- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

As part of my C-64 RS-232 to M15 60mA CL project, I've put together a simple MAX232 based interface to connect the TTL levels on the C-64 to the standard RS-232 +/- levels. Is there any reason that I can or cannot install LEDs - on either side of the MAX232 converter - to give some indication of line status? Specifically, a pair of LEDs, one each for Tx and Rx lines, to blink / etc. as line status changes and data moves. I don't see any obvious issue - but I can conceive of a situation where it might screw up the line in some way I haven't considered. Comments?

10 years, 10 months

13
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Silent 785 docs?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I've got a TI Silent 785 I'm trying to get configured/running. I see docs on bitsavers for the earlier models, but not anything in the 780 series and outwardly they do appear to be somewhat different than the 700 series. My google searches don't return joy either. I'm particularly looking for serial port configuration. Anyone have operators and/or service manual for the Silent 785? J

10 years, 10 months

3
4
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VT100 preventative maintenance?

by earl＠retrobits.com

Hi all, I have two VT100 terminals. Both of them work just fine. Should I leave well enough alone, or is there preventative maintenance that should be done? For instance, should capacitors be proactively replaced. In general, I'm thinking about things that, if they fail catastrophically, would cause collateral damage. Thanks! - Earl

10 years, 10 months

5
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5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

> Do we know the make/model of this drive? It's a Chinon FR-506 (NOT an FZ-506) >On 5.25" HD drives, pin 2 is generally a drive *input*. That is, the >host telegraphs what's needed, not the drive. Indeed, you have to be careful to put the right media and issue the proper density specific format command yourself, unless you work at the default of the drive, which in this case is HD. But I did, and I double checked the computer was outputting the right density signal on pin 2 on format and on write. Unfortunately the drive didn't respond correctly for writes in any settings I tried (auto or fixed density). On reading, from what I saw, the computer (at least mine) just tries both densities a couple times until it can read something. If there is some good data it declares success and keeps the pin 2 at the level that works for the rest of the session. There the news was better, the drive responded correctly to the pin 2 when it was set in auto, but incorrectly when it was in fixed HD (reading only in DD instead). So I left it in auto. At this point I'll declare this drive non functional, though still OK as a dual density, read-only drive... And look for a better HD one. My other 5.25" 360k DD 48tpi/300RPM drives read and write OK, so I have a working solution at low density. I want to recreate LIF drives for HP's, writing DD is what I need most anyhow. Thanks for the help, you pointed me in the right direction each time.

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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9-Track 1/2" Tape Drive Recommendations?

by afahimi＠alumni.usc.edu

Hello All, Recently I came across a complete Pertec interface (card, manual, software, and, cables) thanks to list-member Shaun. Of course what is the point of having an interface if you have nothing to interface it to! So I've been looking at, and learning a bit, about 1/2" tape drives. I've also looked into acquiring one. But before going down this path I wanted to see what pitfalls, warning signs, etc. I should be on the lookout for. I am looking for a unit mostly to experience the tech and to play around with. I do not plan on recovering data from any particular system or format. However, it would be nice if I could setup a system that actually worked for backups of say an IBM AT for demonstration purposes. Having read some old InfoWorld and PC Mag articles I can see there were a number of tape drive manufacturers well into the early 90s. Based on the reviews the Cipher and Qualstar units seem to be well suited for my purposes. Any other brand/models I should keep an eye out for. I know IBM also had some 1/2" 9 track tape drives (9437 and 9438) but neither was a Pertec interface from what I have gleaned. The 9347 used a proprietary interface and the 9348 used HVD SCSI which is atypical. There was apparently a 9348-012 model which used narrow SCSI so should interface with a standard Adaptec card. However, I have not been able to determine if it used standard SCSI commands and could be accessed say with a tape backup program under Windows 9x/NT or DOS. Of course the biggest problem is finding one locally in the LA area. Unfortunately my only resource is eBay and prices there are definitely not hobbyist friendly (not to mention shipping). If anyone has a line on a working drive in the LA area (to save on S&H and avoid the dangers of shipping) or a reasonably priced one elsewhere I'd appreciate it. TIA for any help.

10 years, 10 months

2
1
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More on manuals plus rescue

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

I certainly feel bitsavers is a good model, and although I'm physically not too far away from the stuff, I'm not sure I have much to offer other than disk space on a server for staging. http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4695 (previous link: http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4683 )

10 years, 10 months

34
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Data I/O 29B

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

I have a small batch of Data I/O EPROM burners. Trying to test them out and ran into a nightmare. They require a pin family and size parameter. But in none of the documentation is there any mention of what these values are. There are some generic pinouts, which are almost useless because Data I/O changed the definition of several pins. Then the manual says to get your part's timing chart and compare them to 409 pages of timing charts to find the family type! Nothing is mentioned anywhere on how to calculate size parameter. There should be a chart or document somewhere that gives the parameters by model numbers like 2516, 2764, etc. Anyone know of a document like this? Anyone have experience with the model 29A&B, Model 19, Model 100 gang programmer, etc. At this point, without better data, these 11 -12 deveces are heading for the scrap pile. This is the poorest documentation I've ever seen on a piece of test equipment. Billy Pettit

10 years, 10 months

7
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5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Chuck, I looked at the pin 2 signal and resulting drive behavior. It doesn't properly auto-switch between densities as it should. It does switch it for reading, but not for writing. Below is the full story. There is one jumper that controls DD/HD switching mode. In the auto position, I can read both HD and DD formats (I use the right diskettes for either format). You can see the computer on pin 2 (density select) trying both positions, settling on the right one (high for HD, low for DD), and reading the disc correctly. That's great. But when writing, although pin 2 goes to the right level, the floppy seems to ignore it. It will always write at DD, and refuse to write in HD (no signal at the head). Interestingly, in the fixed density position (should be HD only), it WILL write at 1.2M HD! The write signal does appears at the head. Unfortunately in this setting it will NOT switch the reading, get stuck reading only DD and fail on HD. So I can either have the reading HD or the writing HD, but not the two at the same time. That's why a regular format fails. The density switching logic seems to have a problem. Rather than track down which IC or transistor failed on the board it might be much simpler to get another 5.25 floppy. In the meantime my understanding of these simple critters has improved a lot. Marc >At high density, have you taken a good look at pin 2 of the floppy >interface? Have you checked to see if pin 2 is configured (via jumpers) >as "density select"? >--Chuck

10 years, 10 months

3
2
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Looking for Vintage Gold Lead LEDs for SCELBI project

by mail.nickallen＠gmail.com

Hey everyone, I am looking for some vintage Gold-Lead clear LEDs that light up red for a Scelbi project I am working on for VCFMW. Will need 29 of them if you have them, willing to trade or buy them, thnx!! -Nick

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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Data I/O 29B

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: wulfman > I have a modified dos program that talks to the data i/o > its the one that they sold with the unit but only ran on a 286 > ... > the modified one i have works in windows 7 in a dos box I seem to recall that I downloaded some software to run my 29B (although I have yet to work with it extensively), and that it did run in a DOS box under Windows 98? Is that the '286' one you're referring to? If so, maybe that won't run in a DOS box under the later versions of Windows? Or maybe I have a different program from the one you're talking about? (Or maybe I somehow downloaded an already-fixed version?) > if your interested i can send it to you Other than running under Windows 7, does it have any other improvements? If so, I might be interested. Whatever the case, if you would like someone to host it for open download, let me know. Noel

10 years, 10 months

3
2
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Wanted: Pertec Tape Controller

by tomjmoss＠googlemail.com

Hi all, I'm looking for a pertec controller suitable for a Qualstar 1052. ISA/SCSI/S-100 interfaces are fine. If anyone has one to sell, please let me know. Regards, -Tom

10 years, 10 months

8
13
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Cheap board guy

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> I lucked out. One of the dead ones had a broken trace on the bottom, and > cracked corner of the socket for one of the big square chips. So does that one work now? > The second one started working after I simply re-seated the two square > chips around their sockets. Yeah, that happens a lot. I got an 11/23 from him, it didn't work at first, I re-seated the CPU and MM chips, and now it seems to be fine. Excellent news, though! > Well, now both my 11/23 and 11/73 CPUs work with the MSV11-DB cards. Right, those are Q18. > a Clearpoint(?) Q22 memory card Camminton makes 2MB dual cards (CMV-504, although you can upgrade partially populated ones, which have a different number - 254, 500, 250); alas, the last one on eBay just sold, although there may be some out there from dealers like Continental). National Semi makes 1MB dual cards (NS23C - well, the manual says they are only 256KB, but they can be upgraded to 1MB with 256Kx1 chips, and a couple of simple etch cuts). Noel

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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Vintage Software Copyright

by pete＠pski.net

This discussion on the legality of sharing manuals, PDFs, etc. leads me to think about the vintage computing hobby as a whole. While we all encourage the hobby to grow, the downside is that as it does, the software copyright holders may start to take notice. As a developer of modern systems who expects to be paid for my work (except what I share with the community of course) I am in a conundrum because the hobby cannot succeed without the large collection of easily accessible vintage software available yet there is no way to ?buy? most of it today. But, we would also not expect or would we pay 1980s retail prices. I know some generous copyright owners have allowed unrestricted use of their old software, like Roy Soltoff from Misosys, but many others have not or have disappeared. I?m fairly new to the hobby so maybe this has already been hashed out years ago. Just wondering what the community thinks.

