test-drb January 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

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198 discussions

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Gene Roddenberry's floppy disks from the 1980s read

by dzubint＠vcn.bc.ca

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/files-on-nearly-200-f…

8 years, 11 months

IBM 3420 x2 + 3803 for sale

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I have two IBM 3420 tape drives and a 3803 controller for sale. Asking price is $3,000 for the entire set but is negotiable. Inquire directly if interested. http://vintagetech.com/sales/Big%20Iron/IBM%203420.JPG http://vintagetech.com/sales/Big%20Iron/IBM%203803.JPG Happy new year! -- Sellam 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.

8 years, 11 months

Unibus/Q-bus board layout (in CAD format(s))

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

I was wondering: Are there public CAD files (no, not the medieval detective) for the Unibus/Q-bus fingers / board layout?

8 years, 11 months

The Old and New

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

There seems to be in this world a hungering for what?s new: witness the gazillion smart phones sold; untold number of iPads(tablets) and their ilk; and plug-n-play computers. What seems to be forgotten is what came before; what interests us ? vintage/classic computers. Whether in the grand scheme of things it really matters whether we call it classic computing, this website?s name protected by copyright(internet ?laws?), retro-computing; vintage computing; golden-age computing or just plain old-computing era, nevertheless helps us to immeasurably enjoy our hobby. And yet there is a hunger, maybe less so for old computers as historical oddities don?t seem to attract a large following, for what came before. The new year hopefully expands our community: wishing all classic computer enthusiasts a wonderful New Year?s and all your wishes come true in 2016. Happy computing, Murray :)

8 years, 11 months

Front Panel Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys! I have just sent off an email to the silk screeners and will talk to them later. Like most of the UK they have been shut down from 18th December until to-day. When they shutdown they had put the black layer on the back of all of the panels and they were in the drier Moving to the front of the panel. In the first batch I shipped. The front had the normal shiny perspex finish. Somebody noticed the real old panels had a sort of matt black finish on the front. Actually it was a translucent sort of gray layer to diffuse the lamps and had the side effect of making the front surface look as if it was matt black. It isn't but it sure looks like it. Its some kind of transmissive optical effect. OK so they go and get an ink to do the above. While they had the panels in the drier they did a test piece. Black on the back and translucent clear diffuser on the front. For some reason they were not happy with the result. At that point Christmas intervenes. To-day, what I have requested is not to mess around with the special ink if they dont like the results. They should just put a real but thin layer of matt black on the front. The result should be the same. More news as it comes in Rod

8 years, 11 months

Experiences with a composite video mod for a Sinclair ZX81

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Going through and testing the collection over this Xmas period also prods me into doing mods I've procrastinated about. A very simple mod but here is a write up for anyone who is interested... http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2016-01-03-composite-video-for-zx8… Terry (Tez)

8 years, 11 months

Panda Display USB support in klh10 working

by dave＠661.org

I've managed to edit klh10 to talk to my new USB Panda Display, but I'm quite sure it's not displaying things correctly. What can I run to get it to display a recognizable pattern? I'm thinking of whatever is causing the parallel display at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_LcQ5apODg to do what it's doing. To make a quick and dirty USB Panda Display, wire up an atmega328 according to the schematics at To start playing with this, first clone https://github.com/DavidGriffith/panda-display. You don't need Kicad at this point. Just open up panda-sch.pdf and wire up an atmega328 (maybe at atmega8 will do) with a 20MHz crystal. Other crystals can be used if you alter the Makefile accordingly. Use a max7219 matrix LED module. It's a board with an 8x8 matrix of LEDs and a max7219. You'll also need a AVR ISP breakout board and a USB-B breakout board. A Unix environment is assumed here. Set your AVR programmer (edit makefile to match yours) such that it _DOES_NOT_ supply power to the circuit. Connect the programmer to the board and to your computer. Then connect a USB cable from your computer to the circuit. Go into the firmware directory, type "make hex" to build the firmware. Then "make program" to program the AVR. The circuit should reset itself and then display an X. Now type "make ptest" to build a test program with which you can send bytes to the Panda Display and see them immediately. Use it like this "./ptest 0x23, 0xff, 0x9a" and so on. Once you're happy with that, move on to klh10. Get my patched version at https://github.com/DavidGriffith/klh10 and build it like usual. I used the base-kl target and the klt20.ini config file from Mark Crispin's Panda distribution. Start the emulator and before you type "GO", type "lights on". You should be told that the Panda Display was initialized. Type "GO" and get things going. The LED matrix will then start blinking. I don't know how it's supposed to look at this point. The RUN light appears to be at the bottom left of the matrix given that it blinks at 1 Hz. Here's a udev rule that will work for the Panda Display: SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05df", ATTRS{idVendor}=="16c0", MODE="0770", ATTRS{product}=="Panda Display", GROUP="plugdev" Please play around with this and let me know what you think. Again, please tell me how I can get a predictable pattern going so I can get the LEDs lit correctly. -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

8 years, 11 months

HP 16700A/16702A logic analyzer help request - /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file wanted

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I previously mentioned that the ethernet interface on my HP 16702A is not working. After a lot of messing around, I discovered that the 10baseT interface actually works fine if I log in as root (after jailbreaking it), and manually configure the interface. The problem seems to be with the /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file, which was trying to configure the lan1 interface, which doesn't exist. It should configure lan0. I edited the file to use lan0, and now when I boot the analyzer, it still reports errors, and still won't let me do the GUI lan configuration, but the interface actually works. Could someone with a 16700A or 16702A please make available a copy of their /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file for comparison? Thanks! Eric

8 years, 11 months

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

As a final diagnostic on the PDP-12 we tried to run FOCAL-69, but it started executing instructions in non existent memory. FOCAL initializes lots of peripherals and then tries different instructions to determine what processor it is running on. It executed what it thought was a TC01 DECtape IOT, but DEC had recycled the 6762 instruction for the KF12 Automatic Priority Interrupt controller. This caused the KF12 to execute a hardware PUSH instruction to save the processor state and then jump into memory field 2. Since we only have 8k of core it executed 7777 instructions and hung. Replacing the 6762 instruction at 4376 with a 7000 NOP let FOCAL initialize and run OK. -- Michael Thompson

8 years, 11 months

Remember the old "Choose your own adventure books" By D & D! ! !

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

Has any of you took one of them old choose your own adventurer books and coded it into a text RPG in basic? if so how well did it work as soon as I get all my Commodore 64 setup on CHRISTmas day that is the first thing that I am going to start working on. The one I am doing is *" THE DRAGON OF DOOM "* I have been brushing up on my coding skills with old books like BASIC COMPUTER GAMES AND SUCH... So wirh me luck and if any of you have done this brfotr please let me know how it ernt? The only Major things I have forgotten are... 1. Clear the screen for the next page! 2, doing the page jumps like in the book it will say if your want top enter turn to page 356 ot if you want to keep walking turn to page 17 that is the code I have forgoten But I am sure you all will be able to help me make this game the best it can be. I wish I fould add hiypointd and damage points find gold but I guess when I get to that Ill ask only after I dearch th net for awncers. thanks yall GOD BLESS AND MERRY CHRISTmas! '

8 years, 11 months

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test-drb January 2016