I intend to restore a pair of boards that used Intel Ceramic Leadless Chip
Carrier (CLCC) parts. Unfortunately the socket covers were tossed when the
boards were scavenged for their chips. The sockets and attached clips are
themselves just fine. eBay item # 252830664338 is an example of this style
of 68-pin socket. Item # 362702811275 is an example IC in CLCC form.
If anyone has a par (or even just one) of these covers lurking in their
odds-n-ends collection somewhere I'm interested in putting them back into
service. Thank you for taking a look!
paul
The LGP-30 has been discussed here (often fondly) a few times so I thought this might be of interest. Adds a bit of fame to the little guy that I wasn't aware of.
I was reading the wikipedia web page on chaos theory and found this passage:
"Edward Lorenz was an early pioneer of the theory. His interest in chaos came about accidentally through his work on weather prediction in 1961.[12] Lorenz was using a simple digital computer, a Royal McBee LGP-30, to run his weather simulation. He wanted to see a sequence of data again, and to save time he started the simulation in the middle of its course. He did this by entering a printout of the data that corresponded to conditions in the middle of the original simulation. To his surprise, the weather the machine began to predict was completely different from the previous calculation. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory#History
Will
Join us on August first for a virtual VCF event!
We can't safely meet in person so we are going to do what we can online.
The good news is that you can tune-in via YouTube and ask questions of the
presenters via email, enabling anybody in the world with a modest Internet
connection to participate.
The event schedule can be found at
http://vcfed.org/wp/vcf-west-event-schedule/ . It will be a long day so
tune in for what you can, and then find the rest available on YouTube
afterwards.
-Mike
As noted, in another reply, the DEC VT-5xx terminal series was mfg. by ADDS.
Boundless Technologies (former ADDS) shutdown sales a few years ago.
They will service & supply parts, as long as inventory of proprietary parts exists.
http://www.boundlessterminals.com/
Boundless Technologies
1916 State Route 96
Phelps, NY 14532
www.boundlessterminals.com
Phone (toll-free): 1-800-231-5445
Phone: 1-315-548-6189
Fax: 1-315-548-5100
CONTACT PAGE: http://www.boundlessterminals.com/support.html
We will continue to service and repair Boundless products at our Z-AXIS facility (Rochester, NY area)
until spare parts are no longer available.
While Boundless expects to maintain their website, in the near future, they HIGHLY recommend that you download ANY Manuals you might need in the future.
http://www.boundlessterminals.com/documentation.html
greg
==
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2020 14:36:06 -0400
From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net>
To: "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Broken VT510
I recently brought home a VT510 that has been sitting in my office, rescued from a lab from way back when it was a DEC office (ZKO). Unfortunately, when I plug it in and push the power switch, nothing happens.
Rather than just open it up and poke, I was hoping others here might have some experience with that model. Are the schematics anywhere? Not on Bitsavers as far as I can see. Are other terminals at all similar? The newest schematic I see is for the VT340.
It would be nice to get the terminal working again. Alternatively, a wild idea would be to use the CRT in place of the "screen fungus" infested VR201 CRT I would like to repair. Any chance of that working?
paul
I recently brought home a VT510 that has been sitting in my office, rescued from a lab from way back when it was a DEC office (ZKO). Unfortunately, when I plug it in and push the power switch, nothing happens.
Rather than just open it up and poke, I was hoping others here might have some experience with that model. Are the schematics anywhere? Not on Bitsavers as far as I can see. Are other terminals at all similar? The newest schematic I see is for the VT340.
It would be nice to get the terminal working again. Alternatively, a wild idea would be to use the CRT in place of the "screen fungus" infested VR201 CRT I would like to repair. Any chance of that working?
paul
Mike:
Just looked in more detail at photographs of my
notes in drive box and appears I did verify that
drive motor worked in 1987. Project to get this
drive connected to my C64 got derailed by my
being accepted to medical school a couple of
months after my last interaction with that drive.
Was somewhat surprised to discover that 8" floppy
drive as I thought the Vic20 box had my other
TI99 computer which might have been lost at some
point in last 30 years and multiple moves.
Never had a chance to try reading an 8" PDP-11
floppy in it and no longer have any as all of
them went to Glen Slick in 2008 when he got my
MINC and related hardware. There was an
interesting computer surplus store in Seattle
that I no longer recall name of, but one of
landmarks was a company that sold Buffalo Wipes
nearby. Unfortunately places like this no longer
exist and remember it being crammed full of
various bits of electronics that would have to be
lifted out of way to see what was buried
underneath. Easy to spend a day in there poking
around. Everything was as-is and often just good for parts.
Location you've specified as a means of
transferring drive a good one and a short drive
>from Kamloops and one I like doing but
unfortunately limited to Canadian side of border now.
Did run across a couple of 80486 boards today and
must have played with them as found some 80 Mb
HDD's in same box. One was fully loaded with about 8 Mb of RAM!
Boris
>A lot of the younger collectors are spending
>ridiculous amounts of money on 486 & Pentium
>class machines on assorted facebook vintage and
>retro groups. I don't get it either, but
>everyone has their fetishes and I try not to
>judge. Parted out you can possibly get a couple
>hundred bucks out of a machine if you get lucky.
>
>I personally might be interested in an 8" floppy
>drive, mainly to show my coworkers, some of whom
>didn't know such things existed. I'm also
>vaguely interested in one of the PDP 11/23s, but
>I know it's already been vetoed by my wife
>without even asking. ???? Any VT100-compatible
>terminals in the stash you'd be willing to part with?
