"Jason Willgruber" <roblwill(a)usaor.net> writes:
> -Networking software compatible with the internal networking card (there"s a
> plug next to the keyboard connector that looks like it wants to be connected
> to some sort of network hub).
Looks can be deceiving. That might be an HP-HIL connector -- does it
have a picture of the corresponding plug with one or two dots on the
cable, or maybe just the one or two dots? If so, it's HIL, and is
there so you can hook up a Vectra HIL keyboard (as shipped with the
real original Vectras that don't have alphabet soup after the word
"Vectra") or an HIL mouse or an HIL monitor w/touchscreen.
-Frank McConnell
>The main hardware used was an ALTAIR 8800A Computer
>(INTEL 8080 chip). The software was an MITS Package
>I Monitor, enhanced with JAMON (written by Jerry A. Ford,
>MITS Program #117752). The synthesizers consist of 3
>identical voice circuits (pictured on the front of the
>album cover).
This is an Altair controlled hardware synth I take it?
Now *MY* Altair Synth (pardon the ego!) was all done in
software, with a simple 8-bit d/a converter on an i/o
port. It used 256 bytes of a waveform (fundamental sin(x)
plus some harmonics) that were stepped thru by up to
4 pointers at various rates and added up to get 4 part
harmony. Took a lot of instruction cycle counting to
get the timing just right and was worked up to where
one could, with a lot of tedious data entry, type in
a Bach invention (#8 - was on 'Switched on Bach') and
have it play perfectly. Now, being a 2Mhz machine it
sang bass and tenor mostly.
Spent many a long night getting one together for a
school software contest and the prof. gave the prize to
a lousy serial auto-baud detector (probably because HE
suggested it). So we learned that demo's need BIG
speakers to make an impression :))
A# = (12th root of 2) * 440Hz
B = " * A#
Chuck
cswiger(a)widomaker.com
This is giving me fits. There's something strange with my minivan, that it
generates a *ton* of static electricity whenever I drive even a few
blocks. When I touch the metal of the door upon getting out, I get a
shock that hurts all the way up to the shoulder. The real problem, and
what makes this on topic, is that I use this vehicle to pick-up/transport
my classic beauties everywhere. I'm terrified that I'm going to pick up
that once-in-a-lifetime S-100 rescue or something and kill the guts with
one of these lightning bolts. What I do now is keep a wrist-strap and a
box of Bounce dryer sheets (don't laugh) in my jockey box. Does anyone
know what could be causing this?
Aaron C. Finney Systems Administrator WFI Incorporated
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"UNIX is an exponential algorithm with a seductively small constant."
Doug Spence wrote:
>> The original PET came with four different motherboard variations, viz:
>>
>> RAM = 6550, ROM = 6540
>
> Both of my PETs are of this type, but one has the small keyboard and
> internal tape drive, and the other has the big keyboard.
Large keyboard on a machine that early is a new one on me!
>> My own is the third of those, a 1978 revision (a pity in a way - the
case
>> has the old tape deck, the blue screen surround and serial number
1000035,
>> one of the very first)
>
> Are you sure that 1000035 makes it one of the first? Perhaps it's one of
> the first of that revision or something?
Blue trim was dropped fairly early - both the machines we had at school
were black trim - as was the rebadged cassette deck with the lift-the-lid
eject mechanism, the latter being replaced by the C2N. I had always
assummed that 1000035 meant the 35th machine with the 220-240V power
supply.
> My PETs are 0014090 (small keyboard) and 0020272 (large keyboard). Both
> have the first motherboard variation, blue trim, and white screen.
Help. We need the Anderson. Larry, where are you? Can you help on this?
> Actually, IIRC my small-keyboard PET uses little rubber cups. But I
> suppose there may be springs as well. The keyboard didn't work when I
got
> it, so I had to disassemble it and wipe the circuit board clean. I never
> disassembled it beyond pulling the circuit board off.
No rubber cups. Rubber cups or domes always in my experience give some
sort of mechanical hysteresis when you press them. All PET keyboards I've
used are smooth until they hit the stop. Small keyboard had little black
rubber pads set into the plastic mouldings of the keys.
>> The top 4 address lines are decoded on the mobo by a 74154 to give block
>> select lines. The block select lines 0 (bottom 4K of RAM), 8 (screen
>> memory) C, D, E (I think) and F do _not_ appear on the expansion
connector.
>> All others do. The rest of the address lines (0 to 11) are also
present.
>
> Yup, you're right. Interestingly, Blocks 9, A, and B are listed as
> "Expansion ROM" on my PET memory map... I had a dream a while back where
> the university was throwing all kinds of neat old junk out, and I found a
> horde of PET cartridges(!) that plugged into the side expansion port.
> While I've never heard of such a thing, is there any reason a cartridge
of
> that type couldn't have been a reality?
Only the lack of power. Flying lead from cartridge to 2nd cassette port is
the usual solution AFAIK (it's what I did on my RAM expansion). No, I've
never heard of ROM cartridges like this but I've met other things I think.
ROM expansion usually went inside...
>> When I added a 62256 to my 8K PET, I encoded the block select lines for
24K
>> of RAM space and 8K of expansion ROM space (blocks 9 and A). Beware -
POKE
>> also fails here, not just PEEK, if you're accessing this RAM from BASIC.
>
> So you've actually already done something like this! Excellent!
Indeed I have. Tony Duell helped with one or two tips, I think. Such as,
65256 doesn't work, use 62256 instead. And the way of avoiding the need
for inverters if you use the right sort of gate when re-encoding your
address (but I may have failed to implement that).
> Why do POKE and PEEK fail there? Was that done on purpose or is it just
> the result of something lame like using a signed value to represent
> addresses?
No, it's software. It was a feature that was supposed to prevent
inquisitive geeks disassembling the BASIC ROM between $C000 and (I think)
$E7FF. The OS ROMs, above $F000, were peekable, though, as was the I/O
space in the E block. You could of course peek and poke the screen, $8000
- $83E7 inclusive.
> I think *all* of the 6550s in that machine are duds, but I could move 4K
> over from the working machine. (I've tried the dead ones in many, many
> combinations but perhaps not all.)
Zog! You'll have to pull block select 0 from somewhere on the motherboard
then. You might as well take +5V from there while you're at it.
I'll try and dig out my RAM expansion board, and work out what it did.
Meanwhile, have fun!
Philip.
Zane;
I just got in the whse two reader printers (dry toner) that print on plain
paper. I buy and sell microfilm equipment also. If you wanted to rig a parts
scanner to a Microfilm reader I have both parts too.
However I would recommend a service bureau that could turn the Microfilm into
CDs. You should get high quality documents that way. This should not be too
expensive, particularly if you have a lot of pages. Archiving technology has
pretty much moved to CDs. Service companies that used to film documents
nowadays image documents to CDs. I have one of these companies interested in
purchasing one of the reader printers I got in. I expect to be talking with
him tomorrow. I will ask about getting MF data into the computer, costs and
turnaround.
Paxton
< The correct URL is:
<
< http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=45456336
what the frap is it?
peersonally if people post the item a short description of 25 words or
less would be nice. Its a pain for me to crank up the winsock just to
see what the silly thing is.
< This is an incredible artifact.
Then mine must be worth a bomb. then there are the two floppy roms
(sheet disks with audio casette data on them).\
Allison
I guess I'm being a bit whimsical.
But I was intrigued and impressed with the recent NASA super-resolution
images, generated from the Pathfinder pictures. The basic gist of it, as
far as I understand it, is that given an unchanging target (the fiche, for
example), you can build up a much higher resolution image than your scanner
is capable of simply by making multiple scans and processing them together.
Each will be offset from the others by fractions of a pixel (assuming you
move the fiche ;). Software to combine multiple lores images into a highres
image would be fairly straightforward.
I guess the more scans you do, the better resolution you can obtain. Yes,
its tedious - but should work.
A
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Richman <bill_r(a)inetnebr.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, December 07, 1998 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: Scanning Fiche
>We installed a document imaging system at my office about a year ago; it
>has a Kodak double-sided paper scanner and a fiche scanner. The fiche
>scanner (admittedly low-budget compared to the $50K+ fully-automated
>scanner) is called a "ScreenScan". It's basically a standard fiche
>reader with what looks like the guts of a flatbed scanner mounted across
>the front. You insert a sheet of fiche, position and focus the page you
>want, and hit the "scan" button. It scans a linear image sensor array
>like the one in a flatbed scanner down the screen from top to bottom, at
>pretty much standard flatbed scanning speed. I think it's set up to do
>200 or 300dpi; not the world's sharpest images, but most of this stuff
>is just for backup records of stuff that happened 20 years ago, so it's
>not critical that it be pretty - just readable. I wouldn't be surprised
>if you could rig up something like this pretty easily yourself; pick up
>one of the fiche viewers that they can't give away at most university
>and government auctions, get a cheap flatbed scanner (even pretty good
>new ones can be had for under $100), take the mechanism out of the case,
>and bolt it to the front of the fiche viewer. You'd have to remove or
>disable the light source, since the bulb in the fiche viewer provides
>the illumination. I don't think you'd even have to mess with the focal
>length much; the fiche viewers normally do a rear-projection on frosted
>glass, and the scanner is set up to focus on a sheet of paper an inch or
>two away from the sensor, so with a spacer or two it should just work.
>That sounds like an interesting enough project that I might even build
>one if I had anything on fiche to scan. (I'm more interested in getting
>my 2,000-3,000 science fiction and computer books on CD-ROM, personally,
>but I have yet to come up with a non-destructive method that's
>reasonably fast. I could take them to work, use the hydraulic paper
>cutter in the print shop to cut the spines off all of them, and then jam
>them through the auto-feeder on the Kodak scanner, but I'd hate to.
>I've even gone as far as scanning all sides of a couple of books and
>using a 3D drawing program to make a rotatable, zoomable "virtual book"
>that I could put on a "virtual shelf" in a "virtual library" and use as
>an index to the scanned text, but there's still something about touching
>an actual paper book that I can't let go of...)
>
>On Sun, 6 Dec 1998 15:15:17 -0800, Zane H. Healy wrote:
>
>>While this might be considered more than a little off topic, I don't think
>>so, since a lot of us have classic computer documentation in the form of
>>MicroFiche. Does anyone know of a method of scanning this stuff into a
>>computer, or any idea as to what resolution of a scanner such a project
>>would require?
>
>
> -Bill Richman (bill_r(a)inetnebr.com)
> http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r - Home of the COSMAC Elf
Microcomputer
> Simulator, Fun with Molten Metal, Orphaned Robots, and Technological
Oddities.
>
>
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini(a)msn.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, December 06, 1998 1:11 PM
Subject: Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag?
>Does anyone have the 1/83 issue of Byte Magazine? In it is part 3 of an
>article by Steve Ciarcia about the MPX-16 PC-compatible SBC. I have parts 1
>and 2, so I need the third.
>
> Thanks!
>
>[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
>[ ClubWin!/CW7
>[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
>[ Collector of "classic" computers
>[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
>[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
><================ reply separator =================>
The local library has Byte on micrfiche. If you live in the Vancouver
Area, you can get a printout or just read it. It is at the Surrey library
in Guilford.
Any idea where to get these any of these HIL devices?
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, December 06, 1998 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: OT HP vectra networking
>
>It's probably an HP-HIL (Hewlett-Packard Human Interface Link IIRC)
>connector. This was an HP interface used for keyboards, mice,
>touchscreens, digitising tablets, security dongles, etc. You can
>daisy-chain several devices off the same connector.
>
>-tony
>
>
At 01:13 PM 12/6/98 -0500, you wrote:
>On a related note, wasn't there a electronics surplus dealer of some
>sort, perhaps based in Massachusetts, called "Meshna"? I'm wondering if
>someone knows whether they are still in business. Any web search turns
>up nothing.
>
>
> -- Stephen Dauphin
Several years ago I looked for Meshna without luck. They had computer boards
(transistor, TTL, etc and parts for a vector graphics terminal, Sanders
IIRC. I think I had bought in the mid 70's a computer cassette deck, new in
the box packed with foam cutouts from them. This has long vanished as well.
I did find a similar company, B and F (Peabody, MA) thay still exists,
www.BNFE.com.
-Dave
Thanks Allison & Tony for the info on the 8048. Allison, I got one of
those infamous after the sale posts from the seller that he thought he might
have the docs and if so would send them along. I'll certainly keep you in
mind if this should transpire.
Thanks again.
- Mike:dogas@leading.net
p.s. Anyone have the opcode listing for a 8048?
Stephen Dauphin <ai705(a)osfn.org> writes:
> On a related note, wasn't there a electronics surplus dealer of some
> sort, perhaps based in Massachusetts, called "Meshna"? I'm wondering if
> someone knows whether they are still in business. Any web search turns
> up nothing.
Here's info from one of their 1988 catalogs:
John J. Meshna Jr., Inc.
19 Allerton Street
Lynn, MA 01904
Tel: (617) 595-2275
-Frank McConnell
Wow! WHat a blast from the past!
I drooled over their catalog when I was a teenager . . .
I haven't been able to locate them, either . . .
Jeff
On Sun, 6 Dec 1998 13:13:21 -0500 (EST) Stephen Dauphin <ai705(a)osfn.org>
writes:
>On Sat, 5 Dec 1998, dave dameron wrote:
>
>> Fair Radio sales has (in their last cat.) 3 parallel keyboards for
>US$10,
>> "Cheap" because "the IBM PC standard killed the market for them".
>> They are at: www2.wcoil.com/~fairadio
>
>On a related note, wasn't there a electronics surplus dealer of some
>sort, perhaps based in Massachusetts, called "Meshna"? I'm wondering
^^^^^^
>if
>someone knows whether they are still in business. Any web search turns
>
>up nothing.
>
>
> -- Stephen Dauphin
>
___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
>> p.s. Anyone have the opcode listing for a 8048?
>
>There is a useful web site,
>http://gruffle.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/cards.html
That site was worth repeating for the benifit of this list... Thanks, Tony.
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
Does anyone have the 1/83 issue of Byte Magazine? In it is part 3 of an
article by Steve Ciarcia about the MPX-16 PC-compatible SBC. I have parts 1
and 2, so I need the third.
Thanks!
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<================ reply separator =================>
Hi All,
Fair Radio sales has (in their last cat.) 3 parallel keyboards for US$10,
"Cheap" because "the IBM PC standard killed the market for them".
They are at:
www2.wcoil.com/~fairadio
At 02:51 PM 12/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> >
>> > A question for the collective wisdom and distributed awareness of
>> > the list:
>> >
>> > Anybody ever run across parallel ASCII keyboards, something suitable
-Dave
Hi gang,
I will buy an RD54 to replace that ornery RD53 on my MVII (recall we
discussed the problem of the RD53 drive heads sticking a while back?)
I just want to make sure that the RQDX3 EPROM versions on the controller
will handle an RD54 drive.
The version numbers are labeled as so: 285-E5 & 286-E5. I'm buying a
spare RQDX3 controller board with these version numbers. The RQDX3 in the
MVII have an older version # which I cannot recall at the moment.
Already searched Sunsite and Tim's Micronotes. Nothing about the 285-E5 &
286-E5 numbers shows up. Back in October there was a ClassicCmp thread
regarding handling of RX33 floppies. No comment about RD54's addressed.
Thanks for the help.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
The item number was not recognised when I tried to visit.
William R. Buckley
>Oops, meant that to go private. Oh well, but at least it will give you
>listmembers interested in computerized music an idea of what this stuff is
>going for ... at least on ebay :).
>
>> http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=4545633
I spoke with Chuck Fry, an old friend who once worked for Symbolics,
and he gave some additional information regarding the Lisp engines
produced at Symbolics.
The Macintosh SBC was called the MacIvory. He gave some specifics
about which of these devices which a computer collector might want,
and this information will come in a later posting. Still, he said that the
company is still in business, having been bought out by some individual
but, that it is apparently nothing more than a maintenance operation.
Still, when I get the telephone number of this person (he has an AOL
account, as I understand), I will call him and see if he is aware of the
availability of some MacIvory's and what one might cost.
Chuck noted that the MacIvory worked only for nubus Mac's and that it
had a tendency to crash MacOS. He said that the TI product was more
resilient in hardware than MacIvory but, the condition was just the
reverse for software executed on the respective machines. That is,
the TI did not crash so often but, the applications were not so well
developed or capable.
William R. Buckley
FWIW I got this from a friend at IBM.
>
>Joe,
>Thanks for the offer but I have no interest in it a S/23. By the
>way....Token ring didn't exist when we sold these things..I'm not sure what
>he is referring to.
On Sat, 5 Dec 1998 yowza(a)yowza.com wrote:
> How similar is Star Office to Microsoft Office, BTW?
Nowadays, with the advent of the GUI, look and feel lawsuits are
meaningless. Everything looks the same anyway.
>
> -- Doug
>
>
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
> From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca>
> Subject: Re: Replacing 6550s
> (I especially find it cool that they list various part numbers for the
> connector. :) )
Digikey is the best source for inexpensive PET compatible connectors.
(1-800-DIGI-KEY) along with a ton of other cool parts.
>
> I just noticed for the first time (!) that the "PARALLEL USER PORT" has
> pins labeled "T.V. Video", "T.V. Vertical", and "T.V. Horizontal"! Has
> anyone actually connectd a TV or external monitor to a PET?
There are plans for a composite video converter using those pins in Nick
Hampshire's PET Revealed, I think it only works on the older 9" screen pets
and not the 12" ones. The reason for it being on the user port was for deaier
diagnostic testing.
I'll scan the circuit and put it on-line tonite:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/petvideo.gif
0010010101011100101001010001010010101000101001010
> On Mon, 23 Nov 1998, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to find out what PET has a chiclet keyboard. I only know of the
> > plastic bang-on-em keyboard PETs, not one with the rubber keys.
>
> There aren't any with rubber keys as far as I'm aware.
The 'rubber part of the keys is on the boom of the key, which you don't see.
The only Commodore computer with rubber keys that I have heard of is the
Commodore 116.
>
> "chiclet keyboard" != "rubber keys", IMHO. I'm talking about the cute
> multicoloured keyboard with the small plastic keys that are arranged in a
> grid pattern. I call that a chiclet keyboard.
The original PET 2001 (4k or 8k), and I saw a 'Teacher's PET' with such a
keyboard too (proably had a newer motherboard though. In general they
(calculator keyboard model PETs) were sold till about 1980 and are the
origninal keyboard design.
0010010101011100101001010001010010101000101001010
> ::"chiclet keyboard" != "rubber keys", IMHO. I'm talking about the cute
> ::multicoloured keyboard with the small plastic keys that are arranged in a
> ::grid pattern. I call that a chiclet keyboard.
>
> Hmm, okay. But multicoloured? Which colours? Arranged how?
Ummm they were all metallic tops, Red, Gold, Blue, Silver... Check out my
PET page:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/pet.html
You can see the colors pretty well on the first image.
If you want exact placement I'll scan a keyboard layout from the PET user
guide tonite:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/petkeys.gif
0010010101011100101001010001010010101000101001010
> From: Cameron Kaiser <ckaiser(a)oa.ptloma.edu>
> Subject: Re: Commodore 128 stuff (was:St. Vincent DePaul Finds)
>
> ::It's a fast-loader for the 128 (that's where the Mach comes in , the 64
> ::version was called Mach 5) It might also be a program freezer/utility. Put it
> ::in your 128 and push the reset button, some of these will present a menu (for
> ::save options and such). The switch is probably to select whether the cart is
> ::active or not. Best not to switch it while the computer is on.
>
> Gosh, Larry, don't you want to live dangerously? Switching EXROM and GAME
> in realtime? Live a little! ;-)
After a few Commodore (PET, 64, 128D and Amiga 1000) mishaps between me, my
brother and a couple friends, I have become much more careful. I do not want
to be the holder of the 'golden butterknife' (yeah, that one went over your
head, it's a long story.)
