test-drb March 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

167 participants
224 discussions

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

So the roller on my -85A tape drive is marginally ok, but finding the tapes for that which work reliably is not really an option. So I was going to attempt the conversion to make the drive use DC2000 tapes. Marc - thanks for the great video of this process at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IQKCiS0w2s The process basically involves making the capstan roller "taller". Marc's approach is to use a lathe and fabricate a taller capstan roller and he suggests using heat shrink tubing to make the capstan roller taller as an alternative. I do not have a lathe, so the first option is out. While the second option would work, according to the video it "just barely makes the capstan roller contact the bottom portion of the tape capstan wheel". That concerns me, as if it's "barely making contact" I'm concerned that over time this would wear the capstan roller motor shaft and perhaps wear down the wheel, not to mention potential vibration. So. two questions: What SHOULD the outer diameter of a good capstan roller be on that drive, and does anyone have other suggestions for how to make the capstan roller "taller"? J

9 years, 9 months

Data Communications Pac for the HP 83/85 (Marc Verdiell)

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Never mind, I asked for help in the series80 Yahoo group, and this is actually the right package. My problem came from elsewhere (issues in making an error-free 5.25 HP-formatted floppy, its fixed now). The disc image below has both the HP86/87 and the HP83/85 versions on it. Works great, now my HP85 can be a cute serial terminal. Thanks Jay W. for the pointer to the software package, I had been trying to do this for a while. Marc >From: "Marc Verdiell" <marc.verdiell at gmail.com> >Does anyone have a copy of the Data Communications Pac for the HP 83/85? >It's a rather well done combo BASIC/Assembly package that turns your HP 85 >into a terminal emulator (Jay alerted me to it). This HP Computer Museum >link claims this is it: >http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?sw=9 >But when you download and extract the linked image it is actually the HP >86/87 version. I haven't been able to locate the HP 83/85 version of that >PAC. >Marc

9 years, 9 months

RL02K Pack Reliability/Characteristics

by christopher.parish＠parishcomputers.com

> From: Mike Ross > That's a very interesting project. Do you have plans to make this > thing available in some form once the bugs are out? > [...] You bet. I've kept component availability, manufacturability, and cost in mind from the beginning, which is why I've gone with a custom board instead of a mess of expensive development kits. Plus, I love designing new hardware, so I'm always looking for excuses to do it. The controller will need to mature a little before I let it loose on the world though. Right now I have (mostly) working: Block level access to the packs via USB Mass Storage (i.e. dd if=/dev/sdX of=/home/user/rl02.img) SIMH image compatibility (attach rl0 /home/user/rl02.img) SIMH real-time drive access (attach rl0 /dev/sdX). Yes, you can attach a real RL02 to SIMH transparently on linux (since everything is a file, even devices). I'm not sure what it would take on Windows. Still to do: Add more drive status probing (so you don't have to restart the controller board (powered over USB) if turning off the drive or changing packs) Testing of write, allowing restoration of disk images or disk reformatting (FAT16 anyone?) (implemented, but untested until read problems are fixed) Design the final board to plug into the external berg connector (that one might be tricky) Integration of XXDP style RL02 diagnostics into the controller (but more friendly). Bug fixes and loads more pack/drive combination compatibility testing. Christopher

9 years, 9 months

WTB: small QBus backplane, PSU for HP Apollo 735/125

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Hi, Just a random couple of requests -- for a while I've been looking for a replacement HP Apollo 735/125 PSU (pic attached). Or alternatively, a schematic for this one so I can get an expert to repair it :) Also - for testing QBus cards - I'm interested in a small standalone backplane that I can power independently. Anyone have something they want to get rid of? (Pref North America for shipping reasons :) Thanks --Toby

