I'm not sure what the differences, if any, there are between the Dell Latitude CP and Latitude C is but I do like my Latitude C610.
The battery originally lasted 40 minutes when I got it 2 years (and 3 months) ago. Now it lasts about 3 minutes! Just enough for Windows 2K SP4 to boot and show me the low power icon :)
I did get a replacement battery, but it looks very dodgy - unofficial label, no manufacturer markings etc. and the power ratings are slightly different to the official battery.
Mine has 2 PCMCIA connectors, but I don't have anything to use them with :(
Anyway, the real reason I replied is that the PS/2 connection that I use my mouse with is dodgy. Sometimes if I tuck on the mouse cord (sometimes when I just move the mouse!) a little too much Windows stops moving the mouse pointer (I have disabled the touchpad as I hate it, plus I had mouse drift). My current fix is to simply reboot my laptop, which can be a pain.
Is there a quick fix, or do I have to replace the whole PS/2 connector?
I do have a compressed file of a sort of technical manual... which isn't all that technical. When I increased my memory (from 256MB to 768MB) a while back the "technical manual" didn't even specify the type of memory required!
Regards,
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
--- On Thu, 28/5/09, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
These days, something like a Dell Latitude CP-series machine is free
or nearly so (but the battery packs are probably dead), and with
64MB-256MB, a built-in serial port, PCMCIA slots, etc., etc., it would
make a fine inexpensive dedicated terminal device.? Just watch out for
broken lids (the hinges are stronger than the plastic the case is made
out of).
With "that much" power, you aren't limited to DOS... I still have one
of these running RedHat9 and it does great.? The only real limitation
is how much physical memory you can (or can't) stuff in there.
-ethan
>
> Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 11:23:53 -0400
> From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
>
> I don't know anything about Mac keyboard protocols or
> signaling method, but with the modular-jack keyboards (pre-ADB), it's
> probably similar enough to what everyone else did (power, ground,
> either data+clock or bi-directional data over the 4 wires) that it
> shouldn't be too hard to reverse-engineer.
Yes, that's about it. I used a Motorola 68705 single chip micro as a
dongle in the lead between the Mac and the keyboard. It just passed on
packets from the keyboard to the Mac. The Mac never talked to the
keyboard. My Application talked to the dongle and made sure it had the
correct algorithm in it before allowing the user to continue.
If anyone wants the protocol its probably in the source code which I
have somewhere I think, though maybe on Lisa floppy disks (not Twiggy,
I transferred all my data to more modern 360k 3.5 inch diskettes).
Roger
"Fran C. Smith" <fsmith at ladylinux.com> wrote:
>
> NOOO Actually ..
>
> The real holy war is
>
> VI vs EMACS :-)
Pfft. Both are for clueless newbies. The only editor is TECO. Anything
else can be implemented in TECO, if I really need it.
With a half :-)
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
David Griffith asks:
> One reason I never graduated to /real/ soldering stations is
> that I kept wondering "what do I do when it goes bad?". What
> do you guys recommend?
I really really like the Weller WTCPT line of soldering stations.
There is very little "smarts" in the soldering station. Temperature
control is supplied via a purely magnetic-electro-mechanical feedback
loop - when the tip reaches a certain temperature, a special alloy in
the base of the tip becomes non-magnetic (Curie point) and the
heating circuit opens. When it cools down below the Curie point,
the heating circuit closes. Different tips are available with different
temperatures.
I like these soldering stations purely out of inertia - I've been
using them for decades. I don't think they're nearly as good
for, say, extensive surface mount rework as a Metcal station that
costs 10 to 20 times as much. But they do just wonderful for my
uses, working on everything from vacuum-tube electronics to DIP
circuit boards to some surface mount stuff. Different tips are
available; I love the big fat tips for working with vacuum tube
electronics because with them the WTCPT is the equivalent of a 100
watt soldering gun, even those big fat joints heat up real fast. For
finer detail stuff I sometimes switch to finer tipped points on the
WTCPT but very often I find myself using the big fat tips just because
I'm so used to them.
I am one of those rare guys who do not use super skinny solder with
super skinny tips to do real-fine pitch soldering. In some rare
circumstances - 0.25mm pitch SMD - I will switch to the finer tip.
But more often than not I'll just stick to the humongous fat tips and
big old fat 0.063" thick solder. One of the reasons I stick with the
big fat tip, is that with 0.25mm
pitch SMD stuff I find that the big fat tip will simultaneously heat
up all the pins on one side of a chip :-).
Why do I not recommend them for extensive surface mount stuff? Because
the magnetic tip has this annoying tendency to suck up any 0603 or 0402
or 0201 SMD parts which have any steel component in them. For extensive
surface mount stuff a non-magnetic tip would probably be nicer.
The WTCPT's are dead-bone stupid - no digital display to mess up; no
knob to twist for different temperature; no thermistor; cord is
unmeltable. All of mine are between 10 and 30 years old - I bought
myself a brand new one once, the others I got with a decade or two
of use already on them.
The WTCPT's one weak point is the connection from the iron to the
soldering iron station base (which has little more than a transformer
in it.) This is a plastic plug/jack that can break under extreme abuse.
I've collected a couple WTCPT's over the years with a broken plastic
plug or jack, and fixed them by simply soldering the wiring straight
through without a jack.
Tim.
> Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 16:44:17 -0400
> From: William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com>
>
>> I found
>> someone who could supply them for 100 dollars but he wanted a
>> cheque from a
>> US clearing bank which of course I can't do, and things went quiet
>> when I
>> asked about alternatives.
