test-drb March 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

239 participants
488 discussions

by andrew＠taswegian.com

Some pictures of my "data numerics DL-8A" are available in a zip file at http://www.taswegian.com/datanumerics.zip Cheers A _____ From: Andrew Davie [mailto:andrew at taswegian.com] Sent: Thursday, 22 March 2007 3:36 PM To: 'cctalk at classiccmp.org' Subject: some old stuff Hey all I've been in and out of the classic computer collecting 'circles' over the past decade and a half, but these days don't have much time to play with the old toys. I thought I'd divest myself of some of the items that I've been collecting and though I wasn't sure if it were appropriate to advertise 'for sale' on the list, it's probably OK to let people know that I have these items and that I'll be happy to provide pictures and/or information for historical reasons. If you are interested in trade/sale discussion please contact me privately (andrew - at - taswegian.com). General questions about functionality/history can go to the list. I have a DataNumerics DL-8A. This is possibly the only one still alive, certainly the only one I've heard of in a decade+ in collectors' hands. It's a front-panel machine very much like an early Altair - lots of blinking lights. Very nice visuals, and appears to work perfectly - I fire it up every year or so. Inside it's an 8080, I think - haven't had it open for a while. Totally wirewrapped, quite neatly made. and with a low serial number in the 20s, from memory. I'll be happy to do images and/or provide additional information as requested. I also have a Dulmont Magnum with original manual. This is one of the very first laptops, comes with a fold-up 4-line LCD display. I haven't had this one working, nor have I tried. I'd be guessing to say it was functional, but there are no obvious issues like battery damage, etc. Weighs a ton, but for its day it was no doubt a portable marvel. I do have an extensive collection of early Soviet calculators and handheld computers. I collected most of these in the mid to late '90s when building my site Museum of Soviet Calculators - http://www.taswegian.com/MOSCOW/soviet.html . The collection includes a prototype or two, including one of the only two known MK-98 machines. The collection as a whole (100 machines?), but not individually is available for trade/sale. Finally, I have a very interesting homebrew machine built by a fairly well known Australian electrical wizard of the '70s and '80s, who published many articles in the aussie electronics magazines. This particular machine was a Signetics 2650 machine, but configured to run 8080 code (and hence, CP/M) through a software emulator. The whole machine, including the video card, was designed and built by the one guy and can be considered historical and one-of-a-kind. That's about it, really. If anyone would like pictures and/or further information on these just ask. Cheers A

18 years, 1 month

pretty much OT: acoustic coupling

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

my application anyway. What is the typical maximum speed of such a device, be it antiquated (I actually used to have one of the old Radio Shack units), or home-brewed. And lookee, here's what I had: http://cgi.ebay.com/RADIO-SHACK-ACOUSTIC-COUPLER-MODEM- TRS-80-AC-3_W0QQitemZ180098721480QQcategoryZ80229QQss PageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem In fact, that's an acoustic modem. What I'd like to implement is a "bridge" if you will between a modem and a cellular device that would allow connection to the internet. Ingenious, no? ;) Please, no one tell me about software and such that's presently available on the market. I'm aware of it, own 99% of it, and I'll say here and now it's flakey at best. The technology is antiquated enough, albeit not the application. O woe is me :( ____________________________________________________________________________________ We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265

18 years, 1 month

cctalk Digest, Vol 43, Issue 79

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:43:45 -0500 From: Richard Lynch <richardlynch3 at tx.rr.com> Subject: Re: baud modifier <snip> Now I just need to convert the current loop on my ASR-33 to RS-232 so I can try it out. Richard Lynch ---------------------- Lots of ways of doing that; here's a simple one (p.4): http://www.edn.com/archives/1998/080398/pdf/16di.pdf mike

18 years, 1 month

AlphaStation 200/250 and 255 - ebay observations

by ddsnyder＠zoominternet.net

Maybe some can answer this question. Every (it seems) AlphaStation 200/250/255 that appears on ebay ends up selling for more than what I *think* is a reasonable price. Maybe maintenance org's buying spares? Are they used by some telecoms? I used to have the 255's as Operator interface displays for process monitor/control. They used DUnix 4.0E and some apps from Siemens. I was able to replace them with DS10's with little effort. I can maybe see why a DS10 would go for a high price, but not the 200/250/255. AlphaStation 200 - mostly Alpha cpus @166 or 233MHz AlphaStation 250 - Alpha cpu @266MHz AlphaStation 255 - Alpha cpu @233/266/300MHz They were and are not _that_ fast and memory expansion is limited. I realize at the time (1995-1998) time frame these machines were very fast, but this is 2007, you could purchase a used DS10 or DS20 and gain alot of power for less money. Clue me in please, Dan @ Butler, PA

