None of my recent posts have made it into the digests (probably
because Hewlett Packard sent me a security certificate) but most
topics are now stale so I wont bore you with things like 160 column
cards, but I will retry this one:
One of my Flexowriters has just had its mains cable replaced and then
turned on for the first time in about 25 years. Apart from surface
rust and the printing levers not going back down, and the ribbon
breaking, it seemed to work fine. Does anyone know what grade(s) of
oils/greases to use on which parts? The rubber parts and carriage
return band even seem good but would probably not appreciate dunking
the whole thing in oil. I guess WD40 or "3 in 1" oil would be out
because I've been told they both leave a residue. I have not seen
anyone selling 'light machine oil' for a few years here in the UK but
there must be a modern version surely.
-------------Original Message:
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:06:19 -0300
From: "Alexandre Souza" <alexandre-listas at e-secure.com.br>
Subject: Which way to go, from now on?
Ok, now what?
I had most of the 8 bits' computers avaiable in Brazil
I had most of the 16 bits' computers avaiable in Brazil
I had most of the 32 bits' computers avaiable in Brazil
I had most of the 64 (!) bits' computers avaiable in Brazil
I'd like to find a new journey. I was thinking about S100 computers, but
it is too expensive to play. I cannot find S-100 connectors here in Brazil
and boards to play are almost inexistent here.
Any suggestion of a nice project to keep me entertained? :o)
Thanks
Alexandre
----------Reply:
Where to go, what to do... a profound question indeed...
Why not join Andrew's happy little gang building and playing with the
N8VEM SBC? Sounds like a lot of fun.
I'm still waiting to hear from you about that PPT BTW... ;-)
I'm interested to learn the titles of some standard reference books on
electronic and microcomputer design from the early 1980's. I've been
reverse engineering many aspects of the Commodore Amiga. While I have a
decent library of Amiga books, I'd like to expand the collection to
include the "de facto standard" reference texts of the day --- to give
me more of an insight into the minds of the designers.
I've read some "history of the amiga" columns, "Life on the edge",
various interviews and so on.
If you could go back, what books would you find on the bookshelves of
these engineers? If you graduated college or a technical school in
1980, what were the popular reference texts used?
68000 reference books?
6800 reference books?
standard information on bus arbitration, or memory controllers, or maybe
LSI chip layout?
standard OS design practices?
I know I'm all over the place.
I've started playing with FPGA's and while I'm wholly unqualified to be
doing so, I'm enjoying it --- but would like to understand how this
stuff was done prior to the modern age. It's like learning the command
line first, so that when the gui-front end comes, you know what's
happening in the back.
Thanks
Keith
P.S. I'd almost be willing to bet there is one or two books called
"contemporary microcomputer design" or "contemporary electronic design"
both with a copyright date of 1980. I could be wrong. :)
Just a followup to my announcement post, the MGC came and went and was a
huge success. 22,000 sq ft packed to the rim of computing, console, video
arcade and pinball, so much so we're moving to a new located next year
that'll give us around 30,000 sq ft. Here's my photo galleries:
Vending Hall
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615745200729/
Coin-ops
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615745260231/
Competition Area
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615745281965/
Museum
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615834963880/
Underdog Chamber
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615746538685/
Family Game Room
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615835258766/
VGEVO
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615746725067/
Ben Heckendorn Experience
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615835307612/
Some Speakers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615835542568/
People At The Show
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91071283 at N00/sets/72157615746879399/
You'll notice the museum area had a decent vintage personal computer
contingent, with people coming to represent Commodore, Texas Instruments,
and Tandy/CoCo computers (all the others are mine). Once again, I'm
extending the offer for collectors from here to take part and show of their
equipment. I'd also be happy to host the VCF Midwest there next year as
well, we have the space, and the people (I'm estimating attendance at about
4,000 unofficially for this year's show). And I love to promote our hobby
any way I can.
Marty
Paul Koning <Paul_Koning at Dell.com> wrote:
>>>>>> >>>>> "Don" == Don North <ak6dn at mindspring.com> writes:
>
> Don> The 'even/odd-skew-by-6' algorithm mentioned in a previous email
> Don> is what I found works for XXDP. It is probably the DEC
> Don> 'standard' for RX01/02 drivers.
>
> I would assume that is the case. I found it in a RSTS driver, and
> the that that two very different systems share a mapping function
> suggests it's a DEC standard. (DEC certainly tended to standardize
> this sort of thing company-wide.)
Yeah. I can report that RSX do the same skewing/interleaving as well.
And to make the point even clearer to the original poster: this is not
something simh is aware of, or involved in. This is a mapping algorithm
done by the PDP-11 in software (in the driver). So it definitely applies
in this case.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
I thought I recall some of you guys looking for one of these, in a few chats last week.
