test-drb April 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

251 participants
669 discussions

by witchy＠vorbis.demon.co.uk

Hi Steve, How much would you be after for the Apple ///? I understand shipping might be expensive :) And the Mac portable for that matter..... > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 14:55:03 -0700 (PDT) > From: steve <tosteve(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: Computers for swap or sell > > Hi, > > I have some extra systems, see if there's anything > that you like! > > 1.Apple IIc with monitor (small green screen) > 2.Apple IIc Plus > 3.Apple III with Monitor III > > 4.Macintosh Portable (model 5120) cheers adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the Online Computer Museum 0:OK, 0:1

24 years, 1 month

DejaNews... Holy Cow!!!

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Wow, I just did a search at http://groups.google.com and they've now got all of the DejaNews archives back online! It was actually a problem, I was expecting to only pull up a couple hits, and I got a LOT! Just thought I'd share the good news! Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

24 years, 1 month

MicroVAX 3100 booting question...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 26, 22:50, Iggy Drougge wrote: > >> I have no respect for a system which needs to be pampered before one > >> may hit the power switch, so nowadays, I just flick the switch when > >> I feel like it, be the system Windows, Mac or UNIX. Haven't had the > >> opportunity with VMS yet. =) I can do that with my SGIs running UNIX, because they have soft power that actually works. The OS intercepts the sinal from the switch and does a clean shutdown. (Unlike the Sun Ultras I've used, where the soft power so rarely works when we want it to, that we've often ended up yanking the power cord because nothing happens). > NetBSD and OpenBSD boxes seem to boot fine, albeit slowly. Because they have to check and sometimes fix the disk. If shut down clean, they don't have to do that. > So what if they're writing to disk? If they have proper file systems that > won't really matter. Mind you, at least I always check that the drive lights > aren't on. Having a proper file system won't prevent corruption at some level. What do you mean by "proper", anyway? Even a journaling file system like XFS can't preserve data that was being written when it was interrupted, and you WILL get some data corruption, even if it doesn't corrupt the structure of the disk (making a bad block). Just because some systems silently deal with most problems next time they start up doesn't mean you've not done some damage. One day it won't be repairable without intervention. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

24 years, 1 month

Rapport PCjr expansion chassis

by mbbrutman＠chartermi.net

The PCjr in question with the expanded memory is only counting up to 128 when it POSTs, so I am pretty sure that the expanded memory isn't getting any power at all. If the memory would appear during the POST, my life would be wonderful. My other extended PCjrs POST past 128KB. So are there any Rapport Drive II owners out there that want to tell me what the external power supply looks like? Does it output the same as the PCjr power brick, or is it a different beast? The Rapport looks like a pretty neat device. The standard PCjr diskette controller can only support one drive. They use the standard controller, but they "borrow" some of the lines on the floppy cable and run it through some additional logic to add two drive support. It also looks like it has a parallel port and a clock/calendar on it. It's also got a switch labelled "PC/PCjr" - it either disables all of the addon crap, or it adds a feature that I'm unaware of. Any guesses? Mike

24 years, 1 month

TrackStar E usage

by rcini＠optonline.net

Hello, all: Well, I've finally gotten around to playing with the Diamond TrackStar board. Has anyone gotten this to work successfully? I've downloaded all info that I can find relating to the TS, but it only includes the "hardware" portion of the install manual. Does anyone have the "software" portion of the manual? Anyway, here's where I am so far: The board's installed and the software that I have seems to recognize the board and allow me to do certain things, like configuring the drive slots and assigning PC ports to the virtual Apple ports. I was also able to create a 10mb ProDOS volume on the C drive of this test system (a 486/66 with 16mb of RAM). I have a genuine Apple ][ floppy drive connected to the TS. I can "boot" the Apple ][ drive, but it does not seem to recognize the disk. I've tried ProDOS8 and DOS 3.3 disks, neither one of which works. I did have the cable upside down initially, and then reversed it. The drive light comes on at the right time, so I'm hoping that I did not trash the drive. The TS has a composite video output, so I figure that I can connect it to the Apple Color monitor I use for the ][+ I have. All I get is yellow streaks. I don't have a generic 9-pin RGB monitor to try the direct video output. I also noticed that the TS has an empty 16-pin socket at position U63. Since I have an incomplete manual, this may be for Apple Paddles or something else. Any info on this? As always, any information is greatly appreciated. Rich Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulator Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /*****************************************/

