On Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 18:13 PM Joshua Rice <rice43(a)btinternet.com> wrote:
> I imagine it's quite difficult. Maybe not "functional Twiggy drive"
> difficult, but probably "unmolested 128k Macintosh" difficult.
>
> It of course depends on who you know, and who you ask. Undoubtedly
> there's a guy out there with a stack of them in a shed somewhere, but
> getting hold of him is a different matter entirely.
>
I think this person exists and is relatively easy to contact: it's Rob
Blessin of Black Hole Inc (https://next.blackholeinc.com/). If he doesn't
have a 68030 board, ask around on the NeXT forums at
https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/ (I think these are also related to
Rob in some way).
In my experience the SMT capacitors pose a much greater threat to NeXT PCBs
than the battery: these are classic early 90s caps that must be assumed to
be leaking already. Replace them. Same goes for several of the through-hole
caps in the N4000-series mono displays (ELNA "Long Life" my foot --- you'll
find they come out moist and fishy-smelling). (Plus there are SMT caps in
the display's digital board too.)
As for the bright yellow Panasonic BR-2/3A lithium primary cell battery: I
issue a challenge to this community. I've never seen one leak. Nobody I've
asked has ever seen one leak. Rob Blessin who has handled thousands of NeXT
boards has never seen one leak. It's a bit maddening since batteries are
supposed to leak eventually and the Panasonics just seem like they...
don't. In fact, they often still hold a good voltage, and I'll confess
here: *I'm still running some of the 30-year-old originals in my NeXTs!*
The replacements I got from DigiKey a few years back are sitting in my
component stores gathering dust, just waiting.
The challenge: have *you* ever seen a leaky Panasonic BR-2/3A lithium
primary cell battery?
Surely their day will come someday --- we'll see them start to go. But for
now it sure feels like we're in the long, low bottom of a very big
bathtub-shaped curve.
--Tom
> Josh Rice
>
> On 16/07/2024 17:24, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
> > how hard is it to track down a replacement NeXT cube motherboard?
> > Bill
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 11:38 AM John Robertson via cctalk <
> > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> >> On 2024/07/16 6:28 a.m., Paul Koning wrote:
> >>>> On Jul 16, 2024, at 9:05 AM, John Robertson via cctalk<
> >> cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >>>> I'm just starting to clean up a NeXT system that a friend has had in
> >> storage for decades...
> >>>> I assume the thing has a battery somewhere - I just hope it isn't
> >> Ni-Cad!
> >>> At that age it might well be. So what? I think they are still
> >> available. Or you can replace it by a non-rechargeable battery. That's
> >> what I did with the ToD clock battery in my Pro; a lithium coin cell
> with a
> >> series diode to prevent "charging" is not an ideal solution but
> adequate,
> >> and it would be better if I used a Schottky diode rather than a plain Si
> >> rectifier diode I happened to have lying around.
> >>> paul
> >> Battery leakage was the issue - having dealt with a great many logic
> >> boards damaged or destroyed by leaking Ni-Cad batteries.
> >>
> >> I've since seen a photo of the inside of the NeXT and it looks like they
> >> used a plug in Lithium battery, so that risk is no longer of much
> >> concern to me.
> >>
> >> John :-#)#
> >>
>
Does anyone have access to compile-able files for IBM's Scientific
Subroutine Package? 360/370, 1130 -- anything will do. I have a
copy of 360A_CM-03X_SSP.tap and have even converted it away
from EBCDIC. I have not, however, properly de-blocked it yet and
figgered I'd ask if someone already has ready-to-go files. FORTRAN
would of course be the origin; any language will do, however.
RK
Just a 'survey' sort of question - how much value do you guys put in vintage
copies of old newsletters, magazines, etc. I'm talking mid-1970s, like
People's Computer Company, etc. Someone has been selling them one at a time
on ebay and they routinely go for $125+ each! Was PCC fairly low
circulation? I have no idea how rare these things are - if I should just
dive in to have my memento or wait. Looking at auction history it seems to
be the same group of 2 or 3 bidders going nuts over them.
One newsletter I would love to find an original copy of is Micro-8.. but I
think the circulation on that was just a hundred or so, so probably
unlikely. It has some blurbs from Grant Runyan in there, who built my TVT
and Mark-8.
