test-drb April 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

251 participants
669 discussions

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

a couple of questions: does anyone have a spare 16MHz 68k CPU (or a source in the UK who may sell them - Maplins don't). There must be lots somewhere gathering dust since everyone moved to the later 68k family chips (all I have spare are the stock 8MHz versions). Lots of non-home-computer stuff seems to use them (phone exchanges, network equipment, video processing boxes etc.). also, does anyone know of anything that used 68450 chips? (they're 4-channel DMA controllers for the 68k apparently). I found a couple of these amongst the piles of junk I have and am curious as to where I might have got them - I can't think of anything I've ever stripped for parts which may have used them! :-) cheers Jules

24 years, 1 month

New Acquisitions

by jss＠ou.edu

Well, all, I'm happy to report a few additions to my small collection. (1) DEC LA120 (DECwriter III). I bought this on eBay for a steal a few weeks back. It looks to be in decent condition. The shipper packed it very well, but neglected to wrap the LA120 in something before adding the paper-strip packing material. Thus, the thing is filled with paper strips, and I've still not taken the time to disassemble the LA120 to vaccuum/pick them all out. (2) DEC VT102. There was (and maybe still is) a lady selling what is probably a whole room of VT10xs on eBay, at the rate of one unit every week or so. I contacted her directly and asked if she had any units for which I could make a direct offer. She did, and I bought one. It was handled very poorly by UPS, as the top part of the case came off and now won't go completely back on and the case had several pieces chip off. It's not as pretty as it could be, but it *is* functional, so I'm satisfied with the purchase. In other news, I found some LA36 ribbons, LA120 ribbons, a box of teletype paper, 1981 PDP-11/04/24/34a/44/70 processor handbook, and a 1973 PDP-8/e/m/f small computer handbook, all for great prices on eBay. -- Jeffrey S. Sharp jss(a)ou.edu

24 years, 1 month

Sears SR/2000 (Nakajima AR-30) information ?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 01-04-27 23:26:23 EDT, you write: << My wife wants to sell this printer in a yard sale, but the collector in me is telling me to hide the printer in a safe place. Does anybody have an owners manual for this thing? I'd like to know what the 8 dip switches control. I'm willing to bet that they have the same functions as whatever printer Nakajima licensed the design from (Epson FX?) I know that it emulates an Epson of some sort, because I used it on a PCjr a long time ago. It has a Centronics parallel interface, and some sort of weirdo serial interface (Commodore?). According to Nakajima, it might work using Epson FX or IBM Proprinter III drivers. The printer is interesting to me because I've never seen another one, and Nakajimi is not a household name for printers here in the US. ;-) >> I wouldnt call it collectible, really. I have the SR3000 and it's a epson fx80 compatibile i think. It is good if you have an apple // and run GEOS. There are no drivers for the SR3000 that I had but it did support the SR2000.

24 years, 1 month

VaxServer 3100 and VT340 terminal

by hsappleton＠sprintmail.com

I have a Vaxserver 3100 and a few vt340 available. Can they be used together and if so how? thanks for your consideration Headley

24 years, 1 month

Super Star Trek Source

by jim＠calico.litterbox.com

Since it's come up, I've re-added the scans of the Super Star Trek sourcecode in Basic from David Ahl's "More BASIC Computer Games". There's no link from my home page, but the inside link will work. It is: http://www.litterbox.com/jim/trek/ Be advised the scans are quite large - 300dpi - to make OCR work better. -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BeOS Powered! -----------------------------------------------------------------------

24 years, 1 month

Apple //c compatible

by ken.keller＠sk.sympatico.ca

I recently got my hands on a Laser 128 Personal Computer, but no way of finding out if it works, as it's missing a power cable, or possibly an external power supply? It has DC 15V marked on the case over where the power cord is supposed to go, and 7 pins arranged in a circular pattern. I need to find either pinouts, an actual cord, or the external power supply for it. Anyone have an idea as to where I can find any of these? Thanks, Gen

