Hi,
A reply to a previous post and some other things...
On Sat, 29 Aug 1998 Tony Duell wrote (Re: MAC ATTACK):
>The normal sets in the UK are of 2 forms - either integral handle/blade
>(just like a normal screwdriver) or a set of 1/4" hex insert bits and a
>handle. In neither case will they fit into a classic Mac, alas. The
>problem with the insert bit type is that the bit holder is too large to
>fit into the Mac.
CPC plc sell a "Macintosh Computer Case Screwdriver" for 1.19 pounds (+VAT).
The order code is TL01544. They also sell a more or less identical one (Ideal
brand) for over 5 pounds.
Repair of switchmode PSU from SyDOS 44e external drive case
-----------------------------------------------------------
I am trying to repair the PSU from an old SyQuest external drive case. The PSU
is made by Skynet, model SNP-9533-2. It has +5V and +12V outputs, both rated at
2A.
The fault is a short between the +5V and ground lines. This showed up as a
twitching of the cooling fan, as the unit repeatedly shut down and started up
again. Thanks to the sci.electronics.repair FAQ, I have found the faulty
component. A schottky rectifier has gone short circuit. There are two identical
rectifiers in parallel. The other one is okay.
So, I need to find a replacement for the broken rectifier, which is marked as
follows:
31DQ
04
3F
According to the data sheet available from www.irf.com, the specs are:
I Rectangular waveform 3.3A
F(AV)
V 40V
RRM
I @ tp=5us sine 470A
FSM
V @ 3Apk, T = 25C 0.55V
F J
T -40 to 125 C
J
Will it be okay to use any diode of higher rating than the original? Can anyone
recommend a suitable replacement, or does someone have a spare 31DQ04 diode?
Mac SCSI cable
--------------
I have a Mac SCSI cable, which has 50 way Centronics type connectors on both
ends. On one end there is a small "extension", the body of which is about 2cm
deep. It has a male Centronics connector on one end, female on the other. The
Apple logo is moulded into it, and the Apple part # is 590-0304-A. What is the
purpose of this?
When it is in the SCSI cable, I cannot boot (my non-Apple computer) without
having the external MO drive turned on. Without this thing,it works fine. Maybe
something to do with TERMPWR?
Wangtek tape streamers
----------------------
I was lucky enough to find Wangtek 5525ES and 5150ES SCSI tape streamers the
other week, along with a couple of Adaptec PC SCSI controller cards. One of
these, assuming that they work okay, should finally allow me to read (if not
make use of) my Amiga UNIX tape.
Did the Wangtek streamers normally come with any PC driver software, or is this
not necessary?
Hitachi CD-ROMs
---------------
I have some old external Hitachi CD-ROMs (model CDR-1503S, I think). These have
37-way D connectors on the back, and they came with a couple of 37-way D
cables. It looks like you can daisy-chain two or three of these to one PC.
The Hitachi web site was unhelpful. Does anyone know anything about these? Do
they need a special interface card, or do they plug into the 5.25" drive port
on the back of my PC (which is a 37-way D connector)? Does anyone have suitable
drivers? It would be a shame to get rid of them, since they seem to work; at
least, after powering on I can eject and insert discs.
Sinclair Oxford 300 calculator
------------------------------
I bought one of these the other week. Is this the same Sinclair as produced the
ZX80, ZX81 etc.? A quick description:
Unit is powered by 9V PP3 type battery, has an 8 digit red flourescent display.
A minimal range of scientific funtions; (arc)sin, cos, tan, ln, e^x, square
root and reciprocal. There is a switch on the back to choose between degree and
radian modes. Calculation of (for example) the sine of a number takes about two
seconds. Unless I haven't figured out how to use it properly, the answers it
gives are rather inaccurate; for example:
square root of 2 = 1.4139192
e = 2.6108 (obtained by entering 1 and using e^x function)
It may be faulty; repeatedly pressing the 0 button causes the number entered to
be variously 22000000, 22220000 or 20000000. (Though I just tried this again,
and it seems okay now.)
-- Mark
I used to maintain one of these beasties in the late 1980's. It used
Altos III
terminals, which were just WYSE-50's with different color plasteek and
slightly different firmware.
It ran XENIX, which it seemed like it was of Edition 7 vintage. This
particular
one was a bit tempremental, and went down every few months or so
due to hardware problems.
It used a pair of Quantum 40MB FH hard disks. It think it could
accomodate
a 60 or an 80 as well, if I'm not mistaken (as I frequently am).
Actually, it was a cool little machine. It was used for Cellular
Telephone billing,
and I learned how to use Unix on it. Shoot, I even remember the default
root
password after the Xenix was installed: 'sotla' :-)
Jeff
On Sat, 5 Sep 1998 11:09:04 -0500 "David Williams" <dlw(a)trailingedge.com>
writes:
>On 5 Sep 98, at 11:52, Allison J Parent wrote:
>
>> No, server is a newer concept. It was an integrated multiuser system
>where
>> there was one CPU (Z80) per user and likely ran CP/M, MPM (or clone
>like
>> turbodos). The 8086 was likely a local server for disks and such to
>the
>> local z80s. They all used the bus as a physically short network to
>> exchange data.
>
>The Altos 586 ran Xenix off the 8086 IIRC. My father's office used
>one about that time for their accounting. They looked at the Altos,
>a Fortune and one other Unix based system at the time and picked
>the Altos. They felt the company had a little better staying power
>over the others. Not a bad little system, they ran 3 users with no
>more than 1 meg of memory and could have put a couple more on
>it. Don't recall the sizes of the disks.
