Hi all,
Can anyone offer any advice on where to find classic computing equipment
in the UK? I've been keeping an looking for a terminal such as vt220 for
quite a while now on eBay without much luck.
Maybe I just don't know the right people?
Thanks,
Aaron
I also picked up a VAX 8350 today (it was a productive afternoon). It
came with a box of maybe 40 RX50 floppies for console and various
diagnostics. A cursory Internet search didn't reveal whether these have
been archived already.
If they haven't already been archived somewhere, I'll take care of
archiving them later this week...
Thanks,
Josh
Hey all --
I'm researching what I need to have on hand to get 4.2BSD installed
running on my 11/750. I'm pretty close to having mass storage working,
I have a SCSI TMSCP tape controller that should do the job in
conjunction with a SCSI 9-track drive, and the VAX itself seems to be
happy. What I don't have is a copy of the TU58 cassette that would have
been provided with the 4.2BSD distribution (at least, according to the
installation documents). This contains utilities for formatting the
disk and copying the root filesystem (from a *real* tape drive) to the
root partition, so they're pretty essential for bringing a machine up
>from scratch.
If I had a SCSI *disk* controller, I could cheat and do the installation
on SIMH (which avoids using the TU58 by cheating in a different way) and
DD the whole thing over, but I'm not so blessed.
I can't seem to track down a copy of this TU58 on the 'net -- anyone
have one squirreled away somewhere, or know where I should be looking?
Thanks,
Josh
Prior to the DEC Rainbow, Chrislin Industries was marketing the 11/23 with
vt103 as a desktop computer. This is a 3rd party vendor. Maybe they were
on to something...
Bill Degnan
twitter: billdeg
vintagecomputer.net
I built a new Elf switch panel, but this time I used two printed
circuit boards for the switches and the bezel.
The bezel PCB has white soldermask with black silkscreen. The next
revision will have black soldermask with white silkscreen, and the
legend font, weight, and positioning changed to more closely match the
original Elf photo in Popular Electronics.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22368471 at N04/sets/72157667455777465
The 20-pin header has the same pinout as Bob Armstrong used for the
Spare Time Gizmos Elf 2000, but I don't presently have an Elf 2000 to
test it with. For now the main intent is to use the panel for a new
version of my FPGA Elf.
I'm not sure whether I got the wiring of the LOAD switch correct; the
Elf 2000 documentation refers to normally closed and normally open
contacts of that switch, but for a toggle switch that doesn't make any
sense to me. If anyone can tell me which pins of the Elf 2000
connector are grounded when the load switch is active vs inactive,
that would be appreciated.
The 20-pin header should have been right angle; since I only had a
vertical header on-hand, the ribbon cable had to be plugged in before
the switches were soldered in place, and the switches are not flush
with the switch PCB.
The toggle switches and push-button switch are C&K 7101SDV3BE and
8125SDV3BE, respectively, which have 0.42 inch actuator, 0.28 inch
threaded bushing with keyway, vertical PCB mount with V-bracket, gold
contacts, chrome actuator finish, and nickel bushing finish. These
particular C&K switch variants are not very common, so I'll probably
use different ones in the future, without the V-bracket.
I don't yet have enough of the red and white toggle caps, which are
C&K 896803000 and 896801000, respectively. The red button for the
push-button switch is C&K 801803000.
This is a long shot, but does anyone have a Tadpole Sparcbook 3TX hard
drive?
Their existence may be just a myth.
--
Ben Sinclair
ben at bensinclair.com
I just came across two unopened boxes (500 each) of 6"x0" 5.25" floppy
disk mailers.
Anyone want them? You can have them for shipping, FOB 97405.
--Chuck
I am not sure if 5.00 was the first Retail version. I know that for fact there is a 3.2 version released in the blue plexiglass Microsoft retail packaging. The 4.x versions are usually gray boxed with some having OEM/new computer stickers.
-Ali
Byte Jan 1981 page 204 refers to an IBM S-100 microcomputer system IBM
demoed in Europe. Anyone here seen this machine or heard about it?
Bill Degnan
twitter: billdeg
vintagecomputer.net
