test-drb June 2009

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

233 participants
404 discussions

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Anyone remember the difference between the various Western Digital MFM disk controllers? I've got a few in front of me right now, and I'm trying to figure out which would be the best for this Compaq Portable 286. I've got the good ol' WD1002A-WX1, and what looks to be the bigger verison, the WD1002S-WX2, then another, even longer card, the one that came stock with the Compaq, the WD1015-PL03. Now, here's the dilemma. The stock card won't respond to the usual debug commands - they just freeze the computer. The original 20mb 3 1/2" Miniscribe hard drive is dead (won't even spin). I am going to replace it with a similar 3 1/2" form factor drive - the NEC D3142. (43mb! Woo!) I already got the drive formatted and working on the small WD1002A-WX1 card, but it's been a while since I worked with MFM controllers - and I seem to remember the WD1002S-WX2 being faster or something. Also, I don't remember the calculations for optimum interleave, I used 3, since that was the default.... Pointers? -Ian

14 years, 11 months

Macintosh Plus

by segin2005＠gmail.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I recently came across the an image on an anonymous imageboard called 4chan (if you do not know what 4chan is, be very glad, it's the absolute worst cesspool of the Web), and while this is a diagram of the original Macintosh (note the 128K RAM mentioned), it's still of one of the Macs from that era. The image is http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6631/macplus.jpg First of all, if anyone has any high-resolution copies of this image, that would be nice. Secondly, I used to have a Mac Plus, years ago. I had a 400K external floppy drive that I had salvaged from a trashcan on the side of the road, but the drive was burned out. I replaced the drive inside the external case with a 1.4MB internal from one of the early PowerPC Macs (But you were still limited to 800k disks). I originally made floppies on an old PowerMac by sticking duct tape over the HD hole on some floppies I found lying around, and imaging some old games disks (Arkanoid was fun!) Sadly, when I moved (this was back when I was 14 or so), the mouse on it had died, and so had the PowerMac. I had lost all my disks, and aside >from it going Ping! whenever you powered it on, I found no real use for it, and just left it for the junk pile. (You have *no* idea how much I curse myself today...) Being that my first jump into classic computing was these beige toasters, if someone could find me some good, high-resolution documentation (and maybe curse me for being such an idiot back then), it would be appreciated. Thanks. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkpCGI0ACgkQF9H43UytGia1PACfT+B4tutOFdpOPVleQtdPZnzv mYMAnipQX1dXQBUkquPQwzGKvMmxai6x =aLFZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

14 years, 11 months

Fwd: [comp.sys.sgi.marketplace] FS: two Octane systems

by legalize＠xmission.com

This message has been forwarded from Usenet. To reply to the original author, use the email address from the forwarded message. Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:16:05 -0400 Groups: comp.sys.sgi.marketplace From: "David Jackson" <jacksond at dickinson.edu> Org: LabeNet (leba.net) Subject: FS: two Octane systems Id: <4a4129f8$0$31877$a20654c8 at news.leba.net> ======== Hi. I've got two Octane systems. It's been at least three years since I've used these systems, so this is all by memory. The first system was an SI and had the personal video option. At some point, it had a problem that I was never able to figure out and bought a second system with was an SI with texture. I transferred the HD from the first system to the second and continued on for a few years but then eventually transferred everything to a mac when OSX came out. Anyway, I'm looking to get rid of everything I have. Two Octanes. One works the other doesn't, although it might be easily fixable by someone who knows these systems. There are two monitors, keyboards and mice. There is one external CD drive. There is also a tape drive for backup and a 2GB jaz drive. I just booted the second system and it's working fine. Not really sure what this is all worth. I'm not interested in shipping them so you'll need to be within driving distance of central Pennsylvania. Drop me a line if you're interested. I'd like to get rid of them in the near future. Cheers, David (jacksond at dickinson.edu)

14 years, 11 months

11/03 score!!

by shumaker＠att.net

Not sure how much of a score it is but I'm now the owner of what was described as a fully functioning pdp11/03. This would be my first pdp unit Cards installed are: Cards are: M8059KJ M8186 M8639 M8028 I've done the obvious thing on bitsavers but whats a good place to start exploring with this unit? There's no drives or console with it although there is a large ribbon cable attached to the M8639 card. It also has a serial cable so one MIGHT be able to connect a console to it. Never had access to anything like this so it's all new.. The goal obviously is to assemble a complete system. Suggestions comments recommendation all welcome! steve shumaker

14 years, 11 months

Joystick reproduction (RC transmitter)

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I'm working on reproducing a pair of Cromemco JS-1 joysticks to display (and let the public play with) at VCF East in September. The one thing I'm missing is a small, panel mount joystick assembly with 5k Ohm pots. I have done a fair amount of googling. New assemblies cost anywhere from $60 to $200 each (I need 2). This is more than I want to spend on this project. I've already spent more on the Hammond enclosures than I really wanted to. It was suggested to me that a used radio control model transmitter might be just the ticket. Googling shows that at least some use 5k pots and they go fairly cheap on ebay. I don't want to end up with a collection of RC transmitters (and end up spending as much as I would have on new joystick assemblies) so my questions for the group are: 1) Anybody have a 2 stick transmitter with known 5k pots they want to sell? 2) If you have an RC transmitter you want to keep, could you open it up and check the pots so I can have a list of models to keep an eye for on ebay? 3) An finally, of course, anybody have a couple of panel mount joystick assemblies with 5k pots they want to sell cheap or work a trade for? Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

