test-drb December 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

191 participants
268 discussions

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I have four 1541's now, two of which seem to init OK, and two of which sit there with the drive spindle constantly spinning and the access LEDs lit, the latter behavior which I believe indicates a multitude of possible microcontroller-related faults... I've done the obvious, reseating socketed ICs, checking the +12V and +5 rails, and checking the on-board CPU reset line. Does anyone have any tips for what's best to try next? I read somewhere that ROM faults aren't unheard of, ditto with 6522 VIA failures. Also the 74ls14 at UA1 (particularly if someone's unplugged the drive from the host with power on), but I think that affects CPU reset, which appears to be working in my units. (is the firmware interchangeable between different board revisions? i.e. can I swap in firmware from one of the drives that appear to init OK to rule that out as a fault, or do I have to worry about matching PCB revisions?) Also, has there been a worse external drive in the history of floppy storage? Slow, complicated, expensive and unreliable seems to have most bases covered ;-) cheers Jules

9 years

What did computers without screens do?

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

On Mon, 12/14/15, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:05 PM, Mike <tulsamike3434 at gmail.com> wrote: >> On Dec 14, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: >>> >>> The subject brought up the thought of how many display-less >>> computers we encounter every day without giving it a >>> thought.? I think that probably 100 would be a safe bet. >> >> .... if you think about it almost everything we touch has some kind of a >> computer cycle! ! ! GREAT POINT!!! > > Even lighting... I've pulled (and reused!) 8-pin PIC microcontrollers > out of discarded emergency lighting.? ... Along those lines, as I was preparing for a class I taught this quarter called Computing in the Small, I came across some interesting stats. Microchip crossed the 12 billion PICs shipped a few years ago and were running at nearly a billion a year then. ARM holdings quotes over 50 billion ARMs shipped. They estimate that about 60% of the Earth's population has daily contact with a device containing an ARM. That's not too far behind the 64% who have running water. And not all that long ago the 8051 was the most fabbed ISA in the world. The bottom line is that computers involving humans interacting through keyboards, mice, and screens are really just a niche in the computing world. Embedded systems are the predominant class of computing systems. Or to twist a line from Shakespeare, There's more in the universe of computing than is dreamt of in the PC philosophy. BLS

9 years

Webster WQSMD/04 Qbus SMD Controller

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I picked up some Qbus cards yesterday. They seem to be board set for a MicroVAX II. However, one of the cards was, to me at least, a bit unusual. It was made by a company called Webster, and it appears to be a controller for SMD disks. I was not familiar with SMD disks and had to look them up. I suspect this might be a little out of the ordinary, and, possibly, an odd combination for a small Qbus system to access such a physically large type of disk. Were MicroVAX IIs used much with such disks? Is this a bit of an unusual find? Regards Rob

9 years

New Heathkit videos...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

Part 2: Backplane Circuit Board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdeHfcasBbM Part 3: RAM Board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwbO4bBnpEg g.

9 years

Emergency Moderation Mode

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Sorry, that last post ('Re: bye for now') was not intended to get through. The list was put into emergency moderation mode the past couple days so I have had to approve each post and apparently slipped on that one. Hopefully, people noticed the quick return to on-topicness the past day or two. Several last thoughts on the topic... Being the list owner, last I checked - I'm allowed to state my preference on things. I have a strong preference against top posting. I have never banned anyone for it. I see no problem with me stating that preference once in a (great) while, especially when new members first join the list. I also find it rather odd that people post ad-nauseum about how much they hate the off-topicness (or the specific off-topic post in question), when in fact the quickest/easiest way for a list member to end an off-topic thread (other than contacting me) is to simply not respond to the post. Venting your angst is a sure way to continue the flame-fest. In any case, I'll continue to moderate 100% of the inbound posts, until such time as I see things staying level-headed for a while. J

9 years

IDE knowledge anyone?

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Danke sehr, Oliver! Is your implementation available online? Marc >>Marc Verdiell wrote: >> Do you mind providing links to any good implementations of IDE on >> ATMega you know of? >> Marc >Of course mine ;) >And http://www.opend.co.za/hardware/avride/avride.htm but I never verified

9 years

Bye for now... was: <insert a huge lot of bloat and offtopic here>

by simski＠dds.nl

Hi all. Another great day started with me deciding that thorwing away 70% of a list every day is not worthwhile any more. This list is acting like Whatsapp and Facebook more and more. It seems that a lot of people are unable to keep on topic. Its a shame. It would be so handy if people could refrain from "biting the troll". I am truly not interested in top, bottom posting, and other non classic computer blabla. Bye -- Met vriendelijke Groet, Simon Claessen drukknop.nl

9 years

Commodore 64?

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

If I would have known!!! WOW I would have just read more posts before I posted my first post look at this mess... There is no reason for people to be rude or disrespectful to new people like myself. I have never joined a place like this I know now that it has been said 1000000000000 times to scroll down and put my text there all I wanted to do was talk about my new Commodore 64's. Can we do that? I make a post about creepy pastas and all I got was made fun of? Do yall not want new people to join? I think I can learn a lot from here that's all I want to do! There are many Computer geniuses on here that I can learn a lot from that's what I'm interested in and I like Creepypasta's and I collect Honda ATC 3wheelers. But can we get back on track with the Commodore 64? Sent from my iPhone

9 years

Identifying Data General (or DG-related) console/terminal/whatsit?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- A friend of mine is investigating picking up some DG hardware, and this item: http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/dg/dg%20console.jpg Is included along with the rest of it. I *know* I've seen something like this somewhere but I can't find anything now that I need it :). Can anyone identify this? Thanks, - Josh

9 years

Accessible Computing (Was "Re: Display-less computing")

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

we have a portable braille terminal in the museum's accessibility collection . we also have a vast ( and always looking for more) of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing teletype machines and couplers. Ed@ _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

9 years

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test-drb December 2015