test-drb April 2003

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

272 participants
486 discussions

Brian Instruments BRIKON Mdl 723 Floppy Drive Tester / Analyzer

by mail.list＠analog-and-digital-solutions.com

Here's an interesting item for keeping those vintage floppy's in order? Brian Instruments BRIKON Mdl 723 Floppy Drive Tester / Analyzer I saw a web site where these were about $900.00 http://www.mbiusa.com/Bucket/test1.html and this one is only at $5.00 with only about 1 and a half days to go. Brian Industries Brikon 723 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2519413979

21 years, 8 months

Qbus artifact score!

by erd_6502＠yahoo.com

I was visiting a data-center-not-to-be-named and talked them out of an item on the scrap heap - a CompuServe Tri-Node - it's a rackable box, about 21" tall (twice as tall as an RX01, say), with *3* independent Qbuses inside. The only cards I got were some CompuServe-branded grant cards and one terminator each. I don't know how long ago it was gutted, but it's been sitting on a pallet for months. The front panel is in triplicate - three boot switches, three LTC switches and three run switches. It has three power switches on the back, and three watchdog boards inside. *Dual* boot?!? Nay! Three OSes in one! I should have enough PDP-11 boards to have an RT-11, a 2BSD, and some thing else, all in the same cabinet (external disks, naturally). I have plenty of LSI-11 and KDF-11 boards, but not KDJ-11, unfortunately. If only there was a DEC terminal with triple-session capability. Maybe I could rig up a video switcher and use three VT240 bases?!? (I know I can switch the RS-232 line, but that won't preserve screen contents of the other sessions) ... or perhaps three ports on a terminal server... The only thing missing is the back door skin. It was apparently removed some years ago, and none of the tri-nodes have them. Should be a bunch of fun getting this guy running! -ethan

21 years, 8 months

Free Stuff ???

by mail.list＠analog-and-digital-solutions.com

Free Stuff ??? page info says date last modified ... Tuesday, May 04, 1999 9:32:15 PM GMT But it's currently indexed in Google, so who know? http://www.monmouth.com/~wstreett/equip.html Best Regards

21 years, 8 months

AST Multifunction card manual

by swtpc6800＠attbi.com

I have a photo copy of the AST I/O Plus II card user's manual. It is a Serial Parallel, Clock and Game card. It is about 50 pages long and has schematics. I will mail it to any one who needs it. Michael Holley www.swtpc.com/mholley

21 years, 8 months

paper tape questions

by akb+lists.cctech＠imap1.mirror.to

Hi-- I was wondering, is all blank papertape media interchangeable? I know that it can be made of paper or mylar, and that it comes fanfolded and on spools, but are there variations that would block interoperability, like varying widths? In particular, I'm wondering if any one can tell me if the tape offered up on ebay at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2519056219&category=11805 will work in my friden flex-o-writer sps... (for that matter, if anyone here can help me find sps user and repair manuals, that'd be lovely... I'd like to know the pinouts on the i/o ports on the side, and I need to repair one of the carriage return straps...) --thanks in advance --akb

21 years, 8 months

Need byte-splitter utility

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Hi, gang, I've got a single EPROM file that I need to split into separate odd-byte/even-byte files for programming into two separate (smaller) EPROMs. I'm not able to figure out how to make the Unisite programmer do this, so I'm thinking a DOS or Windoze based splitting utility will do the trick. Here's the problem; I've searched all over Google, and can't find anything that'll work. Any ideas? Thanks much. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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)

