test-drb December 2000

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

192 participants
490 discussions

by jhellige＠earthlink.net

Speaking of eBay and it's often inflated prices, did anyone else see the listing for the supposed Apple I prototype? The seller has a '0' rating and it's been bid up to $14k! http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1200995556 Jeff -- Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems: Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757

24 years, 1 month

Heathkit Fall 1978 catalog now on-line; H-8, H-11, H-9 and ET-3400.

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> wrote: > Hi, > > I just finished scanning all of the computer related pages from my Fall > 1978 Heathkit catalag and posting them on the web... Thank you for these. I have been (slowly) restoring an H-11 I recovered >from the crawlspace of a former boss. We did custom DEC work about 12-14 years ago on his H-11 (KDF-11) and my 11/23 (the target system was an 11/73 w/4Mb RAM, Fuji Eagle, the works, running TSX-11 - I loved the fact that I could develop on a system I paid $300 for and deliver code to a machine that cost >$10K). I'm still on the lookout for the schematics for the Heathkit floppy interface. Mine siezes the bus such that on power-on, I never get an ODT prompt. If I put a gap in the Qbus, I can run the CPU, see the I/O registers on the floppy card, etc., but, of course, it doesn't boot up fully - it seems to read in the boot block, but as soon as RT-11 turns up interrupts, because of the break in the grant chain, they, of course, never come. I really just need to know what chips have their fingers in the interrupt handling and to probably just replace them. My board is socketed and I have checked all the TTL chips with an IC tester. I'm down to the Heath/DEC bus driver/receiver parts. Thanks, -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/

24 years, 1 month

GOOD scrounging day! More

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I just finished posting some pictures and a short blurb about the Morrow Micro Decision computer and the Paratronics logic analyzer on my website. You can find links to both of them at "http://www.intellistar.net/~rigdonj/joespage.htm". BTW I left a few things off my list of yesterday's finds. Two Heathkit Hero-1 manuals and a HP Portable Plus and a 9114 disk drive. Joe

24 years, 1 month

Scratched plastic screen

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/9/00 12:52:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, edick(a)idcomm.com writes: > There's a material, basically a buffing rouge, available at crafts shops and > some plastic retailers, that works better than the baking soda. The problem > with baking soda is that it's not aggressive enough and therefore requires a > lot of rubbing that works out badly for other plastic parts. The somewhat > more abrasive rouge, which is mixed with a lubricant of some sort, takes off > more of the plastic but doesn't require as much effort. That's the same > thing I use for cleaning CD's, so it seems to work OK. > > I'd advise you to avoid the Dremel tool, since it gets the plastic hot and > thereby risks permanently distoring the optical properties of the lens. > > Dick I have also heard of using toothpaste, but has anyone ever tried it? DB Young ICQ: 29427634 hurry, hurry, step right up! see the computers you used as a kid! http://www.nothingtodo.org

24 years, 1 month

Dissecting a TZ30 drive

by yoda＠isr.ist.utl.pt

>>>>> "Chuck" == Chuck McManis <cmcmanis(a)mcmanis.com> writes: Chuck> I have on my desk a TZ30 (half height TK50 drive) and it Chuck> has a tape inside of it. Powering it up and pressing unload Chuck> starts a rewind and then it gives up (all lights Chuck> flash). I'm guessing the tape presense sensor is dirty or Chuck> otherwise disabled but to get to it I really would like to Chuck> remove the existing tape. Unfortuately I cannot find how to Chuck> manually "unlock" the drive. Clues anyone? I extracted a TZ30 from a "storage expansion" box that used to be connected to a alpha station. The drive is SCSI so that it was trivial to use it in my PC. The load system seems extremly unreliable to me: any small failure when loading/unloading the tape might easly require disassemble it. I performed a deep dust cleaning by disassembling it. I guess it is fairly easy to disassemble and re-assemble it. Cheers, -- *** Rodrigo Martins de Matos Ventura <yoda(a)isr.ist.utl.pt> *** Web page: http://www.isr.ist.utl.pt/~yoda *** Teaching Assistant and PhD Student at ISR: *** Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica, Polo de Lisboa *** Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa, PORTUGAL *** PGP fingerprint = 0119 AD13 9EEE 264A 3F10 31D3 89B3 C6C4 60C6 4585

