David Woyciesjes <dwoyciesjes(a)comcast.net> wrote:
> Speaking of terminal servers, I picked up a pair of Datability Vista
> VCP-1000 terminal servers when my (old) work were going to just toss
> them out. Anybody have any experience with these?
Where I used to work, I took to calling ours the "Disability".
It earned the name.
LAT: pretty good
TCP/IP: would sometimes lose its configuration
SLIP/PPP: usable, if you're willing to give all your users
the "enable" password (we weren't)
At least that was my experience with one of them around 1992-1993.
Rumor was that there was a later firmware revision that addressed
some of the TCP/IP and PPP problems but it never made its way into
our units. The unit that was used primarily to hook a bunch of
terminals to a smaller bunch of VMS hosts with LAT just worked,
the one that we expected to do TCP/IP stuff was a real pain.
-Frank McConnell
On Nov 12, 21:29, Sellam Ismail wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Nov 2002, Peter Turnbull wrote:
>
> > Although they're called "terminal servers", most -- including all the
ones
> > I've mentioned -- can be configured so you telnet in to them and make a
> > serial connection out to one of the serial ports, which looks to the
> > machine it's connected to as if a serial terminal has connected to it.
On
>
> This can also be done with a Linux box (a homebrew terminal server).
> Multi-port serial cards can be found for very reasonable prices.
>
> I'm sure there's a package that someone's already written to do this too.
There's something called Linux Terminal Server Poject (LTSP) but it's a
different sort of thing. It's to support thin client network machines, not
serial lines. You could certainly do the job with a Linux machine, even
for a dialup into the Linux machine to connect the caller to another serial
port, but it would require some programming. Terminal server hardware
designed to do the job would be easier and quicker to set up, and probably
cheaper to run.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Due to popular demand, I've added close ups of the
keyboard and each of the circuit boards. The board
pics are linked from the main picture page. They
came out a little fuzzy (can't read the chip numbers).
I'll try again tomorrow.
http://osi.webhop.net
Follow the links. I think I'll start dragging out
my OSIs and taking pictures of them next.
Bill
Found on Usenet. The starting bid is a bit high, but perhaps listmembers could pool resources...?
I leave it to you to decide. If I were still collecting, I'd chip in a bit myself.
Forwarded note follows...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
From: "Douglas A. Gwyn" <DAGwyn(a)null.net>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: 26,000 Good DEC Spare Parts on eBay, Item # 2068638523
Complete inventory from jcmparts, guaranteed working and individually packaged.
PDP parts( pdp8 11/34 11/44 11/70 etc), VAX parts( 11/780 11/785 VAX 6000 Series Vax 8000 series etc), Terminal parts( VT100 VT320
VT420 etc), Tape and Disk drive parts (RA81 RL02 RA80 etc), printer parts( LA100 LA120 LA36 LA75 LA50 etc) etc.
** If there is no bid over $3,500 for the entire lot, the material will be scrapped out for gold reclamation. **
Hopefully some DEC hobbyist will acquire this rather than see it scrapped! If I had more $$ I'd do it myself.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
ARS KC7GR (Formerly WD6EOS) since 12-77 -- kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
"I'll get a life when someone demonstrates that it would be superior
to what I have now..." (Taki Kogoma, aka Gym Z. Quirk)
>* Is there a service manual on-line for this machine? Any suggestions on
>where to get one? I want things like connector pinouts (to see if there's a
>power-fail line, or some such, and what it's expected to be), expected PS
>voltages, things like that.
There is a service manual (two IIRC - one for the VLC and one for the
VLC and 4000-60 combined). The PSU is an H7109-00.
>3) now, left power-on, the 8 LED's are on most of the time. Occasionally,
All LEDs on is listed as "Power applied but no instruction run".
If it always did this then the CPU system would be suspect (which
is not really terribly good ...). However, given the symptoms described,
I'd agree with the other posters who suspect a PSU issue.
Antonio
I've put up some pictures of the micom 2000:
http://osi.webhop.net/
(follow the link from the main page) Be patient,
the server is on a low end ADSL connection. If
someone wants to copy these somewhere faster,
please do.
I'm going to keep it, so I need to move another
system instead. I have a Commodore CBM 8032 with
an 8050 dual 5 1/4" drive. Good cosmetic condition,
unknown operational condition, no software,
documentation or fuse holders. I'll put up some
pictures tonight. It's a good bit lighter than the
micom, but I would still prefer a local pick up if
possible.
Bill
All,
Help! My cute little Vax 4000 VLC appears to be dying on me.
* Is there a service manual on-line for this machine? Any suggestions on
where to get one? I want things like connector pinouts (to see if there's a
power-fail line, or some such, and what it's expected to be), expected PS
voltages, things like that.
* Is there someone near San Antonio with a working VLC that they don't mind
if I abuse for voltage measurements, etc?
Description of failure:
1) last time I played with it several months ago, it failed to boot for a
while with the VRC-16, LK-401, and mouse plugged into the graphics card
(yes I had S3 set correctly, because it later booted that way). Problem
went away, and I assumed there were intermittent problems with the graphics
card. (I'd never seen this with a console plugged into the MMJ).