Hi all!
Thanks to everyone who supplied information regarding the differences
between the 6550 and 2114 (especially Ethan who supplied pinouts).
I'm wondering if it would be possible to replace the RAM in an old PET
with a modern SRAM by use of some kind of plug-in adapter.
An example of what I'm thinking of is the SIMMfonie or AmiFast Zip-to-SIMM
adapters for the Amiga 3000. Could something like this be built that
would plug into the 16 22-pin sockets on the PET motherboard, and lead to
a single modern SRAM? Possibly with the addition of a couple of clip-on
leads to get two more address lines to the RAM adapter so that the PET
could have 32K.
My general preference is to keep things original, but functional is always
better than non-functional and something like this adapter would be
removable if I ever found the proper chips.
The life of a chicklet-keyboard PET may depend on this. :)
--
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
Greetz all,
I'm buying an old 486 and want to try some of the FREE alternative OS' (no
Microsoft stuff thank you) that are available for it. Operating systems such
as GEM, QNX, OS/2 and GEOS. Can anyone recommend any other that can be run,
such as embedded or old operating systems?
--
Gareth Knight
Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856
http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"
This is about 26 days off-topic.
I have an old HP Vectra RS/25-c 386-25/1MB RAM, 100MB HD, 1.2 MB floppy.
(BIOS dated 1989). I"m trying to get it set up as a home server, but I
first need a few things:
-Setup software.
-Networking software compatible with the internal networking card (there"s a
plug next to the keyboard connector that looks like it wants to be connected
to some sort of network hub).
-An old Vectra keyboard? Can't get the numeric keypad to work on the
keyboard I have.
-Networking hardware (mainly a hub and network cards)
I have a copy of DR-DOS 7.x with networking extensions. Will this work with
the Vectra (haven"t installed it yet)? For one thing, I don"t even know if
there"s something in setup that enables/disables the network card. I"d like
to use the built-in card, since most of the networked computers will be
8086"s -286"s, and speed isn"t an issue.
ThAnX,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
< which I've not seen on 1's. If the indicator has turned, it's a good be
< the pack has problems, but not always. Anyone know how hard it is to
< re-balance a pack?
The shock indicator was purchasable before it became standard.
It's not a matter of balance, were talking warped. If dropped at various
angles the 14" platter can become seriously nonplanar and kill the heads.
Allison
HP has very good support web pages. Vectras appear to be at
http://www.support.vectra.hp.com:8001/
They don't seem to have a lot of stuff prior to the 486 era, but there are some
references to 386s.
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
On Dec 1998 13:05:24 -0600, Russ Blakeman <rhblake(a)bigfoot.com> wrote:
>>Ok here's one for all those of you familiar with the older IBM iron. I
>>have just fallen into a unit that looks much like a TRS-80 model 3 or 4
{snip}
That's the somewhat famous Datamaster. I have one, and I have some
diskettes, but I have a bad ROM, so it doesn't boot.
The Datamaster is a desktop office machine. From what I understand, it did
word processing and accounting functions. It has a built-in BASIC
interpreter, so you can do some programming. It's based on the 8085 (Intel
house numbered). I can't seem to find the correspondence that I had with the
guy I got mine from, but his wife worked on the development team. The 23 was
the immediate predecessor to the PC.
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<================ reply separator =================>
Actually, I was reminded of +ACI-Iolanthe+ACI-.
manney
+AD4APg- +AD4-What if Dr. Seuss Wrote a Computer Manual???
+AD4-
+AD4-Actually, that poem scans to Gilbert +ACY- Sullivan, rather than to Dr.
+AD4-Seuss. Specifically +ACI-Modern Major General+ACI-. The same tune as Tom
+AD4-Lehrer's +ACI-The Elements+ACI-. Or the (ancient) filk song +ACI-I've Built a
+AD4-Better Model Than the One at Data General+ACI-.
+AD4---
+AD4-Ward Griffiths +ADw-mailto:gram+AEA-cnct.com+AD4- +ADw-http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/+AD4-
+AD4-
+AD4-WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that Alcohol, Tobacco,
+AD4-and Firearms can be hazardous to your health -- and get away with it.
+AD4-
-----Original Message-----
From: Huw Davies <H.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, 3 December 1998 14:54
Subject: Re: VAX collectors attention
>Excuse me, I've still got one in production and a couple of spares in my
>"spares" room....
I think you should open your spares room to the public and charge admission.
:^)
>>Allison or one of the other Master Decologists will doubtless correct any
>>mistakes in the above. :^)
>
>Well I'm not Allison :-)
No, but it's a safe bet you fit the "or one of the other" etc. option. :^)
cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
< I'm buying an old 486 and want to try some of the FREE alternative OS' (
< Microsoft stuff thank you) that are available for it. Operating systems
< as GEM, QNX, OS/2 and GEOS. Can anyone recommend any other that can be r
< such as embedded or old operating systems?
If you have at least 8meg of ram in that 486 try Linux, Freebsd, OpenBSD
or NetBSD. These are all free (maybe a few dollars for the CDrom) and
represent high performance unix operating systems of various flavors
that are mostly similar if not the same. I'm not a unix fan but compared
to MSwinders and the dos similars (other than OS/2 warp or concurrent cpm)
it's a real screamer.
Another one if your interested in OS internals is Minix, the disk set to
install on a 486 is only a dozen floppies and it will fit with sources
on a 40mb drive. It's unix but simpler, of the V6 flavor. it's
simplicity makes it quite fast!
Allison
I finally put up some new shelves and was able to go through a few boxes
of books today. What I ended up with was a few spare things, which are
available to anyone who wants to pay shipping. Anything unwanted will go
to the recycling bin for Tuesday morning's pickup...
SunOS 4.1 System Manual, volumes I and II (missing III, it may be here)
SunOS 4.0 Network Administrator's Guide
SunView Programmers Guide
(above are in large 3-ring binders)
Sperry PC-IT Manual set (System Guide, DOS, BASIC mini-binders in boxes)
Please contact me privately...
Aaron C. Finney Systems Administrator WFI Incorporated
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"UNIX is an exponential algorithm with a seductively small constant."
good size hamfest in greensboro, nc and here is what i picked up.
epson hx20 complete with plastic carrying case. where can i get the tiny
cassette tapes for it and it also has a expansion unit added on the left. what
does that do? no ac adaptor to test yet. the guy also had a commodore sx64,
but too expensive. also picked up a ps2 model 60 that worked fine once i ran
reconfig on it. an interesting find is a complete ti99/4a system still sealed
in its box along with the expansion unit and optional floppy drive, all for
$15. the 3 boxes were never opened until i did it. it's the beige model
rebadged by CDC for schools here in raleigh. i also got ~50 disk based school
software titles for it as well. all of it's worthless of course, but
interesting to find something well over 10 years old and never saw the light
of day until now.
david
I believe the two 9 pin connectors went to a printer and to a modem if you
needed one. Prob. both are serial ports. I may have printer cables in my whse.
Paxton
reply to whoagiii(a)aol.com if interested.
Portland, Oregon
< I just pick up a new, which is to say, old system. Of course, it has n
< suppoting information. I bought it as an 'IMSAI 8048 controll computer'
< Its in a nodescript molded black hardshell case, has a hex machine codin
< panel/keyboard and nine digit led display. Opening it up reveals a sing
< board system +- power supply. Primary chips on the board are i D8243,
< D8279-5 (sublabled 4404A hmmm...), and a NEC D8035LC. At the bottom of
< board: c 1977 IMSAI MFG CORP., SAN LEARNDRO, CA... and this at opposit
< corner: 8048cc REV. 1 AR 1.
I have one operating! What I don't have is docs other than my memory.
I post quarterly or so a "anyone seen dos for this one" request.
What it has... 2k of ram that you can run programs from a 1k monitor
that can save to cassette and TTY/papertape. The interfaces include OPTO
isolated, relays, TTY 20mA currentloop interface and also a audio casette
interface.
It was a foray into 8035/8048 SBC market.
Allison
Hi gang
I just pick up a new, which is to say, old system. Of course, it has no
suppoting information. I bought it as an 'IMSAI 8048 controll computer'.
Its in a nodescript molded black hardshell case, has a hex machine coding
panel/keyboard and nine digit led display. Opening it up reveals a single
board system +- power supply. Primary chips on the board are i D8243, i
D8279-5 (sublabled 4404A hmmm...), and a NEC D8035LC. At the bottom of the
board: c 1977 IMSAI MFG CORP., SAN LEARNDRO, CA... and this at opposite
corner: 8048cc REV. 1 AR 1.
Did that send anyone into a flashback???
Thanks
- Mike: dogas+AEA-leading.net
>BTW - same store recently got in some disk packs, RL01K-DC
>for DEC. They're selling them for $5. What was the capacity
>of those things? 5, 10 MB ??
RL01's are 5 Megabytes - 10240 512-byte blocks, to be exact.
You can still buy them new, from DECDirect (1-800-Digital), for
~US$200 a pop.
Tim.
Hey all -- sorry if this is uninteresting -- I have no idea about the age/value/rarity of these machines, but the CS dept here is selling them, and if anyone's interested, email me privately. This is forwarded from the lab admin. -- MB
----------
* DecStation 500 - the old risc (not alpha) Dec, with
keyboard, mouse, and video cables, but without monitor
and scsi disk. Apparently these run FreeBSD, though
I have never tried it. They don't run Linux.
$100 each.
* Sun IPC - one of the early sparc architecture machines,
it is old enough that most people have never heard of it.
I believe that it won't run the newest Sun OS. With
a huge 19" or so color monitor, 16 meg memory, and hard drive.
One only. $250
* Mac IIci - I have about ten of these puppies, no
monitors, but probably a mouse and keyboard if you act fast.
$35
* Sun computation center - a Sun-60 desktop server with scsi disk,
a sun-120 vme-bus machine with non scsi tape controller,
and a 9 track reel-to-reel tape drive. You must remove
the (very heavy) tape drive from the rack that it is in.
This was much faster than the Vax 11-780 that used to
be the heavy Unix machine on campus, back in '89.
$250 takes it all. Bring a truck.
Small print:
All sales are final. This equipment is sold "as is" with
absolutely no warranty. I am not able to answer any questions
about software installation or setup. You can try the
equipment if you want to do all the lugging. The equipment must
be removed from Sudikoff Lab within a month - if I find it
around after that I will throw it away! There may be
viable operating systems on the disks of any machines with
disks, but I am not selling any rights to use the software or
offering upgrades or replacements. (I believe that the Sun
right to use goes with the equipment.)
Prices are negotiable. In cases where a disk is included I
will sell the item for substantially less without the disk
or disk enclosure.
If you have to ask how, it is probably not for you....
I built one, once upon a time, out of a Univac keypunch keyboard and some
TTL logic.
Worked great. Used it on my Altair for years Really nice LOUD CLICKS.
Loved it.
I suspect this would be tough to do with a modern PC keyboard, but if you
look at
really old stuff (like at a state/university surplus sale or some such) you
might find
something.
Jay
At 05:05 AM 12/5/98 -0500, cswiger wrote:
>A question for the collective wisdom and distributed awareness of
>the list:
>
>Anybody ever run across parallel ASCII keyboards, something suitable
>for interfracing to a 6820 port? Serial terminals & kbrds seem much
>more common - kbrd isn't really a bandwidth hog - but all my software
>was coded for a parallel port.. Currently I'm using the joystick ports
>of an Atari 800 (another 6820) - which is actually kinda nice
>(a programmable keyboard!) but would eventually like to find the
>real thing.
>
>tia
>
> Chuck
> cswiger(a)widomaker.com
>
>When I was a student, and when I was supervising students, practical
>jokes were _expected_. There were rules, like no permanent damage (to
>physical items or data (like computer files)). Nothing against the law.
>Nothing _too_ dangerous.
>
>And yes, I've been caught by practical jokes. And yes, I laughed
>afterwards - and then played a joke in return.
Like tossing charged capacitors across the room to them?
Or hooking a LARGE choke and a battery to a doorknob?
I would never do such a thing.:)
Dan
Well, unfortunately, I replied to Russ's offer for a laptop dock onto the
list. Not only that, I included a joke that I was glad that it's available
but Russ would overprice it. If this went directly to Russ he would have
gotten it, but on the list it makes it seem like he actually overpriced it.
Sorry.
Oh, on second though -- not offtopic. Dr. Seuss is >10 yrs old. <g>
>What if Dr. Seuss Wrote a Computer Manual???
>
>1) If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, and the bus is
>interrupted as a very last resort, and the address of the memory makes
>your floppy disk abort, then the socket packet pocket has an error to
>report.
>
>2) If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash, and the
>double-click icon puts your window in the trash, and your data is
>corrupted cause the index doesn't hash, then your situation's hopeless
>and your system's gonna crash!
>
>3) If the label on the cable on the table at your house, says the
>network is connected to the button on your mouse, but your packets
>want to tunnel on another protocol, that's repeatedly rejected by the
>printer down the hall, and your screen is all distorted by the side
>effects of gauss, so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
>then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, cause as sure as
>I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!
>
>4) When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk, and the
>microcode instructions cause unnecessary risk, then you have to flash
>your memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM. Quickly turn off the
>computer and be sure to tell your Mom.
i have a few of these extender and reciever cards if anyone wants to strike a
deal with me.
david
In a message dated 98-12-04 22:00:13 EST, you write:
> They're also not that useful unless you also can get the 'extender' card
> that goes in the PC or XT motherboard. The cable can be made (but it's
> nice to find a real one), but the card is quite complex.
>
Once upon a midnight dreary, Tony Duell had spoken clearly:
>> CoCo-ish question... tho CoCoists (IMHO) aren't quite as rabid as some
>> other platform gurus...)
>
>Speak for yourself. _I_ grew up hacking the coco and I was rabid enough
>to be one of the few people in the UK to have a CoCo3. Still have it.
>Still love OS-9. But I'm not on the CoCo mailing list (too many machines,
>too many mailing lists, my mail is bad enough as it is...)
Oh, my CoCo3 is still set up in my office, next to "Goon" (my Clone -- hey,
I just thought of this: I know a lot of folks who call BMW cars
"bimmers"... would IBM clones rightly be called "bummers"??? ;-).
My CoCo2 is still set up back at my "hacker" workbench, with the EPROM
programmer (hopefully) eternally affixed to it's cartridge port -- the
keyboard felt like someone dumped Pepsi & sand in it... rebuilt it; now
it's one of the nicest CoCo keyboards I own.
My CoCo1 is set up in my bedroom set up to the Plug-n-Power, and controls
some of the lights in my house.
Oh, and kiddies, cover your eyes: "Gates be damned... all of my CoCos now
have Extended Basic... Couldn't buy it at RS, so what else am I gonna use
my EPROMS for??? ;-)
Besides, I do own more copies (I have 4 more CoCos) than I use at one
time... just not in the right boxes!
However, on the CoCo lists I've been on over the years, if a CoCoNut had an
Amiga, he wouldn't get receive a second port to his/her posterior... many
of the Amigans I've met, while generally wholesome individuals, were quite
"ahem... less than goodnatured" when the found out an Amiga was not your
sole platform.
Of course, this is only my experience, and nowadays it doesn't seem like
that anymore... so YMMV, and all that jazz. Just my obversations &
opinions... AAMAF, I'm looking to acquire an Amiga 1200 & lotsa stuff with
it, and have received a great deal of help from others lately on advice of
this new, uncharted universe (well, for me...)
>> If it is a Dallas 12887 (without the "A" suffix), I can tell you this:
>> beware of the Dallas 12887. The 12887 has one shortcoming: the NVRAM
>> *cannot* be reset via external means, which means if whatever machine has
>
>Do you mean the chip can get into a state where normal writes to the chip
>fail, or that there's no way of clearing the chip other than by writing
>to it. The latter could prevent a PC from booting, but if you remove the
>chip and zero it in a programmer, then it would probably be OK.
I was speaking of the latter, but how many "bummer" owners have a
programmer that can successfully write to that chip?
Ahhh... wait... this is Tony. O.K. -- How many _beginner / novice / PC
only_ "bummer" owners.... etc.
Outside of this list, I don't know of anyone who could diagnose a problem
relating to this chip; and I'm not sure that any of the programmers _I_ own
could successfully zero this chip, either.
(Sorry to be down on this, but I deal day-in-and-out with folks who call me
with:
Them: "I couldn't get my Internet running..."
Me: "Did you right click on [insert gizmo here]"
Them: "What's a right-click?"
Me: "That's when you push the right button of the mouse"
Them: "What's a mouse?"
:-/ )
Most of the folks I deal with don't know PCB stands for "Printed Circuit
Board" let alone "Poly-Chlorinated Biphenyls" (toxic flame retardant).
Just my (pessimistic) opinion... ;-)
See ya,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
>It was in the USAF electronics tech school where we used to play
>catch with capacitors. And worse. Caps weren't known as
>"rectum-fires" for nothing.
Another words you fished the leads up through the holes in the lab stools as
well?
Dan
No, I'm a student. I can get in trouble for that kind of stuff :)
Teacher: Why did you do that, Max? You can get into serious trouble for
this!
Me: It's just a harmless joke...look! (I demonstrate)
Teacher: You know what, Max? Go home! (says jeez and rubs his eyes in the
background)
>Looks like you like to play tricks on users as well.
Dan
>
>Oh no... My jokes were a little more subtle...
I still laugh thinking about the people that tried to figure out how they
were getting shocked when they let go of the doornob not when they initially
touched it. It was especially good to watch the person that just got
shocked, when some new person grabs the doornob and just holds it while the
first tries to warn them.
>The -ve resistance battery was one such (an empty battery casing
>containing a couple on 9V batteries and a little circuit so the voltage
>would rise on load). Drives people mad...
I like that idea.:) look out kids.
>
>The VGA-colour-swapper is another. This is a simple adapter with a DE15
>plug on one side and a DE15 socket on the other. All the pins are
>straight through, apart from 1,2,3 which are wired 1->2, 2->3, 3->1. The
>result is that it swaps the colours round. It's actually a useful piece
>of test gear to discover quickly if a missing colour is due to the
>monitor or video card. But it's the sort of thing to plug into a luser's
>computer after he's spent the morning getting the colours 'right'...
>
Like swapping red and blue on VAXstations etc.
Dan
The high voltage spike created when the magnetic field colaspes. AKA
Reverse EMF pulse.
You need a very large coil or the secondary of a 30kv+ transformer.
>How _does_ that work?
>>I still laugh thinking about the people that tried to figure out how they
>>were getting shocked when they let go of the doornob not when they
>>initially touched it.
>>Dan
>>
>
Yes! I admit it! I use Outlook Express which is why I messed up so many
times! If only I used PINE *sob*sob* I'm ruined!!!
>OK, Max, so now we know you can't tell a joke and that you're really >a
woman. Is there anything you'd like to tell us?
>
>-- Doug
>
Got two of them. One of them is an IBM 4968, not terribly difficult to
figure out. But the other one has me stumped. Model number
0920940-98-125OU, I'm not sure if that means it's a 920 or a 940... Part
number 155000-103, Option B. Found some spare parts lists at
www.4cipher.com that seem to match, but they don't have much info. And I
thought I would come here to the list before bothering their sales
department(only email address I could find), as they rarely know much of
anything that isn't in production...
--------------------------------------------------------------
| http://members.tripod.com/~jrollins/index.html - Computers |
| http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/1681/ - Star Trek |
| orham(a)qth.net list admin KD7BCY |
| ham-mac(a)qth.net Portland, OR |
--------------------------------------------------------------
How _does_ that work?
>I still laugh thinking about the people that tried to figure out how they
>were getting shocked when they let go of the doornob not when they
>initially touched it.
