I picked up a NeXtStation TurboColor box today at a hamfest. A kid had
just bought 3 monitors, 4 boxes and a small stack of manuals and sold
me the extra system box for $25. No memory or hard disk and (of course)
no monitor, cable, keyboard, mouse or software.
Does anyone have experience with these systems? Any tips on getting
the pieces needed to get it running?
-- Tony
Our UK members will want to see this. Contact the fellow directly if
you want a free MicroVAXen.
-=-=- <snip> -=-=-
On Mon, 27 Jul 1998 11:50:38 +0100, in comp.sys.dec you wrote:
>>From: stuart <s.d.birchall(a)surveying.salford.ac.uk>
>>Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro,comp.sys.dec
>>Subject: Free, MicroVax2: UK
>>Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 11:50:38 +0100
>>Organization: university of salford
>>Lines: 6
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>>
>>Dear all,
>>I have a Microvax 2 mounted in a ba23 enclosure, free to good home.
>>Must collect. TK50, RD53 all working + tapes.
>>Manchester area.
>>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272)
http://table.jps.net/~kyrrin -- also kyrrin [A-t] Jps {D=o=t} Net
Spam is bad. Spam is theft of service. Spam wastes resources. Don't spam, period.
I am a WASHINGTON STATE resident. Spam charged $500.00 per incident per Chapter 19 RCW.
> A few questions about clean(ing) circuits:
> a)Can dust cause any damage to a PCB? Can it short anything?
Yes and No - no direct harm is done, but dust turns out
to be a good insulator, so the core temerature of the
chips rise if they are covered by dust - even a small
dust film can be difficult. Higher core temperature means
higer stress, more aging and sooner irreversible failure.
> b)What do you recommend for cleaning out PCBs if there's lot of it,
> or spiderwebs, mold whatever?
Yes cleaning is a must. I use several methods:
1. If the board is small enough to fit, I use an ultrasound
cleaning device. This method is not usable if stickers
or other non wter resistant markings ar on the board
(and should be keeprd intact). ultrasound cleaning removes
anything in less than a minute.
2. If the board is to big i use oridinary water (but destiled
is prefered to avoide calcium (?) stains). Maybe with a
little soap in front.
3. If there are some stickers to preserve, I use only short
'splashes' of water, from a mouth washing device.
Alle three methods requiere intensive drying. So I first
use a soft (frotee) towel, and then wave the board to dry
of thebigger parts. If the board is very crowded (like a
IBM-PC or XT) I will use a centrifuge (spin dryer). The
board has to be fixed to get the right. Also a hair drywer
for blowing _cold_ air is usefull to drive out the water.
I never use warm air, since it is less efektive and leaves
more stains on the surface. But as I said, using destiled
water makes it less cruical when it comes to drying.
Also 'canned' compessed air as available in some shops can
be used to drivew out the water from deep corners.
You don't have to remoe all chips.
4) Now if I can't use water, I thake several soft towels
(fabric) and rub off the dirt. A sponge with a liite
soap water, and a second one with clear destilled water.
Also a stick an linnen is usefull to remove dirt from
the edges.
The ultrasound method can be used for a lot of parts.
Even sonme keyboards do well - Original PC-Keyboards
could be dumped without any preperation into the water
and cleaned in just a few seconds.
Oh: NEVER USE ANY CHEMICAL CLEANERS (beside _pUre_ soap)
ON YOUR PCBS - NEVER - NEVER - NEVER.
> c)Does distilled water cause rust?
Basicly almost no, but after touching thesurface it
isn't destilled water :) The main reason for rust
is high humidity always dry your precesious little
ones and store them not in an swamp like climate
(sorry if you live in FL or somewhere near the
Amazonas).
> d)Can distilled water be used to clean circuits?
Yes - see above.
> e)As I understand, tap/spring/rain/etc. water is full of minerals
> and that's why it's conductive as well as rust-causing
Yes/no - If you dry them, they won't pick up rust.
> f)A while ago, I picked up a bunch of 5.25" diskettes, which I hardly
> allowed to dry before I put them into the plastic box. Now I
> looked inside, and mold is spreading from the Microsoft Assembler
> diskettes onto the Apple II ones. What is safe to use to clean
> the mold (it's reeely disgusting!)?
Thats the problem with Microsoft - They always want to
pollute the environment - and as we see not only the
Internet or Java, even simple helpless Apple Disks are
to be transformed in non standard monsters :)
Normaly I could suggest just to dump them since most of
the software is not very unique. But again here are
several levels of restauration:
1. If you only want to keep the software:
Rip of the cover, clean the disk with cold air and / or
alcohol (no nor brandy - use isopropyl alcohol) - take
a _clean_new_ linnen and pour alcohol on. now go soft (!)
ofer the disk to remove any parts - try to 'roll' the
fabric to change the surface and lift of the mold.
now place the disk into a new cover (always open only
one side). If the disk wasn't damages itself you now
should be able to read the content and duplicate it.
I used this Method several times in data recovering
actions.
2. I you just want to keep the cover (special print, or
just since it is an genuine early Microsoft :):
Take a sponge with warm destiled soap water and sponge
it down (Never look at the disk ... it's a shame :).
Drying and now storing a at a dry place to prevent the
mold to come up again - Mold doesn't like dry places to
flourisch.
3. You want keep both:
Combine one and two - so you have a funktional copy
and a displayable disk. Or just use method 1 and transfer
the label to the _new_ copy.
