> > I put a few digital camera photos of a old braille terminal (Feb
> > 1977 vintage) in a directory at http://www.cs.umn.edu/~lemay/braille
>
> Thanks. I was kind of curious what the output side of the thing
> looked like. I was expecting something like a fixed part-of-line
> Braille display, but I guess paper would work better. What's it got,
> a moving embossing head of some sort?
Now that I've recharged my batteries, i've put two more photos in that
directory, with closeup shots of the printing mechanism. No, there is
no moving head which a blind person wouldnt be able to see moving. The
'paper' is very tough, almost identical to IBM punch cards. And as you see
in the photo there are rows of holes, that have some sort of rod that
pops up from behind to punch a raised round dot into the paper/cardboard
sheets.
I'm sot sure what will happen with this terminal. I hear we have to
contact the Navy to see if they want it back, since it was originally
purchased by them. After that, I guess its destined to be scrapped.
Oh, does anyone know what these three chips are:
93419-DC
F 8002
--------
~/011 ~ should be double wavy lines
MM5303N
--------
sn74186N (three of these are on the board
-Lawrence LeMay
>
> > I'm not quite sure what to do with this unit. There probably werent many
> > braille terminals made in the 70's, and like most things, they probably
> > were disposed of when they became obsolete. Maybe this should be donated
> > to a computer museum.
>
> There were other widgets in the 1980s, I seem to remember a
> description of a screen-scraper with Braille output that could be
> fitted to an Apple ][.
>
> I guess they are obsolete. Until recently I was working with a blind
> programmer/manager, and I was somewhere on her call-for-help list when
> her PC misbehaved. When it wasn't misbehaving, she had screen-reader
> software (something called JAWS from Henter-Joyce) that let her do
> what she needed to do reasonably comfortably under WinNT. It worked
> well enough for her to use Outlook and MS Word; I never saw her trying
> to use a web browser so I don't know how well it worked with that.
>
> I'm trying to synch up with her for dinner, and if you like I'll try
> to find out what she knows about this sort of thing. Don't know if
> she's ever used one, though; she has talked about using what I
> gathered were unmodified Silent 700s and I still haven't figured out
> how that worked if/when she got unexpected output.
>
> -Frank McConnell
>
< Then the high order half of X would be $FF. Not sure if thta happens on
<other versions of the 6809. Then there are all the undocumented opcodes o
<the 6502 ...
8080, 8085, z80, z180, z280 and others also have undefined or irregular
opcodes that are either unsupported or unofficially supported (all
versions have them but they may not ;-)).
The 8085 and z80 ones are most unique as I know of no version that doesn't
support them and it's across vendors (even those that dont swap masks!).
So It' surprizes me none at all to see that in moto chips or any other.
A few emulators like MYZ80 do infact support all the z80 ops faithfully
but thats an example of a well tested package and a stable set of opcodes.
The 6502(and cmos versions) are legions for odd and spotty opcodes off the
basic set. I know the 6800 family vary some as do the 6809. It's my
understanding it was years before the 68000 instruction set was stable.
Emulators, useful, interesting but NOT the real thing.
Allison
This is pinouts for most 5.25 and 3.5" floppies that have 1 or 4 selects
(excluded most current 3.5" that use twist cable select).
NC(speedsel in 1.2mb) < 2 - chng
nc(hd load) < 4 - inuse 1
drive sel3 < 6 - inuse 0
< 8 - index
<10 - sel 0
<12 - sel 1
drive sel2 <14 - inuse 1 (yes, it's tied to pin 4 on
<16 - mtron
<18 - dir
<20 - step
writedata 22
wrtgate 24
track00 26
write pro 28
head sel 32
disk change 34
John Lawson said"
> I have just 'taken delivery' of a big Heathkit Analog Computer..
>not the small EC-1.. the big 15 opamp job.
> The docs that are with it are just the operaor's guide. I
>therefore will begin a search for the assembly manual and possibly
>any theory of operation manuals, circuit diagrams, program set-ups, etc.
> I think these are not too plentiful, but I will perform due
>diligence and see if Heath can be of any help. Many times they still
>have old manuals around and will copy them (for a fee).
> In the meantime, if anyone on The List has any info pertaining to
>this computer, it would help me get it back on the air.
John, I can't tell if this question has been answered since midnight,
so I'll just recount my experience with Heathkit Analog Computer manuals.
When you call the Heathkit Manual Replacement Service you need to have
the model number of the kit you want a manual for. And the Heathkit
Analog Computer, like some of their more complicated kits, is actually
maded up of a number of different kits. Below I'll list the kits that I
know of and a price if I have already purchased that assembly manual myself.
ES-400 $25 Cabinet and Front Panel, 56 pages
X ES-2 $25 Amplifier Power Supply, 24 pages
X ES-50 $20 Reference Power Supply, 16 pages
ES-100 $25 Initial Condition Power Supply, 12 pages
X ES-151 $20 Relay Power Supply
ES-201 $25 DC Amplifier, 16 pages
ES-401 Voltage Regulator Transformer
ES-405 Patch Cords, They don't have a manual for this.
ES-447 Coefficient Potentiometer
ES-450 Auxiliary Coefficient Potentiometer
ES-505 Repetitive Oscillator
ES-600 Function Generator, a stand alone accessary. I assume it is
meant to generate functions like sine,cosine, and log.
Again, the ones with prices I have. The ones without I have not checked
on yet. And the ones with Xs, they had extra originals, so they sent me an
original.
They have lost their copy of the Operations Manual. I finally found a copy
in Switerland. :)
> Finally... a computer that glows in the dark... 2 K3WL D00DZ!!!
