Hi guys,
A few of you might remember the IBM LPFK bulk-order a couple of years
back, and the ensuing chaos of figuring out the control protocol (which
was eventually resolved when Michael Brutman found some old IBM protocol
docs which covered the LPFK).
I figure I've been sitting on the code for long enough: it's time to
make a proper release!
Anyone who wants to have a play with this is welcome to do so: the code
is on my website, under "Code :: liblpfk", or if you'd prefer a direct link:
http://www.philpem.me.uk/code/liblpfk/
I've also uploaded my fork of Eric Smith's "tumble" utility, a
TIFF-to-PDF converter. I found a couple of bugs (which haven't been
fixed seven months later) and figured it was a shame not to share the
patches. After all, it is open-source :)
URL for that is http://www.philpem.me.uk/code/ -- click "Tumble". At
some point I'll give this a separate page instead of just linking to the
version-control repository, and may well document the control file
format (which IIRC isn't documented at the moment).
Somewhat offtopic, but I've also released a driver for one of the
Brother P-touch label printers. I needed labels for my spare parts boxes
and really didn't feel like making them with a Dymo gun when I had a
perfectly good stock database (which is next on the 'stuff to release'
list) which I could use as a data source for said labels. Work smarter
not harder and all that ;)
These were written for Linux, but should work decently well on BSD too.
Forget running them on Windows unless you want to port the serial-line
(liblpfk) and/or usb-lp (libptouch) stuff across... I didn't (this be a
Linux-only ship, yarrr!)
Comments, criticism and so on should be sent to the address below.
Sensible patches are, as always, gratefully received 8^)
FYI: I'm working on getting a copyright release from university for the
DiscFerret software. At the moment most of the Department of Computer
Science is on holiday so this is proving somewhat difficult... PCB
design is still ongoing, though a lack of funds means it might be a
while before I get prototype PCBs made.
I'm hoping to release the firmware, microcode and decoder engine under
the GPL or LGPL, and the hardware access library will most likely be
distributed under a "BSD-with-attribution" type license (I forget, is
that 3-clause or 4-clause?). Either way, it'll be GPL-compatible (for
obvious reasons!) and commercial-use-allowed.
Thanks,
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
Hi,
just followed the thread about ENIAC pieces and went to the website
announcing a VCF southeast. There I saw announced sales of Arcnet and
Token Ring adapters. That was the inspiration for this posting.
* I came across a box of Token Ring and Arcnet stuff. Mostly NICs.
* IBM PC AT and around
* Sun Ultra 1 (or 5?) pizza boxes
* 5.25" and 8" disk floppy drives and HDDs
* Philips P4500 computer (or 5400?)
Is there any interest in that kind of stuff? Might that be of sufficient
quality (quantity isn't the problem) for a dedicated flea market event?
Opinions very welcome. And btw I'm talking about stuff in Northern
Germany...
Regards,
Philipp
Oops, I guess everyones esp is not working so well having to ask where
this unit is :).
It is located in Santa Barbara, CA. I received an email almost
immediately from someone interested. If he ends up not taking it, I'll
repost to the list.
Thanks!
Marvin
A friend of mine has a Data General Model 6050 Disk Drive with no disk
packs. This thing is fairly heavy (guessing 80 - 100 pounds) and appears
to be complete although the top cover screws have been removed and it
looks like it might have hit something (the front panel is somewhat bent.)
Anyone interested? I can disassemble or whatever to reduce shipping
costs. I think he would be happy with around $50.00, or maybe slightly less.
Thanks!
Marvin
Hi
I've acquired two PDP-11/44 and have just now gone throught the list of
cards in the cpu-boxes and the spares. Here is a list:
http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/slask/11-44-kort.txt
Nothing special, I've used the field guide to identify most cards. I've
only marked one card of each kind.
There is two cards connected with ribbon cables that I can't identify.
They are made by Data Management Labs in San Jose and are labled DML 750
Board A and Board B. There are some numbers as well (in no particular
order)
980-8043
710-1921-001
There are some bitslice chips and a whole bunch of roms. Anything that
rings a bell with anyone?
