January 2007 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

Draper article in Wall Street Journal

by evan＠snarc.net

The article covers that point.

19 years, 3 months

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Motorola chips

by iamvirtual＠gmail.com

I am trying to identify 3 Motorola chips. I searched on the 'net, but I didn't come up with anything. The markings are SCM10071L SCM10072L SCM10073L The chips were produced in mid 1973 and early 1974. All three chips are ceramic and have 28 pins. Thanks for any information you can supply. --barry

19 years, 3 months

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VAXstation 3100/76 configured as VAXserver and NetBSD

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

I have a old VAXstation 3100/76 I'm playing around with (it's surprising how much faster the VAX 4000/200 "seems" - guess it's better memory and I/O bandwidth). The beastie is not-quite-complete (running it as a VAXserver, and the external SCSI connector has been replaced with a HD-50 that isn't functional- not sure if that's bad wiring or bad SCSI chip), but it does have a full 32MB RAM and all the tests it fails are explainable (?? on the network (since it's not connected, that's expected), ? on the serial lines (no kb/mouse connected there) and the external SCSI (nothing connected and known issues). Anyway-to the question: Neither NetBSD 2.0 or 3.0 will install successfully. They both segfault, usually during install but once I got 3.0 installed and it was very limited functionality. Officially the 3176 is supported, but is NetBSD known to be tempermental? (I'm not sure if it's the VAX or the software - VMS boots fine, but if the system's wonky I won't bother with it anymore). Can't test NetBSD on my other VAX (4000-200), since SHAC isn't supported.

19 years, 3 months

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CMD QBUS SCSI

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I found the manual for CMD 220 on bitsavers... along with a txt file for the 220A/TM (which is what I have). Couple of things: 1. Does anyone have the full manual digitized (or a hard copy you don't want anymore) that covers the 220A (to be exact, CQD-BV220A/TM) ? 2. In the txt file, it has (formatting neatend... (for fixed point font anyway)): W1 OUT Reserved (F) W2 IN SCSI terminator power enabled (F) W3 OUT Reserved (F) W4 1-2 IN Eprom Size 512-Kbit or 1-Mbit (F) W5 OUT 0 Wait State for Eprom Cycles (F) W6-1 OUT Adaptive DMA enabled (F) W6-2 OUT Adaptive DMA Dwell Time enabled (F) W6-4 W6-5 IN IN 0.8-ms DMA dwell time OUT IN 1.6-ms DMA dwell time IN OUT 3.2-ms DMA dwell time OUT OUT 6.4-ms DMA dwell time W6-5 OUT Block mode DMA enabled (F) W6-6 W6-7 Auto-Boot for LSI-11 systems without Boot Roms OUT IN Auto-Bootstrap address = 773000 IN IN Auto-Bootstrap address = 771000 OUT OUT Auto-Bootstrap disabled (F) IN OUT Auto-Bootstrap address = 775000 W6-8 IN Reserved (F) The W6-4, W6-5 pair I believe should be labelled W6-3, W6-4, as W6-5 is documented twice ... and W6-3 is not documented. Anyone know if my belief/assumption is correct ? Anyone know what DMA dwell time should be used in a PDP11/83 ? Should this board be closest to the CPU, or furthest in a an 11/83 ? Thanks in advance, -- Curt

19 years, 3 months

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Datapoint 2200 software ?

by jos.dreesen＠bluewin.ch

Does anyone know of software repositories for the Datapoint 2200 I or II machines ? Jos Dreesen

19 years, 3 months

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VAXstation 3100/76 configured as VAXserver and NetBSD

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> Adrian wrote > On Sun, Jan 14, 2007 at 01:12:11AM -0000, arcarlini at iee.org wrote: >> >> The wiring inside the VAXstation 3100-76 may well be "non-standard", >> but the external connector works perfectly well with any SCSI >> cable which physically connects. > > I'm a bit confused. I've got an M76 which I'd love to install a later > version of VMS on (it's currently on 5.5), but everything I've read > has said > that the external SCSI connector is DEC-specific and needs a DEC BC09J > cable > to attach normal SCSI devices to (a cable which I've not yet found at a > reasonable price). Is this not the case? The connector is proprietary to DEC (same one as used in the DECstations), but the SCSI that comes out of it is standard. Since that particular connector hasn't been picked up by anyone else (in that particular sex)- yes, any SCSI cable that physically connects will work. On mine I just pull the lid and connect up whatever I need to the internal bus, although I do have an InfoServer... hmm, possibilities that don't require a screwdriver.

19 years, 3 months

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Jumpers for a GSI 2.88MB floppy card

by cclist＠sydex.com

This is a little ISA card (made in USA!) with a separate 34-pin header for a 2.88MB floppy drive. There's a sticker marked "1133-11- 04-9 Model 11". There's a row of jumpers labeled 'B1 B2 B3 B4 PR SE". Anyone got the jumper settings for this thing? I think that PR=primary and SE=secondary and that B1-B4 may be drive types, but confirmation might save some work. Thanks, Chuck

19 years, 3 months

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Looking for board for 30GB Quantum Fireball Plus LM