>
> If you get desperate for relays, and need to buy these "golden" ones,
> I am sure someone on this list in the USA can act as an agent for you.
> Contact me offlist if you get to this point. Same with getting US
> electrical supplies.
>
> Sorry, I have no spare relays. I need every one I can get my hands on.
> I probably have about 800 sockets in my collection, and they are not
> all filled.
Thank you for your kind offer, though I must point out that the 100
dollars was not for relays, it was for circuit diagrams for the IBM
836, the top of the range version of the 026 keypunch. I have some
spare relays from a card verifier.
In case anyone here is too young to know what I'm talking about, most
data to be input on cards to a mainframe was punched back in those
sexist days by one of the girls in the data preparation department on
a key punch machine which has a keyboard and punches holes into pieces
of card. The cards were then given to a different girl who fed them
through a machine called a VERIFIER. She would also type the data on a
keyboard and the machine would compare what she typed to what was on
the card. If there was a miss-match, a red light would come on and a
notch cut in the top of the card. The data would then be checked
against the original, maybe by a supervisor, though I was never
familiar with the internal workings of any commercial DP department,
and the either the faulty card corrected or the mistake of the
verifier operator ignored.
Today of course no checking of input data is done, mistakes just go
through until either a customer complains 15 times via a call centre
in India and eventually gets through to a manager who will listen and
correct it, or the customer runs off with a million dollars which has
been paid into his account in error, not to be heard of until he's
spent it all and then goes bankrupt. Not that I'm complaining,
verifying cards all day must have been a soul destroying job I would
not wish on my worst enemy. I always got the impression the DP girls
were just filling in the time until they could become housewives and
mothers, which I imagine is much more rewarding than DP, and useful to
humankind than sitting at a verifier and turning off the brain.
Before any lady list members comment, that was then, this is now, I
was brought up in the 50s, am a dinosaur and likely to remain a
bachelor dinosaur, my only regret is not being able to personally
extend my family tree, which I have left to my brothers and my sister,
who have made me an uncle, great uncle and recently a great great
uncle, and I'm only 56 so maybe time to add another 'great' before I
die.
Wandering off topic I'm afraid.
Thanks to everyone's help and advice with the 110v sockets, and yes I
did mean sockets when I meant plugs in one particular e-mail. I am
currently (no pun intended) looking into prices of small static
inverters (and UPSs, some of which seems be also able to do frequency
conversion, think battery charger and inverter) so I can keep the
keypunch standard if possible. I think a good quality power strip
screwed to the wall is probably the easiest solution to the socket
problem, as I don't want wandering sockets for visitors to trip over
and I can't be bothered learning about how US 'receptacles' attach to
the back of their boxes instead of being screwed to the front as is
normal in the UK. Life's too short and I've got to write a program to
read data from old paper tapes into my Mac so I can recover some data
for the ICT/ICL 1900 preservation group.
Roger Holmes
Technical Director, Microspot Ltd
Half of the ICT 1301 restoration group of the Computer Conservation
Society.
Author of MacPlot, MacPalette, 3DWorld, Microspot Interiors and also
responsible for maintaining MacDraft and all other Microspot products.
Oh, and I have 7 classic cars to look after/restore/enjoy too, and
hold a classic car/computer show at my home once a year, 12th July
based on the theme of a TV show which was filmed on the 35 acre farm,
which launched the career of Catherine Zeta Jones, called 'The Darling
Budss of May'.
Oh and I have a disabled 86 year old mother to look after now my
father has died a couple of weeks after their 67th wedding anniversary.
Like I said, life is too short.
Steve... (and list)
I may be the one who has a working paper tape punch.
It still works, and I can create just about anything you desire. Just let me know what you want (an ASCII file would do) and I'll punch it out. With an address to ship to, one of those flat rate postal things would probably do the trick.
The punch I have is a Facit 4070, with a custom interface adapter for a printer port. It works quite well. We can discuss prices (Look I'm reasonable!) off list.
...Tom Watson
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 16:44:17 -0400
From: William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: BM 029 Keypunch has arrived
>Sorry, I have no spare relays. I need every one I can get my hands on.
>I probably have about 800 sockets in my collection, and they are not
>all filled.
--
>Will
----------------
I should still have a few of those somewhere; ya want 'em if I can find 'em?
m
-------------Original Message:
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 14:28:41 -0400
From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz at neo.rr.com>
Subject: 486 case LED display jumpers
>Anybody happen to have the jumper diagram to set a LED 2 digit case speed setting? The PCB has ST-8A on it if that helps.
--------------Reply:
I do, but it's such poor quality that a scan would be illegible.
Oriented with the four pin connector at top right:
The four pins are: +5, Gnd, Turbo LED, NC
The three pins are the turbo switch: Low, common, High.
The bottom row of 28 is the tens digit, and the one above it the units.
Optionally there may be another four for a hundreds "1" digit which you
apparently don't have.
Segments are a-g left to right, and each segment is controlled by four
pins arranged in a 'T', alternately upside-down and right-side-up.
a b c
x xxx x
xxx x xxx etc. (spread apart for clarity)
The junction of the three "bars" goes to the segment, and the three end
points are the power source:
Looking at each "T" in its proper orientation:
Jumper down the leg = always on.
Jumper on the left bar = on with turbo
Jumper on right bar = on with normal
Segments are named the usual way, a-f clockwise with a on top, g in the centre.
Clear as mud?
Hope it helps; almost as much fun as figuring it out yourself...
mike
