test-drb May 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

235 participants
483 discussions

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yes I thought "Kettle lead" and shot off to the kitchen. Er nope, our kettle has a standard IEC connector as found on a million and one PC's. So rummage through cable collection and discover a cable with a somewhat longer IEC connector. Yes! it has a groove opposite the middle connector. But, what's this? The groove does not extend to the front of the connector. It must have been designed to work with a spring clip that was depressed as the connector was inserted and clicked into place when the plug was fully home. Needless to say, removing the small piece of plastic to extend the groove to the front took seconds and it fits. However its not the 'right' cable. I have read the manual for the 4000-300 and theres a nice section on the plug. However it refers to it as the 'power cable shipped with your system'. The picture shows it to be a right angled type and there's a picture of the various wall socket end plugs. None of them are UK 13Amp type. Whilst working at DEC I had a mains cable problem with terminals. The US claimed the German type (Round with two round pins) was standard for the UK. The guy came over for a meeting and I asked him to plug in the terminal using his 'British' standard cable. That cost him a very nice evening out. The solution? We shipped an IEC cable that had a standard UK 13A plug moulded on the other end. They took it to their cable sub contractor. He said "Oh you ment those!" He had thousands in stock and they were cheaper than the one they normally shipped!!! So whilst what I have will probably run, its not the correct cable. It should be a right angled IEC type with a groove or slot opposite the middle pin. Rod Smallwood DecCollector -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 31 May 2007 00:28 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 > > Hi > Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit > on a minor problem.=20 The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a > normal IEC connector with one exception. > Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a > groove or slot in the=20 mating free connector. > =20 > Before I start hacking up cables does anybody recognise this plug. Sounds like a 'hot condition' IEC connector. It was originally used on kettles, and the like, and was designed (a) to withstand higher temperaturs than the normal on, and (b) it's rated at 10A (IIRC), the normal one being originally rated at 6A. It's the latter that's important here. Any dectnet electronics shop in the UK would stock it. -tony

17 years, 6 months

Aztec C (was: more eBay stuff)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 02:50 PM 5/31/2007, Bill Pechter wrote: >The Manx (Aztec C) folks were local in Shrewsbury or Eatontown, NJ.. My >wife actually worked there for a while... Eatontown. And what was her name? - John

17 years, 6 months

strange *pc*

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-PC-Systel-Sytem-with-sensors-for-light-sound-temp_… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz

17 years, 6 months

Sun, HP "scrap" (???)

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

>From: Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com> > >--- woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: > > > Chris M wrote: > > > > > They use solvents or whatever typically I guess, > > but > > > the addition of a lot of heat might do it too. You > > can > > > build a small gas furnace for probably much less > > then > > > $100 USD. Theoretically the temperature will be > > > limited only by the quality of the refractory > > cement > > > used. Oi whatever. > > > > > Charcoal is the low cost fuel ... But then I don't > > think one would get that much gold to need a > > furnace. > > The books are here. http://www.lindsaybks.com/ > > Gas burns much hotter...unless you're talking about >*real* charcoal made from hardwoods. But you know >what...gas still burns much hotter. My point was you >could mess w/hydrochloric? acid and all that (wherever >you'd find it - I know someone's going to point out >how it could be commonly had, or maybe it's a >relatively *common* thing to find)...or you could just >burn off all the volatile gunk in a cheap furnace. But >you'd have some steel (pins) left over. That'll melt >too...at oh about 2800 degress Fahrenheit. Can't >remember if gold melts at a higher or lower >temperature. But at least you should be able to >separate the gold from the steel. Or come to think of >it maybe you could eliminate the steel before the >barbecue. > I'm not aware of a resistance element that'll go any >higher then ~2300 degrees, that being enough to melt >brass or prolly even pure copper. But the mints use >magnetic induction (with some sort of coil thingee). >But that requires and awful lot of juice I'm told. >Like enough to light a city block... > > Hi You don't want to melt the other metals first, most metals will dissolve the gold and just make it harder to refine. The best method is with acid. Muradic acid should work ok to remove the other metals. Gold melts quite hot. I don't recall any heater wire that wouldn't melt first. In an inert gas, as was mentioned by another, tungsten could be used. Other methods include things like carbon arc or oxi-acetylene. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ More photos, more messages, more storage?get 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail. http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migrati…

17 years, 6 months

who invented IDE?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

I think I've even asked this question before, but got no response. Or at least no suitable ones. Hosers. Though I was recently told that the first IDE card appeared in a Compaq Deskpro. Can anyone confirm or deny? ____________________________________________________________________________________Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/index.php

17 years, 6 months

Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life.

