Kaypro 10 (81-005)

First Units?:
April 1983 (CommuniKay, June 1983)
May 1983 (Annual Report 1983)
August 1983 (San Diego Union)

Kaypro 10's Predecessor (Kaypro 5)

The Kaypro 5 never went into production. It appears that by the time they were ready for production the cost of a 10MB hard drive was not much more than a 5MB hard drive so they went straight to the K10.

Kaycomp Computers has unveiled a portable Z80-CP/M-based machine with a 9-in. display that incorporates a 5-1/4-in. Winchester disk drive.

The Kaypro 5 uses a 5-Mbyte Winchester from either Tandon Magnetics Corp. or Seagate Technology.

Priced at $4,485, the Kaypro 5 is a hard disk version of the Kaypro II (formerly known as the Kaycomp II), a $1,795 portable microcomputer with double-density minifloppy disk drives. The company is currently producing 4,000 Kaypro IIs per month, Kay said.

Both units have 64K of RAM, run CP/M and include, in their purchase prices, SBasic from Topaz Programming, Profit Plan from Chang Laboratories and the Select word processing package from Select Systems.
(Newspaper clipping, no citation)

The Kaypro 5, scheduled to be available this quarter, is the same as the Kaypro II except that the Kaypro 5 includes one floppy disk and one 5.5 megabyte Winchester hard disk as storage media. (Small Computer Systems, December 1982)

It also lists both the Kaypro II and 5 as not having Graphics

Kaypro 10

Manual

May 1983 version (with updates):

• K10 Users Guide May 1983
• K10 Users Manual Update Aug 1983
• K10 Users Guide Update Oct 1983
• K10 Users Guide May 83 add MUFBAR
• K10 users guide addbackup

Jan 1984 version: Kaypro 10 Manual

K10 Pre-Release

Images from the Pre-Release Brochure

This pre-release version has a hard drive with a visible cover panel and horizontal drive configuration.

The above images also show a keyboard with a Keytronics mechanism, black numeric keypad, and KAYPRO 10 on the case. The later brochure uses a similar keyboard that uses an SMK mechanism and just KAYPRO on the keyboard case.

This photo was taken at the offices of Batter Kay Associates. (Confirmed with Micheal and Janice Kay Batter) Note that the calendar in the background is October. It is likely a calendar for October 1982 based on the 1st being a Friday. So it is possible that the photo was taken in that month. Which is consistent with it's announcement in November of that year.

A closeup image of the machine shows light coming through the vent holes which is only possible if a mainboard is not installed. That along with no image on the screen makes it likely that the mainboard was not ready in time for this photo. What I find surprising is that they didn't try to fit a KII mainboard in so that they could display some text on the screen. In the later brochure for the K10 this photo is replaced by a nearly identical one that shows the "normal" drive configuration for the K10 with the newly designed graphics processor capabilities showing on the display.

Another interesting note is that the pre-release image shows the chassis resting on the keyboard like the early KIIs. The later version has the integrated kickstand to angle the system up.

News before the release of the K10

Kaypro, the division of Non-Linear Systems that makes portable desktop computers, will introduce a 10-Mbyte hard disk at Comdex, EE Times has learned.

Marketing vice president David Kay said the 5-1/4-in. disk will be bundled in a new package, dubbed the Kaypro 10. which will sell for $2795.

Kay predicted that the 10-Mbyte Winchester will allow major graphics enhancements over the current Kaypro II, which is bundled with eight double density floppies at a price of $1795.

The extra memory in the hard disk will accommodate graphics "somewhere between business and high-resolution quality, will allow for new enhancements like underlining, highlighting and reverse video, and will drive displays at 4 MHz," he said.
(Electrical Enginnering Times, November 22, 1982)

Kaypro will be shipping sample copies of its new Kaypro 10 computer, with a 10-Mb Winchester disk, to its dealers. The software bundled with the computer will reside on the hard disk. This will provide a lot more storage than the floppy drives, with an additional $1000 added to the price tag.
(Personal Computing, May 1983)

The first Winchester-based portable computer priced at less than $3,000 was introduced at Comdex by the Kaypro Division of Non-Linear Systems Inc.

