test-drb May 2014

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

171 participants
188 discussions

Apple Lisa - For Sale [Indianapolis, IN]

by maxxtw＠gmail.com

Hi! Need to thin out a few things in my collection, and my good Lisa is up for grabs. Here's the photos: http://phosphorglow.net/2014/05/13/apple-lisa/ It's about 99% awesome. It's functional and runs, but here's what I'm thinking: - Keyboard. It works, but still has original foam pads. So I should say, it works... for now. :P The top 8 and 9 keys require a harder press. - Something in the analog circuitry? It's quite possibly as simple as needing new capacitors, but the power supply produces a high pitched sound. The sound changes in pitch slightly when adjusting the horizontal width. On a related note, this machine did have the square pixel video upgrade which I removed and brought it back to a real Lisa. (The high pitched noise was still happening before then.) The display geometry needs to be tweaked a bit to perfection, but I got it close. I did try the power supply from my other Lisa with the same results. I don't have the time right now to investigate it or replace the caps, so someone more knowledgeable can play with it. - The I/O board did have a smidge bit of battery goop on it, though the previous owner did remove the battery before it got bad. I did neutralize it with vinegar, and then electrical contact cleaner, and then desoldered the yucky bits, cleaned 'em, checked for continuity in the traces, and resoldered, and cleaned again. The traces had perfect continuity, but I'm paranoid and like redundancy so I ran wires. Just 'cause. Oh, and ran wire through the affected via's. Also out of paranoid redundancy. :P The good stuff!: - No screen burn. - Excellent case, even yellowing, no gouges/scratches. - Floppy drive reads/writes/ejects perfectly. - Power light works. - Rev. H ROM's. - 1MB RAM. - Dual parallel port expansion card. - Profile drive sounds awesome. Bearings sound amazing for its age. - Apple branded power and parallel cables. - Owners manual, Lisa Pascal Workshop manuals, and a copy of Workshop C System manual. I do not have the Pascal or C Workshop disks. - I'll include the disks I created. - Manufactured in '83. Either way, it's a beautiful machine that requires minimal tinkering. Asking $1,200 shipped to the US. Local pickup is also welcome. Please let me know if you have any questions! -Maxx

10 years, 7 months

Restoring old floppy drives!?

by ottosson_55＠hotmail.com

Hello! Are there any good websites about renovating old floppy drives? Recommended books? Regards Kenny

10 years, 7 months

DEC ASR-33 "reader run" debugging

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Finally have the time (and space) to work on my PDP-8/L and its associated ASR-33. The 8/L I've had running for a while now, but I've only recently taken the time to go over the ASR-33 it came with. It was a bit dirty but it's cleaned up nicely and I've got it humming along nicely now. (With the exception of the paper tape punch, which is going to need a bit more work.) At any rate -- this ASR-33 was outfitted with the DEC "reader run" modification, and it does not appear to be functioning -- with the teletype in "Line" mode, the reader switch set to "Start," and with the 8/L running the RIM loader the reader does nothing. (It also does nothing when set to "Start" in "Local" mode, but I'm unsure if that's expected or not...) With the cover off, if I manually toggle the "trip coil" at the rear of the unit the reader runs and the 8/L receives data (and it looks to be correct). I've verified continuity between the RELAY+ and RELAY- lines >from the W076 in the 8/L all the way to the reader run board, and I'm measuring 15V between the two. It's about here where my naivete around analog electronics starts kicking in and I'm unsure where to go from this point -- any suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks, Josh

10 years, 7 months

Are piezoelectric disc-type buzzers waterproof?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I picked up a little old Tandy 1650 chess game this morning. Batteries are still in it, of course, corroded to heck and back again - but thankfully the PCB seems unharmed. The lower half of the case shell is just the battery compartment and one of those disc-type piezo buzzers, with lugs on the case melted to hold the buzzer in place. After treating the battery terminals, can I dunk the case half - buzzer and all - in water? I'm not sure if those buzzers are sealed units or if water will end up where it shouldn't be and cause damage. cheers Jules

10 years, 7 months

512K Mac board / Plus ROMs?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I picked up a 512K Mac system board at the recycler's earlier (hopefully it's just a "stray" that had been sitting around on a shelf for years, and someone didn't just trash a complete machine) It would be fun to see if it powers up, but - for whatever reason - it has no ROMs. Before I wonder about all the other potential problems, will the Plus ROMs work? Wikipedia suggests that the Plus firmware was identical to that fitted to the 512Ke, but the article's open to interpretation over whether the only difference between a 512K and a 512Ke was the firmware and the fitting of an 800K drive. cheers Jules