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

While the drive is not strictly on-topic, the contents are - I have a 30GB Quantum drive that did not survive the rigors of the APO mail system. I have to admit I was in a bit of a hurry on my way out of Pole and while virtually all of my stuff survived travelling 12,000 miles in the mail system, something must have shifted in my box of hard drives and some of the components on the bottom of the drive are damaged and missing. Sufficient packing materials are hard to come by at the Pole, and I was counting on double-boxing and pink bubble wrap to be enough - it obviously wasn't. I think a neighboring drive must have shifted and rubbed on the circuit board of this one, causing a patch of visible component damage. The drive itself does spin up, and gives the expected pattern of blinks on its lone LED, but the machine does not see it. Given that there are 3 missing resistors of a size smaller than an 805 package (don't know the names of the really wee parts) and a few bent pins on a nearby 104(?) pin 0.5mm pitch QFP, the lack of responsiveness doesn't really surprise me. If anyone on the list happens to have an unhappy 30GB Quantum drive, I'd be interested in its board. The P/N on the lid sticker is an LM30A011. Worst case, if I can find another similar drive and a scan of the area of the board near the LED on an intact drive of the same model, I can probably harvest a replacement chip and some SMT resistors and transplant them. The damaged chip in question is badged Lucent/Quantum, P/N "MS24C13 34". There's no horrible noises from the HDA - typical spin-up/spin-down noises, so I think there may be a chance to get at this drive, if I can repair/replace the board. Yes, I know that drives are cheap these days - I would just like to get at what's on this one. Naturally, the other drives in the box, including the blank 18GB workstation drives, are fine... only my boot drive gets dinged. :-/ Thanks, -ethan

19 years, 3 months

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Victor 9000 archive

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://www.issue.org.uk/ Loads and loads and loads of V9K stuph. You'll be like a kid w/a Vic9K in a candy store. be sure and read the "personal note". ____________________________________________________________________________________ Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097

19 years, 3 months

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cpu world

by legalize＠xmission.com

I haven't seen anyone mention this here before.... <http://www.cpu-world.com/index.html> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 3 months

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Victor 9000 boot floppy, was RE: laptops and 5.25 inch floppy drives?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I've seen mention of a Hardware Technical Reference for the Victor. > If anyone has a copy I'd be interested in hearing from you. I've just uploaded scans of the Tech Ref and several other tech docs to http://bitsavers.org/pdf/victor/victor9000

19 years, 3 months

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Heathkit H77 Case

by marvin＠rain.org

I have the Heathkit H77 case where the pieces that hold the front panel to the chassic got broken off. With JB Weld to the rescue, I went ahead and fixed it only to find out a "small" problem. It seems that the label on the front of the case covers the screw holes and I *really* don't want to poke holes in it as it is in excellent condition. Has anyone tried to remove that front label, and if so how? My first thought was to take a heat gun and warm up the adhesive to the point where the label might come off without damage. My second thought was to ask here :).

19 years, 3 months

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Olivetti M20

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 15 Jan, 2007, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 10:58:12 -0800 > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Subject: Re: Olivetti M20 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <45AA0CC4.14431.CE01A94 at cclist.sydex.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > On 14 Jan 2007 at 16:17, Roger Holmes wrote: > >> Can anyone please tell me if the Olivetti M20 used a Z8010 memory >> management unit? > > What would have been the point on a system that can accommodate at > most, 512K? 1) To prevent one process overwriting the memory belonging to another process. Segments did not HAVE to be 64k, that was their maximum size, the minimum was 128 bytes. 2) To provide virtual memory. 3) To protect the executive from processes. 4) To allow non contiguous physical address space to appear as a logical contiguous address space 5) To provide mapping out of faulty blocks of memory and probably as many reasons I have not thought of off the top of my head. Best regards, Roger. > > Cheers, > Chuck

19 years, 3 months

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Olivetti M20

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 15 Jan, 2007, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >> Can anyone please tell me if the Olivetti M20 used a Z8010 memory >> management unit? > ---snip--- > > Hi Roger > No, it didn't use a 8010. It could have but I believe that when > the project was started, the 8010 wasn't ready yet. > They used a ROM instead. They do a number of interesting > logical to physical mapping but these could have been done > with a 8010 just as easily ( and more flexibly ). > Most of the mapping is to handle the holes that the video > causes. Some is related to the dual mapped memory. > Even with the full 512K of memory, I don't know of any > application that needed more than 384K. > Dwight Many thanks Dwight. A pity they did not at least use RAM instead of ROM. Roger.

19 years, 3 months

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Parting out Teletype model 43

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I am going to part out a somewhat junky model 43 Teletype. Anyone need parts? Let me know soon, as I reach for my tools tonight... -- Will

19 years, 3 months

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Data Systems Design DSD-880 8" floppy and hard drive?

by JHuang＠eminc.com

Hi Stuart. Do you still have this 8" floppy drive. If not, could you tell me where can I found it. I use this fool on old Amistar Insertion Machine and most of them can read/write. Thanks for ur response. Jeffery yjdhuang at yahoo.com

19 years, 3 months

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Minivac 601 documentation copies/scans?

by tony.eros＠machm.org

I've been building a bit of a collection of logic/computer trainers, one of which is a Minivac 601. Originally, there were a set of manuals for this unit that detailed some construction projects. I'd really like to get a copy or scan of the full documentation. Is there anyone with a full documentation set for the Minivac who would be willing to either copy it for me or lend me the manuals so I could scan them? I asked this question a while back on the list and someone replied, but I wasn't ever able to finalize getting copies and now I've managed to misplace the relevent emails... Thanks! -- Tony

19 years, 3 months

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a riviting topic

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

-----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jules Richardson Sent: 12 January 2007 17:15 To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: a riviting topic Brian L. Stuart wrote: > There's a type of rivit called a pop rivit that I've used before. I > get the impression that it's not as good a the sort used in > manufacturing, but for this kind of purpose, I'd think it would do fine. Is rivit a US variation or a typo? (it's 'rivet' this side of the pond) Anyhoo... agreed that for this kind of work it should be fine. The tool needed should cost virtually nothing (I'd certainly expect it to be less than $10US) and is really easy to work with. Places like Halfords and B&Q will sell them in the UK (along with better tool shops too); in the US Home Depot almost certainly have them and probably Wal-mart too. Same applies to the rivets themselves. I've always wondered how the massive rivets on ships are put in, in particular how on earth they get them to also be watertight around the hole! cheers Jules