>Dan
>
Question:
Are the terminators for the RL and RK drives the same?
No part number on outside of any of the three terminators I have on hand.
One was found on an RK07 another on an RL01. All three have a Cermet
network with 40 leads connecting to each connector pin. The P/N on each
Cermet network is 13-13242.
Just trying to make sure as I'm trying to get an RK07 running w/11/34A an
RL02 w/11/24 and neither disk is accessed by its processor. Yes, the cables
are sorted out as to whether they're an RK or an RL type.
Thanks for the info.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
At 11:12 AM 12/4/98 -0800, Aaron Christopher Finney wrote:
>This is giving me fits. There's something strange with my minivan, that it
>generates a *ton* of static electricity whenever I drive even a few
>blocks.
I seem to remember reading about this - perhaps in the "Straight Dope".
A quick www.dejanews.com search led me to a Toyota FAQ that confirmed
what I remembered.
Newer "low rolling resistance" tires don't contain as much carbon black
as they once did, which makes them more of an insulator, which means
as they turn they're picking up a charge relative to ground.
Other articles I saw mentioned this was a problem with AM radio
reception, causing sparks as the charge dissipated as you drove,
and for toll booth operators you'd touch during a drive.
Click and Clack wrote about it at
<http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/CC/CC7147TXT.html>
Strangely, I also found an article about the magnetic fields
generated by rolling tires: <http://www.microwavenews.com/3-98story4.html>
- John
Ok here's one for all those of you familiar with the older IBM iron. I
have just fallen into a unit that looks much like a TRS-80 model 3 or 4
(all in one in other words) that has two 8" floppies, a CRT, built on
keyboard. It says it's a model 5322 and the face says it's a System/23
unit. This is before my time I'm sure (my time in messing with pooters).
It has a 9 pin d-sub with a jumper loop on back and then further up the
back it has another, but open, 9 pin female d-sub. Token ring maybe, or
where a twinax adapter might go?
Whatever info you have would be great, and if anyone has an interest in
this heavy bugger let me know. I haven't even powered it up yet but it
does have an original IBM floppy in it, not even sure if it's a boot
disk or not.
I have a weird feeling it's a wordprocessing terminal. It even has a
keyboard overlay that sits above the keys.
Russ Blakeman
Harned, KY
Classic Computer People!
Since I think this stuff is neat, I will only send this to
ClassicCmp and Port-Vax lists.
I need to get rid of this stuff. I will take bids on this
stuff until Friday(12/4/98). If this stuff does not sell
by Friday, I'll try to sell it at the swap meet Saturday ;-)
Buyer assumes the shipping costs from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Thanks
Dean Nelson
Assemble my addresses from the lines below
For any Questions during the day:
Dean dot Nelson
at
LMCO
dot
COM
To send a bid or questions:
DeanNelson
at
AOL
dot
Com
(Yes, I get tons of crap mail, so please mention something sane
in the subject ;-) )
-------------------------------------
MICRO VAXES
-----------
VaxStation 3100 M76, 32MB Ram (Model VS43A-CY)
CPU: KA43-A
Disks: RZ23-E (104MB), RX23-AA(floppy)
OS: None, main boot disk was removed, still has the RZ23
Weight: 25 lbs
Vax Server 3100, 16MB Ram (Model DJ-31ESA-A-A01)
CPU: KA41-E
Disks: RZ24 (209MB)
Tape: TZ30
OS: VMS 5.5-2, No License
Weight: 36 Lbs
MicroVax 3100-40, 16MB Ram ( Model 450ZM-B9-A01)
CPU:KA45-A
Disks: RZ25 (426MB)
Tape: TZ30
OS: VMS 5.5-2 (No License)
Weight: 38 lbs
-------------------------
MONITORS
--------
Two of these:
DEC 19" Monitor - Model VR299-DA
Weight: 75 lbs
One - Data General 17" Monitor Trinitron
Model - GDM-1601 (RGB+H+V)
-------------------------
KEYBOARDS
---------
Eight of these:
DEC LK201 keyboards
I haven't tried out any of these.
---------------------------
DG AVIIONs
----------
Two of these:
Data General Aviion Model AV 410
CPU: Dual 88K, 20Mhz processors
Memory: 64mb
Disks: 1Gb SCSI, CDROM, Floppy
Graphics: 8 plane RGB
OS: DG/UX (no license)
Weight: 65 lbs
One of these boots to DG/UX the other one boots to a hardware
prompt which I assume is trying to boot from the Net
---------------------------------------------------------------
FREE STUFF (you just pay the shipping)
Dont know if any of this works.
---------------
Core Intl Hard Drive
Model: AT72 (72MB, AT Hard drive type 105)
I think this is an MFM style drive
Two of these:
19" rack mount hard drive enclosures with power supplies
One of these:
Desktop hard drive chassis for two+ full height drives.
Some other communication stuff:
two V.35 comm hub (I think thats what it is)
19" Modem rack with 8 modems (2400 baud)
Greetings,
I could use two and would be glad to pay shipping....
Shipping would be to Beaverton Oregon (97007).
George Rachor
=========================================================
George L. Rachor george(a)racsys.rt.rain.com
Beaverton, Oregon http://racsys.rt.rain.com
KD7DCX
On Fri, 4 Jan 1980, Eric wrote:
> have a pile of mac IIci cache cards, if interested email. have no use
> for them.
>
> -Eric
>
>
>
> > >2) Since I don't have a DayStar card, what else (if anything) can I
> > > do with the adapter? Can I plug in a IIci cache card?
> > >
>
harrumph; typical clueless non-computer type that thinks any old computer is
worth plenty. there's a guy at an established flea market that tries to get
the same price out of old machines. i bought a northgate 386/20 from a guy at
work and even got the great northgate keyboard too for only $20!
heh, you oughta go back to the guy and ask him if he'd be willing to buy
comparable 386 and 486 models for half his asking price. i could find some
pretty cheap machines and make profit off him!
In a message dated 11/21/98 8:25:08 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
transit(a)primenet.com writes:
> They had a no-name 386 clone, complete with color monitor, in working
> condition for $175, and a 486, no monitor, unknown condition (most likely
> working though) for $250.
>
> Seemed very high to me, as I've picked up working 8080 PC's and XT's for
> under $20. . .
>
> (They did also have an old Mac 128, but I didn't inquire about it, as
> those are not exactly rare either)
>
>> Like tossing charged capacitors across the room to them?
>> Or hooking a LARGE choke and a battery to a doorknob?
>> I would never do such a thing.:)
>> Dan
>
>Cough... sputter...
>
>Now look what you did! I almost shot Coke out my nose!
>I once fell victim to the charged cap trick, but it's
>still funny.
>
Watching people's reaction with the choke is much more fun. They get
shocked when they let go not when they are holding it.
Dan
I started diggin thru the tapes I got from knox, maybe one of them was
a backup of RSTS. Found one. The gotcha - It'll only extract to an RL02.
So, anyone got a PDP-11 with an RL02 and a TS tape? I need someone to extract
the tape for me, and shove it on a disk image like the ones E11 takes.
I should be able to unscrew myself from there.
-------
>> I've had to explain what 'out of paper' means on a printer. And then
>> had to explain why a printer needs paper (!).
>
>Yeah, why does a printer need paper? Talk about an inefficient process:
>plant seeds, nurture for 20 years, chop down tree, grind to a pulp, form
If our office ever runs out of paper in an emergency we just
have the office across town fax over a few blank sheets.
Chuck
cswiger(a)widomaker.com
While rummaging through the back corner of the whse I stumbled across a bare
Zilog 8000 card cage with a full complement of cards. Circa 1983 Mfg. Every
slot full. This would be a great backup card set or a way to get a non-working
Zilog up and running. I also have an extra memory card beyond that.
I also discovered a Daisy Logician Card Multibus cage and cards also. I doubt
anyone is collecting these though.
If interested please reply to whoagiii(a)aol.com directly.
Thanks for the list,
Paxton
>Calls to mind leaving silly messages on the dot-matrix LED display of an
>HP LaserJet 4 printer... some of my favourites to leave were:
>
>"17 COLON BLOCKED" (17 was the error code with no error associated)
>"INSERT 25 CENTS"
>"WARP CORE BREACH"
>
>Colon blocked turned out to be too plausible, though, and people ended up
>coming to me with very concerned expressions. Oh well.
>
Looks like you like to play tricks on users as well. I used to send "FATAL
SYSTEM CRASH" on networked PDP11's, VAXstations and Alphastations. It is
amazing the panic that things like that will create. Not to mention the
"Virus" messages to opa0: on April 1.
Dan
Guys:
This was posted to the NG a week ago--
DOn't know if he still has it.
COntact this guy directly . . . . .
**********************************************
From: user643249(a)aol.com (User643249)
Newsgroups: misc.forsale.computers.storage
Subject: IBM System 36 (50 lb) HD FS
Lines: 15
NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder03.news.aol.com
X-Admin: news(a)aol.com
Date: 25 Nov 1998 13:58:28 GMT
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Message-ID: <19981125085828.10541.00000420(a)ng-ce1.aol.com>
Xref: Sn misc.forsale.computers.storage:96713
IBM System 36 HDD , 27 MEG
About the size of a tower system
and three times as heavy.
It does have a clear cover over the heads and disks so they
can be observed in operation- if you can get it working which
was no mean feat and required a system 36 as the interface is
proprietary. It's also missing the drive belt between the
auto starter size electrical motor and the pulley/axle
of the disks - but an auto fan belt should be about the right size.
If you have a use (ie. display , teaching aid, etc) for it let me
know - shortly..
___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
Once upon a midnight dreary, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) had spoken clearly:
>On Wed, 2 Dec 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
>
>> If the RTC chip is much taller than the other chips on the mainboard (say
>> about 3/8" high) then it probably contains an internal battery. Dallas
>> and Mostek/SGS-Thomson made chips like that.
>
>It is. I forget offhand who made it, though. Would it be powering the
>NVRAM, though? On a SPARCstation you actually have to replace the NVRAM
>chip itself. I guess it couldn't hurt to try to replace it.
If the markings are for a Dallas 12887(a) then the NVRAM is integrated with
the clock chip & battery. To my knowledge, the closest person to being
world-famous for changing a Dallas battery would be Dr. Marty Goodman, of
CoCo fame. IIRC, he's a member of a mailing list gatewayed to the newsgroup
bit.listserv.coco, so if you send a message there, he should eventually get
it (along with everyone else on the gatewayed list, so pose it as a
CoCo-ish question... tho CoCoists (IMHO) aren't quite as rabid as some
other platform gurus...)
>> You're supposed to replace the chip when the battery fails (after about
>> 10 years). I have heard of people carefully slicing the top off the
>> package and replacing the lithium cell inside, but I've not had to do
>> this myself - yet.
If it is a Dallas 12887 (without the "A" suffix), I can tell you this:
beware of the Dallas 12887. The 12887 has one shortcoming: the NVRAM
*cannot* be reset via external means, which means if whatever machine has
fouled the NVRAM so badly it can't boot, it'll *never* boot again without
replacing the chip itself. Some PC's used this chip, and said machines are
a thorn-in-the-side when their NVRAM settings go haywire.
IIRC, the Dallas 12887A is pin compatible, and *does* have an NVRAM reset
pin... I also know that you can get all the pin info & other stuff from
Dallas's website, which is slightly confusing at: http://www.dalsemi.com/
Watch out, tho: All their datasheets are in PDF format, so you'll want to
grab Adobe's Acrobat reader to view the sheets with.
The page with all of their PDF's for their chips is:
http://www.dalsemi.com/DocControl/PDFs/pdfindex.html
Hope this helps,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
Ethan Dicks said:
>I am cranking along with the capture of the Elf99 design ....
I just found this thread. This is a great idea and should have been
tried sooner. I'll buy one.
>Did I miss anything? Any other suggestions?
The only thing I see missing is the expansion bus connector.
(Did I miss that part?)
There are hundreds of things that would be nice to have, but it's
important that the design be finished and the boards made. Leave the
bells and whistles to the end users. If you create an Elf that can
address about 2K, has a small prototype area, and has a good
expansion bus, then all things are possible. (Including S-100 interface)
You should copy one of the two Super Elf buses.
> A protoyping area of .1" spaced plated-through holes, nominally
> a few inches long by one or two inches wide.
A prototype area should be for wirewrapping. I don't see any need
for plated-through holes, and pads are not REALLY necessary either.
>I will not be including space
>for an 1861 because I have been entirely unable to locate a source.
The 1861 should be easy to add on later. In the prototype area or hot melted
to the top of another chip. Just make sure it's easy to cut the trace for the
original clock circuit and wire in the new one.
>Ooh. What a concept. I know there is a CHIP-8 emulator page out there.
>Perhaps there is a source version of the interpreter floating around.
I think there is a source code listing in Paul Moews book on
Elf interpreters.
=========================================
Doug Coward
Press Start Inc.
Sunnyvale,CA
=========================================
The key to the elf design was minimalism and low cost.
Substituting a latch and LEDs for a binary display instead of the til311
is cheaper and more buildable.
using modern cmos and rams help.
The basic elf was far to minimal and frequently expanded to get desired
functions. The basic design did not easily permit that as it didn't
decode memory or IO addresses.
The RCA VIP or the 18S020 Evaluation board allowed far more flexibility
with relatively little more logic. Thei cost was they had some rom.
The 18S020 board was 4k ram (1822s), two 1852 as parallel io ports, UT4
monitor rom (512bytes) and another 32bytes for monitor storage. It used
Q and EF3 for TTY/RS232 and the bus was available with numerous decodes
at the edge connector. It also had LEDs for data, address and processor
status lines (binary).
This is a reproducable design. UT4 fits in 512byts of a 2716, the rest of
the ram can be done with byte wide parts. The 1852s can be kept and the
rest were common 40xx series. With 4k of ram and UT4 (or similar)
programs like PILOT, TinyBasic, or some of the other neat software with a
terminal.
A much simplifed machine using 1802, 2 1852, 2 4028, 2 4042, 1 62256,
1 2716 and 1 6116, some glue logic for reset, run, runp and the same
serial scheme as 18S020 would give 32k of contigious ram, 2k-32byts in the
>8000h area and the remaining 1.5k in the 2716 could hold any number of
things along with the .5k ut4 monitor. This would be a very useful
system that could accomodate expansion for IO (more ram??????).
Allison
Did anyone go to the Birman's Diversified Auction, I think on Tuesday, to see
what VAX stuff was there? I am interested in how the sale went and what kind
of prices things brought. Please reply to me at Whoagiii(a)aol.com.
Thanks,
Paxton
>I constantly drool over stuff that's in the Charles Babbage Institute's
>archives, but I don't get to Minneapolis very often (OK, I *never* get to
>Minneapolis).
>
>Are there any Minneapolitans (?) out there willing to copy a few goodies
>from their archives? I'd pay for copying, shipping, gas, and probably a
>coupla bucks more.
I can't volunteer, since I'm usually working during the hours the Institute
office is open.
Anyone thinking of dropping in on the Institute should be aware that their
building will be extensively renovated during 1999-2000. Accordingly, they
will be in temporary quarters for quite a while, and I suspect much of the
collection will be inaccessible during that time.
For those unfamiliar with the Babbage Institute, they have a fair amount of
material available at <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/>.
>(besides, what else are you going to do when it's snowing
>out?).
That's never a problem. I'm always figuring I'll get projects done "during
the winter," and I rarely get done with more than a handful of them. :-{
----
John Dykstra jdykstra(a)nortelnetworks.com
Principal Software Architect voice: +1 651 415-1604
Nortel Networks fax: +1 612 932-8549
I think INIT's corrupt. Specifically, SAVRES.
I'm trying to shove the RA81 on a tape. I say SAVRES, from DU0: to MS0:,
and it says INITIALIZING FIRST SAVE SET or something along those lines,
shoves the tape around for about 45 minutes, then says STARTING SAVE FROM
DU0: TO MS0: AT XX:XX AM (or something similar) and hangs there (not doing anything)
for a few minutes, after which it traps through 10. (Illegal Instruction, I
think...)
Does anyone have a RSTS 8.0-07 tape I can suck just INIT off of? Is there
any way to do this under timesharing? I don't have BACKUP...
Seems someone's removed that too.
-------
Hey guys.....
I have a bunch of TRS-80 Model II 8" software discs with original programs
on them..... Anyone have a clue as to how to Archive them?????
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build
bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce
bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." -- Rich Cook
> From: Philip.Belben(a)pgen.com
> Subject: Re: Audio Cassette formats; Copy protection?
>
> >::There are plenty of ways of preventing a BASIC program from being
> listed.
> >::Dunno how you prevent it being saved (and say 'BAD PROGRAM'), but I
> could
> >::probably figure it out given time... Anyone else?
The popular (quick) way was to put an RTS in the second cassette buffer with a
SYS in the code pointing to it. (on the PET) and save the program from that to
the end using the MLM. Then if someone SAVEs it regular and tries it it just crashes.
The most ingenious PET protection was to put a bit of code in the FIRST
cassette buffer, so you had to save it from the second cassette port using the
MLM to make a runnable copy. Second would be to plug a bit of code into the
chargot (I think) routine in low memory which will trick the computer in
running the program once loaded (this could easily be bypassed on the PET, but
on the 64, it was pretty fool-proof.
On the 64 if you can get to the vectors before the user can try SAVing, you
change the jump address for SAVE (locations 818,819) to your own location.
> > On the 64, you could type
> >
> > 10 remL
> >
> > (rem, then a shifted-L)
> >
> > and LIST will stop up with a ?SYNTAX ERROR when it hits that line.
> Rather
> > easy to defeat but annoying as heck. :-)
>
> Same on Basic 2 PETS. On BASIC 1 you used shift-K.
The character varys on the computer. I think Transactor or Compute did a
table of em once.
> Possibility that I thought of, but didn't try. Make the initial line a v.
> high line number (>63999). Have the program start rem L, then disable the
> stop key, then poke that line number to something smaller. Bit harder to
> defeat but won't deter the determined cracker.
>
> Mean trick I did use. In the middle of a subroutine I entered the line
>
> REM@TURN
>
> I then found the @ sign and poked the location with 20 (ctrl-T, the PET
> backspace)
>
> This now lists as RETURN but does nothing...
So was this to twart those modifying the code, or tracing it?... Oh... add a
REM shift-l after it, once the 'fix' it it still doesn't work.
Only problem with the delete character is if you list to a printer they will
all show up.
>
> Philip.
That same PET program had an ingenious listing protection too, the first two
lines were only listable and they were effectively masked by rems with a bunch
of delete characters. What the programmer did was break the line links after
the second line so the computer thought it was a two line program. But when
run the two lines restored the link via POKEs, once it was running past that
point, it restored the line break.
If you are curious to see this marvel in action it is on-line; check out my
Flash Attack page and download either of the PET versions, this was written by
Tim Stryker years before he founded Galacticomm.
Hi!
Anyone have a hard drive controller for a Tandy 1400HD laptop that they'd
want to sell? The one in mind recently died, and when I turn it on, all I
get is a blue screen. I disconnect the HD, it starts to boot (BIOS number
comes up), then stops, and starts emitting a fish-like smell. I pull the
controller entirely, and it works fine (with no fish smell).
Any suggestions (other than getting one from RadioShack)?
ThAnX,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>> Possibly. But I distinctly recall that when we recorded tapes for sale
>> using the tape deck from my Sanyo stereo (not on a PET BTW - this was a
BBC
>> micro) we found that Dolby noise reduction had to be disabled for it to
>> work...
>
> Did you try recroding with Dolby and then replaying on a machine with
> Dolby noise reduction (turned on), or replaying on the normal cheap
> cassette recorder that you use with computers? If the former, then I am
> not suprised it didn't work - the frequency response would have been
> rather odd. The latter should have worked, though.
