test-drb June 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

220 participants
447 discussions

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Don Y (dgy at DakotaCom.Net <mailto:cctalk%40classiccmp.org?Subject=OT-ish%3A%20%20Build-it%20stuff&In-R eply-To=> ) wrote: Sun Jun 11 15:08:28 CDT 2006 Hi, The discussion re: SBC6120 got me thinking (something I try hard to do only on special occasions! :> ) It's disturbing that it seems so hard for the OP to scrape up enough interest to justify parts for another build. Which brings me to my question(s)... *Why* aren't people interested in this sort of thing? - lack of interest (i.e. PDP8? what's *that*??) - lack of collector appeal ("Ah, but it's not a REAL '8!") - lack of space ("Hand me a shovel; I'm digging a sub-basement") - lack of CASH (<frown>) - lack of skills ("Now, *which* end of the iron do I hold??") - lack of time ("Honey, little Bobby set himself on fire, again. Can you please put it out?") I obviously have a good idea what the reasons COULD be. But, I'm curious as to what they REALLY are! In the interests of candor, maybe replies off-list are better? And, don't interpret this as JUST pertaining to that particular product/project. I'm curious as to how receptive (resistant!) people are to *any* sorts of projects like that (even if they are "already assembled") Thanks! I hope I didn't step on anyone's toes... --don ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Billy: I don't know the answer to your question. I'm certain that a lot of it does fall into some of the categories above. Another factor might be cultural. I find a significantly greater interest in DIY projects of all kinds in the UK. Whether it is the chicken or the egg, they also have access to better parts stores (for hobbiest quantities) and excellent magazines. The Dutch magazine Electuur is translated into English and published in the UK every month as Elector. It has excellent construction articles, readily available firmware, and even the PCB layout for most of the projects. We have nothing like it in the States. For whatever reason, the UK and to a lesser extent, the EU have kept the interest alive. Perhaps some of our non-US members can shed insight on why. Billy

18 years, 1 month

Data I/O Series 22 EPROM Programmer help

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Data I/O Series 22 EPROM Programmer help > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:59:04 +1200 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 6/14/06, Roy J. Tellason <rtellason at verizon.net> wrote: >> We used to do a LOT of c64 repairs way back when, and every one of those >> beasts had a "906114" PLA in it that as I understand it was an 82S100 part. >> And it was a very common failure item, resulting more often than not in a >> blank screen or perhaps some bizarre display. > >Right... it's the address bus manager, among other things. When it >fails, the CPU can't get to RAM or ROM or the VIC-II, typically. > >> Any idea as to why that should fail so often? > >Thermal death? It's a bi-polar part, not *MOS, and it does run hotter >than the rest of the components. It's bipolar and also programable (fuseable links) and they do have a tendancy to develop shorted paths where they were once "opened". Allison > >-ethan

18 years, 1 month

Another SX-64 problem for the group.

by netsurfer_x1＠fastmailbox.net

I have an SX-64 that has (apparently) a serious problem. On powerup it shows nothing on the screen (checked the settings and and also hooked up an external monitor) along with an occasional crackling sound from the speaker. Keypresses are not registered by the machine. Anyone got any ideas as to what the problem could be?

18 years, 1 month

HP 264x terminal status

by gginben＠cebridge.net

Attn: Jay West & Others I just happen to notice the thread that was written. So I would like to clear things up a bit. I never said that I wouldn't do the terminal deal. When you asked me about it I simply said "My number one priority is making sure that all the guys that purchased one received all of them ok. My customers are always first, and would hate to get rid of all of them, and then somebody didn't get theirs. So honestly at this point Jay I haven't forgot about you." As far as your quote about having someone pick them up is not correct either. This is the email that I received >from you "I've read this, and empathize. I'm not sure I follow though, if you still want the bulk purchase deal or not. Please let me know so I can let the other folks know. Jay West" Where all the other came from I am unsure. I am not meaning this email to be in any way demeaning or anything close. Just simply wanted to make sure that I could explain what happened. As far as as this quote from John A. " The other thing was that I was looking for positive word from anyone that the shipments were getting through and Gessman 'lost it' before Anyone was able to respond, deal cancelled. John A." I didn't lose it. , but thanks. You simply lied to me at first by telling me that you had sent a money order. Just to find out later the truth was that you wanted to wait and make sure that someone received one before you made a payment. I don't blame you for wanting to be like this. I just didn't care to do business with someone that wanted to pull wool over my eyes. I even canceled the non paying dispute to keep you from getting a strike from ebay since you finally did tell me the truth. Just so you could tell everyone here that I "lost it" Should anyone have any questions at all please don't hesitate to email me Thanks, Greg (Gessman Business Services)