24 years, 1 month

I am interested in purchasing the Commodore 128D, please respond.

by Mike_Mossaad＠hotmail.com

24 years, 1 month

I am interested at your offer of purchasing the Commodore 128D.

by Mike_Mossaad＠hotmail.com

24 years, 1 month

Sears SR/2000 (Nakajima AR-30) information ?

by mbbrutman＠chartermi.net

My wife wants to sell this printer in a yard sale, but the collector in me is telling me to hide the printer in a safe place. Does anybody have an owners manual for this thing? I'd like to know what the 8 dip switches control. I'm willing to bet that they have the same functions as whatever printer Nakajima licensed the design from (Epson FX?) I know that it emulates an Epson of some sort, because I used it on a PCjr a long time ago. It has a Centronics parallel interface, and some sort of weirdo serial interface (Commodore?). According to Nakajima, it might work using Epson FX or IBM Proprinter III drivers. The printer is interesting to me because I've never seen another one, and Nakajimi is not a household name for printers here in the US. ;-) Thanks, Mike

24 years, 1 month

Needed: TRS-80 Model II Keyboard & Boot Disk

by univac2＠earthlink.net

Does anyone have a spare TRS-80 Model II keyboard, boot disk, or manuals? I got one of these wonderful systems today, along with the disk expansion cabinet, but no keyboard, disks, or manuals. It seems to work fine, but without a keyboard or software, I can't do much with it. Any help is greatly appreciated!

24 years, 1 month

Shutting down cleanly ... sync; sync; sync;

by mbbrutman＠chartermi.net

I remember hearing what is probably an urban legend about the proper way to shut down a Unix box. The console operator is supposed to enter the sync command three times by hand (and not on one command line like the subject shows it) to ensure that the disk writes got out. Now these were older boxes, and the drives may have been slow, but this surely had to be an exageration. The story has a great punchline though: sync; sync; sync three times if you want to stop me .... Mike

24 years, 1 month

Amiga items on eBay

by foxnhare＠jps.net

> Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 17:47:16 -0600 (MDT) > From: "Clint Wolff (VAX collector)" <vaxman(a)qwest.net> > Subject: Re: Amiga items on eBay > > On Thu, 26 Apr 2001, Mike Ford wrote: > > > > John Foust wrote: > > > > > >Pardon the auction announcement... > > I'm curious... Has anyone here purchased something from EBay that > they wouldn't have found unless the advertisement showed up here? > > I believe that if people are going to buy something from EBay, they > already have searches set up or email announcements, and don't need > to see the announcement here. The people that HATE EBay don't want > to see the announcement because it only pisses them off. IF it is something very uncommon then I would not mind at all to see a mention on it in the group, say a MTU sound card or software for the PET of instructions for installing an MTU video board for same, I don't mind seeing ebay posts as long as thier not common items (if you search e-bay and find two similar (or more) already on auction it probably is common), like 1541 disk drives or Amiga 500s... :/ I have been known to post a "heads-up" or two on e-bay auctions I stumble upon that I find uncommon. Just because I know others are looking for such items or I appreciate that it is available and want to make sure it goes to a deserving fellow computer fan. > So, I vote for no EBay advertisements. Especially the one line > http://www.ebay.com/... kind with no supporting text. Many of > us don't read email with a HTTP degraded browser. I vote to use common sense, don't piss us off with boring auctions and DO PLEASE at least write a decent description of what the item is - beyond the link to the auction. I.E. "Commodore 900 Computer" not "Rare Commodore Computer!" > Anyone else want to weigh in on this issue? > > Clint -- 01000011 01001111 01001101 01001101 01001111 01000100 01001111 01010010 01000101 Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (209) 754-1363 300-14.4k bps Classic Commodore pages at: http://www.jps.net/foxnhare/commodore.html 01000011 01001111 01001101 01010000 01010101 01010100 01000101 01010010 01010011

