test-drb February 2002

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

293 participants
1043 discussions

by donm＠cts.com

As you will note, Barry authorized this posting. - don ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 17:24:45 -0500 From: Barry A. Watzman <Watzman(a)neo.rr.com> To: 'Don Maslin' <donm(a)cts.com> Subject: RE: SOL-20 keyboard I won't but you may if you want to. Barry -----Original Message----- From: Don Maslin [mailto:donm@cts.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 1:05 AM To: Barry A. Watzman Subject: Re: SOL-20 keyboard On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Barry A. Watzman wrote: > By the way, in 1977 I made and sold a SOL-20 keyboard modification kit > that included a new ROM for the keyboard and new keytops. The new ROM > made the high order bit of the numeric keypad keys a "1" instead of a > "0". This made it possible to distinguish between the keys in the > numeric keypad and the numeric keys in the top row of the normal > keyboard (in the stock keyboard, these different keys produced exactly > the same output). This was transparent to normal applications because > they normally did an "ANI 7FH" anyway, stripping this bit, but it > could be used by an application if the application wanted to do so. > The new keytops had word processing legends instead of numbers, and > really was made for the "Electric Pencil" and "Wordstar" word > processors. The keytops were actually made by Keytronic (I had to pay > tooling charges, about $1,000 (those were 1977 dollars, it was about > one-fourth the price of a new car)) and and matched the SOL keyboard > exactly. > > I have a few of these kits left in a box in the basement. If anyone > wants them, they are $25. What I'm not sure of is if I have the > installation instructions anywhere. > > [If anyone takes me up on this, I'm actually going to have to FIND that > box, which may be easier said than done.]

22 years, 10 months

nice find - now I have a PDP-11/93 question

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Hi all. Many times I read with envy those phantastic finds in the US. Now it is my time to get lucky: - several 8- and 16-line serial MUXen with distr. panels - Q-Bus Centronics printer interface with connector - SC-08 Q-Bus (dual) SCSI controller (MSCP/TMSCP compatible) with the Emulex doc and the rear connector panel - KDJ11-A manual (0.5 inch thick) - LA120 (with flaky electronics and both pin-feeds bands broken) - PDP-11/73 with TK50, RD54 (Maxtor) disk and 2 M7551 memory boards (but when powered up produced the smell of burning paper ...) - PDP-11/93 (M8981-BA) but without documentation. AFAIK, the 11/93 was the fastest DIGITAL PDP-11, so I consider this a nice addition to my collection. Since the chassis only contained in slot 1 A-B: M8981 PDP-11/93 in slot 2 A-B: M8047 grant continuity in slot 3 A-B: M7546 TK50 controller and the PSU of course, I moved the TK50 and the RD54 from the 11/73 into the 11/93 and added in slot 4, position A-B, the RQDX3 (M7555). On the M8981 are 8 diagnostic LEDs, from top to bottom a yellow, 3 red LEDs, a green and 3 red ones again. I call them yellow, red 1-2-3, green, red 4-5-6. When the system is turned on (with HALT button in) the display on the backpanel reads "7.7." and all LEDs on the CPU module are on. When I push the HALT button out and press the RESTART button, the display reads "0.4." and the LEDs are as follows: yellow - on red 1 - off red 2 - off red 3 - off green - on red 4 - on red 5 - off red 6 - off. What does this mean? BTW I connected a VT set at 9600 Bd to the console DB-25 connector. Nothing appears on the screen. The DIP switches on the backpanel are set as follows: (left) (right) +-----------------+ | # # | | # # # # # # | +-----------------+ Last piece of information I can think of is the backplane. It is an H9278-A. Reading what I have written, I come to think that I forgot to check jumpers/DIP switches on the M8981 board itself .... If necessary I can tell that tomorrow. TIA - Henk. http://home.hetnet.nl/~tshaj

22 years, 10 months

Working with useful computers (was: What's your specialty?)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Sellam touched off a firestorm of responses: >Ok, now's your chance to discuss your specialty and get the attention of >other folks who have stuff that you may want. Sellam, you *are* keeping a list of these answers, right? If anyone is brave enough to declare themselves a specialist, they ought to get questions about their "specialty" directed to them. Mine (am I really that brave? Sigh): --------- Dec Rainbow (see also Jeff Armstrong, or Tony Duell) Own a 100A with 8087 board, VR201 and VR240 monitors, tech doc set, some software NeXT (I'm *definitely* not the only or best one of these on the list) Own an 040 cube, OD often works, floppy, Laserprinter, NS3.0 and 3.3 and a 1.0 OD, Mathematica 2.2 and 3.0, WriteNow, various other SW R. D. Davis asked: >How many here still work, for an >income, with the types of vintage systems they collect? > > ..Out > of curiosity, how many others here absolutely refuse to work for an > employer requiring one to work with those confounded annoyances called > Micro$oft products? The NeXT does most of my analysis and coding, a Mac PB3400 does most of the rest, various Unix Boxen and Macs do what's left. A hand-me-down Power Mac 8500 with Oriffice 2000 translates to sylk or .pdf when I recieve tainted files from co-workers. I work pretty hard at not using Micro$oft (and advocating abstinence) but I admit to bending at times. - Mark

