test-drb November 2019

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

147 participants
137 discussions

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

Need a faceplate and the eject control shaft (it is sheared off (the way I aquired it)) (I do have the eject lever).... I thought I had some floppy drive parts kicking around, but if I do, I can't find them (and chances are I don't have parts for that specific drive). Anyone have a dead drive, or parts from one kicking around ? Thanks, -- Curt

4 years, 5 months

Modcomp Minicomputers Related - Preservation and Repair

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

Greeting. Its been a while since I have posted here. A while back I picked up a large Modcomp classic minicomputer. Recently the person i picked the computer up off of gave me a call to come and get many books and software, among much more hardware. I have picked up hundreds of 9 track tapes. The modcomp computer mainly ran the real time os MAX, however i also found many tapes for a unix variant for the machine, that supported real time operation as well. I am trying to preserve things as best i can, I am set to pick up 3 more machines, and among the tapes and documentation, Space is running out fast. I am curious if any of this documentation has been archived already, if not, i can get to scanning it in my free time. I have documentation on everything. The hardware, the software, os code, everything. The tapes are another issue all together. They were stored in probably the worst possible place, in a area of extreme heat and humidity. Some are musty, others look like new. I do not own a 9 track drive, i was thinking it would be possible to get a 9 track drive with a scsi interface attached to a more modern Linux system to dump the tapes to images. If anyone here has suggestions on how to read off the tapes or where to find a drive, it would be most helpful. As a last resort, I have a 9 track drive that is attached to my pdp 11/34, however i have not gotten that system into working order yet either, and am unsure of if the drive is working yet. I was also given an old emulator for the system,m written for linux. I have not gotten the software to work yet. I need to be sure the software is not still a licenced product and that the company is gone before i post it. Perhaps someone here can find out why its not working. On a modern debian system, it attempts to run and just exits, without any info as to whats wrong. Any help or suggestions on how to best preserve the documentation and software is most appreciated. I am undecided on what to do with the hardware yet. The hardware is fascinating, and there is a bunch of it, however it is quite large and is taking up a large portion of space. The hope is to at least get one running to test out and see if i decide to keep a system after that. --Devin D

4 years, 5 months

TRS-80 Model III stopped responding

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I haven't dug into this one yet, but I did get it booted in trsdos, and the letter I on the keyboard wasn't working. I shut it off, disconnected and removed the keyboard. I desoldered and removed the APLS switch, opened it up, cleaned up the carbon pad and the contacts below it, reassembled it, tested it with my DVM, all good to go. I soldered it back into the keyboard, put the keyboard back, powered on the system.... I get CRT glow, system reset button will cause the floppy drive to seek, but nothing on the screen, and pressing return after inserting TRSDOS does not boot the drive (i.e. testing for a working core system with no display....). I do need to test the power supplies and make sure I have not lost a power rail on one of the two supplies. I presume the one I need to check is the one on the backside of the cpu board, as the one on the side of the drive 'cage' powers the drives and the drive controller board, and on power up and reset, the drives are motor on and tracking, so I think that supply is at least providing +5/+12V. Seems odd that putting the keyboard back in resulted in a non working system. I unplugged it, same behavior with no keyboard plugged in. I did not connect the kb connector off by one pin or one row.... so as best as I can tall, Murphy has struck, and it isn't 'operator error' :-). Any tips from Model III experts welcome. -- Curt

4 years, 5 months

Cheap minicomputer (Tracor-Northern 1610) on Facebook Markeplace (Allentown, PA) 18 bit?

by cctalk＠harlie.org

Has anyone seen this? It looks like an 18-bit machine. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/736222363558907/ --Bill

4 years, 5 months

Looking for DEC RA80 (or RM80, R80) service manual (EK-ORA80-SV or similar)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I have an R80 drive in my VAX-11/730 cabinet that I'm trying to get running. Symptoms are: most of the time when the Run/Load switch is depressed, the drive will begin spinning up for 1-2 seconds (sometimes as long as 3-4 seconds) and then stop, faulting with error code 01 ("Spindle Timeout Error"). Every now and again it will spin up and go ready -- the other night it ran for several hours, long enough for me to get a dump of the disk with no read errors (*). I've checked the usual -- the motor and the spindle spin freely and the belt is good and tight. Connectors have been cleaned and reseated, as have socketed ICs. Power supply voltages are OK. The motor start cap tests fine. I'm getting pulses from the optical spindle sensor. I suspected that the brake might have been slowing things down during spin-up as it was a bit noisy (due to some light corrosion), but the spin-up error persists even with it entirely removed. I haven't been able to find the actual service manual for the R80 (or the very closely related RA80 and RM80 drives). Anyone have a copy stashed somewhere? Anyone have any debugging advice? Thanks as always, Josh (*) The drive contained a 4.3BSD system used to run a bbs and uucp relay, "Darkstar 730" out of Beaverton, OR. Looks like it was last run in the early 1990s. Now I just need to track down the owner :).