2) Yesterday, it booted and ran for 2-3 hours with the VRC and kb. I
happily assumed the "graphics card problem" had cured itself. I logged in,
registered my Hobbyist licence, and started doing same on another (Alpha)
machine. After a while, my wife came in and started fooling with HELP on
the VAX. She hit 4 returns in a row, and it went dead (screen black). Tried
re-start, no-go. Got rid of the VRC-16 and LK-401, plugged in the VT-320,
reset S3. It *tried* to boot, but failed.
3) now, left power-on, the 8 LED's are on most of the time. Occasionally,
they will flash patterns, and the console will show the initial banner and
start the memory test. *Very* occasionally, it'll get as far as the
chevron. This morning, after being off all night, it got to the chevron,
accepted the "b dka100" command, and got about half way through the boot -
then the 8 LED's came on and it was back to ground zero.
Tests run last night:
Pulled one and then both banks of RAM - no change.
Pulled the graphics card - no change.
Disconnected power and SCSI cable to hard drive - no change.
Reseated all (4) socketed chips (maybe ROM and the Dallas time module?) on
the motherboard. - no change.
Did some measurements (details available) that make me think that 12V is
actually about 11.5V, and 5V is actually about 5.1V. Gotta confirm
this,
my only tool is an old Radio Shack Archerkit analog, and I want to try
it on a known voltage source.
Tried to turn on without PS connected to motherboard (accidentally). Green LED
on power supply board flashes, PS board makes crowbarring kind of
noice.
(Green LED is otherwise on steady starting about 0.5 sec. after switch
closes until switch open).
In the above, "no change" means LED's stayed lit - I didn't run long enough
in any of those configs to see if it'd try to boot after a while.
Power supply appears to be a switcher - lots of heavy heat-sinks on
transistors, lots of diodes, dozens of resistors. Multi-layer PC board.
There are several electrolytic (I think - cans, black wrapping over a
silver-looking can) caps, as well as some other types I don't recognize.
System is in pretty clean condition; I did not take out the motherboard but
cleaned the visible side of it with a brush and IPA. The only real dirt
accumulation was near the fans. No change.
I obviously had it fairly far apart last night, so I was extremely pleased
to see it start to boot this morning - disassembly by me is usually the
death of a system. This one is nice to work on, mechanically. But it's
still not running.
I'm on digest mode on the list, so I'll be slow at replying unless you hit
me at mtapley(a)swri.edu. Even then, I'm having minor email issues so there's
often a couple hour delay. But I'll sure appreciate any help!
- Mark
PS: On Friday, I said (WRT big auction of DEC parts)...
>...I don't think I need any parts now.
The irony is not lost but not particularly appreciated :-(. But the
question is which parts.... I'm tempted to just haul off and order a new
power supply - I'm pretty sure I can board-swap that without killing
anything.
Greetings;
After spending the last few (nearly 4) weeks sorting out the carnage from
a Windoze induced system disaster... I'm getting back to being not
significantly more behind than I was before the whole thing blew up in my
face...
Of course in the interim, I missed VCF 5 (snarkle, ramfle, mutter) and who
knows what else...
Most people who have claimed items from the Computer Garage 'Garage Sale'
should have received them by now, thought the most recent three or four
are still awaiting transport to the post. (my bad)
And... still trying to remain above water, there are some new updates on
the 'Garage Sale' page.
http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw/Gsale
And, since some of you have asked... There is also a link from the sale
page to a 'State of the Garage' page, which attempts to detail the current
state of affairs in my world.
Note that I am still writing on this, so consider it to be in flux for the
time being.
Regards;
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
>Hi
>I think you need to make this point clearer. When a
character
>is punched, the same character is miss printed on the
platen?
>This is how I read his original post.
Even using the REPT key to workaround the codebar
issue, I wasn't able to connect the carriage problem
conclusively to either a rotational or a vertical
problem. I think at this point I'm going to take the
carriage off again and try a more thorough
dismantle/clean/oil. Once I resolve the codebar issue
it will be easier to diagnose the carriage problem
with a clean mechanism.
>This tells me it is something sticking in the linkage
that goes
>between the code bars and the print head( or he has
it installed
>wrong but that doesn't explain why it starts working
with repeats ).
>I would remove the print assembly and put it in some
solvent
>while moving the levers. Then clean it off/dry it and
re-oil
>it. You most likely have some dry oil that is
sluggish. Getting
>oil into the right place will take a bit.
>In the service( military ), we used to clean things
in a bath
>of water and heavy detergent. This was done in an
ultrasonic
>cleaner. We'd then rinse and bake it at about 150F
for a few
>hours. Then Re-oil/grease, place on test bench and
fine adjust.
>I suspect that a good dish washing liquid would work.
I remember using an arklone bath at a place I worked
years ago for cleaning circuit boards. Probably taken
a few years off my live expectancy breathing that
stuff in.
>
>Basically, there are 3 possible problem areas :
>
>1) The keyboard contacts are not closing correctly,
so the parallel data
>output of the keyboard is incorrect.
