What's wrong with this (virtual) "group" ???
Of all the collecting groups I belong to, this is the only one where my
(and I suppose other's) public (and private) requests for help have been
ignored and (worse) I suspect even opposed.
Is there something I don't know? If this the case I would like to know.
Thank you.
Also your caper to insist on having ALL the items in the collection in
working condition is, in my opinion, unique to this group. I can
understand (and share) the motivation but surely we (I?) collect for the
design point of view and for the historical importance. Don't we? Or am
I in the wrong group anyway?
Sorry for the frankness but I thought I'd get this one out of my chest
before it gets even worse (I am still owed at least 5 replies to my
messages) in that I will be banned from this mailing list. Hope not.
What is your problem?
Hoping to have a straight answer
I am
Yours sincerely
enrico
--
================================================================
Enrico Tedeschi, 54, Easthill Drive, BRIGHTON BN41 2FD, U.K.
tel/fax +(0)1273 701650 (24 hours) or 0850 104725 mobile
website <http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~e.tedeschi>
================================================================
visit Brighton: <http://www.brighton.co.uk/tourist/welcome.htm>
Anyone want some DEC Rainbow software? I have Symphony, plus some
accounting stuff and misc manuals. Pay shipping (from Ohio, USA) and it's
yours.
I know where there are some Rainbow macines which could be had for next to
nothing, if anyone wants.
Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Doug Spence said:
>Does the PS/2 not have any 5.25" drive bays? Weird. :) I'm not an IBMer
>so I don't know these things, though I *think* one of the machines I used
>to do CAD work on was a PS/2 of some flavour.
Every PS/2 that I've ever seen (note: this does not mean All PS/2's... just
the ones I've seen) didn't have a 5.25" port at all... not even their tower
"servers". I suspect it was IBM (trying to) setting a new standard... again.
>OK, that makes it useful. Would you happen to know what the pinout is of
>the 37-pin connector, so that I can try to make use of the drive without
>modification? Is it even possible to buy a matching female 37-pin
>connector?
IIRC, it's just straight thru with the last/first 3 pins unused... but I'd
have to look at the cable or ring some pins to be sure (and yes, I'm a
packrat...).
I also believe that you can still get 37-pin D-sub connectors thru the
Mouser Electronics catalog. Good people to work with... I had 3 distinct
problems with my first order (totalling $40USD) and they took care of all
of them at their expense (shipped some closeout SMD resistors *overnight*
because they forgot them in the package... their expense... that's their
policy, despite my not being in a rush for them!) Try http://www.mouser.com .
>Interesting. How are the drives interfaced to the CoCos? I've got a
>CoCo1, CoCo2, and CoCo3, but I've never found a disk drive for these
>machines.
All CoCo controllers take Shugart standard drives (now called IBM standard
drives... IBM's taking over again!) altho RSDOS limits you to 35 tracks,
SSDD, 156K disks (the original Shugart drives) without patches... which (of
course) I have. RSDOS can handle a max of 2 DSDD 80 track drives with
patches (more accurately... they look like 4 SSDD 80 track drives, with :2
the backside of :0 and :3 the backside of :1) but 1.44Meg storage thru
RSDOS is really good! OS-9 can handle 3 DSDD 80trk drives!
>> If you (or anyone) needs more info on this drive, lemme know. But I can
>> tell you, that just taking it apart is *fun*, if you have 3-4 hours to get
>> it apart and back together. I've had mine disassembled 3-4 times now, to
>> figure where to cut holes & stuff for my cable mods.
>
>Heh. I couldn't even get mine apart, because of the two six-pointed
>screws on the bottom. The screws have a lump in the middle so I can't use
>a flat-blade screwdriver as I did when I had a similar problem opening my
>Mac 512K.
There are three ways to get into the case, only one of which I recommend.
The first method involves a chainsaw and a 12lb (5.5kg) sledgehammer... If
you have to ask, you don't want to know. ;^>
The second method would require an appropriately sized Torx screwdriver and
a Dremel tool with drill press attachment. You would need to drill a small
hole in the end of the Torx driver to accommodate the post in the screw.
While this method is the safest to the drive, it's also the most work.
Method 3 (which is the one I used) requires a pointed instrument (like a
leather awl) and a regular (flat-head or slotted) screwdriver that just
fit's into 2 of the points of the Torx screw (the screwdriver tip of my
tiny Swiss Army knife worked perfectly). Use the awl to bend the post over
as much as you can, and this *should* (no guarantees, YMMV, yadda, yadda,
yadda...) get you enough room to get enough of the slotted screwdriver into
2 of the star points and extract the screw.
As the case is built like a Sherman Tank, once the screws are removed, deep
six them. I've been running mine for 3 years without the special screws
with no ill effects.
Anyway, I hope this helps, and enjoy the drive!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch(a)northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.
I have an unusual CoCo 2...it was produced as a kit form. I
bought it at a RS tent sale in Dallas in 1985-86. I thought it was a
plug in the boards kit, but when I got it home it was totally bare
boards. Took several hours of soldering to complete. I was told by a
friend who was a RS manager, that they were a pilot program for schools
to have classes assemble the machines and then the school would have
alow cost path to getting more computers. Tandy later decided that this
would be a warranty nightmare and sold the kits for $20 at the tent
sale.
There was a thread here a few weeks back about dealing with those sticky
labels that seem to accumulate on classic computers.
