January 2002 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 15, 9:10, Eric J. Korpela wrote: > > > What color is Araldite? Is it a two-part black-and-white epoxy > > > like "JB Weld" that sets as grey? Or is it clear to amber, > > > like those that come in dual syringes? > > > > It's clear to amber, and comes in a couple of packages, either two tubes > > or dual syringes. > > There must be multiple varieties. The varity I'm familiar with is > definitely grey and is mixed 10 parts base to 4 parts hardener. Nope, original Araldite (sets in about an hour and cures fully in 8-24 hours, faster at higher temperatures) and Araldite Rapid (sets in 5-10 minutes, and cures in about an hour) are both clear-to-amber epoxy resins. Both are mixed 50:50; both come as light amber resin and transparent bluish hardener. The company does make other products, including Aerolite, and some other epoxies, perhaps what you've seen is one of those. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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classiccmp-digest V1 #833

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 15, R. D. Davis wrote: > Eh? Rare? Not from what I've seen. Quite a few of the old Sun > workstations used the 68010 as the CPU, for example, and I've seen > 80186 chips used as CPUs used in many devices (not necessarily > computers per se, but used in various computer boards and terminal > servers, etc.). Of course, perhaps we should just let the chip > collectors think that they're rare, and perhaps they'll just be > content with collecting a few of them and leaving the rest alone to > function in working equipment. :-) Indeed, 80186 chips can be found even on relatively recent Seagate SCSI hard drives. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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More DELLness & TRON! :D

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

Well, it was black and white in the movie anyway, right? --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818 ! -----Original Message----- ! From: Bryan Pope [mailto:bpope@wordstock.com] ! Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 3:20 PM ! To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org ! Subject: Re: More DELLness & TRON! :D ! ! ! > ! > ! From: Bryan Pope [mailto:bpope@wordstock.com] ! > ! ! > ! ! > ! MS-DOS.. Or a DOS shell in Windows 98 SE and lower (Windows ! > ! XP and 2000 ! > ! *SUCK* at running programs that use graphics) IIRC, it is ! > ! compilied under ! > ! 32-bit protected mode. ! > ! ! > ! Bryan ! > ! > Heh heh heh... Yeah, could you send a copy to me? It'd be a neat ! > thing for the collection. Too bad you don't have the source ! code anymore. ! > Picture it running on a 21" b&w monitor hooked to a VAX... ! > ! ! Sure! Once I get home from work I will forward you a copy. ! :) There is ! colour in it, but the X' and O's are white and the background ! is fairly dark. ! ! Cheers, ! ! Bryan !

23 years, 6 months

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Prophylactic replacement of electrolytic capacitors?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14, 10:01, John Allain wrote: > > The best way to check those #$%#$%^# caps is to use an ESR meter. And > > only then should yo buckshot them. And replace them with good grade > > Seems like a simple enough question: how do you test them? > I don't have an ESR meter, should I get one? No other way? The quick and dirty test is to use an *analogue* meter (what Americans used to call a VOM, not a VTVM) on the ohms range across the capacitor. The needle should flick violently across (indicating zero or low resistance) and then fall quickly (at first) as the capacitor charges (and the current drops). Ideally it should end up showing virtually infinite resistance. It needs a bit of experience, though, as the violence of the flick depends on ESR and capacitance, and there tends to be some leakage in an electrolytic so the final reading is often not zero current. It may be worth trying if you have a known-good capacitor of similar voltage and capacitance to compare. A digital multimeter is rarely any use for this, though. The response of the meter is just too slow; by the time it's shown the first reading the event is all but over. Also most DMMs use very low voltages and currents, not enough to give a big electrolytic a good fright. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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classiccmp-digest V1 #833

by rpbell＠earthlink.net

Some wrote: >> IIRC, the general rule of thumb is: >> 8086 -- 68000 >> 80286 -- 68020 >> 80386 -- 68030 >> 80486 -- 68040 > >Yes, and the 80186 -- 68010. >Both existed but were not popular in many systems. Both >equally quite rare in that regard. > >Anyway, I added them for completeness. I've heard the following, to add to that list: Pentium/Pentium II -- PowerPC Pentium III -- PowerPC G3 Pentium IV -- PowerPC G4 FWIW I'd bet a buck there's a LOT of disagreement on the list. Unfortunately, there's just no adequate way to compare the full range of recent and current mprocessors by looking for strict equivalencies. It would be interesting to see a chart covering the relative relationships of processors in PeeCees, Macs, and Minis (including Sun, SGI, RS/6000, etc.). I had to chuckle at the poor dood who was lamenting his $10K investment in a IIcx; most of us cry to think about what we paid for our old Morrow or original IBM PC. What about those poor cats who paid huge $$ for Lisa or other similar, short-lived concept/production models? rb ================= R. P. Bell Email rpbell(a)earthlink.net

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14, 14:56, Bruce Robertson wrote: > Yes, I seem to remember that with the 68000, there was an interaction with > the Bus Fault signal that prevented you from attaching any kind of memory > management unit. Something to do with what state got saved on the stack; > I don't remember the exact details Oops, I forgot about that. You're right; the 68010 saves slightly more state on the stack than the early 68000. I have a feeling that was fixed in later 68000; some traps save more state than others. You can't get 68010s any more, unless you can find old stock somewhere :-( You can still get 68000s and 68020s. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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More DELLness & TRON! :D