Also I wonder what the
"M7251 KG11-A U Network interface XOR and CRC block check option"
"M3110 DRCSA U Protocol assist #1 w/special character check and CRC (DEC/DLC/DRCSA)"
"M3111 DRCSA U Protocol assist #2 w/special character check and CRC (DEC/DLC/DRCSA)"
are used for?
Cheers,
Pontus
Looking for a intel 310 computer. Know of any ??? to run rmx86.
Neal Filla
PH - (612) 726-8612
Fax - (612) 726-0163
neal.filla at Delta.com<mailto:neal.filla at Delta.com>
Hi guys,
I'm building some hardware that spits out debug info on a regular basis,
and I figured it'd be useful to have this data graphed on-screen. Making
it keep track of the last "N" samples and draw them wouldn't be hard,
except adding an LCD display is out of the question (takes up too many
I/O pins).
On the other hand, I have a perfectly good serial port which runs at a
decent rate of speed (115200 baud), and Xterm can emulate a Tektronix
4014 vector terminal. Perfect... except I can't see an easy way to tie
Xterm to a serial port instead of having it run an application.
There's nothing in the manpage (admittedly I haven't read it all, just
grepped it for a few obvious terms) and 'apropos' isn't finding anything
useful. I've been told that tip(1) on BSD will do what I want, I just
can't find anything similar on Linux...
Thanks,
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
hello all
Nerver mind the waste of bandwidth just trying to see if gmails sending
my messages right i sent one a couple days ago with no responses so far and
when u post a single messes and if no one respondes gmail does not post it
on your main inbox
chris
First on my bench will be a bunch (8 or so) of Data General 800/1200 machines and a few Nova 2's. I can think of several questions so far to get me started down the path:
1) A number of the 1200 machines have broken front panel toggle switches (the switch handle was broken off and lost). Some are spring return to center, some are just two position. Before I take the approach of robbing one of the machines for front panel switches, is there someplace that I can purchase exactly idential (both electrically and cosmetically) switches, or does some one have donor switches available for trade? I am a stickler for completely identical parts, especially for front panel switches :) I was hoping someone had been down this road before and knew the switch model #'s, etc.
2) I have quite a number (maybe around six or seven) of rackmount dual cassette tape units for these machines. I seem to recall that they use cassette tapes that are not identical to the standard common audio cassettes available today. Is anyone aware of where these special tapes can be purchased new?
3) With these machines I got a very large (several crates) library of cassette tapes as well as paper tapes, most appeared to be DG software rather than user data/backups. Are we pretty sure that most software for these machines has been archived somewhere, or should I send these tapes off to Al et. al. to have them read and saved for posterity before I put them in a questionable drive? As old as these tapes are, I wouldn't be suprised if one read was all they will allow.
4) Like #3 above, I have maybe 8 or 10 accounting storage boxes full of schematics & docs for all the circuit cards for the cpu's, interfaces, and peripherals mentioned above. I don't know what the current state of the DG archival project is. Is it likely that all these docs are already archived somewhere?
Thanks in advance for any sage advice!
Best,
J
Mark wrote:
> At 22:17 -0500 8/2/10, Tim wrote:
>> Tim "Excessive force in the apprehension of abused acronyms has been
>> approved" Shoppa.
> Ah! a quote from one of my favorites - "The Big Blues Brothers"
Of course the Blues Brothers had their own computer acronym:
SCMODS = State County and Municipal Offender Data System
pronounced Skamods with a distinct tone of disdain by Elwood IIRC.
The cop car terminals looked pretty slick for 1980. Almost like mobile PLATO
terminals with their orange plasma display. Maybe it was an actual
Motorola product? Of course Motorola and PLATO were also suburban
Chicago/Illinois tie-ins :-). And the mall that gets destroyed, I have
been told, was (previous to being a mall) one of the Teletype factories
in Skokie.
Tim.