test-drb December 2004

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

243 participants
530 discussions

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/7/2004 9:49:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, sethm(a)loomcom.com writes: Well here's a fine mess I've gotten myself into... I need to ship a MicroVAX 3800 (BA213 case, about 110 pounds, give or take) to Pennsylvania. Granted, it's no 11/780, but it's certainly bigger than I've ever shipped before. Does anyone have any suggestions about the cheapest way to do this? (Hopefully one that will also ensure that the beast gets there in one piece, of course!) For reference, dimensions on a BA213 are approx. 14" by 20" by 26". -Seth ----------++ If you have access to the shipping department of where you work, that's a big help. I do, and there's all kinds of pallets and packing options to choose from. One idea is to find a smaller size pallet than the standard 40x48 and use plastic or metal bands to secure it to the pallet and then plastic wrap and send it. Old server boxes and crates are great for reuse here. All you'd have to do then is carry to a DHL station or similar and do the paperwork. It's easier that what most people think.

20 years, 7 months

PDP-11/45

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

At long last I've decided I've gotten enough HP systems restored, so I'm turning my attention to one of my other systems that's been rescued but not restored - a PDP-11/45. Yes, I'm going over to the dark side ;) I've scrounged the web looking for sites where a /45 has been restored for tidbits, advice, etc. and found Guy's site to be a good intro on the refurbish process and what to expect. It would appear my /45 is extremely minimally configured, no I/O cards, and only 4k or 8k of core. It's in pretty sorry shape I must say, but definitely restorable at least from a cosmetic standpoint - we'll see about the functioning side of things. I wanted to ask if anyone would care to share any gotcha's that may not be obvious, specifically with regards to initial cleanup, inspection, and testing. I'd really like to convert the thing from core to semiconductor memory, and hopefully get an RL02 up on it. One thing specifically I wanted to ask applies to many systems not just my /45. What have most of you found to be good for working with scratches or gouges in painted metal? I'm thinking like the side panels of the H960 cabinet, etc. I'm not into painting really but was considering using an airbrush to touch up lots of scratches and perhaps blending the new paint in with the old areas. Perhaps this would come out worse? Exactly what kind of paint should I get, can I have a paint dealer reliably scan existing surfaces with their color cameras to generate the correct hue? Suggestions? Jay West --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

20 years, 7 months

pdp-11 boot rom id's? & vtserver on an 11/44

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 7 2004, 14:59, Brad Parker wrote: > > Does anyone have a 'big list' of pdp-11 boot rom id's? (should probably > be in the same place as a repository - is that being set up?) I'm happy to keep PROM images beside the ROM images (mostly QBus) that I already have; unfortunately my PROM programmer is being uncooperative at the moment (or rather, I think the PC to which it's attached is misbehaving). If anyone wishes to contribute, feel free to email me :-) The only two relevant files I have online at the moment are a list of the PROMs I know about, and the pinouts of the common types: http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECPROMs/ -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

20 years, 7 months

Removing adhesives, was Re: Reel-to-reel tape decks (was: Re: ZX81 denigrated!)

by technobug＠comcast.net

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> commented: > At 12:25 PM 12/6/2004, Roger Merchberger wrote: >>> Goo Gone comes in a plastic bottle, Goof Off is more harsh >>> and comes in a can. As did "lighter fluid", it's naptha cousin. >> >> Huh? AFAIK, lighter fluid *is* naptha -- > > Yes, but Goof Off may be naptha plus something else. > > - John For contents see <http://www.valspar.com/val/resident/msds.jsp> (for the Valspar products you need a UPC code to get the corresponding data sheet). In the US, all chemical product require a published Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) which have all the active ingredients... CRC

20 years, 7 months

Suggested power for TU-56...

by eric＠brouhaha.com

David Corbin wrote: > Looking for suggestions on supplying the DC power to a TU-56..... You need +5V at 0.8A and -15V at 0.8A, both regulated to +/- 10%. (You can optionally use +10V at 0.8A instead of +5V, with suitable wiring.) It should be easy to find a surplus triple-output power supply with +5 and +/-15V, and simply not use the -15V output. New, these cost around $70-80. It may be easier and/or less expensive to use separate 5V and 10V power supplies. For instance, Digikey has wall-wart style switchers that are suitable: T920-P5P 5.0V 2.4A $14.03 each T924-P5P 15.0V 1.0A $14.03 each Since they are isolated (as all common AC-to-DC power supplies are), you can use them as positive or negative supplies. Eric