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

! From: Bryan Pope [mailto:bpope@wordstock.com] ! ! ! MS-DOS.. Or a DOS shell in Windows 98 SE and lower (Windows ! XP and 2000 ! *SUCK* at running programs that use graphics) IIRC, it is ! compilied under ! 32-bit protected mode. ! ! Bryan Heh heh heh... Yeah, could you send a copy to me? It'd be a neat thing for the collection. Too bad you don't have the source code anymore. Picture it running on a 21" b&w monitor hooked to a VAX... --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

23 years, 6 months

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More DELLness & TRON! :D

by mythtech＠Mac.com

> No, I haven't bought it... First I would need the DVD player... ;) I would >like a region-free DVD player, but now they are creating DVD's that are >unplayable on region-free DVD players. :-( A friend of mine bought an Apex that can change regions via a menu option. Supposed to be unlimited changes (it isn't a selling "feature" as it is in a "hidden menu" if I have the story right). It also converts PAL to NTSC on the fly (and does a decent job from what he has said). I think his only complaint is that on some VCDs the audio gets out of synch. Homemade VCDs or cheap VCDs being the biggest offenders. I can ask him what model it is if you are interested. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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Wire Recorder

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Penna2(a)aol.com [mailto:Penna2@aol.com] > it.Unfortunatly also a few breaks and I have not yet found a > way of splicing > wire! I can see why they went to tape. Solder? :) Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

23 years, 6 months

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Ohic Scientific new additions to the collection

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

Ive been corresponding with a professor from florida who saw my collection, specifically the OSI C1P I had. turns out he had 4 of them used for static demonstrations and they finally arrived to me. 3 of them are C1P models just like the one I had and the last one has a plastic case and looks like an apple //e. they all have modifications like little dials, connectors and switches of which I will find out what they do. too bad I didnt get any disk drives with them.

23 years, 6 months

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More DELLness & TRON! :D

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

Hmmm, what systems will it run on? > ---------- > From: Bryan Pope > Reply To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 1:44 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: More DELLness & TRON! :D > > > > > ! From: Bryan Pope [mailto:bpope@wordstock.com] > > ! > > ! > > ! > > ! > > > ! > For many of us in the younger crowd of computer geeks, Tron > > ! > was also very > > ! > influential in getting our interests fixated on computers > > ! > as children. > > ! > Tron and Wargames were two movies that influenced me substantially. > > ! > > > ! > > ! At my college programming class, we had to create a > > ! Tic-tac-toe game. I added > > ! the "hidden" feature of being able to play with zero players.... ;-) > > ! > > ! Bryan > > > > I was wondering when the obligitory WarGames reference would pop up. > BTW, > > how did the game run with zero players? Do you still have it around? > > > > David, > > I do still have it around! But not the source code.. :-( I can > email you > a copy if you want. The AI is not perfect though - sometimes X will win.. > > The game would run in zero players just like in the movie - Showing > an > enitre game being played before starting a new one. It also kept track of > > which side won or if there was a draw. > > Bryan > > P.S. Oh, and I used FastGraph for the graphics... ;) > >

23 years, 6 months

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Screeching monitor

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14, 20:19, Tony Duell wrote: > > > > Hi, I've just been having a go at fixing an old Acorn AKF40 monitor (a > > OK.... Is this better known as something else? I don't think Acorn ever > designed their own monitors, did they? They used Philips or Microvitecs. I think that model is a rebadged Philips VGA. There's a stock LOPT fault on one of those, but I'm not sure if it's the AKF40 or AKF30. One of them also has a stock problem with cracked PCB under the LOPT, due to poor mounting design. > > few months shy of ten years old I'm afraid), which makes a screeching > > sound and fails to provide any display when powered up. Not having done > > OK, the PSU is in pain. It's either very heavily loaded, or not loaded at > all. I found a page with some stock faults listed: "Check Horz O/P transistor for S/C. If OK suspect EHT/LOPTX assembly. Test by substitution. A less common fault is a problem with the over voltage protection circuit. This is a crowbar type across the 28V supply and diodes 6452/6454 type PHF15 (15V 300mW Zeners) and thyristor 7452 type BT151 can fail causing a short circuit. These can fail for no apparent reason or a fault in the regulator circuit causing excessive voltage. If these have failed remove them from the circuit and disconnect the following. Collector of the horizontal output transistor to avoid the possibility of excessive EHT, R3563 feed to frame O/P and R3512 feed to horizontal drive circuits. Connect a meter across the 128V rail and switch on the unit. If the voltage is excessive and does not respond to adjustments with R3414 switch off immediately and examine the regulator circuitry. Transistor 3470 BC558B can also fail and is best tested out of circuit using a transistor tester. If in doubt replace it." -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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Zebra system

by mythtech＠Mac.com

in case anyone cared (who knows with this group sometimes) The Zebra computers I had that ran Pick were "Zebra 2500" made by General Automation. Now that I am back in my office, I just looked at the manuals under my desk. If anyone wants them, the manuals are available (I don't really want them for anything). Best offer takes them, minimum offer of cost of shipping (from Ridgewood, NJ 07450, or you can pick them up). There are two 3" binders with assorted smaller manuals clipped into them. Most of the manuals seem to be about Pick more than about the Zebra machines. If anyone wants a list of what the smaller manuals are, let me know and I can flip thru and write down the names. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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Available: Commodore 64 with drive