22 years, 10 months

SyQuest drive compatibility

by vcf＠vintage.org

Here's a good FAQ on SyQuest drives that answered my question regarding whether or not a 44MB drive was compatible with an 88MB drive was compatible with a 200MB drive. The bottom line is that the original 88MB drive could only read a 44, not write to it. People got pissed, so SyQuest came out with an 88c ('c' for "combination") that could both read and write 44MB disks. The 200MB drive can read/write/initialize 44/88/200MB disks. -- 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

Compaq portable to good home

by vcf＠vintage.org

Contact Peter directly if you are interested. Reply-to: <banjoman9(a)hotmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 12:15:38 From: Peter Finucane <banjoman9(a)hotmail.com> Subject: computers I have several bits and pieces including a working Compaq portable from about late sixties early seventies. Although "portable" it is heavy and about the weight(and looks like) a portable sewing machine. It has a built in 5 inch screen,integral keyboard and operates on two 5 1/4 floppy discs. I live in Southern England and would be prepared to donate this if someone was willing to collect it. I also have a working IBM 286 with monitor from about 1988, again I will donate. Please advise if you are interested or can put me in touch with someone who is. Pete Finucane (banjoman) -- 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

Need docs & drivers for old tape drives

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:foo@siconic.com] > to be able to read just about anything, but writing isn't as critical. > Usually when someone wants data converted these days, they > want it on CD > or 3.5" floppy. Do you plan to read tk50, QIC-1000, 9-track? What about the SyQuest removables that were so common on Macintosh systems? 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

Need docs & drivers for old tape drives

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>I'm looking for PC docs & drivers for old tape drives. I already have >everything I need for Colorado tape drives, so I'm looking for older, more >obscure stuff from the 80s. If anyone's got ANYTHING like this, for any >type of tape drive (QIC, digital cassette, whatever) please let me know. I have a Conner Tape-Store 800 with docs and drivers (drivers disks appear to be BackUp Exec for windows) I also have an Iomege Tape250 Insider with docs and drivers. What exactly are you looking for? (ie: did you want them, or just copies, or just wanted to know something about them). They are both in use right now, so I don't know if I am apt to just give them away. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

22 years, 10 months

Is this a IBM RT mouse?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On January 28, Doc wrote: > > Yup, that's it! Anyone claimed it yet? I'd like it for my RT. > > I think, therefore I am dangerous > > Well, I fired off an email asking for it Saturday, and haven't heard > back. So, I hope *I* got first dibs.... Me too. We could all meet somewhere and fight for it. :) -Dave, grunt grunt -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

22 years, 10 months

4.4BSD-Lite binaries for SPARC and PMAX

by jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de

Hi. I plan to do a BSD exhibition at the VCFE. Main focus is 4.3BSD{,-Tahoe,-Reno} on VAXen. But I want to show 4.4BSD-Lite on HP300, SPARC and PMAX too. I have the 4.4BSD-Lite HP300 binaries, but nothing for SPARC and PMAX. Are there any binaries still around? I don't want to struggle with a SPARC and PMAX bootstrap... Ahh, and 4.2BSD-Reno for HP300 is missing too... -- tsch??, Jochen Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/

22 years, 10 months

VMS help file

by alan.pearson＠cramer.com

Last night I finally got a cable sorted (thanks Pete!) to connect the VS3100 to a "VT52" (Atari ST running the emulator!), and was chuffed to find it's a healthy 16Mb Model 30 with two hard disks and VMS 5.5-2 installed. Unfortunately my old mate "HELP" doesn't want to play with me any more: $ HELP %HELP-F-OPENIN, error opening SYS$COMMON:[SYSHLP]HELPLIB.HLB as input Rats. I was pretty much counting on HELP working to help dust off the cobwebs :-) I'm guessing it's not installed because the machine was configured to boot >from the network (ESA0). A SHOW DEV revealed a couple of disks ("DKA200" and "DKA300") and luckily it boots VMS from DKA300 no trouble. I reset the SYSTEM password OK, so now I've got a system to play with but no HELP to make life easier :-) So, a few questions to help me on my way: - are there VMS equivalents of 'find' and 'grep' to set loose on the disks to look for this file? - if the help file isn't on either disk, would somebody be able to send me a copy? - I'd like to find out more about how VMS boots, can someone point me at a good website? Finally, at the moment I don't have a suitable CD drive to be able to install the Hobbyist OpenVMS. When VMS boots it displays: %LICENSE-I-EXCEEDED, attempted usage exceeds active license limits Is there a limit to the number of logins allowed after expiry? Am I going to get locked out? :-} Cheers, Al.

22 years, 10 months

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test-drb February 2002