test-drb February 2002

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

293 participants
1043 discussions

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I'm trying to find a R3k Indigo keyboard for Robert Sandwell in the UK. Yesterday I picked up an SGI keyboard. By buddy Bob who usually knows this stuff says that it's for a PC with a PS/2 port and not for a "real" SGI. But this site <http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:0IHqXFzA1FIC:lists.sunhelp.org/piperma il/rescue/2001-August/024941.html+SGI+keyboard+9500829&hl=en> says that it will work on a R4k Indigo 2. Does anyone know for sure what system it's for? It looks like a standard 101 key PC keyboard and is marked "PN 9500829 U.S. AT-101 keyboard" and has the ten foot long cable exactly as described on the website. Joe

22 years, 10 months

HP Cxxx drive rails, & moulding plastic

by timwa＠snowgoons.fsnet.co.uk

I know HP Cxxx boxes aren't strictly speaking classic, but they will be one day and peeps on here are likely to know the answer :-). I've got an HP C180 and want to fit some more drives, but I'm short of the plastic rails you use to fit them. The easy question is, "does anyone have any spare rails they can sell me," so I'll ask it anyway but I'm not expecting a yes <grin>. I suspect these things are like hens' teeth, and HP no longer make them apparently. So, plan B was to make some myself. I haven't examined one in detail yet, but making a mould should be pretty simple - all I need is some molten plastic and Bob's my uncle... Of course, I haven't ever actually tried anything like this <grin>. Anyone have any recommendations - am I mad to even try this? If not, I'll be after a thermoplastic with a reasonably low melting point (got to be able to melt it on a domestic gas hob![1],) which is easy to handle and sets to a flexible solid (plastic tie-wrap kind of thing.) Is this sort of stuff available to a 'consumer' in a suitable form (eg. chips or powder?) Plan C involves Velcro, but the HP's are so nicely put together it seems a crime to do too much of a botch job :-). Cheers, Tim. [1] Or using my trusty gas soldering iron/blow torch... -- Tim Walls at home in Croydon - Reply to tim(a)snowgoons.fsnet.co.uk

22 years, 10 months

Varian 402 Data Station

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

Sellam, can you post a pic? This thing sounds cool (I'm a sucker for oddball eight-bitters). Glen 0/0 ---------- > From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)vintage.org> > To: Classic Computers Mailing List <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> > Subject: Varian 402 Data Station > Date: Monday, February 18, 2002 3:50 PM > > > I found a Varian 402 Data Station. It's basically a Z80 machine with a > built-in CRT, 2 disk drives, and a thermal printer. It's huge. > > When I fire it up, I get no activity on the CRT, but the thermal printer > goes into a self-test, pauses for a moment, then repeats. It does this > endlessly, so something must be wrong. > > No activity on the disk drives either. > > A Google search turned up nothing useful. > > Anyone have any experience with these things? > > -- > > Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org > > * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com * > >

22 years, 10 months

NEC Multisync Color Monitor - $25

by vcf＠vintage.org

I have here an excess NEC MultiSync Color monitor (model JC-1401P3A) that is very useful for the vintage microcomputer enthusiast. It can connect up to pretty much anything--analog, TTL, RGB--with different color modes and depths and stuff. Maximum resolution is 640x480. Here's some specs for it: http://www.griffintechnology.com/monitors/NEC25.html More info regarding capabilities can be found with a web search. Here are two pictures of this unit (front and back respectively): http://siconic.com/computers/multisync1.JPG http://siconic.com/computers/multisync2.JPG Cosmetically it's in decent shape. Of course, it works. I'm asking $25 for it plus shipping. Shipping to the east coast will be around $23, half that to the west coast, and somewhere in the middle for anywhere in between. I'll consider shipping to Canada without thinking about it too much, or internationally if I have time. If there's enough interest, I may have one or two more to sell. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

22 years, 10 months

IC's

by pat＠purdueriots.com

I just got a butload of IC's from Purdue Salvage, and was wondering if anyone could help me identify a few of the ones I couldn't google a description of. T5650, T5670, T5681. Company logo on chip looks like an X with a P on it, or an italic P with a \ through it to make an X with its stem. All approx 18-pins and DIP (could be 16). 353BN 8-pin DIP National Semiconductor IC L1A3220 44-pin QFP surface mount IC triangle (upside-down delta) logo L3036FN-C 44-pin QFP "ST" logo N8T125 20-pin DIP "SA" logo OMA110 6-pin (optocoupler?) OP27FP 8-pin (OpAmp?) Also if you could point me to a source for data on any of the above, I'd be very greatful. -- Pat

22 years, 10 months

From Scratch?... (was: Radio Shack (Was: STAPLES ....))