14 years, 11 months

DECServer 90TL

by chd_1＠nktelco.net

Someone mentioned the 90TL a couple of days ago which reminded me that I still haven't found a copy of the DECServer configuration backup utility for Windows. I had a copy, but my windows computer hard disk crashed and I lost it. Contact me if you know where I can get a copy. -chuck

14 years, 11 months

WTB Replacement for one Qbus Dilog DQ614-s

by spedraja＠ono.com

As far as I can imagine from my tests, I have one Dilog DQ614-S which don't works. I tested it with a couple of 5.25 hard disks (one IMI, one RD52-A and one Seagate) all in the list of recognized drives. And, in fact, the disk can be accesed in some form (intermintent lights, etc). But when the format try to begin, the DL614P.SAV program answers me with one "UNEXPECTED INTERRUPTION VECTOR 000000" It could be the cables, with they work with other drive without problem. Now comes the real question: Do you have someone one DQ614 operative for trade which could be managed with the DQ614P.SAV program or another release of this one appropiate for the board ? Or eventually... Someone has or knows of another board which could manage one hard disk (MFM, ESDI or SCSI) as FOUR DLx disks as the DILOG DQ614 does ? Thanks. Regards. Sergio

14 years, 11 months

Surplus waves

by legalize＠xmission.com

Has anyone else noticed that there are "waves" of certain kinds of equipment being surplussed all at once? Its most readily apparent when monitoring govliquidation.com because the military tends to surplus an item across and entire force (Navy, Air Force, Army, etc.) and scads of the stuff shows up all at once. However, I see it as well in commercial circles. A new generation of technology is deployed and an entire wave of the old technology is surplussed all at once. After that big wave subsides, those items will be hard to find. I think these surplus waves are what people are remembering when they say "VT100s are all over the place, dirt cheap" because they remember the VT100 surplus wave when you could barely walk through a surplus house without tripping over one. Nowadays they are few and far between. I seem to recall some discussions of "ownership humps" over the lifetime of equipment. Initially noone, or few, owns it. Then lots of people own it. Then some people own it because lots of people surplus it and there's a glut in the secondary market. Then noone, or few, owns it again and the secondary market is pricey for spares. Then noone owns it anymore and the secondary market is overpriced, still thinking people need spares. Eventually the secondary market crashes and they dump their holdings and collectors might be able to experience a slight secondary surplus wave. After that, its hen's teeth time. Thoughts? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

14 years, 11 months

VCF Archives: Just a few more days of helping hands needed...

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

This went out to the VCF maillist but I'm also sending it here because I'm desperate :) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:01:13 -0700 From: Sellam Ismail <sellam at vintagetech.com> To: sellam at vintage.org Subject: VCF Archives: Just a few more days of helping hands needed... Dear Friends of VCF, I am still moving. This is into the sixth week now. Never in my wildest nightmares did I anticipate this thing dragging out as long as it has. I'll keep it short and simple: I still need help moving through the end of this week. There's a deadline in there by which time I'm supposed to be out, but truth be told deadlines have no meaning for me at this point. I just want to be done. The sooner the better. My estimates of how much longer this will take have been laughably incompetent, so I won't say I need to be done by this Thursday afternoon. I *want* this to be done by Thursday afternoon. Heck, I want it to be done by the time I'm through writing this pathetic missive. But either way, it's only going to happen with just a little bit more help from the VCF community. The help received so far has been excellent. This past weekend was perhaps the most productive. We had something like 8 volunteers on Saturday and about 6 throughout the day on Sunday. If I had days like that everyday then I would've been long since done. To get finished this week, I would just need 2-3 people per day helping. Won't you come out for just an hour or two to lend a hand? It would mean the world to me, and your favor will be remembered, and more importantly, returned. Yes, now I'm begging. Please contact me ASAP if you can come out to help, even if just for a little bit, because every little bit counts in big ways. Thanks! Sellam Ismail Schlepper (spent) Vintage Computer Festival

14 years, 11 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 70, Issue 3

by bqt＠softjar.se

cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 21 Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:16:20 -0500 From: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Subject: Re: 1964 Antique MODEM Live Demo To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20090601201242.03e96008 at mail.threedee.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 03:24 PM 6/1/2009, Gordon JC Pearce wrote: >> >Okay, let's try again. I have a circa-70s 300-baud modem, that will >> >generate incorrect tones when it's plugged into a USB-to-serial >> >converter, but not when it's plugged into a real serial port. >> >Why might this happen? > > USB only guarantees to supply 100 milliamps. Up to 500 mA can be > negotiated with the controller, depending. Might your older device > depend on more amps than the USB adapter can supply? Huh? The RS-232-port isn't supposed to deliver any power at all. Some devices admittedly abused the RS-232 by using something like DTR to actually supply the power needed to drive the thing, but that is abuse. But I'd be surprised if a circa-70s modem was ever designed to use the power from the RS-232 port to drive the modem itself. I'd expect it to have an external power supply. The problem description is a bit vague. How do you know it is generating incorrect tones? Have you used a frequency analyser to check the tone frequencies? Or might it just be that what has been observed is that the modem don't work when used with the USB-to-serial? If so, then we have a number of possible problems, none of which neccesarily is a problem with the modem. Or is it just a case of listening to the modem while plugging in the cable, and not the same thing happening on the different serial ports. Might the USB-to-serial not start driving signals until something talks to it on the software side? I'd start by checking that the USB-to-serial really delivers correct voltages. Break out the oscilloscope. Next, I'd check if the USB-to-serial is happy without all kind of signal "right", and if the modem supplies all the "right" signals. Also check cables. 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

14 years, 11 months

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test-drb June 2009