>Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 16:05:14 -0500
>From: Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com>
> I have an old computer from the '80s and it has a frame buffer with
> RGB+S (sync) output on classic BNC connectors.
>
> But I do have a
> bunch of new-ish LCD monitors which seem quite happy to sync up to
> pretty much anything.
>>
> So, can I just (somehow) connect the RBG+S signals to a mondern LCD?
> Has anyone tried this?
At some point I had a VGA to BNC cable. I bought it at Altex
Computers here in Austin, TX when I received some old CRT monitors
with BNC connections. They have a web presence so, if they still
carry them, you may be able to mail order one.
Of course, I don't know if such cables work in the other direction
but I can't see why they wouldn't. One list member's suggestion
about checking the peak voltages sounds prudent.
> I did once have a DW13 to RBG/BNC connector.
Is DW13 the connector often used by Sun which is frequently called 13W3?
If you get an IBM 9519 (T85A) LCD panel (18.1", 1280 X 1024 native
resolution, ca 2000 - 2001) it has VGA & 13W3 connectors. So your
BNC to DW13 cable might be able to connect your machine to an IBM
T85A LCD panel.
Jeff Walther
I have a NeXT Computer (cube) with the 68040 processor board,
1Gb hard drive, 16Mb RAM, nice monitor, mouse, and keyboard.
The machine works and has NEXTSTEP 3.0 installed. The optical
drive does the spin up/down cycle when you try to load a
disk, so it minimally needs a cleaning to be useable.
I was given this machine a few years back and recently
dusted it off to take it to VCF Midwest 2.0. I've decided
that someone else would probably get more enjoyment/use
out of the box than I am and so I am offering it up to anyone
who would either like to pick it up or pay for shipping...
--tom
--------------Original Message:
From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Parallel ASCII keyboards
<snip>
My recollection is that the mid-1970s were the heyday of ASCII
keyboards (AIM-65 and similar machines).
<snip>
---------------Reply:
ASCII keyboard on an AIM65??? Not on any of mine...
m
>
>Subject: Re: Parallel ASCII keyboards
> From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 13:16:25 +1200
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On 7/28/06, M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> wrote:
>> --------------Original Message:
>> From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: Parallel ASCII keyboards
>>
>> <snip>
>> My recollection is that the mid-1970s were the heyday of ASCII
>> keyboards (AIM-65 and similar machines).
>> <snip>
>> ---------------Reply:
>> ASCII keyboard on an AIM65??? Not on any of mine...
>
>I have to admit that I've never dug into the AIM-65 ROMs, so if not
>ASCII, then just scan codes that get converted in software?
>
>-ethan
A lot of the keyboards were laid out such that the row column values were
ASCII 1:1 corospondence for the the non shifted condition. Those that
use the Ay, KRO chips this was the rule and also those chips had a ~2500
bit rom to sort out things like shift and alt-chars. Scan codes are
a mostly PC invention. Some of the simpler designs like that sold by RS
and SWTP did it all with a few peices of TTL and some diodes.
Building a parallel interface ASCII keyboard is not that hard. The only
hard part is finding a suitable keyboard (keyswitches).
I happen to have to keyboards that are not parallel but the serial format
is like that of the PCxt with one variation, the keycodes are direct ASCII.
The onboard 8035 with 2716 did all the work (key scan, encode and serialize).
the same chip with a minor code change could easily do parallel.
Out on the net there are PIC based code to translate PS2 keyboard to
ASCII serial and even parallel.
Allison
>only down side of this box (C240) and others like it is that the boot disk
>generally
>has to be a HVD Scsi drive. Most of these have narrow single ended
>scsi interfaces, but they won't boot
HP reved the SCSI at C200 - it's now Ultra-Wide-SE (confusing moniker- sounds like it should be 32-bit datapath
or something. Ultra narrow also brings up interesting mental pictures). All dual-bus HP9ks will boot off of a narrow CD-ROM,
seems likely some at least will boot from narrow HDDs.
Regarding the Nova series (FGHI 40,50,60,70) Not "supported" but workable.
I have a G70 2xPA7100 box happily crunching away with HP-UX 11i [9/2003] (well, not now - it's too hot to run the big beasts)
Auto-install crashed, but manual install worked O.K.
I have heard that the ASP chipset and CRX graphics have been definitely done away with, but could be worth a try - it's not like you're
out big $$. Try the manual install - auto install seems more likely to break with unsupported equipment..
> From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net>
>
> <snip>
> >Of interest to the classic computer community is a SWTPC PR-40
> >Alphanumeric printer, an incomplete Rockewell R6500 (AIM 65)
> >motherboard, HP Demo Board for the HP 2416 smart displays
> >(used in the AIM 65),
> <snip>
> ---------------------Reply:
> Are you sure about those HP2416s being used in an AIM65?
> Wouldn't want you falsely advertising on eBay...
Thanks Mike, you are right. The AIM 65 uses the 1416 displays and I
misread/misremembered it as 2416 :(. Thanks for pointing that out! A quick
glance at the datasheets seems to show they are the same except for the size. If
so, an adapter would be needed to convert the 2416 smart displays to fit into
the AIM 65.
Depends greatly on how much you pay for the used laser, also (Boeing had LaserJet 5s for $1 a month ago).
It seems like there was a sweet spot where you could get solidly built high-resolution printers (LJ4/5 -> LJ 4100 era about),
that had PostScript (4100 is a clone, but . . .) and use cheap toner cartridges.
My school district IT swapped out some of our old printers (Lexmarks, they were dying anyway) for new HP LaserJets.
I am not impressed. Short cartridge life, cheesy plastic construction, pricy cartridges with no 3rd party alternatives.
What's not to like about a 4100? Quality is nice - isn't that one reason we like the computers we do?
--- Dave Dunfield wrote:
-snip-
> > I did it with an XT. Read a character and print
> it to LPT, in a loop.
> >
> > Dave's mention of building a circuit would
> certainly be a smaller, more
> > "elegant" solution.
>
> Yeah, but an old PC is cheaper (ie: free), much
> faster to build (all you need
> to make is the LPT->keyboard interface cable),
> already in a box and better
> looking (at least compared to MY that my homebrew
> creations).
Huh? Your D6809 portable is one of the most impressive
homebrew cases I've ever seen. It's certainly more
interesting than some forgettable pile of sheet metal
and plastic.
Liam Busey
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> Several of my older machines run on 10Base2 networks, here.
> I have found that traditional BNC tee's make cable dressing
> problematic. But, "goal post shaped" tee's seem to be kinder
> to the cables. (I haven't yet tried "F"-shaped tee's but I
> suspect they wouldn't be as good as the goal posts).
If memory serves me right, Ethernet isn't tolerant of the "leg" of the T
being anything more than incredibly short, and the standards mention
something about that.
I've had success using 90 degree elbows (2 per connection). Radio Shack
should still carry them. It would make your "goal post" configuration.
--------------------Original Message:
From: Marvin Johnston <marvin at rain.org>
Subject: For Sale
To: ClassicCmp <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
<snip>
>Of interest to the classic computer community is a SWTPC PR-40
>Alphanumeric printer, an incomplete Rockewell R6500 (AIM 65)
>motherboard, HP Demo Board for the HP 2416 smart displays
>(used in the AIM 65),
<snip>
---------------------Reply:
Are you sure about those HP2416s being used in an AIM65?
Wouldn't want you falsely advertising on eBay...
mike