I'd buy it, but I dont have a system (anybody have one they would sell to to a fellow vintage fan?)
Randy
ebay
$40 at present
250394374739
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail? is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast.
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_70faster_032009
I sent this a couple weeks back, about when the list went down for a few
days. I'm not sure if it was received or not. There were no inquiries,
so either nobody wants S-100 stuff these days, or the message didn't get
out. Sorry if it is a dup and nobody is interested.
A gentleman contacted me and said he had some things that his brother
had made/used back in the day, but he wanted to find a new home for them
after his brother died. I have given away my S-100 stuff, so I have no
use for it. He doesn't want his email address on the web, so contact me
and I'll put you in touch with him.
Al Kossow, this stuff is coming from Bob Senzig -- this was his brother
Don's stuff.
1) Z-80 CPU 2810A assembly number 02810001A (mfg)
2) Model 2422 multi mode floppy disk controller assembly number
02422-001 rev B (mfg)
4) Data technology 018A000 rev 2 (manufactured)
5) Vector Graphics 64K RAM Assembly number 3504 (mfg)
6) Vector Graphics serial card ZCB (mfg)
7) Processor Technology Co. 2KRO (hand wired) with boot PROM
8) GODBOUT 4K static RAM (hand wired)
10) Vector Graphics floppy disk drive disk controller assembly number
356500000600 (mfg)
11) Altair DMA interface 1976 (hand built)
12) Processor technology 4K RA (hand assembled)
13) 4K static RAM by Solid State Music 1976 (hand assembled)
15) Extender card (hand assembled)
17) IMS Associates Inc 1976 CRI rev 1 Audio interface board (hand assembled)
18) Godbout 4K byte RAM module (hand assembled)
-------------Original Message:
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:31:32 -0700
From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
Subject: Re: Old Timers [was: CompuPro CPU-68000]
On 21 Mar 2009 at 15:50, Jim Battle wrote:
> Chuck, that was spoken like a true old-timer, but your derision is
> laughable. "Hey, you damn verilog coders, get off my lawn!"
>
> I'm surprised, as you saw the transition from tubes to transistors to
> ICs, so it shouldn't shock you that the next evolution of integration
> requires just as much engineering and intelligence, although the
> problems to be solved are somewhat different.
Oh, I was trying to be humorous about it. I write Verilog too; it's
fun in its own way.
I could just have easily grumbled about ... laying out 14 AWG busbar on
mahogany breadboards between surface-mount (meaning that they're
attached with woodscrews) components.
Times change, and all too frequently, we don't. All we can do is
grumble.
--Chuck
--------------Reply:
Aw, some folks just don't get irony and subtle humour...
But you're right: I never thought about it but we've come full circle with
surface-mount techniques; I wonder if royalties are being paid...
m
I am a "Power Seller" with over 10 years on E-Bay, probably 5,000
transactions, but I am not a business and most of my activity is buying, not
selling.
First, re: "I hate [ebay] because it defrauded me in 2005", that is, in all
probability, BS. E-Bay didn't defraud you, the other party (buyer or
seller) did. E-Bay is not a principal to the transaction; it is merely a
venue for bringing buyers and sellers together.
Second, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO USE E-BAY, it is EXTREMELY safe. Most of the
sellers (and buyers) are honest, more than 99% I'd say. If you pay through
Pay-Pal with a credit card, you have about 3 levels of protection even if
the seller is fraudulent: E-Bay, Pay-Pal and your credit card company. You
do have to know how to use the various systems to protect yourself; you can
look at a seller's history, and about the comments that people who have
dealt with that seller previously have left about their transactions. If
you educate yourself about how to use E-Bay, it is quite safe. Is it
perfectly, totally safe? No, of course not (neither is any other
marketplace), and getting issues resolved when they do occur can be a hassle
and can take months and require that you be persistent and well organized.
There are a surprising number of people with an aversion to E-Bay. That's
their loss, because it's one of the greatest things that the Internet has
brought us, both as buyers and as sellers.
Barry Watzman
Anyone have any info on rebuilding the head for a regular 9-pin dot
matrix printer? I have an open pin-5 coil on mine, and I would like to
take it apart to see if I can repair/replace the coil, BUT I am a bit
concerned about taking these things apart. Springs flying off, etc.
Looking on-line does not turn up anything (so far) on dismantling these
suckers. If necessary I will document it myself, but was hoping the info
was already out there!
The head I have is an Anadex DPH-100, and the only place on-line that
shows them no longer repairs 'em! Nor did the tech I spoke to recall any
details...
John :-#)#
