I currently have my Amiga 500 hooked up to an old multisync monitor by
way of a DB23 female to DB9 male cable. The monitor port is labeled
"signal analog."
I've confirmed that my pinouts for the DB23 connector match this
http://l8r.net/technical/t-db23video.shtml
I'm now trying to attach my amiga to a standard LCD by way of chinese
scan converter bought from ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250593765979&ssPageName=…
The resolution is typically 320 x 200 at 15.75khz for horizontal sync.
The scan converter claims to support this just fine.
I need a small adapter to bring the DB9M from this proprietary
DB23<->DB9 cable to the HD15 so it will interface to this board. I can
potentially hack together a cable, but I think these adapters, at one
time, were pretty popular.
Does anyone have one lying around that they wouldn't mind parting with?
Would this do the trick?
http://www.amazon.com/Female-HD15-Male-Adaptor-Molded/dp/B000I97FGA
Thanks
Keith
This owner wants to donate an Epson QX-10 to an interested collector:
> HI!
> My e-mail address is pb38sage at centurytel.net
> <mailto:pb38sage at centurytel.net>. I am writing this on a friends
> computer, so please reply to my address.
>
> I have a QX-10 Epson computer and all of the original software plus
> other software I purchased for it, Epson Lifeboat users magazines, etc.
>
> I hate to dump them at the recycle center if they are of any value to
> anyone. I would be willing to send for the cost of shipping (and
> might even be willing to send anyhow).
> I just can't bare to throw this all in the trash.
>
> Pauline Braymen
> pb38sage at centurytel.net <mailto:pb38sage at centurytel.net>
>
> Yes, my computer still works.
Fred Jan Kraan
I've obtained Sioemens 'Pocket Reader' (called a 'Reading Pen' in the
luser manual). This is a handheld 1-line scanner/OCR device. It's very
modern for me (the manual is copyright 1998) but I guess it's on-topic
here now. And it was cheap enough in a local charity shop...
It came with a cable to link it to a PC (3 conductor 2.5mm jack (phone)
plug at one end, DE9 socket at the other, the latter connects to a PC
serial port) and a disk of software alas for Windows...
Anyway, I have of course taken the thing apart. If yoy have one and want
to do this, you stat by ignoring all the safety warnings in the manual
(to be honest, there is no way this thing is goign to harm oyu unless you
try to swallow it!). Take off the battery cover and remove the batteries,
then undo the 4 TX6 screws on that side. Turn it over and lift off the
top case (the buttons are captive in the top case). Unplug the display
modeul (a stnadard 14-pin LCD text display I believe), then lift out th
roller assembly (this operates the mirocswithc when you press the 'pen'
down to scan a line of text and has the interrupter wheel to detect
motion along the paper). Unplug the read head (CCD and LEDs) from the
front edge of the main PCB. Free the batteryt contacts and lift the PCB out.
My first real suprsie is that I expected this thing to be based on an
ASIC, probabbly driect-on-board and expoxy capped. It isn't. It's all SMD
chips with numbers I recgnise. The smarts is an ADSP2816 DSP chip,
together with 1M*16 bits of mask ROM and a 29F040 flash ROM (to store the
scanned text I assume). A few TTL parts, a DC-DC comverter, a compartor
chip and an ERS232 buffer. Nothing really odd.
Anyway, the problem is that the software is for an OS I don't have or
wich to run. The manual doesn't give the seiral protocol (or even the
baud rate), does anyone know of a description of it, or any open-source
software that talks to this device?
-tony
Does anyone out there have some or all of the "Paper Tape System" tapes for the PDP-11/20? We have a couple of 11/20s with the basic 4kW installed, and I'd like to set up a machine to demonstrate the life of a paper-tape-based programmer. I'd be glad to cover your expenses for a copy or, if it's more convenient, pay shipping for you to loan them to us and we would make the copies. Or, if someone is aware of where images of these live that I haven't been able to uncover, I'd be grateful for a pointer.
Please feel free to contact me privately. Thanks! -- Ian
UNIX is user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are.
Ian S. King, Sr. Vintage Systems Engineer
Living Computer Museum
A project of Vulcan, Inc.
http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org<http://www.livingcomputermuseum.com>
I have been teaching computer history at the U of Delaware for my 4th
semester, and there are a few practical items worth mentioning in this
discussion. I bring a (usually) working computer or device that I use for
demonstration purposes for each class. I only bring what I can fit in my
trunk, and carry on a collapse-able dolly. My classes are one hour and 15
minutes, there is not much time to set up and then vacate the room for the
next lecturer. It is therefore very important that I practice staging the
system before clas, and also carefully correograph the presentation in a
way that incorporates the equipment in a meaningful way, beyond the ooo aaa
factor. It is important to have a specific, targeted point to
demonstrate.
Use a laptop whenver you need a terminal , so that you can pipe the output
onto the overhead projecting device.
Sometimes I pick a student to start entering data (ie. toggle
switches/BASIC code, etc) in the beginning of the class so that by the time
we need the system it is ready for the demonstration. It is also kind of
like a cooking show; you bring two of something, one that is "pre-finished"
and other that is used for the demo so that you can show the end result of
a long process within a limited time frame.
One last thing, it is a courtesy when you're running something loud like a
teletype to ask the professor in the next class if the noise will disturb
the lecture!