10 years, 10 months

17
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Cheap board guy

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mark G. Thomas > 4x M8192 - KDJ11 (AA or AB?) -- two work, two fail POST And alas, we don't seem to have any prints for that card (although we do have what amounts to a tech manual, so maybe we can create a set, with a certain amount of tracing with an ohmmeter), so at the moment, at least, fixing them isn't so easy. > I was hoping I could boot XXDP or RT11 from an RX33/RQDX3. The > RX33/RQDX3 works in my 11/53 Well, that's a very good sign... > Since none of this has a bootstrap, I run the bootstrap from ROM > provided by a Dilog SCSI card here, but typing "DU" or "DU0" at the > prompt spins the floppy ever-so-briefly, then kicks out an error about > no boot media found. Suggestions? Maybe I should try other bootstrap? Definitely; the code on the Dilog card might not support that controller properly (even though it seems to recognize "DU"). > I'm a little confused about what should work and what should not work, > with just the 18 bit qbus. If you have less than 256KB of memory (so Q22 processors won't wrap around, when trying to size memory, and think there's memory there above 256K - although Q18 memory probably will stop responding at 248KB, anyway), pretty much everything _should_ work, I would think. The high address lines being put out by the processor, DMA devices, etc should just have no effect. Although the details get tricky... E.g. if you don't have BDAL18-21 for a Q22 memory card, what will its bus interface do when faced with those lines, which aren't driven in any way - _especially_ not pulled up by terminators? Some DEC memory cards (e.g. MSV11-L, M8059) have jumpers to run in either Q18 or Q22 mode, to work around this. > Do I need to wire wrap the additional address lines to be able to do > anything with these KDJ11 CPUs? No, if you have less than 256KB of memory, the high bits should just be ignored (I think - I haven't actually tried this, to be absolutely sure). > Does anyone have good instructions for this modification -- I'll > probably want to do it. Do I just add the additional address lines, or > are there other considerations? I have modified an H9273 backplane (Q18) to H9276 (Q22), and it works fine; all I did was bus all the BDAL18-21 pins together: pretty easy, as it's a Q/CD backplane, not a Q/Q - just run a wire down, and solder it to each pin as it goes (those backplanes don't have the pins stick out far enough for wire wrap). Q/Q will be only slightly more complicated (since you have to bus down one side, then run the signals up and across to the top of the other side, and then bus them in turn - do it this way, to avoid creating a branch in the bus which will encourage reflections); I have done this mod on a Q18/Q18 backplane (a Sigma Q18/Q18), but have yet to actually try it. The only complication might come with termination/pull-ups. Not all backplanes have these built in (e.g. the DEC H9273/H9276 don't). But you might not need them - IIRC both the 11/23 and 11/73 have on-board termination which will pull the lines up. But if you _do_ need them... best bet, unless you want to start soldering resistors to the backplane, is a terminator board with Q22 pullups. That's a whole separate discussion which I will leave for the moment... :-) Noel

10 years, 10 months

3
2
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New post take longer to appear then replies?

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Just wondering if new posts are moderated vs. replies? I posted a new message to the list a few hours ago and it still has not shown up. However, a reply to a preexisting message I sent out a few minutes ago has already appeared. Thanks.

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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Where to get a Vax or microvax

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

I have had an interest in the DEC VAX line of computers for some time now and am trying to find a good place to get a system to start out with. The main pourpose being to have a machine to use VMS on. I have been running VMS on emulated hardware via SIMH, however i would like to move to running on real hardware. What would be the best machine for a beginner to VAX Hardware to start out with? My main place for looking for hardware has been ebay, although most of what im seeing is untested and expensive. Is there a better place to find older machines like this?

10 years, 10 months

36
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maybe OT: Powerbook 5300 OS upgrade

by starbase89＠gmail.com

Greetings! I know that many of my posts to this list tend to be on the fringes of what is normally discussed here. I apologize in advance if this is too new for the group. I am trying to get my Powerbook 5300 up and running as a usable word processor (with portable printer) for school and for email. It is currently running System 7.5.2. The machine is capable of supporting MacOS 9.1, but my goal is 8.6. I see them talking on lowendmac that upgrading the OS makes the machine more solid, but it doesn't explain how to do it. The machine only has a floppy drive and no networking. Were there any system 8.6 install floppies? I can't think of another way to get it on there. TIA Joe

10 years, 10 months

5
7
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Cheap board guy

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I have the following from the gold scrapper guy so far... Great tip. Wonder if anyone else partook of the tipoff. Thanks Jim http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2015/08/dec-boards-kdj11-2-kdf11-and-motoro…

10 years, 10 months

3
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R: DECdatasystem 534 (11/34) and VT52 for sale at VCF Midwest 10

by supervinx＠libero.it

Location? -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: Julian Wolfe <julian at twinax.org> Data:20/08/2015 15:44 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: DECdatasystem 534 (11/34) and VT52 for sale at VCF Midwest 10 I will be selling my DECdatasystem 534 and VT52 at the show. Cabinet rack, 72x24x26".11/34a, 32kW of core and A/D+D/A cards. System runs fine and drops to a console prompt, and passes all the diags I've been able to throw at it. I've restored all the foam filters and the cabinet was pressure washed a couple of years ago so no funny smells or mold. I have no peripherals for it. The VT52 does not power on. I'm entertaining pre-show offers, so let me know privately if you are interested in either of these items. Julian

10 years, 10 months

4
3
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8-inch alignment floppy wanted

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a spare 8-inch alignment floppy they'd be willing to sell? I'd prefer a double-sided one, but even a single-sided would be better than nothing.

10 years, 10 months

2
1
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5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thanks Chuck. Looks like you are on to something, I'll search in this direction. Unlikely it has anything to do with the disks themselves, which were blank. The 500 kHz write signal present on the connector just doesn't make it to the head, whereas the 300 kHz does. On the other handm something along what Chuck suggests could create this exact problem. I'll let you know how it goes. I am aware of the narrow track problem of 360k written by HD drives, so I have other native 360k DD drives for that purpose. For now I just want my HD drive to behave as one ;-) >At high density, have you taken a good look at pin 2 of the floppy >interface? Have you checked to see if pin 2 is configured (via jumpers) >as "density select"? Various drives have different jumperings for >pins 2 and 34 (and sometimes 4). For example, I deal with some Japanese >CNC gear that uses pin 2 for disk change and pin 34 for read (and pin 4 >for "in use". >--Chuck >> So I tried to force formatting in DOS at 360k, and sure enough it >> worked! I can then read the diskette back, write on it, etc... And of >> course it failed formatting at 1.2 Mb. But the drive (Chinon FR-506) >> is a 1.2M one, and reads fine at 1.2M! Any clue? Is there a drive >> setting that would prevent it to write at high density but let it do >> at low density?

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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MIPS systems available...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

Weirdstuff recently received the following: (2) Magnum 4000SC-50 mips systems (2) RS 2030 mips systems Look clean (from the outside)... Contact Jim if you're interested in them. Usual disclaimer: I have no relationship with Weirdstuff other than as a client. I receive no remuneration for posting this. I do a weekly "tour" of their facilities to find vintage gear. Cheers, Lyle -- 73 AF6WS Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

10 years, 10 months

1
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5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Following Chuck's advice, I scoped out the pin 22 and 24 (write data and write gate) on the floppy, and they looked fine. Then being curious, I managed to figure out what the write wire for Head 0 was. And I discovered I got nice matching writing pulses at 300 kHz (formatting at 360k density), but none at 500 kHz (1.2 Mb density). Results posted here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?43874-5-1-4-quot-Flop py-Drive-Not-Reading/page9 So I tried to force formatting in DOS at 360k, and sure enough it worked! I can then read the diskette back, write on it, etc... And of course it failed formatting at 1.2 Mb. But the drive (Chinon FR-506) is a 1.2M one, and reads fine at 1.2M! Any clue? Is there a drive setting that would prevent it to write at high density but let it do at low density? Marc > Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:30:31 -0700 > From: cclist at sydex.com > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: 5.25 floppies that read but don't write > > On 08/18/2015 09:05 PM, Marc Verdiell wrote: > > > > > > I have connected a 1.2M 5.25" floppy to my computer. After a bit of > > jumper learning and setting, it's recognized and reads my old DD and > > HD floppies fine. But for the life of me I cannot write to it. Not > > under DOS, Win98, or WindowsXP. Which all read fine. > > Make sure that "WRITE GATE" goes low (use a logic probe) on pin 24 of > the drive while you do your write. If so, your floppy write circuitry > has a problem. I.e., it's not the cable. > > --Chuck >