4 years, 5 months

Floppy drive (DSDD) DOS compatability woes (are these drives ok?)

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

Been away for some time from the mailing lists.... getting back into my classic gear again.... I have two of these Qumetrack 542 drives. While testing my 360K drive collection (8 drives.... I must be slacking :-) ...), 2 worked, 4 had issue (resolved with a good head cleaning), and 2 (both of the Qumetrack 542 drives (I have two of them)) have mixed results. My testing is on a Tandy 2500SX/33 using the Tandy straight through cable and with the drives set do DS0. I seem to have no issue with Dunfield's testfdc (using testfdc/x a:) with these drives, doing SS and DD and getting 'pass' from testfdc. I can also use his imagedisk program, go to the alignment section, and I can track the drive properly up an down the disk.... it is just DOS that can't seem to do it. However, when I do a format a:, the drive will format through the 40 tracks, then instead of the heads returning to track 0 quickly, they do these small stepping 'bursts' and DOS times out saying failure..... it probably would have worked if DOS would wait 10 seconds or more for the drive to move to track 0. I've never seen behavior like this. I even tried an external power supply in case the Tandy one wasn't up to driving the full height floppy drive due to an aging marginal supply, but that didn't help anything. I've now also had one of them shut down the power supply (a shorted tantalum cap I'm sure). I've looked through the manual on the drive, I've tried the HM, HS, and no jumper setting for stepper motor power, same results in all cases. I'm trying too determine if these drives are good. I'm planning on using them in a Tandy Model III that is upgraded internally to a Model IV, but I feel these are basic drives and should work in DOS fine too. I hope someone has a clue, as I'm tapped out of them currently. Thanks, -- Curt

4 years, 5 months

George Schmidt, Distinguished Lectures, January 16, 2020

by mark.tapley＠swri.org

All, Southwest Research Institute will be hosting a talk in San Antonio, (Texas, USA) by one of the engineers involved in the Apollo navigation effort, George T. Schmidt. I understand he is aware of and very interested in the Apollo Guidance Computer work done by some of the folks on this list and others, but anyone who has not had a chance to talk to him might well be interested in attending, and would certainly be welcome. The abstract and title for the talk are below, along with the URL for the IEEE distinguished lecturer website (which doesn?t say any more than I have copied below). Anyone interested in attending, let me know and I?ll forward more details as I learn them. I expect the lecture will be around noon on Jan. 16 at SwRI, with a repeat at St. Mary?s University in the evening. Inside Apollo: Heroes, Rules and Lessons Learned in the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) System Development<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__nam12.safelinks.protec…> This Abstract was written in March 2019 which is halfway between the 50th Anniversaries of Apollo 8 (Dec 1968) and Apollo 11 (July 1969). Those 2 flights were among the greatest explorations of mankind. In 8, astronauts deliberately put themselves in orbit around the moon expecting the rocket engine to later fire and bring them home to Earth. In 11, it was mankind?s first visit to the moon and Tranquility Base. Movies, books, articles, and documentaries have covered the space race. The author will give his thoughts based on 10 years inside the GNC program design, many hours in the Spacecraft Control room at Cape Kennedy monitoring GNC performance through liftoff, and then providing real-time mission support to NASA from MIT in Cambridge, MA. that abstract appears on this website: http://ieee-aess.org/education/distinguished-lecturer-and-tutorial-program#… - Mark 210-522-6025 office 210-379-4635 cell

4 years, 5 months

Hyperland and Doctor Who (Was: 70's computers

by annelies.vanopstal＠gmail.com

hello there, just read your reply in the thread "70?s computers" (from about a year ago) where you talk about having created a .SRT file for Hyperland. Is it still possible to get a copy of that .SRT file? That would be rreally sweet, 'd love to show this docu to a bunch o? millenials. Can?t wait to see their jaws drop ;.) Thanks allready! Kind regards, annelies

4 years, 5 months

swtpc.com expired???

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Anybody know if Mike Holley is OK? Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

4 years, 5 months

Free font software

by bob099＠centurytel.net

Sorry don't know how to respond directly https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/

4 years, 5 months

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test-drb November 2019