by mythtech＠Mac.com

I have a C-64 here with a floppy drive. No cables of any kind (but I have a call into the guy that gave it to me, to see if he still has the cables). Anyone want it? I don't know it if works, but my friend said it worked when he stopped using it (5+ years ago). It is rather dusty, and was kicking around on his basement floor when I found it and asked if he still wanted it, so who knows the condition now. I don't know the value of such a machine, nor do I think I care... I just want to get rid of it (taking old electronics is an addiction of mine that I need to break since I ran out of room a long time ago). There is a copy of Bank Street Writer sitting in the disk drive. The drive is a 5.25 drive, model number 1541. The stuff is available as a package, or in peices. Best offer gets it (or any part of it), with lowest acceptable offer being cost of shipping (shipping out of Ridgewood, NJ 07450, you can also pick it up if you want). If I can get the power supply and disk drive cable, I will post a note. So to sum up... items available: C-64 5.25 floppy drive model 1541 5.25 original disk for Bank Street Writer -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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More DELLness & TRON! :D

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

! From: Bryan Pope [mailto:bpope@wordstock.com] ! ! ! ! > ! > For many of us in the younger crowd of computer geeks, Tron ! > was also very ! > influential in getting our interests fixated on computers ! > as children. ! > Tron and Wargames were two movies that influenced me substantially. ! > ! ! At my college programming class, we had to create a ! Tic-tac-toe game. I added ! the "hidden" feature of being able to play with zero players.... ;-) ! ! Bryan I was wondering when the obligitory WarGames reference would pop up. BTW, how did the game run with zero players? Do you still have it around? --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

23 years, 6 months

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More DELLness & TRON! :D

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>> And.... TRON Collectors Edition on DVD was released today!! :-D The coolest >> computer animation of the 80's! > >Wasn't the animation done on a 'one off' development of the PDP-11? Foonly? >Super Foonly? IIRC, in the Making Of video disney did, they said it was a Cray that handled the rendering, and the computer world scenes were all shot in black and white, and then had the highlite colors overlayed in post production. But it has been years since I saw the making of, so I might be remembering wrong. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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WTB: TMS 4060 RAM or Equivalent

by mhstein＠canada.com

From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick(a)idcomm.com> Subject: Re: WTB: TMS 4060 RAM or Equivalent >ISTR that there was an AMD equivalent to this part AM9060; I'm using a bunch of these, but don't really want to throw out the device they're in. AKA Intel 2107, Signetics 2680, National MM5280, uPD411, FWIW Good luck (to the original poster)! mike

23 years, 6 months

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No more HP calcs??

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 15, John Allain wrote: > Anybody catch this? Better stock up while you can. The suits are on a rampage to stamp out anything that's cool or useful. "What? Those weird old calculators? They don't run microsoft products...discontinue them! Oh, and guys, don't you think we all need raises next month?" *grumble* -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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RAM request

by pb＠Colorado.EDU

>> > 8 - 4MB 72pin SIMMs, 80ns or better, 1M x 32 or 1M x 36 (as >>> long as they all match). These are for my slab to replace the SIMMs >>> I pulled for use in the Dimension board. >> >>Hey, I have 8 pc of 8mb 70ns all matched pulled from ps/2 along w/ >>bits. Might have forgotten because that was long time. > > Thanks but I can't use the 8MB SIMMs. The non-turbo color >slab has a max of 32MB, which is what mine is. The turbo's have a >max of 128MB. > > Jeff >-- Actually, you *can* use the 8MB SIMMs: put them in the Dimension board. I know that NeXT said it maxes out at 32 MB, but it actually will use 8 MB SIMMs very happily, as long as they are not EDO, and you can then put the SIMMs you "stole" from your slab back in the slab, and you'll be ready to go. (I say this from experience: I have 2 Dimension boards, and they both have 64 MB of RAM, with 8 8MB SIMMs each.) Good luck. PB Schechter

23 years, 6 months

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[OT] 5" and 6" CRTs needed...

by mhstein＠canada.com

I'm sure I have one, mono, slightly burned, abt 6" if I recall; cute. Trouble is, I can't find it; suspect I left it at the cottage (much more portable than a 14"); how urgent is your need? And it's in Toronto (or would be). Now, if you _really_ only needed a CRT, and not a monitor, would I have some deals for you... :) mike ------------------Original Message--------------- From: Gene Buckle <geneb(a)deltasoft.com> Subject: Re: [OT] 5" and 6" CRTs needed... > > I'm in dire need of a couple VGA 5" and 6" displays. Mono is > > acceptable. I'd like to find them used (but not badly burned) since > > the cost for them new is pretty high.

23 years, 6 months

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classiccmp-digest V1 #833

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

! From: Cameron Kaiser [mailto:spectre@stockholm.ptloma.edu] ! ! ! > BTW, I got a IIfx free, decomissioned from our office. I ! > think the RAM is maxed, but I'm not sure... does *anyone* ! > have this for a reasonable price? ! ! IIfx RAM is a difficult buy. I initially had hope when I discovered my ! GVP A530 accelerator for my Amiga 500 also used 64-pin RAM ! but they are ! apparently incompatible (too bad since GVP RAM is somewhat ! more common). ! ! -- 64 pin? Why does that sound familiar? Wait! I know! DING! ! -----Original Message----- ! From: David Woyciesjes ! Sent: Friday, October 05, 2001 4:49 PM ! To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org (E-mail) ! Subject: Oddball memory (?) sticks.... ! ......... ! The first is only 64 pin, has 8 chips ! (AAA1M300J-08 NMBS 9122), with an empty spot for a 9th ! chip. Printed on the back - "1X964P A (in a circle) 9115". ! Apparently made by Microtech. My guess is it's 1MB ! non-parity memory, but I don't know what uses 64 pin ! memory sticks. I have 4 of these sticks. ........ I'll bring them with me to work tomorrow. Make me a good offer. Now they can be put to use, instead of taking up space and collecting dust in my computer room... --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