20 years, 7 months

ZX81 denigrated! (was Re: Approaches to projects)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Nov 29 2004, 0:18, Tony Duell wrote: > Pete Turnbull wrote: > > Sounds like mine. The one I have is a replacement, but almost > > identical to the one my Dad bought in the mid-60s. It's about 115mm > > wide x 55mm thick x 200mm long; it has three DIN sockets on the > > > panel. It takes five C-size cells. It originally came with a slightly > > Yes. You could also feed in 7.5V through one of the sockets -- it was a > '240 degree' DIN socket used for external power, remote control, and > monitoring earphone. One thing I must do is make a little adapter with a > power connector and a remote control socket wired to a suitable plug. That's the one. I use that for power and remote from the Beeb. > Ah, I was wondering if it would work with a Beeb... Mine alsoe needs new > drive belts, but otherwise is still operational. I have the schematic > from the appropriate year of 'Radio and Television Servicing', although > sometimes oen was folded up inside the machine anyway. I had to replace the drive belt in mine a few years back. I got a belt >from CPC for a few pence. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

20 years, 7 months

Reseating QFP-socketed chips

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Anyone else find that QFP-socketed chips in late 80's / early 90's equipment are *really* prone to corroding and needing re-seating? I've just had to re-seat several on this NCR Tower which were the cause of all sorts of problems - yet I don't normally find that DIL chips need any re-seating on equipment of this sort of age. (I *think* QFP's the proper name - commonly used for 80186 / 80188 / 80286 chips, which have flat leads underneath the device) Anyway, I now have a working NCR machine that chucks out more heat than a small furnace and makes the lights go dim :-) (well, almost!) cheers Jules

20 years, 7 months

Reseating QFP-socketed chips

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> > > >Anyone else find that QFP-socketed chips in late 80's / early 90's >equipment are *really* prone to corroding and needing re-seating? > >I've just had to re-seat several on this NCR Tower which were the cause >of all sorts of problems - yet I don't normally find that DIL chips need >any re-seating on equipment of this sort of age. > >(I *think* QFP's the proper name - commonly used for 80186 / 80188 / >80286 chips, which have flat leads underneath the device) > >Anyway, I now have a working NCR machine that chucks out more heat than >a small furnace and makes the lights go dim :-) (well, almost!) > >cheers > >Jules > > Hi As usual, I will note here the virtues of using DC#4 silicon grease on the contacts to improve conductivity and hold off corrosion. Dwight

20 years, 7 months

Mecos device

by awatt＠grandriver.ca

Hi Lawrence, I know your post about the little electronic MECOS device you found in a box of junk is 2 years old, but do you still have it? A friend's father-in-law has such a thing that he's been wearing around his neck and swears it keeps him healthy. (We're not sure how.) It's wearing out and he wants a new one. If yours is still working, would you be willing to part with it? Alison

20 years, 7 months

ARS33 ? motor on eBay

by jpl15＠panix.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=71400&item=385749145… Teletype model 402402 dual speed - 1 day left, no bids - starts at .99 Cheers John

20 years, 7 months

class X supression caps

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

A lot of class X1 supression caps seem to be self-destructing in vintage equipment these days. I've got one in my NCR needing replacement, plus we have an HP 3000, two Apple Lisas and an Apple /// all needing them too... (they don't half smoke when they let go too :) Looking around, it seems that everywhere these days sells class X2 caps, and Y2(X1) caps. What's the modern-day replacement for a dead X1 cap? X2, Y2(X1), or something else entirely? I'm sure I've seen Y2 caps in old equipment as being a different thing to X1, which is why I'm getting confused if they're now classed as the same! (Anyone have a source for 0.68uF X1 caps in the UK? Seems to be a very uncommon value for supression caps - everyone does 0.47uF and then 1uF) ta Jules

20 years, 7 months

Intel ISPC/2 on eBay, ship or local pickup in Springfield, MO

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

This looks like a cool toy. And in my own (former) hometown, even... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5144666359&ssPageNa… eBay item 5144666359 (Ends Dec-08-04 17:27:12 PST) - Vintage Intel IPSC/2 Concurrent Computer System UMR --Bill

