Check to see if the armature for the selector magnet is vibrating or
"buzzing". If it is, there are 2 computer grade caps in the call control unit that
have to be changed. Very common problem on 33's.
>From: "Randy McLaughlin" <cctech at randy482.com>
>
>
>A friend of mine was a weapons office on a USN sub, one day we were talking
>about terrorists making a bomb. He started by saying the technology is
>above their heads. My response was get a bucket and put enough fissionable
>material in it and boom.
Hi
It is a little more complicated than that. You method would just make
a big pile of hot radioactive mess. No boom. If you put it in something
that would also evaporate, you could make a mess like Chernobel (sp?).
To make a bomb, you have to quickly cause a large number of neutrons
with the right energy level. You also have to contain it long eneough
for things to multiply before it pushes it self apart.
Making a small bomb is beyond most anyones capabilities. Making
a really large one is not as hard.
Dwight
>
>He said it wouldn't be efficient and you wouldn't no when it would blow, I
>said who cares if you have a nuclear explosion in a major city that's
>terrorism.
>
>
>Randy
>www.s100-manuals.com
>
>
>
Haven't got a lot of money to drop on classic computer goodness, but I
do brew a varied and drinkable selection of beers.
OK - here are some things I'm trying to get hold of.
Cable to go between two RL02 drives
Serial printer, ideally a DECWriter of some sort ('cos it's to go on my
PDP11)
VAXStation SCSI cable (with the funny half-pitch pins)
Some kind of CP/M box, with a reasonably well-documented disk controller
and console (can be internal, or an external serial terminal - I'm not
bothered).
Will swap for beer or toys, can collect.
Gordon.
grabbed a quick pic of the PR1ME 750 after we'd cleaned it all up:
http://www.patooie.com/temp/prime750.jpg
... nothing quite like orange / brown / cream for a colour scheme!
We've got a few spare PSUs (visible in the bottom-left of the image),
plus a couple of spare CPU crates (to the right of the machine) with
assorted boards intact.
I'm waiting on the key for the rear doors to arrive in the mail before
we can actually get inside (the cardcage is mounted backwards, so the
boards are accessible from the rear).
Some docs and a console terminal should be following on at a later date.
Unfortunately the OS drive has long gone. These things use SMD drvies
(and we have a few spare SMD disks kicking around) so that's not too
much of a problem, but OS install media is possibly going to be tricky.
Still, having a "VAX killer" to go alongside some of our other big
machines is a Good Thing, even if booting it isn't possible right now...
cheers
Jules
As promised - here's the list of all *loose* S100 boards we got. There
are more inside the Northstars and the Minstrel S100 machines of course,
so more yet to come :-)
(We've looked inside the Northstars though and there's nothing *that*
fancy inside - some are empty, others have just typical CPU / RAM /
Floppy boards inside. One has a floating-point board from memory)
CPU
-----
4 x Cromenco ZPU
Ithaca IA1010 Z80 CPU Board
NorthStar ZPB Z80 CPU Board
HiTech SPAM Z80 CPU Board
Morrow MPZ80 Z80 CPU Board
JC Systems MCM80 Z80 CPU Board
Polymorphic CPU 8080 CPU
Video
-------
Microdiversions Inc. Microangelo (5 board set)
7 x Microdiversions Inc. ScreenSplitter
3 sets - Vector Graphics 8K High-Res Graphics (2 board set)
Memory (RAM / ROM)
---------------------------
3 x Measurement Systems & Control Inc. DMB6400 RAM Board
2 x Integrated Micro Products T256 256K RAM Board
3 x NorthStar 32K DRAM 32K Dynamic RAM Boards
4 x Industrial Micro Systems 8K Static RAM
2 x Godbout RAM20 64K Static RAM Boards
Ithaca 2708/2716 Board
7 x CDC 64K RAM boards (variously populated)
Godbout Econoram 2A 8K? RAM Board
9 x NorthStar RAM32A 32K RAM Board
Transam ME3 EPROM Interface Board
3 x Comart CRAM64 64K RAM Board
2 x Cromenco 64KZ 64K RAM Board
2 x Heathkit H8 8K RAM Board
Compupro Econoram X3A 32K RAM Board
3 x NorthStar RAM16 16K RAM Board
3 x ThinkerToys SuperRAM 16 16K RAM Board
2 x Godbout Econoram 2 RAM Board
H-TE SAM64K 64K DRAM Board
Godbout RAMXX 64K RAM Board
NorthStar HRAM6 64K RAM Board
SSM CyberRAM EPROM Interface Board
Cromenco 16KPR EEPROM Interface Board
Cromenco 8K BiteSaver 2 8K ROM Board
Disk controllers
--------------------
12 sets - Xcomp SA1000/ST506 (ST506 Interface, 2 board set)
Data Technology Corp. DTC10-1 SASI Controller
4 x NorthStar MDSAD3 Micro Disk Controller
3 x H-TE HTE-DC Disk Controller
Morrow Winchester Controller (SMD)
2 x Microcomplex PhaseLock 2 Disk Controller
3 x Cromenco 4FDC Disk Controller
Compupro Disk 1 Disk Controller
5 x Xcomp 1785-02 Single board of SA1000/ST506 Interface
2 x Xcomp 1790-03 Single board of SA1000/ST506 Interface
4 x Interam Disk Controller
JC Systems SASI / Floppy SASI / Floppy Controller
Tarbell Electronics MD2022 Floppy Disk Controller
Serial controllers
---------------------
Morrow MULT/IO Multiple I/O Interface
NorthStar HSIO-4 4 Port Serial Card
6 x HiTech PAM (Serial Interface?)
