< > (Oh and an HSC50 whatever the heck that is!)
<
< Hierarchical Storage Controller.
< Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
< Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
PDP11, used the T-11 chip. NOT PDP-8.
I believe CRONIC was an application (control program) and ran under a
truncated version of RT-11.
Allison
>Hmm.. This should be easy. Install /bin/cat. The cat, as usual, will eat
>the fish.
>
Haven't tried that yet, but the /bin/cat/ folder is on the unaccessable
HD...
>Seriously, something is overheating. If you can get to the board with it
>in the machine, can you detect any semiconductor that's too hot. Where
>does the smell seem to be coming from - the HD controller, the machine's
>PSU, or where?
>
I'm figuring that the smell is coming from the HD controller board, getting
sucked through the P/S's tiny 1" fan, and blown out the top of the computer.
The HD controller is plugged in right next to the P/S. I think one of the
chips on the HD controller blew, because it was one of the common ailments
of the 1400.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>First, check if there's a fish stuck in your laptop. Second, have you
>looked closely at the controller card to see if there is any obvious
>melting of parts, or blackened spots? Check each component for excessive
>heat (excessive meaning if you touch it and it instantly burns your
>finger). Have you tried the hard drive in another machine? Be careful,
>if the hard drive is at fault here you may end up frying fish with another
>controller card.
>
I've found that the fish smell is from some capacitors on the controller.
There's no sign of overheating, other than a few plastic labels (on the
chips) are a bit curled on the ends.
I really have no way of testing the HD, since it's one of those weird 26-pin
type like the Zenith laptops used to use. The only other computer that I
have that it may work in is an old WANG WLTC, and the drive in it is 10 MB,
and made by JVC, where the one in the Tandy is an Alps.
I think that the HD controller was one of the 1400's faults (other than the
power supply). I've already worked on two 1400's with blown P/S's and HD
controllers. What I've noticed is that the HD controller will quit, then
the power supply will blow out (usually a microfuse).
The 1400HD was basically just a 1400FD with a factory-installed HD upgrade
kit. I currently have the floppy from the second 1400 in the one I'm trying
to fix, but there's some stuff on the HD that I'd like to get off of it, but
have no way of doing so.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
Max Eskin wrote:
>I saw an odd machine in a thrift store today, a machine labelled a PS/1,
but it
>looked nothing like the PS/1 valuepoints, or any other PC I've ever seen.
It
>looked like a cross between a PCjr and a soap dish. One 3.5" floppy drive,
huge
>ugly vents and IBM logo on the front, on the back are ports for mouse,
>keyboard, VGA, 2400 bps modem, and parallel printer. It also has a little
fan
>and some sort of slot cover that fell out. Where is the power switch? Where
>does the power connect to?
That's the original PS/1, a 286 with an almost totally closed architecture.
Needs the special monitor to give it power.
I happened to pick up a lone monitor like this last week. Pity I'm in
Australia though.
I've only seen a couple of these around here in the last few years.
Hans Olminkhof
-----Original Message-----
From: Allison J Parent <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 15:37
Subject: Re: VAX collectors attention
>< > (Oh and an HSC50 whatever the heck that is!)
><
>< Hierarchical Storage Controller.
>< Waist high filing cabinet sized box, HEAVY too.
>< Basically, it's a PDP8 I think, running a little o/s called CRONIC
>PDP11, used the T-11 chip. NOT PDP-8.
Ok, thanks for clearing that up, I wasn't sure. :^)
>I believe CRONIC was an application (control program) and ran under a
>truncated version of RT-11.
I'll take your word for it. The manual I have doesn't actually say CRONIC
is
the O/S, it just implies that it it. Probably an unwarranted assumption on
my part.
