test-drb June 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

221 participants
681 discussions

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I just received a parallel ASCII keyboard and I'm looking for pinout data on the keyboard itself. There's a 2x20 card edge connector on the right-hand side. Two power pins are identifyable on the foil side. The keyboard contains a GI AY5-2376 chip for which the datasheet was kindly supplied by various list members earlier in the week. The keyboard is manufactured by Clare-Pendar. It has the following numbers on the back "721017-K2" and "P/N SW1366". Before I start probing with a meter I wanted to poll the list first for data. Thanks in advance. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

19 years, 2 months

My classiccmp non-retirement :-)

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

Those of you following this list for the last few years know about my "giveaways". I've been getting rid of stuff that has sat in my basement or garage for a number of years without getting touched. In my hardware heyday, I would spend every moment of my free time playing with Q-bus, Unibus, or S-100 hardware. I also had my foot in the water w.r.t. PDP-11 OS releases (in some cases both feet in the water) in the late 90's and got to do a lot of fun things with very specialized classic hardware (CAT machine backprojectors hooked to PDP-11's, for example). But since I got a "steady job" in 2000 running a $10 Billion peripheral, factored in with three young kids, I didn't have the time to treat the hardware well. All of it has gone on to find good homes, and I want to thank the volunteers who helped me get rid of it. There's still a few items but they have owners allocated already :-). I still do tinker with electronics, but my attention as of late is on analog circuitry (often with microcontroller assistance) rather than older bus-based computer systems. I've also acquired a few R-390A's that I'm happy to say are on their way to being cleaned up and restored. (OK, the R-390A has a digital display on the front, but it's not digital electronics!). And I will still endeavor to take care of the PDP-10 software archives, the DECUS PDP-11 and PDP-10 collections, etc. It's been years since any software was donated to those archives so I haven't put a lot of effort into them. But it's good to know that there a are a couple of PDP-10's around the world that are now usefully "up" thanks to the archives. I've made a few attempts to break into the professional archiving world w.r.t. digital media, but so far I've been universally ignored. Of course, those who ignore me would rather just talk about the problem rather than solve it. So maybe that's why I don't register on their radar. You have seen and probably will see me rant and rave on this subject occasionally! So that's my non-retirement. I hope to keep involved and do relevant things into the future, and in the past few months I've been browsing this list more than I did in the early 2000's. Tim.

19 years, 2 months

HP50960A

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Does anyone know anything about a computer (I assume) called the HP50960A, and how it relates to the HP9817A (if it does at all)? While looking in my collection for something else, I came across one. It's a box about the size of one of the later HP hard disk units (a 9133H, for example). Inside, there's a SMPSU, a backplane (which has an 09817- part number), and a mainboard flat in the bottom of the case. The backplane has 6 of what I assume are DIO slots (as normal, every other one can take a card with a connector bracked, the intermediate ones are for memory cards). There's a row of 2 pin fuses along the top of the backplane, and what looks like some kind of voltage regulator circuitry down the edge. The mainboard connects to the backplane by a DIN41612 (96 pin) connector at the bottom. After remoing the cover, expansion cards, disconnectign the fan plug from teg backplane and removing 2 more screws, the mainboard and rear panel slide out. Onthe mainboard are an HPIB port and RS232 port The mainboard contains : 68000 CPU. 68440 (DMA controller I think), 1TL1-0004 (HPIB controller), 68681 (serial chip), 2 ROMs, 512K DRAM, a couple of PALs, TTL glue, etc. One corner of the mainboard is not populated, it looks like it could have taken an ethernet interface, with postiions for a DA15 and BNC connector. There are no memory cards in my machine, but there are 3 expansion cards: 'Human Interface HPIB'. External connectors are 24 pin Blue Ribbon for HPIB, a 3.5mm jack socket (mini phone jack) labeleld 'speaker (8$\Omega$)' and a keyboard connector which I am sure is HP-HIL. The main chips on the boardare a 9914 HPIB controller + buffers, a 1RD2-0001 HP-HIL interface, a microcontroller (8041?) a76494 sound chip (!), and TTL glue. 'Composite video 98204A'. There's an unmarked BNC on the bracket, I am sure that's the composite vidoe out. Also 2 unmarked screwdriver-set hex switches. Main chips are a 6845 CRT controller, 6116 SRAM, a couple of EPROMs, TTL glue. There's an unmarked 20 pin header inside, near the back panel. 'SRM Coaz Interface'. Afain with a BNC connector on the bracket, and an LED marked 'Transmit activity'. Clearly a network card. Stuck on (but official) labels give the select code as 21 and the node address as 00. There are labelled DIP switches on the board to set these. Main chips include a Z80A, Z80A-CTC, Z80A-SIO, 6264 SRAM, ROM, an NatSemi analogue part (from the number) which is not in the equivalents list, and which seems to link to the BNC connector, a PAL, and TTL glue Any ideas as to what it is, and if it can be made to do something interesting? -tony

