test-drb May 2003

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

284 participants
500 discussions

by stuart＠stuartsjohnsonfamily.net

I noticed this on eBay and thought I'd post it here for those PDP-11 collectors among us: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2733136922&category=1247 The starting price ($199 US) seems high, but these are pretty hard to find. One possibly sour note though - the seller wants a flat rate of $150 to ship anywhere in North America. I picked up one of these in terrific condition last December for $25. It cost $65 to pack and ship the heavy thing, but it was worth it. I haven't seen another PDT sell since then. Stuart Johnson

20 years, 10 months

Where have all the Selectrics gone?

by mross666＠hotmail.com

IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric typewriter - 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and you'll also find several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype alternatives. Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care, good riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are (almost) ten a penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have several. But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in over ten years of collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so ago. It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can receive data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from the keyboard. I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic' terminal for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone recommend a Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle something THIS mechanically-intimidating myself! Mike http://www.corestore.org

20 years, 10 months

That pesky Jupiter Ace *still* won't work...

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Hi, I've just finished fixing the Ace's PCB using wire-wrap wire. All the broken tracks I've managed to find have been fixed and all the damaged through-hole plating has been repaired. Except there's one problem. The Ace *still* won't boot to the FORTH interpreter. There is a load of garbage on the display - this seems to change while the machine is running. The power consumption of the board - CPU and all - is around 800mA (according to the crappy meter on my Farnell 1A bench PSU). I've got the output on the PSU set to 9V, no current limit. Does anyone here have a logic analyser or microprocessor debugger that I could borrow for a few days? I've got two scopes (a Tek 466 and a Gould OS1100) and a Fluke 25 multimeter, but that's about it in terms of test equipment. Alternatively, does anyone know if a diagnostic ROM exists for the Ace? Something that would replace ROM A and just load the video/font RAM with the usual Ace character set would be very handy. The 2114Ls I'm using appear to be OK, but they draw a lot of current - in the region of 75 to 100mA each. Thanks. -- Phil. philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/

20 years, 10 months

8" drive hooked up to a PC

by brian.roth＠fnfg.com

John has been making these for years. Try this link. http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html Brian. Brian Roth Network Administrator A+ N+ CNA CCNA Network Services First Niagara Bank (716) 625-7500 X2186 Brian.Roth(a)FirstNiagaraBank.com >>> Innfogra(a)aol.com 05/29/03 12:48PM >>> > That way those of us with > an 8" hooked to a PC could make 8" disks. > How do you do this? I am interested. What floppy controller do you use? I am assuming it is for the ISA bus? Anything for a PCI bus. Anything for EISA, I am keeping one EISA bus system. Paxton Astoria, OR ***************************************************************************** ********************* The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential. It is intended for the named recipient(s) only. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager or the sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to any one or make copies. ** eSafe scanned this email for viruses, vandals and malicious content ** ***************************************************************************** ********************* BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 X-GWTYPE:USER FN:roth, brian TEL;WORK:2186 ORG:;Network Services TEL;PREF;FAX:716-625-0012 EMAIL;WORK;PREF;NGW:brian.roth@fnfg.com N:roth;brian X-GWUSERID:1372 END:VCARD

20 years, 10 months

Computer in Dark Star

by coredump＠gifford.co.uk

Just been watching John Carpenter's film "Dark Star" (again). There's a very brief shot of a computer toggle-switch front panel. It seems to have two rows of 15 lights (neons?) and two rows of toggle switches (with plastic tips). It looks like a genuine machine, not a made-up prop, but what machine is it? Does anybody know? -- John Honniball coredump(a)gifford.co.uk

20 years, 10 months

HP 80 Series Software

by peterbrown10＠hotmail.com

Hi all, I'm not that familiar with 80 series machines. Can they be interfaced to HPIB HDD's? Can their tapes be read on HPIB based tape drives? If so then it may be possible to read/back them up using the HPIB / LIF reader software I've been working on. With the work that I've had to do on command formats I think that I may be able to code a PC+HPIB card system that emulates CS80 or AMIGO based disk or tape drives. This would mean that the old HP system could boot from a PC emulating an HPIB drive, removing ageing disk / tape drives from the loop. Are these CS80 / AMIGO command set disks compatible with 80 series machines? Joe: I have been trying to get hold of you - How have you got on with the early version of the HPIB drive reader software that I sent you? - does it catalog your drives OK? I still need to get the postage cost on the 3 HP-UX manuals I won from you on ebay so that I can close out that transaction. Let me know and I will send you a cheque. Cheers Peter Brown _________________________________________________________________ Find a cheaper internet access deal - choose one to suit you. http://www.msn.co.uk/internetaccess