Dubbed the Kaypro 10, the portable contains a 10-Mbyte hard drive and runs CP/M. ... The system language is S-Basic and a Profitplan spreadsheet program is included. Software applicatins included with the Kaypro 10 are the Perfect Writer, Perfect Speller, Perfect Filler, and Perfect Calc. ...

Video features include graphics model with 160 by 100 pixels for graphs and games, inverse, blinking, underlining, and reduced intensity. ...

Provisions are made for a light pen connection. ...

Priced at $2,795, the Kaypro 10 will be available to dealers next year.
(News Paper Clipping, but consistent with PR Tech Sheet from June 1983)

Note that IBM announced the PC XT which included a Hard Drive on March 8, 1983. Compaq would wait for a 3.5 inch hard drive to be available so the Compaq Plus wasn't revealed until October 25, 1983.

K10 Press

Since this review was completed, Non-Linear Systems has revamped its product line for 1983 with two new system configurations (the Kaypro 4 and Kaypro 10)... The big news is the Kaypro 10, which incorporates an internal 10-megabyte hard disk as well as one double-sided, double-density, half-height floppy-disk drive (380K bytes of storage). The Kaypro 10 itself is an upgrade of the Kaypro 5, a 5-megabyte hard-disk portable shown in 1982 but never produced in quantity. The Kaypro 10, including software, will put you back only $2795.
(Byte Magazine, September 1983)

Within months of its birth, the Kaypro II had become a classic. It was joined in 1983 by the Kaypro 4, which sported double sided, double density disk drives for more storage, and then by the Kaypro 10, another major pathbreaker for the industry: the first-ever affordable hard disk computer for mass storage (featuring a built-in 10 megabyte hard disk), built for portability as well.

Reviewing the Kaypro 10 recently, Infoworld magazine wrote, "The Kaypro 10 is a welcome addition in today's hardware carnival--it gives consumers who want a hard-disk system the chance to buy a quality product at a good price."
(Kaypro: Thirty Years of Innovative Experience, 1983)

K10 Production Issues

"The Kaypro 10 has been shipped in limited quantities since April (1983) and bulk shipments are soon to come."
(CommuniKay, June 1983)

As of this writing (late March), 25,000 people have bought KAYPRO IIs, and NLS president Andy Kay expects to sell another 50,000 (including sales of the next computer, the KAYPRO 10) by the end of August. ...

Their KAYPRO 10 was recently unveiled and 8,000 orders are in before the first one comes off the production line. Kay expects to be turning out 10,000 KAYPRO 10s a month to match production of the Ils. "Interest is so high it looks like we'll sell more 10s than IIs," said Kay. ... The 10 is faster than the II and has graphics capability. It comes in the same package and retails for $2,795.
(San Diego Magazine, May 1983)

Production line snarls have cut planned output of the new Kaypro 10 microcomputer by as much as 75 percent, but the company has no plans or need to retrofit products already sold, as has been rumored, said Vice President David Kay yesterday.

By this time, Solana Beach-based Kaypro expected to be producing 500 Kaypro 10 machines a day, Kay admitted yesterday, "but production is now 90 to 150 a day." The company started shipping the product in August.

Retailers are complaining of problems. "Customers have been losing data because of problems with the hard disk drive," said James Keais, technician in La Mesa's On-Line Computer Center. About 40 percent of the center's customers have had some problems with the Kaypro 10, he said. and as a result, the store warns potential customers of the problem. And it makes good on products sold: "One machine has been in here for two weeks, waiting for new hard disks," he said.

The Kaypro 10 is the first portable microcomputer using a hard disk, rather than a floppy disk - and unlike with floppies, it is not just a matter of the user putting in a new disk, explained John Rigoli, owner of the On-Line store. But Kaypro has said nothing about a retrofit operation, he said.

Kay said that overall, there has been nothing like a 40 percent failure rate: "You always get complaints about a new product," he said. But conceivably, one or a handful of retailers might get a high percentage of flawed products, he said There has been talk in the industry that Kaypro has had to suspend production of the Kaypro 10, and that a retrofit is planned. "If we have stopped production, it's only been for half a day or so," said Kay, who added that if a major problem developed, the company would retrofit existing products, but he is aware of no such problems.

"In all electronics, there is a debugging process," he said. Каурго had a problem before with disk drives for floppies.

