This week on the channel +184K views this week

A forgotten Lobo boots again in Adrian's Digital Basement

A gift from Levi's Digital Voyage becomes a repair project involving battery corrosion, a dead processor and archival floppy software.

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Adrian's Digital Basement Story of November 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

The Lobo MAX-80: A cool computer that came and went in a flash.

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2:15The MAX-80 includes dual serial ports and interfaces for floppy drives and a SASI hard drive.
10:07Period coverage traces the MAX-80's unveiling at NCC in 1982 and its reception in computer magazines.
29:01Adrian cleans battery corrosion, checks trace continuity and adds a capacitor to reduce power-rail ripple.
34:20Oscilloscope measurements reveal that the original Z80 processor is failing to execute code.
46:27With a replacement processor installed, the computer boots CP/M and accepts keyboard input.
50:08Sticky keys and power-supply ripple remain on the repair list despite the successful boot.

The old processor earns an "X of shame." Adrian Black has found the fault that kept a rare Lobo MAX-80 from executing code, and its replacement gives this largely forgotten computer another chance at a boot prompt.

That is the satisfying workshop payoff in "The Lobo MAX-80: A cool computer that came and went in a flash.", the only new upload from Adrian's Digital Basement this week. It has reached roughly 94,000 views, combining a history assembled from period magazines with the much less tidy business of reviving the hardware.

Levi, from Levi's Digital Voyage, supplied the machine. Adrian tours its unusually generous connections, including interfaces for two sizes of floppy drive, before opening it up and finding corrosion on traces and chip pins. Cleaning, continuity checks and oscilloscope measurements eventually bring him to the failed Z80. With a replacement installed, he writes a CP/M disk and gets the system running, although sticky keys and power-supply ripple remain unfinished business.

The comments add a little oral history: former owners remember upgrading from TRS-80 machines, using large external drives and visiting bulletin board systems. Other viewers linger over the motherboard's curving traces. Several also gently correct the animal identification: Lobo means wolf in Spanish.

The MAX-80 is comfortably the channel's busiest video right now. Behind it, the Apple II speech-card investigation and Qing Liu console follow-up continue adding views at a gentler rate. Daily channel viewing is about half again its usual level, while the subscriber count is unchanged for the week. Nearby in size, Monitors Unboxed and Tech Tangents are also seeing above-usual daily viewing. Here, the week's distinctive pleasure is a working CP/M prompt on a machine many viewers had never encountered.

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What viewers say

So great to see this computer running, finally! Thanks for making it happen, Adrian.
@levimaaiaSee it on YouTube
I retired from an IT career, and I am delighted to see equipment that I have never heard of. That looks like it was a good system, with so many input/output choices.
@garthhowe297See it on YouTube
My dad had a Lobo back in the day when I was a little kid. I remember being mesmerized by the glowing eye LED. I'll have to ask him what he actually used it for back then.
@chrisalmy1See it on YouTube

5 more comments

I used ot own a Lobo Max-80. I had a dual 8" drive for it. I donated it to a computer museum, with a number of other computers.
@delscovilleSee it on YouTube
Finally found one i never heard of, always nice to see. Thank you.
@AlexPendahoSee it on YouTube
As a former PCB layout person I LOVE those curvy tracks, all hand laid out with tape I guess?
@gusbertSee it on YouTube
I love seeing PCBs with organic traces instead of straight computer drown lines.
@chuckthetekkieSee it on YouTube
I love the Karateka t-shirt
@fenriswolf039See it on YouTube