test-drb July 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

301 participants
824 discussions

by optimus＠canit.se

Upon reading http://www.breezer.demon.co.uk/spec/tech/ay-3-8912.html, I encountered the following: --- The AY-3-8910/8912 (and derivatives) has found its way into a variety of home computers and games consoles including the following: Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128/+2/+3 Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128 Mattel Intellivision BBC Micro Atari ST Sega Master System --- Well, it's true WRT the Speccy, the Ammy (I suppose you can't say that =) and the ST, but didn't we establish a while back that the BBC and Master System chip, the SN76489, while superficially similar, was a different construction. And as for the Intellivision, perhaps is it just due to the limited system in general, lack of space, or perhaps a slow driving clock, but with the sub- mediocre sound of the INTV, it seems like such a waste to employ a more adanced sound generator such as the AY, -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.

22 years, 10 months

Floppy woes ...

by mbbrutman＠bresnanlink.net

Thank you everybody for the suggestions. Here is how things finally shook out. The Pentium machine had a real, 360KB drive in it borrowed from a PCjr. (I had stated that in the original note.) Formatting issues between 1.2MB drives and 360KB drives were not part of the equation. I tried formating the diskettes (double density, double sided) in both the 360KB drive on the Pentium and the 360KB drive in the PCjr. This did not seem to make a difference. Diskettes formatted and written by the Pentium machine were usually unreadable in the PCjr. In a few tests they were also unreadable in a second PCjr. Sometimes I could get a directory or copy a file, but usually I was getting the familiar "Abort, Retry, Ignore." A diskette "refresh" utility was reporting lots of read errors on sectors, some recoverable and some not. Diskettes written by the Jr were readable on the Pentium. Old diskettes written years ago were readable everywhere. (These were written by yet a different drive.) I deduced that since the Pentium 360KB drive was writing the diskettes and two PCjrs couldn't read them, that it must be the Pentium 360KB drive causing the problems. So I swapped it out and put a 1.2MB drive in it's place. I know about the head width problems, but would you believe that one of the Jrs was able to read diskettes created on the 1.2MB drive? To make a long story short, the 360KB drive in the Pentium was ok, the 1.2MB drive can write 360KB diskettes that are readable on the PCjr, and one of the PCjr drives is flakey. I think I was unlucky in my early testing when both Jrs balked at the diskettes created on the Pentium. One of the Jrs drives is know known to be bad, one is confirmed good, and the 360KB drive on the Pentium is good, yet a diskette created on the Pentium caused read errors on both Jrs, which led me to suspect the wrong drive. I've not been able to reproduce that error again. Now for the bad drive ... If I clean the rails with alcohol and lube them with silicone spray, it does a slightly better job of reading foreign (i.e.: not its own) diskettes. Based on this, methinks that the head is not being positioned exactly where it should be. However, those rails are pretty clean now and the problems persist. It's an old Qume drive, 1/2 height. I'm saving the drive for now, but a flakey 5.25 inch drive isn't of much use. And I've also learned that DOS 2.1 does NOT tolerate diskette errors during the boot process. :-)

22 years, 10 months

FS/T: IBM 5363 II

by owad＠applefritter.com

Pick up in south-central PA or at VCF East. IBM 5363 II In very nice condition and working when decomissioned; it spent all its life in the server room. I'm pretty certain it hasn't been opened or changed by anybody, so its probably original specs, but I don't have the time or interest to power it up and check. It has a 5.25" drive and a tape drive. IBM 9331 012 5.25" drive. It appears to have all the cables with it. two IBM 4869 5.25" drives. These appear to have all the cables with them. two IBM 5394-01B units. I'm not sure what these are, but they have built in 3.5" drives. two IBM terminals, P/N 83X7939. They have DB25 connectors and no keyboards; I'm not sure I have the cables to hook them up. If these are incorrect or more pieces are needed, I _might_ be able to get the proper terminals. Two Universal Data Systems V.32 modems with very impressive cables. Two cards that appear new in box, labeled P/N 7363223, in IBM labeld boxes. They almost look like PCI cards. I haven't the foggiest what they are or what they go to. The tape I offered free earlier this week and which nobody claimed fits in the IBM's tape drive, so it's included, too. I'd like to get rid of the stuff as one lot, but I'll sell just peripherals provided there's somebody interested in the 5363. Cash preferred, but I'll consider a trade. I have no idea what a 5363 II is worth, so go ahead and make an offer. Stuff I'd be willing to trade for: Apple & Mac clones Interesting Apple stuff PERQ/Alto/Star Canon Cat/Swyft Nutek One/Duet NeXT cube Apple II (plain II) LEGO stuff (be it electronic or just bricks) Note that "interesting Apple stuff" is an awfully broad category. Neat Apple II cards are good. Tom Applefritter www.applefritter.com

22 years, 10 months

OT: RE: 4th of July Hypocricy

by Robert_Feldman＠jdedwards.com

Unfortunately, there's a guy here in Chicago who took a bullet through his skull last night: he was standing on his back porch while some people down the alley were celebrating by firing off guns and fireworks. He's not dead (yet), but definitely not in good shape. -----Original Message----- From: Mike Ford [mailto:mikeford@socal.rr.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 7:38 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: RE: 4th of July Hypocricy (was: OT Celebration) <snip> Everybody with a gun would fire off a few patriotic rounds too. <snip>

22 years, 10 months

Looking for Vance Dereksen/Shridar Ayengar (OT, sorry)

by rhblake＠bigfoot.com

I hate to put this on the list but I am unable to get Sridhar Ayengar (Vance Dereksen) concerning some books he wanted. I need to hear from him in the next few days or another buyer/recipient/etc will be found. Peace...and write me...