19 years, 4 months

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FW: FREE! Motorola VME-10 System and Motorola Development Hardware

by DLawrence＠mctl.co.uk

Hi Bruce, A real long shot this - We have a poorly VME10. I know your web entry is dated 1999, and that you stated that you were going to ditch your VME10 'in the next week' if you had no response, but I was wondering if, by some chance, your VME10 was still available (I'm always the optimist ;-) ) Please could you let me know either way. Many thanks, David Lawrence I.T. Consultant MCT Limited Tel : 01730 894834 Fax : 01730 892641 E-mail : dlawrence at mctl.co.uk Internet : http://www.mctl.co.uk <http://www.mctl.co.uk/> ________________________________ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0703-0, 13/01/2007 Tested on: 15/01/2007 11:09:57 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.

19 years, 4 months

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Token ring hub

by Glen.Heiberg＠gijima.com

You could look out for an original IBM 8228 MAU (Multistation Access Unit). These have 8 workstation ports and a pair of RI/RO (Ring In-Ring Out) ports, and is a passive device (did not need AC power). Alternatively, you could look out for an IBM 8230 CAU and LAM (or the Madge equivalent). However, these are quite bulky. All the above use the big IBM connectors with type-1 cabling. Cat 5 cables with RJ45 connectors can be used as long as you use a balun. I have never encountered a tokenring NIC that only had RJ45 connectors; there was always a DB9 connector. Also, you don't need any "token ring starter upper". The first station that inserts into the ring generates the token. All stations must use the same ring speed (either 4Mbps or 16Mbps). The first station that joins the ring must be set to a fixed speed; subsequent stations inserting into the ring can be set to autosense the ring speed. If the EISA TR NIC you have is indeed a 100Mbps device, it will only do 100Mbps TR when connected to a 100Mbps TR switch, and these seem to be fairly rare. For moderate to high network loads, a 4Mbps TR network would run rings ;-) around an equivalent 10Mbps Ethernet network. For simple TCP/IP connectivity between a TR and ethernet network, setup a Linux box with any IBM TR nic based on the "tropic" chipset or a Madge NIC (Linux drivers availble from their website) and your choice of supported ethernet NIC, and setup IP routing. Regards Glen, Teo Zenios wrote: > >Also what is a good way to bridge Token Ring to Ethernet so that these 486 machines can use my router/cable modem? > > Jim wrote: >I purchased some 3Com 3c359's off ebay, and built up a linux box to >bridge them. > >There is a 3c509 on the ethernet side. There is a 3174 on the token >ring. It is a standard MAU, no rj45 baluns. Don't forget on ancient >MAU's you have to have a token ring starter upper, to charge up >the hub. I had a years old one, and was informed to use the supplied >IBM starter to set up mine. I might point out that the MAU had no >active power, as some of the ones which use rj45's do, and that >may have had to do with the "starter upper" gizmo. > >Anyone who can educate me on that one would do me a favor, I >just did it and it worked (after replacing the 9v battery in the IBM >gizmo) > >Jim

19 years, 4 months

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Olivetti M20

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

Can anyone please tell me if the Olivetti M20 used a Z8010 memory management unit? When I worked for Marconi Elliott Avionics at Rochester we designed the anti submarine sub system for the WG34 (Later EH101) helicopter using a dozen Z8001s and Z8010s plus lots of specialised processors. After I left the company, the project dragged on for many years before being cancelled and a rival, more mainstream system fitted. The Z8001 had 16 low order address lines and 7 segment selector lines, so even without an MMU, it should have an 8MB address range. IIRC, the MMU took the top 9 address lines and the 7 segment selector lines and could map them onto a 16MB address range. For speed and simplicity, I came up with the idea of never setting the bottom bit in the segment base registers so we could send the bottom 8 bits of the CPU address directly as the row address to the RAM chips and by the time they were ready for the column address, the MMU look-up was done. Hence we allocated memory in 256 byte chunks instead of 128 bytes as envisaged by Zilog. In the M20 uses a Z8010 I might get one if one comes up for sale in Europe. Roger Holmes On 10 Jan, 2007, at 16:36, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 8 > Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:49:27 -0800 > From: "dwight elvey" <dkelvey at hotmail.com> > Subject: Re: Olivetti M20 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <BAY130-F3347994A26286E3E09D04DA3B20 at phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed > >> From: Gene Buckle <geneb at simpits.com> >> >> dwight elvey wrote: >>> Hi >>> For those that might be interested in an Olivetti M20, there is one >>> on eBay. This was one of the few machines made with a Z8000 >>> processor. >>> I think the only personal computer. >>> If someone on this list gets one, contact me and I'll help you get >>> it up and running. >>> Dwight >> >> That's cool. I just posted PDFs of the CP/M for Z8000 manuals on the >> Retroarchive site. :) >> >> g. >> >> > > Hi Gene > I would suspect that the one on eBay isn't ready for CP/M8000 right > out of the box. I'm sure it'll handle PCOS, at least version 2.0f. > The problem is that most machines didn't come with enough memory > for CP/M8000. Although, the manual for CP/M8000 states that one > can run in a machine with 128K of memory, because of a number > of allocation issues in the M20, you really need 384K. > The M20's comes with 128K on the mother board and usually > have two 32K expansion memory cards. Even with three of these > 32K cards, your only up to 224K. Still not enough. > When I first got CP/M8000 running on my machine, I modified > two of my memory cards to take 64K DRAM chips. This brings it > to 384K. I was always going to increase it to 512K, the most that > the M20 decodes, but I don't see the need any more. > A fellow in Italy had thought that it might be easier to take two > 1 meg simm's and use those ( you need at least 2 because it > does access 8 bit or 16 bit and needs the separate selects ). > We talked it over and came up with a way to wire them up > such that they can provide 384K with a minimum of external > hardware( total of 512K with the mother boards memory). > The only painful issue is that the M20 normally has a select for > either 32K or 128K at each board position. The first solution > used three board edges to connect the two other connectors > selects. Another fellow built one that he made a header to > go under the NAND gate chip that normally sent out the > selects. This did require lifting one part and putting it on a socket. > It also seems that some of the memory boards came with sockets > and could be configured for either 32K or 128K by jumpers > but none of my board were that easy.

