test-drb October 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

264 participants
655 discussions

Yet another idea for recovering the data from Series80 tapes

by vp＠cs.drexel.edu

Background: The problem with the old HP 9162-0061 data cartridges is that the magnetic coating peels off from the (transparent) tape causing the machine to stop accessing the tape with an EOT warning. This is actually very good news because it means that the damage is localized (a few mm of tape with scrapped off magnetic coating). BTW here is a picture of a damaged tape: http://www.series80.org/Articles/DamagedTape.jpg My guess is that the magnetic coating gets scrapped off the tape during fast motion (rewind or fast forward), so presumably if you simply advance the tape over the heads at normal read speed (10 ips) the tape will survive for a single pass (there are two tracks on the tape, but since the head is not moving, I assume that you can read both tracks at the same time). Now since we have only one attempt, and we are likely to encounter errors, I do not want to have the Series 80 firmware involved in the process. I would like to simply record the info (via a PC) to a .wav file and then process that file to see if anything can be extracted. Proposal: To do this I would need to manually rewind the tape till the BOT sensor, mount it on the tape drive and advance it past the read/write head till I run out of tape (tape unspools from the supply reel). While this is going on I am recording the output of both heads via the audio in port of my PC sound card (maybe use two separate sound cards to avoid cross talk?). Data extraction rig: 1) audio connection: what kind of set-up would be required to connect the heads to the audio card. From the schematics I see that there are essentially three connections to each head: Head 0: H0, CT0, and HC Head 1: H1, CT1, and HC (HC is common to both heads) But I am not sure what these are used for. 2) running the tape at a constant 10ips. There is a circuit that uses the tachometer wheel to control the tape speed, but again I am not sure how to program (?) the tape controller IC (U1) to move the tape. (I may need to disable the BOT/EOT sensors, but that should not be a problem). I am lucky to have a 9915A as my test bed which allows far easier access to the tape drive mechanism than the HP-85 (and does not have these evil ribbon cables). Unfortunately I do not have a scope, but I can borrow one for a short period if necessary. I have a logic analyzer. ------- Another idea that just came to me as I was re-reading this email, is that I can possibly allow the read/write IC (1820-2418) to do the analog to digital conversion for me, ans simply read a stream of bits (with a time reference). Is this approach better/worse? Perhaps I can do this in parallel with the audio recording. (if the 1820-2418 is only able to sample one track at a time, I can use another 1820-2418 for the second track). Any suggestions are welcome. Best Regards **vp www.series80.org

18 years, 10 months

new Sage and Wang 2200 information online

by frustum＠pacbell.net

I've updated my Wang 2200 documents page with about 20 new manuals. http://www.thebattles.net/wang/docs.html I've updated my fledgling Sage II web page with a number of manual scans and boot disk images in IMD format. http://www.thebattles.net/sage/sage.html The manuals and IMD disk images came from David Erhart; I did the scanning. David is also working on a Sage/Stride site with ambitions much greater than my own: http://www.sageandstride.org/

18 years, 10 months

Availble for pickup PRO3xx parts

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

I have the following items for LOCAL PICKUP ONLY. No shipping. Area: framingham MA. One Pro350 mainboard with all modules and memory (no case). Two Pro380 boards one fairly complete with memory and plug in cards. One Pro350/380 PS These were working spares for back when I had a PRO380. They are free. Allison

18 years, 10 months

RL02 in Germany

by asholz＠topinform.de

A "Hello" to the European listeners to this list! I'm looking despeately for a RL02. Andreas

18 years, 10 months

PC and XCT Power Supplies

by terry＠terryking.us

At 12:00 PM 10/30/2005 -0600, you wrote: >I've traced out schecmatics for the ones in my machines. I've offered to >get the PortablePC one scanned. Do you want me to see if I can get the >others done sometime. > >-tony Tony, It's hard to believe they these aren't on the Web somewhere after all these years.. But they probably WERE on some BBS in 1995, and we don't know where... I have lots of working XT's and spare parts so I'm OK, but I'll ask around when I'm back in the States... Regards, Terry King ...On The Mediterranean in Carthage, Tunisia terry at terryking.us