23 years, 6 months

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classiccmp-digest V1 #833

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> I remember when I upgraded my Mac II from 2MB to 5MB. I paid > $1200 for four 1MB SIMMs, and that was with a price break of > $400. Now 1MB SIMMs are worth next to nothing. > > I also bought a Mac IIfx, which was an evolutionary dead end. I bought a Mac IIci, new, w/4MB RAM and an 80MB drive for <drum roll> five kilobucks. I paid a total of about $4000 for the new Mac 512K, w/external 400K drive and Imagewriter. BTW, I got a IIfx free, decomissioned from our office. I think the RAM is maxed, but I'm not sure... does *anyone* have this for a reasonable price? -dq

23 years, 6 months

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TMS 4060 RAM or Equivalent

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

Who needs some? I have 2107, Upd411 and I believe 4060s as well. Allison -----Original Message----- From: M H Stein <mhstein(a)canada.com> To: 'ClassicComputers' <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 5:25 AM Subject: WTB: TMS 4060 RAM or Equivalent >From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick(a)idcomm.com> >Subject: Re: WTB: TMS 4060 RAM or Equivalent > >>ISTR that there was an AMD equivalent to this part > >AM9060; I'm using a bunch of these, but don't really want to >throw out the device they're in. > >AKA Intel 2107, Signetics 2680, National MM5280, uPD411, FWIW > >Good luck (to the original poster)! > >mike >

23 years, 6 months

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OT: RE: Mac IIci

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > > > > But A/UX sucks humongous hairy sweaty donkey balls. > > > > > has anyone every noticed that *nothing* ever sucks > > > > tiny little dainty hairless donkey balls? > > > > I bet tiny little dainty hairless donkeys do... > > > Don't they call those "gerbils"? > > As a professional gerbil and hamster hater, being bitten, crapped on and > peed on by virtually every member of those species I have come in contact > with, that is an insult to little dainty hairless donkeys everywhere. :-P ROFL! And what a nicely-formed paragraph, too! -dq

23 years, 6 months

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Info request : HP 9892A card reader

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Hi all, > > We have an HP 9892A card reader which appears in decent shape. We would > like to interface it to a PC if possible. > > It is a rebadged Documation M600. <sigh> If anyone finds a trove of these, count me in for one... I keep hoping that Florida dumps all theirs soon... -dq

23 years, 6 months

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New Stuff

by njbv68a＠prodigy.net

Do you have all the software disks? Will they all read? Are you interested in selling any of the parts or the whole unit?

23 years, 6 months

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New Stuff

by njbv68a＠prodigy.net

mICRO ANALYST. iS THIS THE SAME UNIT THAT CAME IN A BEIGE PLASTIC CHASSIS AND CONNECTED INTO THE BUS OF THE PC ISA SLOT. dOES ANYONE HAVE SOFTWARE FOR IT. PODS? THAT THEY MIGHT WANT TO SELL?

23 years, 6 months

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VAX 7800'S

by jhfine＠idirect.com

A message received > WE NEED YOUR HELP! > > IF YOU HAVE ANY: > > VAX 7800?S > > CALL US TODAY !!! > WE HAVE ORDERS - - WILL PAY TOP $ It seems like they still need VAX systems to replace to those lost on September 11th. Has this driven up old VAX prices?

23 years, 6 months

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OT? Apple Stylewriter problems (longish)

by mhstein＠canada.com

From: jpero(a)sympatico.ca Subject: Re: OT? Apple Stylewriter problems (longish) <snip> >Good thing friend has spare printer to fall forward on, <snip> --- Ouch; that must hurt... --- >PS: Successfully unclogged 3 epson inkjet printers today w/ very good results. The normal self cleaning is barely ok for minor problems, I always had to resort to brutal unclog methods on epsons that refuses to cooperate. Epson's printheads are about $100CDN. Took me years to develop the correct methods because other normal ways to deal with those epsons doesn't work at *all*. Aside from that, these epsons are very cheap, mechanically is pretty good. --- So, share your secret! mike