24 years, 1 month

MO question

by mark_k＠iname.com

Hi, On Fri, 8 Dec 2000 Douglas Quebbeman wrote in reply to a message by John Foust: > > In a nice freebie haul that included a 128M Quadra 950, a 660AV, > > a Syquest external, an HP ScanJet IIc, DeskWriter C, there was > > an Optima Concorde 600 meg magneto-optical drive. This is > > the Sony SMO-E501 mechanism. > > That's an odd-sized capacity... are these 5.25 inch carts, or > 3.25 inch carts? If the latter, are you sure they aren't 640MB > capacity? Not odd really. The first generation of (ISO standard) 5.25" MO drives can work with 600 and 650MB media. 650MB disks have a sector size of 1024 bytes, but some operating systems & software only work with 512-byte sectors. If the drive was marketed for use with a particular operating system or software package that required 512-byte sector media, that would explain the 600 designation on the case. With appropriate driver software, Macs can use 1024-byte sector media. If you want to use it in conjunction with a modern PC, both 600 and 650MB disks will work fine under Windows 9x, no drivers needed. The SMO-E501 is a first-generation MO drive, albeit not the first first- generation drive that Sony made (if that makes any sense). Circa 1992 I think. Let me know if you would like specs or jumper setting info for the MO drive. -- Mark

24 years, 1 month

MO question

by jfoust＠threedee.com

In a nice freebie haul that included a 128M Quadra 950, a 660AV, a Syquest external, an HP ScanJet IIc, DeskWriter C, there was an Optima Concorde 600 meg magneto-optical drive. This is the Sony SMO-E501 mechanism. On the back of the external SCSI box, there was a DIN-5 connector, like a keyboard connector, that piqued my curiousity. Inside, I saw that it was simply an external connector for 5 volt power. What might have this been used for? - John

24 years, 1 month

Compaticard

by donm＠cts.com

I will entertain offers for a 'new in the box' CompatiCard I with original manual and software disk. This unit will handle all 8" drives, both single and double density, 5.25" drives, same, and 3.5" drives of 720k and 1.44mb persuasion. It is not as convenient as the CompatiCard 4, but will cope with all but 2.88mb drives. I also have a used Compaticard II which will handle 3.5" and 5.25" drives, but will not handle 8" drives. It comes with the latest software and a photocopy of the manual. If interested, please reply by private email. If there is no interest or reasonable offers, I will put them up on one of the auction sites. - don

24 years, 1 month

A Proposal for Y2K Patches for V5.03 of RT-11

by jhfine＠idirect.com

For a number of years, I have been producing Y2K patches for various versions of RT-11 for commercial purposes. At this time, I would like to produce a set for V5.03 of RT-11. This set will initially be for hobby users and will be made available free of charge to anyone who complies with the current hobby license agreements available for hobby users. Later, these same Y2K patches will be made available to all users in the RT-11 community. This proposal is being circulated so as to alert those interested parties as well as to allow for useful feedback that will allow the best choice to be made for the base year. I have been attempting for months now to decide what are the reasons for doing all of this, but I finally decided that anyone who understands will not care and anyone who does not will not realize why I bothered. So the following criteria were used: (a) One requirement will be that dates can be maintained by the RT-11 operating system and associated software for a considerable period into the future. In addition, there is at present a unique opportunity to extend the date range back into the past. The first will be done. The second is open to question. (b) Any method which is proposed MUST, in my opinion, be able to function with and be compatible with all current software which handles dates for the ranges for which those programs were designed and written - so long as the actual dates being represented by the date words (there must obviously now be more than one) are in the same range as the values for which the programs were designed. Thus, all programs designed to function only from 1973 to 1999 must be able to do so. For V5.07 of RT-11, as well as software written by others (myself included) for the dates from 1972 to 2099, the same criteria MUST apply. This means that all the different versions of all different software can function correctly and coexist between 1973 and 1999. From 2000 to 2099, only the Y2K versions can coexist with this new software and prior to 1972 and after 2099, only the Y10K versions will function correctly. (c) One additional word shall be reserved which holds the extra bits required to specify the year before 1972 and after 2099. A number of other technical details are also available, but until a decision is made on the base year, it is doubtful that they are important. I have a number of points to consider to help in choosing a base year, but until I see some feedback on the basic proposal, even just the Y2K patches for V5.03 of RT-11, I doubt that there is much point in presenting them. If the above proposal is satisfactory, then coding will continue for the Y10K modifications for V5.03 of RT-11. Feedback is requested, especially on the question of using extended dates prior to 1972. Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine

24 years, 1 month

new finds and... Atari 810/1050 help

by dogas＠bellsouth.net

I was about to pass over an Apple IIgs at a local thrift store but didn't when I found a bunch of Sequential Systems cards in it. It's a rom 3 one thats got a RamFast/SCSI board, a VGA card!, a 7mhz(I think) ZipGSX board that displaces the gs's cpu by plugging into the cpu socket (and slotted too). There's also another card (in the first slot on the left) that has an eprom with a Sequential Systems label (SS, copyright 1993, rev QP290-BG) and a connector (like one interface from a drive II card) that I don't know anything about. It's nice using it with a VGA, and the zip makes a few of the ][ games I have on hand unplayably speedy. I've got a hd with gs/os that's momentarily unlocatable but I'm digging and hopeful. ;) Also. Does anyone have a service proceedure or any info on repairing atari disk drives. I have a 'stack' of em and many are having problems. Thanks - Mike: dogas(a)bellsouth.net

24 years, 1 month

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test-drb December 2000