test-drb February 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

224 participants
452 discussions

Texas Instruments Portable Professional Computer

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

If W.Smith is still on this list, I'd appreciate it if he contacted me. > On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, John Clarke wrote: > > > Anyway, is there some way to find out what the value of my > Compaq is? > > Sure, I'll tell you: $5. > > :) > > Sellam Ismail Vintage > Computer Festival Nadeau's book gives a range of $20 - $75, but I wouldn't give $20 for the hardware alone. Original documentation and software, on the other hand, is likely much harder to find and would be worth some extra $$$s. It's hard to quantify value if you have all the extras, which are often almost impossible to accumulate. I think most collectors know that documentation is far more difficult to find than machines. I have an IBM 5100, which is somewhat rare, but what is really rare is the full set of documentation I have, including the original sales invoice and factory build sheet. For example, I have a Texas Instruments Portable Professional Computer (actually I have three of them) which in terms of hardware, is not worth much ($15 to $40 according to Nadeau). But, I also have virtually every piece of software and documentation that ever went with it (all in those hideous orange TI boxes), as well as a big box full of development boards of every variety that I got from a retired TI guy that worked on the project in the early 80s. I also have stacks of preliminary production documentation and schematics from the same sorce. Now that's history -- and as they say in the Master Card commercials -- "priceless." By the way, one of my three TIPPCs has an upgraded 286-10 Soyo MB and is IBM compatible (and therefore won't run the bulk of the specialize TI software). Anyone ever see one of these before? -W __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

18 years, 10 months

Powering up sleeping uVAX II

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Pete asked: > I have here a uVAX II in a ba23 box, most likely not powered up for 2 or 3 > years. > > The innards are clean, no nasty smells, no other trace of prior problems. > Even so, to minimise the risk of damage I'm going to disconnect all the 5v & > 12v leads, then attach some suitable dummy load(s), switch on and wait for > smoke. > > Does this seem an appropriate plan? Can anyone point me to pinouts for the > various supply leads from an H7864? > Does anyone have any other recommendations/experience of going though this > process, and is there anything I've missed that I should have included > above? Just plug it in and turn it on. Unless the economics have drastically changed in the past 5 or 10 years, a uVax II in a BA23 has a street value of $50 tops. If there's any irreplacable components/assemblies/drives you may indeed want to remove them during initial testing (in any event as you reconfigure the system you certainly want to start with the simplest "has to work" configuration and then add on all the unknowns.) Ignore anyone who tells you to bring this up on a Variac. You will be increasing the chances of damage by doing so. Variac's are great for linear supplies in reforming electrolytic caps, but they only make life worse in a switching power supply because you're gonna cause all sorts of out-of-usual conditions. See, a switching power supply has negative impedance as seen >from the "in" connector: if you decrease input voltage, it will increase its current draw to keep power out constant. Outside of a reasonable range (say +/- 30%) of input voltage the flyback pulse widths etc. will be seriously out of whack too, also probably triggering a shutdown. My personal preference with linear supplies is to just plug it in and let any bad electrolytics blow up :-). The BA23's power supply (like most switching supplies) has more than adequate shutdown-on-overvoltage-out circuitry. The one thing to check: look at the 0.156" spacing harness from the PS to the backplane. Wiggle it on and off, look for charring and overheating. Some signs of past heat are likely, but if any of the contacts are burnt up you might want to look for or fabricate a different jumper. Worst case will be that you burn up the jumper, and you won't be the first to have it happen! After you get it up and going, you will probably find that the NiCads that hold the CPU configuration and run the TOY clock don't hold a charge. It's just 3 AAA's in series. It's not really necessary if you don't mind setting the clock and selecting the boot device manually at every startup. NiMH's are more available today and probably a better technical choice for replacement if you decide you need to TOY clock and config RAM. Tim.