24 years, 1 month

TRS-80 Mod 12 for sale

by nerdware＠laidbak.com

Hi, gang. A couple of years ago, I dove headlong into the old computer collecting thing, thinking naively that I was doing something unique. I was going to build a great online museum, and have all these neat machines displayed thoughout my house and possibly at the local university. Then I discovered this list, and realized that not only was I not alone in my pursuits, but that I was also small potatoes compared to some of you. Plus, the collection started to take over the basement, as they are wont to do. I also design theatrical sound effects, and I'm trying to build a small project studio here in the basement. That endeavour has taken over most of my free time. So, I started paring down the collection to a few choice pieces plus those with sentimental value to me. I did a entire display at the local library of Tandy equipment last year. I realized, while setting it up and subsequently taking it down, that I should keep the Model 1, the 100 & 200, the Pocket, and the Micro CoCo and jettison the rest of the Tandy collection. Rather than put this sucker on ebay, I thought I'd give first shot to my extended cyberfamily here on the list. I'm going to start with a Model 12, with two 8" floppy drives, keyboard, and two external 20mb hard drives. Don't know how well it works, but I was told that it booted last time it was powered up. I don't have any software other than what's loaded on the hd's. I've realized that I just don't have the time and no longer have the inclination to mess with all of this stuff, so it should go to someone who does. As I said, this is going in the kitty to finance the purchase of a synth or two for the studio, so I would like to get something out of it. This one wasn't a freebie for me. Also, if you know what one is, you know how bulky and heavy they are, so I would like to limit it to pickup in the Northwest Indiana/Chicago area. Valparaiso is about halfway between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana. Actually, I don't care where you live. If you're willing to drive to Valpo, that's fine with me. If you have problems with this email address, as my provider filters based on ORBS and sometimes things get stuck, use my work address pbraun(a)olivellp.com. I'll take the best offer as of Tuesday May 1st at midnight. Depending on how this goes, I have more Tandy pieces that I'll put up here first instead of ebay. I also have a mess of Bytes from the early 80's on that I'll offer as soon as I get 'em sorted, hopefully this weekend. Thanks. Paul Braun WD9GCO Cygnus Productions nerdware_nospam(a)laidbak.com "A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog without a bunch of bricks tied to its head."

24 years, 1 month

MicroVAX 3100 booting... (now WinNT shutdown)

by kees.stravers＠iae.nl

On 2001-04-26 classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org said to kees.stravers(a)iae.nl >What!? NT is out there!? >That ISS crew shouldn't have NT up there. It is not rated for >that kind of reliablity. Down here, fine, but not up there with >everything depending on that thing. The Windows computers in the ISS are not performing critical tasks. The tasks that matter are performed by custom built machines with their own real time os. The Windows machines only look at what the real computers are doing. Kees. -- Kees Stravers - Geldrop, The Netherlands - kees.stravers(a)iae.nl http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/ My home page (old computers,music,photography) http://www.vaxarchive.org/ Info on old DEC VAX computers (Mirrors: http://vaxarchive.khubla.com/ and http://vaxarchive.sevensages.org/) Net-Tamer V 1.08.1 - Registered

24 years, 1 month

se/30 disk weirdness

by red＠bears.org

I brought home an external FDHD for my SE/30 last night, to facilitate retrocomputing tasks. Plugged it in, switched on the Mac, tested it out, shut the Mac down, and unplugged the disk. Now, when the external drive is unplugged, the system somehow still thinks it's there. I get a disk icon with an "x" in it at boot as it tries to boot from this external drive which is not there and finds (surprise!) no system folder on the disk. The system then goes on to boot more-or-less normally from the internal SCSI disk. Once finder starts loading, I get a dialog box that (depending) says one of two things: "This disk cannot be read by this Macintosh. (Eject) (Initialize)" with the icon indicating the (non-present) external floppy. ~or~ "Initialization faild: disk is locked. (OK)" Dismissing these dialogs result in processing resuming normally for a second or two, and then another identical dialog being thrown up. Repeat ad infinitum, et ad nauseam. The internal disk drive continues to work normally (within the above constraints). As soon as I reconnect the external disk drive, everything is happy again. As soon as I disconnect it... bang. Nose demons. I am utterly baffled. What's wrong? How do I fix it? ok r.