10 years, 7 months

OT: Unisys

by ploopster＠gmail.com

Sorry for the noise. Hi there. I'm looking for someone who has a connection with Unisys. Please contact me privately. Thanks. Peace... Sridhar

10 years, 7 months

Vintage computing domain names available

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I "own" the following vintage computer related domains that I no longer want to keep. If anyone is interested please make an offer. vintagecomputer.org vintage-computing.com paleocomputing.com binaryathenaeum.com vintagecomputing.org (in redemption, $250 minimum, you can have it if you're willing to pay for it) No reasonable offer refused. Please contact me privately if interested. Thanks! -- Sellam ibn Abraham VintageTech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintagetech.com Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The truth is always simple. * * * NOTICE * * * Due to the insecure nature of the medium over which this message has been transmitted, no statement made in this writing may be considered reliable for any purpose either express or implied. The contents of this message are appropriate for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. The right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.

10 years, 7 months

Are piezoelectric disc-type buzzers waterproof?

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 1 >Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 18:34:29 +0100 (BST) >From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > >> All *seems* to be well now, other than the -ve wire from the battery >> compartment needing replacing; the system powers up and seems to "work" - I > >It is not uncommon for the electorlyte fro ma leaking battery to creep >along inside the insulatio nfo one of the wires and corrode the wire >strands themselves. This can obviously cause an open-circuit, it can also >cause nasty intermittant faults. > >It happens on cars too, the battery wires then gain resistnace so things >go wrong when the starter motor is used (t draws around 600A after all). >That can be 'intersting' to trace if you are not expecting it. > >-tony ? Corroded wires are also a well-known failure mode for the light meter in the Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR camera, although in the OM-1, the wires can corrode even if the battery does not leak. ? Bob

10 years, 7 months

Museums as home for ccmp (Was Whats in a straight 8, PDP-8)

by aperry＠snowmoose.com

On 5/14/14, 1:27 AM, Toby wrote: > On 13/05/14 12:58 PM, John Wilson wrote: >> >On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 10:53:47AM +0200, Pontus Pihlgren wrote: >>> >>At the very least, one musuem I talked to doesn't want to give away >>> >>things willy-nilly because it might scare away donators of objects. I >>> >>suppose many donators give to museums because they know the object ends >>> >>up in good hands, not to someone who will turn around and sell it for >>> >>profit. >> > >> >Glad to hear it. I once gave away a KL10 and I honestly have no idea >> >what the #@!(*#&%(* they did with it (it wasn't around long). Now I'm >> >very leery of thinking anyone's a better home for my stuff than I am, >> >no matter what their credentials. >> > > Agreed. I went through the accession process with a Lisa with a major > museum but by the end of it I was so dissatisfied with their assurances > it wouldn't just sit in a basement or be disposed of that I decided it > had a better future with me. I am a little less willing to donate to museums these days. I donated some documents to a museum. A few years later, I did a catalog search and the documents did not come up. A year after that I started asking about accessing one of the documents because I was considering adding support to SIMH for the processor described in the document. They knew they had the document, but they didn't know where it was and didn't know when they could get to it. But, I have also had good experiences with museums. After the experience above, I was nervous about some TOPS-20 documents that I had loaned to the Living Computer Museum. I was doing SIMH work with DECsystem-/TOPS-20, so I wanted to get the documents back anyway. One day I happened to be in that part of town and dropped in without letting them know that I was coming and I was able to get all of my documents back. alan

10 years, 7 months

Pepsi Syndrome (Was: 512K Mac board / Plus ROMs?)

by aperry＠snowmoose.com

On 5/14/14, 1:27 AM, Fred wrote: > After Three Mile Island, Saturday Night Live postulated that it was caused > by "The Pepsi Syndrome", the result of spilling a Pepsi into a computer > keyboard. Actually, "The Pepsi Syndrome" skit on SNL was based on "The China Syndrome", a Jack Lemmon/Jane Fonda film about a nuclear plant accident. The film was released about two weeks before the Three Mile Island accident, so the film and the accident are often linked. alan

10 years, 7 months

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test-drb May 2014