We didn't try recording with Dolby and playing back without. I'd be very
surprised if that worked (did you mean it that way round). I can't
remember if we recorded with and played back with - I imagine that would
work - but we definitely couldn't get it to work recording without and
playing back with, although this actually works quite well for music.
> I would be suprised if you couldn't make a CD that could be loaded. I
> can't try it because I have no way of writing to a CD.
I never meant to imply that you couldn't make a CD that could be loaded.
What I meant was you probably have to be more sophisticated than old
cassette -> digitised audio -> audio CD. I'd recommend old cassette ->
signal restoration -> digital signal (0s and 1s sampled at some highish
speed) -> possibly prefilter to pre-emptively undo the CD player's output
filter -> digitised audio -> audio CD.
For PET (and family) tapes a C2N would probably make a good cassette
machine for playing it initially, since it does some of the signal
restoration itself.
Philip.
Have you looked there?
http://www.compaq.com/support/portables/out_of_production/SLT286.html
Francois
-------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the desperately in need of update
Sanctuary at: http://www.pclink.com/fauradon/
>I recently picked up a Compaq SLT/286 and would like to purchase any
>documentation for it. Anybody have docs for a reasonable price?
>Thanks,
>Richard Hall
Eric Smith <eric(a)brouhaha.com> wrote:
> It's really aggravating that not only do most semiconductor vendors not
> have data on their old products on line, but not even a listing with a
> one line description.
Actually, quite a lot of them do have info (if sometimes well hidden) but
some -- Intel comes to mind -- aren't very good about keeping old stuff,
and Toshiba are pretty hopeless. I needed some other info from the same
data book that those EPROMs are in, a few years ago, and ended up phoning
Toshiba to get it. Turns out they stopped making EPROMs about a year
before, and no longer had the data sheets themselves! Luckily one
particularly helpful customer support person found me what appeared to be
the last copy of the Data Book.
I was very glad I checked, because there are two common pinouts for EPROMs
in that sort of size range. Most manufacturers distinguish them by either
using the last four digits in the form "1024" or "1000", or they use "1001"
versus "1000". Except Toshiba -- where others used "1000" they used "1001"
and vice-versa.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
On Dec 3, 6:15, Eric Smith wrote:
> Are you sure that's not a TC571000? I thought the TC54xxx parts were
usually
> DRAMs, which wouldn't have a VPP.
No, 57xxxx is stadard EPROM, 54xxxx is one-time PROM.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
On Dec 2, 21:45, Sam Ismail wrote:
> Subject: Re: 3M silentwriter model 1483?
> On Wed, 2 Dec 1998 cdrmool(a)interlog.com wrote:
>
> > Anyone know the story behind this? Its a small keyboard connected to a
> > small thermal paper printer. It has an old 70's style phone jack
> > (at least the kind we used in Ontario Canada) coming out the back of
the
> > printer. My father who found it says he thinks its one of the early
> > devices used by the deaf. I think it was probably just a simple
> > terminal.
>
> Does this have a light brown and white motif? Keys are brown? I have a
> picture of this in a data processing book I just picked up that shows a
> woman typing on it. She doesn't look blind. There's also an
acoustically
> coupled modem attached with a phone handset plug into it.
They were quite popular in the late 70's/early 80's as dial-up terminals in
places like libraries. Ours had one to access the Dialog database.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
On Dec 3, 0:15, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) wrote:
> Here are the two likely candidates:
>
> (date code)
> ST 99045
> MK48T02B-15
> TIMEKEEPER (tm) RAM
> DO NOT DISPOSE IN FIRE
That's the same NVRAM/clock chip with built-in lithium battery that was
used in several Sun Sparcstations. The Sun hardware FAQ has lots of
information on replacing them with the Dallas equivalent, and has
information (and pointers to other docs) about opening it up to get at the
battery if you want to try using an external battery.
> TOSHIBA Japan
> TC541000P-15
> VPP 12.5V (date code)
That's the same EPROM used by Sparcstations as the boot ROM.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
I have a Dec RC25-AA Rev C1 with one RC25K-DC disk pack that I am listing on
the DDA Tradeloop mailer. It is a desktop disk subsystem with a 26 Mb fixed
disk and a 26 Mb. removable cartridge disk. It is in good condition. with one
disk pack and the Users Guide.
It connects to a KLESI controller, either Unibus or Qbus, which I do not have.
I am open to all offers. Shipping weight will be about 70 pounds.
Please reply to whoagiii(a)aol.com
Thanks,
Paxton Hoag
Portland, Oregon
Anyone know the story behind this? Its a small keyboard connected to a
small thermal paper printer. It has an old 70's style phone jack
(at least the kind we used in Ontario Canada) coming out the back of the
printer. My father who found it says he thinks its one of the early
devices used by the deaf. I think it was probably just a simple
terminal.
Whose right? who gets to carve the christmas turkey this year?
colan
>IIRC, it's actaully a PDP-11 and the OS is a munged version of RT-11.
The filesystem it uses on TU58's is the same as RT-11's filesystem.
That doesn't mean it's running RT-11 :-). A VAX-11/780
has an LSI-11 as the console processor, it uses the RT-11 filesystem
on the boot floppies, and that doesn't mean it's running RT-11 :-).
On the other hand, VAX 8600 series CPU's use a PRO 380 console
running an operating system that *is* derived from RT-11. (The
VENUS conditionals still abound in the RT-11 sources, even
though AFAIK a build hasn't been done in over a decade.)
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
< > costs. The user base however could never work with linux(unix).
<
< How wrong you are, Allison. How wrong you are.
<
< My friend is running Linux on his home PC, but if you didn't know any
< better (and if you didn't look close enough) you'd swear he was running
< Windows 95. The fact is that his desktop might as well BE Win95, becaus
< it is stolen from the look & feel of Win95. Its called the Star Office
Will it run paradox for windows, does the email work like outlook? Does
netscapr for linux look and feel like the windorers version? I
understand this user base was slow to accept and use computers. It's
important as *I* support the user base, maintain the systems and create
(or install) new applications and train the users, not *we*.
It's not a rant on linux, The comments I made were to the effect of
being impartial. If I had my way they'd be on OpenVMS.
< Suite. Find yourself a copy and install it on your Linux box. You'll
How much? Reply off line on this.
< never boot Win95 again. You'll never need to.
I never boot it here but work is a different case.
Allison
Please reply to the original sender if interested.
Reply-to: siiqa(a)earthlink.net
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)verio.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always being hassled by the man.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details
[Last web page update: 11/02/98]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 09:55:10 -0600
From: Russ McDonald <siiqa(a)earthlink.net>
To: "'vcf(a)vintage.org'" <vcf(a)vintage.org>
Subject: Osborne for sale
Dear sir:
I have Osborne 1 with all documentation including Personal Pearl, Word Sar,
Supercalc, Dbase 2 . Machine still runs and is in excellent shape, that I
would like to sell.
Russ McDonald
rmac(a)mitec.net
Did you ever dig out the right arrow keycap?
Thanks
manney
>Yeah, it would. I have my old GS keyboard that's suspiciously dead (I
think it
>was christened by the cat) if all you need is keycaps.
>--
>Jim Strickland
>jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there?
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
< There really isn't a good "open source" GUI alternative to Windows yet,
< the best approach for now is to emulate the Win32 API on top of Linux t
And when there is MS will change the API.
< But, you're right, I find it much easier to sneak Linux into the server
< side of a corporation than into the client/desktop side. Maybe if Java
< performance and look+feel improve another order of magnitude, that won'
< be as much of an issue.
there is potential there but only if none of the apps used run on the
server. It'd be easy to put a linux box online as a data sink. I may
do it unofficially and try it before trying to migrate anything from the
general user community.
Oh, what I run on "my" desk is up to me but for many reasons win95 and
nt will have to be there but I can have a Linux system too.
Allison
<cdrmool(a)interlog.com> wrote:
> Anyone know the story behind this? Its a small keyboard connected to a
> small thermal paper printer. It has an old 70's style phone jack
> (at least the kind we used in Ontario Canada) coming out the back of the
> printer. My father who found it says he thinks its one of the early
> devices used by the deaf. I think it was probably just a simple
> terminal.
Silentwriter or Whisperwriter? I think I remember the 3M flavor having
the latter name.
I played with one of them back in 1983 or 1984. That one had a
keyboard connected to a thermal printer by some sort of cord (they
were separate boxes), and I think an RJ11 phone jack for a POTS line.
As I recall it was an ASCII terminal plus modem with a memory buffer
that could be used for offline composition, and it came to us
recommended as a tool for composing and sending Telexes via Western
Union's Easylink service. (We sent it back and made an HP150 do the
job.) I don't remember if it could be made to do other codes than
ASCII.
More recently (early 1990s), I've seen one with a little CRT (again in
a separate box) used as a Telex terminal, but didn't inquire to find
out how it was connected or what was on the other end of the
connection.
-Frank McConnell
At 12:20 PM 01-12-98 +1030, Geoff Roberts wrote:
>Hierarchical Storage Controller.
>Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
>Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
>(Colorado Rudimentary Operating Nucleus for Intelligent Controllers)
PDP-11
>Pretty much obsolete now. There was a slightly more sophisticated version
>called a HSC70
>that used RX floppys instead of the tapes, and could handle more drives,
>etc.
The -70 had many advantages, speed of booting being the most interesting.
Increased data access speeds when booted was also and advantage :-)
There were HSC-90s as well, which had a SCSI option card to allow you to
attach expensive SCSI disks to an expensive HSC to an expensive VAX (or
alpha)....
>I think there were a couple of models after that too. I've seen a HSC70 at
>a scrap dealer recently.
Excuse me, I've still got one in production and a couple of spares in my
"spares" room....
>Allison or one of the other Master Decologists will doubtless correct any
>mistakes in the above. :^)
Well I'm not Allison :-)
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479 1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
For sale at www.ebay.com:
Viking "Moniterm" 21 inch monochrome monitor and Viking "Moniterm"
high-res monochrome video card for the micro-channel (PS/2) bus.
eBay item #46309964
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=46309964
Also throwing in an Apparat memory expansion card for the original IBM
PC/XT.
-Bill Richman (bill_r(a)inetnebr.com)
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r - Home of the COSMAC Elf Microcomputer
Simulator, Fun with Molten Metal, Orphaned Robots, and Technological Oddities.)
I am looking to trade a dual RX01 drive unit in fair condition for a 4K
word PDP-8/e/m/f core stack (three board G104, G227, H220). If you are
interested let me know.
--Chuck
First I just want to say that I'm still looking for 'copies'
of two RCA publications:
MPM-232 Operator Manual for the RCA COSMAC DOS Development
System (CDS III) CDP18S007
MPM-233 Hardware Reference Manual for the RCA COSMAC DOS
Development System (CDS III) CDP18S007
If you have one or both or know where to order these manuals,
please let me know.
O.K. I said:
>I think there is a source code listing in Paul Moews book on
>Elf interpreters.
I dug my copy out and yes there is source listings. Paul took
RCA's CHIP-8 interpreter and modified it for the ELF.
In this book ("Programs for the COSMAC ELF: Interpreters"),
he starts with a subset interpreter that has 10 CHIP-8
instructions and is intended to run on a 256 byte Basic ELF.
Then he lists the full Elf CHIP-8 interpreter with all 30
instructions. This is intended for a 4K Super Elf with 1861
video, but it can run on a 1 1/4K Elf. "It is also possible
to use CHIP-8 in the 1 1/4K ELF's described in the articles
in Popular Electronics, but to do so is very tedious unless
the switches are replaced with a latched decoded keyboard."
He also demonstrates with listings, how to extend the
CHIP-8 instruction set.
I can send you a copy of this book, it's only 31 pages.
I also have one of his other books called "Programs for
the COSMAC ELF: Music and Games".
-----------------------------------------------------------
Fun Fact of the Day
Did you know that a windowing graphical user interface was
available for S-100 bus in 1979?
See the product review in Popular Electronics Aug 79 page 74.
-----------------------------------------------------------
=========================================
Doug Coward
Press Start Inc.
Sunnyvale,CA
=========================================
I've got a pile of these somewhere. If anyone can use them, I'll sell them
for $10 each plus shipping. I also have some of the PS/2 internal
3.5"-to-external-5.25" drive adapters, too.
>I used to assume that too-until I found a unit that someone had replaced the
>floppy drive in the unit with a Teac drive. While not commonplace, it's still a
>possibility. The 4869 cases work out nice for other machines as well if you
want
>to do a minor amount of rewiring for accomodate the non-IBM machine.
>
>SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com wrote:
>
>> if the drive bezel has a * on it, it's a 360k. if no * is on the
>> faceplate it will be a 1.2 model. it's easy to change the drive anyway, i
>> installed a 1.2 drive in the 4869 enclosure.
>>
>> In a message dated 98-12-01 18:40:40 EST, you write:
>>
>> << The title says it all. External floppy drive made by IBM. Excellent
>> condition. It has the standard DB-37 connector. I think it's a 1.2Mb model
>> but I'm not sure. Guaranteed against DOA.
>> >>
>
>
Bill Richman
incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r
(Home of the COSMAC Elf
microcomputer simulator!)
On Tue, 1 Dec 1998 Philip Belben wrote:
>We didn't try recording with Dolby and playing back without. I'd be very
>surprised if that worked (did you mean it that way round). I can't
>remember if we recorded with and played back with - I imagine that would
>work - but we definitely couldn't get it to work recording without and
>playing back with, although this actually works quite well for music.
All Dolby B seems to do, is increase the level of high frequencies when the
recording is made. Then when played back, the Dolby NR reduced the level of
high frequencies back to what it should be (hence also reducing the background
hiss).
So recording with Dolby off and playing back wilth Dolby on will serve to
reduce the level of high frequencies; not what you want with computer tapes.
Recording with Dolby on and playing back with Dolby off should probably work;
high frequencies will be louder than normal.
>For PET (and family) tapes a C2N would probably make a good cassette
>machine for playing it initially, since it does some of the signal
>restoration itself.
Better might be to use a high-end tape deck (maybe a three-head unit) since the
transport should give less wow & flutter.
-- Mark
if the drive bezel has a * on it, it's a 360k. if no * is on the
faceplate it will be a 1.2 model. it's easy to change the drive anyway, i
installed a 1.2 drive in the 4869 enclosure.
In a message dated 98-12-01 18:40:40 EST, you write:
<< The title says it all. External floppy drive made by IBM. Excellent
condition. It has the standard DB-37 connector. I think it's a 1.2Mb model
but I'm not sure. Guaranteed against DOA.
>>
Remember when I dropped my 11/44 off a cart? The RA81 dropped from about 2',
and had crap (As in the other two BA-11) land on it. On later reassebling
the system in another room, it no logger booted. I assumed I'd finally
killed the RA81 (After also dropping it on Jeff's toes, and spinning it up
with the brakes on!) and let it sit.
Well, this morning, I got bored, and went back to playing with the 11.
Thought maybe I could talk it into doing something from the console. Found
out I'd had the SDI cable in the UDA50 backwards. Oops. Spin RA81 up,
say B DU0... RSTS loads.
THe drive is still alive. Throwing a few seek errors, but still readable.
The Bastard RA81 From Hell Lives Again.
I'm going to attempt backing it up to tape tomorrow. Think this would jinx it?
-------
> From: Philip.Belben(a)pgen.com
> Subject: Re: PET Video (was: Replacing 6550s) & 128
>
> Foxnhare (who are you anyway? I've seen the address before. You're not
> Larry Anderson by any chance are you? :-) ) wrote:
Yep, the login was my wife's idea... Fox: an old definition for my middle
name, Todd, and Hare: for her last name.
> >> From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca>
> >> Subject: Re: Replacing 6550s
> >
> >> (I especially find it cool that they list various part numbers for the
> >> connector. :) )
> >
> > Digikey is the best source for inexpensive PET compatible connectors.
> > (1-800-DIGI-KEY) along with a ton of other cool parts.
> Many thanks for that. I know where to turn next time I'm looking...
I think the last batch of 12/24 PCB connectors from them cost me about $18
(for 10). Very reasonable!
[snip!]
> I thought the video signals were there on later machines too, but I can
> well believe it might not work on the 12 inch screen models.
I would think you could get a multi-sync to do it, but the way the screen
behaves I think the fat-forty and 80000 series were able to change sync rates.
(Of course what do I know I'm just mainly a software guy).
> My experience is that Nick Hampshire's circuit doesn't work at all. Using
> the same two chips, 4011 and 4066, the correct procedure (sorry. The
> procedure that worked when I tried it) is to combine the two syncs with the
> 4011, invert (I think - not sure about this one) with another 4011 gate,
> and use that to gate the video using the 4066. Works a treat. They tried
> it at school, too (don't know what circuit tho'), and got a grey background
> for the white text. I imagine a series capacitor might help, but I've not
> tried it.
Could ya like draw it out or something... I would really like to have a
composite output on the PET (ohh could do WWW quick-time animated movies of
such classics as Drameda! or Dance! - PET character animated shorts) 100k of
video for a 5K program animation :) Actually would be better to screen
capture it off of an emulator and then you can compress it way down to say 60
k or less..
> From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Subject: Re: PET Video (was: Replacing 6550s) & 128
>
> [Composite video adapter]
>
> > My experience is that Nick Hampshire's circuit doesn't work at all. Using
> > the same two chips, 4011 and 4066, the correct procedure (sorry. The
>
> I've never tried that one. I've used modifications of the TRS-80 Model 1
> circuit and the BBC micro circuit with no problems at all. The latter is
> simpler, so I'll describe that. But the output has a little DC offset
> that some (a _very_ few) monitors object to.
>
> Start by Xoring HSync and VSync to get a CSync signal. I normally use a
> 74LS86 for this. But the XOR-from-4-NANDs using a 74LS00 once got me out
> of a hole when I couldn't find any '86s. Invert CSync to give Csync/
> using either another section of the '86 or a suitable TTL inverter.
> Alternatively make an XNOR gate from 4 NORs.
>
> You now combine video and CSync/ using this circuit
Or the complete circuit of this? I would really like to get a composite
circuit for the PET FAQ on-line One could concevably make a portable PET
(yeah, the PET is kinda portable, but not as much as an SX 64 or 128D) if such
a circuit was available. ;>
Aaron,
At 07:05 PM 11/27/98 -0800, you wrote:
>
>9144 tape drive - I've already deduced that it's a low-density, 16-track
>capable of 67/134 megs and the tapes have to be purchased pre-formatted.
Not only pre formatted but preformatted by HP. ****NO*** others will work.
>
>2563A Printer - with a modular connector.
>
>9123 3 1/2" dual floppy - picked up after-the-fact at a yard sale. It's
>HP-IB, but has a weird DIN power connector cord. No P/S.
This drive is a double sided 3.5" HP-IB drive. It's exactly the same as
the 9122 EXCEPT that it does no t have a power supply. It was sold only
for the HP 150 Touch Screen II and the TS II supplies +5v and +12V power to
it via the DIN plug. I have used old PC power supplies to operate them. I
can dig up the pinout if you need it.
Joe
Hi Doug and all,
At 03:10 AM 12/2/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I constantly drool over stuff that's in the Charles Babbage Institute's
>archives, but I don't get to Minneapolis very often (OK, I *never* get to
>Minneapolis).
>
I found by willing to be helpful with them, they were willing to copy and
send some material for me. I sent them some material they wanted, and they
sent me some issues of "The Computer Hobbyist" in return. Of course this
isn't the same thing as going there and discovering the material first hand!
-Dave
John Amirault <amirault(a)epix.net> wrote:
> How old are the machines? When is the last time they were CLEANED? I am no
> genius but the idea of CLEANING the rollers is, to me, a good one. Hope this
> suggustion helps you.
