test-drb January 2010

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

187 participants
240 discussions

by chrise＠pobox.com

Probably a stretch but wondering if anyone has any info (manual, pinouts, service documentation) for a GNT model 3601 8-bit (1") paper tape punch. It was probably better known in the CNC / automated machining world than in computing but my hope is to resurrect it as a backup punch for copying tapes I use with my ASR-33 and thereby save wear on the -33's punch. The unit has serial and parallel interfaces on DB25 connectors but I do not have any pinout information for those. The serial one I can probably figure out. Unfortunately, the unit is a little more sick than "works OK" seemed to imply from the eBay seller. It has what I believe to be a power supply problem because as soon as you try to punch all eight holes with the front panel test button, the power LED dims and the punch jams, apparently from lack of umph to complete the mission. It could also be jamming to start with and that causes the power drop I suppose. In any case, looking for any docs before I open it up and start digging around. I have written to GNT without a reply so far. Chris -- Chris Elmquist mailto:chrise at pobox.com

13 years, 7 months

Apple Lisa 1 for sale

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I have an Apple Lisa 1 for sale. Yes, it has the Twiggy drives. It includes the Twiggy systems OS disks (2), original Lisa 1 manual, keyboard, original Lisa (rectangular button) mouse. It works. Excellent condition. Normally I would not so brazenly hawk something but I need to raise funds for an imminent move of the VCF archives. I'm entertaining any and all offers. At a minimum, there should be three zeroes before the decimal point. Please contact me directly if you're interested. Photos and more detail will be forwarded upon request. Will ship galaxy-wide. 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 ]

13 years, 7 months

Reading NorthStar Horizon hard sector disks on PC

by marvin＠west.net

> From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Not all Northstar diskettes are HS. One of the models (Advantage?) > isn't--and it's that format that the Microsolutions MatchPoint will > read, not the others. It's been too long since I've seen the darned > things... I think the machine you are thinking of might be the N* Dimension. The Advantage still uses 10-sector floppies. I've never seen the Dimension but vintagemicros on Ebay was selling one a while back and had a picture of it. Apparently it was MS-DOS compatible.

13 years, 9 months

Looking for CMD CQD-200/TM or CQD-200/M EPROM images

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a CMD CQD-200/TM or CQD-200/M and an EPROM programmer or other means of reading the EPROM images that could send me a copy? I think I have mostly figured out the CSR decode PAL for a CQD-200/T and programmed a new one and now it responds to both the disk and tape CSRs, but only the tape CSR looks like it has normal values. Maybe I also need to replace the EPROMs with CQD-200/TM or CQD-200/M EPROM images to get it to respond normally to the disk CSR. I have had encouraging results so far doing the same to convert a CQD-220/M into a CQD-220/TM and got it working with both a disk and a tape at the same time. -Glen

13 years, 11 months

I'm,looking for PDP-11 CPU tests

by brain＠jbrain.com

I sent the DEC ROM info to the VT220 Font author, and he responded with thanks and also wanted to know if anyone had PDP-11 CPU tests. I noted he might want to join here, but I thought I'd start the ball rolling on his request. Jim -- Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X) brain at jbrain.com Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Home: http://www.jbrain.com

