test-drb August 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
281 discussions

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, > The same cabinet has a TK50 and I foolishly put a cartridge into it and > now it won't come out. It is called being 'stuck'. How do proceed to > get this TK50 cartridge out? Error 'stuck' means that the tape has been "glued" to the head because of the effect of the tape binder being converted to adhesive due to age and moisture. You can remove the cartridge in this way: - pull the drive out of the machine - carefully unscrew the metal cover over the internal reel and the head to expose it - slowly insert a paper sheet between the tape and the head, in the same direction of the tape, to detach it without damage - slowly rotate the front motor (from bottom side) in way to rewind all the tape from the back reel to the cartridge reel - detach the tape leader if necessary - now keep the electromagnetic cartridge unlock mechanism pressed, and remove the cartridge from the drive A tape in this condition of striction is probably unusable anyway, unless you back it up a little in an oven, but even so it could be readable just for a couple of hours > Also, the TQK50 controller never saw the drive and I was wondering if > the PROM's (after 30 years) on the board lose their data? Well, I never seen an UV-EPROM loose it's data, unless the erase window cover is missing and the memory exposed to the sun light. Andrea

8 years, 3 months

BA123 Side panels and Stuck TK50

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

This is real trivia but I have a BA123 cabinet (MicroVax II) and there a screws that hold the side panels in place, and mine are missing. Does anyone know the type of screw I should go look for at the hardware store? The same cabinet has a TK50 and I foolishly put a cartridge into it and now it won't come out. It is called being 'stuck'. How do proceed to get this TK50 cartridge out? Also, the TQK50 controller never saw the drive and I was wondering if the PROM's (after 30 years) on the board lose their data?

8 years, 3 months

It's Terminal Week on RetroBattlestationst

by fozztexx＠fozztexx.com

It's Terminal Week on RetroBattlestations! https://redd.it/500myn This week is about those devices that you connect to a computer so that you can read output and provide input through a keyboard. The oldest terminals used paper for the display, and in the mid '70s the "glass TTY" became much more common. In the early days terminals had very little smarts in them. Some were electro-mechanical, later they had some circuitry, and by the late '70s almost all were using microprocessors inside. In fact if it weren't for a terminal company, Intel wouldn't have designed the 8008 microprocessor, the grandfather of the x86! Terminal Week is from August 28th to September 3rd. To participate in the contest you need to make a new post to RetroBattlestations of a picture or video that you shot of a computer terminal for this contest. At the end of the week 2 winners will be selected based on the oldest/newest setups as described above and will receive custom flair. In addition to the flair winners 3 other winners will be randomly selected. Each winner will receive their choice of two retro stickers: http://imgur.com/a/iAS5T -- Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com

8 years, 3 months

It's Terminal Week on RetroBattlestationst

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

I don't have anything that'll be competitive with the teletype guys but I'll enter anyway. ?For clarity.. does my CT1024 count as a terminal even though it does not possess a dedicated screen? Sent from my Samsung device -------- Original message -------- From: Chris Osborn <fozztexx at fozztexx.com> Date: 2016-08-30 7:06 AM (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: It's Terminal Week on RetroBattlestationst It's Terminal Week on RetroBattlestations! ? https://redd.it/500myn This week is about those devices that you connect to a computer so that you can read output and provide input through a keyboard. The oldest terminals used paper for the display, and in the mid '70s the "glass TTY" became much more common. In the early days terminals had very little smarts in them. Some were electro-mechanical, later they had some circuitry, and by the late '70s almost all were using microprocessors inside. In fact if it weren't for a terminal company, Intel wouldn't have designed the 8008 microprocessor, the grandfather of the x86! Terminal Week is from August 28th to September 3rd. To participate in the contest you need to make a new post to RetroBattlestations of a picture or video that you shot of a computer terminal for this contest. At the end of the week 2 winners will be selected based on the oldest/newest setups as described above and will receive custom flair. In addition to the flair winners 3 other winners will be randomly selected. Each winner will receive their choice of two retro stickers: http://imgur.com/a/iAS5T -- Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com