Cleaning helps -- if the rollers have picked up dirt it will make it
harder for them to pick up paper. But the fundamental problem is
that rubber ages and gets hard.
Once upon a time (mid-1980s) some of the HP CEs used to carry an
aromatic fluid they called "Fedron" which was good for restoring the
gumminess of hard rubber rollers. I saw them use it on 2601 (Diablo
630) platen rollers and the little roller in the 2619 chain printer (a
Dataproducts something) that drives one of the paper-jam detectors
(roller not turning => paper not moving => paper jam, and when this
one got hard enough that the paper just slid over it without turning
it you got one frustrated computer operator).
Is this stuff still available, or did it get banned because it's bad
for the ozone layer?
Not sure it would work for LJ II pickup rollers, they're a softer
rubber. Nor am I sure what the fluid did, for all I know it stripped
off a layer of the rubber.
-Frank McConnell
>> The management is not married to DOS/WIN/NT as a
>> "they are great" but rather it does the job for
>> the scale of business they are and within
>My friend is running Linux on his home PC, but if
>you didn't know any better (and if you didn't look
>close enough) you'd swear he was running Windows 95.
>The fact is that his desktop might as well BE Win95,
What's nice is being paid to support a win shop but
the mgmt lets you use a pc *nix for sysadmin, use
samba, put a telnetd on NT, etc. Your friend must
be using fvwm95 - I just got StarOffice last night,
all 70Mb of it.
For topical material - I'd love to find a Xenix or
SCO unix box o' 5 1/4" disks and manuals to run
on a 386 - used to see 'em for sale cheap at hamfests.
Chuck
cswiger(a)widomaker.com
Yes there are collectors in Minniapple.
You know, I've never had the chance to go to the Chuck Babe institute.
But I can tell you one thing when it Snows here We stay home. (besides we're
having temperature in the mid 50's these days)
I have a pretty busy schedule but I could arrange a trip.
Francois
-------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the desperately in need of update
Sanctuary at: http://www.pclink.com/fauradon/
>I constantly drool over stuff that's in the Charles Babbage Institute's
>archives, but I don't get to Minneapolis very often (OK, I *never* get to
>Minneapolis).
>
>Are there any Minneapolitans (?) out there willing to copy a few goodies
>from their archives? I'd pay for copying, shipping, gas, and probably a
>coupla bucks more. There's enough interesting stuff there that I'm sure a
>small business could be established by selling reprints to collectors and
>historians (besides, what else are you going to do when it's snowing
>out?).
>
>-- Doug
>
>> NT - about a day to get set up and working (or not at all in this
>> case!). Needs lots of hardware. Costs lots.
>
>And I'm not paying for any of it, so who gives a rat's ass if some
>corporate blow-hard has his head so far in his rectum that he
>wants to run NT.
That's the whole problem though. It's not a personal dislike of NT that
annoys me, it's the fact that all this comes down on the end user - the
users of the systems/software that we produce, not necessarily our
direct customers - and forces them to use a shoddy system that's not up
to spec and costs a lot more that it has to.
NT's good for some things, especially on the client, (although even then
I'm from the camp that says that if a client-side app can't be done in
Java running within a browser then it isn't worth doing, so 200MB of NT
overhead kinda kills my argument!) but it's the fact that *most* people
have a "stick with what you know" policy (which is usually Win95 or NT,
but could be a UNIX system) that really gets to me, especially when
presented with hard figures to prove them wrong. I get frustrated
delivering solutions to end users when I know that there is a better,
cheaper and faster way (and yes, that is taking into account things like
support/maintenance costs), but don't have enough clout within a company
to say what systems to use and can only make recommendations which I
know will be ignored.
(phew.... deep breath! :*)
it can be a very, very crazy world...
cheers
Jules
>
But, if you put a 1.2MB drive in it the case, it won't work with a PC or XT.
I tried it, and it just gives the same old "general failure" errors.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: FSOT: IBM 4869 external 5 1/4" floppy drive
>if the drive bezel has a * on it, it's a 360k. if no * is on the
>faceplate it will be a 1.2 model. it's easy to change the drive anyway, i
>installed a 1.2 drive in the 4869 enclosure.
>
>
>In a message dated 98-12-01 18:40:40 EST, you write:
>
><< The title says it all. External floppy drive made by IBM. Excellent
> condition. It has the standard DB-37 connector. I think it's a 1.2Mb
model
> but I'm not sure. Guaranteed against DOA.
> >>
>
< > NT - about a day to get set up and working (or not at all in this
< > case!). Needs lots of hardware. Costs lots.
My $0.02. I just took a job where win95 and win/NT are it. I'm sure
they could be migrated to linux BUT, I'm paid (well!!) to maintain and
move their systems forward both hardware and software wise. Personally
MS stuff stinks, I'm not paid for that opinion. I'm paid to provide my
peice in helping to keep the business in the black.
The management is not married to DOS/WIN/NT as a "they are great" but
rather it does the job for the scale of business they are and within
costs. The user base however could never work with linux(unix).
Oh, Bif4win is garbage!!!!
Allison
Sort of off the topic of the drives for sale, but on the topic of an
external IBM disk drive. I have the cable from a 4869 drive connected to a
full-height drive (IBM), which is connected to a 4869 P/S on my IBM PC.
However, it doesn't look so good.
I was wondering if anyone had an old TRS-80 disk box (mod. 1 style) that
they'd be willing to part with for a few bucks. The drive itself doesn't
need to work. All I really need is the box and the P/S for it, so I have
something to house my external drive "B" in.
ThAnX,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 3:39 PM
Subject: FSOT: IBM 4869 external 5 1/4" floppy drive
>The title says it all. External floppy drive made by IBM. Excellent
>condition. It has the standard DB-37 connector. I think it's a 1.2Mb model
>but I'm not sure. Guaranteed against DOA.
>
> Joe
>
>
Found on Usenet. This sounds like a great opportunity for someone who
wants a MicroVAXen to get started.
I already E-mailed to the guy that I guesstimated the system value at
between $50 and $75. Please contact him directly if you're interested.
Attachment follows.
-=-=- <snip> -=-=-
>>From: Scott Hale <Shale(a)cncdsl.com>
>>Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec,comp.sys.dec.micro
>>Subject: Microvax 3100 available
>>Date: 01 Dec 1998 10:54:09 PST
>>Organization: Sherman Clay & Co
>>Lines: 22
>>Message-ID: <36643B50.2A88236D(a)cncdsl.com>
>>Reply-To: Shale(a)sclay.com
>>NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.31.3.16
>>Mime-Version: 1.0
>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I)
>>X-Accept-Language: en
>>Path: blushng.jps.net!news.eli.net!spamkiller1.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!128.32.206.55!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.concentric.net!207.155.183.80.MISMATCH!global-news-master
>>Xref: blushng.jps.net comp.sys.dec:4904 comp.sys.dec.micro:657
>>
>>Through a company acq we have acquired the below system:
>>
>>Microvax 3100/20-20RZ=tk5
>>OS: vms 5.5
>>32mb memory
>>4 internal HD (500mb, 400mb, 100mb, 100mb)
>>External TK50 tape unit
>>VMS licenses included
>>
>>We gone through a few VAX resellers with no luck. Is there any value to
>>the above system or is it complete junk?
>>
>>Anybody interested in buying, pls contact me.
>>
>>thanks!
>>
>>Scott Hale
>>PC/LAN Manager
>>Sherman Clay & Co
>>Shale(a)sclay.com
>>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho,
Blue Feather Technologies -- kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech [dot] com
Web: http://www.bluefeathertech.com
"...No matter how we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object,
event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them..."
On Dec 1, 15:19, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
> The question is, does source => Dolby encoding => Dolby decoding ==
source?
> Dolby encoding, AFAIK, increases the volume of sounds >10KHz, and
decoding
> does the reverse.
There are three Dolby systems, all based on audio companders. Dolby A (the
"professional" one, used by some recording studios for master tapes) works
by splitting the audio into a number of frequency bands (like a graphic
equaliser does). On recording, each band is then fed through a compressor
to reduce the dynamic range, thus keeping the volume level fairly high. On
playback, it's fed through an expander to recreate the dynamic range of the
original signal. Dolby B is a simpler version, with a single filter for
HF; it uses a similar compander for the upper frequencies only. Dolby C is
a n "improved" Dolby B, which (IIRC) uses a different corner frequency and
different compander.
None of them use any form of frequency shifting. The reason Dolby B and C
work so well (for tape, which is what they were designed for) is that tape
hiss is largely made up of HF noise. You don't hear the hiss if the signal
is at a sufficiently greater level than the hiss (which is more-or-less
constant) -- in other words, if the signal-to-noise ratio is high enough.
So Dolby B/C boost the level of quiet sections of the high frequency signal
before recording, but leave the louder passages as-is, to avoid saturation.
On playback, the amplitude of the quieter passages is attenuated again,
and the hiss is attenuated with it.
> However, that doesn't mean that there won't be subtle
> differences between one particular encoder and a particular decoder's
> respective frequency responses, so you can't be sure they'll be precisely
> the same. Your ear won't care, but I bet the computer might.
Unlikely to make much difference, unless the filter corner frequencies and
rolloffs were quite different, which Dolby Labs were quite picky about
before granting licences.
> I came up with, during my days when I was too cheap/poor to spring for
prefab
> audio equipment, a superamplification system that was Dolby compatible.
I'm
> not saying that *that* was how Dolby worked (in fact, I'm sure it isn't),
but
> on the treble section of the sound, which is where Dolby NR operates, it
was
> pretty #$%&ing destructive. I wouldn't risk it.
Then it wasn't Dolby-compatible :-)
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
I finally tore into my "new" HP 9835. I found something on the power
supply card as completely burned away. All the output voltages are present
but low. It would save a lot time if some would sell or loan me a service
manual for this old beast.
Thanks,
Joe
On Dec 1, 18:55, Tony Duell wrote:
> Well, if audio processing that leaves the signal going to the output
> socket unchanged (like recording with Dolby, playback with Dolby) still
> allows the copy to load, then I think audio recording onto a CD would
> work. In fact I can't think of a good reason why it wouldn't work, based
> on my understanding of the CD system.
There was an article in one of the Acorn newgroups the other day, from
someone who had done exactly that for hundreds of his old computer tapes,
and was extolling the virtues of being able to find things, having reliable
reproduction, etc. He made no mention of any special signal processing.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
The title says it all. External floppy drive made by IBM. Excellent
condition. It has the standard DB-37 connector. I think it's a 1.2Mb model
but I'm not sure. Guaranteed against DOA.
Joe
The Feed Roller Assembly indeed is the entire shaft with clutch and
feed roller. My experience on SX engines has been clutch failure more
often than solenoid failure on the paper control pca although the feed
roller replacement was the most common failure for me. I was repairing
these for the US ARmy Personnel Command in Alexandria, Virginia on a
daily basis and learned to swap out the entire feed roller assembly at
once to ensure the printer was back online okay and avoid a recall.
I'd typically get about six SX calls a day (along with various pc
problems and other printer calls) so I had to keep moving. I would
rebuild these feed roller assemblies in my office when time and
replacement parts allowed.
Regarding the CX engine, the clutch in the cassette feed roller
assembly (which requires splitting the clamshell> a piece of cake
after you've done it a few times) was the biggest feed failure item I
encountered. Those weird feed wedges (three I seem to recall) rarely
failed.
Marty
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 12/1/98 5:04 PM
>
> I have repaired literally hundreds of HP II's and HP III's over the
Ditto...
> past 10 years. The paper feed problem you mention is a piece of cake
> to repair (replace) and the parts are readily available at a very low
> price. Following are the parts you need:
>
> HP P/N RG1-0931-060CN FEED ROLLER ASSEMBLY
Isn't that the complete spindle with the clutch, etc. It's a _lot_
cheaper to buy just the worn roller (I have _never_ had a clutch fail),
and almost as quick to change it.
There is another common cause for paper jams in that area. Namely that
one of the clutch solenoids isn't firing - either the pickup clutch
solenoid or the registration solenoid. There are 2 ways to tell :
How far does the paper move ?
About 1" -> registration solenoid
A little -> worn pickup roller
Not at all -> pickup solenoid or totally worn roller.
If there is a solenoid problem, there are 3 solutions :
Replace the 'electronic component assembly' (PSU + clutch board) -- $$$$$$$$
Replace the switch/solenoid PCB (clutch board) -- $$$
Fix the darn thing. There are _4_ components for each clutch - the
solenoid, the back-emf protection diode, the driver transistor, and its
base resistor. The transistor is the most likely failure, btw. It
actually takes less time to test the components than to look up the
price/part number for the PCB :-)
It could also be a problem on the DC controller board, but I have never
had that.
-tony
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From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
In-Reply-To: <1998Dec01.092201.1767.164934(a)smtp.itgonline.com> from "Marty" at
Dec 1, 98 09:23:27 am
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What does that have to do with fixing/using classic computers?
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>> Actually, a few months ago, a bus driver was stabbed to death here in
Boston.
>> And of course, buses are blown up often in Israel, though nothing has
happened
>> recently. But what were the results of this incident, Derek? How many
>> injured/killed?
>> >I never heared of such a thing over here. Shooting a bus driver ?
>> >The last time I remember was I think 1972 at the Munich Olypics,
>> >at the masacre on the airport (you may remember the terrorist
>> >attack) - and of course similar things had hapend in the Bosinan
>> >war. But in an ordinary city ? And mestupidone belived Seattle
>> >to be a 'regular' safe place.
>>
>> >Gruss
>> >Hans
>> >
>>
>
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>Always being hassled by the man.
>
> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 11/02/98]
>
>
> Also, the colour video output is on 3 BNC connectors. Can I use 3
segments
> of ethernet coax to carry the video signal or is the impedance wrong?
Has someone else answered this? I can't remember. Anyway:
Impedance of Etehernet coax is 50 ohms; impedance of video coax should be
75 ohms. You will get slight ghosting from reflections etc. if your leads
are longer than a few feet.
More importantly, 75 ohm BNC connectors are not quite the same mechanically
as 50 ohm ones. Plug in the wrong combination and you get slight
mechanical damage or a poor contact (can't remember which is which. I
think it's 50 ohm plug in 75 ohm socket => mechanical damage, 75 ohm plug
in 50 ohm socket => poor contact)
It might work in a pinch but it's not recommended.
Philip.
Hello, all:
I began posting the Altair 8800b docs last night. I've posted part 1,
part 2a, all of chapter 5, and the Appendicies. Enjoy,
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<================ reply separator =================>
Hi!
I'm looking for an old Zenith laptop with the 26-pin type HD. The HD does
NOT need to be working, nor does it need to have the HD - as long as it has
a good controller. I don't need an external P/S, or a battery, either,
since I have a bunch of old 12V P/S's laying around.
I am willing to trade a WANG WLTC laptop for it, which has an internal P/S
problem (popped a cap - probably dry electrolytic) It needs an external P/S
(18V) and battery. The computer has a built-in thermal printer, and HD.
The computer DOES operate, provided it has a battery and P/S (and the blown
cap is replaced). I have the schematics on how to make a battery for it.
I'm not necessarily looking for a Zenith, but any computer (laptop) with a
26-pin HD will do (same requirements - no battery, etc.). I'll be willing
to trade for any computer BUT a Toshiba.
I'm trying to rescue data off of two HD's that I have from Tandy 1400HD
laptops, and I think I may have better luck finding a new computer than a
new HD controller for the 1400.
As always, ThAnX in advance,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>> As long as we're on the topic, anyone have a Ethernet card for the
>> Pro that they'd like to sell? I'm willing to pay CA$H! (The goal
>> is to put Alan Baldwin's TCP/IP for RT-11 on a Pro and run a web server.)
>You mean they're rare?
No, they're not especially rare. It's just that I have an application
for one!
> I picked up a PRO350 a few years back with VR241
>monitor, DEC desk (with the motorised raise/lower column for the monitor)
>_and_ an ethernet card. No, I am not selling it.
And taunting me with stories about how you have one but don't
use it and I can't have it doesn't particularly help me :-(.
Tim.
>I'm looking for an old Zenith laptop with the 26-pin type HD. The HD does
>NOT need to be working, nor does it need to have the HD - as long as it has
>a good controller. I don't need an external P/S, or a battery, either,
>since I have a bunch of old 12V P/S's laying around.
Hi Jason,
I have a Zenith Data Systems ZWL-184-97 that's missing HD & power
supply/video card. If you want the motherboard (unknown condition), I'll
send it to you fro $12 shipped.
Sincerely,
Tom
--
Sysop of Caesarville Online
Client software at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~tomowad/>
I have about 30 chip sets for the 88100 processor and they include 2 88200s.
The 88200s seem identical to me. They are matched by speed, 16, 20 & 25 MHz.
Anyone need a spare set? These are pulls from never used OPUS cards that went
byby.
Paxton
Fedron is still available through Copier service centers. It works but don't
get it on the plastic parts. Use sparingly. I have salvaged several laser
printers with this stuff. As a fix it will work for several months but doesn't
change the fact the rollers are hardening with age. Use good ventilation.
Paxton
Strange but true: the CX engine predated the SX engine by several
years yet Printer Works didn't produce a CX catalog until several
years after their SX catalog. Yes the SX catalog is fantastic. The SX
catalog has exploded views and covers every flavor of SX printer from
an HP to Canon (that actually makes the engine) to Singer and Apple
(Laserwriter II series), etc. The main difference between models being
the I/O Formatter board.
Marty
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 12/1/98 1:12 PM
PrinterWorks (Hayward, CA) has (or HAD? could anything that good not
have been discontinued?) "catalogs" for the CX and SX series laser
printers. Besides some basic discussion, they have exploded views and
part number identification.
--
Fred Cisin cisin(a)xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
2210 Sixth St. (510) 644-9366
Berkeley, CA 94710-2219
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From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
In-Reply-To: <1998Dec01.092201.1767.164934(a)smtp.itgonline.com>
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Cleaning is an admirable thing to do but don't use alcohol. Use
distilled water and a lint free cloth. Moreover, on an SX based
printer (the HP II was introduced in 1987 I believe) cleaning the feed
roller and separation pad may do the trick but I doubt it. The feed
roller becomes glazed and hard and usually rubber restorer won't help.
In most cases it turns out to be a glazed roller and/or a sticky
clutch which is located on the end of the feed roller. I used to
rebuild the clutches on these in the field (it is a 20 minute job at
best, you need to disassemble the clutch, clean out the old
contaminated lubriplate from the clutch spring, then reapply
lubriplate and make certain you align the feed roller with the clutch
cam) but these whole unit replacements are so cheap nowadays I
wouldn't bother.
Marty
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 12/1/98 12:05 PM
Max,
How old are the machines? When is the last time they were CLEANED? I am no
genius but the idea of CLEANING the rollers is, to me, a good one. Hope this
suggustion helps you.
John Amirault
Max Eskin wrote:
> This is a couple of months off topic,but I'll post it anyway. At my school,
> there are a couple dozen Laserjet Series IIs. I've been trying to install
> four into one room, and for some reason almost every single one claims a
paper
> jam right as soon as I tell it to print ( a self test, for example). The
paper
> hardly gets out of the tray, it's generally just starting to get past the
> roller that pulls it in when the printer returns an error. Sometimes it does
> this, sometimes it doesn't. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
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From: John Amirault <amirault(a)epix.net>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
References: <98113019113300.00619(a)localhost.localdomain>
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A word of caution on replacing parts on these SX printers: when you
reseat the connector for the main motor to the DC Power Supply, make
certain the snap connector 'snaps' and that it isn't doesn't feel
'mushy' or you may discover you have a false main motor error (error
code 54 I believe) after having buttoned up the printer. Reseat the
connector at least twice. Before replacing the top cover power it up,
there are no interlocks involved and you needn't have the control
panel attached to run an engine test. On the left or right side (I
forget which side) bottom of the HP II you will see a hole about 1/8"
in diameter. If you press the rubber membrane covered microswitch
inside the hole the engine test will run and print a sheet with finely
spaced parallel lines running longitudinally on the copy. This will
verify the main motor connector was reseated properly and that the
feed roller was replaced properly.
