test-drb

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101090 discussions

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Being stuck indoors by bad weather, I started tinkering with my PDP-11/23+ system :) The 11/23+ chassis came with a sixteen-serial-line (Camintonn DHV11/16) card which is complete with a rack panel of 16 DE-9 serial ports, and fortunately the scrappers had not cut the ribbon cable going to it. Also, somewhere I acquired an RL02 pack with TSX-Plus 5.0, which boots to RT11SJ and even runs TSX+, although I don't have all the devices the original system had. So I would like to set up the system for timesharing using the 16-line card. After perusing the TSX+ manuals I believe I can accomplish a system generation, except for one problem - I don't know the interrupt vector and CSR addresses for the Camintonn DHV11/16. Nothing on Google I could find, and on Bitsavers there is a DEC DHV11 manual but that's an eight-line card... can anyone help with tech info on this 16-line card? thanks Charles (doesn't really need a multi-user system since I'm the only user) :)

15 years, 4 months

IBM Centennial Film: They Were There - People who changed the way the world works

by eric＠brouhaha.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhDaAmn5Uw

15 years, 5 months

FS: Windows 3.0 and MS-DOS 5.0

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

More vintage software, gathering dust... Windows 3.0 on five 1.2MB 5.25" floppy disks. Used once (to load the hard drive on a Zenith 486-33). Appear to be in perfect shape but I no longer have any PC's with five-inch drives. Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 on five 5.25" floppies. Also only read once. $10 for each set (*includes postage* in USA). Will ship internationally for additional postage. thanks Charles

15 years, 5 months

FS: another Apple II prototyping board

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Found in the junkbox: another Apple II prototyping board made by "Suntronics", their p/n SUN722. This one has a number of wire wrap sockets tack-soldered (by one pin on each opposite corner only, so they can be easily removed if desired). Mix of gold and tin plated contacts. There is (1) 40-pin, (2) 28-pin, (3) 20-pin, (3) 16-pin, and (5) 14-pin DIP sockets. http://s1181.photobucket.com/albums/x426/DrCharlesMorris/?action=view&curre… http://s1181.photobucket.com/albums/x426/DrCharlesMorris/?action=view&curre… $10.00 (shipped free in USA). thanks Charles

15 years, 5 months

HP150 Touchscreen diagnostic

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

I guess the HP150 counts as a 'classic computer'... I have an HP150 (origianl model, 9" CRT) on my bench, and amongst other things it's reporting touchscreen problems in the POST. This is quite common with such machines, and nearly always means that one or more of the IR beams was blocked during the test. This is often due to dirt build-up on the faces of the opto-devices. it can be due to failure of the devices themselves. The touchscreen electroncis is mounted on a frame-shaped PCB that fits just behind the front bezel. The interface to the rest of the machine is 1 10 pin header plug. From what I rmemeber (and I do have pinouts and shcematics), there are 3 +12V pins, 3 ground pins, a -12V pin and 3 signals : A clcok input (to touchscreen) that moves the IR beam on to the next position A synv output (from the touchscreen) which indicates that the last IR beam is being sampled (or maybe last + 1) I would ahve to check A data output which indicates if the currently selected beam is open or blocked. These signals are all at odd voltage levels (the touchscreen cirucitry is 4000 series CMOS running off a 10V supply obtained from the +12V rail). HP use transsitors on the CPU PCB to get them to/from TTL levels. they then end up on the pins of an 8042 microcontroller which also handles the keyboard and beeper. Connecting a logic analyser to these signals indeed shows that there are some beams that appear blocked. The obvious thing is to be able ot determine which ones so I know which optodevices to test/inspect. I can think of several ways of doing this : Count the clock pulses on the logic analyser screen :-) Make a circuit -- a handful of logic chips, shfit registers, etc that connects to the touchscreen, generates the clock signal, etc and displys the state of each beam on a separate LED. Probably possible with the contents of my junk box, and anywas as I've said, I like soldering. Ditto, but use a microcontroller. It keeps the chip count down, bnt it's probably more work for me. The command list for the 8042 on the HP150 CPU board (in one of the HP manuals) includes a command to test which IR beams are blocked (this is not the same as reporting the touchscreen corrdinates). Unfotunately, (a) you can't use this if the makhine is scannign the keyboard and (b) the description seems incomplete. It says that this command will return 2 bytes giving the numbers of any blocked berams. Well, with only 16 birs (and 36 beams), it can't be a bit vector. It also says that if both bytes are 0xff, then no beams are blocked, if one is 0xff then only one beam is blocked (specified by the other byte). What happens if more than 2 beams are blocked? More importantly, since to use this command you have to disable interrupts and stop the keyboard scanning, it's not going to be possible to do it from interpretted BASIC. And the programming lanaugages on this old version of MS-DOS are not that pleasant... iI can't find an HP diagnostic that gives detailed information on touchscreen problems, or any reference to one. Any suggestions/comments? -tony

