I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:
1. Amiga 2500. I ditched it thinking I'd pick up a 3000 then never did.
Ugh. It was free. They were using at some radio station where I helped
them fix their PCs but then decided I wanted their Amiga (stashed in a
closet) to subsidize my fee.
2. SGI Indigo R4400 with pristine KB + mouse, Maxxed RAM, and Elan. Ugh.
/me bangs head against wall
3. Mac IIci with 060' accelerator. I put the accelerator in and paid $$$
for it. Darn it. That was a cool system.
4. Sun Voyager. These go for a fortune now on Ebay. I *gave* mine away.
Not this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Voyager
This one: http://tinyurl.com/lhzjfks
5. NeXTStation Color Turbo. I got tired of the proprietary-everything and
the space it was taking to keep it working and pristine. Still. I wish I
hadn't sold it.
6. Mac Quadra 660AV. This was a pizzabox M68k classic mac with a video
frame capture (a crappy one but still...) capability. I notice you can't
really even buy classic macs on ebay anymore. There used to be scads of
them. Damn... does that mean I'm old now?
7. SGI Origin 200 dual R12k 270Mhz. It's the top model Origin 200 and it
had good skins etc... If I had it today it'd be running in my garage with
the rest of the zoo. I had to ditch some gear to move way back when, and
this box was a casualty.
8. Sharp Wizard OZ-8000 organizer. This thing rocked. I'd probably be
tempted to *use* it. I got a lot of mileage out of it "back in the day". It
ran on a Z80 and took AAA batteries (yes!). Plus I had (and maybe I still
do) a DB9 serial interface for it. You could use it as a vt220 terminal,
IIRC.
9. Atari Lynx. I had all the cool games. Like a fool I sold mine for some
quick money in college to help fund a silly trip with some chick who is
long gone long ago. Ugh. I'd rather have the Lynx back...
10. TRS-80 model 100. I didn't really like it that much, but nowadays it'd
look cool in my collection and I have more nostalgic love for the
trasheighty. Plus it takes AA batteries (I love that!).
-Swift
At 04:57 PM 5/19/2016, Austin Pass wrote:
>Systems we've neglected or failed to boot recently.
My Amstrad PPC-640 gets booted a couple-few times a year when I need a native MS-DOS machine with a real serial port for work on some vintage broadcast hardware.
I need to dig out the three CP/M machines (Osborne 1, Kaypro 4-84, Kaypro 1) and see if they will play, as they have not been booted in about a decade.
Dale H. Cook, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
Osborne 1 / Kaypro 4-84 / Kaypro 1 / Amstrad PPC-640
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html
Hi folks,
I picked up a rather nasty Tek 4051 and gave it a good cleaning.
It has an issue with the power supply. Before I dive in properly myself, I
thought I'd just ask:
Has anyone seen a behavior where-
1) With the main logic board attached, the power supply makes a loud buzz /
hum.
the +12 rail reads approx. 9v and the 15v rail is 13.5 or so. All
lights turn on as the cpu is obviously not running.
2) With the main logic board detached from the power supply (no load at all
on those rails?) I get a healthier 14.8 on the 15v rail and approx. 12 on
12. No hum / buzz.
I believe the supply is linear.
I suspect bad caps and a bad diode, but wanted to check here.
also in testing 2), one of the weird resistor network film packages on the
deflection board got really hot and made a smell. I hope it still works-
will certainly not be testing with the main board unplugged again.
Flood gun seems to be working.
- Ian
--
Ian Finder
(206) 395-MIPS
ian.finder at gmail.com
> From: Ed Groenenberg
> After hooking up the PMK05 to the unibus, the machine was powered up
> with the memory card, and the 'NPG' led was on.
Oh, that's truly wierd. Most memory cards don't even connect to any of the
bus request/grant lines - they often have short loopbacks from each 'grant
in' pin to 'grant out' - not sure about NPG because canonically, that is
jumpered through on the backplane.
A couple of things to check: First, does that memory even have traces
connected to the NPR/NPG-in/NPG-out pins? Second, does a different, known
working card, provoke any problems in that slot? (E.g. your serial interface
card?) I'm wondering if the problem is the slot, not the card.
Noel
Has anyone ever found a way to beat HP at their game of putting
ridiculously low-quality proprietary batteries on their RAID controllers?
I had no end to trouble with HSZ batteries dying back in the day. Nowadays
I still have an old MSA1000 with similar looking batteries. The part
numbers are 401026-001 (right) & 401027-001 (left).
Has anyone ever seen some kind of caddy or carrier that can replace these
? They are very oddball in shape. They clip onto the boards with plastic
friction shields. However, there is greater clearance on the MSA1000
controller board than is needed for these batteries. Since it's 4.8v I'd
love to replace this with qty=4 1.2v NIMH AA or AAA batteries. They'd
probably last longer anyway.
There is nothing magical or special about these battery packs, correct? If
I find something mechanically workable and with matching voltage can I not
use that as a replacement? I really don't care if I have to solder it on.
The folks who sell replacements for these online tend to not say if they
are new, used, tested, etc... I don't trust them enough to send them
$40-$120 for the replacement.
-Swift
Tony,
Too bad your MINC is so far from me. I would love to have the spare parts and RL01s to assist in my MINC restoration.