On an SX (HP II, III, IID and IIID) engine always reseat these snap
connectors prior to replacing parts such as the laser scanner (reseat
both at the scanner and dc controller, and all sensors at the dc
controller.
Marty
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 12/1/98 11:22 AM
On Tue, 1 Dec 1998, Marty wrote:
> I have repaired literally hundreds of HP II's and HP III's over the
> past 10 years. The paper feed problem you mention is a piece of cake
> to repair (replace) and the parts are readily available at a very low
> price. Following are the parts you need:
>
> HP P/N RG1-0931-060CN FEED ROLLER ASSEMBLY
>
> HP P/N RF1-1145-020CN SEPARATION PAD
>
> SOURCES FOR ABOVE PARTS:
>
> Atlantis 1-800-733-9155 (Norcross, GA)
>
> Impact Sales 1-800-280-4521 (Madison, WI- ask for Don)
>
> PC Service Source 1-800-727-2787 (Dallas, TX)
>
> Printer Works 1-800-235-6116 (Hayward, CA)
Ya know.. this is what I get for even *dealing* with our MIS
(Mostly Incompetent Shi*theads) dept... you'd think after 10 years
with the same company I'd learn... I should have researched the
roller prob myself....
Anyway... I'm going to offer to take all those 'dead' HP IIs off
the company's hands, and then *fix* the damn things, and **sell**
them... or trade them for Stuff... the last time they dumpstered
a whole storeroom I got tons of swappable Stuff.. woo hoo! I love
Surplus!!
Thanks VeryVery much for the roller and parts supplier info..
Cheers
John
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From: John Lawson <jpl15(a)netcom.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
In-Reply-To: <1998Dec01.092201.1767.164934(a)smtp.itgonline.com>
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I have repaired literally hundreds of HP II's and HP III's over the
past 10 years. The paper feed problem you mention is a piece of cake
to repair (replace) and the parts are readily available at a very low
price. Following are the parts you need:
HP P/N RG1-0931-060CN FEED ROLLER ASSEMBLY
HP P/N RF1-1145-020CN SEPARATION PAD
SOURCES FOR ABOVE PARTS:
Atlantis 1-800-733-9155 (Norcross, GA)
Impact Sales 1-800-280-4521 (Madison, WI- ask for Don)
PC Service Source 1-800-727-2787 (Dallas, TX)
Printer Works 1-800-235-6116 (Hayward, CA)
I will supply you with tech support to replace these parts. Email me:
marty(a)itgonline.com
You will need to remove the top cover, front support plate and dc
power supply. Removal of the high voltage power supply is recommended
to facilitate access to the left screw holding the feed roller
assembly but you can snake a screwdriver in without a problem.
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 11/30/98 11:50 PM
On Mon, 30 Nov 1998, Max Eskin wrote:
> This is a couple of months off topic,but I'll post it anyway. At my school,
> there are a couple dozen Laserjet Series IIs. I've been trying to install
> four into one room, and for some reason almost every single one claims a
paper
> jam right as soon as I tell it to print ( a self test, for example). The
paper
> hardly gets out of the tray, it's generally just starting to get past the
Ahhh, yes.. this one I know well. The company whose time clock I
punch has about three dozen of these old guys in a store room..
they all have the same problem.. and it is: the very front set of
rollers (the pick-and-feed rollers) over the paper tray have become
hardened and non-gummy with age. The fix is: replace the rollers.
The problem is: no rollers available. The solution: give them up for
adoption, and when nobody wants them... well, you know the rest.
One could kludge together something to go around the old rollers,
but the sveral things I tried just didn't perform reliably, mainly
causing double and/or multiple feeds...
They they brough me a brand-new modern HP 4L and I quit being
frustrated by the old one.
Cheers
John
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From: John Lawson <jpl15(a)netcom.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: HP Laserjet Series II
In-Reply-To: <98113019113300.00619(a)localhost.localdomain>
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Hi,
I need to clean up some of the excess around here before Christmas so I'm
offering a HP 9816 computer for sale or trade for the best offer. I have
another and need to get this one out of the way. The 9816 is the smallest
of the HP 9000 series 200 computers and has a 68000 CPU. It runs BASIC, HPL
and/or Pascal. This one works fine but is missing the top cover and some
of the keytops for the keyboard. The switchs are intact so tops can robbed
>from another HP keyboard and simply plugged in. It does include the
original small keyboard. These keyboards are rare since most users bought
the bigger HP 98203 keybaord. For more information, look at
"http://www.intellistar.net/~rigdonj/hp9000.htm".
Joe
>I've got an 8530 and it's console here. It's a Pro380 IIRC.
>It's front panel is marked Vaxconsole, but it has Pro380 on it somewhere
>else
>I think.... I'll have a look...
At least on the North American models, there's a UL/CSA sticker near
the power jack with the model designation (i.e. "PC380-AA").
It certainly could've been a Pro 350 that originally shipped with the
Venus. The ones I've seen are 380's, but I don't know if they're
original or not. Since *the* definitive RT-11 Pro expert is on this
list, I'm certain we'll get a good answer soon :-)
As long as we're on the topic, anyone have a Ethernet card for the
Pro that they'd like to sell? I'm willing to pay CA$H! (The goal
is to put Alan Baldwin's TCP/IP for RT-11 on a Pro and run a web server.)
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
>And on the same topic, didn't DECUS provide free (or low cost) software
>applications? Did the same mentality apply to that, or did the letters "DEC"
>tend to give more credibility to that software?
DECUS distributes (and has distributed) software that others wrote and
put into the public domain. *Very* roughly speaking, DECUS-distributed
software can be split into two groups:
1. Software that DEC employees wrote on DEC time, and which DEC put
into the public domain so that DECUS could distribute it. BLISS-32
is a recent example. Often these are tools that were used internally
to DEC for development purposes, which they don't want to turn into
commercially supported products, but they recognize the great usefulness
of these tools.
2. Software that random ordinary users wrote and gave to DECUS to
distribute.
Keep in mind that "random ordinary users" in the 1960's or 1970's
often means something very different than it does today. Also, DECUS
is a different organization today than it was 10 or 20 or 30 years
ago.
You might want to browse through the VMS-oriented DECUS submissions
at http://www.decus.org/ , or the PDP-11 oriented DECUS submissions at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/decus/
and view the wide range of stuff available, and the wide range of
sources that it comes from!
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
This is a couple of months off topic,but I'll post it anyway. At my school,
there are a couple dozen Laserjet Series IIs. I've been trying to install
four into one room, and for some reason almost every single one claims a paper
jam right as soon as I tell it to print ( a self test, for example). The paper
hardly gets out of the tray, it's generally just starting to get past the
roller that pulls it in when the printer returns an error. Sometimes it does
this, sometimes it doesn't. Any ideas?
Thanks
>::There are plenty of ways of preventing a BASIC program from being
listed.
>::Dunno how you prevent it being saved (and say 'BAD PROGRAM'), but I
could
>::probably figure it out given time... Anyone else?
>
> On the 64, you could type
>
> 10 remL
>
> (rem, then a shifted-L)
>
> and LIST will stop up with a ?SYNTAX ERROR when it hits that line.
Rather
> easy to defeat but annoying as heck. :-)
Same on Basic 2 PETS. On BASIC 1 you used shift-K.
Possibility that I thought of, but didn't try. Make the initial line a v.
high line number (>63999). Have the program start rem L, then disable the
stop key, then poke that line number to something smaller. Bit harder to
defeat but won't deter the determined cracker.
Mean trick I did use. In the middle of a subroutine I entered the line
REM@TURN
I then found the @ sign and poked the location with 20 (ctrl-T, the PET
backspace)
This now lists as RETURN but does nothing...
Philip.
>> > Why do POKE and PEEK fail there? Was that done on purpose or is it
just
>> > the result of something lame like using a signed value to represent
>> > addresses?
>> No, it's software. It was a feature that was supposed to prevent
>> inquisitive geeks disassembling the BASIC ROM between $C000 and (I
think)
>> $E7FF. The OS ROMs, above $F000, were peekable, though, as was the I/O
>
> It was totally useless for that. The sort of person who could disassemble
> and make sense of the BASIC ROM was the sort of person who could also
> write enough machine code to copy the ROM into (peekable) RAM a few K at
> a time...
I just added a little machine code routine to my disassembler that peeked
the byte it was looking at for it. I was really annoyed to find that I
needed one for the assembler as well to do the poking...
BTW BASIC programs up in the ROM expansion space didn't work. The machine
relied on the MSB of the address not being set for one or two things, I
can't remember what.
Philip.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Pechter <pechter(a)pechter.dyn.ml.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, 2 December 1998 0:32
Subject: Re: VAX collectors attention
>> At least on the North American models, there's a UL/CSA sticker near
>> the power jack with the model designation (i.e. "PC380-AA").
Yup. I just looked. It's a 380.
Cheers
Geoff
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
>> A friend of mine at a large company (whose initials are International
>> Business Machine, but you didn't hear that from me 8-) had to route traffic
>> between Token Ring and Ethernet. NT didn't work (no surprise there),
Hmm, I had exactly the same trouble. Worked fine on a linux machine
routing between our company token ring and a couple of SGI Origin
servers on 100 meg ethernet, but NT wasn't having any of it.
Unfortunately I seem to be the only person here who has any real Unix
skills, so Linux was out of the question for the router. I ended up
writing a Java application to relay socket connections on the NT machine
that sat between the ethernet and token ring, so at least HTTP and
Telnet would work - FTP had to be done as a two-stage process...
cheers
Jules
>(sorry for OT)
>As far as the Pro ethernet... I'd kill for one too.
The part you need is the DECNA... I might just have one (maybe
two). I'll have to check...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
>>
>> Hi!
>> I know that there's a program to make a Hercules Mono monitor emulate a
CGA,
>> but is there a program that will allow a CGA emulate an EGA or VGA?
>
>That's rather like asking if a PC/XT can emulate a 386.
Well I don't see why some sort of software could make a CGA emulate a VGA.
Or a video card that would be VGA, but drive a CGA monitor, since the video
card in my Pentium will drive a composite Apple monitor at 640x480
16.million colors.
I basically want to get better graphics from the programs that I use on my
laptops (most are CGA). I'm usually stuck in text mode, 2-color CGA, but
even EGA would be better, and getting a new video card and monitor just
isn't an option.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
< > (Oh and an HSC50 whatever the heck that is!)
<
< Hierarchical Storage Controller.
< Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
< Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
PDP11, used the T-11 chip. NOT PDP-8.
I believe CRONIC was an application (control program) and ran under a
truncated version of RT-11.
Allison
>Hmm.. This should be easy. Install /bin/cat. The cat, as usual, will eat
>the fish.
>
Haven't tried that yet, but the /bin/cat/ folder is on the unaccessable
HD...
>Seriously, something is overheating. If you can get to the board with it
>in the machine, can you detect any semiconductor that's too hot. Where
>does the smell seem to be coming from - the HD controller, the machine's
>PSU, or where?
>
I'm figuring that the smell is coming from the HD controller board, getting
sucked through the P/S's tiny 1" fan, and blown out the top of the computer.
The HD controller is plugged in right next to the P/S. I think one of the
chips on the HD controller blew, because it was one of the common ailments
of the 1400.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>First, check if there's a fish stuck in your laptop. Second, have you
>looked closely at the controller card to see if there is any obvious
>melting of parts, or blackened spots? Check each component for excessive
>heat (excessive meaning if you touch it and it instantly burns your
>finger). Have you tried the hard drive in another machine? Be careful,
>if the hard drive is at fault here you may end up frying fish with another
>controller card.
>
I've found that the fish smell is from some capacitors on the controller.
There's no sign of overheating, other than a few plastic labels (on the
chips) are a bit curled on the ends.
I really have no way of testing the HD, since it's one of those weird 26-pin
type like the Zenith laptops used to use. The only other computer that I
have that it may work in is an old WANG WLTC, and the drive in it is 10 MB,
and made by JVC, where the one in the Tandy is an Alps.
I think that the HD controller was one of the 1400's faults (other than the
power supply). I've already worked on two 1400's with blown P/S's and HD
controllers. What I've noticed is that the HD controller will quit, then
the power supply will blow out (usually a microfuse).
The 1400HD was basically just a 1400FD with a factory-installed HD upgrade
kit. I currently have the floppy from the second 1400 in the one I'm trying
to fix, but there's some stuff on the HD that I'd like to get off of it, but
have no way of doing so.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
Max Eskin wrote:
>I saw an odd machine in a thrift store today, a machine labelled a PS/1,
but it
>looked nothing like the PS/1 valuepoints, or any other PC I've ever seen.
It
>looked like a cross between a PCjr and a soap dish. One 3.5" floppy drive,
huge
>ugly vents and IBM logo on the front, on the back are ports for mouse,
>keyboard, VGA, 2400 bps modem, and parallel printer. It also has a little
fan
>and some sort of slot cover that fell out. Where is the power switch? Where
>does the power connect to?
That's the original PS/1, a 286 with an almost totally closed architecture.
Needs the special monitor to give it power.
I happened to pick up a lone monitor like this last week. Pity I'm in
Australia though.
I've only seen a couple of these around here in the last few years.
Hans Olminkhof
-----Original Message-----
From: Allison J Parent <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 15:37
Subject: Re: VAX collectors attention
>< > (Oh and an HSC50 whatever the heck that is!)
><
>< Hierarchical Storage Controller.
>< Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
>< Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
>PDP11, used the T-11 chip. NOT PDP-8.
Ok, thanks for clearing that up, I wasn't sure. :^)
>I believe CRONIC was an application (control program) and ran under a
>truncated version of RT-11.
I'll take your word for it. The manual I have doesn't actually say CRONIC
is
the O/S, it just implies that it it. Probably an unwarranted assumption on
my part.
Thanks for filling in the gaps. :^)
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
Can someone help Father Martin?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 17:32:19 -0500
From: "Martin Fors (ICQ 3024642)" <revmrf(a)together.net>
To: archive(a)siconic.com
Subject: Visual Commuter
Hi,
Perhaps you may help me. I'm trying to find an LCD for my Visual Commuter
which I've had for many years. Can you help with a contact? A Long time
ago there was a users group, but I've lost contact. marty
Rev. Martin R. Fors
Grace United Methodist Church
Main St., POB 726
Bradford, Vermont 05033
USA
revmrf(a)together.net [ICQ# 3024642] or revmrf(a)bigfoot.com
<<http://www.gbgm-umc.org/bradford/>>
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)verio.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always being hassled by the man.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details
[Last web page update: 11/02/98]
> From: Cameron Kaiser <ckaiser(a)oa.ptloma.edu>
> Subject: Re: PET Video (was: Replacing 6550s) & 128
>
> ::The only Commodore computer with rubber keys that I have heard of is the
> ::Commodore 116.
>
> Actually, the Ultimax has them too. I have a 116 case, and the keyboard is
> abominable -- almost, but not quite as bad, as the Tomy Tutor's.
Hi!
I know that there's a program to make a Hercules Mono monitor emulate a CGA,
but is there a program that will allow a CGA emulate an EGA or VGA?
One other question:
Was there a Tandy laptop made that looked like the 1400, but had an EGA or
VGA display?
ThAnX,
-Jason
From: Bill Pechter <pechter(a)pechter.dyn.ml.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 14:57
Subject: Re: VAX collectors attention
>I thought the 8600's used Pro350's when I worked on them.
>Some of the later 8000 series used Pro380's, I was told.
I've got an 8530 and it's console here. It's a Pro380 IIRC.
It's front panel is marked Vaxconsole, but it has Pro380 on it somewhere
else
I think.... I'll have a look...
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
From: R. Stricklin (kjaeros) <red(a)bears.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 13:18
Subject: DG Aviion video
>I've picked up a Data General Aviion 310CD and was informed it can use a
>straight AT keyboard. I am skeptical, as the keyboard port is a DIN8.
My 4100 does. Don't recall how many pins thought, but a Honeywell AT
keyboard
works fine, though a cheapy generic one did not. YMMV, since it's a
different model.
I'll have a look at the connector later in the day and let you know.
>Also, the colour video output is on 3 BNC connectors. Can I use 3 segments
>of ethernet coax to carry the video signal or is the impedance wrong?
Well, you should use 75 ohm coax by rights, but 52 ohm thin ethernet cable
should work ok. You might - emphasize might - get a little minor ghosting
on the image with 52 ohm cable, but you won't blow it up.
TV antenna coax is 75 ohm if you want to get it exactly right.
I doubt if you'd be able to see any difference.
I believe it has the sync on the green channel.
>Actually, I've had a hard time locating info on this machine.
Data General Unix only. Virtually System 5 Release 4.
There is no specific DGUX news group, though there are a few lurkers in
comp.os.aos (DG's Advanced Operating System - for big iron) that have
some useful information.
I have the procedure for getting past the password here somewhere.
Found it at some very obscure web site. The manuals for DGUX are
available online in PDF form.
Doubtless a much later version than yours, but it will help a lot.
The web site doesn't allow you to directly download them, just read on-line.
(Not sure if this is deliberate, but anyway, once Acrobat loads the page for
online
reading, you can clone the file from the temp directory, before you close
the web page)
I have most of the Doc set for the current version of DGUX as a result. ;^)
Don't recall the url at the moment, but I'll dig it up for you if you like.
I emailed Data General early in the piece, looking for information, and got
NO response.
> I understand it uses a Motorola 88k processor at 20 MHz, but I don't know
which one.
> looked inside and found three chips it could be.. an 88100 (88010?) and
>two 88200 (88020?)s. I assume the single chip is the CPU but then what
>are the other two?
Not sure, sorry. I'll pull the lid off one of mine later and have a look,
hard to find much on the cpus.
>I would be really surprised if this were a multiprocessing box.
I wouldn't be. One of mine is. :^) Yours is a different (earlier?) model,
I have two Aviions, one is a single cpu 33mhz box, the other a dual cpu
20mhz.
(I'll post the exact model numbers later today) Unfortunately, I have
yet to find an (affordable) monitor, and it has an odd mouse port, I'm led
to believe it
is the same connector as on a Sun, but not sure if the Sun mouse would work
or not,
and I don't have one to try.
At first glance, it looked like a PS2 mouse port, but the pinout is quite
different.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis(a)freegate.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 10:17
Subject: VAX collectors attention
> (Oh and an HSC50 whatever the heck that is!)
Hierarchical Storage Controller.
Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
(Colorado Rudimentary Operating Nucleus for Intelligent Controllers)
Bots off a pair of TU58 mini tape cassette drives.
It's a controller/manager for SDI and STI (+ optional 3rd party SCSI tape)
drives.
You can do backups, and a few other things, just using the HSC without the
host Vax.
Talk to it with a VT100 or whatever terminal, or over the CI with the SET
HOST /HSC command
>from VMS, assuming the Vax has the CI hardware installed.
Normally part of a VAXcluster, it serves drives to several machines over a
proprietary
70mbs (I think) thick cable network called the CI (Computer Interconnect).
Needs another box called a Star Coupler (strange transformer gizmo, acts
much like
a hub, but passive) as well. Works with RAxx and TAxx series tape drives.
Though ours had
an Emulex SCSI adapter that drove two HP 4mm 5Gb DAT drives through a
special interface, emulating
a TA78 tape system to the HSC/VAX. (The card's still in the HSC, but the
interface box with the drives
in it died, and is no longer supported by Emulex.) I've now got a VS4000-90
hosting one of the HP DAT
drives, clustered to the 6320, so I can at least access stuff I had saved on
it. It's currently feeding our
Vax 6320, plus I have another complete one for spares.