22 years, 10 months

Olivetti Collectors around ?

by stefan＠softhome.net

Hi, I was wondering if there are any Olivetti collectors around. Since I have quite a few manuals in the well known Olivetti plastic boxes double I'd like to swap for anything else. Also I have like 6 crates full of parts that came out of Olivetti machines that were made in the '70's. Let me know if you are interested. cya, Stefan. http://www.oldcomputercollection.com

22 years, 10 months

4th of July Hypocricy (was: OT Celebration)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 4, Carlos Murillo wrote: > > Yes, fighting Darwin all the way. I HATE that. Protect and coddle > >the stupid so they can annoy the hell out of the rest of us, and > >dilute the GOOD genes in the process. ARGH! > > C'mon, Dave, I am sure that you realize that Darwin's idea of evolution > has not been valid for our species for several millenia now... I can hope, can't I? -Dave McGuire

22 years, 10 months

More free stuff from Michigan (PC based)

by fernande＠internet1.net

Hello, I've got some time off from work, so I am trying to clean up and sort through stuff. I know I already owe a few of you some boards.... I'll be getting to them shortly. Please respond directly to me at fernande(a)internet1.net ....this is going to two groups! Here's the new list: -2400bps external Supra Modem -Microchannel IDE adapter (Arco Electronics) -STB video card, Tseng based, ISA MVP2X, dual head -SMC Arcnet card, Microchannel -Winchester drive controller.. RLL I think, 16-bit ISA -MiniScribe RLL hard disks, Model 8425 ...2 of them -Applesoft ][ Basic Programming Reference manual -10 3M 8" floppy disks, I don't know if they are soft of hard sectored, they are marked SS, SD, R ...they are in a plstic case and are new. I bought them several years ago, as a novelty from a store going out of business. -uSpeed Fast 88, "Made in the USA and we are proud of it", I don't even know what it is... it is on a piece of angled aluminum with a small PCB, and has 4 chips along with some resistors and 4 clock crystal looking dealies. Is connects to an XT usinf a 20 connductor ribbon cable that goes to a dip socket on the MB.... wierd huh? If you what it is.... PLEASE tell me :-) -Adaptec 2742W EISA Wide SCSI card WITHOUT the slot cover.... I don't know why someone would remove it, but they did :-( I bought a generic one, but it isn't in the right postion :-( -2 Microchannel game port cards by Suncom, I bought them on Ebay, but they don't seem to work with my Reply planer. They are odd, in that the machine doen't ask for an ADF, and there is none provided. -IBM Model 9577, Bermuda Planer, nice condition, both 3.5" and 5.25" floppies, memory is probably around 24megs, has a 4xxmeg HD, has an XGA2 card -the dumb TI PC (Texas Instruments Professional Computer) that I keep on trying to give away, no keyboard or OS, and they are custom. Well, thats all for now :-) Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

22 years, 10 months

Floppy woes ...

by mbbrutman＠bresnanlink.net

I'm getting close to my wits end ... I embarked on a project to catalog and archive all of the 5.25 inch floppies that I used on my PCjr. For archiving floppies I decided to use savedskf and loaddskf (IBM utils), which run under DOS and OS/2. I used a Pentium class machine with a true 360KB diskette drive in the machine. I specified to savedskf that I wanted raw, uncompressed binary images of the diskettes. (The raw binary images are exactly size of the diskettes (360KB), and are exactly the same as images created using Linux's 'dd' command, so I know that they are really raw binary images.) All of the diskettes (150+) read fine, and are now sitting as files on my hard drive. I decided to do some spot checking of the diskette images, so I created new diskettes from the images. First problem: loaddskf will NOT write my 360KB images to a real 360KB diskette drive. It complains about an unsupported drive type. If I let savedskf write it's meta data and do compression, then loaddskf will work. However, I want raw binary images for compatibility with Linux 'dd. I can get around it; there are lots of programs that can write the raw diskette images. (fdwrite, fdimage, rawrite) However, I am completely annoyed. Second problem: I have two PCjrs for testing, and neither of the two can read the diskettes created on my big machine. The diskettes are being created using a real 360KB diskette drive, yet they are barely readable in the two PCjrs. (They are usually completely unreadable.) I'm going to swap the 360KB diskette drive out of the Pentium class machine and put another one there. Hopefully that drive is out of alignment or the belts are loose, and that is why the other two PCjrs can't read diskettes created on it. Question 1: What the heck is up with loaddskf? Has anybody run into problems with it when dealing with raw binary images? It's supposed to work ... :-) Question 2: Is there diagnostic software for determing the alignment and RPMs of a diskette drive? I vagely remember CopyIIPC telling me the rotational speed of the diskette drive as it copied ... is there a diagnostic program that can do this? Question 3: What can I do to improve the chances of these diskettes being interchangeable between systems? I've cleaned the drive heads with a Q-Tip and isopropyl alcohol. I've also cleaned the drive rails to ensure that the head can move smoothly. Neither have helped. Thanks, Mike

22 years, 10 months

HP2748A papertape reader : connector ?

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

A recent dumpster dive yielded a HP2748A papertape reader. Does anyone have the interface spec's for this device handy ? Left in the dumpster were : a Facit 4070 punch, a hp(8900?) diskdrive with power supply. The disk, vintage early to mid seventies, really should be saved but since I do not have a fitting computer.... (Location Zurich , Switzerland ) Jos Dreesen

22 years, 10 months

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test-drb July 2001