A rescue not without it's glitches and travails - from the fact that it
took somewhere plus-or-minus a year to get the equipment released from the
Large Company where it had been mothballed - only the dedication of it's
former sysop kept it from the Dumpster of Death, to several hurdles that
had to be danced around in actually effecting rescue process. Thanks to
Sellam for orginally brining it to my attention.
Thanks to Marvin who, on very short notice, drove over 400 miles round
trip to pick up the System, and whose van subsequently broke down and
required towing to a service center, with the computers and software and
manuals still loaded. Thanks also to two non-listmembers who went out of
thier way to help us - one of whom worked for the aforementioned service
center, where the Poor Van got locked inside for the evening, even though
Marv requested that it be left out so we could transload it...
I now have 2 11/44s set up as mirrored systems - if one failed the other
could be switched over 'easily' - 2 SCSI HDs of unknown capacity (they're
full-height and look like Seagates from the front - 1 RL02 - and an 11/23
used as a serial line concentrator. The system runs RSX-11M. A Blue Wall
came with it, and about 20 diskpacks.
Perhaps this coming weekend I will find the time to power it up and see
how it's journey of years of storage and a thousand miles in vans and
pickup trucks has treated it.
Here's hoping it's still Happy!!
Cheers and thanks to all who helped!
John
Hello, all:
I'm preparing another release of the Altair32 Emulator and I wanted
to start building different program diskettes.
I remember sometime in the past someone on the list provided me with
a file listing from the old CPMUG Archive and also provided a few ZIP files
>from the archive. Unfortunately, I can't find that person's email address.
If someone has this archive (or a pointer to it), please contact me
off-list.
Thanks.
Rich
>From: Joe <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com>
>
>At 12:28 PM 10/1/02 +0200, JD wrote:
>>Hi Everyone
>>
>>I am new to this mailing list & thought a quick few lines as introductory
would be ok.
>>
>>I'm a 23yo South African male Systems Developer (Read: microsoft monkey).
>>
>>Recently I acquired a lot of old computer systems and since then I have been
collecting everything I can find that pre dates the general PC era.
>>
>>I will post a URL with a complete listing of all my current goods but here's a
few I thought i'd mention seeing as there is very little about these on the
internet:
>>Intel Prompt 80, MDS-800 & ICE.
>
> Cool! which ICE unit do you have? I have an Intel MDS-800 with ICE-80, an
Intel MDS-888 with an ICE-80, an Intel MDS-235 with hard drive with iCE-85 and
ICE-86 and an Intel 320 system. I'm also storing another MDS-225 for a friend of
mine. Dwight Elvey and Dave Mabry are also on this list and both have Intel
systems and we all use them regularly.
>
>
>
> I also have various atari/commodore/hp/epson/sharp/ncr computers & handhelds.
>>
>>As far as i know i have one of the only few surviving Multitech
Microproffessor II (MPR II) machines which is a slightly modified clone of the
original apple 2 & apparently the first apple clone to be shipped out of taiwan.
>>
>>Back to the intel stuff, who can help me learn to use the MDS & Prompt 80
machines? Programming on a IC level has always been something I've been wanting
to get into but alas no newbie resources are readily availible.. is the Prompt
80 ok for this purpose?
>
> A prompt 80? I've never seen one. I've seen a few Prompt 48s but never
managed to buy one. I assume that it's for the 8080 CPU.? I suspect the Prompt
Hi
Prompt48 is for the 8048/49/35 parts. I don't have one of
these but I do have a Prompt 2920.
Dwight
80 wil be fine, especailly when used with the MDS-800 and ICE-80.
>
> Joe (located in central Florida)
>
>
>>
>>reg
>>jD
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
We call it "the chevron" here.. :)
--fred
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Huw Davies [mailto:Huw.Davies@kerberos.davies.net.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 2:40 AM
> To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re: Latest aquisition: DEC 3000-300
>
>
> At 03:29 PM 1/10/2002 -0500, Eric Dittman wrote:
> > > to the "lazy sergant" prompt (>>>). It has 112MB of RAM
> and a 100MHz
> >
> >I've always called (and heard others call) the prompt the
> "dead sergeant".
>
> I always refer to it as the "triple arrow" prompt. I must
> have got this
> from either the
> local Digital engineer or possibly off comp.os.vms after we
> installed our
> first alpha
> in 1992.
>
>
> Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)kerberos.davies.net.au
> | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
> | air, the sky would be painted green"
>
>
> to the "lazy sergant" prompt (>>>). It has 112MB of RAM and a 100MHz
I've always called (and heard others call) the prompt the "dead sergeant".
