test-drb November 1997

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

126 participants
546 discussions

by engine＠chac.org

At 00:21 11/10/97 +1030, you wrote: >>OK. By the way, speaking of "sub-laptops", does anyone know what kind of models >>might be good for me? I just pretty much want to be able to take notes.... >>are there any classics that have a keyboard large >>enough to type on(not two-finger typing.) ? Where can I get one of these Radio >>Shack 100's? There is a great machine called the AlphaSmart Pro, which is an RS 100 with a faster processor, PC and Mac data ports, etc. They're almost unheard of because they're sold only through the educational channel, but you can buy >from the manufacturer. I think it's $295. If you have more money, want a real screen, and go for really gorgeous looks, Apple has finally started selling the eMate to individuals -- basically it's a Newton with a screen and keyboard in one piece. It's $800 and only comes in jade-green. If I had any real money I'd buy either of these tomorrow. __________________________________________ Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org http://www.chac.org/index.html Computer History Association of California

26 years, 8 months

VAXstation II, now different problem

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com> <OK, now I've got the HD plugged in and am hoping things will go better. <Foolish me. Now it just sits there on "2". Doesn't even give me the "?54 <RETRY" message, it simply sounds like it starts to spin down the HD, and <then immediatly spins it back up. It's been sitting like this for a while <now. Nothing. Even the LED on the back says "2". < <Oh, at least I found out I've got an RD53-A HD. Is there any difference <between a RD53 HD and a RD53-A HD, or are they the same thing? Zane, You have a bad RD53 like I said yesterday. The controller cannot/does not command the drive to spin up/down as its an MFM drive. The cause for spin down on RD53s is the head is not finding the servo track so it spins down and retrys spinning up and finding the servo track. There is a fix for some of them... The problem on the Micropolus 1325s is the head meck when powered down sits against a rubber bumper and gets stuck there as the rubber decays. The result is the head can't move. Possible fix, open the HDA (yes take the cover off) while running and move then head manually till it aquires the servo, put the cover and backup to tape if there is an OS on it. I have one drive where I put some sticky lable on the bumper to salvage the drive and it's held up for six months so far. The bumper in located in the voice coil positioner and is visible to the eye. The head arm sits agaisnt it when powered down. FYI: if you open it in a generally clean place ther is little risk of contamination and even these "sealed" drives contain a internal air filter to remove contaiminents. Generally RD53s with spin down not reliable and should be replaced. An RD53 is a microplus 1325 71mb MFM drive. For microvax use a RD54, 159mb MFM drive is more reliable an provides enough space. VMS will fit on a RD53 if DECwindows and system libraries are not installed leaving about 10mb free and makes for a cramped system. An RD54 will permit a full VMS install and show have at least 20mb free making a very useable system. A two drive system using a RD54 and an RD52(31mb), 53(71) or RD54(159mb) for the second drive is a very good ssytem and can support useful work. FYII: A VS2000 (a tiny microvax) is handy as it contains rom code that can format and/or verify MFM drives. They also make pretty good VMS or Ultrix systems in their own right of they have at least 4mb of ram installed. Allison

26 years, 8 months

VAXstation II tapes

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<How would one go about getting the OS off of the CD onto the Vax? Sounds <like my best bet is to try to get a SCSI controller for this puppy (at <least I gather from my research that SCSI controllers are available). Any <idea's on who sells such things, and for how much? Two ways, RRD40 or RRD50. Any scsi controller you use must emulate a MSCP device or the system will not know how to boot. The VMS cd is bootable. The SCSI I'm using is a CMD C-200TM and it seems to work ok. The problem is that an RRD40/50 CDrom will cost $100-200 and a SCSI controller will not be cheap either. method 2, get someone to cut a tape from the CD using their system. <BTW if you've seen the last post I had about the HD not being connected, <your couple of posts make me wonder if this wasn't done to get it to boot <off of a network. Possibly but, not likely. You can casue a net boot by setting the drive offline from the front pannel and the boot roms will try the nest device or you can do a >>>b QNA0: telling it to use the network adaptor if installed(an M7504 or 7516). My guess is that the Microvax was gutted for the disks as RD53s are generally small for them. <Don't worry, I've no intention of letting loose of the manuals. I never <let loose of manuals, unless it's something I've got multiples of. They'r <great manuals from what I've seen, the Hardware Information manual is <definitly well done. A little light in areas, but all in all very good. If you have the hardware manuals you may not have the orange or grey wall. What's that? The full VMS doc set is atleast 17 volumes of the 1.5-2" looseleaf binder size and they are chock full of everything about the OS and device programming info. Orange corrosponds to V4 and Grey is the V5. Allison