8 years, 3 months

DTC01 DECtalk repaired

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Thanks to the source code for the MAME DTC01 DECtalk driver, which is apparently the only place there is any information on the self-test error LED codes, I determined that there was a failed HM6264LP-12 static RAM chip. The error code narrows it down to a pair, and swapping narrowed it down to a single chip. After replacement with an HM6264ALP-12, and powering up, I was delighted to hear "DECtalk version one point eight is running." At some point if I get sixteen 27128 or 27C128 EPROMs, or maybe eight 27256 or 27C256 with four jumper changes on the board, and two 82S191 or equivalent PROMs, I might upgrade it to 2.0. I've only ever seen firmware versions 1.8 and 2.0, but there are rumors of an intermediate version and a version 2.1. Does anyone have these?

8 years, 3 months

CHM

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

Folks, I am going to be in San Francisco in a few weeks' time, but only for about a day and half. I could spare 2 hours at CHM but is it worth dragging myself up there on a Sunday when there are no working exhibits, and I will only have two hours. Dave.

8 years, 3 months

RX02 and RXV11 emulators

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I got interested in a thread which mentioned RX02 emulators by C H Dickman, and found a nice page on that, which is still live. However, one of the pages was on geocities, and though there are about 10 or 15 hits for the path below, noone had any links which i could find which hit the original project. There are a number of dead domains on both the RX01 page and elsewhere. The link below has the listings, the zip file, all captured and downloadable. http://www.chdickman.com/rx02/ https://web.archive.org/web/20090114185527/http://www.geocities.com/saipan5… http://torok.info/computing/pdp11/rx02/index.htm The Bella Torok project extended the Dickman work to use an Arduino. The design however is not minimal in terms of what you really need to do to get a working version with the Arduino. A lot of the wires are building out a board which can be had for about 5 bucks which adds a 16 character display and 4 buttons to an arduino. He also implements an SD card on the arduino, all using a lot of wiring. If one buys the Arduino, the 16x2 / button shield, and one of the generic SPI Sd cards, I suspect there is way less involved in making up the Torok version. He also has a Raspberry Pi version which might be interesting too. thanks jim

8 years, 3 months

AT&T 3b2, IBM RT, others

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch > Wish the seller would part it out (and ship). So, send the seller an eBay message saying you're interested in some of the items, and you're in contact with other collectors who are interested in other items, but: you don't want to buy the entire lot; and suggest to the seller that they will i) sell it faster, and ii) get more money in total, if they split the lot up, and are willing to ship things. (Assuming, of course, that it doesn't sell as-is.) (Speaking of getting more money, did you all see the PDP-11/34 system that included a couple of RL01's and some RM03's? It only drew a single bid, and went for $2K. I was vaguely interested in the RM03's, but didn't want to deal with the RL01's, so I didn't bid. Wonder how many others made similar calculations? And I wonder if they buyer will actually use all of it, or put part of it - perhaps the RL01's or the RM03's - in a corner to gather dust? Wuz gonna send them a message of the sort I suggested above, but it sold.) Noel

8 years, 3 months

Motorola 88000 system on Epay

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

a bit pricy, but it seems to be able to be powered up. Looks to be 25mhz according to the boot screen. The seller has done the smoke test for the buyer, and was even going to replace a dead NVram to verify that one message about the config being bad was recoverable. 16mb ram. Seller has done some reasonable searching there won't be much available, but if one wants a 88000 system this isn't bad. Motorola-8120-MC88000-RISC-System-/ http://www.ebay.com/itm/302054107748 I've bought from this vendor, but otherwise no other affiliation. thanks Jim

8 years, 3 months

AT&T 3b2, IBM RT, others

by seefriek＠gmail.com

I'd really like the AT&T 4425 terminal, which doesn't seem to have been claimed. I spent a couple of years with one on my desk. Any chance they'd ship? My wife and I have an agreement that if I bring home any more VME kit I have to get rid of an equivalent tonnage of other things. So unless that Motorola tower is an 88200 or something suitable esoteric, I probably need to pass. The E&S box looks like a Sun 3/110 or 4/110 with additional boards. I'd love to have one. Obviously, I would have killed for the Explorer or the RTs. Double kill for the 5620. Good they've found homes. KJ

8 years, 3 months

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test-drb August 2016