10 years, 10 months

4
4
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Power supply connector pin crimping, and 8-inch FDD power connectors (another chapter in the Quay 900 saga)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Last week I wanted to test some half-height eight-inch double-sided drives (NEC, Mistubishi, and Qume) on the Quay 900. I cabled a Mitsubishi drive in place of the original CDC/MPI 9406 77618022 drives, and the machine apparently wouldn't reset properly, since I wasn't getting the prompt from my ROM monitor either on power-up or by manually resetting it. I poked around a bit and discovered that the +5V DC supply was at about 0.7V. I disconnected the Mitsubishi, and it still didn't work, and the +5V was still at 0.7V. Uh oh, what did I break? After a lot of pulling of hair, gnashing of teeth, and sacrificing a chicken at midnight, I discovered that +5V pin in the connector that plugs onto the switching power supply was not crimped properly. It was partially crimped, but the wire was just loose. The cable connector is an AMP (now TE) 87025-7 "Ampmodu" 0.156-inch pitch shell which accepts 102103-3 rectangular crimp receptacles. The shell has 20 positions, of which they inserted a keying plug in position 1, and only use contacts in some of the even positions from 2 though 20, because the header on the power supply PCB only has every other pin loaded. TE no longer makes the 87025-7, but they still make the 87025-8, which is apparently the same thing without the part number being stamped on the housing. I don't need another housing though, just a pin, because without the right extraction tool I hadn't been able to get the old pin out without mangling it a fair bit. Mouser and Digikey sell the pins in small quantity for $0.50 each, which seems absurdly high for a crimp pin with only tin plating. (There's another part number for a gold contact, but distributors don't stock it.) Just for the hell of it, I looked up the TE manual (hand) crimping tool designed for this pin, p/n 90274-2. It sells for over $6500. There is a used one on eBay for $75, but I've had bad experience buying used crimping tools. The only crimping tool I have on hand is designed for terminals with a round shell that just have to be crimped flat, vs. for terminals with V-shaped edges that have to be folded back in, as is typical of Molex pins and the like. I decided to order an inexpensive ratcheting crimping tool from an Amazon seller. It's an Iwiss SN-28B, also sold under the Estone and other brands. The Iwiss was $19. I couldn't tell from the photos whether it would be suitable. It turns out that it worked perfectly for the TE pins. It has two pairs of dies stacked with one pair having a larger profile, so it does crimp both the conductor and the insulator at the same time, which I wasn't expecting for a sub-$20 tool. That got the machine working again, and I verified that the CDC/MPI drives are still working, or at least working as well as they were before. I'm still seeing a lot of unreliability when using double-density on the highest-numbered tracks (closest to spindle). Could be the wrong amount of precomp, or the low-quality data separator design. Since one of the two MPI drives gets more errors than the other, there may be some issue with drive alignment or drive electronics adjustment as well. I unplugged the MPI drives and plugged in the Mitsubishi. Once again the machine wouldn't reset properly. It turns out that even though this bizarre variant of the 9406 uses the Shugart pinout for the data connector instead of the MPI pinout, and uses the same DC power connector as the Shugart, instead of the header used in normal MPI 9406 drives, the DC power connector pinout for the MPI does NOT match the Shugart DC pinout, as also used by the various half-height drives I want to try. I'm becoming less and less impressed with these MPI drives as I learn more about them. With the Mitsubishi cabled up to the Quay, but using a separate DC power supply with the correct pinout, I was able to verify that the Mitsubishi drive actually works fine. When used with the Quay FDC, it does need some retries for double-density on the inner tracks, like the MPIs, but it doesn't need as many retries as either of the MPI drives.

10 years, 10 months

3
3
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Looking for RL8A controller card

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I have a PDP-8/A with a flaky RL8A (M8433) controller card. I can't track the fault down. I've spent enough hours on it by now that I'd just as soon buy another one. Anyone have one to sell? Or possibly could repair mine (for compensation)? thanks Charles

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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OpenVMS TCP/IP Services 5.3 availability

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

We are currently running TCP/IP Services 5.1 under OpenVMS 7.3 on the museum's VAX-11/780-5. The telnet listener has a known issue which is fixed in v5.3, but we have not been able to locate this (we've asked in the right places). Was this on a ConDist platter? Or was it made available in some other way? We have a perpetual license for VMS, and renew our other licenses annually, so PAKs are not an issue. Would someone be willing to loan us the install media? Or otherwise make this available? Thanks, Rich Rich Alderson Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Ave S Seattle, WA 98134 Cell: (206) 465-2916 Desk: (206) 342-2239 http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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More on manuals plus rescue

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

On 2015-Aug-19, at 3:58 PM, William Donzelli wrote: > . . . > In fact, due to your time constraints, I would not bother with the HP, > Tek, or Heathkit manuals at all > . . . Gosh, please don't do that! What a terrible piece of advice. A large portion of the HP manuals are unavailable, and HP doesn't have them either. I have been looking for the operating and service manual for the HP 12050A (HPIB fiber optics extension) in vain. Couldn't find the one for the HP 7225B (gantry XY Pen Plotter) online, but found a hard copy version on ebay. Couldn't find any doc on the personality interface on it. On the computing side, many of the interface cards for my HP 1000 are undocumented or missing critical documents. Often a user manual is available, but not the service one. Sometimes you find the A, but not the B and they are significantly different. Etc, etc... And I am not talking obscure instruments at all.

10 years, 10 months

4
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More on manuals plus rescue

by kevin_anderson_dbq＠yahoo.com

Wow, I have just looked at the manuals collection at the Internet Archive site. I honestly can say I don't like it, but I will say it is because this is not how my mind works in organizing stuff. I am immediately turned off by the tiling of 'cards" on the screen and the categorizing of collections. I know it more closely matches tablet apps and how they seemed to be designed, but I can also say, although I am the user of a tablet, I am not always happy with that approach. Even switching to the list view within IA didn't help much. I think it is great that Bitsavers material can be saved in more than one location, whether that be identical mirrors on multiple servers or with material copied into another environment. The point being the access to material and minimizing any risk of it all disappearing at once. But I agree that correct attribution of where material comes from is also very important. And multiple interfaces to how to search and find information can be fine to, as we all think differently. I just happen to prefer collapsible trees, textual lists, and drill-down methods more than I do other newer visual methods. My previous experience with Internet Archives has been mainly looking for old videos from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s through primarily the Prelinger archive, plus some texts and books that I found through Google and other search engines, and in using the Wayback machine. Seeing this new interface to the Internet Archives made it clear that I haven't checked IA since they apparently redid this interface, and all I can't say is I don't like it, and clearly if I can't find the item I need from IA through a Google search, then I won't be trying to find it directly from Internet Archives. The interface used at the Internet Archive is not Jason's fault. And certainly not so if the interface changed after Jason had already started his project. But I also feel that this collection at Internet Archive didn't necessarily help in useful ways to archive the older computer stuff, at least not that I can see from this initial review. Or if the collection is still good, the web interface is hindering a proper appreciation of that material and access to it. It also doesn't help that modern implementations of web content is all database driven (which the Internet Archive is one such site), which on the surface ought to be great, but in reality isn't when one no longer has as much control over the levels and depths of web pages in the same way as direct folders on a file server. The more flat and eclectic nature of today's web pages, with the expectation that one will "leap" all over the place within a largely flat structure, possibly employing filters to limit choices, is much less useful in this case for archiving and organizing the material in question than say hierarchical tree structures. At least in my opinion.... Kevin Anderson Dubuque, Iowa

10 years, 10 months

4
5
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5.25" floppy disk storage.