19 years, 2 months

Altair Fan

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Pete Turnbull" <pete at dunnington.u-net.com> > >On Jun 17 2005, 7:47, Cini, Richard wrote: > >> Rules-of-thumb like this are great to know. The fan, I'm sure, >was >> installed (like the IMSAI) blowing IN because the inside was caked >with >> dust. So, I made it an exhaust fan (no filter). >> >> As I work on the IMSAI, which has no filter either, I will swap >it >> around, too. > >Don't do that. If it's designed to blow in, changing the direction to >blowing out will alter and probably reduce the cooling. Why? Because >turbulent air is lots better at cooling than a laminar flow, and will >reach more parts of the case. You get turbulent air from the "blow" >side of a fan, but laminar flow towards the inlet side. You may also >be directing the airflow away fom some component that previously was >cooled, eg a PSU. Moreover, if you alter the flow direction so that >air is being sucked in through all the other orifices, it will be >entering via the fronts of disk drives etc (well, probably not on this >machine but I'm thinking of the general case). That's the last place >you want the dust. Far better it drops on the motherboard where you >can vacuum it out. Better still, fit a filter. > Hi Pete You have to remember, these machines were designed by electrical engineers, not an air flow expert. Yes, the original used in blowing air. I did a quick check of the temperatures of the boards in my IMSAI with the in blowing air and some boards seemed to get no flow at all. Reversing the flow made a big difference. The powersupply in the IMSAI, at least is large enough to need little more than some air flow. The only parts that might get uncomfortable are the filter caps. Any additional heat here is harder on them. Still, after many hours of use, with almost a full boat of 8K boards, I find the caps to be mildly warm. While not specifically schooled in air flow, I did work for a company that made burnin ovens. I learned a lot about air flow there. We would often get request >from customers to fix the airflow in in-house designed chambers that had really poor temperature distribution. Mil spec states how uniform the chamber should be. Like I said, many of these were designed by electrical engineers. Dwight

19 years, 2 months

Old Core Memory Boards

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Do these boards come with the read and write circuits or are they just core boards? One can check ebay for typical core board values ( not that great ). Dwight >From: "Phil Spanner" <pspan at amerytel.net> >Hi all, > >I just received an email from a close friend that used to work for a memory >manufacturer called Fabri Tek Inc. here in Amery WI. >He wants to sell some old core memory boards that came out of a drum memory >from a power plant. Here is the info he sent to me. > >Manufacture Fabri Tek Inc. Date of manufacture circa >1970 > >Model 688 > >Size 55 C/M X 38.5 C/M X 2.5 C/M > >Core 32k x 20 or 655,360 cores > >Core size 18 m/in ferrite lithium > >P/N 256-0234-00 > >unit has 2ea 100 pin connectors .125 centers > >I am not sure how many he had, but I think he mentioned $ 30.00 each plus >freight. > > >