9 years, 9 months

DEC PDP-11: 330 XXDP listings scanned from micro fiches

by j_hoppe＠t-online.de

Hi all, Over the last months I scanned micro fiches with XXDP diagnostic program listings. These listings are essential for repairing PDP-11's (or enhancing SimH). I digitized 330 listings from 452 fiches, with a total of 53545 document pages. Almost all of them should be new stuff. The PDFs are ready for download now. Until they appear at bitsavers.org, you can use my link: ftp://u58104846-pub:open4you at ftp.j-hoppe.de (Note the embedded user/password strings) The scans come in two versions: "high quality" and "black&white": The HQ version is gray level and contains a true image of the micro fiches, after non-destructive contrast enhancement. It is the base for further image processing. Download path is ./fichescanner/hq/gh The BW version is compressed to black & white and aggressively optimized for size and letter quality. File sizes are 20x smaller than the HQ version. Its intended for daily use and OCR, but for some very problematic fiches textual information is lost. Download path is ./fichescanner/bw/gh And there is a background article on http://retrocmp.com/projects/scanning-micro-fiches describing the self-build automatic micro fiche scanner (video!) Enjoy! Joerg

9 years, 9 months

Equipment Available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

This one is in the UK. I am not sure exactly where - waiting on further response from the owner. Description I initially received: ----- PDP11/23, Microvax with a number of boards and a Uni-bus adapter, Q U back plane plus some documentation. The RX01 drives passed away many years ago but the main board I think I still have. Unfortunately the power supply is dead, and should take swimming lessons in Maynard Mill pond. ----- I then received a followup email with the following info: ----- I {used to work at} a little company then called DEC. This was a single system used for silicon testing as there is an IEEE bus interface card. ----- So this is interesting in that it has a unibus adapter, and an IEEE bus interface card. And... may have actually been used within DEC (from what he says above)? Anyways, further information will not be available until after Easter (it's being dug out and verified for parts and descriptions). If you're in the UK and interested, please email me off-list. Best, J

9 years, 9 months

USB --> SCSI

by bbrown＠harpercollege.edu

I was exploring the idea of doing it without requiring an old PC w/SCSI card. -Bob -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of John Foust Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 12:23 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: USB --> SCSI At 11:47 AM 3/27/2015, Liam Proven wrote: >On 27 March 2015 at 17:36, Bob Brown <bbrown at harpercollege.edu> wrote: >> Does anyone know if a usb --> scsi adapter might allow me to connect an hp 9-track tape drive (7980s) to a computer running windows-7? Hasn't someone somewhere created an iSCSI stack that would let an old PC run Linux and use an old SCSI card (of appropriate interface) to talk to old hardware, but speak to the new PC and new software over the network? Is the end-goal running 'mt' and 'tar' within Cygwin under Windows? If the goal requires talking to the Windows machine's filesystem, aren't there lots of ways to solve that from an old Linux machine? This topic was covered in July 2014 and December 2012 if you check the archives. - John

9 years, 9 months

USB --> SCSI

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 11:47 AM 3/27/2015, Liam Proven wrote: >On 27 March 2015 at 17:36, Bob Brown <bbrown at harpercollege.edu> wrote: >> Does anyone know if a usb --> scsi adapter might allow me to connect an hp 9-track tape drive (7980s) to a computer running windows-7? Hasn't someone somewhere created an iSCSI stack that would let an old PC run Linux and use an old SCSI card (of appropriate interface) to talk to old hardware, but speak to the new PC and new software over the network? Is the end-goal running 'mt' and 'tar' within Cygwin under Windows? If the goal requires talking to the Windows machine's filesystem, aren't there lots of ways to solve that from an old Linux machine? This topic was covered in July 2014 and December 2012 if you check the archives. - John

9 years, 9 months

Data Communications Pac for the HP 83/85

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a copy of the Data Communications Pac for the HP 83/85? It's a rather well done combo BASIC/Assembly package that turns your HP 85 into a terminal emulator (Jay alerted me to it). This HP Computer Museum link claims this is it: http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?sw=9 But when you download and extract the linked image it is actually the HP 86/87 version. I haven't been able to locate the HP 83/85 version of that PAC. Marc

9 years, 9 months

USB --> SCSI

by bbrown＠harpercollege.edu

Does anyone know if a usb --> scsi adapter might allow me to connect an hp 9-track tape drive (7980s) to a computer running windows-7? Has anyone done it? Any pointers (drivers etc)? Thanks. -Bob

9 years, 9 months

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test-drb March 2015