test-drb December 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

243 participants
1096 discussions

Flashing Light Indicators un Simple Front Panels

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> My Vaxstation 4000/60 has an 8 (or so) red led that also > posts codes at > power on but nothing else in either vms or in netbsd. A number of years ago, someone wrote a utility for OpenVMS that would display a CPU load on the seven segment LED of a MicroVAX II 9or MicroVAX 3600 series, I forget). Assuming you can find it, hacking it to do the VS4000-60/VS4000-9x LEDs should not be too much of a stretch. Antonio

22 years, 9 months

My Last Day Of Finds in MN

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

I spent most of today checking out most of my favorite places and found few goodies to take back to Texas. A lot of it is too new to list here but at the low prices I could not pass the items up. I picked a April 1985 issue of COMPUTE! with pictures and a article on a Commodore LCD called a second-generation lap portable with 80 x 16 flip-up display, 32K RAM, internal modem, and eight built-in programs for under $600. Has anyone every seen one in real life or better yet does anyone own one? It looks pretty cool in the photo shown in the mag. Some of the other items are listed below. 1. ICD printer connector cable for Atari 850 new in unopened package 2. Tandy cat#26-1398 6' RS232C cable new unopened package 3. Commodore Model 1351 mouse 4. Several Sega Master System cartridges 5. Compute! March 1985 issue some good stuff in it also. 6. Several mousepads for the collection 7. A RAD robot 8. A nice book called Understanding Computers by Grace Murray Hopper 9. Some Apple and Toshiba technical manuals 10. Tele-games Video Arcade (Sears) with 2- controllers and 2- paddles, also came with 3 cartridges 11. A NeXT keyboard (pn 2122) and mouse (pn 193), the mouse was a style I had not seen before. Well that's all I can list as the others are not classic yet. Keep Computing

22 years, 9 months

Shall I open it, or does someone want it....

by rhudson＠cnonline.net

I have December 1967 inCider, still wrapped in it's plastic bag. I wonder if anyone is collecting magazines and would find this more collectable because it still has the plastic. I just want to read inCiders, especially those with articles about the pre-GS apple II machines. Anyone wanna trade me? Anyone got inCider or nibble magazines they want to get rid of? I am in the San Jose, CA area- we can arrange to meet.

22 years, 9 months

MITS 2SIO serial chip?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

8251 was an OK chip, it had bugs, FYI there are three versions and each has it's oddities! I have tons of them and use them but, you do have to be aware of the oddities. The worst ones are initial programming after reset (buffer clear bug) and the repeats last character on /cts false if TX shifter is not empty (8251A). However the 2SIO didn't use it. NS* did use them as did many others. The worst chip was the 8250. Allison -----Original Message----- From: Gene Buckle <geneb(a)deltasoft.com> To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Friday, December 14, 2001 12:29 PM Subject: RE: MITS 2SIO serial chip? >> > Does anyone know what chip was used for the MITS serial boards? I thought >> > that it was the 6850, but I could be wrong. >> >> Weren't a lot of people using the 8251 back in those days? >> >> I had to play some tricks in getting an interrupt-driver >> written for the 8251... this was for the redoubtable >> Data General One, a sort cool, sorta nasty laptop... >> >> -dq > >I always thought the 8251 was a pretty kick-ass chip. I learned a lot >about it since the Royal Alphatronic PC that I've got (somewhere in this >disaster of mine) uses it. I was pleasantly surprised a number of years >ago when I discovered someone had made a BYE insert for it. :) > >g. > >

22 years, 9 months

MITS 2SIO serial chip?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> >> rebuilt sans sockets at one point or another. >In this case I plan to use good sockets. >> A lousy one if you have a raft of TTL and few FPGAs. ;) > >All the TTL is in the FPGA.:) >Most of the TTL used is simple buffering or decoding. Ah, don'tcha think I know that? ;) Then again I have enough loose TTL to make a 24bit stretch PDP-8 with two sets of spares and a full compliment of IO. I've done my stint as a hardware designer analog DC to UHF and digital. >The whole point of the cpu I designed, was because I am not happy >with 8 bit micro's, RISC machines, or INTEL. Now what I wonder about >is people that put a 6502 in a FPGA while you still can buy the real >thing? >I also wonder about FPGA's when you can't fit a 6502 in one! Use a bigger FPGA... Thats why hammers come from small 4oz all the way to to 10 pounds! >I can guarantee you don't have a 12/24 bit cpu like mine. ( Not that you >would want one :) ) Been there done that. Mine was 2901 based Z80 clone with hybrid uCode wide bus and extented instruction set... Still didnt run any thing useful on it, too big, too hot and far to weird. It was a good learning tool depite all that. Allison

22 years, 9 months

DEC Cable?

