test-drb November 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

185 participants
940 discussions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< OK, I've heard all the stories about this cable. I suspect I have < a "bad" one in a BA23. How do I get a "good" one? Is there still < a DEC part I can order? Or, do I have to go the the local wrecking < yard and find one? Dave the incorrect (BAD!) cable is one where all the wires are of unequal length. Find one via scrounge or get molex pins and wire and make one. the Correct cable all the leads will be of the same length. Allison

25 years, 7 months

85mb Micropolis in a Microvax II?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com < >doable but, near unimplementable do to the lack of Qbus. The more comm < >situation is unsupported, IE: DEC didn't consider it marketable or test < >it exactly that way. Two RDxx disks in a ba123 is an example. < < Two RD5x's in a BA123 was definitely a supported configuration, and is < listed in the late-80's DEC catalogs. I meant ba23 not 123. < Two RD3x (half-height) disks in a BA23 is also supported, and indeed is < the reason behind the 6-button BA23 front panel. Many 11/53 < configurations were shipped from the factory this way. It was never a validated MicroVAX configuration though I've built three over the years. < Two full-height hard drives in a single BA23 was never officially suppor < (at least for the various microPDP-11 configurations), because < they refused to support a base box sold without removable media. Correct. The group in DEC that balked at that was Field Service as a microvax1/II was "...not adaquately diagnosable without removable media". Marketing VIA CSSE was forced to consider that an unsupportable configuration though electronically solid and desireable if used for LAVC member or with external removable media. Allison

25 years, 7 months

85mb Micropolis in a Microvax II?

by dburrows＠netpath.net

>< I have not tried using 2 RD5x drives in a BA23 because the power supply >< can't handle it according to the manuals. > >Ran one for years with two RD54s, DEQNA, 13mb, DHV11, TK50 controller, >LPV11, RQDX3. The description is so you know it was a full box. Insure >the internal power cable is good and the ECOd one. > >Allison I agree on the cable. It is amazing how it will smoke. I just have never been willing to try putting 2 drives in. ( I have several BA123's for test beds and operating systems) I find them to be much easier on the hands. Dan

25 years, 7 months

Old 386 and 486 pc's

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< The LE I have has a built in hard drive (20 Mb), which I had to deep < format once (involves going to DEBUG, and typing in an address or < something like that). I haven't really used it in about 2 years or so, b < as far as I know it still works. Model E I believe, I added a WD1002/st251 it runs and runs. Format from Debug is C800:5. I have a utility called HDinit for that too. < My interest in collecting these particular computers (PC Clones) has les < to do with their collectability (unlike collecting old 8-bit machines), < and more to do with getting a few folks started in computing, but withou < spending a lot of cash . .. Did a bit of that. < That was in reference to Infoworld, which got a lot of angry letters fo < gushing over the LE clones while being much more critical of "innovative < machines such as the Amiga. This was in late 1985 to mid 1986, when the < Amiga first came out. Clonism i'm sure. If it wasn't PC it was a abomination. Allison

25 years, 7 months

85mb Micropolis in a Microvax II?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< I agree on the cable. It is amazing how it will smoke. I just have nev < been willing to try putting 2 drives in. ( I have several BA123's for te < beds and operating systems) I find them to be much easier on the hands < Dan In DEC systems there are three things I can say, Supported, Unsupported and unimplementable. Of the three the last one is least common. An example of the last one is connecting a DHV11 to a pdt11/150. It's doable but, near unimplementable do to the lack of Qbus. The more common situation is unsupported, IE: DEC didn't consider it marketable or test it exactly that way. Two RDxx disks in a ba123 is an example. The yabut is that a TK50 eats as much power as a RDxx. The assumption then was one disk and floppy or tape for backup/installs. Later on external TK50s or network backups made that need lower. Disk space however, was always premium as network files systems (VIA eithernet or LAVC) are slow compared to local disk. So if you observe configuration rules (power, bus fanout and dma/interrupt grants) then two disk are very doable and the PS is plenty heafty to do it. It's pretty hard to maxout a BA23 without running out of slots in the box! Allison

25 years, 7 months

Weekend finds!