19 years, 4 months

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MODCOMP rescue pictures...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

The link below shows pictures and a brief description of the MODCOMP II that we rescued on Friday 1/12/2007. Restoration work has started on the CPU/MEM chassis - the I/O chassis is as we got it. [Note that the pictures are kinda large - so if you have a slow speed connection, they'll take awhile] http://bickleywest.com/modcomp.htm In case you're curious, here's a summary inventory of the systems we have inhouse [unfortunately, it's incomplete]: http://bickleywest.com/system1.html http://bickleywest.com/system2.html Cheers, Lyle -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. Mountain View, CA http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

19 years, 4 months

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Transformer Search

by grant＠stockly.com

I'm looking for a source of transformers like those used in the Altair 680. In addition, does anyone have any idea what the rated current output is with the Altair 680? I do not have an assemnly manual. If anyone has an idea of the watt rating I'd appreciate it. : ) It has 102620 and 9967736 written on it. It only has one primary coil. There are two secondary coils. One with a center tap and one without. Here are some stats I took: Primary: 121.4vAC Secondary 1: 11.13vAC (used for +9v/+5v) Secondary 2: 14.57vAC parallel, 29.2vAC series (used for +/-16vDC supply) Thanks, Grant

19 years, 4 months

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a riv[e]ting topic (Robert Greenstreet)

by gstreet＠indy.net

> >Are you perhaps thinking of the Bede 5? A friend decided to assemble >one in the living room of his second-story apartment. I think he >ruined the place utterly, what with the swarf from the thousands of >holes drilled or the broken-off stubs of pop rivets that were left in >the green shag carpeting, not to mention the oil from the snowmobile >engine, etc. I seem to recall that there some problem getting the >completed craft out of the building... > >At the same time, I was building a harpsichord in my third-story >apartment and while the carpet was pretty dirty from all of the >sawdust, I think it was salvageable. > >Cheers, >Chuck > > I think I must be thinking of the Zenith: http://www.zenithair.com/stolch801/construction.html It uses what seems to amount to "Cherry" rivets. I've forgotten the details of the difference between Cherry and CherryMax, but the "Max" are significantly stronger (and worse to drill out)... I could have sworn that I had seen a flying example of a 4-seater a/c that looked like the Zenith, with a big a/c engine providing the power. That was probably at least 10 years ago... Good to hear that you got the harpsichord completed, and that it is still playing! Oh, BTW, one of the engines that lots of people finally settled on for the BD-5 (prop version) was the 1200 Honda Civic engine (the "49 states" model, not the CVCC). You've got to have balls to fly the BD-5, especially with a Honda 1200 screaming at rpm's that it was never intended to run at, especially with high manifold pressure... Regards, Robert Greenstreet

19 years, 4 months

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a riv[e]ting topic

by carey.unruh＠gmail.com

Found on rec.aviation.homebuilt by veeduber via google groups... http://tinyurl.com/y8qfao or http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8qfao Riveting 101 http://tinyurl.com/se4pd or http://preview.tinyurl.com/se4pd Riveting 101 - continued (Part 2 of 3) http://tinyurl.com/y7ql2r or http://preview.tinyurl.com/y7ql2r Riveting 101 - Part Three of three. QUOTE/ Riveting 101 ...or Meet Mr. Smiley :-) Wanna learn how to rivet? Go down to the hardware store -- or whatever passes for a hardware store in your community -- and buy yourself a packet of COPPER rivets. They come in different lengths and copper washers are usually included in the packet. Now find yourself a small hammer (...no, smaller than that... about 8oz). Have you got an old shoe? An old LEATHER shoe? Okay, then howzabout an old handbag. Or even some heavy canvas. Okay, good... use that. (I never thought of riveting cardboard... I usually just weld it... ) What are you going to use for your anvil? (And yes, an anvil makes a good anvil. But real anvils are kinda thin on the ground this season.) No, wood won't work for an anvil, not even lignum vitae. (Yep, it makes good prop-shaft bearings for aircraft carriers. But it don't work worth spit as an anvil.) Well-made bench-vise... that oughta work. Face of a sledge-hammer will do too. You work it out. Last thing you need is a HOLE to put the rivet in. Lotsa folks forget that the hole is part of the process. When you're riveting leather, canvas or cardboard the hole isn't a very important part of the process -- not like it is when you're riveting metal -- but you can't rivet without a hole so go make one. Make it as big around as your rivet. You can make it with a punch or an awl or a drill. Got it? Okay, put the rivet through the hole, put a washer on the rivet and squeeze the rivet down tight against whatever it is you're riveting. How much of the rivet's shank is sticking up? That's too much. You only want two diameter's worth of the rivet's shank sticking up past the washer, so cut it off. Now hit it with the hammer. (Okay, then hit it again!) Keep hitting it until the shank is hammered into a button about twice as wide as the shank. Do a couple more. /QUOTE

