test-drb December 2009

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

184 participants
226 discussions

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

I forgot to mention...if anyone knows of any individuals or other mailing lists that might be interested in these things, please feel free to forward my message along. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

14 years, 5 months

Iomega Click Of Death (was Different take on 10 Yr. 'RULE')

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

> On 29 Nov 2009 at 14:27, Fred Cisin wrote: > > > How about their "Jaz" drives? > > their "click" drives? In which the "click of death" was administered > > DURING manufacturing. I thought the "click of death" phenomena was a ZIP problem and not a JAZ problem. I also never found a good statement of what was the underlying problem(s) that led to the "click of death" phenomena! Does anyone really know what was going on (inner crash stop crash, head retract/relaunch; solenoid lock/unlock, both, other) and why (loss of servo control probably, but why loose it and not regain it). Comments? Pure intellectual curiosity only :-) Tom

14 years, 5 months

source for apple monitor cables

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

I have a switchbox for apple monitors and ADB wires that I'd like to hook up to several macs and a 2gs. I believe for the ADB part, I can just use s-video cables. But where can I inexpensively get db-15 mac video cables? I can use 4 right now, but I'd like to get 6 or so for future expansion. :-) brian

14 years, 5 months

Need datasheet for AMD 79C830 SUPERNET 2 chip ($$$)

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Hi everyone. I'm looking for a datasheet for the AMD 79C830 "SUPERNET 2" chip. The only caveat is that it must be dated prior to July 1991. This will likely be a preliminary datasheet that was disseminated in limited volume. If you've got it, please contact me directly. I'll pay $100 for an actual lead but it must be in paper form. Digital copies might work, though it's doubtful whether one would exist. Thanks! -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

14 years, 5 months

Running Computers Cold

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

Sorry to state the obvious, but it depends on the computer. When I used to work on military computers they were rated down to -55C I think. The parts which were only connected in a lab were rated down to 0C/32F. My old Germanium transistor machine turns itself off below 10C/50F because thats what Mullard / GEC (the British one), the transistor manufacturers specified. Now they are getting on for 50 years old I don't power it up below 13C/55F. Normally we shut down the restoration project in November but today, with the aid of a couple of fan heaters, we were working on it. Increased levels of solar radiation has a few advantages, though its due to peak in 2012 I'm told. I imagine with valves, the potential problem would be the glass cracking. Cold is certainly more of a problem than overheating, generally if an operator can stand the heat so can the computer. I've heard tales of old ICT 1301s being operated by people stripped down to their pants (underpants for those to the left of the pond) when the air conditioning failed because otherwise the payroll run would not be done, and of course they themselves would not be paid as well as taking flak from all the other workers. At work back in the 80s I had an Apple ][ euro-plus or maybe it was an Apple ///, anyway it was fitted with an external 'ICE' winchester drive. ICE being the brand. As we moved into winter it took longer and longer to start up in the morning depending on the temperature. We used to laugh at how appropriate the name was. Of course it eventually failed completely but at least we got a lot of warning and had a fairly full backup. Roger Holmes On 9 Dec 2009, at 06:56, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 21:19:55 -0800 > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > Subject: Running Computers Cold > To: classiccmp at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <p06240836c744e3988e63(a)[192.168.1.199]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" > > Okay, this is the first time I've ever had to worry about this. When > is it to cold to run a computer? It's 35F out in the garage, and it > is supposed to get a lot colder tonight. I just shut the > dehumidifier down (to cold to run it) and setup a heater near the > computers (and other stuff I don't want to freeze).

14 years, 5 months

small-cap SCSI-1 drives

by spectre＠floodgap.com

I find myself a little low on small capacity (250MB-1GB) SCSI-1 (not SCSI-2) drives, which is sad, because I'm trying to restore one of my Alpha Micros with one and the ones I have in stock are either spares for the Macs or otherwise allocated. Does anyone have some lying around they don't need and could make some arrangement to part with? If so, please contact me off list. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Famous, adj.: Conspicuously miserable. -- Ambrose Bierce ------------------

14 years, 5 months

HW supported by ULTRIX?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 12/9/09, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > No denying that. Off the top of my head Ultrix-32 v2 is probably the > minimum you'll get running on a MicroVAX II. I loaded Ultrix T2.0 (pre-release "Test" version?) from TK50 in about 1986 or 1987 on an early MicroVAX II. Prior to that, I loaded some flavor of Ultrix v1 from magtape onto an 11/730 w/RB80 disk. That doesn't say what will or won't work in terms of the boundary cases, but it's two points on the curve. In both cases, I remember that installation took most of a day, and it was a major wait for the kernel to compile. -ethan

14 years, 5 months

amiga 500 trapdoor memory upgade and cover

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a spare amiga 500 512k trapdoor memory upgrade (or similar) that you'd be willing to part with? I'm looking for the cover as well. Thanks. brian

14 years, 5 months

ZAX ICD-378 Z80 Hardware debugger

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Does anyone know where I can find documentation for this unit? Google turns up mention of one being sold on eBay with a PDF of the manual, but the listing is long gone from eBay. Wayback machine turns up nothing. Steve --

14 years, 5 months

RK05 alignment - without alignment pack?

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

> Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:09:08 +0100 > From: Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> > Subject: RK05 alignment - without alignment pack? > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <4B212B34.6070003 at hachti.de> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed > > Hi folks, > > I took a "new" RK05 disk drive from my heap. After defoaming I powered it > up. I soon realized that > the position sensor's glass had fallen off. Can be glued back in place > easily. But after that I'll > most probably have a misaligned RK05. > > The RK05 manual tells me how easy it is to realign the heads: Just load > the alignment pack and... > -- But I don't have an alignment pack :-( > > Does anybody (best would be in Europe) have an RK05 alignment pack I could > use? > > Is there a known trick to do it without alignment pack? I have working > drives and formatted disks handy. > > > Best wishes, > > Philipp > ------------------------------ With a good eyeball and a careful hand u can align to data. Since you have what you hope are calibrated drives, I would try taking a formatted pack on a good drive and writing 1F and 2F signals on alternate tracks, 2F on TK00, 1F on TK01, etc. (I don't know what the RK05 code is but 1F and 2F translates to some repetitive pattern). It is not necessary to do so on the whole pack, just circa TK00 and someplace in the middle of the pack. The analog signal will have a broad flat peak region as u move the heads across the track, so u can either eyeball the center of a track or better yet use a micrometer gauge to measure the region and then move it to the center. I'm not sure whether it is better to look at the entire track or two sectors 180 degrees apart. Depending upon the resolution of the recording system, the peak of a 2F should be about 0.7 of the 1F, so it should be obvious as u move across a track. Since you are liable to be several tracks off, the first thing you have to do is find Track Zero, which should be where the 1F/2F repetition starts. Once u get all the heads aligned at Track Zero, do it again at TK01 where you should have a clear track center (1F surrounded by 2F). Then move to the center and look at the signal again. You don't have to move the heads, just apply pressure to the carriage and see if you are more or less centered. The acid test is then when u read the pack :-) Tom

14 years, 5 months

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test-drb December 2009