24 years, 1 month

Motorola 68000-16 and 68450 chips...

by aknight＠mindspring.com

Ethan Dicks wrote: >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. Motorola made a version of their MC68HC000 that ran at 16MHz. Back in the late 80's I was doing processor design for Nortel switching equipment and we had some applications that were written for the 68000 that would have taken too much work to convert software over for the 68020 (a lot of our stuff ran in supervisor mode, not user mode). SGS-Thompson was a licensee for the 68K family, and was the first company that produced a 16 MHz 68000. I think theirs was NMOS, not CMOS (it sure got warm). One day the Motorola guys brought in one of their sales managers to try do drum up business for their 68020 and I showed them the SGS-T part and asked them if they had anything like that. The answer was "we'll get back to you on that", which was then followed up with "you can use our 12 MHz 68HC000, run it at 16 MHz at room temperature for development, and soon we can provide screened parts that will run at 16 MHz". Eventually they did provide MC68HC000-16 parts. Regards, Alex The Calculator Museum Web Page http://www.calcmuseum.com

24 years, 1 month

MicroVAX 3100 booting question...

by kees.stravers＠iae.nl

On 2001-04-26 classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org said >I respect Apollo most for their solution. >On the early models we had they had a soft shutdown >switch right where the power switch was. You hit that >one and it does the preliminaries and then off. >>>>One button<<<, just the way it should be I think. The AT&T 3B2 does this too. Very nice indeed. I wish more machines had this feature. My old DEC 486 laptop did it even better: you hit the switch, it goes off instantly, and when you hit the switch again it came right back up where it was, no rebooting, no scratching on the disk, just instant on. Amazing. Kees. -- Kees Stravers - Geldrop, The Netherlands - kees.stravers(a)iae.nl http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/ My home page (old computers,music,photography) http://www.vaxarchive.org/ Info on old DEC VAX computers (Mirrors: http://vaxarchive.khubla.com/ and http://vaxarchive.sevensages.org/) Net-Tamer V 1.08.1 - Registered

24 years, 1 month

Listing for AppleII StarTrek

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Hello, all: Does anyone have the listing for or a disk image of the 16k StarTrek for the Apple II? Rich

24 years, 1 month

IBM 7171 Terminal Controllers

by ip500＠home.com

If anyone is interested ... there are a number of IBM 7171 that will be coming available in the near future. I would expect the price to be in the $100 range but as they are IBM .. they're probably HUGE and BLUE. Any interest I can find out more info and pass it along privately. Craig Located in Virginia, Roanoke to be exact.

24 years, 1 month

Longest running user group in history?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On April 19, Mark Gregory wrote: > Last night, I attended the 175th monthly meeting of the Amiga Users of > Calgary. That didn't seem like much until I did the math; that's 14.5 years > of meetings (!), and probably more given that for the past few years > they've taken two of the summer months off. It got me wondering which users > group holds the record for longest continuous operation, where members > actually attend meetings at a regular interval. I know that the Toronto PET > Users Group, which is still active, has been running since 1978. > Interestingly, their Website (http://www.icomm.ca/tpug/) says they're the > _second_ oldest Commodore club. Impressive! > I thought this might make a fun thread. So who's older? Are there any older > clubs still active? And isn't it sad that Wintel computers are so generic > and boring that people don't form user's groups anymore? DECUS? -Dave McGuire

24 years, 1 month

PC-Jr (was: Repair techniques ... I/O pins and power supplies

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 4/25/01 6:42:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time, cisin(a)xenosoft.com writes: << > if it's the IBM sidecar that plugs in, the system should detect it > automagically. I have one on my hard drive equipped jr that was modded so the > computer has 640k total. Ny recollection was that the original message specified that it was NOT the IBM sidecar. >> I would still think any memory expansion option would be counted up at POST because the computer can boot with carts installed rather than floppy and also, the standard pcjr model has no disk drives! The enhanced model that everyone seems to have includes one floppy drive. -- DB Young Team OS/2 old computers, hot rod pinto and more at: www.nothingtodo.org

24 years, 1 month

AS400 9404 /s

by KenzieM＠sympatico.ca

Also found this deal today 100$ takes all 4-6 AS400 9404 models about 35+ IBM 3164 terminals with keyboards, dust screens for terminals, network blocks etc. Tested one of the 9404 and powers up fine... others untested... they do include drives, tape units, cpu's, memory etc !!!!

