test-drb

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101090 discussions

by ard.p850ug1＠gmail.com

Talk of the MX-80 has reminded me of a couple of more obscure models... The first is the TX80. This, I think is a little older. The mechanism is strange, it has one DC motor (and no steppers). The motor drives a dual-pitch scroll thing (sort of a coarse leadscrew) that as it turns in one direction moves the printhead left to right and then returns it more rapidly. On the return journey it (mechanically) causes a linefeed. I have never seen a complete TX80, but the mechanism turned up in an early Commodore printer (2023 or some such) and I think I have a logic board from the Epson one somewhere. The other is a bit later. The HI-80. This is a 4 (ballpoint) pen plotter. No, not the well-known Alps mechanism. This has the 4 pens on a sliding mechanism on the carriage. It is moved by running the carriage into the end stops (!). There are the obvious 2 stepper motors (one for carriage movement, one to move the paper) and a solenoid to lower the pen. The HI-80 certainly has the connector for optional interface boards. I think the TX80 does as well. Incidentally I am looking for any manuals for the HI-80. Documentation on the TX80 would be interesting too. -tony

8 years, 5 months

more on lisp compilers

by john.h.blake＠gmail.com

Just FYI the VAX/VMS (and Alpha VMS) ADA, BASIC, C, Pascal and Fortran compilers can be found on the relevant CD images on VaxHaven. I've tested each, since licenses for all are still part of the hobbyist package, and a modern hobbyist license will work with the older versions found on VaxHaven from the mid 90s just fine. So if anyone just wants the compilers themselves rather than a specific older version, that should work quite well for you.

8 years, 5 months

Alps key switches.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I found Alps key switches at a small Swedish electronic surplus seller. The resembled some switches I have seen before so I took a chance and bought some. The price was the equivalent of 2 USD for ten switches. I took a few photos in case someone could identify them: http://i.imgur.com/L5agnfc.jpg Could be interesting to know if they are used in some known machine. The part number might be 58990003 and 58990002 which was the number mentioned in the catalogue. The company selling them is Belganet Data Elektronik and their catalogue is at: http://www.bde.se/skat11_1.pdf /Mattis

8 years, 5 months

PDP-11 RL02 disk emulation

by scott.l.baker＠gmail.com

Hi* >> Any chance it could be put into 'production'? *I placed an order today for 3 RL02 emulator interface boards from OshPark. I expect it will take 2 weeks to get the boards back from OshPark. I am leveraging RL02 emulator work from Reinhard Heuberger, but I am using a newer FPGA board than his current design (the FPGA board that he is currently usingis not available), so there is some porting work required which will also take some time. Regards, Scott

8 years, 5 months

more on lisp compilers

by rlloken＠telus.net

So last week there was some conversation about lisp compilers and an expressed interest in old VAX lisp comilers. Co-incidently, I was rooting through the morgue at work on semi legitimate business and found VAXlisp 2.2 copyright 1987. Sadly, it is on a TK50 and is the Ultrix version. Since it sparked my interest, I went through the rest of the pile but no VMS lisp compiler was unearthed. I found o-l-d VAX/VMS ADA, C, basic, pascal, fortran compilers but no lisp compilers and all on moldering TK50s lying in wait for any hapless tape drive that may accept them. Oh yes, this is all VMS 5.5-1 stuff, there seems to be an entire distro there plus a lot of layered products. These are reduntant, my employer's last VAX is now sleeping in my basement. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV, Systems Programmer - VMS : "...underneath those Athabasca University : tuques we wear, our Athabasca, Alberta Canada : heads are naked!" ** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black

8 years, 5 months

Epson MX-80 Technical Manual?

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a scan of the MX-80 Dot Matrix Printer Technical Manual? It's apparently intended to be available here: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/39747/Epson-MX-80-Dot-Matrix-Printer… but I was unable to actually download it.

8 years, 5 months

What the heck is the deal with this eBay item

by AppleCorey＠optonline.net

https://www.ebay.com/itm/272433760795 This Helios II has been "sold" multiple times for varying amounts and then suddenly hours later appears for sale again. I'm done bidding on this each time it appears, because if I won, who knows what I'd receive or if the seller would cancel the auction. corey cohen u??o? ???o?

8 years, 5 months

old DEC drives available

by sales＠elecplus.com

_____ WTS the following items: 3 Used DEC DSP3107L 1.07GB 3.5IN 3H SCSI 50PIN 4 Used DEC RH20E-DB 510 Meg SCSI Drive -DSP 3201L RH31K-AW _____ Jim Firlik Excess Enterprises (817) 267-9700 email: jim at 4excess.com _____ I have no idea what he wants for them. Not affiliated with the seller. I just know these are getting harder to find. Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus

8 years, 5 months

General TC11 DECtape diagnostic/formatter questions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Christian Corti > Seems the original must have been the XXDP TC11 DECtape formatter > program by Robert J. Collins. I have no clue where I found the RT11 > version of this So that made me wonder if the V6 Unix version of tcf.s really was related to DTF.MAC. I checked out the two of them, and it seems they are likely un-related; very different structure, etc. BTW, I noticed a couple of places in DTF.MAC where error checking code was commented out, e.g.: ;EHLT4: XX ;HALT WITH BLK#IN LIGHTS, CONTINUE ; MOV #257.,R0 ;TO FIND DATA WORD POSITION ; ADD TOG1,R0 ;DETERMINE WHICH WORD IS WRONG ;EHLT5: XX ;HALT WITH #OF WORD IN LIGHTS. 0=REV. CHKSUM ; MOV @TCDT,R0 ;CONTINUE TO FETCH BAD WORD ;EHLT6: XX ;HALT WITH BAD DATA IN LIGHTS. CONTINUE Maybe it would be useful to un-comment them? > On Nov 9, 2016, at 5:57 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: > I believe S/B is the expected data Yes, probably stands for 'should be'. Noel

8 years, 5 months

General TC11 DECtape diagnostic/formatter questions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch >> The UNIX V6 distro includes a standalone program, tcf.s, to format >> DECtapes. > I could probably get a V6 distribution running if I need to, but if you > have the means to do so easily, that would be handy so I can at least > have another tool to try out. I had a look at tcf.s, and it depends on having been loaded by the V6 disk bootstrap - it uses the console driver in the bootstrap (the bootstrap leaves a pointer to it in R5). So it might be easier to use that DTF.MAC, which seems like it's mostly the same program, and which you apparently already have working? If you'd still like to use the V6 tcf, due to the teletype driver issue, probably the easist thing is that I could make up a miniature disk image (RK05, if you have that available), with both the V6 bootstap, and tcf on it. Otherwise, I might be able to cobble something together; a hacked version of tcf including the console driver, or something like that. > Something that XXDP can load would be useful. I know nothing of almost any DEC software, alas - I'm assuming it can handle .LDA files, but I don't know which format it prefers. > From: Christian Corti > I enhanced DTF with some useful messages and error/status output. IIRC > the "original" version produced no messages at all. Having just looked at the original :-), it did have two messages: "ready drive 0 and type y" and "tcf: error" (Shades of 'ed'.... :-) Noel

8 years, 5 months

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