test-drb February 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

208 participants
390 discussions

Fwd: [alt.folklore.computers] Diablo 630 printer and accessories

by legalize＠xmission.com

This message has been forwarded from Usenet. To reply to the original author, use the email address from the forwarded message. Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:02:56 -0500 Groups: alt.folklore.computers From: "Vic45" <vhnews at bellsouth.net> Org: BellSouth Internet Group Subject: Diablo 630 printer and accessories Id: <f8pCh.8731$e8.4025 at bignews1.bellsouth.net> ======== I have a Diablo 630 with print ribbons, one metal print wheel and several plastic print wheels. This unit was functioning perfectly when I took it out of service 20+ years ago. How might I find a good home for it? I am in the Atlanta area. Vic

17 years, 5 months

Tektronix terminals

by bob47lasher＠charter.net

I worked for Tek during the mid 70's on the 4010 series. Field service in the Los Angeles area. Yes, the flood guns that cause the tube to store the image AND erase it would go weak after a time. The length of time seemed to vary for many reasons. I found that customers that left the terminal on all the time (Tek used them as terminals for their semiconductor test systems S-3200 series) they seemed to last a long time, BUT if you turned it off for any length of time, it would take a really long time to warm up and erase properly. The bigger terminals (4014 and 4015) had some adjustments for collimation (the shape of the flood beam during the erase pulse), but not the 4010 series. If it finally starts storing and erasing after a period of time, I would suggest that you live with it. The tubes are no longer available (probably obsolete for over 10 years). If you can find them, the tube for a 4012/4013 or the Tek611 (storage monitor, also used in the 4002A (somebodies favorite) would work in your 4010. If you have the hard copy unit (the dry silver paper printer), you may have trouble getting clear copies. There were times when you replace the tube with a new one and you couldn't get a good copy. You ended up replacing it a second time. It didn't take too much time to replace one after you had done it a few times. The computer interface. In the standard terminal, there was one slot for a data comm interface. There were two RS232 interfaces available. The standard full duplex and a deluxe i/f. The deluxe version had switch selectable baud rates and could do half duplex comm. Remember this was back in the days of 300-1200 baud modems, both acoustic couplers and AJ and Racal-Vadic modems. That was back in the days when you paid a 'buck a baud' for a modem, especially above 2400 baud. Tek also had a series of TTY Port interfaces. These were meant to be directly connected to a mini. They had them for DEC PDP-11's ,DG Novas, and others. The DEC used either a M7800 or M7856. The M7800 was easy to install, it had rotary switches and you simply selected the external clock position and made sure you had the right crystal to get 38k baud. The M7856 had to be modified to replace the 110 baud position (IIRC) with a clock from the terminal interface. The neat thing about these interfaces was that when you got to the bottom of the screen, they would stop the clock to the computer interface and the screen would 'freeze'. For those unfamiliar with the 4010 series of terminals, after you clear the screen and start to display information, when you got to the bottom of the screen, the cursor would position itself to the top middle of the screen and over-write down the middle. Then it would go back to the left margin and continue. So, you had to stop the computer from sending data to the terminal to keep from scrambling your display. The DG Nova interface/computer would really scream, usually in the 300k baud range. It did a great job with the big (4014/4015) displays. Cal Tech had several of them in their seismographic lab. They threw up a screen full of graphics almost instantly. Very impressive. The PDP interface was good for about 38k to 56k, depending on the processor. There were some modified products availbe to display a non-storing line of characters. IIRC, it wasn't available for the 4010, but was for the 4012 series. The 4012 had similar characteristic to the 4010 except it had a better character generator, lower case display and just generally a nicer terminal. I have mentioned the 4013 and 4015. These were versions of the 4012/4014 that had special character generators to be a terminal for the APL programming language. This language used graphical characters for its operators. An interesting language. I took a class in it at night. The IBM APL terminal was a 2741 (IIRC). For some oddball reason, it used 134.5 baud as a comm rate.

17 years, 5 months

SWTPc 6800 vs. Altair 680

by billdeg＠degnanco.net

I found the answer to my original question...at least as far as running SWTPC 4K BASIC on an Altair 680. You can do it. The modifications are described in Kilobaud #8, August 1977. I will put up a copy on my web site asap. Every issue of Kilobaud from #7 to #12 in 1977 has an Altair 680 ad on the back. Byte Mags also have a lot of Altair 680 ads on the back covers in 1976. I think that they were serious about the computer, as an entry level system. That's just my opinion. I was too young to know first hand. Bill

17 years, 5 months

More old software available

by geojacobs＠netzero.ne

If the Freelance for DOS is still available I am interested George Louis Jacobs 718 455 5239 geojacobs at netzero.net

17 years, 5 months

pen plotters?

by djg＠pdp8.net

I have a Calcomp 563 drum plotter on my 8/E. http://www.pdp8.net/563/563.shtml (need to make a better page now that I have it running. Showed it at the last VCF east) About as basic as can be. No command language here, it needs a pulse >from the computer for each .005 inch step. The 8/E control card required you to execute an instruction to generate each pulse. Plots about 1.5 inches per second. The 30" pin feed paper the plotter want also doesn't seem to be available any more. For VCF I did some searching online for some good pen plot files to use to demo but didn't find much. Anybody know of some good ones? The format isn't important since I can find/write a program to translate. I ended up using the samples from tek2plot that I used to demo my 4010.

17 years, 5 months

Kennedy to PC interface...

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> And there really are CS/80 docs? http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/disc/5955-3442_cs80-is-pm.pdf CS80 programmers manual what isn't in there is the drive-specific info if you wanted to write a drive simulator. I had wanted to dump the data from a bunch of different drives to get the info documented, but I haven't done it.

17 years, 5 months

Xebec Winchester controller

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Theyre not S1410's. Not even close. They have the black brick in the > middle, HPIB connector and connect to two ST506-type drives. I have the docs scanned, will have to remember where I put them. The box was made by a third party orig. The Xebec controller with the epoxy brick is the one that predates the LSI used on the 1410. There was a Multibus version of the controller as well.

17 years, 5 months

Xebec Winchester controller

by onymouse＠garlic.com

Here's one that even HP Greeley couldn't help with: Looking for specs and ROMS or ROM images for Xebec Winchester controllers such as those used in the HP 9133A disk. I have the HP manuals and there is not enough info in them. Somewhere I (may still) have DIP switch settings for the board, obtained experimentally. I do not have info in all the jumpers, ROMs, etc. thanks... -- jd Decision maker, n.: The person in your office who was unable to form a task force before the music stopped.

17 years, 5 months

Turbodos on a Horizon 8/16 system

by stekster＠gmail.com

Jim - If TurboDOS is compatible with CP/M and gives you access to the HD, can't you use a CP/M utility like DUU to see what's on it? Bob Stek Saver of Lost Sols

17 years, 5 months

Mac Tapedrive 40sc (drivers)

by Alwrcker82＠wmconnect.com

The drive works fine, what I can tell the, I have two tapes I put one in the drive and the tape moves to the end or the start of the tape., but then no software for the rest of the operation. Al DePermentier

17 years, 5 months

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test-drb February 2007