24 years, 1 month

not a DEC video cable?

by red＠bears.org

Yesterday, I picked up what I thought was a VAXstation colour video cable at a recyclers. I had nefarious reasons for doing so, and ended up being disappointed to find out it didn't work with my VAXstation (3100m76, GPX). What other systems used DA15 (socket) <-> 3 BNC video cables that also featured mid-cable breakout for keyboard/mouse? The give-away should've been that the keyboard connector is not an RJ-style jack. Instead, it has mini-DIN6 (PS/2-style) keyboard and mouse connectors. ok r.

24 years, 1 month

What's DEC doing at Data General site...?

by bkr＠WildHareComputers.com

G'day DEC'heads- While updating our Data General-oriented web site I've added a new DEC photo section to the web site just for nostalgia sake: http://www.simulogics.com/nostalgia/DEC/dec.htm I've also updated the list of of our scanned DG docs at: http://www.simulogics.com/archives/manuals/DG.htm so you can see what is currently available upon request. More vendor docs can be found by tracking down the appriate vendor selection at: http://www.simulogics.com/archives/manuals/manuals.htm This site is being extensively updated over the next week, and comments, ridicule, questions and suggestions always welcomed - (and I am still interested in obtaining an 8/E, 8/L or 8/I if anybody has a working system seeking a caring home) Bruce Ray bkr(a)SimuLogics.com -or- bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com

24 years, 1 month

commodore stuff...

by foxnhare＠jps.net

On what a 8050 drive can work on Every PET/CBM except the ones with the original ROMs, and the CBM II series (B128, P500, B600, 700, etc.) The 8050 is a dual 1/2 megabyte (per floppy) drive using quad density (96tpi) single sided disks (not to be confused with high density, I have read double density disks can be used in a pinch), usualy more common to find 8050 software disks used in the CBM business line or the CBM-II (B1-28) line then in the mass consumer PETs. Unfortunaltely it cannot read 1541 or 2040/4040/2031 disks. But I have heard you can read a half of a 8250 disk with it (8250 is a dual sided quad density drive) see also: http://www.jps.net/foxnhare/petfaq.html On the cable... > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 09:22:00 -0500 > From: "Russ Blakeman" <rhblake(a)bigfoot.com> > Subject: Hmm...what the heck kind of cable is this???? > > In a batch of power adapters and cables I found a stereotypical Commodore > style beige serial type cable, having the DIN plug on the end - but only on > one end. The other end is a 25 pin female d-sub. I know it's factory as the > housing for the 25 pin has the C= emblem molded into it. ... > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 12:04:13 -0500 > From: "Russ Blakeman" <rhblake(a)bigfoot.com> > Subject: RE: Hmm...what the heck kind of cable is this???? > > Okay I looked quick and "assumed" it was a 25, might be a 23...I completely > forgot that it might be video. I guess they are made strictly for Commodore > brand monitors... 23 pin d-sub mini to DIN is a 1084 monitor (DIN) to Amiga (23 pin d-sub mini) cable. For that monitor to an 8-bit it would have been DIN to DIN (not sure of the monitor configuration though). Commodore for a short time used these nasty DIN connectors on their 1084 monitors which were non standard... (probably got a deal on DIN jacks, eh?) I belive Magnavox did release some of thier branded monitors with that connetor too... :/ -- 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

PC-Jr (was: Repair techniques ... I/O pins and power supplies

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 4/25/01 4:59:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, cisin(a)xenosoft.com writes: << > > supply is only about 33 watts. The expansion unit has extra > > memory in it that is not being seen by the system unit; I > > suspect that is because the +5 output on the power supply > > is reading about 1.8 volts. (According to a digital On some expansion memory units for the PC-Jr the extra memory is NOT seen by the system until certain "special" software is run. >> if it's the IBM sidecar that plugs in, the system should detect it automagically. I have one on my hard drive equipped jr that was modded so the computer has 640k total. -- DB Young Team OS/2 old computers, hot rod pinto and more at: www.nothingtodo.org

24 years, 1 month

Archaeology Article

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Picked the issue at the news stand today that had the 2 page article on classic computers staring our own Sellam Ismail. It was fun reading and now I have to see this former car plant that serves as your warehouse. I have to get me rich uncle so that I can get that kind of space. Articles like this are great for our collecting efforts as more and more people learn about they seek us out to donate their old computers. Keep up the good work.