19 years, 4 months

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Browning plastic cases

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 13 Jan 2007 at 23:45, William Donzelli wrote: > It should be noted that painting the yellowed case with a mild paint > is actually the most proper thing to do, in the mind of a professional > conservator. Even more proper, and as done with some aircraft at the > Gerber facility, is to apply a wax coating to the original finish, and > then paint over the wax. This allows the paint to be removed > completely and safely when it comes time to refinish the outer layer. Yup. If you're just doing it for show, a water-based paint would do the job, if you didn't handle it too much. Easy to remove--and actually serves to preserve things by sealing out atmosphere and UV rays. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 4 months

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Floppy Disk Cross-Reference

by marvin＠rain.org

Is there a cross-reference available on the web to show what machines used what floppy disks? I'm looking specifically for what machines use what 8" floppies, i.e. SS, DS, hard or soft sectored, TPI, etc. It seems like it would be a useful thing to have in a FAQ.

19 years, 4 months

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wall wart for TI-58-C

by vp＠drexel.edu

ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Oh yes, IIRC, if yuo put a TI58C on the cradle, it'll work, but you lose > the contents of the continuous memory if you turn off or unplug the > cradle from the mains. Regarding turning off the cradle, it depends on the model number. The PC100A and 100B models would cut off poewr to calculator when you turned off the cradle (using the big brown slide switch on its side). The 100C cradle will continue supplying power to the calculator even when you turn the cradle off. This is documented in the manual and was done specifically for the 58C. **vp

19 years, 4 months

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flash card adapter board

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

"The flash card adapter board contains the basic circuitry needed to add an SD/MMC, miniSD, and microSD/TransFlash socket to virtually any microcontroller application using as few as four I/O pins." introductory price - $39 US http://www.ecs87.com/adaptor.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

19 years, 4 months

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VAXstation 3100/76 configured as VAXserver and NetBSD

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> 9000 VAX wrote: > >> The SCSI connector on 3100 76 is wired differently from the standard. >> I was told that it was because there was no standard when the first >> vaxstation was out. You need a DEC specific SCSI cable to use the >> port. > > > The wiring inside the VAXstation 3100-76 may well be "non-standard", > but the external connector works perfectly well with any SCSI > cable which physically connects. Internally there is a single > cable harness even though the internal devices and external > devices are separate SCSI channels. So you cannot replace > the harness (with anything other than the exact same > harness) without knowing exactly what you are doing. > > If the external connector has been replaced with an > Amphenol one, then perhaps that was not done properly. > > There's a terminator on the harness too - and my recollection > is that without it things do not work well (if at all). > > Antonio > Internal works just fine, external has the Amphenol-50, but since there are 2 colors of loose wires and a proprietary internal connector it's unlikely I can figure the "proper" wiring out. I suppose I could trace it from the NCR chips, but for now I just pull the cover and plug stuff in the 1st bus. The ground wires on the external bus are all one color, and they seem to go to the right places - so it's partially right. If only DEC had better documentation. I hand installed NetBSD from the shell option, and it seems to be working better (no panics yet). sushi complains about libcurses and won't run, but vi runs ok. It isn't my main VAX, anyway, so I'll probably shove it back under the bed for now. I was going to junk it if it didn't work, but it pulled itself together. I'd throw VMS on it, but (a) everyone needs at least one BSD VAX and (b) the console is shared with the 4200 so it would be a bother to run them together as a VAXcluster. I'm considering clustering the 4000-200 and my 3000-300X, though. Too bad DEC doesn't have the ultimate useless feature: cross-OS clustering. Imagine a VMS VAX, Tru64 Alpha, and VMS Integrity clustered. Completely pointless, but cool sounding.

19 years, 4 months

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Browning plastic cases

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 13 Jan 2007 at 12:19, John Foust wrote: > > Recently Digg'd: A discussion of how plastic ages and discolors: > > http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189 When I saw the photo of the SNES case, I said to myself, "That looks just like the old high-density foam cases look like before they're painted." Why not paint the darned things? I'd rather have a somewhat un- authentic finish that looked good than a cruddy yellow half-and-half case. If done right, I doubt that anyone could tell at a distance of more than 6 inches. I remember the model shop guy at Durango making his prototype cases-- out of clear polycarbonate. I thought they looked pretty nifty as they were--but then he had to go and have them painted. He made the 14" hard disk case out of sheet ABS and said he'd never do that again- -he said it was like machining rubber. All production was of high- density foam, however--and painted. In any case, paint good--plastic colorants bad. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 4 months

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Token Ring Hub

by James＠jdfogg.com

> Also what is a good way to bridge Token Ring to Ethernet so > that these 486 machines can use my router/cable modem? > In today's hardware world, the easiest way to have Ethernet communicate with Token Ring is via a dual-topology router. The Cisco model 2514 with one Ethernet and one TR interface should be very affordable in the used market. If you can find older Cabletron MMACs or the chassis based Proteon equipment (70 series, etc.) you can bridge TR to Ethernet at layer 2.