This problem, however, has impacted the company's financial results, he conceded. Last week, Kaypro reported that 1983 sales were $75.1 million - up impressively from 1982's $5.5 million, but less than the $100 million which had been bandied about last summer, as Kaypro was preparing for its initial stock offering. Most of that $25 million sales difference resulted from the problems with getting the Kaypro 10 production up to expectations, Kay said.

"It's a vendor problem, not a design problem," Kay said. Some of the microchips aren't up to specifications, he explained. "In a nutshell, we're not getting enough hard disks to meet our demand. IBM has the same problem" with its hard disk microcomputer, he said.

The controller board for the Kaypro 10 has been a problem, too - one related to the chips received from vendors.

"Also, there is a lot of pilot error (errors by users of the system)," he said. "It's been a series of random problems - deviations in the batches of chips, tolerances that cause problems, problems with hard disks. We're solving them. We don't foresee a universal retrofit situation," he said.

Demand is still strong. "The problem is lack of parts, not lack of sales." said Kay. As soon as the production problems are solved, Kaypro 10 sales will be back up to expectations, he said.
(Donald C. Bauder, Financial Editor, Newspaper Clipping, Likely from the San Diego Union)

"Meanwhile, I have received a release from Microscience stating that they have an $8,000,000 order from Kaypro for half-wide 5" winchesters. The first of the 3lb drives were to be shipped September 26 with the rest of the order to be delivered over 10 months. Bill McDonald said he was quite impressed with Microscience's little drives. I guess he really was."
(Micro Cornucopia, Oct 1983)

"The company cited an inability to receive enough disk drives for the present $50 million inventory level. Kay said most of the problems stemmed from a shortage of Winchester drives for the Kaypro 10, but he noted that those problems have been solved with new sources. Kaypro had been buying hard disk drives exclusively from Tandon Corp. and now is additionally sourcing Winchesters from Seagate Technology and Microscience International Corp."
(Computer System News, February 27, 1984)

The only thing worse than a CMI drive is an early Tandon. We had several of the early Tandons, and they nearly shut down the Micro C editorial department, which makes them even worse than CMI drives.

Kaypro found itself in the Tandon 10 Meg replacement business right after they started using them. (An average of three replacements per system, I believe.) If you have a Tandon winchester, don't breathe on it, the heads might fall out.
(Micro Cornucopia, Aug-Sept 1986)

Mainboard Change

While this article states that the 4 will use the 10 board. The K4 '84 never used the K10 '83 board (81-180 C) but maybe the confusion came from the fact that it would have the upgraded graphics and used half-height drives. More research is needed as to when each board was actually switched over in production. I suspect that the K10 '83 board (81-180 C) may have been used until they got their stock low enough to just have the replacement supplies that they were targeting.

The new Kaypro 4 uses the Kaypro 10 board and two non-Tandon half-wide drives. ...

The new Kaypro 4 will actually have some features that the 10 won't have (at least for a while). It will have a new CTC timer and a modem built in. However, they aren't quite ready to ship the new 4. They are still cleaning up the software and the FCC has not yet certified that they pass the radiation restrictions.
(Micro Cornucopia, Feb 1984)

K10 in production

"There are no changes here. The Kaypro 10 still has a 10-megabyte Winchester hard disk, one 392K floppy drive, an internal 300-baud modem, and a real-time clock.

The software package for the Kaypro 10 is the same as for the Robie, plus software for backing up your hard disk onto floppy disks."
(Profiles, Jan 1986)

Light Pen

"... the light pen plug on the Kaypro 10 doesn't work. When the computer was designed, Kaypro had planned to have one, but never found time to finish it."
(Profiles, September 1986)

The Video Chip an SY6545A-1 supports the use of a light pen.

K10 Known Errors

If your early Kaypro 10 won't boot from the floppy drive check page 18 of the Apr 1984 Micro Cornucopia here.

"We have had three Kaypro lOs with this same 'status 02' error over the last six months. Each time the error occurred, the hard disk was not up to speed when the Kaypro 10 tried to read it. In all three cases the problem stemmed from the hard disk controller board. After the boards were replaced, the 'status 02' error problem was resolved."
(Micro Cornucopia, Apr-May 1985)

I also got a call from a local dealer about this problem. [System Status 02] He had contacted two of the drive manufacturers and found out that some of the drives Kaypro is using are the low current versions which start very slowly. (In fact, they often won't start at all if the head gets left somewhere other than in the safety position and is resting on the disk.)