21 years, 8 months

XT slots (was: RE: IBM 5161

by melamy＠earthlink.net

after checking in my IBM XT reference manual, the fact is that they added a buffer to the normal data and address bus and sent buffered these signals into J8. Also, they added a 14.318mhz oscillator on the expansion chassis side because they did not want pass this high of a frequency over the cable. This does mean that the manin 14mhz and the expansion chassis 14mhz are not in phase. The added buffers make the timning in slot 8 a littl emore tight because of the added delays through the additional chips. Slot 8 also had a requirement that it supply a card selected signal back to make sure the card was really ready to be accessed. The buffering from an engineering standpoint was done to increase the drive on the cable to the expansion chassis as well as help isolate the rest of the system bus from any added capacitance and noise from the outside world. best regards, Steve Thatcher >--- Original Message --- >From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> >To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org >Date: 4/2/03 12:36:58 PM > > > >But in the XT, one slot is different. >> > Why? > >On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Ethan Dicks wrote: >> decided it was easier to give away a serial card than deal with the >> customer-support issue of random 3rd-party cards not working in that >> slot. > >But "WHY?" >Did they leave off the buffer chip BECAUSE the serial card didn't need it? >Or did they use the serial card to cover up a MISTAKE? >Or did they have some OTHER plan for it, and used the serial card as a >"placeholder"?

21 years, 8 months

IBM RS/6000: PS needed

by pat＠purdueriots.com

I managed to pick up a near-complete RS/6000 model 250 (7011-250) today, complete with ram, disk, framebuffer, sound card, and video capture card... A pretty neat thing to play with if it had a working power supply. Does anyone have a spare that they would be willing to part with? Thanks, Pat -- Purdue Universtiy ITAP/RCS Information Technology at Purdue Research Computing and Storage http://www-rcd.cc.purdue.edu

21 years, 8 months

H89 CP/M hard-secored boot diskette

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Patrick Rigney" <patrick(a)evocative.com> > >> Hi >> Old dry grease is quite common on these old drives, as >> well as slight corrosion on the guide bars. You should >> be able to relube and get it running, without changing >> the stepper settings. >> As I recall, the H89's came with one of the snail track >> type positioners. The biggest problem would be the guides. >> Dwight > >Dwight, yes, the mechanism is very stiff, and I hope a little careful >lub'ing may restore its health. Now that I think about, though, I wasn't >very smart by trying as many diskettes as I did... hopefully I didn't >strain/burn/damage the stepper during my experimentation. Hi You don't have to worry about the stepper. These draw almost the same power if they are stalled or moving. Especially at the slow speeds used for a disk drive. Dwight > >This drive is worm gear rather than snail track. It's one of the drives >with the gigantic door that covers almost the entire face of the drive... >Siemens FDD100-5. I think this is the drive that's original to these >beasts, so I'd like to keep it alive if I can. > >Patrick

21 years, 8 months

H89 CP/M hard-secored boot diskette

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Patrick Rigney" <patrick(a)evocative.com> > >> [Tony wrote:] >> Very odd... >> >> You might try checkking the index monostables on the hard sector >> controller (they only really do anything once per track, when the index >> hole between the sector holes comes round), but I can't see why it would >> then work for the first 4 cylinders. > >Well, as it turned out, the stepper motor on the drive was locking up. The >further towards the inner tracks it got, the more it struggled, and it >wasn't close to correctly centering over any track beyond the first few. >I'll mess with that later. I was able to replace the drive with a spare, >and I'm again up and running. I produced several good test boot disks, BUT, >I don't know how well that new drive is aligned, it's straight off the shelf >from the As-Is room at Wierd Stuff. Rotation speed is spot-on according to >the internal diag, but I don't have a 5.25" alignment disk to check it >otherwise. Anyone who receives a boot disk from me is, therefore, going to >be my "canary in the mine." :-) > >Next task... get the soft-sectored controller running. Unfortunately I have >no docs for this whatsoever, not even a schematic. I understand that it >requires MTR-90, and possibly a certain HDOS software distribution as well. >Does anyone know? > >Patrick > Hi Old dry grease is quite common on these old drives, as well as slight corrosion on the guide bars. You should be able to relube and get it running, without changing the stepper settings. As I recall, the H89's came with one of the snail track type positioners. The biggest problem would be the guides. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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test-drb April 2003