Hi all,
I recently acquired Labnet 488 card by Innovations in Computing, circa 1978.? This appears to be an IEEE-488 interface based on the Motorola 68488 chip.? Does anybody have any info on this card, or even better, has anybody seen one of these in use?? It would be cool to locate manuals and/or software, and actually put this sucker to use.
Dave
> My recycler got in a complete, boxed (mostly) version 5.0 of DOS and was about to "recycle" it. Available for shipping from 85704.
>
'Tis taken
->CRC
Thanks for the replies - yes its a BA123 - just like the picture :)
The system is in the UK. It is a nice machine as it usefully sits next to (or under a large)
desk so doesnt take too much space. I'll get some pictures and specs online shortly.
Hi all,
Been having some health issues as of late and bills are pouring in
faster than money is coming in so I have to make a tough decision and
sell my Mindset Computer Corporation Collection.
I am only selling as a whole as I don't want this collection broken
up. I'm gauging interest, please email at: curt(at)atarimuseum(dot)com
Many have seen quite a lot of my collection as it was on display at a
recent VCF East show and one an award.
I have over a 1/2 dozen CPU units, expansion modules, plug in peripheral
modules, keyboards, joysticks, mice, tons of software, applications, and
games, many are in original boxes and are original disks, I have a huge
developers manual, marketing materials, units in boxes, a keyboard in a
box, peripheral accessories in boxes (many in never opened/sealed
boxes), I have one of the only Mindset software carrying case bags, and
much more. Need to put together a more detailed inventory, but it is
extensive.
Here are some photo's of a good bit of the collection (monitors are not
included):
http://vintagecomputer.net/vcf7/Exhibits/Mindset_exhib_Vendel2.jpghttp://vintagecomputer.net/vcf7/Exhibits/Mindset_exhib_Vendel1.jpghttp://vintagecomputer.net/vcf7/Exhibits/Mindset_exhib_Vendel4.jpghttp://vintagecomputer.net/vcf7/Exhibits/Mindset_exhib_Vendel3.jpg
Will also included domain: www.mindsetcomputer.com with sale...
Regards,
Curt
Great, thanks. I'll give the cleaning process a try before a speed
adjustment.
Thanks...Win
----
Almost all the A3 drives that have come my way were malfunctioning. Best
bet is to disassemble them and carefully clean and lube. First, use some
canned air to blow out all the dust bunnies. The original grease used on
the head assembly rails and the spiral-cut plastic stepper wheel
solidifies over the years. I usually use a tiny bit of WD-40 on a swab to
remove the old lubricant, then a bit of Tri-Flow to replace it.
A speed adjustment may very well be needed, but another problem area is
the two trimpots on the top of the drive circuit board. They tend to grow
oxide and become intermittant. Mark the position of the pots with a
felt-tipped pen, then wiggle them with a screwdriver until the little gob
of locking compound breaks. Squirt a small amount of non-residue control
cleaner in the side and work them through their rotation a few times.
Reset to the marked position. You can lock them in place again with a dab
of nail polish, but don't do this until you know that things are working
again! Reseat all the chips on the board and check closely for "black pin"
syndrome. For some reason, the chips in the disk drives seem more prone
to this (more exposure to humidity?) If you see this, pull all of them
and take a contact cleaning tool to the legs.
Finally, take a swab and carefully clean the head with isopropyl alcohol.
I've successfully repaired four or five drives in this manner.
Steve
There has been significant progress over the Holidays. All the Basic
Instruction Diagnostics now execute successfully. Many of the Advanced
Instruction Diagnostics also execute successfully - the Advanced
Diagnostics that fail, do so because they require support from the
Diagnostic Monitor (SMMON) which is not 'linked in' at this time.
I have a design roughed-in for a RH-11 Massbus Controller supporting 8
RP06 Disk Drives. All 8 RP06s disks use a single 8GB Secure Digital
(SD) Disk Card for media. There is still a lot to do before the Disk IO
will be ready to test. I've also implemented an DZ-11 8-port Terminal
Multiplexer, and the KS10-Backplane-to-Unibus IO Bridges.
If anyone knows where to find the KS10 DZ-11 Diagnostic DSDZA Source
code, please contact me.
I have verified that I can use the same 'bits-on-disk' format as SIMH.
That will allow the KS10 FPGA to use any of the freely available disk
images without modification. You also should be able to use the SIMH
Tape IO facilities to create your own disk images.
For complete information, please visit:
http://www.techtravels.org/KS10FPGA/
Rob Doyle
doyle (at) cox (dot) net
A quick update on my Apple III. I used the BNK, ADR and Exp/Got info from
the Apple III RAM test to narrow down the bad RAM chip. I replaced it with
one from an Apple II and it worked. The RAM test completes successfully,
but it does do one odd thing shown in this pic...
http://i.imgur.com/VP98h.jpg
Row 7 gets dashes across it during the second pass and all subsequent
passes. The test, however, continues normally. I ran it over 10 passes
with no problems. Any ideas what the dashes mean?
On the downside, my III still doesn't boot. It does pretty much what it did
before. WIth an SOS disk in the drive, it spins for about 3 seconds, then
nothing. The demo disk does the same thing. The III+ diagnostic disk that
used to boot, doesn't boot anymore and fails with an IO error message.
This makes me think again that there may be a floppy drive issue. Is the
drive calibration method that was mentioned previously the one that is
outlined in the Sun Remarketing Do It Yourself Guide for adjusting Apple
III drive speed...that uses a 60 Hz light source? If so, I guess that's my
next task to try to revive this machine.
Thanks,
Win
Hi
If funds and/or PayPal is an issue, I am willing to barter items instead.
We can make trades for certain computer parts, electronic components, tools,
metals, coins, unused gift cards, shipping materials, scrap, etc. Please
let's discuss! Many times I have just sent (gratis) PCBs to known N8VEM
builders especially those working on tough problems or less popular areas
that need attention.
Times are tough for many these days. Please don't let a lack of cash or
issues with PayPal limit your participation. Thanks and have a happy
holidays!
Andrew Lynch
I have been trying to find if there is a published spec for the DEC LAVC SCA
protocol. The reason I want to find it is that I want to see if I can work
out why my MicroVAX II is failing the net boot, it times out after a while
and falls out of the cluster. I suspect I have a hardware problem, but would
like to use a packet sniffer to work out what is going on. Is such a
document available?
Regards
Rob