24 years, 1 month

Free: PDP parts & VMS "Orange Wall" - Austin, TX

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

-----Original Message----- From: Bill Bradford <mrbill(a)mrbill.net> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Monday, April 23, 2001 11:38 PM Subject: Free: PDP parts & VMS "Orange Wall" - Austin, TX > >http://www.pdp11.org/pics/eight-inch-floppys-front.jpg >http://www.pdp11.org/pics/eight-inch-floppys-switches.jpg > >Bill > Does the drive come with or without the cat ? Jos Dreesen

24 years, 1 month

DEC RRD40 CDROM Drives

by dittman＠dittman.net

I recently acquired some old DEC equipment that that two RRD40 drives with SCSI adapters. I quickly replaced them with some real SCSI CDROM drives. Now, I enjoy classic equipment and like to see it preserved, but I draw the line on the RRD40 drives. They deserve to die. However, there may be some people that may actually want these oddball drives and SCSI adapters, so if you want them, they are yours. All I ask is that you pay for shipping, and I really only want to ship these in the US. There are no caddies available, and if you aren't familiar with the RRD40 drives they don't use the standard caddies. Also, one of the drives has a CD in it, and when I booted the unit before removing the drives the CD was labeled as an OpenVMS V7.1 doc disk. However, I don't know if that is accurate, since I didn't bother taking a look at the contents. I also don't know if the CD or drive will survive shipping with the CD in place. Also, the SCSI adapters are only for the RRD40 drives and I've removed the three ICs that are useful to me from each board. So, if you want them let me know by Friday, or I'll just trash them, without honor, and without dignity. Can you guess that I've had to install a VMS upgrade with an RRD40 drive and had to swap several CDs to load layered products with only two caddies? I really, really, really don't like RRD40 drives. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 1 month

MicroMation system in San Francisco area available.

by ndiablo＠diablonet.net

Subject: Re: MicroMation Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 18:02:44 -0700 From: Christopher Menke <chrismenke(a)excite.com> To: ndiablo(a)diablonet.net References: 1 Hi everyone! I was kindly offered this computer system, but it is extremely out of my range. He said it would be alright if I forwarded it to the list, so here goes. Contact address and caveats below. >Sean, >I was hoping that Diable might have been the Diablo valley here in the San >Francisco area. I think these machins would be quite expensive to ship ,as >each box is 50lbs+ and each terminal is likely 50lbs as well. >You may forward my offer to whomever, as long as the chrismenke(a)excite.com >address is used, and you throw a caveat in there that I would not like to >be contacted regarding anything else. >As to your Sun stuff, I too am using an IPC as my household server, but I'm >looking for something to play with on my desktop. >Cheers, >Chris >Christopher Menke wrote: >> >> I have a large Micromation computer, which I believe consists of a CPU, >> 10 MB 12 inch platter hard drive, and a ancillary box with two 8 inch >> floppies. Also included are two TeleVideo 900 terminals. >> >> Yours for the shipping, or the pickup, or trade for old Sun stuff if you >> wanna get rid of any. >> >> Cheers, >> Chris > >Hi! Thanks for your very gracious offer. Just out of curiousity, where >are you located? Depending on if you are nearby, I may be interested, >but if you are outside of the southwest Michigan area it would probably >be prohibitively expensive to ship the entire system. > >I've got some older Sun equipment around, nothing spectacular, however. >Primarily old SPARCstation IPC systems that actually would run fine >given hard drives, some RAM, and a live IDPROM. Lots of spare CG3 >SBus graphics cards too, but those are probably of limited interest. > >If you are out of my range, would it be alright if I were to forward >your offer to the classic computer collector's mailing list? If I am >not capable of finding a home for the system myself, I'm sure there >would be someone who would! > >Thanks again, > >--Sean Caron (root(a)diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net --Sean Caron (root(a)diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net