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Something non-technical from me for a change. Most of you in the UK will have come across 'Really Useful Boxes' and probably use them for storing cables, screws, etc (I wish they made anti-static ones ;-)). Anyway what I hadn't realised until today is that the 3 litre size is just the right size for storing 5.25" floppy disks (in their cardboard covers), it will take about 80 of them with enough free space to extract them easily. Finding modern boxes for 5.25" disks is not that easy (I have not found the size for 8" disks though :-() Even better, at the moment, Rymans (at least round here) have them on sale at 4 for \pounds 10.00 (normally \pounds 3.99 each). -tony

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

MAINDEX-11 CZKMA Diagnostic?

by ben＠bensinclair.com

I'm again trying to debug my PDP-11/23, and I believe I'm having trouble with my M8067-LB/MSV-11 memory. According to the manual, there is a diagnostic program called CZKMA (for my 18-bit system), but I can't seem to find it. I have all of the xxdp images from AK6DN, but this one doesn't appear to be on any of those. Some searching shows references to it and even a (poorly) scanned source listing, but does anyone know if I can get it on a TU58 image or another format? Thanks! -- Ben Sinclair ben at bensinclair.com

10 years, 10 months

4
5
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DECdatasystem 534 (11/34) and VT52 for sale at VCF Midwest 10

by julian＠twinax.org

I will be selling my DECdatasystem 534 and VT52 at the show. Cabinet rack, 72x24x26".11/34a, 32kW of core and A/D+D/A cards. System runs fine and drops to a console prompt, and passes all the diags I've been able to throw at it. I've restored all the foam filters and the cabinet was pressure washed a couple of years ago so no funny smells or mold. I have no peripherals for it. The VT52 does not power on. I'm entertaining pre-show offers, so let me know privately if you are interested in either of these items. Julian

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Clearpoint DCME/Q4E configuration

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist >> Yes, and if you plug one of their PMI memory boards into a Q/Q >> backplane, it will emit magic smoke, too! :-) > I don't remember if I've ever tried that Don't! :-) As the MSV11-J manual puts it, "NOTE: Insertion of the MSV11-J in a Q-Q backplane may damage other components or the memory itself. The PMI bussing on the MSV11-J's CD connectors is not compatible with the +12V bussing on the Q-Q backplane." > but I can believe that some jumpers would need to be moved around for a > Q-Q slot. ... No jumpers moved. There are no jumpers to configure an MSV11-J for Q/Q slots. (It's only got 4 jumpers total, two of which are factory config; the others are battery backup power.) > By CRC, I guess you mean ECC. Yup, sorry, not completely awake when I typed that, I guess! :-) > And with 37 bits, I think it should have ECC. ECC depends on the CSR > address set correctly. But I could be wrong as well. I think it needs more than 5 bits, for 32. The MSV11-J uses 6 bits, for 16. >> However, when I plugged the other one in - nada. No response at all; >> the boot PROM bitched about 'no memory at 0'. So I'm not sure _what_ >> that configuration is for. > Would sound like it was configured for a non-zero start address maybe? I did wonder that, but why would anyone configure a 4MB card for a non-zero start address? Anyway, I have yet to investigate this jumper configuration more extensively - later. > But if you tried with the switches/jumpers the same as on the board > working then it sounds like it would just be broken. No, that board (mostly, except for the "Memory CSR" error) worked with the jumpers in the _PMI_ configuration. Although I suppose some of the circuitry for use in the non-PMI config could be broken, but I think not. (More below.) >> The boot PROM was complaining about "Memory CSR Error" .. _but_ the >> memory was shown (by the boot PROM 'map' command) as PMI, and my own >> memory-test program showed it was all working OK. > And then the cards also have a CSR register or two, which is used for > various things. And they are expected to be at specific addresses. > ... > If you have a memory starting at address 0, there should be a CSR at a > specific address as well So I did some experiments, with very interesting results. I took the card that got the "Memory CSR Error", plugged it in, and ran a 'find all device registers' program in the system with it in. It showed a single memory CSR, at 172100. I then plugged in the card that _does_ pass the startup test, and it also had a single register, at that same location. So I guess it must be something about the way that register operates, that is different between the two cards. Which is possible; as I mentioned, there are a few programmable chips which are different revs. (And one large custom chip, which _seems_ to be a different rev.) Oddly enough, if I operate that 'broken' card in QBUS mode (after the CPU), not PMI mode (before), it _does_ pass the built-in self-test!!! Which argues that its failure to operate in QBUS mode, with the non-PMI jumper settings, is not because the hardware to operate in QBUS mode is broken. So I have no idea what the other set of jumper settings is for! Blast, I sure wish we had documentation for these things! Noel

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Looking for a VAX 9000

by Sue.Skonetski＠VMSSoftware.com

Dear Group, My name is Sue Skonetski I am a vintage Digital, Compaq and HP person and now with VMS Software. It is not a typo I am really looking for a VAX 9000. Thanks, Sue Sue Skonetski VP of Customer Advocacy Sue.Skonetski at vmssoftware.com Office: +1 (978) 451-0116 Mobile: +1 (603) 494-9886 Mit freundlichen Gr??en ? Avec mes meilleures salutations

10 years, 10 months

3
2
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5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

I have connected a 1.2M 5.25" floppy to my computer. After a bit of jumper learning and setting, it's recognized and reads my old DD and HD floppies fine. But for the life of me I cannot write to it. Not under DOS, Win98, or WindowsXP. Which all read fine. But can't add a file. It goes through to the motions and makes the noise, heads moves as if everything went fine, but if I take the disk out and put it back in, the file is not there. I can't format either. Fails after a while on the above OS'es with different error messages without the head moving past track 0, suggesting it can't even read back the first track it's trying to format. Formatting from ImageDisk or OmniDisk looks like it works (head goes through the motions over the whole disk). But nothing seems to be written on the disk: neither utility can read the formatting back. Both HD and DD. On the same cable there is a 3.5" A: drive which reads and writes fine. Can't be the controller since it works on the 3.5" drive? The cable maybe? I tried several. Anyone has had this happened ever? Time to bring out the o'scope?

10 years, 10 months

6
6
0 0

VT100 keyboard (source?)

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

Would anyone have a surplus-to-needs, or know of a source for, a VT100 keyboard? This would actually be for the DECmateI/VT278 I mentioned on the list a couple weeks ago, Rob and I are looking into doing something with it. Alternatively, does anyone know if there is any degree of signalling compatibility between the VT100 and VT220/320 keyboards? Those RX floppies in the pedestal on ebay mentioned a week or two ago were just what was needed to complete it, as they actually looked like they were part of a 278, but the listing was removed from ebay.

10 years, 10 months

4
5
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Manuals Plus preservation efforts update

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

In Realtime: We are barely halfway done http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4711 They are still looking for volunteers tomorrow (Tuesday, August 18). Anyone in or near Baltimore might want to go help.

10 years, 10 months

1
1
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VCF Midwest: Last Chance for Rooms

by silent700＠gmail.com

Hello all - I thought they did this weeks ago but the VCFMW hotel has informed me that they still have the special rooms pricing block open. It will close "for real this time" at the end of the day this Friday the 21st. A rather humbling number of rooms have been reserved so far - well beyond our expectations - but there is room for a few more. Follow the link at http://vcfmw.org for details. See you next weekend! -j

10 years, 10 months

2
1
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DECmate I floppies (was Re: VT100 keyboard (source?))

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 5:48 PM, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote: > Thanks, that was a question I had been intending to ask, but to confirm: > If one obtained (as appropriate) bare RX01/2 floppy drive(s), it would > just be a matter of power supply for the floppies, and passive cabling > to interface the drives to the CPU/display? Yes. There's a board that goes under the wooden "top" that has a DB25 on one side, a Berg 40 on the other, and some wires and ferrite beads in between. It should be the identical board that's in the RX01 enclosure for the MINC-11 and/or WT78. The pinouts should be the same even if those use a different part number for the board. > I actually have the DB25-to-DC37 cable that goes between the disk unit and the DC37 connector on the CPU/display unit. Right. Well documented and easy enough to make, but good you have one. What I need to make (since I've never seen one) is the DC37-dual-DB25 cable to hang all the drives off of the DECmate I. 100% passive and just a few dozen solder joints. > If we move this along we may be asking for system software in the future, > I haven't looked at what may be readily available (i.e. bitsavers) as yet. I think mine came with WPS-8, but it should run OS-278. You just need to find a way to write RX02 floppies. I need to come up with a semi-portable PDP-11 rig with RX02s and 256K of RAM so I can cut floppies with vtserver (and probably some RL01 and RL02s while I'm at it) -ethan

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Probs w. M3119 CXY08 MUX on VAX VMS 7.3

by dave＠mitton.com

From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> >> ... > Ok. RSTS does indeed check for duplicate vectors. It also checks for > devices interrupting at too high a priority. > It?s pretty neat code. Back in 1977 or so when that came out, it may > have been one of the first autoconfig systems, at least in DEC. It > could probe almost all devices supported by RSTS (and some not > supported); the exceptions being card readers and the DT07 bus switch. > But it would do hairy things like the KMC-11 and DMC-11, for example. Wait? What was tricky about KMCs and DMCs? They used the same algorithms, I had it down cold at the time. Speaking of which, I have one copy of the KMC-11A Programmer's Guide if anyone needs it or would like to scan it? Dave (KMC-11 Tools Developer, RSX and VMS) PS: I used ALGOLW on MTS in one of my ECE classes because we could represent processor registers and operations using bit arrays/vectors and boolean operations. Thus building working models of systems in code.

