Its now official...the Second Annual Vintage Computer Festival will be
held on September 26-27 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa
Clara, California.
Another speaker has been added...Ray Holt. He designed the JOLT computer
and also was involved in the development of the KIM-1 and SYM-1. That
would be interesting in itself if it wasn't for the history-changing
revelation that Ray will be sharing with those who attend VCF2.
More to come!
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
September 26 & 27...Vintage Computer Festival 2
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web page update: 05/11/98]
I know this is (possibly) a long shot but does anyone have the schematics
for the Apple 1?
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't blame me...I voted for Satan.
Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web page update: 05/05/98]
On May 10, 11:50, Tony Duell wrote:
> Subject: Re: HP 150 stiffies
> > I think the real contemporary stiffies for those early drives didn't
> > have the spring to pull the door closed. But I've never actually seen
>
> I have a couple somewhere... From memory, there is a spring - you slide
> the door open against the spring and it locks open. Then you insert the
> disk into the drive. When you eject it you pinch the corner to release
> the catch and the door springs closed.
That's what mine are like, too.
The drives in the Sony WP were the same as the Apricot ones, mentioned in
another reply, and Sony and Apricot upgraded to double-sided at about the
same time. I've got the tech and service manuals for those drives, too.
The 26-pin connector has the same signals as a modern 34-pin (barring ones
that wouldn't be relevant here) and you can certainly make a simple
adaptor.
However, the data rate in the Sony and old Apricot systems was twice the
normal rate for double-density, and the drives spin at 600 rpm instead of
300 rpm, so you can't just swap for a modern drive without changing other
things to (like the PLL and differentiator circuit, and the BIOS).
> BTW, does anyone remember Steve Ciarcia's homebrew touchscreen articles
> in Byte? I have the reprints somewhere, and it works in the same way as
> the HP150 touchscreen - IR LED/detector pairs around the screen.
I've got that reprint somewhere, too. "Let Your Fingers Do The Talking",
Byte August 1978 and September 1978. A 16 x 16 grid of emitters/sensors.
A box near the ned of the article says "An industrial grade alphanumeric
terminal incorporating touch panel input is being manufactured. For
information contact: General Digital Corp, 700 Burnside Av, East Hartford
CT 06108".
Another box says, "NOTE: Any one building a unit from these designs should
be advised that they are covered by a number of patents by the University
of Illinois and may not be sold for profit".
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote:
> I've been finding parts of HP 150's for a few months now, and I finally
> collected enough of them today for a complete system (including a new
> in-the-box integral printer), but I'm short on stiffies. Anybody know a
> source of stiffies? I have the 9121 drive, which I think is single-sided.
They aren't special, any decent double-sided 720KB stiffies should be
usable. At least that is what I used to do.
Well, that is, unless you have one of the real early 9121s that doesn't
open the door on the stiffy. That's why some of the older HP stiffies
have "pinch" stamped in the corner -- for those drives, you're supposed
to slide the door over to the left 'til it catches, then pinch where
indicated to close it.
I think the real contemporary stiffies for those early drives didn't
have the spring to pull the door closed. But I've never actually seen
one -- they didn't last very long, in fact by the time we got a loaner
demo 150 at that PPOE (early-mid 1983) the diskette stiffy doors were
fully automatic.
> The HP 150's touchscreen is pretty cool. Is there a driver for it that
> emulates a mouse? IIRC, this Mac-like box predates the Mac, doesn't it?
Yes it does predate the Mac.
Driver to emulate a mouse? I never heard of one. Applications that
wanted to use the touchscreen were mostly expected to pretend they
were talking to a terminal and read the escape sequences that get
generated by the touchscreen (preferable).
Fairly late in my HP150 experience (1985-1986 or so), I got hold of a
couple of freeware TSRs that you could load to implement chunks of the
PC ROM BIOS interface on the 150. I don't recall exactly what they
did (video and datacomm, I think) but I did manage to get WordPerfect
4.1 to run on the 150 with their help.
And I found copies of them on a 150 stiffy last month! Not the
original distribution, but I think all the files are there. Time to
figure out how to get 'em up on the net for y'all.
-Frank McConnell
I was going through a box of stuff last night that I got several months
ago from the same guy I got my first IMSAI from. He was around back in
the day and used to attend all the Homebrew Computer Club meetings.
Anyway, included in the box of magazines and brochures and such that he
gave me was a folder with the Homebew Computer Club Newsletter from Vol.2
#1 (Jan. 1976) through Vol.2 #15 (Mar. 1977). This is sweet! I never
knew that the HCC had a newsletter. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to go
through them but there is some pretty wild stuff in them. The first issue
I have has an "Open Letter to Hobbyists" from Bill Gates decrying the
pirating of the Altair BASIC. The next issue has a response to Bill's
letter chiding him for giving the software away in the first place and
then complaining about piracy after the fact. Wild!
I also found out I have Dr. Dobbs Journal of Computer Calisthenics and
Orthodontia from Issue 1 on up through 1982. Sweet.
I'll be reading through the Newsletters and will report any amazing
revelations.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't blame me...I voted for Satan.
Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web page update: 05/05/98]
I picked up some unknown (to me) parts today for next to nothing. I
would like to know what they are and if anyone wants these I can send
them for the price of shipping.
2 externally identical modules, black plastic cases with 50 pin double
row sockect connector.
One is marked "Bull SA, type CMM1123 XVA M 7C 22940"
the other "Convergent XM-003 AB for use with Ngen computers"
and a sticker "1MB"
I think these are 1Mb memory modules for Ngen computer?
Then I have three apparently identical units. Metal boxes 10" x 3.5" x
1". There is a 120 pin connector of two rows of 60 pins. At one end is a
16 position thumbwheel switch, on one edge there are 8 LEDs in two block
of 4 numbered 1-8. They all have Bull SA stickers with "Type CPF 1102"
and "XVA K 22 06606" printed on them.
Regards,
Hans B Pufal
>
>HP adopted 3.5" disks before they evolved into the disk used commonly
>today, so newer disks aren't compatible. Of course, HP also used a
>proprietary formatting scheme.
>
>-- Doug
>
Wronnngggg! They are compatible. I've been using regular commercial
3.5" disk in my HP 150, Integral and other HPs for years. You just have to
format them in the HP machine to get the HP format. Almost all the HPs use
different formats so you have to format them in the same type machine and
drive that you're goint to use them in. FWIW all those floppy drives are
made by Sony.
I found a pretty good HP 150 FAQ. It's at
"http://www.mdn.com/oksoftware/Computers/hp150faq.html".
Joe
Ok, how come when I'm using a windows95 based telnet client I get all
sorts of wacky-assed errors when I'm using PINE, like "Folder closed due
to access error" and "Folder reduced to 0 bytes" and "error this" and
"error that". Basically stuff I never get when I'm using ProComm Plus.
Why is this? Why is a bug-free telnet session such a chore under Windows?
This is not just with the lame windows telnet either. I thought getting
CRT would clear this up but it happens with that too. What's going on
here? Any help would be greatly apprciated, especially in private e-mail.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't blame me...I voted for Satan.
Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web page update: 05/05/98]