Uses about 600w IIRC.
BI and XMI adapters were/are available for various Vaxen to allow them to
connect
over the CI bus. Decnet will also run across it, so it made for fairly high
cluster performance.
Pretty much obsolete now. There was a slightly more sophisticated version
called a HSC70
that used RX floppys instead of the tapes, and could handle more drives,
etc.
I think there were a couple of models after that too. I've seen a HSC70 at
a scrap dealer recently.
Not a lot of use unless you have a big (82xx 83xx 85xx 86xx 6000-xxx etc)
Vax that needs one to
talk to it's drives.
Allison or one of the other Master Decologists will doubtless correct any
mistakes in the above. :^)
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
Argh,
>Hierarchical Storage Controller. Waist high filing cabinet sized box,
HEAVY too.
>Basically, it's a PDP8 I think ...
You mean I missed a chance to pick up another PDP-8? Probably an 8a though.
--Chuck
>Hierarchical Storage Controller.
>Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
>Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
It's an -11, actually, supplemented with a largish chunk of dedicated
logic for moving data around.
Tim.
Hi.
I've picked up a Data General Aviion 310CD and was informed it can use a
straight AT keyboard. I am skeptical, as the keyboard port is a DIN8.
Also, the colour video output is on 3 BNC connectors. Can I use 3 segments
of ethernet coax to carry the video signal or is the impedance wrong?
I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but this'll do for now.
Actually, I've had a hard time locating info on this machine. I understand
it uses a Motorola 88k processor at 20 MHz, but I don't know which one. I
looked inside and found three chips it could be.. an 88100 (88010?) and
two 88200 (88020?)s. I assume the single chip is the CPU but then what
are the other two?
I would be really surprised if this were a multiprocessing box.
ok
r.
>> Someone mentioned that there are copy protection schemes for cassette
tape,
>> and I was curious what these might be and how they might interfere with
>> recording the tape onto my HD.
>
> Some machines (the BBC micro is one IIRC) have a bit in the cassette
> block header that when set prevents you listing or saving the BASIC
> program. That's one trivial form of copy protection.
I don't recall that one on the BBC. You could do that on the ZX81 due to
very strange operating system features.
The BBC had a header on each tape _block_ that said where the file would be
stored in memory, how long it was and an execution address. One simple
scheme rested on the fact that the parameters the machine used were taken
>from the first block of the file and those it told the user were taken from
the last block...
I also saw a program which, when listed or saved, gave "bad program", but
would run OK. Don't know how that was done...
Philip.
On Nov 30, 10:03, Christian Fandt wrote:
> Now I have got to hunt for a decent reader of .ps files which works under
> windoze95 . . .
You can get Ghostview/Ghostscript for Windows -- I don't know *where* we
got it, but we have it on the NT machines at work.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
I viewed perhaps 45 minutes from the middle of one episode. I found
myself playing "Mystery Science Theater", that is, yelling and heckling
at the screen. What always strikes me about these sorts of shows is
that they're not useful as history. Cringely drives around in micro-bus,
talks with talking head, TH gives his sugar-coated personal view of
history from his particular corner office, and Cringely rarely
fact-checks or points out the blatant lies or evidence of sugar-coating.
Cringely's retrospective documentary in the year 2025 will be much
more interesting, after most of these companies or TH's are dead
and won't be offended by sharper analysis.
- John
not knowing the model number, it's hard to say what you saw. it's probably an
early 1990 model ps1 type 2011 or 2121. could be either a 286 or 386. the
machine requires the matching monitor as it actually contains the computer's
power supply. machine also has dos in rom.
david
In a message dated 98-11-30 18:06:20 EST, you write:
<< I saw an odd machine in a thrift store today, a machine labelled a PS/1,
but it
looked nothing like the PS/1 valuepoints, or any other PC I've ever seen. It
looked like a cross between a PCjr and a soap dish. One 3.5" floppy drive,
huge
ugly vents and IBM logo on the front, on the back are ports for mouse,
keyboard, VGA, 2400 bps modem, and parallel printer. It also has a little fan
and some sort of slot cover that fell out. Where is the power switch? Where
does the power connect to? >>
>> I can't imagine why 8 bits wouldn't be sufficient, given the
>> frequency range of a cheap cassette player. I recently acquired
>Considering that most (all?) home computers feed the cassette input into
>a schmitt trigger (essentially 1-bit sampling), and that the level of the
>input signal is set by twidding the recorder's volume control until it
>loads, so it's not that critical, I would think 8-bit sampling was easily
>good enough.
8-bits ought to work just fine. One fine point, which won't hit you
until you try to do some decoding: some tape formats are polarity
sensitive (they use a variant of Manchester encoding). If at all
possible, you should try to figure out whether your tape player/digitizer/
recorder/player chain inverts are not.
Tarbell-format tapes are (speaking from experience!) polarity-sensitive.
Apple ][ tapes aren't. Kansas-City format tapes aren't.
Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)
I saw an odd machine in a thrift store today, a machine labelled a PS/1, but it
looked nothing like the PS/1 valuepoints, or any other PC I've ever seen. It
looked like a cross between a PCjr and a soap dish. One 3.5" floppy drive, huge
ugly vents and IBM logo on the front, on the back are ports for mouse,
keyboard, VGA, 2400 bps modem, and parallel printer. It also has a little fan
and some sort of slot cover that fell out. Where is the power switch? Where
does the power connect to?
Just a note that the URL of my pinouts section has changed. Sorry for any
inconvenience, this one will be permanent.
http://www.prinsol.com/~aaron/classiccmp/
I am working to put up the pinouts I've received from Pete and Sam
(actually, Sam's may already be up...) and have also added an "incoming"
directory for people who are feeling philanthropic (and a little bored).
Incoming pinouts can go to:
ftp://ftp.prinsol.com/
user: pinouts
password: pinouts
In addition to pinouts, I'm slowly adding my collection of different
hardware "hacks" and some general repair information. I've been trolling
through the classiccmp archives at Kevin Heydon's page as well and plan to
organize and archive the tons of useful repair info there too, from what
cleaners to use for removing sharpie-written prices on plastic to Tony's
latest AT keyboard repair.
The last thing I plan to add is a single directory with nothing but FAQ's,
for all kinds of machines, concentrated in one place. As some have pointed
out lately, many of the questions that are asked here are easily answered
by the appropriate FAQ; it's just a matter of digging it up. After I get
all the FAQ's I can carry online, I'll tie them to a search script for
convenience.
Aaron
Whilst reading around, I've come across quite a few refrences to the LispM,
or the Lisp Machine. What's a Lisp Machine? Was it a mini? Was it a micro?
Do any still run? Just curious...
-------
There were two lisp machine manufacturers that evolved from an MIT lab,
one was Symbolics (a company in which I owned stock, and for which a
high school buddy worked for several years, and which was based in
Chatsworth California for about 8 years) and Lisp Machines Inc, about
which I know very little except to say that these companies were constantly
at eachothers throats, and who's corporate heads were both former
co-workers at MIT. If you want more details, I can accomodate by asking
this old high school buddy.
As for if any such machines remain, I imagine so, since for one, a Mac
compatible version from Symbolics (an single board micro, plugged into
the Mac backplane/motherboard) was available up to a few years ago
>from Symbolics. The name of the product now escapes me but, when
I recall it, I will post an additional message.
As a side note, the mathematics processor known as Macsyma (the
original product - reverse engineered by Stephen Wolfram to produce
Mathematica) was a lisp based product, and sold by Symbolics. As I
understand, it is really Macsyma that gave birth to Symbolics, for their
lisp machines were originally designed to support Macsyma applications.
William R. Buckley
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike <dogas(a)leading.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, November 30, 1998 1:59 PM
Subject: Re: What's a Lisp Machine?
>>
>>Well, I don't know what other "LISP machines" exist, but a couple
>>
>
>There was a TI Expolorer that was also a Lisp Machine. I used to drool
over
>their ads in Scientific American... alas...
>- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
>
>
>
>
>Well, I don't know what other "LISP machines" exist, but a couple
>
There was a TI Expolorer that was also a Lisp Machine. I used to drool over
their ads in Scientific American... alas...
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
Foxnhare (who are you anyway? I've seen the address before. You're not
Larry Anderson by any chance are you? :-) ) wrote:
>> From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca>
>> Subject: Re: Replacing 6550s
>
>> (I especially find it cool that they list various part numbers for the
>> connector. :) )
>
> Digikey is the best source for inexpensive PET compatible connectors.
> (1-800-DIGI-KEY) along with a ton of other cool parts.
Many thanks for that. I know where to turn next time I'm looking...
>> I just noticed for the first time (!) that the "PARALLEL USER PORT" has
>> pins labeled "T.V. Video", "T.V. Vertical", and "T.V. Horizontal"! Has
>> anyone actually connectd a TV or external monitor to a PET?
>
> There are plans for a composite video converter using those pins in Nick
> Hampshire's PET Revealed, I think it only works on the older 9" screen
pets
> and not the 12" ones. The reason for it being on the user port was for
deaier
> diagnostic testing.
I thought the video signals were there on later machines too, but I can
well believe it might not work on the 12 inch screen models.
My experience is that Nick Hampshire's circuit doesn't work at all. Using
the same two chips, 4011 and 4066, the correct procedure (sorry. The
procedure that worked when I tried it) is to combine the two syncs with the
4011, invert (I think - not sure about this one) with another 4011 gate,
and use that to gate the video using the 4066. Works a treat. They tried
it at school, too (don't know what circuit tho'), and got a grey background
for the white text. I imagine a series capacitor might help, but I've not
tried it.
Philip.
>> Worse still if you're using an audio CD. The CD player will be
filtering
>> according to what's best for the human ear, not what's best for the
>> computer.
>
> Does this matter? Most tape recorders used back in the day were also
> optimized for use with the human ear, so I would imagine the computers
> that utilized them as storage were designed with that in mind. Kick me
if
> I am wrong but it just seems logical to me that a CD today would work
just
> as well (if not better) than a cassette recorder of yesteryear. Were the
> specialized "data" recorders any different from a standard cassette
> player?
Possibly. But I distinctly recall that when we recorded tapes for sale
using the tape deck from my Sanyo stereo (not on a PET BTW - this was a BBC
micro) we found that Dolby noise reduction had to be disabled for it to
work...
Philip
I've been having troubles getting '5' on the switch regiester of my
PDP-8/L to show up in the memory address. Upon checking to make sure all
the modules were in place, I found that, according to the PDP-8/L Mode
Utilization Sheet in the PDP-8/L Maitenance Manual Vol II, the below
listed cards are missing.
I'm under the impression the M903's are not needed, but what about the
rest of them? Are these cards I need?
A B
15 M162 M119
16 M162 M162
34 M903
35 M903
36 M903
C D
10 M216
11 M113
16 M111
34 M903
35 M903 M903
36 M903 M903
Tom Owad
--
Sysop of Caesarville Online
Client software at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~tomowad/>
Hi! I have yet another Mac question.
When ever I boot, before the Finder comes up, there's about 5 icons In the
lower left-hand corner. I know that one is MS Mail, and the other is for a
network. I'm not sure what the other icons are for. I'd like to get rid of
these programs (extensions?) that are running in the background, since all
they do is eat up memory. I can't access them after Finder opens, and
nothing happens when I click on them before it opens.
Any suggestions?
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
Why, I thought I'd get a few replies about my Terak computer
collection, as described in my intro message on 11/18.
Anyone out there have any experience with these?
- John
www.threedee.com/jcm
Hmm, a quick Hotbot search reveals a $250K real estate transaction
in Aspen, CO to a Perry Pollock, and that name is listed as the
"Foreign Shipping Coordinator" for an overpriced herb/vitamin scam at
<http://www.putpeel.com/healthy/>. Think the couple in that
picture are the same ones in the 1979 Byte picture at
<http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/wps/byte197904-068.gif>?
Hard to tell. :-)
- John
Yes, there are/were many different formats for recording digital
data on audio cassettes. Some used frequency, some used phase
info, and some recorded to the tape using something other than
conventional voice-style recording. Think of them as modems
at speeds of 120 to 2400 baud.
I've found a number of decoders that were developed for the
emulator scene. Most are quite crude and unforgiving.
I concluded that I wanted to store absolutely uncompressed
digitized audio until I confirmed that any of today's various
compression methods wouldn't obliterate the encoded data.
Given the dozens of encoders and compression schemes out there,
how do you know if a particular scheme won't wipe out the
data by simplifying waveforms, fudging phase relationships, etc.?
Storage is cheap. You don't need stereo. If the waveforms use
audio in the range 1200 to 2400 Hz, for example, then Nyquist
tells you to oversample by 2 to 8 times, meaning even 8 Khz,
8-bit might be overkill with roughly 8 K/sec storage,
and 22 Khz sampling is certainly adequate.
As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, being able to tweak
the azimuth on the tape head makes all the difference with some tapes.
- John
>> PS PET and many later C= machines have one more problem: they didn't use
>> standard audio cassette machine, but one with a special Commie board in
it
>> and a custom interface.
>
> My knowledge of the PETs is limited. What would this setup do that would
> inhibit recording to CD?
Not so much inhibit, but make it less useable. I understood the idea as:
instead of plugging your home computer into a tape deck, how about a CD
player? Surely just the lead will be different? In which case, let's
archive all those tapes at a dozen C10 tapes to a CD...
With the PET and VIC families, it's not just a different lead, it's an
(admittedly llittle) circuit...
Philip.
< What about the ADAM computer from Coleco??? It uses a digital tape that
< holds (around) 256K or so... (Never set mine up yet).
<
< Is there any way you could run that thang thru an audio player and have
< PC routine re-digitalize it, or are you stuck with read a thing and
< serial-send it over to another PC?
No! It's digital saturation like a floppy and the encoding is to the
flux reversal timing.
Adam is digital stauration recording like a floppy only slower, audio
tape is audio frequency/phase change and the medium is the linear portion
of the BH curve. They are very different from each other.
Allison
Hi Christian,
----------
> From: Christian Fandt <cfandt(a)netsync.net>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: ID these DEC floppy disks?
> Date: Monday, November 30, 1998 8:03 AM
>
> At 23:18 11/28/98 +0000, you wrote:
> >On Nov 28, 21:23, Pete Turnbull wrote:
> Now I have got to hunt for a decent reader of .ps files which works under
> windoze95 . . .
Have a look at:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
I'm using gsview for years ...
cheers,
emanuel
On Nov 28, 21:23, Pete Turnbull wrote:
> If I can find the source files, I'll put machine-readable notes on my web
> pages (probablyt as PostScript). That is mostly XXDP V2 stuff. I
*might*
> have some machine-readble XXDP+ notes; if I can find any I put them up
too.
> I'll post a note to the list if and when...
Well, that turned out to be easier to find than I expected. Anyone
interested can take a look at
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/XXDP.ps which has notes relevant to
both XXDP+ and XXDP Version 2.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
There are at least two of you folks I recall that are soliciting
ClassicCmp-relavant URLs to put into your webpages (Sam's VCF site is one)
for use as a reference resource. Here's one to add to your lists which is
DEC-related that I literally stumbled onto. Other DEC folks here may need
to bookmark this too:
http://www.celigne.co.uk/terminal/
Naturally, during all my previous hours of searching for VT102 info from
before I posted an inquiry last week, all the search engines I used could
not see this page. This is the one that answers all my VT100/102 questions.
An example of if we find a resource like this, please post it for others
(don't forget I'm still looking for *any* HP250 and IBM 9370 info!! ;) )
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
>I'm a disgruntled ebay bidder.
>Why? Because I had an item picked off by a bargain hunter
>in the last 10 seconds of the bidding.
Why should you be disgruntled? The price went over what you wanted
to pay for the item, didn't it?
Tim.
Hi,
I'm a disgruntled ebay bidder.
Why? Because I had an item picked off by a bargain hunter
in the last 10 seconds of the bidding.
I have a simple suggestion that would fix this...an easy-to-implement
suggestion:
The act of placing a bid should automatically extend the
auction by 5 minutes.
Thus, if the auction is supposed to end at 15:00, and I sneak in a bid
at 14:59, the auction is automatically extended until 15:04. If someone
else then bids at 15:02, the auction is extended until 15:07.
If you like this idea, send a note to:
suggest(a)ebay.com
If you don't like the idea, you must not have bid on anything
at ebay :)
BTW, no...increasing my original bid isn't an acceptable solution,
for a wide variety of reasons ... bargain hunting not included.
thanks,
Stan Sieler
sieler(a)allegro.com
Hmm. Probably can't make the 26th, as I only go out there once every 5 years
or so. Later in the week, perhaps?
manney(a)lrbcg.com
>PG Manney wrote:
>>
>> I'm gonna be in Orange County over Christmas. What's the address of that
>> place?
>
>ACP is located on E. Edinger, and IIRC, it is located at 1310 E. Edinger in
>Santa Ana.
>
>> btw, anyone in O.C. who wants to meet and talk about old computers?
>
>Unless something unexpected happens, both John and I will be at the TRW
swap
>meet on December 26th. It starts at 7:00 am and is over at 11:00 (no
>transactions permitted after 11:30am.) Weather permitting, I usually go on
>the transmitter hunt there starting about 11:45 or so, and then out to
>brunch about 12:15 or so. Aaron joined us yesterday, and provided a good
>chance to talk about the older computers!
>
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 16:35:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Ethan Dicks <erd(a)infinet.com>
To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Call for final Elf99 design input
Message-ID: <199811252135.QAA10978(a)user2.infinet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I wrote:
> So to me, being 1802-based and being cheap/easy
> would be the big attractions. If I could populate the entire board
> for under $20, that would probably be enough to pull me off the
> fence entirely.
To which Ethan Dicks replied:
] $20 in total parts cost is not feasible. The CPU is under $10, the RAM
] can be scavenged, the 4xxx parts scavenged or bought for <$1 each, but there
] will be at least 8 to 10 of them. The displays are between $15 and $20 for
] the pair. Switches are another expense - 12 toggle switches and a pushbutton.
]
] Cheap it will be, but not quite that cheap.
Okay, I was only thinking about the cost of chips. And $20 is not
any sort of magic number, just something that seemed possibly doable.
Mainly, I would just ask you not to require any hard-to-find $10 parts
in the name of authenticity, if an easy-to-find $0.10 part will do as
well or better. The only really important bit to me, as a software
geek, is the 1802.
Of course, this is just my vote. I'll be more likely to buy if the
cost is low, and authenicity doesn't mean much to me in this case.
Cheers,
Bill.
I debated whether to post this; I'm sure some of you have seen it before.
My apologies for wasted bandwidth and all...
Q: How many classiccmp subscribers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: 1,331:
1 to successfully change the light bulb and to post to the mail list that
the light bulb has been changed
14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light
bulb could have been changed differently.
7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light
bulbs.
53 to flame the spell checkers
156 to write to the list administrator complaining about the light bulb
discussion and its inappropriateness to this mail list.
41 to correct spelling in the spelling/grammar flames.
109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take
this email exchange to alt.lite.bulb
203 to demand that cross posting to alt.grammar, alt.spelling and
alt.punctuation about changing light bulbs be stopped.
111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we are all use light
bulbs and therefore the posts **are** relevant to this mail list.
306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to
buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this
technique, and what brands are faulty.
27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs
14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly, and to post corrected
URLs.
3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this
list which makes light bulbs relevant to this list.
33 to concatenate all posts to date, then quote them including all headers
and footers, and then add "Me Too."
12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot
handle the light bulb controversey.
19 to quote the "Me Too's" to say, "Me Three."
4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ.