He has found that if he lubricates the winchester's stepper arm with a little silicon spray, the head will return to the safety position between data fetches and the drive will start properly the next time the system is turned on. (Micro Cornucopia, Apr-May 1985)

We've been receiving a lot of calls lately from Kaypro 10 owners who are seeing progressive deterioration of their winchester drives. The problem begins with occasional bad sectors on the drives and then progresses to the point where the drive is unusable and the data is lost.

Owners can stop this deterioration by reformatting their drives every 6 months. This means copying all the information from the winchester to floppies using mufbak, then reformatting the winchester, booting off a floppy, and then copying the system tracks and files back onto the winchester.

Unfortunately there are some bugs in mufbak (files aren't always correct after they're restored) so I recommend using PIP or SWEEP to transfer all files that are smaller than 390K. For larger files, you can take your chances with mufbak, or manually break the files into 390K chunks (if possible). Kaypro is supposed to be working on a new version of mufbak.

Editor's note, we haven't heard of any problems using BIGBURST on disk K15. Also, SQ. COM (squeezes files) does a very good job of reducing the size of large files (USQ.COM unsqueezes them). See disk K1.
Allyn Franklin of Drivemasters
(Micro Cornucopia, Feb-Mar 1986)

"If, after a few hours' work, a "System Status 02" message appears at the bottom of your K10 screen, it may be a heat-related controller board problem. The HDO Controller is supposed to run at 10 megahertz. If a "System Status 02" error message appears after a period of time, it's generally because the frequency of the controller has crept up to 12 or even 14 megahertz. A simple solution is to replace the capacitor at C18 with a more heat-resillient capacitor, one with a value of 18 picofarads and a temperature band of N1500. This will help you hold the 10 megahertz value needed for proper running. After you have replaced that capacitor, re-adjust the VCO at C19 as it says in the documentation that comes with the STU's. You will need to do a high level reformatting of the hard drive with any part replacement or repair dealing with System Status 02. During System Status 02 you are sending garbage to the hard drive, so an 02 message can come up when the garbage area of the hard drive is read."
(Kugram, Jan-Feb 1987)

K10 marketing

This flier is from the personal collection of David Kay. It does not have dates on it but based on the product release dates and that it features the Kaypro 10 I believe it is likely for the 1983 National Computer Conference. Which was held May 16-19 in Anaheim, California. That year the Anaheim Convention Center was full of displays and the overflow was in the Disneyland Hotel. National Computer Convention 1983

K10 Ends Production

"The Kaypro Corporation sends news of the passing of a couple of old friends, the Kaypro 1 and the Kaypro 10. The decision to send old No. 1 to the glue factory will sadden many CP/M followers who fondly remember 'Darth Vader's lunch bucket.'" (New York Times, February 11, 1986)

"On February 1 they'll no longer be shipping any CP/M systems except the 2X. No 10, no 1, no Robie, no 4, just the 2X. All that, despite the fact that they were back-ordered on the 10, and the 1 wasn't doing badly either!"
(Micro Cornucopia, April-May 1986)

Prototype Variations on the K10

Climate Hardened

"Unfortunately the climate-hardened Kaypros referred to in that article were especially manufactured for the purpose. They were Kaypro 10s without any ventilation slots in the chassis, no floppy drives, and special sealing gaskets around the communications ports and CRTs.

Without floppy drives the only way to introduce new programs and download data is through the serial ports. Only a small number of these computers were made as an experiment by Kaypro. They are not available on special order."
(Profiles, March 1986)

Kaypro 12X

"There are currently only about a dozen 12X systems in existance (the Kaypro 10 with a 2.6 meg floppy drive). The engineers at Kaypro are using these 12Xs for software development (such a deal)."
(Micro Cornucopia, Oct 1984)

Software

14 Disk Set dated September 1983

A set of 8 disks used to install the standard software onto the harddrive.

Dates

Note that this disk refers to the K10 and has a date of Oct 20, 1983. Part number: 81-225-48

It's FCC ID was issued July 7, 1985.

Mainboard

The 81-180 mainboard was used in the Kaypro 10.