23 years, 6 months

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A story

by tarsi＠binhost.com

Hi, folks. A story for you. A long time ago and not so far away, a small town church obtained it's first computer. An IBM PS/2, quite sophisticated for the day. It was in the secretary's office for use of keeping budget and some word processing. As luck would have it, a young boy was around when his father was working on the computer. He must have been around 12 or 13. His father got to work on the computer because he was treasurer. The boy was jealous, a toy! A toy with lights and whirring sounds and computer sophistication, similar to the Apple computers that he had known so well from school. The boy wanted to touch the computer, but knew better. Sort of. The boy touched it once when his father was away and the office was open. He started up the fancy computer and looked as it powered up. He was very impressed. He looked through the manuals. He tried to run some software. He marveled at this wonder of technology. Fast forward to 2002. The same boy and a friend of his had gone to a town quite far from the church to have some Chinese food and catch up with each others' lives. Now being grown up, the boy still had a great liking for old computer toys and things. Being bored, the two friends went to the local Goodwill to look around and see what there was. Back in the corner on a table was a small computer system, quite old. It didn't have much with it, just the computer, a monitor, and a keyboard. However, the boy didn't have this type of computer in his collection yet, so he went to the local ATM and got some cash, came back, and bought the computer. Bring this computer home, it sat in the corner for some time, preempted by some other computer hardware, for the boy had a large collection. One night, being quite productive, the boy decided to boot up this $10 computer and see what was on it. The boy knew very little of what he would find hidden in the secrets of the hard drive of this computer. For the new, fancy computer that the church had purchased and the little boy had marveled over so long ago had served its time, and had been replaced. It went to a number of other people, the files left on its hard drive a testament to the movement of the computer. And eventually, the computer came to be donated to a Goodwill and put up for sale. The boy, Nathan Pralle, found that the computer he had admired so long ago was sitting before him. Indeed, the very first PC he had ever touched, the one at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hampton, IA, and one which had contributed to his becoming a computer programmer, was now sitting on the floor of his very living room, about to become part of his computer collection. An IBM PS/2 Model 30. And now you know the rest of the story. (I love this hobby.) :) Nathan 210 -- ---------------------------------------------- Homepage: http://tarsi.binhost.com binHOST.com: http://www.binhost.com Forever Beyond: http://www.foreverbeyond.org ----------------------------------------------

23 years, 6 months

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classiccmp-digest V1 #833

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 14, R. P. Bell wrote: > I've heard the following, to add to that list: > > Pentium/Pentium II -- PowerPC > Pentium III -- PowerPC G3 > Pentium IV -- PowerPC G4 This is SO far away from accurate I'm not even going to comment on it. > I'd bet a buck there's a LOT of disagreement on the list. Unfortunately, > there's just no adequate way to compare the full range of recent and current > mprocessors by looking for strict equivalencies. It would be interesting to > see a chart covering the relative relationships of processors in PeeCees, > Macs, and Minis (including Sun, SGI, RS/6000, etc.). I agree...They have wildly varying relative strengths and weaknesses...a meaningful general comparison is all but impossible. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 14, William Fulmor wrote: > > > Yes, as I remember, it was required for one or both of the mods. > > > I still keep my eyes open for cards with 2010s when I'm at > > > hamfests. > > > > What sort of cards used them? Any PeeCee HD controllers that I > > wouldn't mind tearing apart? > > They're in AT era boards. I have several WD1003-WA2 boards which I have > not yet cut up, but I know I've pulled them from other boards including > one IBM branded board where the WD2010 was socketed. Cool, thanks...I will keep my eyes open for some. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 14, blstuart(a)bellsouth.net wrote: > Yes, as I remember, it was required for one or both of the mods. > I still keep my eyes open for cards with 2010s when I'm at > hamfests. What sort of cards used them? Any PeeCee HD controllers that I wouldn't mind tearing apart? -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 14, blstuart(a)bellsouth.net wrote: > There was a 2nd drive mod whose design was circulated and there > was also a mod that allowed for bigger drives by supporting a larger > number of cylinders. Ahh, yes! I remember that now. Didn't it involve replacing the WD1010 with a WD2010 to get the higher cylinder number support, or something along those lines? Dammit, now you guys have me wanting another 3B1 or 7300. *GRRR!) :-) -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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DECvoice boards for trade

by rdd＠rddavis.org

Greetings, Since I have no access to a T1 telephone line, and hence am unable to use the DECvoice board set in my VAX 4000, consisting of one each of M3135-01, M3135-02 and M3136 boards, I was wondering if anyone's interested in a trade. The bulkhead panel, and cabling to these boards that came with my VAX, will be included. The DECvoice software appears to reside on my system we well. It appears that resellers are asking quite a bit (over US$1,000) for one of these boards. If anyone's interested in making an offer for the set, or individual boards, of cash or trade, then I'm willing to consider offers for trade. Some of the things I'm interested in and may consider towards a trade: - additional memory - large DSSI disks with sleds and front panels - SCSI board - a tape drive and mounting sled/brackets, etc. (preferably DLT) - hub with both BNC and and 10-Base-T connectors Other suggestions are welcome. :-) -- 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)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Ethan Dicks [mailto:erd_6502@yahoo.com] > I know that some model of UNIX PC had room for a full-height MFM drive > under a hump (most only had room for a half-height). It was > too little, > too late, but you could drop a lot more than 40Mb inside - maybe 80Mb > or more! :-) IIRC, that was the second UnixPC model that was never released. (7400?) It was also supposed to have a color screen. That said, I suppose it wouldn't be difficult to run the drive interface cable through a plate in the back of the machine, if you can find a plate that will fit it, and has a hole for a connector that you can run to an external drive chassis. In fact, I haven't opened the machine in ages, but you could possibly even run the external disk as a second drive, given some other slight modifications. I don't recall whether the UnixPC had any data cable header for a second drive. Probably not, since it wouldn't have fit inside. On the other hand, there are MFM to SCSI bridges, I believe, and I wonder whether you could just use one of those and run some 1GB or so disk on it. Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

23 years, 6 months

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OT: DELL SUCKS! Re: PC Gamer, best 50 classic games issue?