>
>I'm down in Seattle, and occasionally get up
>that way while camping, but this year you might
>as well be on the moon. Maybe we could arrange
>to meet on the border near Oroville and Osoyoos,
>and you can throw them across the border.
>
>-mike
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On
>Behalf Of Boris Gimbarzevsky via cctalk
>Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2020 11:36 PM
>To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>Subject: Any interest in "newer" hardware, software?
>
>Have been going through my shop and storage room
>trying to see what can get rid of and wasn't
>aware of how much old electronics and computers
>have accumulated over last 50 years. Should
>note that this process has been at insistance of
>my wife as a lot of these boxes just got moved
>whenever I moved and much of this stuff haven't looked at for decades.
>
>Was about to toss a 1987 box containing DOS 3.3
>but then figured someone might want it. Have a
>couple of XT systems kicking around somewhere
>but in 1987 I'd discovered the Mac and
>considered 68000 processor a far superior
>architecture as it was an easy transition from
>someone who'd spent most of their time
>programming on a PDP-11. Also have early Mac
>software, hundreds of 3.5" disks which are
>primarily taking up space and all of them have
>been copied to HDD's and now run my Mac code
>under Basilisk2 was faster than it used to run
>on my MacIIvx (of which I have a couple).
>
>Also managed to find, in no particular order, a
>couple of C64's, a TI99, ZX81, VIC20 and an 8"
>floppy drive with full documentation that I
>faintly recall buying at a surplus electronics
>place in Seattle. Also found a box of old
>Univac cards which appear to be DTL with
>individual transistors and then go on to having
>DTL IC's as well as some old IBM cards. Used to
>pull transistors and diodes off these to build
>my own circuits 50 years ago. Now, with storage
>being so ridiculously cheap haven't even come
>close to making a dent in the capacity of a 256
>Gb SD card in my Samsung S8 handheld
>supercomputer of which I'm using the camera
>function to create high res images of what I'm going through.
>
>Also have lots of PC motherboards starting with
>XT's and progressing upwards. Never liked 80286
>and so only collected from 80386 and
>higher. Seem to have lots of various parallel
>port adapters, disk interfaces as well as
>parallel and serial port boards. Was planning
>on using these as dedicated processors for data
>acquisition but found that technology progressed
>faster than my getting around to use them and
>it's a lot simpler to either use Phidget's SBC
>with various sensors for environmental
>monitoring or a much less power hungry Parallax
>Propellar chip for more demanding data
>acquisition applications. (Haven't let my wife
>know how many of newer systems I have stashed
>away but they take up way less room than old hardware).
>
>Do also have a couple of PDP 11/23 systems which
>I'll probably have to part with as I haven't
>used then in last 15 years. Also have a number
>of unibus boards which haven't run into yet but
>won't be using them. Lots of old computer books
>as well which would be nice to keep but likely
>have most of documentation in digital form and
>usually back up all important pdf files to separate drives.
>
>The PC stuff is most voluminous and, if there's
>any interest, can post images of what I have on
>my web site. Only components I've tested are
>disk drives of which most work but SCSI drives
>are all old and a number of them didn't take
>kindly to be powered off after running for years
>and being moved from Vancouver to Kamloops.
>
>Boris Gimbarzevsky
I had the same confusion about Mike?s Altair 8800c not being a complete kit, and wondering what it would take to ?upgrade? my Altair 8800 Clone to be a real Altair 8800c a bit more than a year ago. I ended up not finding very much assistance at the time, so I bulled my way through it, and got it done using the info and pointers from Mike?s site.
Another time someone asked about this I posted my experience on the VCF. See this: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?69929-Altair-8800-clone-cost-to-b… <http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?69929-Altair-8800-clone-cost-to-b…>
Mike?s original topic on VCF is here: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?66737-Building-and-Altair-8800-fr…
The bottom line is that you *can* get it done with the info and pointers that Mike provides on his site. He is also reachable on the VCF and also by telephone. He is tremendously helpful and will answer any questions that you may have.
smp
- - -
Stephen Pereira
Bedford, NH 03110
KB1SXE
> On Jul 24, 2020, at 1:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>
>
> Message: 13
> Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2020 11:15:34 +0800
> From: Tom Hunter <ccth6600 at gmail.com>
> To: Greg Beat <gregory.beat at gmail.com>
> Cc: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Re: Altair 8800 reproduction
> Message-ID:
> <CAALEduAsERN897fBN8rDCqt_mN6wHc2J8qSDzYyhfU2CibmiJQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Hi Greg,
>
> I saw Mike Douglas' Altair 8800c but he writes on his website that this is
> not a complete kit. I got the impression that he offers only the front
> panel PCBs, FDC and SIO and maybe the S100 motherboard.
>
> Thank you for the link to the S100computers group. There is a lot of useful
> info there.
>
> I am retired now and always wanted an Altair 8800. It is time to make that
> dream reality. The easiest and more affordable path would be the Altair
> 8800 clone but somehow I am more attracted to the non-emulated
> implementation.
>
> Thanks again
> Tom Hunter
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 3:02 AM Greg Beat <gregory.beat at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ?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 <https://groups.google.com/my-groups>
>>
>> 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
>>
I have an IBM 3194 base unit and keyboard, but no monitor. Hence would
like to try and source a suitable monitor and any suggestions on this
front would be appreciated. Failing which, also considering the
possibility of using some other non-original monitor, but not sure what
the interface (15-pin D type, but standard density) is and pinout etc.
Also potentially interested in offers of other 3270 displays (off-list).
Cheers,
Andrew
