test-drb August 2020

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

116 participants
97 discussions

by sieler＠allegro.com

I found/scanned/OCR'd the "Technical data" flyer for HP-UX 7.0 (from 1989). It's at: http://www.sieler.com/hp/other/hp_ux_7_0.html Shortly after this, HP quietly dropped the "real time" portion of HP-UX, and in later years no one at HP seemed to know it had ever been there. Stan

3 years, 8 months

HP Terminal Data from 1987

by sieler＠allegro.com

I scanned flyers for the HP terminal line (700/22, 700/41, 700/71, 700/92, and 700/94), and a price list from 1987. Info at http://sieler.com/hp/other/hp_terminals.html Stan

3 years, 8 months

Altair 8800 reproduction

by gregory.beat＠gmail.com

?Tom, Grant moved shortly after this Kit offering, over a decade ago. That kit is OVER (Grant no longer offering). Participate in the S100computers Group: http://www.s100computers.com/ Join the List at Google Group: S100Computers https://groups.google.com Grant special ordered the metal fabrication, at that time, from the original metal fabricators (Optima, $$), who have gone thru mergers & off-shoring. Mike Douglas looked into that chassis possibility ? but was cost prohibitive (>$300). Mike Douglas offers BOTH the Altair Clone (you referenced) AND the Altair 8800c Kits (November 2018). This case he had fabricated is a close look-a-like, but Lighter in weight. Still the case alone is $300 . This case does not have the internal Optima sub chassis (weight) and rails. ?https://deramp.com/altair_8800c.html Suggest you look at Mike?s multiple vintage computer offerings (web site) AND https://deramp.com/ His YouTube Videos (deramp5113). Here is the Altair 8800c, shown November 2018 https://youtu.be/Q5LjkL5b4n8 greg w9gb == From: Tom Hunter <ccth6600 at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion? <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Altair 8800 reproduction About 10 years ago Grant Stockly in Anchorage Alaska produced high quality MITS Altair 8800 reproductions in kit form. The website still exists: http://www.altairkit.com/ I have tried to contact Grant but did not get a reply. Does anyone know if these kits are still available? Is Grant on this forum? Alternatively is somebody else making complete Altair 8800 kits? I have found people making individual boards but not a complete kit. There is also the Altair 8800 clone which is based on a PIC microcontroller emulating the entire original Altair 8800. It is cute but not the real thing. Thanks Tom Hunter Sent from iPad Air

3 years, 8 months

DEC VRE01 terminal documentation

by woolfson＠telswitch.com

Sorry for duplicate emails. Paul did I send you copies of the power supply manuals? One more photo of the power supply. I beleieve that the illumination activation needed to be 109-115 volts, and the sustainer needed to be 74-78 volts. ----- Original Message ----- From: Aaron Woolfson To: Aaron Woolfson ; paulkoning at comcast.net ; uban at ubanproductions.com ; cctalk at classiccmp.org Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2020 1:55 PM Subject: Re: DEC VRE01 terminal documentation I am crossing my fingers that I stil have the scans of these somewhere, or photocopies.... these are copies of the original manuals. DigiVue sent me their only originals, which I made copies of and sent back to them at some point....

3 years, 8 months

DEC VRE01 terminal documentation

by woolfson＠telswitch.com

I am crossing my fingers that I stil have the scans of these somewhere, or photocopies.... these are copies of the original manuals. DigiVue sent me their only originals, which I made copies of and sent back to them at some point.... ----- Original Message ----- From: Aaron Woolfson To: Aaron Woolfson ; paulkoning at comcast.net ; uban at ubanproductions.com ; cctalk at classiccmp.org Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2020 1:53 PM Subject: Re: DEC VRE01 terminal documentation Here's a photo of one of the restored PLATO terminals (which had the plasma display) Does the power supply for the PLASMA look like the one in this photo of one of the terminals with the covers off? ----- Original Message ----- From: Aaron Woolfson To: paulkoning at comcast.net ; uban at ubanproductions.com ; cctalk at classiccmp.org Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2020 1:50 PM Subject: Re: DEC VRE01 terminal documentation Hi Tom. Thanks for your message. Well, the Plasma panels use a pretty unique. I'm attaching the precise waveforms that the Plasma Panel expects to see in order to achieve the illumination of the dot. And while this may not be exactly or precisely what you're looking for, this will explain much about the technology involved. The fact that you can see any illumination at all is perhaps the most important part - beacuse the gas is probably there, and the "actuation" voltage might just not be high enough, or the sustainer voltage might have an issue. The power supplies were manufactured by Electro Plasma and were typically separate from the actual unit itself. I am going to see whether I can find the schematics for those power supplies, which discuss the characteristics . Also, check to see whether the back of the plasma panel itself has an edge connector that is similar to the attached TYCO specified connector. That might give you some insights into where to go. When I gave all my equipment and test gear to the LCM up in Seattle, I am pretty sure that they also got a lot of the original manuals and notes that had been hand written. But I typically had scans of most everything. I will see what I can find.... ----- Original Message ----- Subject: Re: DEC VRE01 terminal documentation Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:38:39 -0400 From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> You may want to see if the PLATO terminal documentation is any help, look on Bitsavers under University of Illinois. Those plasma display power supplies are hairy devices; the panel is actually a memory device and the power supply produces a high voltage AC waveform to make that work. Those panels normally light up around the rim; the fact you see that briefly but not sustained gives some hope that adjusting may be all that is needed. That's quite a display; the usual plasma panels were 8 inches square, 512 by 512 pixels. I'm guessing this is a 1k by 1k pixel display, which I have seen once or twice, at SAI in San Diego in some military displays. I know a plasma terminal expert; I've forwarded your message to him. paul > On Aug 13, 2020, at 3:23 PM, Tom Uban via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > I have a DEC VRE01 terminal that I bought NIB years ago. For those who don't know about this model, > it has a flat plasma (orange/black) display of about 17". It worked when I bought it, but now, years > later, I tried powering it up and the light comes on for a moment and goes out. I suspect a power > supply issue, but bitsavers does not seem to have this one. > > Does anyone have schematic (or other) documentation for it? > > --tnx > --tom