10 years, 10 months

2
1
0 0

Analog to Digital Converter

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

I have a number of laboratory instruments that are from the 1990 time frame. They produce digital data that is the digitized signal from a detector, the data can be from 512 to 65K samples long. The ADC used in these instruments is a 16bit 100ksample/sec design. The ADC is in a 3 by 4 inch metal box with a row of pins on each long edge. I think some of them are failing because I get the full 16 bit resolution from one machine, but not the others. This was determined by taking the digital samples and sorting the values and computing the increments between the adjacent values. In some cases the output looked like 14 bit resolution and in one case 6 bit resolution. Does anyone have any experience with technology? Who was the manufacturer? (There is no id on the outside) What is inside the box? Is it a hybrid circuit? Doug

10 years, 10 months

6
12
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Probs w. M3119 CXY08 MUX on VAX VMS 7.3

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi guys, I'm fiddeling around for hours now to get an M3119-YA CXY08 Multiplexer to work in my VAX4000/300 on VMS7.3. The Card is properly detected it seems.. Device Device Error Name Status Count FTA0: Offline 0 OPA0: Online 0 TNA0: Offline 0 TNA2: Online 0 TXA0: Online 4 TXA1: Online 0 TXA2: Online 0 TXA3: Online 7 TXA4: Online 0 TXA5: Online 0 TXA6: Online 0 TXA7: Online 0 VTA0: Offline 0 . SYSGEN> SH/CONF System CSR and Vectors on 17-AUG-2015 19:17:01.69 Name: PAA Units: 1 Nexus:0 (CI ) Name: PAB Units: 1 Nexus:1 (CI ) Name: EZA Units: 4 Nexus:2 (NI ) Name: PUA Units: 1 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 772150 Vector1: 154 Vector2: 000 Name: PTA Units: 1 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 774500 Vector1: 260 Vector2: 000 Name: PTB Units: 1 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 760404 Vector1: 300 Vector2: 000 Name: TXA Units: 8 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 760440 Vector1: 310 Vector2: 314 SYSGEN> ..and it is the first card left of the CPU in the QBUS Backplane followed >from an working CQD200/TM. AThe DIP Switches are set like the standard in some CXY08 Manual, the MUX is set to DHU11 programming model. I've first tried to connect a serial line pronter with no luck so I've tried to connect a 2nd VT420 and have no luck again. I know of the meaning of the several modem control signals and how they should be wired, have connected such a "null modem RS232 device" that shorts 4 to 5 and 6+8 to 20. I've tried to copy data from a file to the lines and I have shorted 2+3 of the Muxer Pins from the line and done a SET HOST/DTE/ESC=E TXA0:,allt that ends with an timeout writing to the lines and the lines acting identically, regardles which one I try to use. $ copy SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM txa3: %COPY-E-WRITEERR, error writing TXA3:[]SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM;5 -RMS-F-WER, file write error -SYSTEM-F-TIMEOUT, device timeout %COPY-W-NOTCMPLT, SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM;5 not completely copied $ sh term txa3 Terminal: _TXA3: Device_Type: Unknown Owner: No Owner Input: 9600 LFfill: 0 Width: 80 Parity: None Output: 9600 CRfill: 0 Page: 24 Terminal Characteristics: Interactive Echo Type_ahead No Escape No Hostsync TTsync Lowercase No Tab Wrap Scope No Remote No Eightbit Broadcast No Readsync No Form Fulldup Modem No Local_echo Autobaud No Hangup No Brdcstmbx No DMA No Altypeahd Set_speed No Commsync Line Editing Overstrike editing No Fallback No Dialup No Secure server No Disconnect No Pasthru No Syspassword No SIXEL Graphics No Soft Characters No Printer Port Numeric Keypad No ANSI_CRT No Regis No Block_mode No Advanced_video No Edit_mode No DEC_CRT No DEC_CRT2 No DEC_CRT3 No DEC_CRT4 No DEC_CRT5 No Ansi_Color VMS Style Input $ Depending on set term/modem or set term/printer the modem control lines are changing the level, that's ok. But I can't get a single character printed to the terminal which I have verified with an USB to serial cable already, the terminal is ok and I have an LED-Analyzer for RS232 between the RS232 Plugs.. Since I'm a total VMS Noob I now have some Questions: .. have I missed something? .. is the CXY08 bad? .. what could I try next? ...is there some diagnosting software for the CXY08 existing for VMS and if yes, where can I get it? Thanks in advance, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

10 years, 10 months

10
31
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> IA saturates the channel. Jason and IA are deliberately working to redirect all search > traffic to IA from the original mirrors by constantly creating useless 'new' content that > Google thinks is real. > > I have watched over time as the volume of Google top search hits have migrated to IA hosted > content from the mirrors. I have occasionally stumbled into the bitsavers stuff on IA and was just confused and perplexed about what the IA guys are trying to do. Bitsavers has a perfectly obvious and navigable layout; IA makes no sense at all. (Of course I'm a little biased!!!) Tim N3QE

10 years, 10 months

6
7
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Speaking of Creating 5 1/4" floppies

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Try Imagedisk for DOS (with actually somewhat of an interface). Great software, superb manual. http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm Also Omnidisk for DOS (command line) http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniDisk/OmniDisk.htm#Downloads And Omniflop for WinXP with a GUI http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm#Downloads All of them can read and write a particular sector. With Imagedisk you can image the original disk to a file image, and view the image data in a nice hex editor by sector, make your changes, and write back the modified version to a disk. All with a simple and efficient DOS GUI. Marc ----------------------------- jwsmobile <jws at jwsss.com> wrote: I wonder if someone can help with a bit of a problem I have. I have a compaq portable 3 system which has a working Pick (Non dos) system on it. It has the 5 1/4" floppy drives on it. I am looking for a bootable floppy or 2 with something like dos 6.x on it and some utility that can read and write disk sectors. Preferably the latter is a nice gui program, but beggers can't be choosers. I need to boot it up from the floppy drive and modify the pick system dictionary to remove the main password. So the change to the system will be surgical, just one sector. If anyone can help, can you send me a note and let me know how I can compensate you for your help. If I really move crap around I may be able to find a system with the 5 1/4" floppies on it, but I'm not sure I could get a program onto the system then out to the 5 1/4" drive and am also looking for suggestions about what disk utility / editor might be useful if anyone has suggestions on that. I'll go ahead and dredge up something soon if I can't get help from somewhere. thanks Jim Stephens -----------------------------

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

DEC Fiche EP-M8436-MA-A

by rob＠bitscience.ca

Hi Everyone, I?m looking for a scan or a printout of the contents of DEC fiche EP-M8436-MA-A. It?s referenced at the top of page 163 of http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp11/xxdp/fiche_200dpi/0254_ind…, and allegedly contains the details for M8436, M8437,M8439, and M8440 boards -- all of which were parts for the Decmate series of machines. If anyone has access to this (even if you have no way to read it), or has a pointer to where I might find it, I?d very much appreciate if you?d drop me a line. Thanks very much, Rob Ferguson

10 years, 10 months

3
2
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More Manuals Plus Rescue

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4711 Choice quote: "I am writing this from the car, sitting in the passenger seat with my shoes off. I have been standing for 12 hours. I've been giving introductions and tours and explanations and theories and everything else that comes when you put a bunch of strangers together with a single-minded purpose. They have been too good. Way better than anybody deserves in the way of volunteers. They have been helpful, kind, inquisitive, dedicated. They have come from miles around. Sometime around 11 a.m., it became very obvious that the 252 banker boxes we have bought or a laughable underestimation. We were going to need more. We are going to need much more, and we were going to need it now. I made a call to the Uline Company, and asked for the impossible: I wanted 8 pallets of boxes, delivered within the day. And within four hours, they arrived. To deliver 1052 banker boxes within 4 hours, combined with the cost of the boxes themselves, was $4000."