I've just bought a can of a substance called 'Electrolube (the brand name)
Label Remover'. You spray it on, wait a few minutes, and rub the label
off. I used it yesterday to remove some _strong_ double-sided adhesive
tape inside my laser printer, and it did the job extremely well.
The can claims that it may attack some plastics (so take care on classic
micro cases!), and it's not that cheap (\pounds 4.00 for a small-ish
spraycan from Maplin). But it certainly does the job.
--
-tony
ard12(a)eng.cam.ac.uk
The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill
What a wonderful idea. Such a list is ideal for a web site. I will gather a
few more titles (espeically biographical books by and about CEO's from NCR,
Raytheon, GE, DEC, etc.) and send them off to you.
Kevin
> HOME & PERSONAL COMPUTERS HISTORY BIBLIOGRAPHY
>
> Books listed as TITLE, AUTHOR, PUBLISHER AND PUBLICATION DATE
An excellent list!
I'd like to point out that between 77-81 timeframe you have a huge hole as
there was an explosion of books about microcomputers.
Allison
Have a mint condition Kaypro 10, complete with all manuals. Looks like it
came out of the box. Works great, all original software.
If you know of anyone who has a serious interest, please e-mail me.
Don Sarno
Sam,
Thanks for your efforts in the great AIM-65 buyout! I'll take two of the Panasonics.
Regards,
Bob
----------
From: Sam Ismail[SMTP:dastar@crl.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 1997 4:18 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: AIM65
Ok, here it is.
Mike Westerfield, the guy with the AIM65s, phoned me yesterday and we
spoke about the deal. He has been offered $125 for EACH unit from a
company called Dynatem which still uses the AIMs commercially. Mike
started a company way back with a product based on the AIM65. It was an
insurance rate calculator. In order to make the product marketable, he
designed a plastic and a metal-base enclosure. He also placed a compact
power supply inside the enclosure to make for a nice complete package.
He apparently was very successful with this venture and sold many. At
this point, unless someone comes along and offers him more than $125 per
unit and buys the whole lot, they are going to Dynatem. That's too rich
for my blood.
After explaining all this to me, and after I explained what we do here
on classiccmp, Mike mentioned that he had a bunch of other stuff that we
might be interested in. He has a whole basement full of stuff he would
like to sell off. Here's what he told me he has:
EPROM burners
Logical Devices GangPro-S and GangPro-2S. These can burn 32 chips at a time.
These also have other features which make them very nice.
Logical Devices GangPro-8 and GangPro-4 which can burn 8 and 4 respectively.
Optical Technologies EP-2A-88 and EP-2A-89.
EPROMs
A "ton" of NEC-2716 and Hitachi 2716 EPROMs
He also has the line on hundreds of Panasonic RL-H18 palmtops. This is a
palmtop which came out around 1985 and had FORTH in ROM. It also has a
20-col (or 40-col?) thermal printer and a case which bundles the two
together. His company also developed an expansion "tray" which houses
extra memory that the Panasonic can access through bank-switching. He
sold this product to (I believe) an insurance firm and now they want to
dump them all. Now again, he said they have hundreds, and were just
going to shit-can them, but he said the company would most likely opt to
get some money back for them if they could. He said probably about $10
per unit would get them, but they'd have to be purchased in one shot.
Now I don't think that there are enough people here with an interest to
buy one. I suggested that perhaps they can set aside a couple hundred
and then shitcan the rest because I don't have a couple thousand lying
around in which to buy all of them, nor would I want to. It's up to us
to come up with a proposal.
As far as dealing with Mike, I asked him contacting him. At this point,
he would perfer the current arrangement whereby I am the central point of
contact because it is easier for him. However, this tends to put me in a
bad spot for certain reasons. I'm sure there will be people interested in
working out a bulk deal with him. To those people I say feel free to
contact him since he is most interested in getting rid of everything in
one shot. He's not interested in dealing with onesies and twosies. So
he would like for everyone who has an interest in a little here and a
little there to contact me about it and then he's going to call me again
in a week. This would refer mainly to someone wanting one of the
panasonic's or a few EPROMs. As far as the Panasonics, he's finding out
more information about quantity and we will talk more about price next
week. As far as the EPROM burners, I would think that dealing directly
with him would be best.
Anyway, his e-mail address is Mikeooo1(a)aol.com. He's a very nice guy.
He offered that if there was anyone in New Jersey (I believe there is at
least one person here, I can't remember his name) to come on down to his
place and he'll show you through all the stuff he has.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Sam Ismail <dastar(a)crl.com> writes:
> Mike Westerfield, the guy with the AIM65s, phoned me yesterday and we
> spoke about the deal. He has been offered $125 for EACH unit from a
> company called Dynatem which still uses the AIMs commercially. Mike
> started a company way back with a product based on the AIM65. It was an
> insurance rate calculator. In order to make the product marketable, he
> designed a plastic and a metal-base enclosure. He also placed a compact
> power supply inside the enclosure to make for a nice complete package.
> He apparently was very successful with this venture and sold many. At
> this point, unless someone comes along and offers him more than $125 per
> unit and buys the whole lot, they are going to Dynatem. That's too rich
> for my blood.
Some computers are so classic that they're still out there doing Real
Work!
I am going to have to pull my other AIM65 out and take a good look at
it to see if I can figure out who badge-engineered it. (I wonder if it
was Mike?) It is also in a plastic case that is obviously intended to
make it portable, and I wonder how many other companies there were
doing specialized applications around them.
Thanks, Sam and Marvin, for sounding this out and being the
go-betweens.
-Frank McConnell
