test-drb February 2018

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

160 participants
141 discussions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Aaron Jackson > I am wondering if anyone would be willing to sell me an RL02K cartridge > for a sensible price? There are a bunch listed on eBait for not wholly unrealistic prices; I wouldn't buy a bunch there, but it you only need one, for testing... Not sure if any of the ones for sale there are the moment are in the UK, though. (I recall some a few months ago, so it's not impossible, and worth a check.) Noel

6 years, 2 months

VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: geneb > they've got a DPS-8 maintenance/operator/? panel ... It's fully > operational and is connected via some magic hardware to a Raspberry Pi > running a Multics emulator. Technically it's an H6180; the DPS-8 is a later generation of hardware in the same family. More here: http://www.chiappa.net/~jnc/tech/multics/MulticsPanels.html Alas, as can be seen there, the DPS-8's don't have those wonderful panels with a zillion lights and switches; just boring modern machines! :-) Noel

6 years, 2 months

qd32 trouble

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Hi all, Would anyone here be able to help me troubleshoot my qd32 controller? I have a pdp11/73 that's mostly working, boots 2.11bsd from rl02 okay, but I need my big disk to work so I can load the rest of the distro. I've been following the manual for the qd32 to enter the geometry of my real working Fuji m2333 (jumpered correctly according to the manuals), but when I load the special command into the qd32's SP register that's supposed to load the geometry table I entered in pdp11 memory to the qd32's novram, I get a bad status value from the qd32's SP register and it remains unresponsive when I try to store the geometry. If I go ahead and try the built-in qd32 format command, it responds similarly. When I pull in mkfs >from tape (vtserver) and try anyway, despite the failures, to run mkfs on the m2333, I get an !online error from the standalone unix mkfs. The disk does respond (the select light flashes and I can hear heads actuating), but without geometry and format, I'm obviously dead in the water. I understand that there used to exist some Emulex qd32/pdp11 diagnostics that could help the situation, but my previous attempts to find copies have come up short. Any suggestions on how to proceed? thx jake

6 years, 2 months

Seeking RL02K cartridge

by aaron＠aaronsplace.co.uk

Hi all, Inspired by CuriousMarc's recent video, I cleaned and fixed my RL02 heads. Not with an ultrasonic cleaner unfortunately, but in a warm IPA bath. It worked! Loading a crashed pack is obviously not a good idea, although I cleaned the cartridge well, and figured with bad heads and a bad pack, I might as well try it. The heads no longer crash and appear clean after loading, but the cartridge, of course, cannot be read as the first track has been destroyed from the initial crash. I think the crash was cause by bad heads before I got the RL02 drive. I posted some pictures of the process here: http://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2018-02-19-repairing-crashed-RL02-heads.html I am wondering if anyone would be willing to sell me an RL02K cartridge for a sensible price? After the cleaning I am guessing my alignment will be slightly off, but >from what I have read in the manual, this is will probably just result in the read/write speed being reduced as the heads have to move slightly when switching between either side of the platter. Am I right in thinking this or completely wrong? Thanks, Aaron. -- Aaron Jackson PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham http://aaronsplace.co.uk

6 years, 2 months

VCF Southeast, East, West -- dates announced

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Here's some news! VCF Southeast is April 21-22, VCF East is May 18-20, and VCF West is August 4-5. Exhibit registration is OPEN for Southeast and East. For details please see www.vcfed.org.

6 years, 2 months

New home for old computing books - free on collection (UK)

by james＠attfield.co.uk

I am having a re-org of the workspace and have decided to release a number of books acquired over the last 3/4 decades but I am in a quandary as I can't store them, don't think the local Cat's Protection League can handle them and I am reluctant to consign them to the skip. While I appreciate that they may not qualify as true vintage currently they will be before too long, like PL/1 primers were years ago when folks were skipping them. I have between two to three dozen (some big) and won't impose here by listing them all but they include such nuggets as 'Secrets of Windows 2000 Server', 'MTS Programming in Visual Basic', Kernighan's 'Software Tools in Pascal', 'Understanding and Programming COM+' and 'Developing Professional Applications in Windows 95 and NT Using MFC'. I have most if not all of the accompanying CD's. I am afraid my 'Introduction to Programming using Fortran 77' and 'Lepton and Baryon Number Violation in Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology' along with my Amiga development manuals are not up for grabs (cold, dead hands, etc.) I can't expect anyone crazy enough to take the whole lot (but free for the collection if you like and welcome) but does anyone know anywhere who would take them and keep them for posterity? Just can't stand the thought of good books being destroyed. Please post here if you can help then we can take it off-list. James Attfield Proud owner of: Amiga 500 (x4), Amiga 1500 (x2), Atari 1024 (maybe), BBC Model 'B', Amiga 3000, Amiga 4000, Cromemco System One Proud builder of: Imsai 8080, North Star Horizon, Processor Technology Sol-20, Nascom-I, Nascom -II Proud past seller of all of the above plus: Cromemco, Vector Graphic, Compucolor, Ohio Scientific, Commodore (PET, VIC-20, 64), South West Technical Products KIM-1, Osborne-1, Exidy Sorcerer, ITT 2020, Dragon 32, Apricot, Comart, IBM (maybe)

6 years, 2 months

Ferut computer

by db＠db.net

I just stumbled over this page this morning. Wow. Fascinating story! http://ferut.ca/my-story/ -- - db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://www.db.net/~db

6 years, 2 months

LMI Lambda Lispmachine Keyboard aka Space Cadet Keyboad

by mcwood＠nefkom.net

Hello, I have the keyboard for a LMI Lambda Lispmachine but I'm missing the computer itself. Is there a simulator or similar available? The keyboard is similar like here http://world.std.com/~jdostale/kbd/SpaceCadet.html. On the left side there is lable with "LMI" and a sticker "Scientific Computers Limited". Here is a picture showing the actual layout: http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/michael/blog/1402/140208-keyboard.jpg Best Regards, Marc

6 years, 2 months

Bendix G-15 [was: Re: VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!]

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow >> On 2/18/18 12:20 PM, Brent Hilpert via cctalk wrote: >> ... his 709 went to the CHM. Anything else of the big stuff? > the 7094 and 650 A 7094? Neat! Very historic machine. I wonder if it would be possible to fabricate the extras needed to run CTSS on it... :-) Noel

6 years, 2 months

Control Data 841 disk drive's 3-phase power supply resurrection

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello list, currently, I am in the process of trying to bring back to life a disk drive installation from Control Data known as "841 Multiple Disk Drive" ( MDD ). From the early '70s. It uses hydraulic disk head actuators! Pictures of the subsystem are here: http://www.digitalheritage.de/peripherals/cdc/841/841.htm I started with the power supply. Most of the electrolytic capacitors need to be reformed which is being done.? As far as I know, some computer installations used 400Hz 3-phase back in the days. Does anybody know, if that is the case for this type of drive systems? I couldn't find any indication so far, except for the input filter that supports up to 400Hz (written on it). I've quite some experience with old linear power supplies, but never worked with three-phase supplies, yet. Has anybody experience with this? Anything particular to be considered? There is an operator's manual, but there don't seem to be manuals or schematics about this type of CDC drive nor on bitsavers, neither elsewhere on the net. How could help me in pointing out where to get these? A lot of questions, I know.... :) Thanks a lot for any of your precious help, Pierre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de

6 years, 2 months

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test-drb February 2018