test-drb February 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

203 participants
239 discussions

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Our group here in NJ + surroundings now has monthly-ish repair workshops (vs. a few times per year before). At the workshop this past weekend, David Gesswein continued restoring our PDP-8. David summarized: "I fixed the known fault of accumulator bit going to zero when it was rotated left. This was a bad diode on one of the accumulator boards. I also replaced two bad bulbs and a third that died during the repair. Since one that died was one I previously replaced I'm going to use the not quite matching bulbs with heavier wires for future repairs. The wires are just too thinn on the 1762 bulbs and now that they have aged they break too easy. I then found that the teletype interface wasn't working and replaced a diode on a R220 to fix output. Input is not working properly. I have traced it to a particular flip flop on a R220 where when the data changes it feeds through to the output without the clock active. I ran out of time to identify the component that needs replacing." Here's a little video of the computer chasing its lights. :) http://www.vcfed.org/evan/pdp8lights.mp4

10 years, 1 month

Lot of 34 Transputers sold on ebay

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151966095000 Did anyone we know buy them? Would be good to know they went to a good home. --Toby

10 years, 1 month

PDP-11/84 (KDJ11-B) and Error 61

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Ulrich Tagge wrote:Hi Glen, > [Snip] > > List/change parameters in the Setup table > > A - ANSI Video terminal (1) 0=No, 1=Yes = 1 > B - Power up 0=Dialog, (1)=Automatic, 2=ODT, 3=24 = 1 > C - Restart 0=Dialog, (1)=Automatic, 2=ODT, 3=24 = 1 > D - Ignore battery 0=No, 1=Yes = 0 > E - PMG 0-(7) 1=.4us, 2=.8, 3=1.6, 4=3.2,...7=25.6 = 7 > F - Disable clock CSR 0=No, 1=Yes = 0 > G - Force clock interrupts 0=No, 1=Yes = 0 > H - Clock 0=Power supply, 1=50Hz, 2=60Hz, 3=800Hz = 1 Does anyone have an idea as to how the choice of the 800Hz option was made? I could understand 1000Hz or perhaps 1200Hz which allows division by both 50 and 60. But 800Hz seems like such an unlikely value. On the other hand, on the PRO350, the clock rate was 64Hz and every 16 ticks, I assume that one tick was discarded so as to support the appearance of a 60 Hz clock. Jerome Fine

10 years, 1 month

Pascal Microengine software images

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I successfully imaged OS revs E0, F0, F1, G0 and H0 of the Pascal Microengine from the original distribution media this morning with the application of cyclomethicone as Chuck suggested. I was worried since they were 79'ish vintage BASF media, but the lubrication did the trick and they read without errors. http://bitsavers.org/bits/WesternDigital/microengine_distributions_E0-H0.zip

10 years, 1 month

PDP-8 chase the lights

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

THAT IS WHAT WE USED TO CALL THE CYLON EYE PROGRAM! eD# _WWW.SMECC.ORG_ (http://www.SMECC.ORG) In a message dated 2/2/2016 1:27:02 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at snarc.net writes: Our group here in NJ + surroundings now has monthly-ish repair workshops (vs. a few times per year before). At the workshop this past weekend, David Gesswein continued restoring our PDP-8. David summarized: "I fixed the known fault of accumulator bit going to zero when it was rotated left. This was a bad diode on one of the accumulator boards. I also replaced two bad bulbs and a third that died during the repair. Since one that died was one I previously replaced I'm going to use the not quite matching bulbs with heavier wires for future repairs. The wires are just too thinn on the 1762 bulbs and now that they have aged they break too easy. I then found that the teletype interface wasn't working and replaced a diode on a R220 to fix output. Input is not working properly. I have traced it to a particular flip flop on a R220 where when the data changes it feeds through to the output without the clock active. I ran out of time to identify the component that needs replacing." Here's a little video of the computer chasing its lights. :) http://www.vcfed.org/evan/pdp8lights.mp4

10 years, 1 month

PDP-11/84 (KDJ11-B) and Error 61

by u.tagge＠gmx.de

Hi List, I have a working 11/84, and I have decidec, to test some of my spare cards, starting with: KDJ11-B. I see the following error, when powering up the system, which points me to the Clock. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Error 61 M8190 clock Error See troubleshooting documentation Command Description 1 Rerun test 2 Loop on test Type a command then press the RETURN key: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Any hints, what the problem could be? Is the clock in this new PDP's still generated out of the line frequency? Could it by, that the KDJ11-B is configured to a wrong HZ value? Many Greetings Ulrich

