That's good to know, Tony. I think I have one or two TRS-80 cables around
here somewhere. It would be nice if a Tandy cassette player would also
work; I think I have one of those here as well. I've put a couple of
feelers out there looking for an IBM variety.
Cliff Gregory
cgregory(a)lrbcg.com
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
To: Cgregory <Cgregory>
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 1998 7:20 PM
Subject: Re: Development, round II
>> I've never seen an IBM cassette drive; fact is I've never seen a 5150
>> without at least one disk drive. The 5150 does boot to cassette BASIC if
no
>> boot disk is present. Now my curiousity is piqued. I'm going to have to
>> find a cassette player and interface cable somewhere.
>
>AFAIK the IBM 5150 PC cassette cable is the same as the cable used to
>link a cassette recorder to a TRS-80. That should make it quite easy to
>find - I have a couple here (which I need to hang on to).
>
>It wouldn't be hard to solder one up, well, apart from soldering those
>infernal DIN plugs.
>
>-tony
>
>
I've never seen an IBM cassette drive; fact is I've never seen a 5150
without at least one disk drive. The 5150 does boot to cassette BASIC if no
boot disk is present. Now my curiousity is piqued. I'm going to have to
find a cassette player and interface cable somewhere.
Cliff Gregory
cgregory(a)lrbcg.com
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
To: Cgregory <Cgregory>
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 1998 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: Development, round II
>
>I never saw anybody use the cassette port for practical purposes. In fact,
I
>never saw a cassette drive from IBM. Good trivia question. Has anybody ever
>seen one? I do remember reading something years ago about hobbyists using
>the cassette port for plugging in wierd hardware hacks.
>
>The original PC came with Cassette Basic. As I recall, defaulted to that if
>you had no DOS boot disk. GWBasic and BasicA had to be loaded off the DOS
>disk.
>
Actually, I've had lots of bad luck with Compaq. They're semi-PCs (like the
Tandy 1000's) I mean, if you go to download Internet Explorer 4 from
Microsoft, they have a seperate download for Compaqs. If you call tech
support, they'll charge you for ANYTHING they can.
Tim D. Hotze
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 1998 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: back ontopic: mac 400k drive.
>>
>> Big CHOMP!
>>
>> >... You could hose up the head, or send a minute
>> > electrical charge through your body that could affect your ability to
>> > reproduce in the future. Unless you are really good with working on
tiny
>> > mechanical parts, save yourself the headache and replace the drive.
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>
>> To vent abit...
>>
>> This reponses is typical of tech-support droid who do not wants
>> anyone to mess with internal computer parts without giving any tips
>
>Well said. I agree 100%
>Not only do I _enjoy_ doing repairs, but I am getting fed up with the
>number of times I've received replies like :
>'Monochrome monitors are old-fashioned. You can buy a new SVGA colour
>monitor for less than the cost of repair'
>
>The problem is, the monitor in question was off a Whitechapel
>workstation. Not the sort of machine you can just plug a PC monitor into.
>
>Ditto disk drives. You can't plug just any hard disk into a PERQ or a
>PDP8, or an Apple ][, or a whatever. Sometimes you have to repair the old
>unit.
>
>That's apart from the fact that you should try to keep as many original
>parts in a classic as you can.
>
>Without wishing to blow my own trumpet, some people on this list are
>quite good at handling small parts (a lot smaller than you find in disk
>drives), are quite happy to replace surface mount components at home,
>will rebuild thick-film hybrids, will rewind motors, will realign disk
>drives, and have an array of tools and test equipment that exceeds just
>about any service centre.
>
>Another mini-flame for service manuals that claim that some part is 'not
>field repairable'. Sorry, but _I'll_ decide what _I_ can repair. At the
>moment, the only thing I can't rebuild is hard disk HDAs. But I'd much
>rather have a service manual that starts 'Take the HDA into a clean room
>and undo the cover screws (#1 in fig 4.2), lift off cover' etc than one
>which entirely misses out the HDA.
>
>> or solution besides telling them off to "authorized sites". Compaq
>> is pretty bad especially when I own years out of date equipment and
>> needs trival info on two resistors to fix a SLT power brick, I'm
>
>Do you have any idea as to the circuit topology in this unit? I don't
>have any Compaq stuff, but I may be able to guess what's going on if you
>indicate what the main chopper control chip is, and where the resistors
>are located (electrically) in relation to it.
>
>> Jason D.