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

! >We have a local computer shop that (last week) had as-is 3c589 NICs ! >for $5, but no dongle. I bought a couple spares, and a ! >Xircom PS-CEM-28 ! >(also no dongles). Hopefully the 10BaseT dongle I have for another ! >Xircom card will work (the 100BaseT dongles _are_ different). ! ! I saw some generic dongles down at the CompUSA a little while ! back. They ! were $25. The blister pack said it worked with 3com and other PCMCIA ! cards. I used it successfully with a XIRCOM 10bt/56k modem card (only ! with the Ethernet half... modem used a different connection, but that ! looked similar to the one that fit in my old ActionTec modem, I just ! never got around to trying it). ! ! The dongle also said it worked with 10/100 ethernet. There are no ! markings on the dongle of value (it is here in front of me) ! so I can't ! tell you the brand, but I do know for sure I bought it at CompUSA ! ! -chris ! ! <http://www.mythtech.net> ! Well, I have the Xircom 10/100 & 56k modem combo card, that has the actual jacks buit into it. No dongles to worry about :-P Granted, it does take up two PCMCIA slots, but I don't have anything else to use in there now anyway... --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

23 years, 6 months

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Mac IIci

by fernande＠internet1.net

Hello, The Local GoodWill has a fairly nice Mac IIci. I've done some research on the Low End Mac web site, but am still undecided if I should buy it. Low End Mac says it is a "Mac Best Buy", meaning that it is one of the models to buy, instead of avoid. Some models are best avoided because of compromises in design or limited expandability. It is uses a 25mhz Motorola 68030 processor. What would be the approximate Intel/PC equivalent? The 386DX-25? The 486DX-25? faster, slower, what? I don't have much Mac experience at all. I own a Plus, but after cleaning it, I haven't done anything with it but let it sit, mainly because of the silly 800K drives. It has a Radius video card, but unfortunately, the Radius monitor got sold separately. It was a "Pivot" monitor. I pulled the monitor of the nonfunctioning IIcx and the ci boots fine, and is running System 7.1. How much should I offer? Thanks, Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

23 years, 6 months

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Prophylactic replacement of electrolytic capacitors?

by kapteynr＠cboe.com

I have not yet tried this yet -- In theory, electrolytics can be re-formed. There is a very thin aluminum oxide layer that disappears after a long time. Running current through the cap will rebuild the insulating layer until current will no longer go through it. I want to reform the original capacitors in my Altair "in place" -- i.e., without unsoldering them. I have the following setup in mind: 1. Insulate the computer from the world -- unplug it and put it on a rubber table. 2. Use ultra mini test clips to connect to both leads of a capacitor. 3. Connect the test leads to one of those lab power supplies that have adjustable DC voltage and a milli-ammeter. 4. Connect + on the lab power supply to + on the capacitor (very important). 5. Start at zero voltage and increase slowly while looking at the ammeter. 6. Stop increasing the voltage when the ammeter reads anything more than a few milliamps. (If it draws too much current, the capacitor will heat up and may blow up) 7. Wait for the current on the ammeter to drop to zero. 8. Continue to increase the voltage, and wait for the ammeter to drop until you reach the rated voltage limit of the capacitor. 9. Repeat for every electrolytic cap in the computer. Has anyone done this ? Will it work ? Comments? -Rob

23 years, 6 months

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8" Disk drives

by pat＠purdueriots.com

On Mon, 14 Jan 2002, Tony Duell wrote: > > > > One quick question, are those normal or inverted signals? The PC floppy > > Active-low (inverted, -ve logic, whatever you call it) > > > adaptor seems to have all negative logic (inverted) signals. If they're > > really negative logic, it'll be possible to rewire a cable pretty easily, > > otherwise I'll need to put some inverting buffers on it. > > No, it's just a cable. The only issues are : > > 1) The data rate is 500kbps (same as a HD PC drive) in DD mode, so you > can't use an XT controller (not that you'd want to...) > > 2) The Low Current signal. This is a reduce-write-current input that > should be asserted (pulled low) when writing to tracks >43. Most PC > controllers can't supply that signal directly. If you're just wanting to > read disks, then it's not important, though. > > 3) Many PC controllers have problems with single-density operation... > OK, A couple more issues I wanted to ask about: 1) Should I use "Read Data Composite" or "Read Data Separated"? What's the difference? 2) Do I need to do anything with the "Clock Separated"? I'm guessing that's an output that goes with the Read Data Composite/Separated outputs 3) Can I just connect the 'head load' to 'ready' or is 'ready' dependant upon the heads being loaded? Thanks a TON for the info! -- Pat > -tony >

23 years, 6 months

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RAM request

by jhellige＠earthlink.net

Well today I got my NeXT Dimension board fully functional with 32MB of RAM installed. Unfortunately the RAM came out of my slab. I am asking this here due to the number of SIMMs I am now in need of. If anyone has the following and would like to sell them, please let me know. 16 - 4MB 30pin SIMMs, 100ns or better, parity or non-parity (as long as they all match), low profile preferred. These are to replace the 1MB SIMMs currently in my Cube's '040 mainboard. 8 - 4MB 72pin SIMMs, 80ns or better, 1M x 32 or 1M x 36 (as long as they all match). These are for my slab to replace the SIMMs I pulled for use in the Dimension board. Thanks Jeff -- Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File http://www.cchaven.com http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14, 14:26, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > --- Richard Erlacher <edick(a)idcomm.com> wrote: > > I do believe the main reason for the 68010's appearance in what was > > previously a number of 68000 applications was that it could support > > virtual memory, while that was awkward on a 68K. > > That's my recollection as well. There are two relevant differences. The first is that on the 68000 (and 68008), reading the system byte in the status register isn't privileged, so MOVESR works in user mode as well as supervisor mode. In the 68010, that was corrected and an extra opcode was added to allow reading the user byte (condition codes) in user mode. The second difference is that the 68010 has the VBR (vector base register) so different interrupt/trap vectors can be used in different modes; the vector base is fixed in the 68000/68008. There's no difference in things like address range, modes, MMU interfacing, etc. Those changes came with the 68020. The other changes were improvement to the microcode, which made loops faster. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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Info request : HP 9892A card reader

by hansp＠aconit.org

Hi all, We have an HP 9892A card reader which appears in decent shape. We would like to interface it to a PC if possible. It is a rebadged Documation M600. Anyone have docs or info about this model and its interface? Regards, -- hbp