26 years, 8 months

VAXstation II, now different problem

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Sun Nov 9 18:18:51 1997 <Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by world.std.com (5.65c/Spike-2.0) < id AA07454; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 13:23:39 -0500 <Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) < by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMT < id KAA06738; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 10:19:54 -0800 <Received: from mx4.u.washington.edu (mx4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.5]) < by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMT < id KAA20288 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 10: <Received: from rm-rstar.sfu.ca (root(a)rm-rstar.sfu.ca [142.58.120.21]) < by mx4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP < id KAA07962 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 10:19:07 <Received: from gumby.rfnet.sfu.ca (gumby.rfnet.sfu.ca [192.75.246.242]) by < id KAA08925 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> (from mcquiggi(a)sfu.ca); Sun <Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19971109101851.02ff238c(a)ferrari.sfu.ca> <Date: Sun, 09 Nov 1997 10:18:51 -0800 <Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu <Precedence: bulk <From: Kevin McQuiggin <mcquiggi(a)sfu.ca> <To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washingto <Subject: Re: VAXstation II, now different problem <In-Reply-To: <199711091625.AA06623(a)world.std.com> <Mime-Version: 1.0 <Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" <X-Sender: mcquiggi(a)ferrari.sfu.ca <X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN <Status: R <This RD53 spindown problem can also be caused by a spindle brake that does <not retract fully when the drive is powered up! It rubs against the spindl <and the drive shuts down. I fixed this by simply undoing the screw holding <the brake solenoid and moving it back a little bit. My drive has been <running for well over a year following this fix. Worth checking for but spindown due to stuck head positioner is THE most common problem with 1325 drives. Allison

26 years, 8 months

Building A Computer from Scratch (was:Classic Computer Rescue Squad)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: HOTZE <photze(a)batelco.com.bh> <That's what I said about 3 weeks ago. We should make a computer, possibly <our own design, from common components. Was anyone here into processor <engineering in the "early days", if so, I have a pretty good idea where (if <want) we can get a board-maker for about $200, which might also be able to <single-layer chips. Also, we could probably get our hands on some of Intel <old stuff... they had a page for that on their site, but I forget where. < We could use components that were marking points in history... a 5.25" <floppy, for example. Dear Hotze, Your out of touch with the world. There are people already doing this. It is doable though the price range for the boards varies alot depending on size and quantity. There is a chap in AUS that has the P112 a complete z180 system on a board with floppy and serial ports that runs CP/m-80 like the wind. You can build a system easy enough using available parts from mail order houses like JAMCO or JDR. Possible CPUs (looking at latest catalog) are 6800, 6809, 68000, Z80, 8080, 8085, 8088 all of which are still very much available along with the needed RAM, Eprom and TTL glue logic. The parts thing, small quantites (10-100 pieces) of most ttl and micros are not a problem but production quanities (1000s+) generally means going for surface mount and modern pars to ASSURE parts availability. There is not a lot of magic to taking a 6800 or z80 and making a system of it. The real work is board layout and all the little details to get it in production. I can say this as a designer of some 20+ years that still does exactly this kind of thing. Copying an older processor design like say PDP-8 runs the risk of copyrights and patents. Doing a scratch design means amassing support for a common design and then there would be no code available as a unique design. Cost to design vs return are problems as commitment for capital to make it and kit the parts are sufficient to dismay most. Allison