I know how you feel :)
On a separate analog computer type note, I made a real exciting find
a few weeks back. The S.F. Bay Area guys have already heard this.
======== Paste from old mail ==============
Last week I was thumbing through "High-Speed Computing Devices",
Engineering Research Associates, McGraw-Hill, 1950. This is the
book that describes the state-of-the-art in 1950 and it discusses
most of the one of a kind computers up until then. (It also has a
large section on analog computers).
Anyway, I was looking through the references section at the end
of the the chapter on analog computers, when I noticed that
Vannevar Bush had published most of his early articles in the
Journal of the Franklin Institute. So I decided to see what
would come up if I did a BookFinders.com search for the Journal
of the Franklin Institute.
I found:
Bush, Vannevar "THE DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER. A NEW MACHINE FOR SOLVING
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS."
Contained in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Volume 212, No. 4,
October,1931, pp. 447-88. The complete Volume 212, octavo, attractively
rebound full navy morocco.
US$1500.00
Too expensive!!!! According to the references, the first article by Bush
in this journal was in 1927 Volume 203.
"Bush,V., F.D. Gage, and H.R. Stewart, A Continuous Integraph,
Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol.203, pp.63-84 (1927)"
This is 2 years after he started work on the Integraph and 3 years
before the Product Integraph is credited as being operational.
So then I found on BookFinders:
MCCLENAHAN, HOWARD: JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE
DEVOTED TO SCIENCE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS ;
PHILADELPHIA: THE INSTITUTE, 1927. G, XLIB VOL. 203 USD25.00
I took the chance that this was not just a single issue. And it's
not!! It arrived today, a hard bound copy of Volume 203 Jan-June
1927. And the article has 6 pictures and some diagrams.
======== End paste ==============
(Vannevar Bush is considered the father of the electronic analog
computer)
--Doug
===================================================
Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com (work)
Sr Software Engineer mranalog(a)home.com (home)
Press Start Inc. http://www.pressstart.com
Sunnyvale,CA
Visit the new Analog Computer Museum and History Center
at http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog
===================================================
>I thought that that was exactly what I was parodying. I guess
>I didn't make that clear. I generally enjoy Antiques Roadshow,
>but those particular spots really annoy me. In my opinion, the
>original craftsman (the maker of the piece) would probably drop
>over dead if presented with his work in "ideal collectable"
>condition. Either that or he would immediately attack it with
>sandpaper and mineral spirits.
In general, what is the meaning of an antique? In many cases, it is exactly
something that is old. However in the case of a computer, I think that an
exact copy is perfectly valid. We are trying to preserve computer history,
and computer technology, not old plastic, after all. What should concern
people (IMHO) is the particular arrangement of keys on the keyboard, or
gates on a CPU, or whatever, i.e. functional characteristics.
>Which would you prefer? A modern day clone of Stalin, or Stalin >himself?
OK, enough with the communist shit.
Bill Clinton is most certainly better than Stalin, BTW ;)
Interesting CP/M 86 for the old IBM on eBay..
I really wanted this but it has gone way past my budget.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=147842873
So I was wondering if anyone had a copy of it or knew where I could get a
copy
of CP/M-86 for the IBM PC..
I will gladly send the disks, and a self addressed envelope if anyone could
help..
Phil...
> So I was wondering if anyone had a copy of it or knew where I could get a
> copy
> of CP/M-86 for the IBM PC..
http://cpm.interfun.net/
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu
>Interesting point. From a logical standpoint, an emulator can be just as
>much the original machine as the original itself. However, I think the
No, it can't, because the software might use a different algorithm for
emulating than the machine actually used. And of course, the interface logic
isn't emulated. What I mean is that if we wish to preserve machines for
study, then a copy is acceptable. Of course, there is that human element to
which you refer, but I'd rather have a copy than nothing at all.
What you've said here is EXACTLY the difference between "Antique Collectors"
and various sorts of hobbyists. As was pointed out earlier, the IMSAI Front
Panel, in its mint, therefore non working, condition is MUCH more desirable
and hence valuable to the "collector" than the one, working perfectly with
well-thought-out well-documented modifications to make it compatible with
the environment for which it was purportedly intended.
That means that the antique collector has different reasons for wanting,
hence, obtaining and keeping, artifacts from the past.
For Antique Computer afficionados, that means that those items which serve
best, in this case, to "connect us to the past" by virtue of emulation, or
by simple repair/modification in the interest of "making it work" are of
little interest to the collector. He want the "real McCoy" as it was
minted, not working and "alive" as it should have been.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Sellam Ismail <dastar(a)ncal.verio.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, August 23, 1999 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: Re. imsai 2 (OT)
>On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Max Eskin wrote:
>
>> In general, what is the meaning of an antique? In many cases, it is
exactly
>> something that is old. However in the case of a computer, I think that an
>> exact copy is perfectly valid. We are trying to preserve computer
history,
>> and computer technology, not old plastic, after all. What should concern
>> people (IMHO) is the particular arrangement of keys on the keyboard, or
>> gates on a CPU, or whatever, i.e. functional characteristics.
>
>Interesting point. From a logical standpoint, an emulator can be just as
>much the original machine as the original itself. However, I think the
>psychological impact of an "antique" is that it has passed through many
>hands before it arrived in yours, and the personal history that each
>individual machine possess is what is desired. It connects us to the
>past. Something peculiarly human.
>
>Also, humans are creatures that desire tangibility. We want to see the
>machine, feel it, look inside it, experience the sights and smells as it
>fires up, marvel at its elegance (or lack thereof), tinker with it in
>three dimensions, point it out to people as a source of pride. You can't
>do that with an emulator.
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
>
> Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 08/17/99]
>
