test-drb June 2003

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

275 participants
520 discussions

by wrawbee＠hotmail.com

The best way to replace the buttons on a CFX-200 is to buy a used CD-401. This is an earlier metal databank watch that uses the exact same case, buttons and band as the CFX-200. The buttons are easily transferrable. You can buy a CD-401 relatively inexepensively through Ebay. I recently purchased one for $24.00 (US). You cannot order these parts. When lookin for one, the key words should be Casio and "calculator" or "data bank." _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

21 years, 5 months

Substitute for DEC SS/QD Floppies

by geoffr＠zipcon.net

At 10:01 PM 6/11/03 -0500, you wrote: >On 10 Jun 2003, Barry Skidmore wrote: > > > I am looking for blank disks to use in a DEC RX50 drive. I have seen > > posted several places that DD disks can be used, but so far my attempts > > to initialize Verbatim DS/DD disks under RT-11 have failed: > > > > "?DUP-F-Size function failed" > >You can't format RX50's with any Dec PDP-11 hardware. You probably can >with a VAXstation 2000, or using a PC and the proper software - there's >instructions for doing it under Linux with a 1.2MB floppy drive and DSDD >disks on the web. If you want to I can probably find them. Get yourself a Dec-Rainbow to format them :) or the Pro380 IIRC will format RX-50's :)

21 years, 5 months

honeywell manuals

by Fritz_Chwolka＠t-online.de

Hi.. I got some documents about honewell GCOS6 and other. The computers were used in the 8ths in an powerstation for collecting informations for the management. I don't know what models were used. Untill I own no hardware from honewll I'll scan the documents and put them onto. After scanning they go into the dumpster as I have no place left. http://oldcomputers.dyndns.org/public/pub/rechner/honeywell/manuals/ Greetings from Fritz Chwolka <collecting old computers just for fun> > www.alterechner.de <

21 years, 5 months

Acorn (Was Re: Reading PDP-8 paper tapes)

by gtoal＠gtoal.com

> I have a couple of Acorn Systems (one 6502, the other 6809-based). I am > always looking for any of the more unusual I/O cards for them.... OK, refresh my memory here... what Acorn 6809 system would that be? I was only aware of two - one by Brian Jones which was a large hand- made breadboarded circuit he did as an experiment, and which ran FLEX, and one that I made which was a BBC second processor - *both* of which I have here at home. I don't remember Acorn making any production 6809 systems??? I have the original circuit diagram on tracing paper that Brian drew. My own was so simple (5 packages as I recall) that I didn't bother drawing a diagram :-) [I just worked from an ascii wiring list] I did two versions - the first was CPU TUBE ls139? (some single ttl chip for address decoding the tube) 2*32K 'greenwich instruments' battery-backed static rams I pre-loaded the static ram on a beeb with the boot code, so didn't need an eprom at all! the second was CPU TUBE Eprom 64K dynamic ram SIL (first SIL I ever saw!) Custom dynamic memory controller IC I was working on VLSI design tools at the time, and I designed the memory controller chip as my test piece. It was a PLA and a counter for ram refresh, not much else. [I found a 'work in progress' kernel source for my 6809 2nd proc earlier this year - written in Skimp, which was a compiler I had written myself as a University project; the compiler itself was written in the Edinburgh language Imp77 - Acorn actually had commissioned Imp77 compilers for both the 32016 and the ARM - and we recently found the full sources of the 3L ARM Imp (and Pascal) compilers at Edinburgh as part of our Edinburgh Computer History Project research!] It would have been a tremendously cheap second processor to build but Roger was quite set against the 6809 on the sole argument of clock speed. My argument was that it was a nicer processor and would have more high-level software than the 6502. Probably was true at the time although the 6502 did eventually get a whole slew of high level languages that I never would have thought possible. (I shared a house with the guy who worked on the Pascal compiler who I would occasionally give gratuitous advice to, and I also learned C while doing SQA of the C compiler) (quickly checks the web...) Well! http://www.stairwaytohell.com/atom/adverts/FLYER_Acorn_6809.png Never seen it in my life. It must have come and gone before I joined Acorn (I forget the year but it was post Beeb but pre-Electron) Other obscure Acorn kit that I have: the "Prophet" - a version of the Atom targetted at businesses. Never seen a single mention of it on the net. I have the Z80 second processor, various ARMs, I think a 286, a few 32016's - and a working ACW although it was having Beeb-side problems last time I tried it. Some day I'll photograph my acorn goodies and let you know what's available. Any cards I can put in a padded envelope and mail to anyone are fair game; the larger systems like the System 4 filestore and the ACW I'll be hanging on to. The atoms and electrons I could be persuaded to part with though they're easy to find anyway and I doubt you'd want mine. If anyone in the US has an Amercian Beeb (110V and NTSC) I'll be all over them to trade :-) - it would be a real boon for recovering the data from my boxes of 5.25" disks... Another project I did at Acorn was design a system for backing up hard discs to video tape. It used the teletext video chips (SA5050? - one of those SA chips anyway) to generate/decode a video signal. The actual board design was done by a new engineer who had been hired (Martin Gilbert) and was being broken in gently before being given any serious work. Hugo (file-system author) did the software. I believe the prototype actually worked but like most of my stuff at acorn it never made it to market :-/ Despite not contributing greatly to the financial success of Acorn, I have to say however that good times were had by all... it was definitely the best place I ever worked. G PS My main 'beeb' project before I transferred to VLSI CAD was the Teletext adapter. I found the source code recently if anyone wants it. I can't see Acorn giving me a hard time over releasing it after all these years...

