> From: Chuck Guzis
> BTW, what do you use to read UNIX v7 tar files? Linux/BSD modern tar
> seem not to like the old archive format
I have a very slightly hacked version of the V7 tar, which runs under Windows
(under Cygwin). It read all the older TAR files which the newer TARs barfed
on. Is that of any use to you?
Noel
A faded semi-nude 4x6 photo of a woman on a beach inside an IBM PC-XT that I found in a thrift shop many years ago. How or why it was in there is anyone's guess.
-Rick
Hi,
I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl
Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive
of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating
noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is
wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself:
http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).
After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm
and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the
drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the
time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in
by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles
sewn together by hand it seem.
What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers?
Vlad.
> From: Benjamin Huntsman <BHuntsman at mail2.cu-portland.edu>
> Subject: SPARCClassic won't boot cdrom
>
> Hi all!
> I recently acquired a SPARCclassic, which is my first bit of Sun
> hardware. Having an awful time getting it to boot from the CD-ROM. I have
> tried a bunch of different terminators and several different cables, but
> whenever I try to boot I get this:
>
> ok boot cdrom -s
> Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma at 4,8400000/esp at 4,8800000/sd at 6,0:d File
> and args: -s
> The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external device is turned off.
>
> Any ideas as to what might be wrong here? The thing does not seem to
> send any commands to the CD-ROM, as the LED never comes on and I don't hear
> it doing anything...
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Ben
>
The terminator on the end of the SCSI bus needs to be powered. Without
power on the terminator the bus will hang. Sometimes the power comes from
the SPARC through the SCSI cable, but not all SCSI cables pass the power.
Sometimes there is a jumper or switch on the last drive to enable SCSI
terminator power.
--
Michael Thompson
Today I was able to repair the LCD monitor (admittedly a cheap one) on my
son's computer by replacing some of the electrolytic capacitors.
Had I not got into collecting and restoring (sometimes) old DEC machines, I
would not have had the ESR meter, the de-soldering and soldering equipment,
suitable capacitors and sufficient knowledge (generously provided by many on
this list) to do the job.
Of course, compared to the things that many people on this list do, it is
hardly a major achievement. But this hobby has now saved me from throwing
away an old monitor and having to buy a new one. I suppose I now have at
least some justification in the eyes of She Who Must Be Obeyed for
continuing with this hobby J
Regards
Rob
PS A related question. I struggled somewhat with the Weller Magnastat No. 8
tip, when trying to solder leads to the ground plane, I could not get the
solder to stay molten very long. I was using lead-free solder, its melting
point is much lower than the temperature which a No. 8 tip reaches. The iron
is 50W. Clearly the ground plane was taking heat away, but is it a problem
with the tip not being hot enough, the iron not powerful enough, or perhaps
some operator error?
Sorry for the public post, can't get through privately. But oddly, the list
seems to make it through. Very strange.
Mouse, tried sending you a few replies, but your mail server sends
rejections back from your MX host. Any chance you could whitelist the
classiccmp.org server IP?
Best,
J
Good morning all!
I have the following printer manuals that I must get out of my space. If
you want any of them enough to make it worth my while to ship them, let
me know soon. They will be out of here by next Monday, one way or another.
Shipping from Madison, WI 53714.
Comrex ComRiterIIE User's Guide
Gemini-10X/15X Users Manual
Citizen MSP-40/45 User's Manual
Wespergroup Model DLP-1132 Printer Controller User's Manual
digital Letterwriter 100 Operator Guide
Dataproducts Model 9030/9040 Printers Operating Guide
Fujitsu M304X Series Line Printer Operator's Guide
HP 7580B, 7585B, and 7586B Drafting Plotters Interfacing and Programming
Manual
HP 7580B, 7585B, and 7586B Drafting Plotters Interfacing and Operator's
Manual
Mannesmann Tally Spirit-80 Computer Printer Operator's manual
Star Micronics radix-10 PC radix-15 PC User's Manual
Panasonic KX-P3151 Daisy Wheel Printer Operating Instructions
-Jon
With a lot of help from Dave Gesswein and Warren Stearns we were able to
get the MARK12 PDP-12 tape formatting program off a LINCtape and int paper
tape format. Running it showed that a diode on the field-0 core stack had
failed during the week making memory in the range of 4000-5000 unusable.
Fortunately we had a spare core memory stack so we were running again in a
few minutes. We have traced and replaced diodes on core stacks before, so
we will fix the broken core stack.
We were able to format a LINCtape, but running it without a video display
was a little challenging. The tape diags work better with the reformatted
LINCtapes, but still not perfectly. It looks like there is an issue in the
selection logic in the TU56. That should not be difficult to debug and fix.
We booted LAPS6-DIAL from LINCtape. The VT14 display is not working yet, so
we were driving blind. We could see some fuzzy characters displayed on an
oscilloscope so we could see that our typing was actually getting handled
by the editor. We tried three different oscilloscopes, but none have an
intensity or blanking input so the display was not readable.
We couldn't find any documentation for booting OS/12 from LINCtape, so
Warren looked through an octal dump and found that block zero is the boot
block, just like OS/8. The OS/12 boot block starts at 0020 like many LINC
programs. Since this uses the serial console we were able to interact with
the OS normally.
This is the first time in 24 years that an OS has been run on this system.
--
Michael Thompson
A few weeks ago, while I was testing a spare IPB-80 CPU card in an
Intel Series II MDS, the monitor stopped working, with the raster
collapsing to a very bright dot in the center of the screen. I hit the
power switch and pulled the line plug immediately, but the dot
persisted for several minutes, only gradually dimming.
I just started investigating it. With the monitor cable unplugged from
the IOC board, the +15V DC at the IOC connector reads 0.74V. Of the
two DC power supplies described in the service manual, this MDS uses
the Power One. The +15V rail uses a separate transformer winding, a
723C regulator, a house-marked (12500-4) NPN pass transistor, and a
zener and SCR crowbar. The 0.74V makes me think the crowbar has
tripped and the 723 regulator is current limiting. Nothing else in the
MDS uses the +15V supply.
I was a bit lucky that this particular MDS used "method A" of
installing the monitor, which makes it easier to remove. Once the
metal shield is removed, the label was visible. It is a Ball
Electronic Displays TV-120 monitor, which is a common enough model
that it was easy to find the service manual online. I'll test the
monitor on a lab power supply to see if it's drawing too much current.
I may kludge up Rich Ottosen's PIC-based TV test pattern generator on
a breadboard.
Hi Guys
The drawings for pdp8/e (A), pdp8/e (B), pdp8/f and
pdp8/m have now gone to the silkscreeners for checking and costing.
I'll let you all know when they are available. Those who chose to prepay
but to wait for the version they needed will go out first.
One issue I need to clear up. Are PDP-8/i and pdp-8/l thats (i) and
(l) the same due to font ambiguity or different?
For the 8/e pair I had a scan (ie done with a scanner) to work with.
The /f and /m look fine but I'm very fussy about being spot on.
Photos help but the sphereical abberation due to a round lens trying to
photograph a square object is a problem.
This together with the fact that photos are never taken at right angles
to and lined up with the centre of the panel make it difficult to be
absolutely shure
Is there anybody there that has an /f or /m panel and a big enough
scanner.
Or else I'd be happy to do a new for old on a scrap /f /m panel that
is still readable
Rod Smallwood