10 years, 10 months

4
3
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test equipment / Re: Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Eric Smith > If a person has any reasonable business justification But a lot of the people here don't; they're purely hobbyists. So spending $1K on a piece of test equipment just isn't realistic for them. Having said that, I do see some DSO's on eBay for not much money (e.g. the little hand-held ones), and those might be a good alternative to a logic analyzer - I never used one, so I tend not to think of them. Noel

10 years, 10 months

9
15
0 0

QBUS boards on eBay checp

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Some guy on eBay is selling a ton of QBUS boards, cheap: http://www.ebay.com/sch/computer_surpluscheap/m.html Includes deals such as 11/23 CPU's _with_ KTF11 and KEF11 for $30, 11/73 CPU's for $50, etc, etc. Anyone recognize those Motorola memory cards? Do we have documentatio for them? Noel

10 years, 10 months

13
47
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More on manuals plus rescue

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > If you can, avoid black/white scans. The reason is that scanners are > often noisy in that mode ... Copiers used in scan mode are particularly > likely to do this. Such documents are also surprisingly hard to read, > look messy when printed, and utterly fail OCR. I was talking about scanning prints (which is how this originally came up, someone said 300 dpi doesn't catch the very fine printing one can find on them - which is true, I've had issues in this regard too). I'm using a professional-grade A3-size scanner (found on eBay for the princely sum of $100 - it's an older model, with a SCSI interface) - for scanning fold-out prints, the typical A4/8-1/2x11 scanner won't eat them whole. And of course OCR is a non-concept for prints. For manuals (text), on the other hand, 300 dpi is of course fine. Noel

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Sean Caron > I have found that even fairly fine detail reproduces okay with a 300 > DPI scan ... there's no need in scanning with extraneous bit depth and > then you start to get people complaining about file sizes I have found that one can generally have one's cake, and eat it too: if I scan at 600dpi in black and white, and then use "CCITT Group 4" compression, the resulting images (of prints) are ~200KB per page. Is that small enough? :-) Noel

10 years, 10 months

4
3
0 0

RLV11 Debugging

by bensinc＠gmail.com

Now that I (hopefully) have my PDP 11/23 running (it passes CPU and memory tests, anyway), I've been messing with my RLV11 so I can use my RL02. For a first step, I'm trying to run the VRLBC0 diskless diagnostic to check the controller. I checked that the address and vector switches are set to the defaults according to he manual, and also verified them with a multimeter. The manual says the default vector address is 330, though the diagnostics default to 160. I tried it both ways with the same result, though I should be on 330. I'm not actually sure what "BR LEVEL" refers to, so I left that at the default. This is a PDP 11/23 with an H-9273 backplane. I have the M8186, M8067, M8043, then the two RLV11 boards, M8013 and M8014, then an M8012. Here's a sample run. It appears to start, but never does anything else. If I give it a bad address it does complain, so I think I have the switches correct. Does anyone know what I might try next? Thanks! .R VRLBC0 VRLBC0.BIC DRSSM-G2 CVRLB-C-0 RLV12 DISKLESS UNIT IS RLV12, RLV11, OR RL11 RSTRT ADR 145702 DR>START CHANGE HW (L) ? Y # UNITS (D) ? 1 UNIT 0 RLV12 (L) Y ? N RLV11 (L) Y ? Y CSR ADDRESS (O) 174400 ? VECTOR (O) 160 ? 330 BR LEVEL (O) 4 ? CHANGE SW (L) ? Y ERROR LIMIT FOR AUTO-DROP (D) 0 ? ALL REMAINING QUERIES ARE FOR OPTIONAL (MANUFACTURING) G5388 TEST-LOOP-MODULE SET-UP. USE <^Z> TO BYPASS. G5388 TLM INSTALLED (L) N ? N MMU AVAILABLE MEMORY SIZE 124 KW 18 BIT ADDRESSING -- Ben Sinclair ben at bensinclair.com

10 years, 10 months

7
9
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Clearpoint DCME/Q4E configuration

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > DEC's memory boards never had any jumpers for PMI as such. Yes, and if you plug one of their PMI memory boards into a Q/Q backplane, it will emit magic smoke, too! :-) I think that's why this thing has the jumpers - to allow it to be used in a Q/Q backplane. It would, of course, only be normal (slower) QBUS memory, but at least one could use it there. However, I am unable to verify that hypothesis. (See below.) I looked at the jumpers along the edge in the C/D finger region, and a lot of them _do_ connect to pins used in the PMI bus. (Confusingly, a number connect to _other_ pins - I can see I have some detective work in front of me here!) However, that made it likely that the one that had jumpers on all those pins was configured for PMI use, so I rolled the dice, and tried plugging that board into a Q22/CD backplane, along with a KDJ11-B, and after a short bout of 'tired memory' (see my previous post), it did come up as a 4MB PMI memory! (Parity, though, not CRC - which might make sense, I guess - it has 148 memory chips on it, which is a multiple of 37, so 32 + byte parity, plus a spare chip, I would guess?) However, when I plugged the other one in - nada. No response at all; the boot PROM bitched about 'no memory at 0'. So I'm not sure _what_ that configuration is for. So then I took a flier (although the cards use the identical PCB, they do have a few minor differences in chip rev in a couple of the programmable chips), and put the jumper config from the working PMI card onto the other card, and it did 'sort of' come up as a PMI card. The boot PROM was complaining about "Memory CSR Error" (I'll have to investigate that further), _but_ the memory was shown (by the boot PROM 'map' command) as PMI, and my own memory-test program showed it was all working OK. Well, at least we have a jumper config that allows us to use these cards as PMI memory! Noel

10 years, 10 months

2
1
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Tired memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I've seen an odd phenomenon on some older QBUS memory boards I've got in. I can't understand it, and I'm wondering if anyone else has i) seen it, or ii) understand the cause. What happens is that the _first_ time I plug them in, some don't work - some (maybe all, sometimes) locations are mangling the data (I forget whether it's dropped or picked bits). Oh, and we're talking 4164's/41256's (or equivalents) here, for the actual devices. However, if I let them sit for a bit (powered off), and then try again, they work fine! I first experienced this phenomenon on some M8044's, which have on-board electrolytic filter caps, so I was guessing it was caused by some sort of noise caused by the caps not working, and after a little while powered on, the caps reformed, and things started to work. However, I just experienced the same phenomenon on a Clearpoint DCME/Q4E board - which doesn't have any electrolytic caps on it. So that can't be it. Anyone have any clue what's going on? (Oh, and of course, for others - if you buy and old memory board, and it doesn't work... don't immediately put it in the 'bad' pile, wait a bit, and try again. You might be seeing this.) Noel

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Help needed please re possible loss of a Burroughs B7800 CPU

by nw＠retroComputingTasmania.com

Hi Evan and others who might have been wondering, I managed to find out what happened to the Burroughs B7800 that was "under the stairs" at Monash university. The good news is that the interesting parts, namely the indicator panels, have been saved by the Monash Museum of Computing History. They also retrieved the VAX 11/780 that was there too, and it is now in storage.

10 years, 10 months

2
1
0 0

Freight recommendation for a teletype?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Hi John, A testament to the extraordinary community that is classiccmp. I will certainly take you up on it, and get you a check, and/or some of the other great junk lying around here. I'm pretty well equipped with a good electronics lab. Do you need a scope? I have a few Tektronix digital scopes and I cant possibly use them all. 100 MHz .... I'm not sure about the lockdown, I imagine when its undone the bolt is stored in a available hole inside, and possibly is still there. I will see what comes back from craters and freighters and UShip, the thing has to be taken off the pedestal and wrapped/banded onto a pallet. Let me know what you need, and hey, Thanks, Randy > Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 21:49:59 -0500 > To: rdawson16 at hotmail.com > From: jfoust at threedee.com > Subject: RE: Freight recommendation for a teletype? > > At 09:29 PM 8/17/2015, you wrote: > >123 N Washington St. Elkhorn WI 53121. > >I asked for a quote from Craters and Freighters, and the UShip site. > > I'm not sure if I can help, but I thought I'd chime in. > > I'm 45 minutes from there, 30 minutes if I'm at my fianc?e's place. > (Jefferson, WI and Janesville, WI, respectively.) > > I do have a friend with a loading dock and pallets and wrap. > > You do need to lock down the upper machinery with the shipping bolt > or it'll destroy itself, depending on the shipping method. > > I have a 33 and a 28, too. > > - John >

10 years, 10 months

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Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: drlegendre > Sigh.. and here I sit, yet again, with neither a logic analyzer I've bought Tek 1240's (which are really nice units, although of course without the capabilities of today's - but still a lot more powerful than the earliest LA's) on eBay for as little as $25 (albeit without leads), and I gather there are modern units which plug into a PC with a UCB port for not much more money. Yes, a lot of the older machines were built without benefit of them (pretty much all their builders had was 'scopes), but there are so many things where one cannot easily create a 'scope loop, and for investigating those, a logic analayzer is the perfect tool. It's just a critical tool to have if one is going to _repair_ old computers - only slightly less critical than a VOM. No ifs, ands or buts. Noel

10 years, 10 months

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Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

As the proud owner of an NtM Osborne 1 computer, courtesy of our own Jules Richardson (and another list member), I made no delay in opening the case to install a missing CPU. Jules was kind enough to let me know about the missing part prior to handing the old girl over to me. I'm sure you've already figured out what happened - unaware that the Z84C series was CMOS, that's what went into the Osborne's CPU socket. The machine came to life with a garbage display and howling on-board beeper. Tried resetting it a few times, all I got was more and different noise & garbage. That's when I shut down and did some reading - initially, I thought it might be a clock speed issue - sometimes 'faster' chips won't run at slower clock rates. What I did learn is that Z-80 were made in CMOS versions, and the Z84C is one. So what did I most likely do, here? Hose the CPU for sure? Collateral damage on the board? Both / Neither? As ever, it's what you don't get, that gets you.

