On the weekend I picked up a mint Zenith (luggable). Nosing
around the thrift I also found 4 10pack containers of DEC Formula One
5 1/4 RX50 floppies. 1 of which contained programs. As well there
were 2 Decmate II Word Processor manuals (no disks) and a Decmate II
Hardware Documentation manual with 2 disks. Sys. Overview and
Sys.Test Diskette.
The program disks were a 4part AT&T MSDOS v.3.3 rel 1.01
; a clock patch and 2 Test Diag. marked PC 6300 and an HP labelled
disk with Vectra msdos 3.1. $30 (Can.) A real score.
The Zenith is similiar to the Kaypro and Compaq luggables with a
cooler design. Along with the int. monitor it has a double pop-up
A/B drives and 3 ports on the rear as well as an RCA looking jack.
(for an external monitor ?). Best of all it booted with the AT&T
disks. The Disks marked PC6300 did nothing and the Vectra gave me a
no command.com present tho I was able to get a dir. listing which
showed one. Anyone with info on this 'chine ?
I imagine I was just lucky and the DEC disks came in to the
shop separately, but a nagging idea of the Rainbows ability to boot
msdos came to mind. I also finally found a DEC k-b for a long-dormant
Rainbow which has a 5meg Seagate. When I get the 15-pin video cable
I'll be able to check further.
ciao larry
lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com
OK, so this is off topic for the list charter, but I have a
friend with a Telebit V.34 28.8 modem (part number AP-8810SA-001)
which doesn't have a power adapter. Does anyone know (just hoping -
not really expecting) what this thing is looking for in terms of
power, and if it takes a common transformer?
Thanks!
J. Maynard Gelinas
In a message dated 98-02-26 22:08:24 EST, somebody wrote:
<< Geez, where do you guys keep all these computers??? >>
well, with living single, and a 3bedroom house for me and my dawg, it's easy!
=D
david
since everyone else is at it...
the identity we received at birth is available to anyone who asks, but
we adopted the collective name "communa" a few moths back, on realising
that we're multiple. it's raised a few eyebrows since, but that's life.
we're 23, and our first computer was a second-hand zx81 at the age of 9,
followed with reasonable swiftness by a new zx81 and memotech rampack.
the rampack died after a few years of non-use, and by then we had moved
on and up, and weren't much interested in the zx81 any more (we maintain
that attitude; it was a handy springboard, it was nice to have used one,
but it was the first and only eminently *disposable* computer...)
over the years we also acquired:
* a commodore 16, complete with tally roll printer;
* a memotech mtx512;
* a sinclair ql with serial port - we are currently waiting for a friend
at work to throw some more bits our way;
* a trigem xt with 40Mb hard disk, hgc monitor and panasonic kxp1170
printer - faithful workhorse for 5 years;
* an amstrad nc100 that we don't use anywhere near as much as we should;
* an original zx spectrum 48;
* a spectrum +2;
* a 286 motherboard, then a 386sx motherboard, an old case someone left
behind on doing a runner, a digital vga mono monitor and olivetti
card, 4 1Mb simms, and a win95 keyboard, for use as a convenience
system (and for internet surfing);
* an ncr 286 computer that looks like a paving slab and came with ega
colour monitor and lovely keyboard;
* and there may well be a decstation 3100 going at work if we can
arrange / wangle it. (plus a ridiculously heavy 300Mb scsi hard drive
box that feels as if someone forgot to remove the lead casing...)
a preponderance of home computers and odd pcs (with the exception of
this 386, none are particularly standard inside), which we are not very
happy about - hence our published wish list.
for our living, we do things with webs and databases - sometimes in
connection - with a little company based in sleepy gargrave (typical
village - 3 shops, 3 pubs, about 200 houses, pathetic public transport)
and have done for a year, during which time we have seen the depth of
our overdraft *increase*. (hmm...) however, it does mean that now we
have the money to pursue a dream, which is to acquire old and
interesting hardware and write operating systems for them. and therein
lies our interest in classic computers; less for the beasts themselves,
more for the programming challenges and joys that they would present.