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

I've got two cables here, DEC p/n BCC17-06 and one with out a p/n, but looks like a DEC cable. Any ideas who/what they're for? And can one of them replace the mono video cable on my VAX Station 3100 (BC23K-03)? DEC p/n BCC17-06: 15 pin D-sub connector <--> a box with a DEC keyboard connector (the phone plug looking thing), and/then 3 BNC (r,g,b) Un-marked: 15 pin D-sub connector <--> box with PS-2 keyboard and mouse connectors, then 3 BNC connectors (r,g,b) - this was included in the shopping bag that came with my DEC 3000-400, but this doesn't go with it. The PMAGB-B video adaptor in slot 0 has the 3W3 (?) video connector... --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

22 years, 9 months

"Geeks" and licensing

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Christopher Smith <csmith(a)amdocs.com> > I'm not saying that to get an entry level job in the field you should need > to know the machine architecture like the back of your hand, but you should > at least know the basics and be willing to learn the rest. The operative term here being "willing to learn the rest." Too many degree-holders which I've met seem to believe that they "know it all" and don't need to learn any more than they already know. As a consequence, they ask the same questions again and again. I'm of the old school -- don't go to your boss with a problem, go to your boss with a *solution.* I make it a point to learn *something* every day. Keeps my brain from drying out . . . Glen 0/0

22 years, 9 months

TI Calc and PS/1 printer

by mythtech＠Mac.com

I finally got a chance to get to the new thrift store that opened near me (Salvation Army). I got a good deal on a 28.8 external Mac modem (needed one for my nephew, 56k would have been nicer, but for $1 I can't argue). While I was there, I saw two items that might be of interest to some of you. 1: Texas Instruments calculator "Standard Business Analyst" in a wallet case with a small guide book. They want $8 for it. 2: IBM PS/1 printer (dot matrix it looked like, but I didn't crouch down to really check it out). They want $20 IIRC. I will be going back there in a few days to see what the price is on an Apple Thermal Transfer Printer (I have never heard of such a beast, but since it carries a DB25 connector, I assume it is Apple II series stuff, platinum, so it is later II). It didn't have a price tag on it, and it seems they have a policy that when something has no tag, they remove it >from inventory to be retagged and put back out on an unspecified day (I guess to keep people from pulling tags to try to get things cheaper). If anyone has an interest in the calculator or IBM printer (or the Apple one, but specify what your max price for it is... I myself won't pay more than $10), I can pick them up when I go back (and for the apple printer, if they want more than $10 but less than someone else's max, I can pick it up for them). Let me know -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

22 years, 9 months

MITS 2SIO serial chip?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Richard Erlacher <edick(a)idcomm.com> >won't support, and that's formatting with interleaving. The NEC parts seem to >be unable to format a diskette with other than strict ordinal sector numbering, Obviously you know not how the part works. I used to put sectors down on floppies with physical skew for CPM using 765/9266/37C65. It was dirt simple. When the 765 and clones write they want CHRN, All you need to do is make R the sector number what ever you want it to be then feed it to the FDC when doing a format track. What's difficult about that? Allison

22 years, 9 months

MITS 2SIO serial chip?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

A newer chip that can still be found is the WD37C65 that will do 125ns easily. Or you could easily find a d765 off an old board or NOS from JDR. Allison -----Original Message----- From: Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Sunday, December 16, 2001 5:55 PM Subject: Re: MITS 2SIO serial chip? >If you must know it is a floppy disk controller I need. Right now >I plan to use WD2797 floppy disk controller. I would love to use >a newer chip,but I can't find any! I want to stay with DIP's and PLCC's >here. This may be the 21 century but my soldering skills are the 19'th. >I still favor the simple dumb uart chip. TR1602?. I like things than >you hit reset, it starts ... not like the classic star-trek computers that >always go down. Usually when you need them. It's an OK part but you could use the 8251 with fewer supporting parts and two less voltages (com2502 is single voltage). I've built enough to enjoy later parts as I'm old enough to want it done in a lifetime and the older parts meant tons more support parts and the requisite connections. Of the latter, the fewer the better for both buildability and reliability. Allison

22 years, 9 months

Jump to page:

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb December 2001