18 years, 10 months

PC and XCT Power Supplies

by terry＠terryking.us

18 years, 10 months

Japanese computers

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

On Oct 28 2005, 22:32, Bob Bradlee wrote: > Everything big IBM makes has built in casters. > Leveling pads are only dropped once it is in place in the computer room. > > Some times it takes a few people to push and navigate, but even a 370/168 would > roll down the hall when the pads were lifted. Ditto for a few Amdahls and Fujitsus I've helped to move. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

18 years, 10 months

Best OS/2 1.3 or 2.1 Machine

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 10/7/2005 6:40:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: On Fri, 7 Oct 2005, Teo Zenios wrote: > I was wondering since IBM produced OS/2 did any of their machines (PS/2 > series maybe) run OS/2 better then clones or other companies machines. I OS/2 is a match made in heaven for the PS/2 computers. I've installed it on a 9595 and it was the easiest install I ever did and I didn't have to go looking for drivers either. I just recently installed warp server for ebusiness on an IBM server 330 with RAID and no problems there either. Runs fine with 64meg! I even bought the remote management card for it and got that running with an old version of netfinity for OS/2 I thankfully kept. I can remotely admin the machine if I want. I could not find a video driver for the integrated CL video card and ended up installed a PCI trident video card since I could find a driver for it. The IBM support site is totally USELESS for finding anything for older machines now. I could not find any support files for this 8640-ES2 server. For OS/2 drivers, google on OS/2 device driver pak online and you will find what you need.

18 years, 10 months

Japanese computers

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

On Oct 29 2005, 12:53, Bob Bradlee wrote: > On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 06:53:31 -0700, vrs wrote: > >From: "Bob Bradlee" <Bob at BRADLEE.ORG> > >> In the referb center we pushed them off moving vans and > > >No wonder there are so few of these machines left ;-)! > > >(I have always heard that the van should be stopped, and > >the machine lowered slowly :-).) > > Takes the fun out of it :) > > We had a 158 come in one day, we had one of those back into > the building and down a hill kind of loading docks. > While waiting for his turn, one driver began "preping to unload" > in the lot. When it came his turn he came in a bit fast and a MG > came off the back of the truck when he hit the stops hard. > This was before the dock hand could put the flat ramp in place > to cover over the "gap" between truck and dock. > I answered a cattle call to help getting it back on a smooth surface > where the casters acted as wheels and not as keyways. I helped a friend move a large machine -- a MegaNode -- which is effectively three or four cabinets bolted together. It has four casters on each section, but they're apparently furniture-grade and only meant for rolling along corridors and around a machine room. About 70% of them didn't suvive the trip across the flagstones to the truck. Fortunately we had enough people to keep it upright and rolling on the remaining casters! > There was a story where one of the other FE's dropped an MG > over the edge into an open floor section during installation. > I was assured that it was not fun to lift it back up to floor level. A friend extended his raised floor but the builder who supplied the extra panels got the wrong grade. When Jim (and friends!) rolled his IBM mainfraime in, it moved smoothly enough, but shortly after it stopped, there was a crunching noise and the machine settled about 2" down. Several of the casters had punched through the new floor panels. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

18 years, 10 months

Zenith 171

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

Re: "I saw that you got a zenith Z170, well, i've got a Zenith Z171, and i want to sell it, do you know what is the price for this kind of device?" The Zenith 170 is a generic name for the 171 ... two different names for the same computer. These show up on E-Bay fairly often, in various conditions. They don't go for very much, I'd say that $19 or so is a typical price, sometimes less, sometimes a bit more. The shipping cost will often exceed the actual selling price. Do an E-Bay search on complete auctions, although many won't list the model number (either 170 or 172) in the auction title.

18 years, 10 months

← Newer
1
...
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
...
66
Older →

Jump to page:

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb October 2005