21 years, 5 months

Reading PDP-8 paper tapes

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

A long-time acquaintance of mine (Graham Toal, whom some of you may know) has access to a collection of PDP-8 paper tape which wants reading. Unfortunately some of it is in the care of the Royal Musuem in Edinburgh, who won't let it out of their sight. Does anyone -- preferably in the UK -- have a paper tape reader that could be hooked up to a modern machine (eg a laptop) to read the tapes in the museum, and which they'd be willing to lend? To see what Graham and friends are doing, take a look at http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/ It's worth a look even if you're not interested in Edinburgh. I know Graham reads the list, so replies here or to me are fine. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 5 months

Modifying a B&W TV for composite video input

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I have read a lot about the SWTPC TV Typewriter, and I am interested in how people modified a black and white TV for a video monitor. I have an old black and white set that I thought would be fun to modify for use as a video monitor. Now, granted, I don't really need another composite monitor, I have plenty of old Apple monitors that will do the same thing, I just thought it would be fun, since it would be a challenge to find where to input the signal and how to do it. I found the PDF of part of the SWTPC TV Typewriter manual on a web site, and it explains the process, although not in great detail, and references a circuit diagram of what needed to be added, but the diagram is nowhere to be found. Does anyone have any instructions or hints that they may be able to give me? Has anyone done this before? Any advice would be appreciated. Ian Primus ian_primus(a)yahoo.com

21 years, 5 months

Fwd: [oclug] computer gear garage sale

by kenziem＠sympatico.ca

Someone local is cleaning out their garage. He's selling off a rather large collection of computer software and hardware. The sale started Saturday 28th, and is continuing through to late Tuesday for the long weekend. Contact and location details are available at each of the following URLs: http://www.bjgiles.ca/software_list.htm http://www.bjgiles.ca/hardware_list.htm I can act as a go between if needed.

21 years, 5 months

new finds :-)

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 17:53:29, Joe <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> wrote: > Visted one of my favorite scrounging places today and found a Otrona > Attache and a Soroc Terminal (1802 CPU :-) :-) Also got two shugart 851 8" > floppy drives, an IC Master (1988) a stack of DRI CPM manuals, a DEC PDP-8 > handbook and a notebook full of Mostek computer board manuals. Oh and an > AIM-65 User's Guide. Are you sure about the Soroc having an 1802? Which model of Soroc? I thought Sorocs used z80s. The one sitting next to me here (an IQ-135) definitely has a z80. It does have a 1602 UART though... Speaking of which, how many Sorocs are still out there? Were they as common in the rest of the world as they seemed in my corner of it? I hardly ever hear of them anymore, even on e-bay. Bill.