CityUni 4SRLIO Serial Interface
3 x Cromenco TUART Serial Interface
2 x Compupro Interfacer 2 Channel Serial Board
Misc
-----
DRC/BEC S100 SFX Generator
4 x Morrow Wunderbuss BackPlane
IO Reseach Limited Pluto/S100 Interface
Bob Mullen TV4 S100 Extender with On-Board Logic Analyser
SSM 2708/2716 Programmer
Godbout CP1 Active Terminator
2 x Cromenco D+7A IO (A/D Conversion?)
> grabbed a quick pic of the PR1ME 750 after we'd cleaned it all up:
>
> http://www.patooie.com/temp/prime750.jpg
>
> ... nothing quite like orange / brown / cream for a colour scheme!
I think this is the generation of PR1ME I worked on. It was a long time
ago, in Framingham, MA. I was a Quality Engineer checking ECO work,
reflow and component swaps for solder quality, revision levels and
correctness.
Anyone able to tell me anything about this critter? Googles doesn't turn
up much.
It's something of a monster; a palette board plus three other S100
boards on a common bit of IDC cable, plus yet another S100 card with a
Z80 on board (google suggests that this is just for controlling the
graphics system, independant of the actual host system's CPU)
I hate to think how expensive that all was when new. Anyone have docs /
software / specs for the setup though?
(we've now got a list of all the stray S100 boards we picked up the
other week, plus an inventory of what's in all of those 19 Horizons that
we got - soon as it lands in my inbox I'll post it to the list...)
cheers
Jules
>From: Marvin Johnston <marvin at rain.org>
>Subject: Vintage Computer Web Site
>
>
>It has some good information *and* photos of quite a few machines. The
>concept seems to be that people register and make public information
>about their machines. I had listed a bubble memory module (FBM43CA) on
>VCM with no knowledge of what it went to. The information on Norm's
>website at http://gallery.owt.com/~anheier/index.src told me that it
>goes to Fujitsu's first micro, an M-8. I *think* we have a nice find
>there!
>
>
>------------------------------
Speaking of bubble memory I have and use two BPK72
(intel 1MB BM evaluation module) for a few of my
homebrew systems. 128kb is enough to be useful.
Allison
Today at a local municipal auction I got an exciting new find:
An H-P Apollo Series 735 Workstation.
I blew it, in part, because all I got was the main system, an external
SCSI drive array (six differential SCSI drives in an HP box, with
wide-diff cable) and the external CDROM. Somebody else got the big
monitor (the main system has three BNC out video) and I never saw the
keyboard, but it was probably there. I only spied the system in the
mess of PC clones being sold as it came up for bid so I had to buy it in
a group with six other Intel boxes for $5. Shortly thereafter, and
before I noticed it, the monitor for it (marked HP, row of BNC
connectors on back, etc.) went for $1 to somebody else. SERIOUS
headslapping incident. The part that really bugs me is it likely went
to someone seeing 'big screen' and expecting a VGA connector on back.
The system has a single narrow SCSI drive inside, about half the memory
slots are populated. It looks like it was connected to the external
CDROM drive (a matching HP case drive that I *happened* to get in an
additional box lot) on the narrow SCSI connector, and the wide
differential SCSI cable was still attached to the big box that has six
additional drives in it.
I have a few questions for anybody on the list who has more experience
with Apollo workstations:
Will I be able to use this system over a serial console? I'm hoping it
will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
probably won't get past a login prompt. This is the main way I use my
Sun boxes (serial console). Will it just sense the lack of a keyboard
and bring up serial port A?
What OS did a system of this vintage run? By looking at chip markings,
etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't more 'on the ball' with this
system. I know I saw the video cable (triple BNC) go away to somebody
else in another box they got really cheap, I saw the monitor there and
know it went for a dollar, and judging by the completeness of parts of
the system that I saw in boxes and the parts that I (thankfully) got, I
am fairly certain there was probably an HP keyboard in the mess, too.
I could have gotten a complete system here, and now I'm going to have to
settle for serial console for the time being, if that's even possible.
Anyhow, it's a cool 'tall narrow' tower system to add to my collection
and it's beautifully high quality construction. I just wish I had it
all.
-Scott
