My Otronas have FD-55B-01-U drives in them. I thought the drives were
fried, since they wouldn't work on the Otrona nor on the PC, but in dinking
around, I determined that on at least one drive (and probably the other),
the head load solenoid is not pulling in. I see power being applied, but it
only looks like +5V.
I don't have schematics, and I'm not ready to risk wrecking the drives
determining the following question: Should the solenoids pull in on +5 or
+12? If I'm seeing +5, I suspect the solenoid driver transistor could be
cooked. The solenoid coil is intact, as I'm seeing 44 ohms across it, out
of circuit. In either case, I don't feel even the lightest twitch when it's
supposed to pull in (and the jumper is in place, for load on motor select).
Does anyone have any FD-55B (these are the 360K DS-DD 48 TPI) drives they'd
like to part with, either to see an Otrona running, or in exchange for ye
olde green stuffe?
--John
> On Wed, 6 Mar 2002, Dave McGuire wrote:
>
> > Are you suggesting that the embassy is staffed by a bunch of
> > dickheads?
>
> <playing straight man for Dave>
>
> You know who was the world's first computer operator?
If you say Richard Head you will get one virtual nerf brick
tossed in your direction immediately...
8->
-dq
I bought one of the Mark-8 (8008) board sets from eBay 2 or 3 weeks ago,
scrounged up all the parts, and set to work. It had non-plated-through
holes so almost all the components had to be soldered on both sides of
the board, and there were dozens of vias that had to be soldered in on
each board as well. Did the smoke test with no CPU. No smoke, so I
inserted the CPU, and it works! I found two problems on initial testing.
There was a bad gate in a 7404 which was pulling down one of the data
lines (replaced it), and I had missed a "top bus" jumper from the
address/multiplex board to the memory board which allowed writes to
memory (added a wire). That was it! It's pretty cool - just toggled in a
test program and watched the lights blink as it looped over and over. Now
I have to build a case and find a better power supply than my bench supply
for permanent use, and then I start wire-wrapping an ELF! Whee!
Guys, I've just had a conversation with the guy who originally
told me about this product, and he had this to say (posted with
his permission, of course):
-----Original Message-----
From: Brass Christof [mailto:welcome@spam.not]
Yup, I stated so and I still remember that it was advertised
by *NeXT*! At that time I was already a VMS afficionado but
new to NeXTSTEP and wondered on which systems the applications
could be run. And voil? - VMS was listed. Unfortunately I'm
not sure at the moment whether it was VAX or Alpha but I
assume it was Alpha. And I still have the flyer around
somewhere but I don't think you'll be able to buy/get it.
Good luck anyway!
-------------------------
He also mentioned that it may have been and "in progress" port
with a set release date that he saw, and that it was only the
libraries, etc, so that you could compile NeXT stuff on VMS,
but not develop it.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
> Where has rail been ripped up? I've never heard of that
> happening. Is it a national trend?
Of course, I'm aware of it primarily through local examples,
but the local newspapers have run articles about how this is
happening throughout the nation.... the midwest probably has
more miles ot track to rip up, though...
Recently, efforts have been underway to try to reclaim some
abandoned right-of-way and use it to create light rail (i.e.
trolley) lines...
Once upon a time, there was a B&O spur that ran in front of the
home I lived in as a child (not far from here)... Dad and I would
walk one direction as far as the floodwall, and the other direction
usually only as far as a small drug store that sold hot mixed nuts.
Remember hot mixed nuts, hot peanuts, etc?
Just a short walk further (which we never did) you'd find the
coal company who used to deliver the coal by which we used to
heat that house (did a natural gas conversion in '64 just before
we moved out).
But all that line is not greeway, replete with joggers...
:(
-dq
Ethan hollered:
> Anybody else out there have one? My friend is going to keep digging in
> the warehouse this month; he suspects he knows where some docs are, but
> he's not sure.
Nope... but bacmk in '74, IU borrowed one of these from the Chemistry
department, and with the help of en electronic engineer/Chemist who
worked there, developed a TTL-to-CDC 6000 Direct Channel interface
in order to use the TI as a front-end processor for the 6600.
It worked very well, and the computer center tried to get one budgeted,
but in the long run, they ended up with a Modcomp II instead.
However, due to its historical important in IU's computer center
development, it's on my watch list. So if you get tired of it...
I just finished picking up four Intel Multibus computers. The labels on
them say "sys 86/330" or "psyp 86/330". Is anyone familar with them? I
searched Google but didn't find much except that they're not Y2K
compatible. (surprise, surprise!)
These have a six slot Multibus card rack inside with hard drive
controller card with floppy drive daughter board, 256k memeory card, intel
iSBC 86/30 CPU (8086) card with 8087 NDP daughterboard installed. They aslo
have an 8" floppy drive and HAD an 8" hard drive (removed :-( Thery're in
steel cases that measure about 14"w x 14"h x 20" deep and are painted a
yellowish white color.
Any info would be appreciated.
Joe
Available for pickup only.
-Pro350 in Floor stand case with Venix installed. No monitor/keyboard.
Working system.
-Pro380, untested believed working. No tube or keyboard.
Due to size and weight, Pick up only.
Location Framinham MA OR Hudson NH (real close to Nashua)
for pick up.
I'm limiting myself to only Qbus PDP-11s for my PDP-11 amusement
and because the cards used are also Qbus VAX compatable.
First come...
Allison
We're now in the planning phases for moving Jim Willing's Computer Garage
>from Oregon to Kansas. We're currently looking for the best equipment
option for moving.
Jim says he probably needs a 24 foot truck. He's currently looking at
U-Haul, which is always a cheap solution, but he's stuck right now
hassling with them over some issues from a prior moves where the trucks
broke down (U-Haul trucks are deathtraps on wheels).
There are a few other truck rental places we're going to try to get quotes
>from (Ryder is asking around $1,500, we haven't checked Budget or Penske
yet), but I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions?
Jim's original plan was to load the Computer Garage contents into the
truck and then tow his Suburban from the truck. I am suggesting that he
rent or even buy a big trailer and use the Suburban to haul the trailer.
Jim is going to ask some of these places if they will rent trailers one
way (I don't see why not). I think my suggestion to buy a trailer would
be cool if he can't since it may be cheaper than renting a truck, and he
can always use it for other stuff, or sell it when he gets back to Kansas.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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