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Ron Hudson <rhudson(a)cnonline.net> wrote: > I live in Silicon Valley, and the places to get component > type stuff are dwindling. Radio Shack no longer carries much > of the components they used to. I went into Frys for a 100K > pot the other day (for paddles for an apple II (ob ot)) and > there were NO pots... Radio Shack had various values but not > 100 K. A small hole in the wall was the same (Schad elec- > tronics on 1st street) It's not just you. It's cheaper to manufacture stuff elsewhere now (seen on bottom of iBook: "Designed by Apple in California Assembled in Taiwan") so there are fewer surplus lots of components for these folks to buy cheap and sell dear. The wacky commercial real estate market of the dot-com boom didn't help matters either, it forced some of these folks out of business. Take a look at <http://www.kce.com/junk.htm> for starters. Diffs that I know of: Curtiss Trading Co. is gone. RA Enterprises is gone. Sharon Industries is somewhere else now. Alltronics is apparently mostly web-and-mail order these days, for a while they had moved in with Schad but this appears to have not lasted. Follow the link at the bottom to Bruce Lane's page: <http://www.bluefeathertech.com/technoid/calswap.html>, which has a lot of the same information as on the kce.com page, but you will find that Opinions Vary. Sometimes you really need to go see for yourself. -Frank McConnell

22 years, 10 months

ID this SGI keyboard.

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Joe [mailto:rigdonj@cfl.rr.com] > I'm trying to find a R3k Indigo keyboard for Robert > Sandwell in the UK. > Yesterday I picked up an SGI keyboard. By buddy Bob who > usually knows this > stuff says that it's for a PC with a PS/2 port and not for a > "real" SGI. He doesn't know his SGI, then. Indigo2 and (at least) most SGI desktop systems since have used the PS/2 keyboard and mouse interfaces. I have an Indigo2, myself, and I believe the keyboard and mouse are interchangeable with a peesee (but slightly nicer than normal peesee stuff) > But this site > <http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:0IHqXFzA1FIC:lists.sunhe > lp.org/piperma > il/rescue/2001-August/024941.html+SGI+keyboard+9500829&hl=en> > says that it > will work on a R4k Indigo 2. Does anyone know for sure what ...maybe those used it too... I'm not sure. > system it's > for? It looks like a standard 101 key PC keyboard and is marked "PN They do. Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

22 years, 10 months

Average lifting weight

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk [mailto:ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk] > Does it come apart at all? Removing PSUs and drives can help a lot. Trying to find that out. :) Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

22 years, 10 months

OT: cars, vettes, & plastic

by Richard.Sandwell＠roebry.co.uk

>>Mike Ford wrote: >>>What was the name of the 70's era plastic car? (no not a vette) It looked >>>kind of like a bigger Delorean, and lasted not as long on the market. Ferrari 308GTB (I think) - plastic for 1 year, in 77. Can't be an Esprit...thats the DeLorean's prototype :-/ Lotus car design maxim - "Add lightness". J. Delorean's answer? "Lets build the mother in Stainless Steel...." //Rich

22 years, 10 months

(UK interest only) 9-T MT on eBay

by andyh＠andyh-rayleigh.freeserve.co.uk

Item # 2002499129 is a HP 88780B Tape Drive (SCSI) This is on topic as the one I have is over 10 years old :-) Very heavy (definitely not recommended as a one-person lift!) ... collect >from Portslade (between Hove and Shoreham near Brighton). Don't know whether this particular example has 800bpi or only 1600 and 6250 No connection with vendor other than as a satisfied customer. (his workroom is an Aladins' cave - I just wish I had had time this morning to investigate further) Andy

22 years, 10 months

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test-drb February 2002