>
>
>-----
>David Williams - Computer Packrat
>dlw(a)trailingedge.com
>http://www.trailingedge.com
>
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Hi People.
I'm building out the VCF links page and would like to invite suggestions
or requests for submission for inclusion on the page.
The URL is http://www.siconic.com/vcf/vcflinks.htm. You can scroll to the
bottom of the page and click on the "Submit a Link" button, or just e-mail
me with a link.
I could especially use some help in fleshing out the specific computer
links groups, such as Commdore, Atari, Radio Shack, etc. as well as adding
sections for additional computer families.
Thanks!
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
September 26 & 27...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 08/25/98]
>
> Check the stuff Frank Larosa has on his site at
> http://www.searchlight.com/frank/milo.htm
>
> He has a Model III set up with external drives to include a 3.5" drive.
I'm not
> sure what you can do for a hard drive but if you can get some
makes/models I
> can see what I can scrounge up. As for a full height floppy, the one you
have
> is most likely a Tandon belt drive and you should be able to lube and
clean it
> and get it back on line with a little more detailing. Most likely the
head(s)
> need to be cleaned with denatured alcohol and the mechanism all lubed
> (liberally and then wiped off) with a silicone based oil, much like
sewing
> machine oil. I do use sewing machine oil, the type they have at Walmart
in a
> white and red bottle sold under the Singer name. I just refill the needle
oiler
> I bought at tandy some years ago. Use it on VCRs, appliances, etc.
>
I may be able to get the lower drive working by oiling it, but not the
upper drive. My friend's 4-year old cousin put a penny in the top of the
computer, and it fell on the disk drive PCB. When I took the computer
apart, the penny was still there - fused to the top of the board, with a
black ring around it. I'm not sure if they're Tandon or ALPS. The
keyboard was made by ALPS, but I didn't look at the drives.
I looked at Frank's TRS-80, and I tried to put my drive in it, but it was
too long and wide. I noticed that his was a Model 4. It may have a
different drive mount. From the picture, the mount looks like it's shiny
metal. Mine's a dull, gray plastic.
I'll try to get the model numbers from it. I think the stickers are still
on there.
I have an Apple IIe, with two floppy drives, and an imagewriter printer.
Have you any idea how I could get rid of them short of sending them to the
land fill?
I live in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Nellie McCann
Hello everyone,
I am needing schematics for an Osborne 01 computer, or some help in
repairing it..
I just purchased it last week and was using it for about 30 minutes (It
had not been used for some 13 years).. Worked perfectly and is in mint
condition.. Then all of a sudden a crackle and smoke poured out.. It
was still working but I quickly turned it off to save it from further
damage..
I took it apart for a quick look expecting to find a burnt electrolyte
capacitor in the power supply but did not see any damage.. I am afraid
to power this unit up again for fear it will damage the mainboard.. Can
anyone help me this is one of the finest old computer I have ever owned
and I want to get it working again..
There must be someone that has schematics out there for it.. or maybe
someone can help me dx it..
Thank You.. Phil Clayton
The 286 chip in the T3100 series was smaller than the regular 286 chip
(IIRC). The "fun" part about it was that it just dropped into the socked
(loosely), and was held in place by the heatsink that snapped on top [one
of Toshiba's *many* bad designs). If the computer would get bumped
suddenly, or if the chip would move due to expansion and contraction of the
chip from heat, it would need to reseated. There was also VERY little
airflow in those machines. The power supply has a 1 1/2" fan, and the hard
drive and floppy drive were directly in front of the internal air vents,
basically blocking the already limited (because of fan size) airflow. The
HD controller was also buried under the hot power supply. The controller
would heat up, and the P/S would heat up, causing the HD controller to blow
>from overheating, and making it seem like the heads in the HD were stuck
(don't know if toshiba did this on purpose...). The HD's, if you can find
one are around $150 for a 20 meg. I don't know the cost of the
controllers, because I sold the thing for parts before I even thought about
looking in to it.
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
PS>> when the P/S starts blowing out air about as hot as a hair dryer set
on "low" (about an hour and a half), you better turn it off an let it cool
down for a bit (or just put it on ice).
----------
> From: Russ Blakeman <rhblake(a)bbtel.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Followup to Toshiba 3100e
> Date: Friday, September 04, 1998 5:52 PM
>
> Next best thing to thermal transfer compound. Evidentally the 286 chip is
one of the
> older non-C types that generate a lot of heat
>
> ___________________________________________________
>
> Russ Blakeman
> Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
> Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
> Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
> Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
> ICQ UIN #1714857
> ___________________________________________________
>
>
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< It is not obvious what it is. Has a 5 1/4" floppy and a hard drive, an 8
< cpu and about 6 or so Z80's. There are no obvious monitor or keyboard
< connections, just connections marked port 1, port 2.... to port 6 and a
< number marked as being hard drive expansions and one marked as "Altos ne
Of course ther are no monitor or keyboard plugs... Thats a PC thing. ;)
It expected serial terminals like vt100 or ADM3s and the like.
< The copyright marks on the boards are marked 1982.
<
< Anyone know what this is? A 1982 server perhaps?
No, server is a newer concept. It was an integrated multiuser system
where there was one CPU (Z80) per user and likely ran CP/M, MPM (or clone
like turbodos). The 8086 was likely a local server for disks and such to
the local z80s. They all used the bus as a physically short network to
exchange data.
Allison