10 years, 10 months

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SCSI Tape to TAP utility

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thanks Al, I downloaded the assembler just in case. And to Chuck's point, it always felt like the MSDN distribution was a poorly documented, disorganized mess. I was not impressed. The old Turbo C and new Watcom C are available freely for DOS 16 bit and people say very good things of both. Marc > From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> > >> On 08/14/2015 12:00 PM, Al Kossow wrote: >> >> last 16 bit compiler is visual C++ 1.52c >> >> also ran across MASM 8 >> >> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=12654 >> >> if you need it > Schizophrenic MS labeling. The C++ suite is 1.52c, but the compiler > identifies itself as 8.00c. Crazy. > > --Chuck

10 years, 10 months

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Anyone have a Lockheed SUE?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

think dcc made a fake dg nova also!? In a message dated 8/14/2015 8:24:14 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, aek at bitsavers.org writes: oops, it's actually a Digital Computer Controls DCC-112

10 years, 10 months

2
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Freight recommendation for a teletype?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

only think that worries me is some guy in the suv takes a liking to it and "opps" he says " someone took it when I was in the restaurant!" Ed# In a message dated 8/17/2015 4:25:49 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, rdawson16 at hotmail.com writes: Thanks Cory, I listed it with UShip, and will wait to see what happens. This was a great idea, I never heard of such a 'crowd-sourced' shipping service before. Randy > Subject: Re: Freight recommendation for a teletype? > From: coryheisterkamp at gmail.com > Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 17:33:38 -0500 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > > Randy, > > One option might be UShip. These are best transported laying down once the paper and tape spindles are removed and preferably, that shipping screws anchor down the chassis (though I have moved them without). With UShip, you set an asking price with parameters, such as blanket wrap, or covered shipping. Everyone from professionals to those with room to spare in their SUV can then ask questions, accept the terms, or counter-offer. They don't get paid until you've received the item and are satisfied. With items like this, I almost prefer a private individual rather than a professional (bulk) mover. -C > > > On Aug 17, 2015, at 5:26 PM, Randy Dawson wrote: > > > Hi Classiccmp, > > > > I just purchased a ASR 33 teletype and now stuck with the problem of getting it here, its in Wisconsin and I am in LA. > > > > Its pickup, the owner will not pack and ship. > > > > Do you know of a freight company that will put it on a pallet, band it with care and take care of the shipping? > > > > Randy > =

10 years, 10 months

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Speaking of Creating 5 1/4" floppies

by jws＠jwsss.com

I wonder if someone can help with a bit of a problem I have. I have a compaq portable 3 system which has a working Pick (Non dos) system on it. It has the 5 1/4" floppy drives on it. I am looking for a bootable floppy or 2 with something like dos 6.x on it and some utility that can read and write disk sectors. Preferably the latter is a nice gui program, but beggers can't be choosers. I need to boot it up from the floppy drive and modify the pick system dictionary to remove the main password. So the change to the system will be surgical, just one sector. If anyone can help, can you send me a note and let me know how I can compensate you for your help. If I really move crap around I may be able to find a system with the 5 1/4" floppies on it, but I'm not sure I could get a program onto the system then out to the 5 1/4" drive and am also looking for suggestions about what disk utility / editor might be useful if anyone has suggestions on that. I'll go ahead and dredge up something soon if I can't get help from somewhere. thanks Jim Stephens

10 years, 10 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 14, Issue 17

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 01:29:27 -0400 > From: Evan Koblentz <evan at snarc.net> > Subject: MARCH's Straight 8 restoration notes > > The RICM PDP-12 thread made me realize that I (nor I think David > Gesswein) ever posted our PDP-8 notes here. (We did post a link to the > Youtube video of the ceremony at VCF East.) > > Anyway, here are David's notes: > http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/slides/PDP-8_Restoration.html and also > his exhibit notes here: http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/vcfe15.shtml. > Evan, It is nice to see documented proof that we are not the only people crazy enough to attempt a restoration of a machine in that condition. The TU20 tape drive that came with the PDP-9 also had a unauthorized mouse upgrade, and several transistors fell off the flip-chips when we touched them. They were Germanium transistors so getting replacements was a challenge. Michael Thompson

10 years, 10 months

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Freight recommendation for a teletype?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Hi Classiccmp, I just purchased a ASR 33 teletype and now stuck with the problem of getting it here, its in Wisconsin and I am in LA. Its pickup, the owner will not pack and ship. Do you know of a freight company that will put it on a pallet, band it with care and take care of the shipping? Randy

10 years, 10 months

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MP3000's

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Anyone here pick up the two MP3000's on PublicSurplus for $99/ea?

10 years, 10 months

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No XT-IDE users?

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Wow, I know it's not a DEC PDP but I was hoping at least a few people used the darn thing. Would it be better if I post in VCF? Thanks for any input. -Ali

10 years, 10 months

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No XT-IDE users?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ali Fahimi > Wow, I know it's not a DEC PDP Hah! Don't feel too bad. I've lost count of the number of PDP-11 questions which I've brought here, only to hear a resounding silence (most recent case on point, my query about Clearpoint DCME/Q4E's). Noel

10 years, 10 months

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MARCH's Straight 8 restoration notes

by evan＠snarc.net

The RICM PDP-12 thread made me realize that I (nor I think David Gesswein) ever posted our PDP-8 notes here. (We did post a link to the Youtube video of the ceremony at VCF East.) Anyway, here are David's notes: http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/slides/PDP-8_Restoration.html and also his exhibit notes here: http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/vcfe15.shtml.

10 years, 10 months

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QIC-24 data analysis

by aek＠bitsavers.org

This looks like fun.. http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/2015/08/qic-24-tape-data-block-format-decod…

10 years, 10 months

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No XT-IDE users?

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Be fun to have identified controller for first ibm pc to demo it Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> Date: 08/16/2015 4:31 PM (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: No XT-IDE users? I don't have a need for it, yet anyway Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net On Aug 16, 2015 7:26 PM, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > On 08/16/2015 03:26 PM, Ali wrote: > >> Wow, I know it's not a DEC PDP but I was hoping at least a few people >> used the darn thing. Would it be better if I post in VCF? Thanks for >> any input. -Ali >> > > Probably.? I have both the original and the one (can't remember the name) > with the CPLD on it.? Both worked well for me--and I modified the original > to juggle the addressing bits to make the "Chuck mod". > > I've always used my own version of the BIOS; I've always felt that the > more elaborate BIOSes, while interesting and reflecting a lot of work, were > unnecessarily complicated. > > I"ll help if I can, but I haven't played much with the thing in a couple > of years+. > > --Chuck > > > >

10 years, 10 months

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LPSXX-AD NIB

by useddec＠gmail.com

I found several of these while digging. Any interest? Please contact me off list. Paul

10 years, 10 months

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WANTED: HP 3000

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

I worked on HP 3000 systems in the late '80s, and would like to find one for my collection. A series 42 would be nice, but a series 37 or micro XE would do. Any leads? I'm already aware of the one on Epay in Florida that's been sitting at $1,725 for the past year. I'm in central PA. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

10 years, 10 months

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WANTED: HP 3000

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Mike - this would be a good complete system for you Mike and good it has tapes. that may have the little cartridge drive in it too but beware the cartridge drives they seem to all have gummy capstans... I ruined a fos tape put it in... got error... pulled it out and looked like it was slimed with the 'black oil' like in x files! there is a work around for this though using some glue and rings on the capstan roller after you scrape the goo off. having the large tape drive is better anyway. like this unit has. Our aim here at SMECC is to get data off our old tapes fro the company days and also our bulletin board system we wrote that had 100 separate boards, email, voting and poll system multi user chat we let other 3000 system managers in the 80s use... it was really something in the pre-internet days. Mike - there should also be a full file of all the hp-3000 stuff that Marlys Nelson developed I always thought it would be fun to finally get a series 68 or 70 but... yikes the power bill would hit you and the cooling....Yikes! for the same reason we want a series II or III or CX for the museums display but to keep it under power 24/7 with a string of drives costs $$$ and especially when you consider the air conditioning ! I have a 37 cpu and a 50 meg drive but of course need recon fig it which means cold load tape as the other drives in the string are missing I can not it past the point of disavowing the other drives that do not exist. Fun time here with the manuals etc... I have not had my hands on A WORKING 3000 for over 22 years I think. A lot comes back but there are some head scratching still going on! OK have the cart tape drive with goo capstan and have reel to reel tape drive that when at initial power-up it just spins the reels. What do we need? spare cpu more little disk drives 50 meg will not hold the store set from 1986 Known good reel to reel hpib tape drives 1600 bpi ok as that is what our store set is in and any of the other reel to reel tape distributions contributions and found stuff was. I will keep an eyen out for east coast stuff for you and appreciate if you keep an eye out on west coast stuff for us! pretty fun with drop box we can share programs without having to ship tapes to each other! Ed Sharpe archaist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 8/15/2015 6:36:21 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, steerex at ccvn.com writes: Mike, I have a complete micro/37 that I'd be willing to part with. It was last booted about 2 years ago when another list member was trying to his a system running. Is is mounted in one of the short / narrow HP racks with 3x670H HPIB drives. I think the total disk size is about 1 Gb. That seems like a ton for a system that small. I also have a HPIB 7980 front loading tape drive, that I would include in the deal. AND... I have the original 9-track system tapes (FOS), some spare NOS tapes (let me know how many you'd like), the original MPE documents on CD, and I could probably dig up some MPE paper documentation as well. I am in western NC but could be coaxed into meeting you somewhere closer (possibly southern Virginia). I'll take an offer but, be warned, I'm not giving it away. Thanks, Steve Robertson steerex at ccvn.com On 8/14/2015 10:01 PM, Mike Loewen wrote: > > I worked on HP 3000 systems in the late '80s, and would like to find > one for my collection. A series 42 would be nice, but a series 37 or > micro XE would do. Any leads? I'm already aware of the one on Epay in > Florida that's been sitting at $1,725 for the past year. > > I'm in central PA. > > > Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us > Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ > -- Steve Robertson steerex at ccvn.com