24 years, 1 month

WTB: '040 PowerBook

by ndiablo＠diablonet.net

> Does anyone have an older '040 based Powerbook, such as a 540C or > 190CS, that they'd be willing to sell? Since my main machine is a Mac, > I'd like to move my portable work to a capable Powerbook, vice the > 486DX4/100 I have now. > > Thanks > Jeff Just to let you know in case you don't have particularly good luck on the gray market, Sun Remarketing (http://www.sunrem.com) is selling refurbished PowerBook 5300 (grayscale!) 8/500 systems for $199.00. Yes, these machines do have a reputation for being a service nightmare, but assumedly since this is a refurb system it will have been checked out, and Sun would offer some warranty on it as well. It is a PowerPC based system, so you'd end up with even a little more power than the '040 machines that you were searching for. Not a bad price on a used PowerBook, especially when compared to other resellers like Shreve. Just thought you might like the pointer. --Sean Caron (root(a)diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net

24 years, 1 month

apple ///

by witchy＠vorbis.demon.co.uk

> > Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 01:33:50 -0700 (PDT) > From: steve <tosteve(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: Apple /// - Mac Port! > > Hi Adrian, > > You have a very slim chance on the Apple III, numerous > people have already asked for it. No worries :) > I am asking $50.00 for it, not including shipping. > Sorry, It doesn't have a carrying case. Eep - too much considering I can get one for less than that over here. Never mind, it was worth asking! > Are you in the UK? Yup! And given my recent redundancy I'm liable to stay here for a while yet..... cheers adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the Online Computer Museum 0:OK, 0:1

24 years, 1 month

TRS-80 question

by rdd＠smart.net

Greetings, A while back, I purchased a TRS-80 Model III with 48K of memory, but I can't access the BASIC interpreter... that is, if it has one as I was thinking it did. Do I need to use a boot floppy in order to do anything with this machine? Also, weren't some TRS-80 systems able to use a hard drive? Funny thing, I still have the book that I purchased from Radio Shack about 20 years ago (doesn't seem possible that it's been that long) so that I could use a TRS-80 in a computer lab in college: _BASIC Computer Language: It's easier than you think!_. Five dollars and ninety five cents... wow, try buying a new computer-related book at that price now! -- Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & rdd(a)perqlogic.com 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.

24 years, 1 month

Listing for AppleII StarTrek

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 27, 8:53, Cini, Richard wrote: > I looked at home, and I don;t have any of Ahl's books. I do have a > version of StarTrek that was for TinyBasic, which I could use. I was > interested in the version that came with the 16k Apple ][ because it seemed > to make use of some of the graphics capabilities. The version is David Ahl's book isn't Apple-oriented, though it must be close to the Apple version (which, if I recall correctly, was in Integer BASIC). I do have a copy of that somewhere. However, at the moment my machines are strewn (I think that's about the most descriptive word I could use!) all over the house and workshop as I'm in the final stages of "sorting out the junk". I doubt if the Disk ]['s are even in the same room as the Apple ][ or //e, and i'm sure the floppies aren't. Nevertheless, if you care to remind me in a week or two's time, I should be able to dig it out and kermit a copy across to something net-enabled for you. [5 mins later] Aha, I've found the disks. What you're looking for is called "APPLE-TREK", and it's 53 blocks of INTEGER BASIC. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

24 years, 1 month

TRS-80 question

by fmc＠reanimators.org

ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Incidentally, does anyone know what's happened to Tim Mann's web pages? > They were an excellent source of TRS-80 software. They still are, but now you need to look for them at http://www.tim-mann.org/trs80.html . -Frank McConnell

24 years, 1 month

ebay: Victor 9000 PC [ad]

by ss＠allegro.com

Hi, I'm trying two things: - mentioning that I've got a Victor 9000 PC up on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1232394633 - showing people that if we preface eBay announcements with "ebay:", the people who don't want to read such things can easily filter them out. I know that won't make everyone happy ... particularly people who feel that eBay is evil :) However, I tend to try local giveaways first. Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html www.allegro.com/sieler

