test-drb September 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

186 participants
241 discussions

by jonas＠otter.se

On 2012-09-17 19:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > telephones. And doesn't England still have coin-op residential > >electrical service? When I heard this referred to on an old When I was a kid, one of my uncles lived in a council house outside Nottingham. They had a coin-operated gas meter. No central heating and only single glazing, of course, after all this was an English house built sometime not too long after the war ;-). Eventually they were not allowed coal fires either (probably after the Clean Air Act of 1968) so then if you wanted to be warm as well as fed you needed the gas. I think the electricity meter was coin operated as well. Council estates were built to provide housing for the working class. My uncle was reasonably well off, being a civil servant with the local council, but some of the neighbours definitely were not, one saw gardens with uncut grass, full of broken toys and with really unwashed children in, the mother coming out in an nightgown and slippers with a cigarette in her mouth. The reason for the coin operated meters was pretty obvious, just getting the rent paid by those particular neighbours was probably not easy. And I had to learn to count in (rarely pounds) shillings and pence to get by :-) /Jonas

12 years, 7 months

Items free for pickup; Iowa

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

Greetings; I need to make Space and I've got a random assortment of things I've either never turned on, or not messed with in many years. Free for pickup (I'd really prefer not to box them up) from 50441: IBM 5324 w/keyboard and monitor I've never powered this on and the drive knobs were snapped off prior to my receiving it. My understanding is this is a binary compatible System/34 in baby shoes, but I might be full of it. AS/400 9402 F02 I last powered this on maybe eight years ago. It booted, but I haven't touched it since. HP NetServers 4d/66LM 5/60LM Six drives between them - they should be working IBM Series/1 in rack Someone gutted this before I got it - I have an 8" FDD and the logic cage with the controllers panel. Someone removed the power supply, but I have no reason to believe any of the logic boards were damaged. The hard disk was also taken to pieces, so I have the rack tray and, presumably, the controller in the logic cage, but not the disk itself. Given how long I've had them, I stress "as-is". Lemme know if you're interested; - JP Hampton, Iowa

12 years, 7 months

VCF Midwest attendee from Minneapolis/St Paul?

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

Is anyone driving in from the Twin Cities for VCF MW next week? If you are and you have room to take a box or two of vintage gear back with you, please contact me off list. Thanks, Jack Rubin

12 years, 7 months

OK, Who's bidding against me?

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Better yet bid *their* max. That's really the winning factor, right? J/k Actually I had similar lack of luck trying to find Microsoft Adventure. Lost I think 3 of them to the same anonymous bidder. If you're there shoot me a note ;-) I know ya don't need all uvem.

12 years, 7 months

OK, Who's bidding against me?

by robert＠irrelevant.com

Oh I hate snipers... However, somebody is having a laugh with me ... over the last few months there's been a "Preview data systems" custom-branded Tandata TD1616 (a home viewdata terminal) appear three times now, and everytime I've been outbid. At around ?6, ?12 and ?21. The first two times are definitely the same item, the last one looks like it could be, cleaned up a little. I've not got one of these branded ones, so increased my max each time, and still keep getting sniped! Has there been a sudden re-resurgence of interest in all things viewdata? Until recently, I'd win similar items unopposed at opening bid, even 99p.. Have I succeeded in getting people interested in this obsolete form of online system again? (I guess that would be good if it were true..) -- Rob www.viewdata.org.uk

12 years, 7 months

Selenar Graphics II (Was: DECWriter II LA36 being given away)