19 years, 4 months

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HP 2117f cables needed, part2

by g-wright＠att.net

-------------- Original message from "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org>: -------------- > Jerry wrote... > > All of this HP 1000 talk got me going on mine. > Good. Mission Accomplished :) > > > Does anyone have a stash of these. > Yes. > > > I have no cables and > > cant seem to find anyone that does. It seems that most > > of these are offered with out the cables. I would guess they > > all go to bulhead connectors and are just easier to slip off the > > connector on the cards. > (on HP) No, I've never run into any cabinet bulkhead connectors except for > DB25 panels (well, ok, some of the 13037 stuff). Everything else was direct > cable from device to interface. On a properly buttoned up HP it wouldn't be > easier to slip them off the cards, what with ground cables sometimes screwed > in and the PCA retainer bracket locked in and the rear panel over the I/O > cards for proper ventilation and the battery backup over that ;. That's not > to say everyone observed those recomendations of course. > > > - Console 12966a > I don't have a spare, I make more anytime I need one from spare connector > hoods. The jumpers in the hood for wiring to a BACI are a pain. I pickup a few connectors today and will make up one shortly > > > - HPIB disk 12821a > I may have a spare, what length do you need. Beggers can't be picky . I can handle most anything Disk would be in a floor cabinet > > > - HPIB Mag tape 13183 > Hummm I don't have manuals in hand, but I don't believe 13183 is a HPIB card > is it? Isn't that the "normal" HP proprietary interface? > your right. The list I have does not really say. I have 4) 7970b's is this 2 card set for these ?? of coarse no cables > > Also Trying to figure out 2 cards > > > > HP 12250 60001 and a FDS n612 4256-001 The HP 12250-60001 is very close to a 12792 muxer card in chip type and layout. Both use 0.10" pin spacing on the external connector. The Other is a Typo It is a FPS n612 4256 001 (non Hp card) Date code is old. (1977) Have Pics. but no easy place to post. can E-mail > Doesn't ring a bell at all. Got pics? > > Jay > > This thing has 2 different disk interfaces. 13175D and 12821A I have both HPIB and 7906 dives I have both 7970b and 7980E Mag Tape drives Thanks, jerry

19 years, 4 months

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Sun E450 server officially vintage

by legalize＠xmission.com

Owner's manual has a date of 1997... Someone is giving one of these to me with 4 CPUs. What should I do with it? Its got no graphics, but I figure I could make it compute arbitrary precision deep Mandelbrot set zooms. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 4 months

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Free Boxes (??) (Texas Instruments)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Yes, you read that right. If there is someone who wants to have an original set of boxes for a Texas Instruments Professional Computer in pretty good shape (some tape marks), I have them. The provenance on these is excellent. One owner, stored in an attached garage since 1984. Looks like System Unit, Color Monitor and (I believe) Keyboard Located in Renton, but shipping a possibility.

19 years, 4 months

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BASIC in the Epson HX-20

by evan＠snarc.net

Help please .... I haven't programmed in many years and I'm winging this because I don't have the HX-20 BASIC manual (it's not among the other HX-20 manuals on the Epson support site.) How do I tell my program to halt and wait for someone to press RETURN before continuing? And would I then need a follow-up command to actually make it sense the keypress? - Evan

19 years, 4 months

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Anyone know where to find software for an hp 16505a prototype analyzer?

by paulp132＠comcast.net

I bought one of these and the hard drive is failing. Sometimes it boots, sometimes it doesn't. If I can find the install cd and floppy, maybe I can get this working. Of course then I'd need to find a cd-rom drive that works with the 16505. Thanks, Paul

19 years, 4 months

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Fibre Optic Channel Extenders on Epay (Bus / Tag)

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

I know there are only a couple of people interested in these, but this is probably the place to post this to get to who might want it. These units will take bus and tag in and allow one to run over a distance via fibre optic. Might be useful for a pile which includes such. hopefully the conflicting suffix numbers does not mean these do not have at least one pair that could work given the fibre optic connection. Jim ibm 3044-D01 extender link 5874992954 ibm 3044-C02 extender link 5874993303 ibm 3044-C01 extender link 290051556365

19 years, 4 months

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MODCOMP II rescued...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I had the good fortune of rescuing a quite clean MODCOMP II/12 today! The system has 64K of core memory, full front panel and separate I/O chassis and I/O panel. The I/O chassis contains a dual 9600 baud serial interface, a high-speed synchronous interface and a TTY controller (110-9600 baud). Does anyone on the list have schematics and/or writeups on Modcomp serial or other peripherals? If so, I'd really appreciate a pointer to the PDFs. If you don't have them in PDF form, I'll be glad to pay the cost for hard copies and shipping. Cheers, Lyle -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. Mountain View, CA http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

19 years, 4 months

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Cleaning House

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

>From: "Vincent Slyngstad" <vrs at msn.com> >From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> >>It was written... >>>Check out VCM and Ebay (ID=KE6HTS) for the stuff I am getting rid of. >>I know how to look up all the items a given seller is selling on ebay... >>but I seem to be too brain-dead to see how to do that on vcm. Can someone >>enlighten me? > >In Marvin's, case, I think you can just click on "See Everything" :-). > >You can also click on his name "marvin", next to any of his auctions, >then click on the little "437" or whatever next to "Current Postings". >(There are about 50 pages of them.) > >There may be easier ways, but that worked for me :-). > > Vince > Hi Even though I knew it was Marvin, a quick search of what were obviously Ham call letters found Marvin's name attached. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ >From photos to predictions, The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden Globes has it all. http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline1