24 years, 1 month

Listing for AppleII StarTrek

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Jim: I looked at home, and I don;t have any of Ahl's books. I do have a version of StarTrek that was for TinyBasic, which I could use. I was interested in the version that came with the 16k Apple ][ because it seemed to make use of some of the graphics capabilities. Rich -----Original Message----- From: Jim Strickland [mailto:jim@calico.litterbox.com] Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 3:05 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Listing for AppleII StarTrek I have it in David Aho's book "More Basic Computer Games". I had a scanned image of each page of the listing on my web page for quite a while, but I removed it. If nobody else gets back to you let me know and I'll dig up the images or scan 'em again. > > Hello, all: > > Does anyone have the listing for or a disk image of the 16k StarTrek > for the Apple II? > > Rich > -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BeOS Powered! -----------------------------------------------------------------------

24 years, 1 month

calling Shawn Rutledge

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Shawn - please contact me off-list and send your postal address. Bill -- Bill Bradford mrbill(a)mrbill.net Austin, TX

24 years, 1 month

A few PDP11 questions and FREE Cipher tape drive

by fernande＠internet1.net

Hello, Before I continue with my Vax 3400, I want to get my PDP11 put together, physically. I have a few things I would like to find, and a few questions. My 11 came with a 3 4-port serial cards. They are M8043 boards. I can't see myself using that many serial ports. Does anybody have the little blank steel plates to put in a BA23 chassis so I can remove the plates that have the 4 db25 connectors? Also, I need the plate that fits into the space below the serial ports. It looks to be slightly larger than a centronics 50 SCSI connector. Would anybody have the dip switch and jumper settings for a M8190-AE, that's a KDJ11-B from a 73 or 83. My 11 was upgraded from a 53. How about memory? If I use the memory that came with it, and do a "map" it tells me the memory is parity. I bought a few surplus boards and one appears to be ECC memory. I don't know anything about ECC, is it better than parity? I have a 2-meg ECC board and 2.5 megs worth of parity memory between 2 boards. One of my parity boards says "Mos RAM" What is that? It is a M8067 LJ. I am thinking that I would like to keep the chassis out of the tower. Does anybody have a spare plastic bezel for a rackmount setup. I don't have a rack, but it would take up less room if I keep the tower in storage. What to call this thing? It has the cpu board from an 11/83, but it doesn't have the PMI memory of an 83. I would like to upgrade the little square badge to reflect its current config. Also, does anybody want a big Cipher tape drive? I also have a Emulex TCO2 (I think that's it) to drive it, although I don't have the cables to hook the two together. It would be free for the taking. I don't think I want to ship it. Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

24 years, 1 month

Shutting down cleanly ... sync; sync; sync;

by guntis＠cyberstate.infi.net

>> In fact... I seem to remember that the Ultrix-11 installation >> manual specified this action during the installation process. >> No urban legend.. I remember doing it on a home -11... >> sync; sync; sync; halt >Years ago (so far back in another year it will be ontopic), this was the >correct way to shutdown Linux as well. And years before that - SCO XENIX and then SYSTEM V Unix - we were told the same thing, though this way sync sync sync shutdown / halt (or whatever the command was) Delurking here for a bit. My sole collectibles are TI 990's and the TI PC (the first computer I owned). Most haven't been fired up in a while. Was once a field service tech for TI way back when. Still have a good bit of documentation and half-forgotten knowledge of those machines. I also know a much smaller bit about the TI Unix and LISP boxes. FWIW. Guntis.

24 years, 1 month

TrackStar E usage - Update

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Hello, all: I'm muddling through this a bit. I found an old CGA monitor up in the attic that I attached to the TrackStar. I'm able to boot the TS into Integer Basic successfully. I still don't know if the composite output works since I think that there is a problem with the Apple Composite monitor I have (it displays only a yellow background). I think that the updated FAQ mentions that it's a video level problem. Using the TS utilities, I was able to create a DOS3.3 disk image in the TrackStar format. the TS will not "boot" that image, nor will it boot the image included with the drivers. I still can't get it to boot. I just checked the Apple2 FAQ and the TrackStar page was updated about 1 month ago. It mentions that some TS disk images are available from the GSWorldview archive, a link which doesn't work. Does anyone have a link to the working archive? As a result of this experimentation, I think that I'm going to do a TrackStar Web page this weekend. Rich

24 years, 1 month

Motorola 68000-16 and 68450 chips...

