In my pursuit of IBM Displaywriter hardware I spied these boards on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/111224097497
Compared with these boards there are some similarities regarding the edge
connector and overall shape/size:
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/6580_Displaywriter/photos/
but of course these boards were used in many other IBM peripherals and
small systems from that era.
Does anyone recognise what they might be from?
There are three boards for the IBM Displaywriter I am seeking to find:
Memory Extender Card (fits into Slot F)
Printer Sharing or 3277 DE Card (for Slot C) - not sure if same or
different boards
Communications Card (slot A)
There may also be another board that fits into the external floppy drive
unit to support the additional communication ports that were available on
the back of that unit.
I've thus far been unsuccessful locating any TU-58 emulator "tap" files for
booting an old 11/730. Or any "tap" files specific to, or appropriate for,
the 11/730.
Is it just that my google-fu is bad, none are posted, or possibly none
exist?
Thank you for any guidance or commentary that anyone cares to offer,
paul
Hi
I was referred to this group by Vintage Computer Forums at
vintage-computer.com.
I was told a Al Hartman at this list might have the info I need.
I have an Epson FX-185 impact printer. It was in storage for several
years. It now makes a constant high pitched noise from the speaker as
soon as it is turned on. The noise is definitely coming from the
speaker. It is supposed to do so when out of paper. The out of paper
sensor is functioning correctly I even disconnected that sensor from the
board and still get the sound whether or not the circuit is completed.
No bulging capacitors. Parts of the board are grungy. Wondering how to
go about cleaning the circuit boards.
Tom
Hi all --
I have a bit of spare time again over the next couple of weeks and I
would like to spend at least a little bit of that spare time getting
Maze War running on my Imlac emulator; this entails first getting the
Maze War "server" code running on a simulated PDP-10. (After this I
hopefully just need to get the Imlac emulator talking to the PDP-10
emulator over a simulated serial port...)
The Maze War server runs under ITS and I cannot for the life of me find
a copy of an ITS distribution; the KLH-10 page (and all the others I've
found) link to ftp://ftp.its.os.org/its/klh10/pi-its-a11110.tar which is
dead, and I don't see it archived elsewhere.
What's the done thing these days for getting ITS up and running?
Thanks as always,
Josh
Hello.
First of all, you need a copy of the CONSOLE cassette, that contains
microcode for the 11/730
(mine remained inserted in the drive for years and has a bad sticky
syndrome and black spots).
I have a VAX11/730 sitting in a depot, and a lot of TU58 cassette, with
various software, but
unfortunately no spare console or diagnostic cassette.
I would try to dump it, but unfortunately I don't have a TU58 drive unit
to read it
(I'm searching for one to buy since a lot of time, if someone in EU or
around has one, please let me know thanks!)
On this site there should be a copy of the CONSOLE:
http://www.heeltoe.com/download/vax/tapes-730/
Here some diagnostic for 750 (could work on 730 too?) and some software:
http://iamvirtual.ca/VAX11/VAX-11-software.html
Falls somebody has something more, please let us know!
Thanks
Andrea
>>
>> The single question marks are non-fatal errors and the double question marks
>> are fatal errors.
>
>It runs OpenVMS fine despite the fatal memory errors.
>
In this context, non-fatal selftest errors are ones which still allow the
machine to automatically boot at power on, assuming it is configured to.
Fatal errors are ones which prevent the automatic boot sequence from completing
and leave you at the >>> prompt. You can still decide to ignore the errors
and boot manually. The fatal errors are more of a "you really should know
about these problems before you attempt to boot" rather than "booting will
definately not work".
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.
Came across this today, patent 6606589
which describes a SMD accellerator that has a SCSI disk connected to
circuitry to simulate an SMD interface through a DRAM buffer, with
schematics.
Pretty late patent, given the technology it was built out of.
>> >> [...non-ancient disk on Unibus machines...]
>>
> > I'm surely not the only collector who would be willing to pony up
> > some $$$ for such a project....
>
I would certainly pony up some $.
I built my own IDE->S-100 interface (with guidance from my amazing friend, Allison P); it was very easy, hardware-wise.
What makes IDE to Qbus or Unibus interfacing so difficult? There must be reasons, otherwise it would have been done by now.
JS
>
>Well, I installed some random jumpers and it got me to a console prompt!
>
Tony's not going to be pleased :-)
I wouldn't recommend it either. If it were me, by the time time I got to
the next problem, I would have forgetten what jumpers I put where that might
have caused it.
Ideally, I would suggest finding out what the jumpers do, figure out how they
might affect the problem in hand and what other problems they might cause.
It is possible that some of them should actually be there but were removed by
a previous owner following a similar approach to problem solving :-)
Consider removing the added jumpers one by one to determine which ones provide
some improvement, leave the rest out and then stick a note to yourself about
them inside the case.
>
>KA41-A V1.4
>
>F_..E...D...C...B?..A...9...8...7...6...5...4_..3_..2_..1?..
>
>
> ? E 0040 0000.0045
> ? D 0050 0000.0005
> ? C 0080 0000.4001
>?? B 0010 0008.0280
> ? 7 80A0 0000.4001
> ? 6 80A1 0000.4001
>?? 1 00C0 0100.2004
>
>Errors, but it came up nonetheless...
>
The single question marks are non-fatal errors and the double question marks
are fatal errors.
In a combination of vague recall and guessing, I think that E and D are
probably due to the lack of battery and indicate problems with the real time
clock and non-volatile storage.
C refers to the serial interfaces and I think you get an error because one
can't be tested as you are using it as a console.
B refers to the memory. This is probably the only error of consequence.
7 and 6 refer to the SCSI buses and I think you get a fatal error if they are
not terminated and a non-fatal error if there are no devices visible on the
bus.
1 refers to the network interface and you get a fatal error if there is no
network plugged in to the selected connector.
(F would refer to the monochrome frame buffer if this was a VAXStation and
4 would similarly refer to an optional colour graphics card.)
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.