>
>2) The distributor disk (rear right of the typing
unit) is not correctly
>serialising the data from the keyboard. Unlikely, but
possible.
>
>3) The selector unit (rear left of the typing unit)
is malfunctioning,
>and is not correclty responding the receiving magnet.
>
I can see the armature 'stutter' when I punch the
rubout key - by stutter, I mean that its movement
looks slightly different between keypresses. So I'm
inclined to think that the magnet is just responding
to what it is receiving which is incorrect. I cleaned
the distributor and reseated the brushes, readjusted
the brush holder to the alignment mark per the
adjustment procedure in the manual. So I'm back to
option 1) - the keyboard - as the source of the
problem. One thing I noticed last night was that the
keyboard cover is broken. There are four round tabs,
one at each corner, that fit into corresponding holes
on the end plates. These are broken, so the cover can
rock from side to side, pivoting on those center
projections. I wonder if that could cause some sort of
alignment problem within the keyboard ?
Thanks for the suggestions - I will get to it again
tonight and see what else I can find out. I hate the
idea of opening that keyboard up...
Dave
__________________________________________________
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>From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk
>
>>
>> Any Teletype ASR33 experts out there ? I have a couple
>> of problems with a teletype that recently came my way.
>
>I believe the ASR33 manauls are available on a web site somewhere. If
>you don't have them as printed books, then you want to get these files
>and print them. They make life a lot easier. OK, I did a complete
>strip-down, clean, oil, reassemble and adjust job on an ASR33 without the
>manuals (and with never having seen the manuals), but then I tend to do
>crazy things like that...
>
>>
>> i) When I type a character from the keyboard in local
>> mode, something else gets printed. What gets printed
>> is not consistently the same character. I've watched
>> the selector mechanism while I hit rubout (all marking
>> codebars) and I can see that the codebars are not
>> being consistently selected betwee key presses:
>> sometimes I get 5 of them, sometimes 6 and
>> occasionally all 8. The high order bits seem to be
>> worst affected by this inconsistency. However if I
>> hold down the repeat key and select a character, the
>> right codebars are being selected. I punched a number
>> of characters onto tape to verify this and they seem
>> to be punching OK. This suggests to me that this isn't
>
>If the character _always_ punches correctly, then the right codebars are
>being selected. So I assume this is not the case.
Hi
I think you need to make this point clearer. When a character
is punched, the same character is miss printed on the platen?
This is how I read his original post.
This tells me it is something sticking in the linkage that goes
between the code bars and the print head( or he has it installed
wrong but that doesn't explain why it starts working with repeats ).
I would remove the print assembly and put it in some solvent
while moving the levers. Then clean it off/dry it and re-oil
it. You most likely have some dry oil that is sluggish. Getting
oil into the right place will take a bit.
In the service( military ), we used to clean things in a bath
of water and heavy detergent. This was done in an ultrasonic
cleaner. We'd then rinse and bake it at about 150F for a few
hours. Then Re-oil/grease, place on test bench and fine adjust.
I suspect that a good dish washing liquid would work.
You can find manuals at:
http://www.pdp8.net/pdp8cgi/query_docs/query.pl?Search=teletype&stype=Parti…
rd&fields=id%2Ctitle%2Cdate&debug=0&table=pdp8docs&orderby=sort%2Ctitle
You'll need to paste it back together after the mail chops it.
Dwight
>
>Basically, there are 3 possible problem areas :
>
>1) The keyboard contacts are not closing correctly, so the parallel data
>output of the keyboard is incorrect.
>
>2) The distributor disk (rear right of the typing unit) is not correctly
>serialising the data from the keyboard. Unlikely, but possible.
>
>3) The selector unit (rear left of the typing unit) is malfunctioning,
>and is not correclty responding the receiving magnet.
>
>I would check (3) first. It may need to be removed, dismantled, cleaned,
>and re-lubricated. It's not uncommon for parts to stick on old, gummy,
>lubricant.
>
>> an electrical problem since whatever code the keyboard
>> is sending is eventually being sensed correctly.
>>
>> ii) In addition to i) above, even if I do get all the
>> codebars moving as required, the wrong characters are
>> being printed. I removed the carriage, cleaned and
>> oiled it and replaced it but this hasn't helped.
>
>How did you clean it? I have found that soaking compete assemblies in
>solvent doesn't help much. You really have to take all the parts apart,
>clean them, and then re-assemble them. If yoy've done this, then there
>are a lot of sdjustment you'd have to set up.
>
>A character decoding problem must be in the carriage. There are 4 parts
>to the decoder mechanism :
>
>2 bits -> one of 4 levels of lift of the type cylinder
>1 bit -) rotate cylinder left or right
>2 bits -> one of 4 angles (pairs of characters) of rotation of the cylinder
>1 bit -> an extra 1 character angle rotate (it moves the selector bars
>for the previous rotation selection slightly...).
>
>Figure out which mechanism is malfunctioning by comparing the position of
>the character you get with the position of the character you should be
>getting. Then work out what's not operating properly.
>
>-tony
>
>
