test-drb May 2010

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
248 discussions

by jlobocki＠gmail.com

Well, as of yesterday, Sony is planning to stop production of floppy disks. Apparently, other companies will still make them, but I'm sure its only a matter of time.... http://www.crn.com/storage/224600457;jsessionid=GTMHM30DE1HQBQE1GHPCKH4ATMY…

13 years, 10 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, 10 months

Fujitsu M2442AC tape drive and Emulex QT13 controller issues...

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello everybody, Hopefully, somebody can help me out there... Lately, I?hooked?a M2442AC (which is basically the M2442A with an extra buffer) to a QT13-type coupler in a?microVAX, in order to save some tape contents to disk and CD-ROM. Unfortunately, when?read a tape on VMS with the DIR-command,?I get the following?console-output: %DIRECT-E-OPENIN, error opening UVAX33$MUA0:[]*.*;* as input -RMS-E-FND, ACP file or directory lookup failed -SYSTEM-F-TAPEPOSLOST, magnetic tape position lost VMSMUP050.A;1 ? Although there seems to be a problem, the name of the file can be read out. Copying doesn't work, though. I get the same error. ? Therefore, I launched the NVRAM-internal diagnostics of the Emulex-controller. The manual of the controller points out the NVRAM-settings for some types of drives, but not for drives made by Fujitsu :( The diagnostic tests, which can be run out of the diagnostics menu, all fail (except for "BOT/rewind"- and "host memory DMA"-tests) with the same error description: ? ** ERROR ** Blank tape read ? I can't find any furhter description to that error type. I tried to play this the NVRAM settings for the type drive and made repetitive tests, but each time, I get the same error. Does anybody uses such a drive/controller combination and give me some help regarding the settings ? Here are the current ones, which are stored in the QT13 for my fujitsu-drive: ? Drive type, 0=Start-Stop, 1=Streamer (0-1,def=1 dec) : On the fly commands (Y/N,def=Y) : Enable data busy timeout delay? (Y/N,def=Y) : Remote density (Y/N,def=Y) : CDC tape drive (Y/N,def=N) : Use IDEN line to select remote density (Y/N,def=N) : IDEN line true selects high density (Y/N,def=N) : Adaptive DMA (Y/N,def=Y) : Blank Tape Timeout value, in seconds (1-60,def=5 dec) : Max retry count for tape errors (0-10,def=3 dec) : uSec Delay between DMA bursts (4/8,def=4) : Adaptive DMA threshold (1-7,def=4 dec) : Tape Drive Speed thousands of bytes/second (0-65535,def=625 dec) : Support? 800 BPI Density (Y/N,def=N) : Support 1600 BPI Density (Y/N,def=Y) : Support 6250 BPI Density (Y/N,def=Y) : ? "def=" means that this is the currently stored value. ? Any ideas what might be the problem here? ? Thanks alot for any hints in advance ! ? Best regards, Pierre ? ?------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers : http://classic-computing.dyndns.org/

13 years, 10 months

Paging Richard

by pat＠computer-refuge.org

Sorry to eat up bits on the list, but I've tried sending you a few emails from two different addresses, but haven't seen any reply from you (re: the SGI Onyx XL). Pat -- Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/ The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org

13 years, 10 months

6809 transistor count?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Can anyone tell me the approximate transistor count of the 6809? -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

13 years, 10 months

asteroids board

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Hi Dan, If you still want to get rid of an non working asteroids board, count me in! I can fix the others too, if you wish. The problem for most folks is that they will need a vector type monitor, thats a little harder to find, but I see them out there for about $300. Wells Gardner if I recall. Here's a interesting page on the vector generator... http://jmargolin.com/vgens/vgens.htm Randy Dawson _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:…

13 years, 10 months

pdp8/a rebuild

by trestivo＠cfl.rr.com

Does anyone know a reason why I can't remove the G8018's and G8019 and replace them with newer OEM power supplies? I know that one G8018 supplies 5V @ 25a, +15V @ 2a, -15V @ 2a and +20V @ 4a. I believe the 20V is only used for core memory. So.a 5v supply @ 50a should be sufficient, and a 2 dual output +/- 15v supply @ 2@ each should be a reasonable substitute. I am aware of the functions of the G8019 and that I would be defeating the "dead fan shutdown" and battery backup feature. OR. Does anyone have a written procedure for troubleshooting the backplane, specifically the SC260m triac, the opto isolator, the 2n6531 transistor and what causes the 47 ohm resistor to burn. With all boards removed I know how to defeat the removal of the two G8018's and on a good backplane by adding a jumper between two pins on the G8018 connectors. I can apply 3v to a pin on the G8019 connector to get the triac to fire. But this is not enough for troubleshooting a bad backplane. All help will be greatly appreciated. Thom Melbourne Florida

13 years, 10 months

Suggestions for repairing HP tape drive capstans?

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

I have a number of HP QIC tape drive units -- I think it's 2 off 9142, 3 off 9144 (1 3-board, the other 2 are single-board) and a 9145 [1] all with hte same problem. The rubber capstan has turend to goo. [1] There's a darn 68000 processor in that drive, unlike the 68B09s in the other units. Eeek! The capstan is a rubber 'tyre' on a metal hub, the latter being glued to the motor spidnle. The diameter of the hub is around 12mm (but I wil measure that accurately) and the overall diameter of the tyre is perhaps 18mm (it's going to be hard to measure, sure the fact I don't have a solid one :-() Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions as to suitable material that I can obtain in the UK to repair this? Assume as ever I have a reasonable workshop and am not affraid to pull the drives to bits :-) -tony

13 years, 10 months

Bitsavers upstream?

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, as some of you might know I'm dealing with quite a lot of documentation in paper form. From time to time I scan some docs that cannot yet be found on the web (i.e. Al's bitsavers.org). A few month ago I posted some notifications about having uploaded stuff to a temporary folder on my website. But I have no clue if it has been taken by anyone or Al Kossow. This feels a bit complicated to me. So I'd like to suggest some possibility to upload stuff to bitsavers directly. Or to a special "incoming" folder or something like that. I'd like to have an easy and reliable way to offload my stuff. Without writing emails, asking for acknowledge and all that hassle. For me personally having some kind of access via scp would be perfect. Some people might prefer ftp/sftp. I could have written this in a private email to Al but I assume that it might be sensible to have some kind of discussion around the topic. Hope you're all fine! Kind regards, Philipp

13 years, 10 months

Authenticity opinions

by shoppa＠trailing-edge.com

Probably the lowest effort option also makes the fewest changes to the original: A small external "boost" autotransformer to give maybe 10 or 15% extra headroom. This could be done without using a big transformer. What you do is use a say 20VAC 3A transformer secondary in series with the primary, wired to that you end up with 140VAC with 120VAC in. This can use a physically much smaller transformer than a 140VAC 3A isolation transformer. I'm guessing the AC current at the input to the power supply is circa a very few amps or so (why I suggest a 20VAC 3A unit above). Tim.

13 years, 10 months

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test-drb May 2010