Hello all,
I have a question or 2 to ask on the HP9826. I am now the proud owner of
the labs old system.
Now I have several issues to resolve. The first is the reason I have and
the lab does not. The
display is out of focus and not too bright. I have tried to adjust using
the pots inside labeled focus
brightness. It helped alittle but not much. Any ideas?
Also its no fun without an OS. Now we have BASIC Ver 5.12 at the
lab. Unfortunately its on
3 1/2 inch diskettes and the HP9826 has a 5 1/4 diskette drive. Hence
short of using a mallet
that won't help. So is there a method of using a PC to make 5 1/4s for it
since I do have the
3 1/2s?
Thanks
Max
Hi folks,
Anyone have any troubleshooting expertise on these things? Got one of my
spares out for sale and typically the bloody thing is pretty dead. I say
*pretty* dead 'cos I get the cart intro screen on power up, but with the
computer module attached I get nothing. I've left it powered up for 15
minutes in case it's a warm up problem but that makes matters worse :)
According to the service manual I have to replace either the RAM or CPU in
that order, but since spares for those will come from working intellivisions
I don't want to do that! Also, off the top of my head I can't think of any
other videogames that use the General Instruments GI1610 CPU, assuming it's
that that's croaked. The RAM is a GI-specific chip too. Spares, anyone?
TIA :)
--
Adrian/Witchy
Owner & Webmaster, Binary Dinosaurs
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - possibly the UK's biggest online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - ex-monthly gothic shenanigans :o(
Just out of curiousity, does anyone still have a working drum storage
device? wondering if any working examples have survived...
I have a half-assed plan to try and find one from somewhere at some
point. We have a Sperry unit that's way beyond repair, and don't have
anything other than the drum assembly itself anyway (the bearings still
seem good though so I might see if it can be coaxed into spinning) - but
a working demonstration would be great hooked up to one of the 1960's
machines.
I gather that telphone exchanges used to use them here in the UK so
maybe there are still a few lurking in private hands as they must have
been reasonably common at one point. The flipside of course being that
they're pretty bulky devices in themselves, and with the low reliability
they've maybe all gone to scrap years ago (unlike other peripherals of
the area which survived).
cheers
Jules
der Mouse <mouse(a)rodents.montreal.qc.ca> wrote:
> Possibly - or perhaps a KA620 is one example of an rtVAX, much as a
> KA630 is an example of a VAX.
You are right of course conceptually. But I'm pretty sure now that KA620 was
the only implementation of the rtVAX architecture.
> My VARM is "Revision 6.1" and is not obviously marked with an edition
> number.
1982-05-20, right? I have that one too, it's my first VARM, one of Tim Shoppa's
early gifts to Quasijarus Project. The early VARMs, the EK-VAXAR-RM ones, are
lovely: 100% pure ASCII, except for boldface section headers the book is line
printer output. From the appearance seems to be very close to the DEC internal
VAX spec, DEC STD 032 (though not having a copy of the latter it's an educated
guess). But then they stopped issuing VARMs in that format, and published it as
a book (with ISBN and all, rather than an EK part #). The book version of VARM
had two editions: 1st ed. in 1987 by Tim Leonard (listed as the keeper of the
DEC internal VAX spec in an appendix to another highly secretive DEC internal
spec I have) and 2nd ed. in 1991 by Richard Brunner (wonder what happened to
Tim...). I have acquired both of these books recently. Not having a copy of
the genuine article (the DEC internal STD 032 spec) I have to live with the
published versions instead, so I was trying to acquire as many of them as
possible to complete my mental picture of the complete architecture spec and its
variations. (I'm designing a new VAX CPU chip, so I have to have a very solid
picture of the spec requirements and options and their evolution.)
Would anyone perchance have a copy of the real VAX spec, DEC STD 032 aka
EL-00032-00 aka A-DS-EL00032-00-0?
> I don't recall seeing an rtVAX mentioned in it, and the index
> does not list anything beginning with rt-.
Yeah, of course the 1982-05-20 VARM predates it by a few years.