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/
Got a question...
I have just received an original IBM PC; actually, 2
of them (one had to be parted out). I still haven't
checked the BIOS date, but the machine does have an
origianl Intel 8088 and the power supply appears to be
the original design. Here is the crux of the
problem...
I want to refit the machine with a 720 KB 3 1/2"
drive. This was a fairly easy mod that we used to
perform on XT's, but it seems to have problems finding
the drive. Anybody out there have any experience with
this?
Robert
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo!
http://sbc.yahoo.com
Good move -- don't plug it in yet.
The biggest danger is that the electrolytic capacitors have depolarized.
In that case, they could heat up and explode when you turn it it on.
Search Google for "reforming electrolytic capacitors" and you get a lot of
links.
In any case, detach everything from the power supply and check it out first.
Unfortunately, Altairs have no connectors for this, so you will have to
desolder the wires.
Some suggest powering it up slowly on a variable transformer, but I have not
tried that.
After checking out the power supply voltages, unplug all of the cards and
power up
the front panel only.
Then do the same for the CPU, etc.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Ron Hudson
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 8:51 AM
To: Classic Computers
Subject: Altair-what do I do first
I have just been offered an altair computer, it's been sitting in the back
of
a garage, unused for some time.
I don't want to just plug it in and power it up right away do I ?
Inspect -- what am I looking for?
Clean -- best method?
It is described as "not having switches or blinking lights", having floppy
disks, having been used for somthing to do with ham radio.
This is in advance of actually getting the computer,
Thanks for catching my typo Joe. The MTBF (mean time between failures)
is greatly REDUCED by unsoldering chips, often very dramatically so.
Ever notice the soldering specifications for TTL devices, like 300
degrees C for not more than 10 seconds? This limitation is given for
the parts to meet their rated MTBF, not because 300 degrees C for 11
seconds will destroy the parts right away.
Resolder the parts, and you may be throwing away well over half their
service life. Clearly not a professional way to restore a machine. For
some repairs, we have no other option, but melting solder is a last resort.
Joe wrote:
>At 10:38 PM 9/28/02 -0400, you wrote:
>
>
>>If you think this does the least dammage, your grossly in error. As a
>>test engineer, I can direct you to any number
>>of volumes that will show you the dramatic increase in MTBF
>>
>
> I think you mean dramatic DECREASE in MTBF. But I doubt many people on this list even truely understand what MTBF is. I worked in reliablility, logisitics and maintainablity so I'm prpobably one of the few that would catch this.
>
> Joe
>
>
>
>
>
> for
>
>>resoldered parts. This is known, for-sure dammage, not some risk of
>>dammage from a theoretical regulator failure.
>>
>>Care to defend this position?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
At 12:28 PM 10/1/02 +0200, JD wrote:
>Hi Everyone
>
>I am new to this mailing list & thought a quick few lines as introductory would be ok.
>
>I'm a 23yo South African male Systems Developer (Read: microsoft monkey).
>
>Recently I acquired a lot of old computer systems and since then I have been collecting everything I can find that pre dates the general PC era.
>
>I will post a URL with a complete listing of all my current goods but here's a few I thought i'd mention seeing as there is very little about these on the internet:
>Intel Prompt 80, MDS-800 & ICE.
Cool! which ICE unit do you have? I have an Intel MDS-800 with ICE-80, an Intel MDS-888 with an ICE-80, an Intel MDS-235 with hard drive with iCE-85 and ICE-86 and an Intel 320 system. I'm also storing another MDS-225 for a friend of mine. Dwight Elvey and Dave Mabry are also on this list and both have Intel systems and we all use them regularly.
I also have various atari/commodore/hp/epson/sharp/ncr computers & handhelds.
>
>As far as i know i have one of the only few surviving Multitech Microproffessor II (MPR II) machines which is a slightly modified clone of the original apple 2 & apparently the first apple clone to be shipped out of taiwan.
>
>Back to the intel stuff, who can help me learn to use the MDS & Prompt 80 machines? Programming on a IC level has always been something I've been wanting to get into but alas no newbie resources are readily availible.. is the Prompt 80 ok for this purpose?
A prompt 80? I've never seen one. I've seen a few Prompt 48s but never managed to buy one. I assume that it's for the 8080 CPU.? I suspect the Prompt 80 wil be fine, especailly when used with the MDS-800 and ICE-80.
Joe (located in central Florida)
>
>reg
>jD
>
>
>
>
>
>
