test-drb August 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

221 participants
459 discussions

finds from TRW Swapmeet (AKA Northrup Grumman swap meet) today

by Lan.P.Nguyen＠aero.org

Hi Jim, I ran across your email on the web this morning. If you still have the RH32 board and if you're willing to resale it, please let me know. I'm working on a project and need to create a program to run on TRW RH32 computer. However, I can not find or buy one anymore (: Thank you, Lan

16 years, 11 months

Logic trainer finds

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Vincent Slyngstad wrote: I have one of these, and the wires with the plugs are a problem. Mine came to me with only a few of these left, and I haven't been able to replace them. For those who've never seen one (but care), there are eyelets/rivets which are sized appropriately for a mini-banana plug, set into the lab box to form the connection points. Then, a kit of various lengths of wire is provided. The wires end on both ends with something similar to the male pins from a large AMP connector or the like. The thing is, they have an unusual tapered shape, rather than a simple cylinder, which allows them to wedge into the eyelets nicely. The pins appear to be brass, and the eyelets look like they might be gold plated(?). I (and probably others who own one) would love to get some more of the wires, or at least a source for the tapered pins to make new wires. If the tapered pins were available, I suspect brass eyelets could be used for an inexpensive (and almost authentic) plug/connector scheme. (Mini-banana plug hardware seems to be the antithesis of inexpensive!) Vince -------------- I assume you are talking about the DEC logic trainer? If you talking of the CDC trainer, I have a couple of old chasses loaded with wires and buggies that I use for repair. Even have some NOS wires and buggies. Billy

16 years, 11 months

Burroughs parts?

by dm561＠torfree.net

>Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:53:02 -0400 >From: "Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at verizon.net> >Subject: Burroughs parts? >I have some of the following parts, maybe you guys can help me ID this stuff? >-- Several tubes of what appear to be resistor packs, branded "Beckman" and >bearing the part number 1899-258-0, not found under Beckman anywhere Shouldn't be too hard to figure out with an ohmmeter... ;-) >--3 tubes of white ceramic-cased w/gold chips marked 1449-1112, I *think* >this is some kind of DRAM? 2102 / TMS4033 1Kx1 SRAM mike

16 years, 11 months

Stumbled upon: Douglas Electronics

by cclist＠sydex.com

At http://www.douglas.com. In San Leandro. I note that they claim to offer S-100 and DEC prototype PCBs. Are they still in business--or is this just an incredibly stale web site? Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 11 months

'nother odd drive

by rtellason＠verizon.net

We just got given a "Power Mac 7500 Series" system (is that topical in here?), my first mac. It has, among other things, an external box marked "Syquest" and one "disk" that apparently goes with that, marked 200MB. Anybody familiar with these? All of this stuff is new to me... Also got a couple of printers with this system, a LJ5 and some Epson inkjet, is there any reason I wouldn't be able to use these with any other hardware? I dunno if it coming with the mac makes a difference here or not. Wondering too if that system uses a standard VGA monitor, as that's one thing we _didn't_ get with it. -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

16 years, 11 months

Looking for a couple of DEC parts

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I'm looking for a couple of parts to get some Vaxen running. (A MicroVax II and a Vax 11/750) Qbus ethernet Qbus DSSI controller Unibus SMD controller Unibus ethernet SDI cable Thanks! -Ian

16 years, 11 months

ESDI Magneto Optical Drive

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I was searching on eBay for ESDI stuff, and came across an ESDI MO drive. Now, this was listed by one of those listers with eight pages of terms and conditions, and one line of a really bad description. It is listed as ESDI in the title, and in the auction, but near the bottom, it's listed as SCSI. I really, really want this drive, and I want it ESDI. But I didn't want to buy this and have it be yet another old SCSI MO drive. So, I checked with the seller - they have a website complete with live chat. I won't post the chat transcript since it's pretty long, but basically the guy first tried to evade with "We don't offer technical help" and stuff to that effect. I was not aware that "Is it SCSI or ESDI" was such a complicated question. But, he eventually decided that it was SCSI - I believe he called the stock room. So, did they even make this drive in ESDI? -Ian