18 years, 1 month

OT: New yahoo group

by rtellason＠verizon.net

I kept bumping into situations where things were getting discussed that just didn't seem to fit in with the topic of the group that they were taking place in, and ad-hoc email arrangements where people ended up cc'ing each other all over the place with large file attachments and so forth, a very clumsy situation to try and deal with generally (I'd hit "R" and reply to one person instead of the group, etc.) so while in the process of griping about this in a message last night I just went ahead and started a group to deal with this sort of a situation. Feel free to jump on in and post stuff that would be OT in here, if you like. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roys-tech-chat/join -- 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

18 years, 1 month

SBC6120 (a build-it-yourself PDP-8 clone) grammer checked

by vp＠drexel.edu

Don Y <dgy at DakotaCom.Net> wrote: > Problem with most logic analyzers is getting all the microhooks > (or easyhooks) that go with it. Without having to sell a kidney! Actually the problem (as many people have stated before) is getting the *probes*. These are hard to replace because the often contain proprietary chips. If you have the probes, getting replacement cabling and hooks is usually easy, suppliers like DigiKey carry these. **vp

18 years, 1 month

ForSale: Various (off-topic?) PC parts New Haven CT area.

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

I'm having a tag sale at my house this weekend, rain or shine. Saturday 8am - 1pm & Sunday 8am - 1pm at 93 Quaker Road, Hamden CT. PCI & some ISA cards, a couple motherboards, probably some CD drives, and other items. Everything worked when I pulled it from use. It's from the Pentium 166 - PIII-500 era. Some Mac accessories are up for sale too. I think I may even have a Digital Equipment Multia for sale too. Small 166 MHz Alpha CPU box. Not a screamer, but very neat nonetheless. Let me know (directly) if your looking for something specific, and if I have it, I could hold it for you. -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- AIM - woyciesjes

18 years, 1 month

vtserver issues

by drb＠msu.edu

Dear all, I'm trying to image a pair of RD54s in a recently acquired machine, before doing anything that might break the installed OS. I'm using vtserver, as I lack other means of doing this right now. Since the RD54 is ~160 MB drive, I'm up against the vtserver 32 MB limit. I found Jonathan Engdahl's patches for vtserver which modify the protocol to allow larger files, and I'm running those. But that package doesn't include modified a standalone copy. A note on this page: http://home.alltel.net/engdahl/vtserver.htm says that modified standalones are available in the 2.9BSD-MSCP package, but best I can tell those are the byte-for-byte identical to the ones in the base Toomey vtserver package. So, does anyone have a standalone "copy" with the large file protocol modifications for vtserver? Thanks, De

18 years, 1 month

Data I/O Series 22 EPROM Programmer help

by lee＠geekdot.com

>> It's bipolar and also programable (fuseable links) and they do have >> a tendancy to develop shorted paths where they were once "opened". > Does that mean that one could take a failed part and re-blast it with > the original program and return it to service? Yes but the 'repair' may not last as only the regrown fuse will be blown, those about to fail will still do so. Best fix is to use a new device. Lee.

18 years, 1 month

VME bus for homebrewed CPUs

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I've been looking for suitable VME stuff to hopefully use to build a Magic-1. I have a cardcage that will hold a 12 slot backplane with J1 and J2. However, the board it came with is an oddball 9-slot deal. Three of the J2 slots have big conductors embedded in them, which makes it look a little like a 13w3 jack. I found a 12-slot backplane with only J1 slots. So, if I understand this correctly, I need a J2 backplane. Can these be had on the used market for a reasonable price? Or can I put another J1 backplane alongside the first and expect that to line up with a VME prototype board? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

18 years, 1 month

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test-drb June 2006