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> also, does anyone know of anything that used 68450 chips? (they're 4-channel >> DMA controllers for the 68k apparently). I found a couple of these amongst >> the piles of junk I have and am curious as to where I might have got them - > > In a 64 pin DIL package or a 68 pin (?) PGA package? 64-pin DIL. > I've seen the former in sevaral machines, including the Torch XXX. The > latter was used in the PERQ3a. Although if you stripped either of those > machines for parts, I would feel justified in stripping _you_ for parts :-) hmm, strip away :-) It's possible... I never had a complete XXX system, but Torch used to be my local source of PC bits (around 1990 or so) and I knew the guys there via a friend of mine. I remember piles of XXX machines on the shelves gathering dust, not sure what happened to those (are Torch still around? Unlikely). Occasionally I used to get other odds and ends from there (I have a set of XXX floppies someplace) so may have had a dead XXX system board or something >from them which I pulled the 68450's from. I used to work for a place up in Cambridge that was primarily a PC repair shop, but they used to sell anything computer-related so long as it was mainstream-ish (ie. lots of Amstrads etc. too). Occasionally we'd get oddities in, which is where a couple of my bigger systems have come from. The boss always wanted such machines stripped for useful parts (typically just memory and disks, workstation monitors if they were there) and then the rest was scrapped :-( Unfortunately he always wanted a ridiculous amount of money for any of these systems complete, otherwise I would have saved whatever I could (anything with SCSI disks seemed to automatically command a tenfold price increase!). I have a vague memory of at least one XXX system which passed through there, an IMP system, several big Apricot towers, and some Acorn Unix system of some sort. It's possible I scavenged the 68450's from the bin awaiting disposal, although I have no idea what I thought I was going to do with them :) I seem to remember a big white cabinet on wheels (3' high, 18" wide by maybe 4' deep) which we used to ride around the warehouse on :-) No idea what the innards of it were though! Oh, for some reason video memory was never saved - if we had a dead PC SVGA card it just got thrown out as-is. I had a nice little scam going pulling memory off these dead boards and selling it to people wanting to upgrade their PC video cards from 512KB to 1MB.... the video memory was usually intact even if the boards were toast. cheers Jules

24 years, 1 month

Motorola 68000-16 and 68450 chips...

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> does anyone have a spare 16MHz 68k CPU... > > Was the MC68000-12 rated to 16Mhz, or did people just run it that fast? I > remember it was an issue for people who tried to clock-double their A500s. how did you know? :-) I have an old A500 which it'd be nice to increase the speed of, add an IDE disk to it, increase the memory etc. It had been left outside and all the metal screening's gone pretty rusty, hence it makes a nice project machine! The information I've seen suggests that SGS-Thompson parts were 12MHz and Motorola-badged ones would run at 16 (even if they were badged as 12's). If I can find one of the chips I'll find out :-) > I've seen at least one Amiga peripheral that used a Motorola DMA chip (forget > if it was 2-channel or 4-channel). Microbotics SCSI? Software Results had > a WAN router box that was never released, that used a 68450 per serial card > for high-performance serial (vs the non-DMA 8-port low performance card). I > doubt if you got it from that - I have the boxes (and 8-layer boards!) up > in the attic. ISTR they used 600 RPM 3.5" drives, too. Nope, none of those. I had all of the boards from a phone exchange at one point (that was a *lot* of silicon) and pulled many Z80 + support chips off those, but don't remember there being any 68k-family stuff. Strange... cheers Jules

24 years, 1 month

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test-drb April 2001