4. You realy want to keep this disk (worst case):
Forgett it - at least You have to do it like in 1) but
you'll have to open the original cover _very_ carfully
clean the disk, clean the cover AND replace all this
fabric fleece inside the disk for new fabric - thats
_very_ sifficult - and even if you mange this, the
disk well always look damaged. The possibility of
reinstaling mold is also the highest.
Some tips:
- Never use Mold covered Disks - or if you have to,
restrict the usage to on 'mold-only' drive.
- Don't use disks lying next to moled disks - the little
friend is already there.
- Store your disks always dry and with enough air
circulation.closed cases can be deadly to your
Disk.
- Avoide high humidity
- Avoide low humidity, since the fleece will become
damaged.
- Avoide heat - Some disks could start to loss their
data as soon as 60 degree (140F)
- Avoide cold - Never use disks below 10 degree (50F)
the stress results in higher aging (remember, flopy
disk drives are still cutting tools like a turning lathe)
Also the magnetic film will loose the tightening if the
temperature is to low (same as when to high (>80 degree 180F)
I already dumped several hundered Disks I recovered
previously from basements and garages because of
Mold.
Servus
Hans
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
I tried it when it was OpenDOS. It's just like MS-DOS with a few
built in features. It will run on an 8086 and up, but you won't
be able to run their protected mode multitasking (no great loss).
You can still use the task swaper, though.
>Anyone tried the lastest DR-DOS by Caldera? Just curious how good it
>actually is especially on older machines. Saw a write up proposing that
>obsoletes may become viable resources again using DR-DOS but at present
>I haven't had a chance to download the trial and run it on a 286. Im
>sure someone here is deeply into it.-
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Russ Blakeman
> RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
> Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
> Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
> Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
> ICQ UIN #1714857
> AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN"
> * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers*
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
< You mentioned Wendy (?) Carlos in a previous msg. Was this a slip or wa
< this the wife of the well-known synthesiser-master Walter Carlos who di
< the sound-track for "Clock-Work Orange " ?
Riddle, she is his own sister and self.
< Somewhat more back on topic , Megan let slip that you designed an inter
< for the "Mark 11". Would it a major undertaking to build an A-D converte
No that was the PDP-11. I wouldn't know a mark-11 from a brick.
< take the VCO off an analogue synth and convert it to MIDI or to sample o
< record it ? And my ST is over 10 years old !! : ^ ))
Seems the hard way was as most PCs with sound record can do that. The
problem of doing straight A/d is the host computer has to be fast enough
to support 22,000 or greater samples a second and enough memory to store
it all. Midi is not fast enough to sample/reproduce straight a/d or d/a
sound wich is why all midi devices that are reproducers are self
contained.
Allison
Electronic music:
One item I reported I had was not from PCC-77 but instead an obscure
event known as the Philadephia Computer Music Festival in 78. That was an
effort of Creative computing. It featured music from:
RCA COSMAC VIP system with 4k and super soundboard.
ALF a system of up to 8 boards one per voice for s100.
SSMSB-1 S100 that could be used in groups.
Notran done at NCSU on an ambilog 200 (obscure 30 bit machine).
Software techology on SOL20
Schertz S100 based hardware
Newtech system another s100 card basically a DAC.
BEll labs Computer speach as featured at the 1964 NY Worlds Fair.
Name of programmer/performers:
Mel Richman
Joe Weisbecker
Gooitzen van der Wal
Andrew Modia
John Ridges
Malcolm Wright and Steve North
Hal Chamberlin
David Ahl
Donanld Schertz
Dorothy Siegal
D.H.Van Lenten
That list is also a whos who of early pre PC computing.
Allison
< >Actually there was DECnet-8! Dual processor machines were not uncommon
<
< Any further information (or pointers) to either DECnet-8 or dual process
< would be of interest.
Check the archive at dbit.com or at uu.se. Sorry the full addresses are
elsewhere. It is on the net in amoung the other PDP-8 software.
< Was DECnet-8 compatible with later DECnets (Phase III or IV)?
I don't think it was even phase-III. There was never eithernet.
< I did already check with Tim and the lads at the site. Plenty of
< binaries, no docs. Too bad too cause it's just what I need.
Go back and look again. there are docs there as both PS and PDF files.
Also more are being added when possible.
Allison
> Can I make use of the Centronics interface? What type of 'serial car'
> do you recommend? Can I use my Apple //c w/serial port but w/o CP/M?
No, or at least not without doing some own programming (the
Paralell boards for the ][ uses 652x devices in most cases).
Yes, the Serial of the //c is an ordinary, build in Super
Serial Card. But the //c will read CP/M files only in RAW
mode - so any nibble copy programm (or even RWTS programms)
can copy CP/M disks from DOS (>3.2, 16 Sector DOS) or ProDOS.
If you want to copy CP/M files logicaly (I think thats what
you need for transfer) you could only use the CP/M environment.
The best way is to put a SSC in an ][, ][+ or //e boot CP/M
and use MODEM7 for Transfer (and _ANY_ programm on the PC :)
You could also use any other serial card, if it is supported
by your CP/M - But its hard to find anything not SSC compatible .)
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
< which output a tape to another machine, referred to only as a "PB
< 250 Computer" [Pitney Bowes?] [Packard Bell?] which acted as the
Packard Bell, I know where there is a 250 even!
FYI I have a vinyl of early computer music some of which was rendered in
such a way as you describe. I picked it up at PCC'76 or maybe 77.
Back then there were a lot of different efforts to render computer music.
Some were quite interesting but the best of the day was from the people
with the blue boards that called themselves SSM or Solid State Music.
Allison