20 years, 7 months

Auction: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

I guess this confirms the rumor of Acclaim going belly up... I just received an auction notification for Acclaim Entertainment in Austin, Texas. I don't know if there will be any classiccmp related bits for sale, but I thought at the very least folks here would want to know about it. Inspection/Preview is Dec 13th, and the auction is on the 14th and 15th. This looks like a huge auction compared to some of the large foreclosure auctions I've been to in Texas. See http://www.flsauction.com/ and http://www.shattuck.com/ for more info. -Toth

20 years, 7 months

Making CP/M disk images

by GFisher＠tristonecapital.com

I'm trying to do the same thing with some (downloaded) Teledisk images for an Altos 580 server which has a similar 96tpi floppy with no luck (a plea for help here). My limited understanding is that these drives use double density media and that a standard 1.2 mb drives don't work too well with that (the manuals all say that writing out 360k AKA 40 track disks on a 1.2mb is a bad thing). Did you take the drive in the SB180 and put it in the Compaq, still calling it a 1.2, 360k or even a 720k 3.5? I tried that with a different (SA-465) 96tpi drive jumpered as drive 1 and it seemed to write disks with no reported problems on the Teledisk write. The Altos still didn't like the disk though but that might be a function of the original files (or something else I forgot to do). Gary F. ------Oiginal below edited for brevity.----- Message: 6 Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 19:48:18 -0500 From: "Richard A. Cini" <rcini(a)optonline.net> Subject: RE: Making CP/M disk images To: "'Dwight K. Elvey'" <dwight.elvey(a)amd.com>, "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <000801c4d288$74daad50$6501a8c0@bbrk0oksry5qza> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Dwight: Interestingly, Teledisk did skip every other track. These are DSDD disks formatted on the SB180 machine using the "40 track" option. The drive in the SB180 is a 96TPI drive (HD) and the disk on the PC side is a standard 1.2mb. I'll have to see if Teledisk has any options that may address this. As I recall, the number of configurable options was sparse, though. This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorized and may be illegal. Unless otherwise stated, opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the author and are not endorsed by the author's employer.

20 years, 7 months

RT-11 installation

by dbetz＠xlisper.mv.com

I'm finally getting around to trying to do something with my PDP-11/23 system and am having trouble creating bootable RT-11 V5 disks. I have an RX02 drive and a set of RX01 distribution disks. I've tried booting disk 1 of the RX01 distribution and that fails. Should I be able to boot an RX01 on an RX02 drive? Also, I've tried copying disks using: COPY/WAIT/OUTPUT:DY1: DY0: and then COPY/BOOT DY1:RT11FB.SYS DY1: Unfortunately, that doesn't result in a bootable disk. In fact, when I did it, it trashed the system disk in DY0 even though I removed it before and replaced it with the source disk of the copy. Does this sound like I've got a broken drive? I seem to be able to read either RX01 disks or RX02 disks in DY1 without any problem. Also, the copy I made in the first step above seems to be okay. It's just that I can't boot the disk after the second COPY/BOOT step. What dumb thing am I doing wrong? Thanks, David Betz

20 years, 7 months

test

by waltje＠pdp11.nl

test, pse ignore -- Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist Visit the VAXlab Project at http://VAXlab.pdp11.nl/ Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/ Email: waltje(a)pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Mountain View, CA, USA

20 years, 7 months

VAX 11/725

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Heinz Wolter <h.wolter(a)sympatico.ca> wrote: > I wonder if it is possible to load BSD (quasisaurus) on TU58, as I have > no 9 track take or ethernet on the system. One TU58 cassette holds 256 KB of data. The root filesystem is about 5 MB, /usr about 21 MB. You do the math. That's just the binaries, more for source. MS

20 years, 7 months

Altair switch part numbers

by rcini＠optonline.net

You know, I should learn to spell check first... I'm looking for replacement switches for the Altair front panel switches. Does anyone have these readily handy?? Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

20 years, 7 months

Suggested power for TU-56...

by dvcorbin＠optonline.net

Looking for suggestions on supplying the DC power to a TU-56.....