19 years, 4 months

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a riv[e]ting topic

by gstreet＠indy.net

Hello All, > >While I was checking the spelling, I notice that wikipedia mentions >another name for pop rivets is blind rivets. > I _love_ Wikipedia, but it certainly has its share of errors. Please: Never equate pop rivets with "blind" rivets. Blind rivet is a sort of generic term -- meaning that it's a form of rivet that can be used even though you do not have access to the other side of the rivet. Blind rivets are used on commercial aircraft, but only in relatively small quantities -- and -- each catagory of (blind) rivet is carefully chosen to perform a certain task. Most times, when we install blind fasteners (rivets fall into the broad catagory of fasteners), we have to get Engineering approval. Most installations of blind rivets are actually considered temporary. They will usually be removed during a Heavy Maintenance Visit (often several years later). Pop rivets fall at the very bottom of the rivet catagory. Pop rivets are never used on commercial aircraft structure, although I've used a lot of (a certain higher quality catagory of) them to fasten things like nutplates (all they are doing is holding what amounts to a nut, in place, while a bolt is tightened). Once tight, the bolt is tight the rivets are meaningless until you need to remove the bolt again. If the "pop" (type) rivets don't hold, then a veritable stream of cursing insues, while you go and try to find the right drill bits to remove the offending nutplates. Then, the little buggers almost always spin while you curse more and try to get a small pair of ViseGrips on the bottom of them (often very difficult due to space constraints), so you can smash them into submission, while you continue to drill them out. "Cherry-Max" rivets are a very popular form of blind fastener (in this case, blind rivet). They have a solid core of wickedly hard stainless steel that remains in place as the rivet is "pulled" into its compressed final product. Not only are they relatively heavy, they do not expand in the same way that solid rivets do -- plus you now have a dissimilar metal situation. Speaking of pop rivets: There is a kitplane (an excellent work horse of a plane) that makes use of thousands of closely spaced pop rivets. I used to be able to recall its name off the top of my head, but this library computer will not allow me to open another instance of my browser (to search google and figure it out). It was a sort of ugly, boxy, utilatarian looking plane. It was so "ugly" that it was actually very cool!! It's supposedly nearly "indestructable." Oh, BTW, "regular" solid aluminum rivets are only very slightly smaller than their correctly drilled, and in some cases, reamed holes. When the are compressed (bucked), they expand and tightly fill the hole. It's certainly an impressive art to get a properly shaped "bucked" head (also called "shop head"). If the bucked head is smashed too much or "leans" over, you've got to remove them. Technically, you are supposed to go to the next larger size because the material around the hole is now work hardened. If everyone actually removed ever screwed up rivet, there would be little hope of repair at a later time (because you don't have much leeway as to size). I'm pretty sure that that's how ships remained fairly water-tight. The final result of solid rivets are not always perfect. Upon close inspection of any commerical airliner, I can find dozens of leaking or "smoking" rivets. Technically speaking, they should be replaced. Realistically, it's a case of "what are you going to do?" I did a lightning inspection on a 757 that said they were hit on short final. It was raining and miserable (and very dark). It wasn't until the last section of inspection that I realized that I'd forgotten to check a few antennas. One thing led to another, and we eventually found way over 100 affected rivets (and outright holes). The plane was taken out of service for a couple of months, but I saw it again (with lots of very large rivets, which were used to "fill" some of the lightning strike holes). Always choose the correct rivet for the job(!!!). Regards, Robert Greenstreet

19 years, 4 months

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DTC MicroFile

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Does anyone have any recollections or information > about the DTC MicroFile? Data Terminals and > Communications made it. It's a piece of furniture > on wheels, contains a box with a dual 8" floppy drive and > appears to be designed to sit in between a terminal > and a daisywheel printer -- a primitive word processor? > Haven't had a chance to crack the box open yet, and am > curious if anyone has any concrete information. > > Cheers > Brian I just uploaded several documents on it to http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dtc/microFile

19 years, 4 months

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Compuserve wayback machine

by dave＠mitton.com

> Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:52:14 -0800 > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Subject: RE: Compuserve wayback machine > > On 10 Jan 2007 at 21:29, Richard A. Cini wrote: > > So, exactly the same thing happened to you that happened to me. > > > They actually want you to pay $18/month for access, which I guess represents > > the legacy dial-up business. > > Which is exactly the opposite of what you'd expect. When I dropped > service at the end of 2004, my monthly bill was about $9.50 /month. > How do they expect to compete with the likes of NetZero and PeoplePC? > I've actually kept my Compuserve account alive all this time as an emergency travelling ISP. One of the incarnations of my cable internet provider didn't allow off net access to POP and SMTP so I discovered that the extensive network of dialups was useful. Under the later revs of their network, you can dial in, authenticate, and then just use PPP to access the internet directly. You get about 3/hours/mo dial-in time for free and usage rates there after. I logged in yesterday via the web.... it takes a little redirection to the "native" Compuserve site as the inital screen wants a "Screen Name" and won't accept a PPN. I thought I set a name for my account but I don't remember it and I didnt write it down anywhere (it was too "obvious" ;^} ) There is a Vintage Computing forum still active, and the files area still has stuff dating way back at least to the 80s. I am still carrying a $9.99/mo legacy subscription, but I don't think they'll let you sign up for that anymore. They now have a BYOA (Bring Your Own Access) rate advertised. I noticed someone in a support forum mention some sort of backup rate of $3/month. I'm guessing that they'll have deals to try to keep getting some money from you if you may quit. I just got a Cingular 8525 and an unlimited data rate, so I'll probably drop this soon. I'm off to learn more about Windows CE. Dave.

19 years, 4 months

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only on govliquidation.com could this happen....