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

I'm not sure about the back up but the -200 has a TK70 as does the -300. So if I can prepare a bootable tape I should be able to boot the -300 >from it and maybe even get a system onto it. As to attaching one of the drives from the -300 to the -200. I'll investigate the types. However both systems are DSSI bus so to a first approximation they should be OK. Sorry I'm a bit slow, its not that my memory of stuff I knew 25years ago has gone its just the access time has increased!!! Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Zane H. Healy Sent: 31 May 2007 16:24 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life. At 9:48 AM +0100 5/31/07, Rod Smallwood wrote: >Boot er no but as it seems as the system spent some or all of its life >in the insurance industry I'm not surprised the disks have been wiped. >Ok so next move. I'm going to try and make a VMS 6.2 bootable tape on >the -200 as the -300 has a TK70. Can you run a backup from one disk to another. If you can clone the disk in your -200, then you can stick the new disk in your -300. >The -300 also has a KZQSA (SCSI) controller and whilst they are no good >with hard drives I think they work with CD ROM's I also have a stand >alone SCSI CD drive (Yamaha CRW4416SX) it has the really small SCSI >plugs (inch and a bit long) on the back and the KZQSA has the really >big ones. Cables for such connections used to be quite common, I should think it wouldn't be that hard to find them in the UK. The tricky questions are, does the CD-ROM drive support 512-byte blocks, as I believe that will be a requirement for booting VMS. (Actually is this still a requirement on the latest versions of the OS?) Also, does the board require DEC drives to work? A quick bit of googling doesn't answer the 512-byte question, but turnes up the following manual. http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/computer/pdf/crw4416sx_e.pdf I also see where it was apparently a popular drive for people wanting to hang a CD-RW drive off of a Sun box. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

17 years, 6 months

Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yup that's it!! I wonder if they do a right angled version? -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Dennis Boone Sent: 31 May 2007 00:10 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 > Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit on a > minor problem. The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC > connector with one exception. Directly below the middle pin is a rib or > ridge that would require a groove or slot in the mating free connector. It's defined by the IEC-320 spec. The C15 type goes on the cord, the C16 is the back panel of the appliance. See e.g.: http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/IEC_Connectors/IEC_Inlets-Connectors.ht ml The principal difference between the C15 and the more common C13 appears to be rated operating temperature. De

17 years, 6 months

Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit on a minor problem. The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC connector with one exception. Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a groove or slot in the mating free connector. Before I start hacking up cables does anybody recognise this plug. Rod Smallwood

17 years, 6 months

who invented IDE?

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> On 30 May 2007 at 17:24, Chris M wrote: > > > I think I've even asked this question before, but got > > no response. Or at least no suitable ones. Hosers. > > Though I was recently told that the first IDE card > > appeared in a Compaq Deskpro. Can anyone confirm or deny? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Attachment "An early version of the specification, conceived by Western Digital in 1986, was commonly known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) due to the drive controller being contained on the drive itself as opposed to the then-common configuration of a separate controller connected to the computer's motherboard " ____________________________________________________________________________________Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC

17 years, 6 months

Sun, HP "scrap" (???)

by marvin＠west.net

Interesting! I sold and am selling some type S thermocouples (Platinum/10% Rhodium vs Platiunum) on Ebay, and in doing some research, found that one use of this type of thermocouple is connected with the melting point of gold. FWIW, there are gold stripping solutions available. I don't recall what they are made of but probably some sort of cyanide concoction. The method *I* want to try someday is to use mercury to disolve the gold, and then boil off the mercury leaving the gold (I would guess as a powder.) And yes, I do know the dangers of using this method. > Hi > You don't want to melt the other metals first, most > metals will dissolve the gold and just make it harder to > refine. The best method is with acid. Muradic acid > should work ok to remove the other metals. > Gold melts quite hot. I don't recall any heater wire > that wouldn't melt first. In an inert gas, as was mentioned > by another, tungsten could be used. Other methods > include things like carbon arc or oxi-acetylene. > Dwight

17 years, 7 months

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test-drb May 2007