10 years, 1 month

ISIS-II disks with PLM80 and ICE80 software.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

While browsing various 8 inch floppies I have found a couple of disks that seems to contain ISIS-II stuff. I discovered a document specifying the format of the disk and managed to extract the contents: Disk1: arbetsrumsdatorn:ISIS mattis_lind$ ls UNKN2 ATTRIB DSPERR ICE80.OV1 ISIS.LAB PLM80.OV0 PLMCOD.CSD COPY EDIT ICE80.OV2 ISIS.MAP PLM80.OV1 PLMNOC.CSD DELETE FORMAT ISIS.BIN ISIS.T0 PLM80.OV2 RENAME DIR ICE80 ISIS.CLI PLM80 PLM80.OV3 SUBMIT DSP ICE80.OV0 ISIS.DIR PLM80.LIB PLM80.OV4 SYSTEM.LIB Disk2: arbetsrumsdatorn:ISIS mattis_lind$ ls DISK2 ALIAS DEBUG EXEC LINK RELEAS TTY ALLOC DELETE FORMAT MDUP REMAP TXT ANALYZ DGEN FRAPP MEMDMP RENAME TXW ASM DIR HEXBIN MOVE RESCUE XREF ASSIGN DIRPAC INIT MYLOAD SEDIT ATTRIB DROP ISIS.DIR O SYS DCONVA DRSTC ISIS.ERR PAGE SYSTEM DCOPY EDIT ISIS.LAB PROM T2 DDUMC ETX ISIS.MAP RASM TPGEN If someone is interested in these I put them here: http://www.datormuseum.se/documentation-software/isis-ii-floppy-disks There were also a DSDD format on some disks which seemed a little bit different. The ISIS.DIR used 32 byte entries rather than 16 byte entries and the directory linkage block structure seemed to be different. I didn't spend any time other than recognize the difference. Is there any documentation that specify the various ISIS disk formats there is? /Mattis

10 years, 1 month

Win98SE Update/Patches WAS: Can Windows 98SE run on an Intel I7 with SATA hard drives?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Dale H. Cook > I have spare IDE drives for my 98SE laptops. Might want to drag them out once a year and run them, to prevent anything sticking over time. (I should take my own advice, here.... :-) Noel

10 years, 1 month

USPS: Re: PDP-11/03, LSI-11 KEV11-C CIS option

by seefriek＠gmail.com

On Sun, 31 Jan 2016, Pete Lancashire wrote: >> On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 1:24 AM, Henk Gooijen <henk.gooijen at hotmail.com> wrote: >> >> Spend the extra few dollars (or what your currency is) and pack it in a >> very strong box. I've actually had EPROMs show up cracked in half > >Seconded. The machines the USPS uses for automated sorting of mail are not >gentle on parcels. > I'd rather strongly suggest you not us the USPS period. In the last 6 months or so they've flat out lost 4 items either destined to or shipped by me, and one item apparently (according to the tracking web site) sat in a sorting facility in Utah for nearly a month before magically showing up. Glad it wasn't perishable. KJ

10 years, 1 month

HP Manuals - where's your sense of humor?

by Martin.Hepperle＠MH-AeroTools.de

While I was reading through the HP 200/300 BASIC Manual I came across some interesting points I hadn't considered in the past. I thought HP manuals were dry and hard to read, but I was wrong. See for yourself... Installing, Using, and Maintaining the BASIC 5.0 System ============================================= Loading BASIC, page 1-16 ------------------------------- If You See Nothing on the Monitor Screen Here are some possible explanations: - The monitor's brightness is not turned all the way up. - The monitor is not plugged in. - The computer is not plugged in. - Your eyes are not pointed in the right direction, or are obscured by your eyelids. Other Maintenance Tasks, page 17-1 -------------------------------------------- The following list mentions some things users take for granted or tend to forget. ... - ... - ... - Rotate your tires and otherwise examine your system to see that it is performing nicely. Maybe the author had a good friend in final quality control of the manuals. Martin

10 years, 1 month

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test-drb February 2016