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 14, Christopher Smith wrote: > > I know that some model of UNIX PC had room for a full-height MFM drive > > under a hump (most only had room for a half-height). It was > > too little, > > too late, but you could drop a lot more than 40Mb inside - maybe 80Mb > > or more! :-) > > IIRC, that was the second UnixPC model that was never released. (7400?) It was also supposed to have a color screen. That said, I suppose it wouldn't be difficult to run the drive interface cable through a plate in the back of the machine, if you can find a plate that will fit it, and has a hole for a connector that you can run to an external drive chassis. Umm, no, that was the 3B1. It was most definitely released, as I've had several of them. I used to run Seagate ST4096 80MB drives in them. I'd kill for one with a color display though. :) > On the other hand, there are MFM to SCSI bridges, I believe, and I wonder whether you could just use one of those and run some 1GB or so disk on it. Those bridges typically go the other way, to put MFM drives on a SCSI bus. I'd imagine it'd be pretty difficult to build one to go in the other direction. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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OT: RE: Mac IIci

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> But A/UX sucks humongous hairy sweaty donkey balls. has anyone every noticed that *nothing* ever sucks tiny little dainty hairless donkey balls? ;)

23 years, 6 months

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Prophylactic replacement of electrolytic capacitors?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14, 15:52, Rob Kapteyn wrote: > I have not yet tried this yet -- > In theory, electrolytics can be re-formed. > There is a very thin aluminum oxide layer that disappears after a long time. > Running current through the cap will rebuild the insulating layer until current will no longer go through it. > > I want to reform the original capacitors in my Altair "in place" -- i.e., without unsoldering them. > > I have the following setup in mind: > > 1. Insulate the computer from the world -- unplug it and put it on a rubber table. > 2. Use ultra mini test clips to connect to both leads of a capacitor. > 3. Connect the test leads to one of those lab power supplies that have adjustable DC voltage and a milli-ammeter. > 4. Connect + on the lab power supply to + on the capacitor (very important). > 5. Start at zero voltage and increase slowly while looking at the ammeter. > 6. Stop increasing the voltage when the ammeter reads anything more than a few milliamps. > (If it draws too much current, the capacitor will heat up and may blow up) > 7. Wait for the current on the ammeter to drop to zero. > 8. Continue to increase the voltage, and wait for the ammeter to drop until you reach the rated voltage limit of the capacitor. > 9. Repeat for every electrolytic cap in the computer. > > Has anyone done this ? > Will it work ? I've not done that in-circuit, but it might work. There are some gotchas. If you're talking about power smoothing caps, any voltage you put on the cap will also be powering the rest of the circuit. Disconnect any transformer. You don't want to feed them DC. Also, the current drawn by the rest of the circuit will make it impossible to gauge the leakage current in the capacitor. If you're talking about any other capacitor, putting a voltage on it may provide power to some signal line connected to an unpowered device, which the device may not like. In particular, TTL doesn't like power on some signal inputs when there is a ground connection but no Vcc. In either case, the voltage rating on the capacitor is likely higher than the maximum for the logic ICs, and TTL in particular does not like excessive voltage (NMOS is more tolerant). Don't exceed the lowest maximum-voltage rating of any device on the board. Of course, you're assuming that the capacitors need reformed. They might not (but it's good practice to assume they might). If you can't remove them without risking damage to the PCB, I would try feeding power into the board through a current-limited supply at a low voltage and gradually winding it up to the normal value over a period of several tens of minutes. If they've completely dried out, they're dead anyway. Stop if the current shoots up, or seems too high -- you probably have a short. Is an Altair board like a typical S100 board, fed from an 8VDC unregulated supply, and with on-board regulator? If so, just use a bench supply as above. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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68010 (was Re: Mac IIci)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 14, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > used the 68010 even though they had rather limited HDD > > resources. It would have worked better with two drives, methinks. > > I know that some model of UNIX PC had room for a full-height MFM drive > under a hump (most only had room for a half-height). It was too little, > too late, but you could drop a lot more than 40Mb inside - maybe 80Mb > or more! :-) If memory serves, the one with the half-height bay was called the 7300, and the full-height version was the 3B1. They were the same otherwise; I swapped a few out from damaged machines many years ago. They sure were great machines. I wouldn't mind having one for posterity. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 6 months

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OT: RE: Mac IIci

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On Mon, 14 Jan 2002, Douglas Quebbeman wrote: > > > > But A/UX sucks humongous hairy sweaty donkey balls. > > > > has anyone every noticed that *nothing* ever sucks > > tiny little dainty hairless donkey balls? > > I bet tiny little dainty hairless donkeys do... Don't they call those "gerbils"? <ducking> ;)