24 years, 1 month

Repair techniques ... I/O pins and power supplies

by mbbrutman＠chartermi.net

I've always wanted a PCjr with an expansion chassis on it, but they were pretty expensive, and I got by without one. 15 years later I have found one on Ebay and bought it, but alas it's not a happy ending. There are at least two serious problems that I need to fix. The first problem is a broken I/O pin on the expansion bus that comes off the motherboard. The pin is in a 60 pin rectangular connector, and spacing is tight. he broken pin is a data line pin, so if I don't fix it, I can't add any sidecars to the machine. How does one go about replacing a pin? Is it possible? Or am I going to have to desolder the connector and try to replace the entire connector? (And I'm not good with a soldering iron ... I can't even tin wires.) The second problem looks to be a bad power supply. The expansion unit has it's own power supply because the PCjr power supply is only about 33 watts. The expansion unit has extra memory in it that is not being seen by the system unit; I suspect that is because the +5 output on the power supply is reading about 1.8 volts. (According to a digital multimeter.) I measured this with everything connected, so there certainly is enough load. (I don't think that this is even a switching power supply, so the load issue is moot.) The power supply has a "pick" line that is probably activated from the main unit, so that it doesn't have to have an independent power switch. How does such a pick line work? Is there a way to fool it on? What does it use for a ground? (I didn't see one clearly labeled that belonged to the pick line ... perhaps it was the same ground as the +5v line?) How can I confirm that this power supply is truly toast? And it is, then how do I replace it? (I'm willing to scab in a reasonable substitute - it probably can't be a switching supply though because there won't be enough load - it's probably only 512KB of chips on board. The expansion unit is a Rapport if that helps anybody. Thanks, Mike

24 years, 1 month

VAX 6000 3-phase conversion (was: Re: Three Phase)

by gunther＠aurora.regenstrief.org

Robert, you are awesome! I would very much appreciate if you took some pictures. I did some more experiment today and had quite strange results. Now that I understand that the two black and the brown wires are the three phases and the blue is null, I hooked up brown with P1, the two black ones with P2 and blue with null. When I plugged in, I saw the power line controll lights 2 and 3 flash up real quick and then they were out. When I turned on the main power (T-switch) I could measure 110 V at the auxiliary receptacles as it should be. However, I could not find any 220 V at the round plug. I tried two variants: with leaving protective ground open or closing it at N (I know, this was only temporary ...) When I had protective GND on N I would see the PL1 controll light flash tooo. But I never got any 220 V between any of the pins on the round connector. Now this may be because I tried with the power unit from the VAX that has some (unknown) power problems. > The cable that connects the round > connector to the `power & logic box' has only six wires, two from each > phase. There are a number of other connections available on the round > connector, which leads me to believe it's a standard part for anumber of > different power schemes. >From the inside it looks as if each lead goes to at least two of those pins. This would seem reasonable as the pins themselves look pretty small for 800 W full power ... > Here's the fun part! Inside the `power & logic box', all three phases ( > no neutral!) follow a simple path thru a 20A 600V fuse, and then into a > full-wave bridge rectifier, DEC part number 11-26520-01. A couple of MOVs > offer some protection from transients, and yet more filtering. > > Now, the good news: > > It should be possible to simply apply 220 volt single phase (common dryer > power) to any two of the hot wires on the three phase plug! No neutral is > needed for the computer itself, altho any accessories plugged into the > lower power-distribution box will need one. These pose a small problem in > that they are connected to different hots to more evenly balance the load > on the three phase supply, but worst case they can be easily tied on to > one phase inside the box-- best case don't use them! > > I'll be making a cable to replace the factory assembly, and rewireing the > distribution box to single phase, I believe. It should be 100% reversable. My plan is to buy a receptacle box for the original power plug and wire that box near my extra circuit-breaker box in the laundry / computer room in the basement. Given that the stange behavior of the power control lights are explained and my mistake in measuring the round connector's voltage output is discovered, is there anything to rewire inside the AC power box? I wonder, are we the first ones to fire up their 6000 in their private dwellings? BTW: has anyone noticed major interference with radios or TVs (the label on the machine talks about it ...) regards -Gunther

24 years, 1 month

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test-drb April 2001