>
>-tony
>
I have the manuals somewhere, i.e., not handy. Do you need something looked
up?
Cliff Gregory
cgregory(a)lrbcg.com
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
To: Cgregory <Cgregory>
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 1998 6:53 PM
Subject: Monitor woes
>Lastly, does anyone have any of the original stuff for it, ie software,
>manuals, etc.
>
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>
part of my new additions last week was a bunch of old mac stuff. i finally got
one of the 400k drives, but its having eject problems. the mechanism was stuck
so now im able to get a disk in, but when i call it to eject, the motor turns,
the disk lifts up to the slot, but wont pop out, then the mechanism goes back
down in position to read the disk. it does the same thing when i use a paper
clip; it will go up, the disk will stay in, then it goes back down into read
position. amazingly, the drive works fine otherwise. i dont quite understand
the mechanicals of it, anyone have ideas?
david
i enjoy reading what others have acquired, so i'd add what i just found.
apple //e and a franklin 5.25 drive $5
ibm dictionary of computer terms on disk (never opened) for $1
also, an old IBMer at work gave me some interesting things.
i got the usual 286 boards and some mfm drives and controllers.
i also got some kind of interface board that prompts for a password before
booting. made by sdi incorporated. i tried it in a 486 i built, but it wont
accept the passwoid.
also got something called a corvus systems ibm interface. it has a 34pin
header in some kind of funky mounting bracket. anyone know what it is?
also got something called a videotrax in its original but ragged box. its a
card that lets one use a vcr for backup. i think 80 meg per tape. i wont plan
to archive important data, but would be useful to image one old xt drive to
another.
i also got the host/client cards for the old pc expansion case. i have
extras, so if anyone needs them, make a deal.
i also saw a trs80 model 4? it looked like my trs80 model 3 except it had no
disk drives and was white! i never saw a white trs80. i might go back and get
it.
also found a tandy trs80 model ? which was similar in a way to the model 4
except it had a vertical 8 inch drive, but someone had gone into it and the
keyboard was missing. not bad for finishing out the week.
david
> Well, I found out that Atari is kicking. Has anyone heard about the game
> "Primal Rage" It's copywrighted to Atari Games.
Atari Games is the arcade division of Atari, which is doing just fine
(though I think they're part of some MegaArcadeConglomerate these days).
The home computer and console divisions of Atari are pretty much gone.
--
Ben Coakley http://www.math.grin.edu/~coakley coakley(a)ac.grin.edu
Station Manager, KDIC 88.5 FM CBEL: Xavier OH
Wow, this is global. -Mtn Goats
well, you could get your 5150 in several different flavours: one, two or no
floppy drives. i actually saw a pc with no floppies, just had plastic cover
plates so your only choice of saving data would be like an early apple, just
cassette. i never knew of anyone actually doing it though. i might ask some of
the old ibmers when i go back to work.
david
In a message dated 98-01-27 00:05:46 EST, you write:
<<
> BTW has anyone ever seen someone use the cassette port? I supported
>several hundred early PC user's and never even heard of anyone using the
>cassette port.
Well, just off the top of my head, the original IBM PC came with two 5 1/4"
floppy drives. That tells me you'd have to be crazy to even attempt using
the cassette interface. Either that or have some special purpose
application (don't even want to imagine what). >>
classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Subj: Re[3]: Development, round II
Philip Belben wrote:
>REXX on a PC? I think I have heard (very dimly) of this (there was
>something called REXX-88 or some such name when I was at IBM) but I
>haven't used REXX for years! What does it run on? Will it run on a
>Compaq 386? An IBM AT?
Yes - it is an optional part of an IBM PC-DOS 7 installation. I believe
that someone mentioned that that OS will run on any Xt or better PC w/
512k memory or higher. Of course the other PC OS with great built in
support for Rexx is OS/2. I do not know about any ports to Microsoft OSes
nor any of the variety of UNIXes available for Intel machines. Nor do I
know what relation this (Rexx w/ PC-DOS 7) may bear to the REXX-88 product
that you mention - does that run on MS DOS e.g.?
Peter Prymmer
>512K). [Hey Roger, it's got a handle!] I was also able to find the
Yep, it was (kinda) a clone of the Compaq (which was, of course, and IBM
PC clone...)
>QUESTION: Does anyone know how many of these were produced?
According to Haddock: "Was in production by 1984, and was withdrawn on
April 2, 1986. Not many of these machines were made."
Also: "This portable had eight expansion slots and used an XT motherboard."
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