It's like a mini vintage computer festival every class, sometimes I wish I
taught US History
Bill Degnan
> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:14:13 -0500
> From: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com>
> Subject: Re: Leaving computers on... (was Re: Disc analyser news
> update)
> To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Message-ID: <201003240014.o2O0EISH064655 at billY.EZWIND.NET>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> At 07:06 PM 3/23/2010, Dave McGuire wrote:
>> In my experience, on/off cycles kills equipment much faster than
>> long "on" times.
>
> Is that biased by the experience of failures that appear when
> equipment is powered-on?
I offer you this unscientific anecdote:
Yesterday, I rebooted an older Xeon box with 42 days' uptime to apply
updates, but it decided it didn't want to come back up afterward: no
POST, subsequent poweroff. I troubleshot briefly, and determined that
after working perfectly for over a month at a stretch (and 4 years
before that), it now refuses to POST unless you have half - any half -
of the RAM in the first two slots. No obvious signs of magic smoke
leakage. Coincidence? I suppose it's possible. I kinda wish I'd just
kept the old kernel, in any event. But with the price of energy in the
Netherlands, I wouldn't leave a system like that powered on for any
length of time if my employer weren't footing the bill for it!
Is there anybody here who keeps classic big(-ish) iron running 24x7?
I've been told a story of a burning PDP-11/34 which has somewhat put
me off any notion of leaving my -8s turned on when I'm not within
reach of a killswitch & fire extinguisher. :)
-js
> Message: 11
> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:35:27 -0400
> From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Using vintage computers in the classroom
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Message-ID:
> <f4eb766f1003291335j760a2a34s5139ef92e6320754 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 4:14 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
>>> On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
>>>> We're still in our first steps, and haven't made a lot of use of
>>> vintage systems in the classroom (although I do like to bring along my
>>> PDP-8/f, just to demonstrate what a desktop computer looked like in
>>> 1970).
> .
>
> Sure, 10 years earlier, but there was something like that two years
> earlier, and perhaps 5-6 years earlier (the PDP-8/S, though I'm not
> sure what you could reasonable show off with a 4K tabletop unit since
> the TTY interface is external).
>
> Fiddly details aside, it's still cool to wheel in a "personal
> computer" from the era and watch the audience gape - I've done that
> with my -8/L.
>
> -ethan
I can't describe the reactions of those who visit my classic car show and then walk into a barn and find a five ton 1962 mainframe working away twirling tapes, reading and punching 80 column cards, reading and punching paper tape whilst making ghostly noises through its built in speaker. I should maybe give them ear defenders because its so noisy and I haven't even displayed the 600 line per minute printer working yet until I fix it. The heat and smell of hot electronics is a bit overpowering too. I have never worked out where the smell comes from, is it gas escaping from the components, the paxolin or the solder/flux. I know a lot comes from the magnetic tapes, we had a walk in safe full of tape where I worked once and when it was opened after a month or two locked up it made a hell of a stink, like Tutenkamen's tomb.
Good luck with the course. If you ever need a Apple Mac based simulator for a 1962 mainframe with an unusual architecture get in touch.
Roger Holmes.
Owner of ICT 1301 serial number 6, the first of at least 160 to leave the factory. The design was started in the late 1950s.
Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at Update.UU.SE> wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> I've become curious about the different DECTalk devices. There seems to
> have been a number of variants. The stand alone DTC01, a UNIBUS version
> and a PCI card version (DTC07).
>
> Do all these sound the same? Or are newer ones more advanced?
>
> The number (07) on the PCI version indicate that there has been at least
> seven versions, what are the others?
>
> And finally, does anyone have system over and would consider selling it?
> (DTC01 seems to be the simplest and is thus preferred)
As far as I know, there was never a Unibus version of DECtalk. The DTC01
was connected via a normal serial port, and could be used on any
machine. So DEC didn't really have a need to have a bus based card
developed (they did later, though.)
I played with one way back when I was working at DEC, around 1986. It
was fun, and you could make it do a lot (including sing). Quite
impressive for its day, and I'd say it is still definitely usable even
today. I've heard some better, but there are current products out there
which are worse than DECtalk was 25 years ago...
(Btw, Stephen Hawkings used a DECtalk for many many years... :-) )
A pretty good list with some small information is
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/docs/openvms_notes_DECtalk.html
I don't know if a DTC02 ever existed, or what it might have been.
Johnny
Hello cctech community,
I am a computer science professor and an avid collector and restorer
of old computers, which I routinely use in my classes. (I am also a
long-time lurker on cctech, but haven't posted much yet, I'm afraid.)
I am interested in chatting with other professors and teachers who use
working demonstrations of vintage technology in their classes. I am
aware of many cases where professors have taught courses on computer
history, used pictures and simulations of vintage computers, or took
students on field trips to computer museums. However, I am
particularly interested in examples where professors bring actual
working vintage equipment into the classroom (like a pdp-11 or a
teletype machine) and tried to teach their students to operate it.
Has anybody on this list tried it or know of people who do it?
Thanks,
Michael Black
I have a bunch of very old IBM software in original boxes that I
would like to find a home for. I hate to throw them way when I know
there must be those who would love to acquire them. $5 each +
shipping. Contact me at ygehrich at yahoo.com.
Ami Pro, Writing Assistant, Professional Write, Professional File,
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