20 years, 10 months

Central Point Option Board

by classic＠elektro.cmhnet.org

Does anyone remember if the Central Point Deluxe Option Board can copy 1.4 MB 3.5" floppy disks? I had one of these boards and gave it to a friend last year. If it will handle 1.4 MB diskettes, I can probably get it back and install it on some sort of old 386 motherboard system. You wouldn't believe the old junk burried in my back bedroom! Or, given this list ... maybe you would believe it. When I say old junk, it includes stuff like some IBM 2321 Data Cell strips and other things of that vintage. :-) - Charlie Charlie Smith charlie(a)elektro.cmhnet.org 614-271-1418 http://elektro.cmhnet.org/~charlie/ Columbus Ohio USA SMS: charlie.sms(a)elektro.com

20 years, 10 months

DOS/Windows for Wang Professional Computer (not a PC clone)?

by drido＠optushome.com.au

Recently I picked up a Wang Professional Computer. Can't find a model number on it anywhere. It 8086 based, 256KB RAM, 360KB FDD, 10MB HDD. It runs MS-DOS 2.11, but it is not PC compatible. A long time before I got this machine I found some software for it. A box of original disks all marked "Wang Professional Computer". It includes 2 versions of the integrated word processor, MS Chart, DOS3.2 and Windows 1.03. Both versions of the word processor run, ms chart bombs saying I have the wrong graphics card. Neither DOS 3.2 nor Windows 1.03 will install. DOS 3.2 just hangs the machine, Windows 1.03 bombs with an interrupt error. The disks seem to read okay. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong or have working copies? I vaugely remember seeing pictures of this machine in the Windows launch issue of Byte. Though it would be cool to have windows running on something other than a PC clone. I think I've even got a copy Balance of Power for Win 1.x around here somewhere.

20 years, 10 months

Mac Net dummy Q's

by cb＠mythtech.net

> Desktop > +- Apple > +- Control Panel > +- Sharing Setup > ('Start' was selected, reboot) No need to reboot after starting File Sharing, and in fact, rebooting can cause the file sharing to be turned back off. So first step, go back into the Sharing Setup control panel, and make sure the Start button says "Stop" (if it says "Start" then click it again, and wait for file sharing to startup, the button will change to Stop when it is up and running) >Now, where is the remote drive >supposed to show up on the local system? In the remote computer's Chooser, under AppleShare. If you don't see the server there, make sure both computers' AppleTalk control panel is set to use the Printer Port, and that AppleTalk is turned on (and make sure the serial TeleNet connectors are plugged into the Printer port and not the Modem port). Also, on the TeleNet connectors, make sure there is a terminator in the unused phone jack on each. I don't remember if the ones I gave you have termination switches on the side, if they do, just make sure it is set to ON (if it is, then you don't need a terminator in the 2nd jack... I know either they have they switches or I gave you terminators... I don't think I would have been brain dead enough to give you them without a way to terminate them) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 10 months

Cassette Media revisited

by cb＠mythtech.net

Well... audio tapes don't work as a substitute for a D/CAS cassette. At least not with my TEAC drive. First attempt, drive takes the tape, but starts blinking the access light as soon as the drive is locked, never tries to do anything with it, software says "No Media". After a quick 2nd look at the transport, I see a small finger sensor looking for that notch. 30 seconds later with my pocket knife, my audio tape has the notch. 2nd attempt, drive sees the tape, software reports "Busy" as the drive spins the tape to the end, clacks to the end and tries to spin some more, then gives up, rewinds a bit and stops. Software reports "Hardware Error". My guess is, it is looking for some kind of end of tape marker. I tried both clear leader and leaderless tape, neither worked. I also tried a higher grade tape (Type II, 630 oersteds or whatever that word is). I don't know if the end of tape is a specific magnetic marker like a format, or what. Winding the tape to the end in a tape deck and putting back in the drive causes it to rewind the whole tape until it clacks at the end again. So it is definitly trying to rewind to the start of the tape and is simply never seeing that it is at the end. It is possible that the drive is broken, but since it is seen by Retrospect on the Mac, and gives status updates as it goes, and the transport does its thing... I tend to think the drive is fine and I just can't use an audio tape. So... does anyone know a supplier of these tapes? I haven't been able to turn up anyone that actually sells them anymore. A few people on this list offered to try to locate a spare tape for me for testing... but I'm not going to ask anyone to go thru that effort if I can't get a regular supply of tapes anyway. The drive is a TEAC MT-2ST/N50. The following appear to be compatible tapes: MaynStream 20; Teac CT500 D/CAS; Verbatim ST500; Teac CT-600H; Verbatim ST600; Maxell CS-600HD; MaynStream 60; Teac CT-600N; Maxell CS-600XD; Verbatim ST600XD; MaynStream 150. All in all, it probably isn't worth much more effort. Its only a 150 MB drive anyway. So for normal use, there isn't much I can do with it (at least not when I deal with the cost ratio of Zip disks or CD-R's). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 10 months

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test-drb May 2003