1 to propose new alt.change.lite.bulb newsgroup.
47 to say that [as long as the lightbulb or fixture is greater than ten
years old] this is just what this mailing list was meant for, leave it
here.
143 votes for a new list alt.lite.bulb.
Aaron C. Finney Systems Administrator WFI Incorporated
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"UNIX is an exponential algorithm with a seductively small constant."
I'm hoping someone knows about this (Don?)...
I got a parts-only Kaypro 4 from John Lawson yesterday, to try to cure the
ills of my "nice" 4. However, the two machines are quite different:
The one I got from John has the built in modem, a serial port, and both
paralell and serial printer ports; my original one only has a paralell
printer port and a serial port. Also, my old one has 2 eproms on the
board, one labeled 81-146 in socket U43, and one with a label "Specialty
Sys / STROKE.232 / Rev:1.5 08/84" in socket U47. Don Maslin hadn't heard
of this configuration before, so I'm assuming that it's some kind of
custom design. The one I got from John only has one eprom, labeled 81-292.
The new machine also has a 3v battery on the mainboard. The drives are
different too; the old machine has 2 full-height drives while the one from
John has 1/2 height drives. Part number of my old unit (from the back of
the case) is 81-004 and the part number of the one from John is 81-015.
Now, I happen to like the nifty one with the build in modem better. But
the video is fried (I said distorted yesterday, but there's nothing
legible on the screen) - there's only a little "noise" in the center of
the screen and an extremely high-pitched whine/screech coming from the
general areal of the video P/S.
So what I did, handling everything with [rubber] kid gloves, was swap the
CRT and boards, while leaving everything connected in the process. And I
got...nothing at all on the screen! I plugged the old mainboard in to the
new powersupply and connected it to the video and viola - perfect! So,
what gives? I noticed that some of the crystal frequencies are different
between the boards - is this what's causing it? Is there something simple
I can adjust to get the new machine to work with my original CRT
components?
Also, any history/explanation about the differences in the two machines
would be much appreciated.
Aaron
Thanks to the dedicated work of Kenneth W. Melvin, who has translated
the first three original Popular Electronics ELF articles to HTML, the
articles are now available via the "Classic Computer Simulator" link on
my web site. Hopefully, he will be supplying the 4th installment to me
in the future as well. Enjoy!
-Bill Richman (bill_r(a)inetnebr.com)
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r - Home of the COSMAC Elf Microcomputer
Simulator, Fun with Molten Metal, Orphaned Robots, and Technological Oddities.)
I saw two shrinkwrapped boxes of Windows 3.0 at a thrift store a couple
of days ago, a WordStar training guide (a modern version), as well as
some Gateway 2000 manuals. Anyone want any of this if it's still there?
That is, Edinger and Main, in Santa Ana.
The best route to the place is to take the 55 freeway to
Edinger, get off and head West for about 1 mile. There is
an eatery on the corner (SW) called the Golden Basket (as
I recall) and ACP is just a few hundred feet West.
William R. Buckley
-----Original Message-----
From: Marvin <marvin(a)rain.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, November 29, 1998 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: Santa Ana ACP Store
>PG Manney wrote:
>>
>> I'm gonna be in Orange County over Christmas. What's the address of that
>> place?
>
>ACP is located on E. Edinger, and IIRC, it is located at 1310 E. Edinger in
>Santa Ana.
>
>> btw, anyone in O.C. who wants to meet and talk about old computers?
>
>Unless something unexpected happens, both John and I will be at the TRW
swap
>meet on December 26th. It starts at 7:00 am and is over at 11:00 (no
>transactions permitted after 11:30am.) Weather permitting, I usually go on
>the transmitter hunt there starting about 11:45 or so, and then out to
>brunch about 12:15 or so. Aaron joined us yesterday, and provided a good
>chance to talk about the older computers!
Okay, if anyone's interested, I got the data from my old tape back from Tim.
Among other things, there are some interesting pieces of software, all of them
about 10 years old, which some of you may be interested.
If anyone is interested, please send me personal e-mail and I'll include
the file you want, plus the appropriate archive/dearchive software.
And btw, yes the descriptions are the ones that were on the BBS to describe
each piece of software, so they do tend to be talking to beginners.
I have for the pc:
*******PC-VT*******
This file is an archived vt100 full emulation system. It includes a terminal
mode, xmodem and kermit uploads/downloads a help screen, and a readme file.
You will need a blank 5 1/4 inch floppy (or about 360k free on a 3 1/2) and the
PKXARC program found elsewhere on this board to dearc this program successfully.
This program courtesy of Concordia Computer Services, along with the author or
authors who chose to make it public domain. To start PC-VT, type PC-VT at the
A> prompt.
procomm 2.4.2
This program is another (and vastly superior) terminal emulator. It is window
driven, supports most major upload/download protocals and has color. It also
works more reliably for uploads and downloads than PC-VT. There is, of course,
also full vt100 terminal emulation.This particular version is configured to run
at 9600baud with all settings proper for this VAX system. Reconfiguration is
done from the menus.
***********PKARC***********
This program is a public domain archiver. It crunches other programs with
multiple modules into a single arc file, which is then simple to upload or
download. It will be the standard arc protocal used on the IBM board of this
BBS, so when you upload somthing, please pass it through this program first.
This program itself is not archived, nor is it's companion de-arcing program,
PKXARC, so that you will be able to de-arc the programs you receive. This
program contains a help screen.
*********PKXARC********
This program is the companion program to PKARC. It is unarchived, but you
will need it to de-arc most of the files on the IBM board. It includes a help
screen, and should be self explanitory.
for the commodore 64:
arc250
This program is a self-documented archiving and dearchiving program for the
Commodore 64. It is slow, but it does work.
vt100
This program is a self-contained vt100 emulator for the c=64. It uses the
commodore key with the function and number keys to make symbols not on the 64
keyboard. Works only with TPU editor. (the one we use for the BBS)
Origionally downloaded from Q-Link tm.
macread
This program is unarchived and allows the user to view .mac picture files on
the c-64.
for the commodore 128:
vt-100v2a
A real slick vt100 em for the c=128. Uses fast and burst modes. U/dloads.
Supports EDT. This is a self dearcing file, load and run. Docs Follow.
vt-100v2adocs
These are the docs that go with vt-100v2a. This is a C=128 self dearcing file.
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Thursday, November 26, 1998 9:42 AM, Allison J Parent wrote:
> The VIP had a ram card, rom card, IO card and a sound effects
> card.
There is also a 2716 Eprom programmer card (I have one _somewhere_, along
with a 'System Expansion Board') and a color video card. There were _two_
sound cards; 'Simple Sound' and 'Super Sound'. Now if I could only FIND
my expansion and Eprom programmer cards... ;-)
Al McCann
amc358(a)interserv.com
I'm gonna be in Orange County over Christmas. What's the address of that
place?
btw, anyone in O.C. who wants to meet and talk about old computers?
manney
>> > I took a trip down to Los Angeles today, and stopped by the Santa Ana
ACP
>> > store. As I looked around the store, there were some classics sitting
on
Would this be caused by an electrical surge through the device or an EMP
kind of like in a nuclear explosion?
>Worse still, it can damage
>semiconductors all over the instrument!
>-tony
>
Hi,
I'm taking a quick survey of who among us uses (or
at least owns) Kennedy 9x00 series tape drives.
I do and I know that some others do (e.g. John
<jpl15(a)netcom.com>).
Anyone else fit this description?
Jon
I have a few excess, unopened, Debian LINUX cd's with LUG/nut5 on the
disk. I haven't had time to examine these myself. They are marked as
made by SSC with their website listed as http://www.ssc.com/
They are in a nice plastic jacket. I paid $1 for each so that's what I'd
like to get from each, plus postage. I would post a flat postage rate
but there may be a person that wants a few so we'll go on a case-by-case
basis.
Let me know if you might be interested by direct email.
>> Dose any one have the pin outs for the disk drive port on the Apple II.
>> I want this information in order to cerate a disk drive emulator. Also,
>Here you are, at least for the 20 pin header on the original Disk ][.
>Note that it's a pretty low-level interface, so you may find it
>non-trivial to make something else that connects to it.
For those who do want to make something that connects to it, I
*heavily* recommend Don Worth's and Pieter Lehner's _Beneath
Apple DOS_, still being published by Quality Software. Everything
you might want to know about the Apple Disk ][ interface and format
is documented here in wonderfully clear detail. Buy it!
Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)
Andrew - maybe we can form a (very limited membership!) Dulmont Magnum users
group!
[To the group as a whole as this early Australian (& world) laptop maybe of
interest]
Perhaps my D~M~ is not quite the same as yours. Mine is black, runs on 7VAC
3A (SN #10630) and to make sure everyone knows it was made in Australia it
has the label "Kookaburra" in black on silver on the outer lid. The SN plate
says "Dulmont Electronic Systems Pty Ltd" and the inbuilt software (see
below) is dated 1984.
It runs DOS 2.11 but is like nothing I have seen in most other ways. This
one has no built-in storage, but has a large connector with two
closely-spaced rows of 30 pins on the back which I guess was for a floppy.
There are also two mini-D 15-pin female plugs that have been hand-labelled
"printer" and "serial".
At the top of the keyboard are two large green keys, one labelled OFF ON and
the other RESET, but there is a trick - to get them to work you have to
press
them with the SHIFT key. Perhaps this is why they are rare; unless you know
this trick you would think the machine was dead by just pressing the green
ON key!
There is no ALT key, and there are separate LF and RETURN keys. There are 12
function keys and a HELP key and these are used with the built-in menu
program (type menu from dos). The only software with this machine are two
little cartridges, one each of which plug into slots on either side of the
hinged lid under a fairly hard to remove section of plastic that forms part
of the case. The cartridges here are MAG CALC and MAG WORD, each
accessible from the menu program. I haven't actually played around with
these yet.
BASIC would be on a cartridge like this, but it did not come with this unit.
I can not find anything on the net other than a German equivalent of the
French list referred to by others.
Phil Guerney
Brisbane, Australia.
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Davie <adavie(a)mad.scientist.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, 23 November 1998 14:48
Subject: Dulmont Magnum
>I've just obtained an unusual laptop circa 1983, a Dulmot Magnum.
>Garbage-bin green body, quite heavy. Runs on 6V, MS-DOS 2.11 Very strange
>flip-up LCD display, about 8 lines x 80 characters. Actually, this thing
is
>pretty well designed for its day.
>Does anybody know about the history of this machine, and where it fits in
>relative to other laptops of the era (ie: what was the first genuine
laptop,
>when, etc) ?
>
>--
>Andrew Davie
>www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/slide/calculator/soviet.html
>adavie(a)mad.scientist.com
>ICQ# 3297382
>
>
Dose any one have the pin outs for the disk drive port on the Apple II.
I want this information in order to cerate a disk drive emulator. Also,
is there an eqivlent of Fast Hack 'Em for the Atari 800. This is needed
to make disk images for backup pourpouses.
Charles
R. Stricklin (1,2,*)
John Lawson (1,2,3)
Mike O'Malley (1,2)
(1) ...the box arrived
(2) ...thanks!
(*) ...thanks a lot!
(3) ...e-mail me please
Sorry for the public posting, I don't have e-mail addresses for you guys.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always being hassled by the man.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 11/02/98]
> From: Phil Clayton <handyman(a)sprintmail.com>
> Subject: St. Vincent DePaul Finds
>
> Interesting find at the local Thrift store. A large box of 3-1/2
> diskettes
> for the Amiga 500 computer.. There must be over 500 different programs
> all neatly labeled and neatly packed in a nice box.. I did'nt know so
> many
> programs even existed for the Amiga. Should be fun looking at all this
> stuff.
It was pretty popular with games and graphics designers before IBM developers
got a clue and Gould/Ali really milked thier cash cow... Sure wish some of
those games were made for the Mac, but alas,
it didn't have the potential then either.
> Now I have to unpack my old Amiga and see what treasures I have found..
>
> Also inculded in the find was 6 books for the Amiga and 6 books for the
> Commodore 128 computer, including a large Tech Reference manual..
I'll say.
> Best was a book on C/PM for the C-128 (Really like that one)..
That's the one you got with the newer version of CP/M when you sent in the
$20.00 with the card in the users guide. All in all 20.00 for that book, the
newer CP/M (which finally supported the 1581) and CP/M utilities was a great bargain.
> ------------------------------
> From: Phil Clayton <handyman(a)sprintmail.com>
> Subject: Uknown Cartridge found..
>
> Forgot to mention in my find was a cartridge titled
> "Mach 128" its by Access software inc..
> Obviously for the C-128, but don't know what it does..
> Has a switch on top and a reset button? on it..
> Anyone ever seen this Cart before ?
It's a fast-loader for the 128 (that's where the Mach comes in , the 64
version was called Mach 5) It might also be a program freezer/utility. Put it
in your 128 and push the reset button, some of these will present a menu (for
save options and such). The switch is probably to select whether the cart is
active or not. Best not to switch it while the computer is on.
--
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (300-2400bd) (209) 754-1363
Visit my Commodore 8-Bit web page at:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/commodore.html
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
>> Hi all!
>>
>> Thanks to everyone who supplied information regarding the differences
>> between the 6550 and 2114 (especially Ethan who supplied pinouts).
>
> You're welcome.
>
>> I'm wondering if it would be possible to replace the RAM in an old PET
>> with a modern SRAM by use of some kind of plug-in adapter.
>
> Sure thing.
>
>> An example of what I'm thinking of is the SIMMfonie or AmiFast
Zip-to-SIMM
>> adapters for the Amiga 3000. Could something like this be built that
>> would plug into the 16 22-pin sockets on the PET motherboard, and lead
to
>> a single modern SRAM? Possibly with the addition of a couple of clip-on
>> leads to get two more address lines to the RAM adapter so that the PET
>> could have 32K.
>
> There is that big edge connector on the side of the static PETs (it was
> two seperate pin connectors on later PETs). All the signals you need for
> RAM expansion are there. For maximum preservation, I'd consider pulling
> all the 6550's out of the board and sticking them in a bag. Then, wire
> up a 6264 (or 62256!) to a small board after finding a suitable
connector.
> I expect the pinout to be on ftp.funet.fi, but if it isn't, I can dig
> out my PET schematics. If I still had my old 4K PET, I'd build one, too.
>
> You shouldn't have to build a clip-on, but if you did, there's nothing
> to keep it from working. You can get all the data bits from two sockets,
> and all the address bits from one socket, plus the additional bits
> from somewhere else. Remember that part of the logic in the PETs decodes
> the A8-A11 lines to chip selects. You need the original address bits,
> not the decoded ones.
Right. Here goes. Answers to one or two other people's questions may be
embedded here...
The original PET came with four different motherboard variations, viz:
RAM = 6550, ROM = 6540
RAM = 6550, ROM = 2316
RAM = 2114, ROM = 6540
RAM = 2114, ROM = 2316
My own is the third of those, a 1978 revision (a pity in a way - the case
has the old tape deck, the blue screen surround and serial number 1000035,
one of the very first)
I have circuits for all four, if you need help.
All had the "chicklet" keyboard. Not rubber keys in this case, Cameron.
Square plastic keys in a very small qwerty-but-no-offsets arrangement.
Little helical springs for key return; conductive rubber pads onto
interdigitated PCB tracks for contacts.
All but the last few machines of the production run had blue-white phosphor
for the screens.
BTW, all those of you who never used number pads for lack of comma keys, on
the small keyboard PETs the numbers were ONLY on the number pad. Top row
was punctuation only...
But I digress.
The top 4 address lines are decoded on the mobo by a 74154 to give block
select lines. The block select lines 0 (bottom 4K of RAM), 8 (screen
memory) C, D, E (I think) and F do _not_ appear on the expansion connector.
All others do. The rest of the address lines (0 to 11) are also present.
It is quite easy to re-encode these for addressing a large RAM chip
(62256). You need three 4-input NAND gates - two 7420 chips will do it.
(NB you are actually ORing block selects, but these are active low, so you
use NAND.)
(Also NB it is a long time since I looked at this. You may want to use AND
gates to keep things active low when you do chip select with the 4th gate)
The 4th NAND gate can combine chip select and clock and things - copy a
circuit from the motherboard (yes I'll send you the schematics if you want
- e-mail me privately).
If you're only attaching 8K, you need merely combine 2 block selects to get
chip select (a single AND gate), and use one of those for the top address
line A12.
When I added a 62256 to my 8K PET, I encoded the block select lines for 24K
of RAM space and 8K of expansion ROM space (blocks 9 and A). Beware - POKE
also fails here, not just PEEK, if you're accessing this RAM from BASIC.
If you've got an 8K PET with some dud 6550s, try and swap them around until
you have 4K of good memory, and remove the second 4K. Then map 28K of RAM
space and 4K of ROM space to your memory expansion chip.
If you've got a 4K PET with some dud 6550s, you'll have to find block
select 0 from somewhere on the mobo.
WARNING. +5V does NOT appear on the expansion connector. Most people get
it from the second cassette port, but it won't drive anything big. 62256 +
a little TTL is fine though.
Hope this helps. My explanations tend to confuse people...
Philip.
And no, I don't mean the "work your finger under the suction cup" method.
Kaypro-specific would be nice (what's a good ground point in there?) but
general help would be fine. The last time I had to do this was when I
replaced the P/S in my Mac plus, about 7 years ago, so a quick refresh
would be good.
Also, I think there was something about this on the list a little while
back but I can't find it in the archives. What would some possible causes
be for a high-pitched screech/whine and a distorted display (um, for a
computer display, that is...)?
Thanks,
Aaron
Well, I finally got around to ripping apart the HP3000 rack I got from
John Lawson a couple of months ago. And desperately need some pointers...
I've read the HP3000-L FAQ and searched most of the day for info, but
there isn't much geared toward the Classic HP3000 home-hobbyist.
What I've got is this:
9144 tape drive - I've already deduced that it's a low-density, 16-track
capable of 67/134 megs and the tapes have to be purchased pre-formatted.
2563A Printer - with a modular connector.
9123 3 1/2" dual floppy - picked up after-the-fact at a yard sale. It's
HP-IB, but has a weird DIN power connector cord. No P/S.
(2) 7914 drives - one of these may be a non-op, having suffered some
damage during transit.
(2)HP3000 series 37's - these are piggy-backed, is this the usual
configuration? . Here's where I need some info:
The "top" unit has a DB-25F in slot one, and an HP-IB in slot 4, as
well as those DE-3F (correct terminology?) connectors in ports 0-5.
The "bottom" unit has the DB-25F in slot one, the HP-IB in slot 4,
and an AUI (ethernet? Is this a Lanic board?) in slot 5, as well as
the 3-pin deals in ports 0-5. Above the ports is a female
Centronics-50 which connected to what I believe is a terminal
splitter, p/n 40290-60003. Above that is a *very* high-density 99-pin
male connector, this is attached to the board with the HP-IB
connector.
The two units are connected vi an HP-IB cable on port 4 of each. Also,
the top has the keyed power switch for both.
What I need is *really* basic info on the system and some pointers to
information sources. Some quick ones:
1) How in the heck do the two 3000/37 units come apart?
2) How do I wire a terminal to this?
3) Is the AUI connector an ethernet card? A lanic card?
4) Could someone please ID all the rest of the ports?
5) Is there a graphical display capability on this machine? As an add-on?
6) What kind of Pertec tape interface is available for this machine?
7) If my 2nd drive is damaged, how might I go about getting an OS for it?
I apologize for such a long post and my absolute lack of knowledge here. I
had a buddy who was supposed to help me out (3000 guru) but he's just gone
overseas for work indefinitely. It's such a cool system, the way it's put
together, and there's a bunch of neat freeware that I'd love to use too.
Any help at all would really be appreciated.
Thanks,
Aaron