16 years, 11 months

Older PC's available / Virginia

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

Received this email: > My father ran a software company, so we had tons of computers lying > around as kids.. Now we're moving and would like to dispose of them. If possible > I'd like to give them to someone such as yourself who has a personal interest or who > might refurbish them or use the parts to make useful computers. > > We live in Virginia. Are you interested? Or do you know some other > person who might be? Asked for more info and got: > 2 relatively new computers... within the last 5 years, intel pentium > somethings.. im not sure what the specs are. they need memory and such. if > someone who likes taking apart and putting back together again, they could > be used for parts and or improved easily. We just have too many lying > around... > > 1.Compaq Presario 425 > 2. HP Pavillion 2746C > 3. Dell 486P/25 > 4. IBM PS2 Type 853(I'm not sure.. what this is. Its old. There are lots of > things written on the back, ifyou need more info let me know) > > We're more than willing to give them to anyone with interest. Preferably in > the DC metro area... Please be in touch! If anyone is interested, contact me and I'll forward the contact info. Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

16 years, 11 months

Broken floppy disks

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: Broken floppy disks > From: Mr Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com> > Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:33:34 -0700 (PDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >I've had pretty good reliability with 3 1/2" disks, if >you keep the drive clean, and make sure that the disks >aren't dirty or have that "gritty" sound to them, they >typically work OK. > >I typically use the fdformat (or superformat) under >Linux - you can have it format the whole disk before >going back and verifying, sometimes it might take a >pass or two before the disk verifies OK. Degaussing >the disks with a bulk eraser would be a good idea too. > >But be sure that your drive is good and clean. I've >also had better luck with older floppy drives - >Mitsumi, Chinon and Teac drives seem to be very >reliable. Blow the fuzzies out before use. Cleaning the head after you get a bad media situation is advised. >Also, be sure your BIOS is set right - I had a hell of >a time a couple weeks ago trying to write a disk on a >PC here, it was just a simple boot disk, but I tried >four floppies, checking the image, reformatting, etc - >then I remembered that last time I used the PC, I had >a 1.2mb 5 1/4" drive as drive 0. Bios was set wrong, >and the whole time I was trying to write data to the >disk at the wrong data rate. Doh! > >-Ian I've had the same results with 8,5.25 and 3.5 media. They all work well for me, I keep the drive clean and dust bunny free and problems are rare. I worked in a place that had a fair amount of dust and if I didn't clean out the 3.5" drives once every 4 months they would destroy media. It wasn't a media problem it was gritty dust getting in there. I must have over 400 3.5" floppies of both flavors (720/1.44) and all but 100 are recycled prior use media that never give trouble unless the drive was at fault (dust). One comment regarding PC fans. PCs suck air in and often that means through the floppy and other holes in the case and out through the fan. This tend to dirty up everything very badly. I have an older P166 (workhorse system) that I reversed the fan, added a second fan blowing in and put simple fine mesh screens on the outside of both. I get far better life out of CPU coolers, floppies and CDrom drives as a result. I've made this change on other machines with similar results. Allison

16 years, 11 months

SOL Terminal Computer (Chassis)

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, Had a partially built "SOL Terminal Computer" dropped off here yesterday, all the important stuff seems to be here except for some parts of the chassis. Fortunately I did get two very full binders of documentation which has all the parts and assemblies listed. According to the docs, the chassis consists of: 1. Main chassis 2. EXpansion Chassis 3. Power supply subchassis 4. Fan closure plate [X] 5. Power supply subchassis bracket [?] 6. Keyboard bracket [?] 7. Left side piece, Walnut [X] 8. Left side piece, Masonite [X] 9. Right side piece, Walnut [X] 10. Right side piece, Masonite [X] 11. Keyboard cover 12. Top cover 13. Finger wall label [X] 14. Printed trim plate, Paper [X] 15. Plexiglass strip [X] 16. Serial number label [X] 17. Connector identification label [X] [X] marks parts that I definately have [?] marks parts that I may have (There's a bag of assorted bits - I havn't gone through it yet). As you can see, the big things that I am missing are the Main, Expansion and Power supply chassis, and the covers. It'd be great if someone responded with "I've got an empty SOL chassis" ... (anyone got one?) - but I'm never that lucky, so I'm expecting that I'm going to have to fabricate the missing chassis parts. Is there anyone on the list with a SOL who would be willing to take some defailed photos and measurements to assist me ? Regards, Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

16 years, 11 months

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test-drb August 2007