3 years, 8 months

DEC VRE01 terminal documentation

by woolfson＠telswitch.com

Hi Tom. Thanks for your message. Well, the Plasma panels use a pretty unique. I'm attaching the precise waveforms that the Plasma Panel expects to see in order to achieve the illumination of the dot. And while this may not be exactly or precisely what you're looking for, this will explain much about the technology involved. The fact that you can see any illumination at all is perhaps the most important part - beacuse the gas is probably there, and the "actuation" voltage might just not be high enough, or the sustainer voltage might have an issue. The power supplies were manufactured by Electro Plasma and were typically separate from the actual unit itself. I am going to see whether I can find the schematics for those power supplies, which discuss the characteristics . Also, check to see whether the back of the plasma panel itself has an edge connector that is similar to the attached TYCO specified connector. That might give you some insights into where to go. When I gave all my equipment and test gear to the LCM up in Seattle, I am pretty sure that they also got a lot of the original manuals and notes that had been hand written. But I typically had scans of most everything. I will see what I can find.... ----- Original Message ----- Subject: Re: DEC VRE01 terminal documentation Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:38:39 -0400 From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> You may want to see if the PLATO terminal documentation is any help, look on Bitsavers under University of Illinois. Those plasma display power supplies are hairy devices; the panel is actually a memory device and the power supply produces a high voltage AC waveform to make that work. Those panels normally light up around the rim; the fact you see that briefly but not sustained gives some hope that adjusting may be all that is needed. That's quite a display; the usual plasma panels were 8 inches square, 512 by 512 pixels. I'm guessing this is a 1k by 1k pixel display, which I have seen once or twice, at SAI in San Diego in some military displays. I know a plasma terminal expert; I've forwarded your message to him. paul > On Aug 13, 2020, at 3:23 PM, Tom Uban via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > I have a DEC VRE01 terminal that I bought NIB years ago. For those who don't know about this model, > it has a flat plasma (orange/black) display of about 17". It worked when I bought it, but now, years > later, I tried powering it up and the light comes on for a moment and goes out. I suspect a power > supply issue, but bitsavers does not seem to have this one. > > Does anyone have schematic (or other) documentation for it? > > --tnx > --tom

3 years, 8 months

LSI-11 Simulator from Bob Meister

by rich.cini＠gmail.com

All ? ??????????????? I?m cleaning out my shop (I?m swimming in stuff so I will be creating a ?to go? list at some point), and this week I was going through boxes of magazine articles I saved. One is an article by Bob Meister that appeared in the July 1996 issue of Circuit Cellar with an LSI-11 simulator program. I was able to locate the C-source and get it to compile properly after some tweaking. ??????????????? The article says that he had to create a custom RT-11 driver for it, and it implies that it can use an image of an diskette, but it really doesn?t say what kind (assuming RX01). I wanted to pose this to the group to see if anyone ever heard of this program, used it, or otherwise knows Bob (email address in the article is no longer valid) so I can try to fill in the blanks a bit. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

3 years, 8 months

HMS Victory "afloat" again on high-tech, hull-protecting supports

by ce.murillosanchez＠gmail.com

Seems like? sort of an "active suspension" system to try to preserve a 255 years-old ship.? I wonder if the hardware and software involved stands a chance of being supported a mere five more years. https://newatlas.com/military/hms-victory-floats-hull-protecting-high-tech-… Carlos.

3 years, 8 months

weird rack unit

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

anyone ever seen one of these? has a motorola 6800 date coded 1976 on it https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/50199901793/in/dateposted-public/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/50200714992/in/dateposted-public/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/50199903443/in/dateposted-public/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/50200713557/in/dateposted-public/ prityy obscure no model markings on the case. the rack its in has handles for carying so it might of flown around in a plane as part of a kit for doing geophysical not sure though

3 years, 8 months

Virtual VCF Midwest!

by silent700＠gmail.com

So we're all stuck inside with no fabulous midwestern computer festivals to go to, so let's try to do this thing online. You produce the videos, we'll show them on the VCFMW Youtube channel using their "Premiere" feature to create a full day of classic computing presentations, along with a live chat with the creators (that's you) on YouTube as well as an all-day open chat on Discord/IRC. If you've got an idea for a video (criteria: on-topic, low noise), email us before September 1 (the sooner the better!) at virtual at vcfmw.org with: - How you?d like to be credited (real name or alias ok) - A one-line title/topic for your video - A short paragraph as an Abstract (plaintext, but can include URLs) - What time of day (morning, afternoon, or evening) you?d prefer your video shown If accepted, completed videos are due to us by Noon on Monday, September 7th. You can get your video to us in one of three ways: - Provide a download link for us to pick it up (FTP, dropbox, mega.nz, uucp, fidonet, etc.) - Upload via anonymous FTP to ftp.oldskool.org in the /incoming directory - If you have no edit capability and would like to stream directly to Youtube from your phone or tablet, go ahead and do so, making your video ?Unlisted?, then email us the link and we?ll pick it up. Be sure to include some or all of the filename in your email so that we match videos up with the right people. The full linkable announcements are here: https://mailchi.mp/1f03fef220b3/vcf-midwest-15-virtual-event? http://vcfmw.org/virtual.html -j

3 years, 8 months

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test-drb August 2020