But yeah, I just wondered if you guys think generally this stuff *should& be
considered valuable - given most/all is archived online.
Brad
Hi alll,
I have a Charles River Data Systems MF211E, a branded PDP-11/23 that is
looking for a new home. Right now it's running RT-11 but I've also run
2.9BSD on it. I got it with the intent to run Ultrix-11 but due to the
non-standard disk controller I could never get that working. Everything
was in fully functioning condition when it was powered down a couple of
months ago. It has:
M8186, a KDF-11A
Clearpoint Q-RAM 22, a 1MB memory board
FC-202, an RXV21 clone, connected to Shugart SA800s
M7504, a DEQNA-M ethernet controller
Dilog DQ614, emulating 4 RL02 drives, connected to a 52MB MFM drive in a
separate enclosure
H-11-5, a Heathkit serial card
M9400-YE, a REV11-E terminator
I believe it's an H9278 backplane but I'm not 100% certain about that
I'm willing to entertain reasonable offers. It is currently located in NE
Ohio, and due to age and the substantial weight I will not ship unless you
want to pay to have full-service freight show up at my door. Please
contact me off-list if you are interested. Thanks!
-Henry
Yeah. I notice even Wikipedia has been really begging lately. I'm amazed they've all lasted as long as they have.That would really suck if archive went away. So useful.Sent from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: Sellam Abraham via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Date: 2024-07-16 7:50 p.m. (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Cc: Sellam Abraham <sellam.ismail(a)gmail.com> Subject: [cctalk] Re: Old vintage computing magazine/newsletters BTW, I wouldn't be depending on Internet Archive. Not that it's going awayanytime soon, but it may some day not be there.Like LCM.Sellam
This seems to be a Belgian computer that draws a total blank on Google.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagecomputerclub/posts/8562290167137607/
Anyone ever heard of it?
--
Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven(a)gmail.com
Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven
IoM: (+44) 7624 277612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884
Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053
Message: 21
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 06:55:09 -0700
From: Sellam Abraham<sellam.ismail(a)gmail.com>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: Ebay past pricing
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Message-ID:
<CAHJBWnQg8S3iJr+zofjcxhDkCX3qG-5oeXOtvrKPVpVEthROcg(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
I think we are talking apples and oranges. I use Worthpoint to find pricing for uncommon (I hate the misuse of the word "rare) items that don't show up in Ebay searches. So far, the only limitation I've found with Wortphoint is their lack of shipping costs which anyone who sells on Ebay knows is part of the Ebay price. That is not a serious enough reason for me not to use Worthpoint.
A recent example of Ebay failures would be the pricing on Intel MDS system parts. Another example is Lobo Drives/System computers. Or the Lobo HD/floppy disk box. Do I need to go on?
Marvin
> On Sun, Jul 14, 2024, 11:49 PM Marvin Johnston via cctalk <
> cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> My opinion, it is the best I've seen for looking up past ebay sales.
>
> Marvin
I subscribed to Worthpoint for a couple months and found it kind of
worthless (see what I did there).
Yes, it let's you go back further than eBay's Terapeak search (which is
available free to all eBay sellers and goes back through two years worth of
listings) but I found the data to be unreliable, incomplete, and it does
not store enough details from the original listing for my purposes. I don't
believe it differentiates between listings and actual sold items. In one
instance I found one of my own listings, and I forgot what was wrong about
it, but it had entirely wrong information.
I don't believe it's at all worth $30/month. I'd maybe pay that for a years
worth of access. Maybe.
Sellam
I would guess most people here are aware of how to use ebay to suggest
(mostly inflated) pricing. In the past, I have used Hammertap and
Terapeak, but they both seem to have gone away. That said, I finally bit
the bullet and joined Worthpoint. So far it is the best I have used and
at this point highly recommend it . The format is similar to Ebay BUT...
it goes back in time much farther than anything else I've used. The
farthest back I've seen so far is 2016. It even shows the one Intel MDS
system Scott (?) posted about that sold for $500 about 1 year ago in
July 2023.
The pricing is comparable with the other services I've used at about
$30/month for the basic searching ability (all I am interested in.).
IMNSHO, it is well worth it as in addition to past pricing, it also goes
back farther than anything I've used previously.
My opinion, it is the best I've seen for looking up past ebay sales.
Marvin
