r/toughbook • u/The_old_repair_shop • Jun 09 '25
Refurb New to me Panasonic CF-29
I received five decommissioned Government Panasonic CF-29s without hard drives, charging cables, or caddy's so I'm gonna slowly work on them. This one is my first test subject 😸
1
u/retrodude26 Jun 09 '25
Loving the solid design.. assume it’s running xp
3
u/The_old_repair_shop Jun 09 '25
It's currently not running anything yet since it didn't come with a hard drive or caddy. But I'm going to pick up a hard drive caddy and attempt to make it run Ubuntu Linux.
I have like four others I can use for parts if need be. None of them came with caddies though sadly
I was told it booted to bioes when it was put in storage like 16 to 20 years ago
2
u/NateGrit711 Jun 11 '25
As far as chargers go, pretty much any Panasonic/IBM “Yellow Tip” charger will work, I’ll see if I can put a picture of one on here. As far as a battery or hard drive caddy goes, I’d recommend EBay. I’ve got a CF-29 myself, but only have one battery and one hard drive caddy for it. Otherwise I’d help you out on it too. The CF-29’s still use IDE for the hard drive interface, but you need the caddy to make it work. Panasonic did their own interface from IDE to the mainboard. The idea being, you can swap hard drives easily.
2
u/NateGrit711 Jun 11 '25
For the hard drive caddy, you just need an IDE laptop hard drive to put into it. Looks like it has the necessary cable to connect correctly, also along with the hard drive heater assembly.
2
u/The_old_repair_shop Jun 15 '25
Thank you! I picked up a hard drive caddy and will be picking up a Panasonic CF-29 charger on Amazon
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u/NateGrit711 Jun 11 '25
Edit, can’t put pictures in here. The charger I have is IBM Part Number 02K6543, input voltage is 100v-240v, output is 16v DC, 3.36A. It powers my CF-29, my CF-19, and my FZ-G1. Same plug across all three. Battery is CF-VZSU29. Working on figuring out the part number for the hard drive caddy assembly.
1
u/Wolfhoodie1 Jun 09 '25
Looking forward to updates about it