19 years, 2 months

More HP Series 80: Waveform Analysis Pac rescued

by listmailgoeshere＠gmail.com

Hi list, On a recent trip back to (that same) dumpster, I managed to rescue an HP Waveform Analysis Pac for the Series 80 machines. It's a plastic folder with white vacuum-formed compartments inside, and it contains the following: * one 5.25" floppy with a printed Waveform Analysis Pac label ((C) Hewlett-Packard 1980) * a transparent plastic bag containing a sheet of stickers, each of which say "SELECT CODE n" where n goes from 1 to 9 (7 is missing) * an HP-85 format tape with printed label "HP-85 WAVEFORM ANALYSIS PAC" * another similar tape but with a handwritten label and a piece of HP-85 printout inside the case with it showing the directory listing * around 12 code fragments/pieces of program output printed out on the HP-85 internal printer, one of which has some line graphs on it * some photocopies of program listings from the HP-85 printer (one of these is dated 6/2/81) * an approx. 1/4" stack of code listings (not sure if these are for user-written code or vendor-supplied code, but they appear to be for waveform analysis) These are available to anyone who would be able to place them in a public archive available to the classic computing community (Vassilis? Al?). If the long listings are user-written, someone has put a lot of effort into this, and I'd like to see it live on. Usual deal with shipping - I'll ship to anywhere, you pay shipping cost though. Ed.

19 years, 2 months

Old Core Memory Boards

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> He wants to sell some old core memory boards that came out of a drum memory If he still has it, the drum is a LOT more valuable than the core planes.

19 years, 2 months

Old Core Memory Boards

by pspan＠amerytel.net

Hi all, I just received an email from a close friend that used to work for a memory manufacturer called Fabri Tek Inc. here in Amery WI. He wants to sell some old core memory boards that came out of a drum memory >from a power plant. Here is the info he sent to me. Manufacture Fabri Tek Inc. Date of manufacture circa 1970 Model 688 Size 55 C/M X 38.5 C/M X 2.5 C/M Core 32k x 20 or 655,360 cores Core size 18 m/in ferrite lithium P/N 256-0234-00 unit has 2ea 100 pin connectors .125 centers I am not sure how many he had, but I think he mentioned $ 30.00 each plus freight.

19 years, 2 months

eBay users plagiarizing collectors' content...

by news＠computercollector.com

I'm sure this has happened to other people here, but it never happened to me before, and it ticks me off. Someone posted an eBay ad for this vintage handheld and blatantly copied 680 words of my work into the "more information" part of the item's description. Above that part, they also stole extensively (some text and the top photo) from the site www.datamath.org, but at least the jerk includes that link... There is no credit for my work at all. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5783764229 Having said that, it's an excellent price. I would bid up to $50-$75 for this if I didn't already have one. ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: http://www.snarc.net Also see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/ *** Tell your friends about the (free!) Computer Collector Newsletter - 750 readers and no spam / Publishes every Monday / Write for us! - Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all - W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news at computercollector.com

19 years, 2 months

Timex/Sinclair 1000 Tape Loading

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Gary You didn't say what the main issue is? The problem could be most any thing. Have you listened to the recordings to make sure you don't have dropouts? Do you have an oscilloscope that you can use to look at what the Z80 sees? If you have dropouts caused by wrinkled tapes, wind the tape backwards and let it sit for about a week. If it is folded, you may have to do some more serious recovery tricks. I've has to do this on Poly88 tapes. It may also be a problem in the Sinclair. Sometimes the ceramic capacitors become leaky. This can effect the threshold of the input comparitor. There are still more things to look at. Try to isolate the problem. Things like, are you get partial reads? And things like was meantioned about tape speeds. If you are using a hi-fi unit, most line outs don't provide enough signal level. Dwight >From: "Gary Sparkes" <mokuba at gmail.com> > >I'm having a hell of a time getting any program to load, so far I've been >Totally unsuccessful. > >Anyone have any tips or advice they can throw at me? >Would love to hear anything at all :) > > >

19 years, 2 months

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test-drb June 2005