hence we'll focus on specific architectures rather than specific
machines. it's also something of a revolt against the trend in the
modern computer market, especially with regard to software.
before that, we studied computer science at bradford university, but
lost interest once we realised that we already knew most of what we were
being told, and didn't particularly want to know the rest. we nearly
failed; we got a degree out of it, just. we'd prefer a job that tallied
better with our interests; on the other hand, there's a novelist here
trying to get out, and we suspect that this would represent our future
career development. (but because of who we are, we don't want to write a
book until we've written the word processor. :> ) and we'd also like to
have more time to ourself and our interests.
oh, and we're devoted to our three cats, firstborn, blackie and calliope
- our babies. they come first in all considerations.
-- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling
you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...
Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive
ah, if we're going to get on to the "what do i wish for?" list...
miracle qxl card. (but a friend at work has promised us a sack of ql
pieces, so that shouldn't be a problem)
a perq. any perq. please, PLEASE!!!...
any system based on the 32xxx (a ceres would be nice, but we doubt
they're available...)
an original archimedes, with the original arthur os and the gui in basic
a dg nova
a perq
a novix card for pc, or a metaforth board
a linn rekursiv (wouldn't you? ;> )
one of the two machines we know about that ever used a z8000 (olivetti
m20 or onyx..?)
a perq
an original cp/m system or three (hm systems; the minstrel always
appealed)
any really weird 70s mini (small honeywell machine, perhaps? tony duell
speaks highly of the philips p850...? maybe an icl thingy...?) - must be
nice to put forth on, though
oh, did we mention that if someone would provide us with a perq at
reasonable cost and proximity to bradford, we would be quite delighted
and mount a one-person campaign to get him or her canonised?
-- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling
you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...
Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive
I will finally get to the thing Monday to see if I can modify the PSU
for 110 volts. It's probably a bit late to ask, but does anyone
have recommendations for what to look for, as well as what tools I
should take? Is the PSU takeapartable with a screwdriver?
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Let the seller beware when it comes to these recovery shops. Unless
you bother to find an independent assessment of your metals, you
have no idea whether they're basing their price on the actual gold
content or not. They're just finding a price at which you'll surrender
the goods.
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
<Hmmm, I like this, a wish list thread.
Me too.
A PDP-8E/F/M
A PDP-8A
DOCS for an IMSAI IMP48
Single board computers; Intel sdk85, moto 6800d1 or d3, AIM65, SYM65
Allison
<Does the upgrade significantly hurt the value
<of it? Or are the Cromemeco boards equally
<valuable?
No and sorta. As a pure 8800 it's lower value as it's not complete.
The comemeco are later boards but of some value especially if the manuals
are with them. The backplane upgrade was common(nearly required!).
<I have a pretty good idea of what the Altair
<8800 is worth in it's original configuration
<but I am in the dark when it has been upgraded.
<Does anyone know where I might find an original
<Altair 8800 CPU card and 8 slot motherboard. I
<have a MITS ram card.
The original backplane was 4 slots and real sloppy timing wise due to
poor electrical construction. Faster z80s boards did not work reliably in
them. The 8800 did not have an 8slot (it was two 4s), MITS never offered
one that I know of. Likely the 8 slot was yet another aftermarket item.
Allison
<My first calculator, a Sinclair Cambridge, did that as well. Perhaps
<someone on the list could enlighten us as to whehter this was a common
<weakness of early calculators, and possibly why those who wrote the code
<them allowed it to happen ;-)
many of them were hard logic and not "programmed micros". Logic errors
are the responseable element and it was common for the same(literal)
chip to appear in different branded calculators.
later designs did however use the likes of the TMS1000, a 4bit data
oriented, 8bit instruction word masked rom single chip micro. NEC, MOTO
and a few others had parts in that market as they could be made cheap in
volume with their masked roms.
Allison