by rickb＠bensene.com

I was the one that was able to snag the LA-36 DECWriter II that Corey Anderson had rescued from being scrapped. Thanks, Corey, I really appreciate it! I had a great time chatting about the "old days" with Corey when I visited his home to pick up the LA-36. I intend to use this as the console terminal for my PDP 11/34 system. It's a lot more appropriate than the Heathkit H19 currently serving that purpose. I got the LA-36 home on Sunday, but didn't have time to do much with it until yesterday. I did a basic cleaning -- getting rid of dust and cobwebs. In general the terminal was in pretty good shape, and despite some dust and spider leftovers, it was quite clean inside. One of the first things I noticed was that the main controller board looked different than I expected, and on closer inspection, I saw that it wasn't a DEC board. It said "SELANAR CORP." and "GRAPHICS II" in silkscreen on the board. There are sockets for eight 2708 EPROMs, of which 6 are filled (I was worried that some were missing because of the empty sockets), with round stickers over the windows that say "SELANAR". There are three sockets for some kind of RAM (haven't identified it yet), of which only one socket is filled. There appear to be two processors, one made by Western Digital, and another made by Fairchild. Both appear to have onboard EPROM, as they have windows on them that are painted over with a thick black paint. I checked all of the fuses, and they were good. I unplugged everything >from the control board (keyboard connector, printhead drive, carriage drive stepper, pin-feed drive stepper), serial connector, and a couple of power connectors, and powered up the power supply, and found that all of the voltages were good, with minimum ripple. I did a close visual on the controller board, and it looked good...no debris or signs of overheating/blown components. I also checked out the solenoid and stepper driver board, and it also looked good. I wiped down the carriage rail to remove dust and grime, and then oiled it lightly. The carriage moved smoothly in both directions, but the ribbon advance mechanism seemed a bit gummed up, which I figured I could address later, since the ribbon is all dried out anyway. I plugged all of the connectors back in, and put some paper in it, then used a variac to slowly power it up. It didn't appear to like being slowly powered up, as the steppers got all wonky - but, I didn't get any smoke, so I quickly ramped the power back down, plugged the DECWriter directly into mains, and powered it up with the power switch. The carriage went left until it hit the stop with a bang...and sat there with the stepper humming for a nervous 3/4 or so second, then the carriage moved to the right a bit, and things got quiet (other than the hum of the power supply). I set the machine to local mode, and hit a key, and the pins hit the ribbon/paper, and the printhead moved to the next print location. After a familiar delay, the printhead moved to the right to allow the character (which was invisible because of the bad ribbon) to be seen. I typed all of the characters on the keyboard, and everything seems to work -- linefeed, carriage return, backspace, space, repeat, bell(^G), etc. So, the unit appears to be in good shape, though I don't know if the characters print correctly until I can find a ribbon for it. I'm quite happy that it seems to be generally alive. Now, on to the point of my posting: Does anyone know anything about Selanar's Graphics II board for the LA-36? BitSavers doesn't have anything that I could find. Google nets old ads and product announcements in trade rags of the day (1982-ish). Selanar also made graphics engine boards for VT100's, Televideo 950's, and various other printing and display terminals. One advertisement I saw showed an LA-36 that had a pretty printout of a Spirograph-like drawing. I would love to find some documentation on how the graphics work. I found some information relating to FORTRAN libraries that provided routines for "MOVE", "DRAW", and various other graphics primitives, but no real documentation. I'd love to find an operator's guide or a programming guide to figure out how to make the graphics work. I plan on pulling the ROMs and dumping them, and passing them to BitSavers. Anyone out there have any information on this thing that they could share? I'm going to do some more cleanup, test the serial port to see if it works, and track down a ribbon for it (I have a lot of calculator ribbons that I may put onto the spools for the DECWriter just as a temporary measure). The serial cable has had the connector cut off, so I'll have to figure out the pinout and put a connector on the end. Plenty of stuff to keep me busy. There is a DB-25F connector on the Selanar board that isn't plugged into anything. I'm wondering what it might be for, so I may hook a terminal up to it and see if I can get any kind of response from it. Hopefully someone out there will have some docs for this thing that can eliminate the mysteries of this relic. Thanks, Rick Bensene

12 years, 7 months

Microsoft cordless phone

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

thats so funny. I hope Ill eventually remembes who I was conversing with, or even when it was, but was told that phone companies should have been way ahead. After all a computer is just a bunch of switches (one of the best definitions of a computer imho, albeit informal, for those with a smattering of electronics knowledge). ------------------------------ On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 7:34 PM PDT Chuck Guzis wrote: >On 14 Sep 2012 at 21:08, William Donzelli wrote: > >> It seems that every good sized computer company explores the telephone >> market, and many actually bring some sort of product to market, mostly >> leading to disaster. USR, IBM, and Data General all come to mind. > >IBM did pretty well with their acquisition of Rolm. I still have a >Rolm frisbee for playing with the dogs. > >OTOH, telephone companies didn't do all that well in the computer >business. > >--Chuck >

12 years, 7 months

Fwd: Paper for Decwriter

by rborsuk＠colourfull.com

Hi All, Please contact Mike directly at mta at umich.edu. He was nice enough to offer it to me but I have several stacks already. I think there's a couple of people on the list who get out to the Ann Arbor, MI. area. Thanks Rob Begin forwarded message: > From: Mike Alexander <mta at umich.edu> > Date: September 15, 2012 7:14:03 PM EDT > To: Robert Borsuk <rborsuk at colourfull.com> > Subject: Paper for Decwriter > > I found a large stack of fanfold paper suitable for use in the Decwriter you got from me. It's normal 1403 fanfold paper that has been printed on one side. There are several hundred sheets in one continuous fanfold which I intendedto use in the Decwriter by printing on the reverse side. If you will be in Ann Arbor anytime soon and want it you can have it, otherwise I'll recycle it. I'll be around next week and then unavailable until the middle of October. It's probably not worth mailing it, although I could do so, I suppose. > > Mike > Robert Borsuk rborsuk at colourfull.com Colourfull Creations http://www.colourfull.com

12 years, 7 months

WTB ATT Picturephones or Stromberg Carson VISTAPHONE

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

WTB ATT Picture phones or Stromberg Carson VISTAPHONE reply off list to _couryhouse at aol.com_ (mailto:couryhouse at aol.com) and cc _info at smecc.org_ (mailto:info at smecc.org) Thanks Ed!

12 years, 7 months

Cipher "Quarterback" capstan diameter

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hey all -- Anyone know the appropriate diameter for the rubber capstan wheel in a Cipher Quarterback tape drive (model F420-90)? This is an old 20mb drive used in Sun-2/120 workstations. Someone's gone through the trouble of removing the sticky tar of the old wheel but I have no idea what to replace it with. Thanks as always, Josh

12 years, 7 months

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test-drb September 2012