Thanks for filling in the gaps. :^)
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
Can someone help Father Martin?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 17:32:19 -0500
From: "Martin Fors (ICQ 3024642)" <revmrf(a)together.net>
To: archive(a)siconic.com
Subject: Visual Commuter
Hi,
Perhaps you may help me. I'm trying to find an LCD for my Visual Commuter
which I've had for many years. Can you help with a contact? A Long time
ago there was a users group, but I've lost contact. marty
Rev. Martin R. Fors
Grace United Methodist Church
Main St., POB 726
Bradford, Vermont 05033
USA
revmrf(a)together.net [ICQ# 3024642] or revmrf(a)bigfoot.com
<<http://www.gbgm-umc.org/bradford/>>
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)verio.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always being hassled by the man.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details
[Last web page update: 11/02/98]
> From: Cameron Kaiser <ckaiser(a)oa.ptloma.edu>
> Subject: Re: PET Video (was: Replacing 6550s) & 128
>
> ::The only Commodore computer with rubber keys that I have heard of is the
> ::Commodore 116.
>
> Actually, the Ultimax has them too. I have a 116 case, and the keyboard is
> abominable -- almost, but not quite as bad, as the Tomy Tutor's.
Hi!
I know that there's a program to make a Hercules Mono monitor emulate a CGA,
but is there a program that will allow a CGA emulate an EGA or VGA?
One other question:
Was there a Tandy laptop made that looked like the 1400, but had an EGA or
VGA display?
ThAnX,
-Jason
From: Bill Pechter <pechter(a)pechter.dyn.ml.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 14:57
Subject: Re: VAX collectors attention
>I thought the 8600's used Pro350's when I worked on them.
>Some of the later 8000 series used Pro380's, I was told.
I've got an 8530 and it's console here. It's a Pro380 IIRC.
It's front panel is marked Vaxconsole, but it has Pro380 on it somewhere
else
I think.... I'll have a look...
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
From: R. Stricklin (kjaeros) <red(a)bears.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 13:18
Subject: DG Aviion video
>I've picked up a Data General Aviion 310CD and was informed it can use a
>straight AT keyboard. I am skeptical, as the keyboard port is a DIN8.
My 4100 does. Don't recall how many pins thought, but a Honeywell AT
keyboard
works fine, though a cheapy generic one did not. YMMV, since it's a
different model.
I'll have a look at the connector later in the day and let you know.
>Also, the colour video output is on 3 BNC connectors. Can I use 3 segments
>of ethernet coax to carry the video signal or is the impedance wrong?
Well, you should use 75 ohm coax by rights, but 52 ohm thin ethernet cable
should work ok. You might - emphasize might - get a little minor ghosting
on the image with 52 ohm cable, but you won't blow it up.
TV antenna coax is 75 ohm if you want to get it exactly right.
I doubt if you'd be able to see any difference.
I believe it has the sync on the green channel.
>Actually, I've had a hard time locating info on this machine.
Data General Unix only. Virtually System 5 Release 4.
There is no specific DGUX news group, though there are a few lurkers in
comp.os.aos (DG's Advanced Operating System - for big iron) that have
some useful information.
I have the procedure for getting past the password here somewhere.
Found it at some very obscure web site. The manuals for DGUX are
available online in PDF form.
Doubtless a much later version than yours, but it will help a lot.
The web site doesn't allow you to directly download them, just read on-line.
(Not sure if this is deliberate, but anyway, once Acrobat loads the page for
online
reading, you can clone the file from the temp directory, before you close
the web page)
I have most of the Doc set for the current version of DGUX as a result. ;^)
Don't recall the url at the moment, but I'll dig it up for you if you like.
I emailed Data General early in the piece, looking for information, and got
NO response.
> I understand it uses a Motorola 88k processor at 20 MHz, but I don't know
which one.
> looked inside and found three chips it could be.. an 88100 (88010?) and
>two 88200 (88020?)s. I assume the single chip is the CPU but then what
>are the other two?
Not sure, sorry. I'll pull the lid off one of mine later and have a look,
hard to find much on the cpus.
>I would be really surprised if this were a multiprocessing box.
I wouldn't be. One of mine is. :^) Yours is a different (earlier?) model,
I have two Aviions, one is a single cpu 33mhz box, the other a dual cpu
20mhz.
(I'll post the exact model numbers later today) Unfortunately, I have
yet to find an (affordable) monitor, and it has an odd mouse port, I'm led
to believe it
is the same connector as on a Sun, but not sure if the Sun mouse would work
or not,
and I don't have one to try.
At first glance, it looked like a PS2 mouse port, but the pinout is quite
different.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