15 years, 5 months

HP150 Touchscreen diagnostic

by jonas＠otter.se

> > >3) I am not sure my video camera has much sensitivity in the IR. It > > >depends > > on which vidicon is fitted, I think. > > > > Yes, stupid of me I should have known, mea culpa ;-) > > I cna't beelive you've forgotten my taste for older devices :-) > What do you mean, "older"? Vidicons are modern. Iconoscopes and image orthicons are "older". Cranky ol' Jonas

15 years, 5 months

TZ30 tape drive (faulty?)

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I recently acquired a TZ30 tape drive. It does not want to load any tapes I put in it. I have never used a TZ30 before so I am not sure how it is supposed to be used. Let me explain what happens: The lock lever is over to the left in the unlocked position. I insert the tape in the slot, but nothing prevents it being pushed out again, I have to hold it in place while I move the lock lever across. This does not feel right, but I don't know, is it supposed to stay in place without me having to hold it there? While I am holding the tape in place the green light comes on and does not flash. After moving the lever to the lock position the lights flash a few moments and then the green light flashes to tell me there is a problem with the tape. However the drive mechanism makes no attempt to load the tape (I can see this because I have the cover of the system removed). It strikes me that the drive is faulty, but it could be user error. Can someone tell me if I am doing it right, and if I am, does anyone know of any well-known faults that might cause this? Thanks Rob

15 years, 5 months

SA4000 [was: Disc drive READY output -- any standards?]

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:03:56 -0500 > From: "Shoppa, Tim" <tshoppa at wmata.com> > Subject: Re: SA4000 [was: Disc drive READY output -- any standards?] > To: "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <B136EDE3DF5EC441B6F08E0A7AB872450BACFA3EA4 at EX2K7-CMS-1.wmata.local> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Chuck mentions: <snip> > Without a doubt the stepper motor+band positioner was a huge step forward > in economizing microcomputer-oriented hard drives. > > I figured that chronologically the taut-band floppy drives came first but > now that I think about it, maybe the SA4000 came first and the floppy > application came later? > > Certainly stepper-motor use was first in the floppies. At least, AFAIK :-) > > Tim. The band-capstan-stepper motor actuator usage in disk drive art was probably invented by Warren Dalziel (US Patent # 4,161,004) who tells me he is pretty sure he designed the linear version for the double sided floppy (SA850) first and then the hard drive rotary version (SA4000). I suspect they shipped in that order too but the SA4000 probably wasn't too far behind. The patent filing date is Apr 5, 1977 which, given the way things work, is probably just before the first public showing. Anyone know of any early disk drives with a band-capstan-stepper motor actuator? Tom

15 years, 5 months

FS: M9302 Unibus terminator card

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

FS cheap: One M9302 (dual-height) Unibus terminator card. Don't need and can't test because I only have a Qbus PDP-11! There isn't much on it that could go wrong though. Make me any reasonable offer... shipping from US zip 65775. thanks Charles

15 years, 5 months

Can someone patch VTserver?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:02:58 -0600, you wrote: >Have you considered using a PS/2 mouse to free up COM1:? I am not sure exactly what one is... but this is a very old (relatively speaking) PC; the only jacks on the back panel besides the parallel printer port are the 9-pin COM1: and 25-pin COM2: ports. >Alternatively, if you're using XP, go to Settings->Control Panel- >>System and look at the Resources for COM1: and COM2:. Uncheck the >"use automatic settings" box and swap the IRQ and port addresses of >COM1: and COM2: > >That might work... > >--Chuck Thanks, but I already thought of that and tried it. Then the mouse didn't work :( and Windows is already enough of a PITA before taking away mouse support. Looks like the binary editor may be the best patch! -Charles

15 years, 5 months

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