18 years, 1 month

FYI - History of Systems Engineering Laboratories, Inc. [SEL]

by ragooman＠comcast.net

FYI I just updated the webpage with the history of the Systems Engineering Laboratories, Inc. [SEL], this was the first company I started working for. There were alot of sporadic info spread across too many webpages online so I started to consolidate this into one place. I just received alot of back history from one of the old guys that worked there. So far, there's some interesting stories and links in there. Some pages still need to fill up with some more info, but it's a start. History of Systems Engineering Laboratories, Inc. [SEL] http://ragooman.home.comcast.net/computers_mini.html =Dan

18 years, 1 month

ModComp / Diablo project

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Anyone else notice this one: http://www.dovebid.com/Auctions/Auction10925/lotimagesEVER0205/2237107.JPG Looks like an interesting ModComp project, complete with Diablo? disk drives.

18 years, 1 month

OS/2 Warp 4 disk image needed

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I?m trying to resurrect a copy of OS/2 Warp 4 and I seem to have a bad disk image. Does anyone have an image of Disk 17 that they can send me? Also, does anyone know how many floppy disks Warp 4 contains? I?m afraid that the damaged archive is truncated so I don?t know how many images I might have had in it. Thanks. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.altair32.com http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp

18 years, 1 month

AlphaStation 200/250 and 255 - ebay observations

by ddsnyder＠zoominternet.net

I would agree, with Zane in that I would prefer an XP1000 @667Mhz to use every day. The apps I have maintained have migrated easily from and AS200 in 1995 to the XP1000 without issues, VMS 6.2 to 7.3. Maybe it is easier to do like kind replacement, you know all ports the same. The AS200/233 go for at time over $300 US. Once in a while an AS300 (AS250) can be found for less, depends on haw the ebay listing is worded. Dan @ Butler, PA

18 years, 1 month

Anyone have IBM Diagnostics diskette?

by ngriffis＠bellsouth.net

Dear Sirs, Would you please let me know your best guess wholesale and retail values of the following IBM Manuals and disks: IBM 1.1 DOS #6024001 IBM 2.00 DOS #6024061 IBM 2.02 Guide to Operations #6025000 IBM BASIC #6025010 Thank you for any help you can give me in valuing these items, Nick Griffis ngriffis at bellsouth.net

18 years, 1 month

more 11/45 fun

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I was letting the 11/45 instruction excerciser run in a loop just to work the machine while I was digging through the RL02 prints to find all the signals going to the fault lite. Looked over at the machine and it had locked up after running fine for about 5 hours. Wonderful. I figured one of my cpu boards was probably marginal and was preparing to swap boards and then I could swear I heard Tony yelling at me from across the pond. So I got out the scope and started checking the backplane power testpoints. Sure enough, E16B2 and E21B2 are both (basically) zero, and they were NOT that way before when I had a problem with the top 742 supply. Looking through the prints shows they should have been at -15v and come from the bottom 742 built in regulator. ARGH! So now it's the same board in the bottom supply that failed in the top supply a week or two ago. Glad I ordered some extra parts from mouser when the last one died. Further thought and I realized that slots 16 and 21 are for the mos/bipolar memory controllers. I don't have mos/bipolar memory. So I was wondering what else comes off that regulator board on the bottom 742. From recent memory I believe I recall the LTC comes from there. But LTC being fried wouldn't cause the cpu to fail to come up would it? And since I'm not actually using mos/bipolar I'm left wondering what else is coming off that board. AC lo or DC lo signal perhaps? I seem to remember that something odd was done to the regulator board in that lower 742 to make the output -15v instead of 15v like the top 742. In any case, I obviously SHOULD fix the regulator in the bottom 742 so I get that -15v back but I am left curious as to if that is what is causing the cpu to suddenly no longer come up and run. Am I on the right track here? Jay

18 years, 1 month

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test-drb March 2007