21 years, 5 months

Fwd: old hardware help requested

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I don't quite understand what copyright (as opposed to patent law) has to do with his case, but I thought I'd forward this inquiry... - John >From: "Advanced Approach" <info(a)advanced-app.com.hk> >To: <jfoust(a)threedee.com> >Subject: old hardware help requested >Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 10:51:42 +0800 > >Dear Mr. Foust: > >I am an American living (temporarily) in Hong Kong, I am in a jam here, and >you might be able to help. I would appreciate a couple of minutes of your >time ? just enough time to read this. You may be able to tell me what I >need to know immediately. > >I am a defendant in a lawsuit here. In the lawsuit against us, the >Plaintiffs claim that in the early 1990?s they were the first in the world >to recess a rocker switch. (Actually, they do not use those exact words; >rather, they claim they own the copyright on a recessed rocker switch. For >them to own the copyright, they would have to be the first people in the >world to put out a product with a recessed switch.) > >Of course, their claim is ridiculous, but in court, we have to PROVE it is >ridiculous -- otherwise, the court will probably accept their claim. To >disprove their claim, we simply need to find a product with a recessed >rocker switch that was on the market before 1990. (And of course, we need >to prove that it was on the market before 1990.) > >Friends have told me that recessed rocker switches were common on early >computers, printers, and mainframe terminals. > >Copyright here is all about outlook. Here are two examples of recessed >rockers switches with the outlook that we need: > >The first example: >http://www.auctionshoppingbot.com/misc/Recessed_Rocker_Switch.html > >The above is from a Canon copy machine. > >This example shows well all five key elements that we need: >1) The rocker switch is mounted on a flat surface, >2) The rocker switch is recessed beneath the surface, >3) There is flat surface all around the recess, >4) There is nothing else in the recess with the switch, and >5) The area of the recess is bigger than the area of the switch but not >excessively so. > >This would be prefect, except the copy machine is only a couple of years >old ? too new to prove that recessed rocker switches were on the market >before 1990. (I have contacted Canon, but as a company, it seems they are >only interested in selling new machines.) > >The molded on/off symbols and the indicator light are not important. We are >looking for an example product with or without the molded on/off symbols and >the indicator light ? either is fine. For the switch rocker itself, color >does not matter ? even clear plastic with illumination inside is OK. > >The second example: >http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=115 >http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos.asp?t=1&c=115&st=1 > >DEC 300 series computer from 1979. (On the second link, click on the "close >up".) This is good, and we might use this. It would be perfect, except the >Digital logo is right next to the switch (so this example does not meet key >element #3). So for our purpose, this is only half good. > >If you know of any product from 1990 or before that had a recessed rocker >switch that meets all five key elements, please let me know. As you and >others you know are knowledgeable about old hardware, any information you >could provide would be greatly appreciated. > >I hope to hear from you. > >Thanks, > >Rick Graves >Personal Rick_Graves(a)CompuServe.com > >Advanced Approach Ltd. >1907 Westley Square, 48 Hoi Yuen Road >Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong >Tel: +852 2372-0197 Fax: +852 2342-7197 >e-mail: info(a)advanced-app.com.hk

21 years, 5 months

Info needed on Sun SCSI/Ethernet sbus card plus sun sparc2 FS

by jmd5＠earthlink.net

i recently came across 2 X1054A SCSI/Ethenet Sbus cards. I am having trouble finding info about the Ethernet connector. This is not a standard port configuration. Its quite small (measuring 1/2 wide by 1/4 inch tall) and its *D* in shape. Female. are there adapters? adapter cables? I have 2 of these and only need one at present. If anyone is interested in the other card its free. Just pay shipping. If I cannot use this, then both are free for shipping. i also have a sun sparcstation 2 with 425M hd (w/sled), some memory sticks (one stick is bad for sure) with a dual sbus video card (cg6?), floppy drive. the NVRAM is bad. i think i have a sun keyboard too. ss2 for $5 and keyboard is $10. plus shipping. this is *as is* no guarantees. located in glendale california jeff duncan

21 years, 5 months

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test-drb June 2003