23 years, 6 months

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VAX 11/780s - Masscomp - Valid equipment available

by kapteynr＠cboe.com

Finally -- a nice haul in my area. BUT I WAS ON VACATION !!!! Is any of this still available ? It ALL looks interesting to me. I am in Chicago and I have a truck, and a lot of storage space (with loading dock). -Rob -----Original Message----- From: Jon Auringer [SMTP:auringer@tds.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 6:53 AM To: Classic Computer Mailing List Subject: VAX 11/780s - Masscomp - Valid equipment available Hello all, Along with the Astronautics ZS-1 machines I posted about earlier, we have some other equipment available. I have someone interested in one of the 11/780 machines and possible others. As with the ZS-1 machines, the time frame isn't very long. Again, we are closing this facility and the equipment will be scrapped if not rescued. 1 DEC 11/780 (3 wide cabinet) currently up and running 4.2 BSD 3rd cabinet has a Ven-tel plugin modem rack w/~10 modems 1 rack containing 4 Fujitsu Eagle drives (one drive is off-line due to increasing errors) 1 Fujitsu 9-track tape drive in 2 wide cabinet (not quite as tall as the VAX cabinet)(This is a nice auto loading drive, there is a second one available with two drives from a non-VAX system) 1 DEC TE16 9-track tape drive (1 wide cabinet) 1 Fujitsu line printer 1 DECWRITER III printing terminal as console 1 DEC 11/780 (3 wide cabinet) currently down but was running fine when turned off (VMS) 3 DEC RP07 drives (each the size of a washing machine on steroids!) 1 DEC TU78 9-track tape drive 1 Scicards design station (This is a dedicated color graphics terminal used for printed circuit board (PCB) layout) I am told the tube was a little on the fuzzy side. 1 Benson photo plotter (we used this exclusively to print out PCB artwork for checking) 1 Dataproducts line printer 1 DECWRITER III printing terminal as console 3 Valid Systems m68k based Multibus systems. Each system has several dedicated mono graphics cards to drive multiple design stations. Each system is in a half-height rack which contains the Multibus rack, an 8" Fujitsu fixed disk drive and the slot loading 9-track tape drive. I am unsure of the status of these systems. I believe they were running when shut down, but I have doubts about the drives. 6 or more of the Valid Scaldstation design stations. Each includes a table with built-in digitizer and a 19" green monochrome graphics monitor. These systems were used primarily for schematic capture, but ran a full blown UNIX, so I always enjoyed reading news on the "big screen". :) 1 Masscomp m68k based system This system is also Multibus based and resides in a pair of 5' high racks. One rack contains the multibus chassis and a pair of Fujitsu drives. The second rack houses the 9-track tape drive and a third 8" Fujitsu drive. This machine was only lightly used when I signed on in 1989, and shut down shortly thereafter. I have gotten it up and running RTU on its ST-506 boot drive, but haven't managed to get the Fujitsus online. 7 Masscomp MC-500 deskside chassis These are also Multibus based m68k systems. These run the same OS as systems above. They have an internal 5-1/4" floppy and ST-506 fixed drive. There are a bunch of the monochrome graphics tubes that go along with these units. Actually, it appears like each chassis is designed to drive a pair of the graphics terminals. I have one of these boxes that I did a clean install of the RTU OS. The other 6 are in varying states of repair. I think there are enough bits to assemble at least 3 more complete systems. 2 DEC MicroVax II in a 19" There is also a rack mounted chassis with a pair of SMD drives. Each of the MVII has a SMD controller card. Both of the boot drives are dead and I don't have a way to format replacements. I would like to hang on to these if I can manage to get them home without doing myself harm. 1 Tek 4014-1 graphics terminal w/hard copy unit. The terminal works fine, but I haven't had a chance to test the hard copy unit. I would like to hang on to this unit, but moving it is definately a two person and a truck kind of thing. So I may have to let it go. :( ? StorageTek 9-Track drives. 110V operation. How many of these I have depends on the fate of the ZS-1 machines. I have a couple now, and will have several more if the ZS machines are scrapped. Large quantities of documentation. Over a dozen UNIX programmers manuals in metal desktop racks. Complete documentation sets for VMS, gray and orange binders. I have a box with complete unopened docs for a later version (don't remember off-hand which version) of VMS than we had ever installed. Documentation for several revisions of SunOS4. If I were to walk through the building, I could easily double this list. Basically we have just about everything! Thanks for listening, Jon Jon Auringer auringer(a)tds.net

23 years, 6 months

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OT? Apple Stylewriter problems (longish)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14, 19:16, Tony Duell wrote: > Read that as 2SB1243 -- which is not in 'Towers International Transistor > Selector'. No, but it's in my Japanese transistor book (I can't tell you the proper title because it's in Japanese :-)) Yes, it's a PNP power trannie, in an ATV package, which is a bit like a TO220 but without the metal tab. It has a beveled edge on the front top, instead of a metal tab on the back. Vcbo -60V Vceo -50V Ic(max) -3A Pc 1W Icbo -10microA Vcb -40V hFE min 56 max 390 at Vce=-3V Ic -0.5A Vce(sat) -1V Vbe(sat) -1.5V Ft 100MHz Pin order is ECB (opposite of the common TO220). Near equivalent 2SD1864. > I am pretty sure 2SB numbers are 'power' PNP transistors. In which case > I'd expect the emitter to go to a +ve supply line and the collector to go > to the printhead pin. If it's a TO220 package, then it's a good bet the > pinout is : > > > ------------- > | | |------------- emitter > | O | |------------- collector > | | |------------- base > ------------- -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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test-drb January 2002