR-33
 The Digital Group
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    | Digital Group Z80
      Restoration Photos If you haven't been there yet, be sure to view The
      Digital Group home page on my site! This picture page documents the
      restoration of a Digital Group "System", less circuit boards. A
      Digital Group system consisted of a cabinet, a mother board--mini or
      standard, a low current power supply and a high current +5 Volt supply--of
      which three were available, and at least three circuit boards--CPU, I/O
      and Video & Cassette. The System Cards have
      their own page.  My restorations consist of a complete system
      breakdown, cleaning, refurbishing, and reassembly. Sounds easy, huh? Just
      a guess, but it probably takes me around 200 hours to do what you see
      here. Good thing this is just a hobby! The restorations shown here are
      just two that I have done. Most of the photos are from a restoration I did
      in 2007 for another collector in trade for some DG equipment. The
      photos show the work from start to finish, though not in tremendous
      detail. The other restored system is shown completed only--no photos were
      taken of the work. I was busy, what else can I say? You can tell them
      apart by the power supplies. The second system went to a museum in Texas a
      few years ago, oh but don't worry--I still have good collection of my
      own!
 |  A fully restored Digital Group System, now living in
      Texas
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    | Restoration The power supplies in this system needed some close attention. The low
      current supply (the one with the silver caps) had an unusual power
      transformer unlike those I have seen from Digital Group. I concluded that
      this must be an after market replacement. Since originals are hard to come
      by, and since I have no extras on hand, I chose to restore this one by
      cleaning and painting it to look like the original. The results were quite
      good as seen in the photos below, the transformer was painted black and a
      duplicate of the original label was attached. Only a true DG snob will
      notice the fake! :) Then again, for all I know, it shipped from the
      factory like this--maybe they ran out of the originals. The other power
      supply needed a lot of work to clean up, but all went well. The red
      "Danger" sticker is a non-original, placed for safety sake. The system had some extra holes drilled into the back, and I thought,
      what the heck--I'll patch them! So I did. I taught myself to weld
      aluminum--still have some learning to do--but it worked well enough. The
      repair is almost unnoticeable in the finished machine. Visible in the
      pictures is the brushed aluminum finish that I do to clean up most of the
      cabinets I restore. Over the years, the cabinets loose that "new
      shine" from getting bumped around. I use a belt sander to re-brush
      the finish to like new. Painted surfaces are either stripped down to the
      bare aluminum and repainted, or just touched up with an airbrush depending
      on condition.  And now, the before photos:   |  |