18 years, 10 months

Road Trips

by mtapley＠swri.edu

> How many of you have done a road trip to get equipment? > - travelled 50 miles? San Antonio/Kerrville, Columbia/DC > - travelled 100 miles? San Antonio/Austin, a couple times for various > - travelled 250 miles each way? San Antonio/Houston, a couple times for Alphas, VAX VLC's, NeXTs, etc. > - travelled 500+ miles each way? > - travelled 750 miles? > - travelled 1,200+ miles each way? -- - Mark NOTE: MOBILE CONTACT NOW 2-WAY PAGER AT: 888-733-0967 office is still: 210-522-6025

18 years, 10 months

best yardsale in a decade

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

On Feb 6 2006, 12:33, <dogas at bellsouth.net> wrote: > There were a few incredible chips in pile that the foam really screwed up... check out: > > http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/chips1.jpg > > There was a ceramic C8080A with the pins completly eaten away , a Ceramic MOS 6532 that faired only a little better, a ceramic/traced AMI 6810, and a early plastic 6502 and 6530 among the more conventional stuff. Any recommendations on neutralizing/cleaning the gunk of the ceramics? The green icky stuff looks like verdigris. I'd just scrub it off with a toothbrush and warm water. If that doesn't shift it, dilute acid such as vinegar or lemon juice will, but rinse the ICs thoroughly afterwards if you do that. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

18 years, 10 months

Apple RGB monitor

by neil2＠localnet.com

Mike I don't suppose you atill have the AppleColor RGB Monitor. If you should or could point me in any direction it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Much!! Neil

18 years, 10 months

Telemechanics/AT&T keyboard?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Anyone ever seen one of these? The auction listing says: Telemechanics Inc., American Tleephone and Telegraph Co. Part #40K101CAD -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

18 years, 10 months

Intel 80286 "DCU" Multibus system

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Anyone know anything about these? It's a Multibus system, with an 80286 CPU board inside, Ethernet board, ST506/412 disk controller, floppy, and 40MB hard disk. Date seems to be 1990, which seems a little late for a '286 system. Two serial ports on the back, Ethernet, Centronics, and another DB25 (serial console?). Options on the back for another 19 DB25 ports, 3 larger ports (poss. external disks?), and a DA15 (another Ethernet card I assume) No apparent model number for the whole box, but a label on the front just says: Node name: DCU-NODE ... and a network address. On the underside there's what seems to be a board/part listing: PSYP310-90C iSBC286/12 SCX110 SBX344A SBC552A SBC214 40Mb HH Winchester 360Kb HH floppy ****ESYP310BYATLP**** The CPU board has an extra 1MB memory board fitted, a daughterboard which goes to the possible-console connector, and a battery-backed clock card (luckily there's minimum damage from battery corrosion) Google seems spectacularly unhelpful. Anyone know if "DCU" is meaningful, or if there was any particular target market for these systems? (we need to do PSU checks etc. and find out if that is a serial console before seeing if it'll fire up) Given the port options on the back it was obviously designed to cater for several users - but if it was just an off the shelf UNIX/other server it seems strange that the case wasn't given any badge, overall model label etc. cheers Jules

18 years, 10 months

Help in identifying some items

by bobalan＠sbcglobal.net

I bought a few items from the govliquidation web site that I'm looking for information on. The first is a Univac data buffer. It was designed for shipboard use and is in a very heavy case. Photos can be seen at: http://www.dvq.com select "old computers" then "misc. computer stuff" it's toward the bottom. Any idea what it was used for? The other item is a Singer magnetic disk unit. Three large photos are here: http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/photos/singer1.JPG http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/photos/singer2.JPG http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/photos/singer3.JPG Does anyone know what systems/computers these were used with? I have four of them. Thanks, Bob

18 years, 10 months

Affects of moisture (or lack thereof) on components (was: Powering up sleeping uVAX II)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Does anything bad happen to electronics that are stored in very dry > conditions for long periods of time? Cities like this would be anything > in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Idaho (Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, > Boise, Reno, etc.). In places that are hot and have lots of pollution/ozone (e.g. Los Angeles) foams and rubber and plastics can become brittle and crumble/fall apart much more readily than other places. Sunlight combined with heat and ozone is particularly brutal. Of the places you name, Phoenix is the one I know of that has some pollution/ozone issues but in my limitied time there (springtime, with temps in the 90's) the pollution didn't seem so awful. Tim.

18 years, 10 months

Atari 800 Schematics

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> Anyone has the schematic diagrams of the Atari 800 ? Not the 800xl ! > > Alberto The Atari 400/800 Technical Reference Notes (which include schematics) are on-line here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kryten_droid/Atari/800XL/Atari_technical_refer… Bill __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

18 years, 10 months

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test-drb February 2006