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:56:17 -0800 (PST) From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> Subject: Re: only on govliquidation.com could this happen.... > <http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1090219&convertTo=USD> > > Lot includes.... > ... > 10 RECTAL SPECULUMS - what?!?! That's for inserting the typing element. --------------------------------- ROTFL!!! Cameron, your humour (and medical expertise) make wading through the dreck worth while; thanks for a good laugh! mike

19 years, 4 months

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Vintage bitslice parts

by legalize＠xmission.com

A nice post from comp.arch recently.... <http://groups.google.com/group/comp.arch/msg/432b6e5023c3beb8> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 4 months

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wall wart for TI-58-C

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 11:30 -0600 1/12/07, Mike wrote: > I just checked my TI-58C, and it does indeed take a 3.3VAC 500ma power >pack. The links I posted earlier agree. The connector is keyed. The >part number is AC-9131. Are you sure that's the right pack, Stan? The >references say the TI-58 uses the same AC-9131 pack. The numbers so far are not totally inconsistent. The wart might supply 6.x V open-circuit or low-current, but rely on the battery pack to pull it down to 3.3V at 500 mA, running or charging. The circuit diagram on xgistor seems to indicate there's just a 4.7 Ohm resistor keeping the bus from being completely battery-limited. That said, the battery pack definitely contains 3 Ni-Cad cells, each typically around 1.1 or so V. (I have had mine apart, rebuilt with stock Ni-Cads, ond not fried anything.) Therefore 3.3 V to the electronics makes good sense. One thing I would *not* do would be to plug in the calculator without a good battery pack in place, based on the circuit diagram and on Tony's advice pertaining to the dire consequences of similar actions with HP calculators. FWIW, there is one more factor in the story. TI made a printer base (PC-100?) that you could place the calculator (TI-58, -58C, or -59) on to generate printouts. The method of connection was to take out the battery pack, and place the cavity that it just vacated over a protrusion on the face of the printer, which would then expand to lock the calculator into place. (There was also a compartment to put the battery pack into so it could charge while you printed.) Whatever the power supply in that doohickey was, it circumvented the battery completely. If anyone has one of those and could measure the voltage on its power pins, that would likely shed lots of light on what the calculator expects. (Sadly, mine went at a garage sale while I was away from home.) -- Mark Tapley, Dwarf Engineer (I haven't cleared my neighborhood) 210-379-4635 Dwarf Phone, 210-522-6025 Office Phone

19 years, 4 months

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a riviting topic

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

>From time to time, I've wondered about riviting whenever I come across a piece of computer cabinet metal that has rivits that have come loose or fallen out. The current case in point is the tilt latch on an 11/44 when it's in the 11X44-CA configuration (it's in the top of the rack, and tilts up on gas pistons). There is a little latch on the side (best way I can describe it is a metal rectangle cut on a diagonal) which is spring metal. You pull this latch in from the front with a pen or screwdriver, and it then clears the tab on the outer rack so it can tilt up. At the very back of this spring metal latch is a rivet holding it in place. This rivit has come loose. You can really only get to one side of it, that's when the cpu chassis is tilted up. I believe that in other (more common) rackmount configurations of the /44 when it's on slides that telescope out the front, this same latch is present but it's used to allow the cpu to slide forward rather than tilt up. I've seen riviters working on F18's at Boeing, and it sure appears to be a higher art form. Not sure it's something I could do, but thought I'd ask here. I've seen all kinds of rivits - different sizes - on an H960 I believe there are a couple? Anyways, what tools are required, where can one get rivits, what different types are there, and is it something a neophyte like me who has never done a rivit before can do? I'm looking for the basic intro to replacing a rivit for someone who has never done it. Jay West

19 years, 4 months

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HP11284 (or HP11285) datacomms interface

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Another of the interfaces I purchased is called an HP11284 data communications interface, it's part of the 11285 datacomms option (which also included firmware ROM modules for the HP9830). Anyway, this thing is complicated. It's 2 modules that plug into the 9830 I/O slots, each contains a PCB. One is stuffed with TTL and RS232 buffers (1488s and 1489s), the other has more TTL and 4 custom ICs. 2 20 pin ones (no idea) and 2 40 pin ones (maybe transmitter and receiver logic). The modules are linked by a cable, there's another cable from the first PCB I mentioned to the podem (or whatever). It ends in a 36 pin microribbon connector, I believe there was another cable which I don't have that connected to that and which ended in a pair of DB25 plugs, one for the RS232 signals to the modem, ther other carrying RS336 signals to an aautodialler. My first question is simple. Does anyone have this interface with that last cable and could 'buzz out' the connections so that I can make said cable, and/or figure out a little of the internal hardware? -tony

19 years, 4 months

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Looking for a service manual for the HP9865 cassette drive

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Well, the subject: line says it all really, but I'd better explain if only to avoid the 'You should be able to figure it out for yourself' (I could, if I have the drive) and the 'Most of it's the same as the drive in an HP9830' (it is, but it's the different bits I am interested in) type of replies. I've bought a few interfaces for the HP98x0 series of 'calculators' [1]. One of them is the interface for said tape drive, it's a single PCB containing about 10 TTL chips. What I am looking for, though, is a pinout of the interface connector on the drve iteslf so I have some idea what to expect on the end of this interface's cable. [1] They're called 'calculators' to get past the purchasing depatrments of the time. They're really computers -- the 9830 in particular programmed in BASIC, has an alphanumeric display and supports HPIB and I believe a hard disk. Other machines in the family (9810 and 9820) are more like calculators, but haev the same bit-serial 16 bit proceessor, etc. -tony

19 years, 4 months

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HP 500 Series BASIC MSI statement

by jondjohnston＠hotmail.com

We are looking for documentation on HP 500 Series BASIC software. Our immediate need is to learn the syntax of the MSI (Mass Storage Is) statement. Unfortunately, the form of the statement is not the same as with HP RMB or 9845 BASIC (we've tried those). Jon Johnston HP Computer Museum http://www.hpmuseum.net

19 years, 4 months

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test-drb January 2007