I would like to collaborate with who ever gets your MINC. Some other kind souls on this list have helped me with copies
of the Lab Subroutine Package software and Scientific Subroutine Package software for MINC.
I have my MINC-23 running with a 11/23 CPU and an Emulex UC07 / SCSI2SD so I can transfer RT-11 software from various
internet web sites to a microSD card and run from it. I had to upgrade my BDV-11 with new EPROMs to boot a DU device
(Thanks to Malcom McLeod for the EPROM images!)
I have used both RSX11M (not plus as it is an 18 bit system) and RT-11 on different SD cards and it runs both fine.
I currently have the A/D, Digital Output, and Digital Input modules all working with Macro-11 code I wrote but am having trouble getting the MINC clock to work as it appears to have a different CSR format than the LPS-11 or KWV-11C. A user's guide for it would be greatly appreciated. The MINC-11 engineering drawings have been scanned and are certainly helpful.
Also, anyone trying to connect to the DB9 terminal blocks for the DLV-11J should be aware that the pin out is NOT the common DB9
RS232 pin out. It takes a special DB9 to DB25 cable DEC provided or some wiring experimentation with an RS232 breakout box. The engineering drawings do document the connections however.
Best regards,
Mark Matlock
> From: tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
> To: "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Surplus DEC MINC
> Message-ID:
> <A8192EF71C5C4946A240D25EDC8F9448027F4B3F at EXMBX15.thus.corp>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I have a DEC MINC that I don't _really_ need and wonder if anyone is
> interested.
>
> It's the hard disk model. A half-height rack containing a pair of RL01s
> and a power controller with the MINC CPU box bolted on top. It
> contains the normal cards :
> PDP11/03 CPU
> M8044 memory (30kW IIRC)
> DLV11-J (4 RS232 ports)
> IBV11 (IEEE-488 interface)
> RLV11
> Some parallel printer interface (LPV11?)
> BDV11 (Bootstrap/terminator)
>
> And 7 MINC modules :
> MNCAA (ADC)
> MNCAD (DAC)
> 2 off MNCDI (16 bit digital input)
> 2 off MNCDO (16 bit digital output)
> MNCKW (clock generator)
>
> Bad points :
>
> It is untested, assume it needs repair (but the boards, etc are intact)
> I would recomend doing electrical safety tests before applying mains!
>
> No connector blocks for the MINC modules
>
> No disk packs (but I might be able to find some)
>
> No terminal or cable (but not hard to sort something out)
>
> It could do wth cleaning (if you spin up the drives they will almost
> certainly headcrash). But no smoking near it ever.
>
> It MUST BE COLLECTED from me (SE London, near Bromley, not too far
> from M25). There is no way I can ship it. I will help dismantle it into
> units and load it into your car/van (I think it will all go in an estate
> car).
>
> Good point
>
> It's free. I do not want any money for it.
>
> I want it to go to somebody who will make use of it (either restore it, put it
> on display, or use it for spare parts for PDP11s), not somebody who wants
> to raid the gold from the edge connectors.
>
> -tony
Hi,
I was given an Altos 486 Series 1000, and albeit its name sounds
promising, it's not the classic Z80 based Altos 486, but a modern UNIX
machine with i486 processor (non-PC architecture) from around 1992.
Problem: no tapes, no hard disk (was removed as it contained sensitive
data). Has someone by any chance have images of the OS (don't know whether
they are on QIC tapes or on 5.25" floppies) ? OS should be some AT&T UNIX
called Altos System V.
Christian
Hi all,
Bought a VT420 off eBay last night which should be arriving sometime
this week. Unfortunately it doesn't come with a keyboard. Is there
anyone near Nottingham (UK) willing to sell an DEC LK401 keyboard for a
fair price?
Thanks,
Aaron
I have a DEC MINC that I don't _really_ need and wonder if anyone is
interested.
It's the hard disk model. A half-height rack containing a pair of RL01s
and a power controller with the MINC CPU box bolted on top. It
contains the normal cards :
PDP11/03 CPU
M8044 memory (30kW IIRC)
DLV11-J (4 RS232 ports)
IBV11 (IEEE-488 interface)
RLV11
Some parallel printer interface (LPV11?)
BDV11 (Bootstrap/terminator)
And 7 MINC modules :
MNCAA (ADC)
MNCAD (DAC)
2 off MNCDI (16 bit digital input)
2 off MNCDO (16 bit digital output)
MNCKW (clock generator)
Bad points :
It is untested, assume it needs repair (but the boards, etc are intact)
I would recomend doing electrical safety tests before applying mains!
No connector blocks for the MINC modules
No disk packs (but I might be able to find some)
No terminal or cable (but not hard to sort something out)
It could do wth cleaning (if you spin up the drives they will almost
certainly headcrash). But no smoking near it ever.
It MUST BE COLLECTED from me (SE London, near Bromley, not too far
>from M25). There is no way I can ship it. I will help dismantle it into
units and load it into your car/van (I think it will all go in an estate
car).
Good point
It's free. I do not want any money for it.
I want it to go to somebody who will make use of it (either restore it, put it
on display, or use it for spare parts for PDP11s), not somebody who wants
to raid the gold from the edge connectors.
-tony