20 years, 7 months

Altait switch numbers

by rcini＠optonline.net

Hello, all: Does anyone have an equivalient replacement part number for the Altair front panel switches? I was goung to grab my Digi-Key catalog but I thought I'd ask here first in case someone has this data handy. Thanks. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

20 years, 7 months

VAX 11/725

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Presumably, therefore, running it from a single R80 disk is not really > practical either (at least not if you want to have the sources, or at > least enough to rebuilt the kernel, on the disk). Actually it'll fit, and you will have room for the kernel source. In fact you could even load the full userland source, but then you won't have any room left for actual work, err play. MS

20 years, 7 months

VAX 11/725

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Heinz Wolter <h.wolter(a)sympatico.ca> wrote: > 20 tapes? > not so bad if loading from a pc emulated tu56 ;) Well, the problem is that there exists no installation procedure for loading the main system (not even the miniroot, let alone full root or /usr) from TU58s. The console TU58 is only used for the standalone boot and copy programs. To put it another way, 4.3BSD, including Quasijarus, is, has always been and will always be totally open source, and as with all open source software, you are free to do all kinds of things with it that are not officially supported. BUT, you are entirely on your own in doing so. > what are other options if there is no ethernet? > slip/ppp? - once a basic system is loaded? The sl module for SLIP is not compiled into the distributed GENERIC kernel, so you can only use SLIP after you have successfully installed enough of the system to compile your own custom kernel. The same will be the case for PPP in the next release (no PPP support exists in the current QJ0c release). Also just as a clarification, Ethernet is not a supported option either for bootstrapping your first VAX. The next release will allow you to bootstrap your smaller MicroVAXen over Ethernet *from a larger VAX that has itself been bootstrapped from magtape*. In any case the first VAX at your site must always be bootstrapped from magtape. Also Ethernet bootstrap can only work on MicroVAXen, you can't bootstrap a 730 over Ethernet even if you had a larger 780 to boot from since 11/7xx and other machines in the "large VAX" category have no Ethernet boot capabilities. You really need to invest in a magtape drive. I'm sure you can buy a magtape drive + UNIBUS controller from a professional DEC dealer like Continental Computers or Keyways. If you want something smaller than a reel-to-reel drive, there is TUK50, UNIBUS TK50 controller. MS

20 years, 7 months

Vintige mice posted - Xerox Alto & Star, Hawley & Lilith

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I posted some vintage mice on ebay that I think might be of interest here. Xerox Alto Ebay sale number 5145159299 Xerox star Ebay sale number 5145167668 Hawley X063X Ebay sale number 5145309516 Lilith Ebay sale number 5145162664 also Amstrad CP/M Plus OS 3" disks Ebay sale number 7119143389 You can search under seller: Innfosale If you have questions please contact me off list at innfosale(a)aol.com Three plus days to go. Will ship worldwide. Thanks Paxton Astoria, OR

20 years, 7 months

VAX 11/725

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Brad Parker <brad(a)heeltoe.com> wrote: > I hacked the netbsd boot program so it will copy via nfs to tape or > disk. With 4.3BSD-Quasijarus1 you won't have to resort to using pieces from NetBSD to do what you've done. It will have a standalone netcopy program that will be like current copy (which copies the miniroot from magtape to disk as the first step in full bootstrap) except that it will copy from a TFTP server instead of magtape. As I wrote in my previous post, it will only be officially supported for bootstrapping your little MicroVAXen from your main big VAX which was itself bootstrapped from magtape, but if you want to step into not-officially-supported land, you'll be able to put netcopy on a TU58 and thus use it on your 730, and even use a lesser machine (even a pee sea) instead of a larger VAX for the TFTP server. But to make this work on a UNIBUS machine with DEUNA/DELUA, you'll have to write the standalone de driver yourself, I won't write it because UNIBUS VAXen are not officially netbootable. And you'll have to have access to some other VAX running UNIX (at least a guest account) to recompile netcopy with your de driver. > I ended up booting the miniroot and then using "rcp" to copy the tar files > which would normally be on the install tape into my disk (I have ra90, > which are big). You could have used rsh | tar. MS

20 years, 7 months

Logitech mouse entrails

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 6 2004, 10:31, Dwight K. Elvey wrote: > >From: "Pete Turnbull" <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > ---snip--- > > > >No, I have a spare, but I would like to fix the bust one. It turns out > >that the 2-button version, M-S34, widely used on Compaq PCs and things, > >has the same PCB (but missing one microswitch, of course), and I think > >I can acquire one of those. > > > Hi Pete > I hope you carefully checked that there wasn't a broken > wire in the cord. This is the most common cause of > failure in these units. Yes, almost the first thing I thought of. I swapped the cords with another mouse, and the fault stayed with the mouse. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

20 years, 7 months

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test-drb December 2004