test-drb January 2008

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

221 participants
430 discussions

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Hi all, (I'm slowly getting back up to speed with the list!) Spotted in Seattle last week - a General Electric GP220 controlling a large industrial robot arm. Is anyone familiar with this beast? Is it even a computer as such? It's a big cabinet (maybe 6ft high, 3ft wide), and this one had an Apple ][ perched to one side, giving the impression of a console - but maybe the GP220 is just some sort of interface between the Apple ][ and the hydraulics of the robot arm, and the Apple actually contained all the smarts? However, there was a large hand-held controller attached to the GP220 with a big keypad and LED readouts - unfortunately the photo I grabbed was a bit too fuzzy to make much out on it (but one of the LED seven-seg displays looks to say 'program no.' underneath, implying that the system did have built-in intelligence of some kind). There's also what looked to be a built-in CRT on the front of the cabinet too, but it was covered by a large shroud and wasn't obviously displaying anything when I saw it - it could have been nothing more than a piece of glass over some mechanical readouts or something else deep within the bowels of the cabinet. Power input was a hefty 460VAC 3-phase at 40A according to the data plate. No obvious build date, unfortunately. cheers Jules

16 years, 11 months

Need 28VDC 4Amp PS...

by trag＠io.com

I saw a little more info on this topic. There are quite a few different Apple displays which use the ADC connector, and as you might imagine, the power demand of each one is different. The 17" Studio Display has a rated power demand of 40 watts, e.g.. Of course the bigger 23" displays and such will draw much more power. So, at 28V, if you could supply 1.5A you'd be okay, even with that display connected. Now, you've not going to get 1.5A at 28V stepping up the trickle supply, but the display isn't on while the computer is off, and once the computer comes on, there should be 30 or so amps available on the 5V supply. You'd just need to be sure to use a voltage booster which can handle the larger amperage and an ATX supply with a hefty 5V current rating. I think some of NS's boosters go as high as 3A. They have a nice table on their website which lists such characteristics. Jeff Walther

16 years, 11 months

Need 28VDC 4Amp PS...

by trag＠io.com

> > 22. Need 28VDC 4Amp PS... (Bill Sudbrink) > Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:52:23 -0500 > From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> > I'm fixing a PowerMac G4 for my Dad's wife. The original PS is dead. > It was a pretty standard ATX supply, the only difference is that it > supplies 28VDC at 4 Amps on two extra pins. Rather than spending a > lot of money on a new supply (more than $250 from the few sources that > will guarantee the PS) or a not insignificant amount on a used PS that > could go at any time, I want to put in a new standard ATX supply and > "tuck in" a small 28VDC PS to drive the two extra pins. The supply > is always on, so I can power it from a pass through on the ATX supply. > Does anyone have (or know where to get) a small supply? The 28V serves a couple of (mostly silly) purposes. Primarily it is there to supply 28V through the ADC video port so that a connected Apple display, which uses the (proprietary) ADC connector, can draw all of its power from the host Mac through the video cable at 28V. That is why the amperage rating is so high. I'm rather hazy on what the other purpose of the 28V supply is, but I'm under the impression that the machine will not start up without it. If you are not connecting an ADC based monitor, your power supply can have a much lower capacity. Which brings me to this: <http://www.io.com/~trag/28v_vreg.pdf> I did not design this, but it is a handy little circuit which boosts the 5V trickle to 28V to supply the needs which the Mac power supply has, other than powering an ADC monitor. I would not recommend connecting an ADC monitor to a Mac with this adaptation. The National Semi 2577 on which it is based is not rated to deliver 3A. You may wish to browse NS's website a bit. They have a variety of voltage boost chips available and IIRC the 2586 has a higher power rating. The ADC connector has been a curse to many Mac users. In addition to requiring the off-kilter power supply, most of the non-iMac/non-Mini Macs sold had dual video connectors but one of them was that stinkin' ADC connector. So if the user wanted two monitors he either had to buy an expensive (but fairly nice) Apple display or an expensive adapter. Furthermore, Apple routed the 28V supply to the video card through a pin which is now used on 8X AGP video cards. So one cannot install an 8X AGP card in "28V" Macs without neutralizing the 28V connection in some way. The analog video signals are present on the ADC connector, so it is possible to adapt through to plain old analog VGA, but the unusual form factor of the ADC connector means that as soon as Apple stopped hawking ADC, products, such as adapters, with the ADC connector stopped production. ADC to VGA adapters are only available on the used market now and rarely. There appears to be an infinite supply of Formac brand ADC to DVI adapters available, especially in Europe. However, for some reason the Formac (and most others) adapter does not pass through all of the analog signals. So going ADC-DVI and then DVI-VGA will not work unless one modifies the ADC-DVI adapter. I opened the thing (Formac adapter) up and it contains a small circuit board to which all the incoming analog signals are connected. It boggles me that they did not bother to connect them at the other end of the adapter. Jeff Walther