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I went to the Tampa hamfest this weekend and ran into Phil Clayton. I also came home with two new toys. A HP 9835A and a LOADED Tektronix 4051! Unfortunately both of these need some serious restoration! The CRT in the HP is really messed up. It has all kinds of small spots inside the glass of the CRT except for a spot about 3" across in the center. I haven't tried it yet but I doubt that I'll be able to read anything except directly in the center of the screen. I also got a HP 13272 5 1/4" disk drive with it. I don't know much about the Tektronix, except that it's a very old 4051 Graphics computer. I got two Tek 4097 8" disk drive cabinets with it. One cabinet contains a single drive and the other contains two drives. The 4051 has two sockets in the back for plug in ROMs but also I got a separate box that plugs into the 4051 and holds 10 plug in ROMs. I think it's got 6 ROMs in it including the service ROM. While I was at the hamfest I was lucky enough to find brand new manuals for two of the ROMs. One is the Signal Processing ROM I and the other is the Signal Processing ROM II (FFT). I'm SUPPOSED to get a stack of manuals for the system too. I left behind the plotter that went with the system. It was a monsterous Tektronix flat bed job that must have measured 5 x 6 FEET!!! Joe

25 years, 7 months

FW: Rainbow 100 manuals, some sfw, free to good home

by kyrrin＠my-dejanews.com

Found on Usenet: You want Rainbow stuff, get hold of the guy directly. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- On Mon, 23 Nov 1998 08:43:59 -0600, in comp.sys.dec.micro you wrote: >>From: dxyzzywillcox(a)prairienet.org (David Willcox) >>Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro >>Subject: Rainbow 100 manuals, some sfw, free to good home >>Message-ID: <dxyzzywillcox-2311980844000001(a)slip-53.prairienet.org> >>X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4 >>Lines: 18 >>Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 08:43:59 -0600 >>NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.17.3.185 >>X-Complaints-To: newsmgr(a)prairienet.org >>X-Trace: firefly 911832176 192.17.3.185 (Mon, 23 Nov 1998 08:42:56 CDT) >>NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 08:42:56 CDT >>Organization: Prairienet -- Your Community Network for East Central Illinois >>Path: blushng.jps.net!news.eli.net!spamkiller1.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!128.174.5.49!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!firefly!dxyzzywillcox >> >>I have a number of DEC Rainbow 100 manuals and a few disks. The lot is >>free to anyone who will pay for shipping. I have no idea how usable any of >>the disks are. >> >>I've got: >> - FinalWord manual and disks (This is a semi-decent word processor) >> - Rainbow 100 System Kit and Installation Instructions. >> - Multiplan 86 (includes disk) >> - CP/M 86/80 Operating System 2.0 (manual only) 2 copies >> - MS-DOS Operating System 2.05 (manual only) >> - MBasic-86 (includes disk) >> - AutoSort-86 (includes disk) >> - CP/M 86/80 1.0 Technical Documentation >> >>If you're interested, please reply via email. I don't normally read this group. >>-- >>David Willcox >>Remove the "xyzzy" to get my real email address. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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..."

25 years, 7 months

Old 386 and 486 pc's

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Those and maybe some of the PS/2's as well. (On a related note, anyone < remember Leading Edge computers and how the media (Infoworld particularl < was falling all over these clones?) I happen to have a LE model D. It was a well done XT (not even turbo) that I still sometimes use for several reasons. Video(mono/herc), printer, 360kfloppy and one serial port hardware were all on the board with 640k of ram. Adding a HDC and a half height drive and a modem made it my first PC for the net. It's upsides; complete and compact (about 2/3 the width of the standard xt case) systems as XTs go. It isn't SMT construction for filled with PALs so its repairable. The PS and cooling is good. It's also one of the few XT class machine my Intel Inboard386 works properly in. Downside; it's a 4.77mhz XT so if speed is important... The model D was standard with 640k, Amber or white monitor and two floppies. The system has a switch on the back for CGA/herc color. I can't comment on the media WRT to PCs as it was the first PC I owned (got it in '92 when its owner retired it) so up to that point Z80, PDP11, VAX were only in my field of view. Allison

25 years, 7 months

85mb Micropolis in a Microvax II?

by dburrows＠netpath.net

Correction -It is R7 that needs the jumper. Dan >Hi: > >There's a quick mod that needs to be done to a non-DEC RD53, ie a >Micropolis 1325. There's a place on the large circuit board for "R6" that >has nothing in that place. Solder a wire between the two R6 terminals and >you have a "real" RD53. > >Kevin > > >-- >Kevin McQuiggin VE7ZD >mcquiggi(a)sfu.ca >

25 years, 7 months

85mb Micropolis in a Microvax II?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< >I have not tried using 2 RD5x drives in a BA23 because the power suppl < >can't handle it according to the manuals. Not true. it wasn't a supported configuration though. < Now that's something I didn't think of. Thank you, that could have bee < very embarrassing. < This particular MVII has a single RD54 and a TK50. < I don't have any docs, so can one of the decsperts confirm this please? For those with specs the TK50/RDxx config was a support config and the TK50 is a power hog and is equivelent to a RDxx power wise. Allison

25 years, 7 months

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test-drb November 1998