14 years

Old DEC Power Control 861C

by icipasla＠gmail.com

*Many thanks, I found a leaking capacitor just as you have described. I've ordered new ones and will soon be able to replace it. I'll let you know if that fixes the problem (It should!).** Normand *>* Old DEC Power Control 861C Hi, *>* *>* looks like I am not getting the posting in my e-mail but my messages do get *>* posted. * This issue came up a few months back. Apparently gmail filters the replies to your own messages somewhere (and not to somewhere sensible!). Perhaps somebody else can rememebr the details. >* *>* I found this replyto my previous message by Tony Duell *>* <cctalk%40classiccmp.org?Subject=Re%3A%20Old%20DEC%20Power%20Control%20861C&In-Reply-To=%3Cm1NM4jS-000J3uC%40p850ug1%3E>in *>* the archives. *>* *>* To follow-up, the 861C emits a crackling noise for the first few seconds (20 *>* or so) and then I can hear a relay chattering (very noisy!). *>* *>* Also the light on the front panel is flashing continuously (maybe that's *>* normal.) * old DEC neons tend to flicker randomly (and it's truely random). The basic design is for the mains : Mains in--->filter --->Breaker-+--->Unswitched outs | +--->Contactor (big relay)-> Switched outs The contactor is controlled (in the 861) by a reed relay on the little PCB inside. This has a differentially-wound coil to give the 'ground for on' and 'ground for off' functionality on the 3 pin connector. The reed relay coil is powered by a little transformer/rectifier/capacitor circuit, mostly on the PCB. My first suspicioun is that capacitor. Open it up and look for any electrolytics on the PCB inside. -tony

14 years, 1 month

Museums

by js＠cimmeri.com

Rob Jarrat wrote: > If there were no interest in things that pre-dated our own lifetimes then > there would not be any museums. Of course, but that wasn't my point. My point is that I observe there to be, in general, LESS interest in collecting items that predate our own existence. For example, I know many more people who own classic cars like Mustangs simply because they always wanted one while growing up, or maybe had one... than those collectors who own Ford Model Ts. You could make the argument that Mustangs are more readily available, but that wouldn't be true. It's just that few if any those Mustang owners have any interest in Model T's for any number of valid reasons. So, I'm drawing a distinction between personal nostalgia and emotional response, vs. collecting purely for historical enjoyment or purposes. Rob Jarrat wrote: > The peculiar problem faced by computer > history is perhaps the frenetic pace of computer development, which has > meant that historically interesting computers are not generally recognised > as such because they are still relatively recent and become obsolete so > quickly that they are discarded far too readily. Excellent point. Which leads to wonder if only the early computers -- when development moved slower and there were far fewer models in existence -- will remain the collectible ones. I don't see any computers in most of the 90's, and none at all from 2000 onwards that I'd ever want to collect. Wonder how others feel? Will a Dell PC ever be collectible? Are Apples the only ones that might stand a chance? Are all computers now merely appliances with zero personality? John Singleton

14 years, 1 month

BNC to VGA Cable

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Hi all, a source for a BNC to VGA cable ? (Yes, I have a soldering iron, but like to buy some ;-)) The other way around (VGA->BNC) is easy to get, but don't find any BNC->VGA(15 pin) Cheers & thanks

14 years, 1 month

Manual scanning: TIFF-to-PDF software with greyscale support?

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, I'm after a program that can convert TIFF files into PDFs. I've seen Eric Smith's "Tumble" app, which works great... but only for B&W TIFFs. While I can use Imagemagick to convert the images to B&W, that defeats the point: there are photos on the scanned pages, and I'd rather like to keep them as photos, not black splodges. Also, has anyone come up with a "best practice guide" for manual scanning? At the moment I'm scanning like this: B&W text only: 600dpi, black and white, threshold=50%. Text + photos: 600dpi, greyscale, then despeckle and scale down to 300dpi. Obviously if there are better ways (in terms of quality and/or speed) I'd like to know before I scan a ton of testgear manuals... Also, does anyone know of an app that can take the PDF file, OCR it and then insert the text as a background layer while leaving the image alone? I'm pretty sure Acrobat can do this, but like most Adobe software, the price tag is somewhat... eye-watering. "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it." Thanks, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

14 years, 2 months

6809 SBC

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

Having learned assembly language programming on the beautifully simple architecture and instruction set of the 6800, the Byte magazine article linked to below that I read when it was originally published really impressed me. In the 6809 they made one of the earliest efforts I know of to really tweak an already great uP instruction set based upon an analysis of existing software: http://tlindner.macmess.org/?page_id=119

14 years, 2 months

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test-drb January 2010