Hello,
I've just seen your post about an ISA card. I know it was posted in 2003 but there were no replies. The card is possibly a BMS (Building Management System) controller card. It is installed in a PC and runs an operating system called OS9. It then communicates with a BMS outstation via an RS244 interface. I hope this information will be of some use to you.
Best regards,
Graham Harvey
I've been following this thread with interest since I'm in the midst
of restoring an HP Dynamic Systems Analyzer with two of the same tape
drives installed. Both capstans were gooey. I considered the various
suggestions and came up with an easy, inexpensive and accurate way of
restoring the rubber coating on the capstan. Plasti Dip International
<http://plastidip.com/consumer/index.html> makes a coating for tools,
insulating, weatherproofing, etc. You dip the object you want to coat
as many times as necessary to build up the necessary layer. The
product has just about the right consistency to replace the old
capstan rubber and appears to have excellent wear characteristics.
I was able to add 0.021" [53.3] coating to the capstan in three dips
to bring the diameter to the proper value. The diameter varies less
than 0.001" [0.025] over several measures and the run-out is around
0.002" [0.051]. This was on the first try. The drive appeared to run
the tapes on hand properly.
A couple of hints:
- stir the stuff well. However, not so fast as to introduce bubbles.
- attach an extension to the can of dip and add one or two drops of
solvent to the top of the dip. This will ensure that the area above
the surface of the dip is saturated with solvent and will prevent
skimming.
- coat past the capstan onto the shaft. The added weight is
negligible and will ensure that the coating is uniform over the
capstan's surface.
My next try will be on a capstan for a DEC 7-track tape drive
belonging to a friend.
Pity.
And yes, I am sure Tony will be able to give us the tech details.
Unfortunately, e-Bay is not necessarily good news for those of us
outside the US. I investigated this route a while ago, and in most cases
shipping to South Africa will be prohibitively expensive.
>I am wondering whether it is possible to replace the ailing Sony 3.5"
>disc drives in both my HP9122D and HP9133H HP-IB units with PC 3.5"
>drives?
Not a chance! Tony Duell can give you all the technical
details but the
short version is that drives are completely different. The good
news is
that 9122 and compatible drives are frequently cheap on E-bay
and in
surplus stores.
Joe
I just thought I'd give an update on the various progress on the "new"
PDP-11 stuff that I'm working on.
As you all know the KM11 replica is now available. I have some
"accessories" made up for it (actually someone did them on their own and
I bought them). The accessories include some really cool plastic that
allows the overlays to be set up on the board. I'll put some more
information up on my website (http://www.shiresoft.com/products)
shortly. I still have to make up the actual overlays themselves.
I'm almost ready to send the MEM11A board out for fab. The layout has
passed all of the checks (both EagleCAD and the board house). So I
expect to have production boards ready by the end of April (protos back
by end of February, debug, etc). Production boards (to get "reasonable"
pricing) take 4 weeks. Just to let y'all know now, I'll need some firm
orders before I go and build the production boards. To get the price
I've indicated my website, I have to fork over ~$2K for the production
run.
I'm also finishing up a design for a "Unibus Analyzer". One of the
problems I've had in debugging Unibus systems has been to:
1. get all of the signals grouped reasonably so I don't have to
keep counting pins (and half the time getting it wrong) on the
backplane.
2. having reasonable triggers
3. being able to "see" all of the signals at once.
So, what I've done is design a board that goes in any SPC slot (...OK so
it's not strictly Unibus...shoot me):
1. buffers and groups all of the unibus signals for easy access for
a scope and/or logic analyzer probes (ie all address signals are
grouped together, all data, etc)
2. provides comparators for the address and data lines to provide
pattern matching to be used as a trigger for scope/logic
analyzer.
3. provides LEDs for *all* unibus signals.
Interested? Comments?
With the recent talk about providing a "cool" front panel for an 11/44,
I think I have an idea. I need to look at the details a bit more, but
here's what I think it'll be able to do:
1. set an address
2. examine contents of memory
3. write into memory
4. run/halt CPU (haven't quite thought that one out completely
yet).
5. switch register at a settable address.
It'll be a two board set, one goes into (you guessed it) an SPC slot and
has ribbon cables that go to the "lights & switches" that's mounted
where you want it. It should work in any Unibus 11, but obviously would
be best in 11/04, 11/24, 11/34, 11/44.
I also think that it could be adapted to be used in a Qbus system. I'm
taking the approach that the external lights & switches board would be
common between the Unibus and Qbus versions.
Do folks have other things they'd like done?
BTW the disk emulator project is progressing (but slowly...it's a
reasonably complex design and I want to get it "right"). These other
projects are actually helping me out with it.
--
TTFN - Guy
Anybody have any c64s or 128s kicking around?
I have some folks that are interested in SID chips, the computers need not be
working, I want 'em to scrap, and don't need the other parts to be good
either, nor the power supplies, cases, keyboards, etc. -- just the
boards.
I'm not looking to go beyond "yard sale prices", either.
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
It was pointed out to me today that the parts list that I supplied for
my KM11 replica has an error in it. For IC1-IC4 the part number has two
of the digits transposed. The correct part number is ULN2803A. The PDF
documentation and the parts list on the web site have both been updated
with the correct part number.
--
TTFN - Guy
I can't imagine any PC house not being able to use photo artwork to
produce the boards. The one thing a gerber file does provide is the
drill file with drill sizes, so you would need to take the padmaster and
identify the different hole sizes. The PC house will normally enlarge
the sizes you come up with so that the plating and solder reflow process
brings the holes sizes down to what you specify.
If indeed you have the master 2X or 4X layouts, an engineering photo lab
should be able to reduce them to 1X artwork.
BTW, I also have the photo artwork for several Polymorphic PC boards.
> Anyone know of any PCB firms that still do PCB production based on
> original Film art? I have most of the films for what was and wasn't
> produced by Atari, there are no digital files (heck some of these very
> early films, like the original Pong console are done with adhesive tape
> onto a clear plastic film for crying out loud!) So I am looking for a
> place that can still work with this old style way of making PCB's, anyone?
>
> Curt