16 years, 11 months

IBM 9221 mainframe at auction

by ceby2＠csc.com

This message reminded me I have a challenge with my 9221. It takes parallel bus and tag cabling. When I bought it, I completely forgot to catalogue to the cables with the package. You guessed it, I have lots of terminal cables by not a single bus cable. So there's a CPU, expansion cage, and 5 drives, but not a thing to connect them together [silent scream]. Does anyone on the UK side of this list actually have any surplus parallel bus and tag cabling, or a source for such things? The only way I've see so far is to have them manufactured for some laughable amount of money. Regards, Colin

16 years, 11 months

Grid MS-DOS 3.3

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:42:26 -0500 > From: Dave Mabry <dmabry at mich.com> > Is there a chance you might put these files online again for me? Just > decided to resurrect a Grid 1535 and find I might be missing some files > that are specific to that hardware. Shows you what my own memory's like. They're still here: http://www.sydex.com/temp/griddos.zip Okay, I'll take it off *this* Friday (unless I forget). Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 11 months

Seagate ST11R ST412 controller + Mitsubishi MR535R

by peter.hicks＠poggs.co.uk

Hello! I have an elderly Mitsubishi MR535R (60Mb-ish RLL) connected to an ST11R controller. The control and data cables are homebrew although neatly and tidying put together. When I power up an old Pentium II - because it's the only box I have with ISA slots - the ST11R pops up a message on the screen, clunks the drive in an "I'm accessing you" kinda way, but then reports "No drives found" and continues merrily on its way. The cables are straight-through, and I have the drive set to DS1. If I set the drive to DS2, the BIOS sits there for several seconds but doesn't access the drive. As my knowledge is a tad rusty, can anyone help identify what the problem here is? BIOS shadowing is off for the memory locations that are, and could, be used by the card. The only thing I can think of is that the ST11R is in fact an ST11M, tries to read the drive, goes "Uh-oh, don't recognise you" and reports "No drive found". Unfortunately I lack an MFM hard drive to test this out with :( Peter -- Peter Hicks | e: my.name at poggs.co.uk | g: 0xE7C839F4 | w: www.poggs.com A: Because it destroys the flow of the conversation Q: Why is top-posting bad?

16 years, 11 months

PDP 11/24

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

I've read quite a few DEC faq's recently, but couldnt find performance spec's on the PDP 11/24. Is this the same as the original 11/23? How would it compare with a 11/34A? From what I can see the 34A was restricted to 256Kwords of RAM, whereas the 11/24 seems to support up to 1Mwords? Thanks Ian. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

16 years, 11 months

Need 28VDC 4Amp PS...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I'm fixing a PowerMac G4 for my Dad's wife. The original PS is dead. It was a pretty standard ATX supply, the only difference is that it supplies 28VDC at 4 Amps on two extra pins. Rather than spending a lot of money on a new supply (more than $250 from the few sources that will guarantee the PS) or a not insignificant amount on a used PS that could go at any time, I want to put in a new standard ATX supply and "tuck in" a small 28VDC PS to drive the two extra pins. The supply is always on, so I can power it from a pass through on the ATX supply. Does anyone have (or know where to get) a small supply? Thanks, Bill PS: This is sort of on topic because Apple says that this particular G4 is no longer supported and "vintage". No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.9/1238 - Release Date: 1/22/2008 8:12 PM