Brian Chase <vaxzilla(a)jarai.org> wrote:
> The 2nd Ed VARM has a section on rtVAX memory management, 11.2.3 on pgs
> 422-424. I don't yet see any other mentions of it the book to indicate
> whether it actually is designated as the KA620.
Table 8-2 on pp. 331-332 lists the SID code assignments, and 16 decimal is
listed as "rt/uVAX (chip 78R32)". Knowing that 78032 is the MicroVAX II chip,
used in KA630, KA410 (MV/VS2000), and a bunch of other less-known systems (see
the SYS_TYPE codes the same table lists for SID 08), it's pretty obvious that
the rtVAX 1000 listed by the table as being based on this 78R32 is the KA620.
Since the MMU is internal to the CPU chip, the difference between KA630 and
KA620 is in the silicon (78032 vs. 78R32) rather than board-level.
MS
I'm 75 miles away in St. Joseph, MO, but no wheels until next Wednesday,
and will have through Sunday. Nothing worse than to have to rent a car to
find another car to buy.
Gary Hildebrand
> The Teletype in question is actually on the outskirts of Topeka, Ks.
>
> If there are any list members there who could possibly assist in packaging
> it would be greatly appreciated (and a reasonable fee paid)
>
> The shipper is NOT a collector, rather if a person who "inherited" the TTY
> and is basicly clueless [although very nice].
>
> David.
>
>
I have a nearly complete KSR-33 that I'd like to find a good home
for. It is literally a basket case - it's in quite a few separate
pieces but all there as far as I can tell except for the
cover/housing, and possibly a few small springs. Motor is good. I
also have a papertape reader assembly but no punch (you'd need an
ASR baseplate to make it into an ASR-33).
Make me an offer. I'm in West Plains, MO 65775 so you can figure
shipping.
-Charles
Hi
Although, one may have some success by shipping in
a cardboard box only ( mine was trashed ), it should
be bolted to at least a piece of plywood. If this
is put into a box, proper strain relief should be done
where plywood edge meets the box. This is so that the
plywood doesn't just poke through the box.
These units are too heavy to be in a cardboard box
alone.
Dwight
Does anyone have any suggestions about debugging a TU58?
This is a dual TU58 from a vax 730. The symptom is that when I try to
boot from it the tape rewinds a bunch of times and then reads off the
end of the tape.
I removed it and poked all around with a scope and the schematics. The
motor control is fine as well as the tachometer. The read channel shows
no activity, even when I put a tape in and move the tape. The micro
seems happy.
I connected it to "tu58ctl" and I can talk to it and send/receive
commands. But when I try to position the tape I get a "motor stopped"
error.
I'm begining to wonder if the 3 TU58 carts I have have been bulk erased.
I have no "known goods" and I've never read these tapes. I made the
assumption they were good but that might be a mistake.
(wish I had those mythical proms which can write carts :-)
I put a scope on the signal from the read heads and I see nothing when
the tape spins by. I find that very odd. I would think I'd see pulses
even if the blocks where all zeros... So nothing makes me think the
tapes have been bulk erased.
Is there any way I can test the read channel without having a good tape?
(I assume not, but I know very little about tape drives, perhaps there
is some 'technique').
I know the tapes are useless if they have be bulk erased - but will the
symptom be no read channel activity? (I assume so).
blah. if I've wasted all this time on bulk erased tapes %$#%@#@!#$
-brad
I've found an old RadioShack package with an MK5017BB Clock/Calendar chip.
Unfortunately, the datasheet which was once stapled to the back of the
card is missing. Google doesn't have much on it. One interesting reference
is at www.datamath.org/Mostek_IC.htm where the part number is listed in a
series of calculator chips (it lists the MK5017 as having been in the
Corvus 305 calculator, with square root, 1/x and a clock/calendar).
I also found this picture on the die itself...
http://www.mindspring.com/~mary.hall/mosteklives/photos/mostek_mickey.jpg
But no specs.
Does anyone have info on this thing?
Thanks,
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 31-Mar-2004 07:31 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -78.4 F (-61.3 C) Windchill -117.4 F (-83 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 8.5 kts Grid 018 Barometer 675.5 mb (10796. ft)
Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