26 years, 8 months

Old stuff

by scottk5＠ibm.net

On 1997-11-09 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to scottk5(a)ibm.net >X-Sender: ward(a)news2.cnct.com >X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN >Kip Crosby wrote: >> At 03:34 11/8/97 GMT, you wrote: >> >....in my experience >> >with IBM network cards, if they're a round (i.e. BNC) connector, >> >they're probably the old "baseband" stuff that uses lots of coax >>cable >and a hub/amplifier, and work only with IBM PC-LAN Program >>and >NetBEUI....the number 2Mb/sec comes >> >to mind.... >> Are we talking about Arcnet here? When I think 2Mb/sec, BNC >>connector, and 8-bit bus, I think Arcnet, but there may have been >others.... If the cards are _branded_ IBM, chances are well over >ten to one that they are >Token Ring. IBM never touched Arcnet, and was hesitant about >Ethernet. -- >Ward Griffiths If any of those network cards ARE token-ring and have BNC connectors, I would love to buy a couple. I got an old Token ring MAU several years ago that has BNC ports and would like to try it out. Can't tell you how many people have flat out denied that Token Ring was ever carried over coax! But the existence of the MAU is proof enough that at one time it was done. Kirk Scott scottk5(a)ibm.net Kirk Scott dynasoar(a)mindspring.com Net-Tamer V 1.09.2 - Test Drive

26 years, 8 months

Sun keyboard/mouse

by rcini＠email.msn.com

I got my Sun 3/50 working the other day (bad flyback transformer in the monitor), but now I need a keyboard/mouse. I think that I need a "type 3" keyboard and a mouse. Does anyone have a spare to sell? Also, does anyone know the specs of the "shoebox" external hard drive? TIA! Rich Cini/WUGNET <rcini(a)msn.com> - ClubWin! Charter Member (6) - MCP Windows 95/Networking

26 years, 8 months

Classic "Laptops"

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 06:47 AM 11/9/97 +0000, you wrote: >I've recently heard of someone who told me about an 8080 laptop from >someone who has been into computers longer than I have. He said that >there was a laptop... in the 1970's, that was smaller than the origional >Compaq. It was soupossed to only have a little RAM, and it was used by >journalists, who would connect with a modem an upload the files. Is >this true? If so, what on earth ever happened to these? (Does this >sound like something else... H/PC come to mind? That would be the Radio Shack Model 100. 8085 processor, 8K-32K RAM, simple text editor, basic, and comm pgm built in. See: <http://www.m100.com/> Andy Diller's site <http://www.the-dock.com/club100.html> Club 100 <http://home.northernway.net/~zmerch/signupform.html> Model 100 Mailing List <http://acme.nug.net:80/~tmne/> Tri-Mike Network East I love 'em myself. I'm working on an alphapaging program so I can use one as a dedicated paging station. There are, btw, *still* a lot of journalists who use them, especially in areas where reliability is important. (They have no moving parts.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/

26 years, 8 months

Classic "Laptops"

by adam＠merlin.net.au

>OK. By the way, speaking of "sub-laptops", does anyone know what kind of models >might be good for me? I just pretty much want to be able to take notes; etc. >Windows CE is cheap enough for me, but they're keyboards aren't for REAL >people. >Possibly an Apple Newton? Or are there any classics that have a keyboard large >enough to type on(not two-finger typing.) ? Where can I get one of these Radio >Shack 100's? An alternative to the 100 is the Amstrad Notepad (NC-100), which I found to be pretty good for notes, and is somewhat more recent. Not that recent, though - it uses the Z80A. Adam.

26 years, 8 months

Sorry, I need to get this to PG Manney, there

by manney＠nwohio.com

>>> I'm new at collecting classics. What is a VIC-20? >> >>The VIC-20 was Commodore's first computer...2K of RAM (I think), did sounds >>and color TV screen stuff. > >Actually it's far from thier first. There was several models of the PET, Whoops! of course...and didn't they make a calculator or two? >and another earlier one whose name escapes me (KIT?). Unexpanded it has a >whopping 3583 bytes. I know for a fact it could be expanded to 16k, and I >think there was eventually a larger one than that. The VIC-20 was my only >computer from '82-'86 unfortunatly I gave it away in '90, and I finally got >one to replace it today!

26 years, 8 months

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test-drb November 1997