16 years, 11 months

Fwd: Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart available

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

I know the new cart is modern, but the system it's for is old so I figured this would just about be on topic. Anyway, anyone with a VIC-20 read on... Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk rbernardo at iglou.com wrote: To: acug0447 at yahoogroups.com, auscbm at yahoogroups.com From: rbernardo at iglou.com Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:49:14 -0500 (EST) Subject: {Anything Commodore Users Group} Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart available Long has been the dream of multiple VIC-20 games on one cartridge. Years ago programmer Ward Shrake envisioned and built himself a cart with dozens of games, all selected by dipswitches. Fast forward to 2008. VIC-20 multicart projects go on. For the past months, two different multicart projects have been in development. First out of the gate into the commercial arena is the Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart. With hardware by Eslapion and a game selection menu system by Viande of Denial, the Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart contains 127 games which originally were on separate carts. The following games are on the Behr-Bonz: AE Aggressor Alien Blitz Amok! arachnoid Artillery Duel Astroblitz Atlantis Attack of the Mutant Camels Avenger Bandits Battlezone Black Hole Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom Capture the Flag Centipede Choplifter Cloudburst Clowns pour Joystick Clowns pour paddle Computer War Congo Bongo Cosmic Cruncher Cosmic Jailbreak Creepy Corridors Crossfire Cyclon Defender DemonAttack Dig Dug Donkey Kong Dragonfire Final Orbit + Bumper Bash Frogger FROGMAN.PRG Galaxian Garden Wars Gorf Gridrunner IFR (Flight Simulator) In the chips Jawbreaker II Jelly Monsters (clone of Pacman) Jungle Hunt Jupiter Lander KEYQUEST Krazy Antics Lazerzone Lode Runner Lunar Leeper Maze Medieval Joust Miner 2049'er Mobile Attack Mole Attack Money Wars Monster Maze Moon Patrol Mosquito Infestation Motocross Racer Mountain King Ms Pacman Mutant Herd Omega Race Outworld Pac-Man (original) Paratrooper Pharaoh's Curse Pinball Pipes Poker Polaris Pole Position Predator Princess and Frog Protector Q-Bert Radar Rat Race Raid on Fort Knox Rally-X Rat Hotel Renaissance (Othello) River Rescue Road Race Robot Panic Robotron 2084 Scott Adams: Adventure Land Scott Adams: Mission Impossible Scott Adams: Pirate's Cove Scott Adams: The Count Scott Adams: Voodoo Castle Sargon II Chess Satellite Patrol Scorpion Sea Wolf Seafox Serpentine Shamus Sir Lancelot Skibbereen Skyblazer Space Ric-O-Shay Spider City SPIDERS OF MARS Spike's Peak Spills and Fills Squish'em Star Battle Star Post Star Trek - Strategic Operations Simulator Submarine commander Super Amok Super Slot Super Smash Terraguard The Sky is Falling Threshold Tooth Invaders Topper Trashman Turmoil Tutankham Type Attack Typo Video Vermin Videomania Visible Solar System You can purchase the Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart for $30 US plus $8 shipping to the US (shipping charge the same up to 10 carts). For postal fees to ship to other countries and other questions about the Behr-Bonz, inquire with eslapion(at)videotron.ca Paypal to eslapion(at)videotron.ca Other ROMs and services are available from Eslapion, too; just ask. I'm getting my Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart right away! Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

16 years, 11 months

div by 10 on Z80

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 23 Jan 2008 at 19:16, Brent wrote: > Of course, from a clarity-is-all-important modern software design > perspective, we should all be shot. Naw, not even. "Obscure" is miles of spaghetti code twiddling bits seemingly at random in a word, then finally using a "count the 1 bits" instruction on said word to index into a jump table... > If I were an economist, I would predict that at this rate, in another few > weeks the routine will be down to 1 byte. Good thing for us that you're not an economist--you belong in management. Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 11 months

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test-drb January 2008