10 years, 10 months

2
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Clearpoint DCME/Q4E configuration

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Hi, does anyone know anything about the configuration of these boards? (The document on BitSavers only covers the Q4B; the jumper configuration on the Q4E is totally different.) They are 4MB quad QBUS memory cards; PMI capable, I'm pretty sure. I have two of them, one of which came out of an 11/84 (I never saw it in the machine, though), and is so probably configured to run PMI. The thing is that I stupidly mixed it in with the other one, and now I don't know which one is which - and they are jumpered differently. It doesn't have to be full (or any) documentation; if someone had one they _knew_ was jumpered for, say, PMI operation, I could copy their jumper setup (or see if one of mine already had the same). If not, I'm going to start in on drawing a picture of all the jumpers, and see what QBUS/PMI pins they are all connected to - looking at the card, there's a big row of jumpers next to the pins the PMI is on, and the jumpers are all 'on' on one card, and all 'off' on the other, so I suspect the one card is jumpered for PMI operation, and the other, not. So, even if there no documentation extant at all, we should be able to more of less figure out what many of the jumpers do, and start making use of these cards. But any help/info would be gratefully received! Noel

10 years, 10 months

2
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docs or software for Quay 900 (uses Quay 90F/MPS board)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone happen to have documentation, schematics, or software for the Quay 900? It's a system based on the Quay 90F/MPS single-board Z80 computer and two MPI double-sided 8-inch floppy drives. The drives are MPI part no. 77618022, apparently a 9406 variant but not listed in the drive manual on Bitsavers. I suspect the pinout is close to the SA800/850 pinout (industry standard), but I was surprised to find that none of the variants in the 9406 manual have a pinout similar to that.

10 years, 10 months

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Still more Parts available: DEC, TI-990, and HP1000

by pfriedr＠gainbroadband.com

I've just added to yesterday's list of vintage computer items that need to find a good home. Details, part numbers, and descriptions can be found here: http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/hpfparts/hpfparts.htm Thank you to several classiccmp members who corrected my earlier post. Some of the parts I have listed are associated with PDP 11/23s, not 11/34s. 73 Pete AC7ZL

10 years, 10 months

1
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Free for Shipping

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

I have the following items that I want to get rid of. All are quantity one, except the Poqets. They are free for shipping cost from Chicago (ZIP 60659). I prefer to ship in the US, but will consider shipping internationally. Contact me directly at r_a_feldman at hotmail.com if you are interested in any of the items. Bob Irwin Accutrak A250EP-05 external parallel port tape drive HP Travan T1000e external parallel port tape drive Microsolutions Backpack 800TD Model 143010 external parallel port tape drive Archive 11250Q internal tape drive Mitsumi CD-ROM Drive 16-bit PC interface cardDauphin keyboard Compaq keyboard 2680KB (from a large 386 semi-portable) Zenith Number pad ZA-3034-NP Compaq LTE Lite 25 laptop w/power brick. Backlight bad, SRAM battery bad. Never had a hard drive. Toshiba external 3.5? floppy ZA1115 Dual internal PCMCIA card reader w/EISA PC adapter card (for Win95 and earlier) 2 broken Poqet PQ-161 portables. One has a US-made motherboard and might be a ?prototype?. Has NASA sticker on it. Both have broken screens, dinged cases and a few missing keys. One shows some reaction when turned on.

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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Analog to Digital Converter

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

I have a number of laboratory instruments that are from the 1990 time frame. They produce digital data that is the digitized signal from a detector, the data can be from 512 to 65K samples long. The ADC used in these instruments is a 16bit 100ksample/sec design. The ADC is in a 3 by 4 inch metal box with a row of pins on each long edge. I think some of them are failing because I get the full 16 bit resolution from one machine, but not the others. This was determined by taking the digital samples and sorting the values and computing the increments between the adjacent values. In some cases the output looked like 14 bit resolution and in one case 6 bit resolution. Does anyone have any experience with this ADC technology? Who was the manufacturer? (There is no id on the outside) What is inside the box? Is it a hybrid circuit? Doug

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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More DEC boards

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello Paul, I sent you an email, not sure if you received it, maybe antispam? Thanks Andrea

10 years, 10 months

2
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In Realtime: Saving 25,000 Manuals

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Liam Proven > Apologies if this is old news... Is this Manuals Plus? They said at the start of the year that they were going to close, and I bought a whole bunch of stuff, but then things seemed to go quiet. Noel

10 years, 10 months

2
1
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Booting an IBM MP 3000 S/390 System

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I spent some time today and made a video of my MP 3000 system booting up to z/OS. The video is here: http://youtu.be/WnJmeQR0GQU. Even though the video is about 9-1/2 minutes long, it takes longer than that to boot. I edited out some of the more boring bits. ;-) TTFN - Guy

10 years, 10 months

11
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DEC VAX parts and 11/34 System for sale

by pfriedr＠gainbroadband.com

I still have a bunch of vintage computer parts I'd like to find homes for. If you are interested either in components for a DEC VAX or in a PDP 11/34 embedded system complete with card cage, please visit my website for details and contact information. http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/hpfparts/hpfparts.htm I will be posting more items when these have been sold. Regards, Pete AC7ZL

10 years, 10 months

1
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SCSI Tape to TAP utility

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Well, Chuck, thanks a bunch, this is very useful and quite difficult code to write from scratch. How does one compile for DOS by the way (I have to admit I am too young to have ever tried), and get a copy of MSC 8.00C. Is the DOS compiler buried in some part of Visual Studio? I have some old versions dating back from Windows 95 time, when it was called Visual Studio 97... Marc >From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> >Subject: SCSI Tape to TAP utility >A couple of weeks ago, I offered to share the source and executable for >a SCSI tape-to-SIMH .TAP file utility for MSDOS. >To run it, you'll need an ASPI driver for your SCSI adapter. >It was compiled using MSC 8.00C. >Find it here: >https://www.dropbox.com/s/x6qiudlpyitgxom/STP2T02.ZIP?dl=0 >Enjoy, >Chuck

10 years, 10 months

3
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WANTED: HP 3000

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

and I am looking for west coast hp -3000's! Mike! Due to freight az or cal... for a 3000/37 or micro gear but would pay the big freight if it was a old series II or II or cx or precx or series 1 I spent most of my time on series 2 and 3 machines and although I do not have one currently I DO have the additional plug in front panel that shows ALL registers The CEs would use it in dire times.... actually one interface card is for CX and one card for hooking into a series II or Series III.. I am going to bring up the 37 to use Did not know you had 3000 background also we will have to talk more! Ed# www.smecc.org In a message dated 8/14/2015 7:02:05 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us writes: I worked on HP 3000 systems in the late '80s, and would like to find one for my collection. A series 42 would be nice, but a series 37 or micro XE would do. Any leads? I'm already aware of the one on Epay in Florida that's been sitting at $1,725 for the past year. I'm in central PA. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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8-E(s) in Illinois

by useddec＠gmail.com

While pulling parts for another list member my workers found another 8-E. I thought I had 2 in the area, but who knows. Anyway, if you are going to Chicago (VCF) I'm almost 3 hours south of there, but I have several list members who plan on stopping by before or after and might be willing to deliver or get it closer for the right price. I had already planned on selling one, so now I actually have 2. Both are 8-E boxes, H724(I think) power supply, a single omnibus backplane, a switch panel, silkscreen, one has white bezel. They do not have :keys, cover (or lid), slides. I can configure the boards to anything within reason, but I suggest you go with the mos board or kit available on the list. Core is getting expensive. Please contact me off list with questions. Thanks, Paul

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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Anyone have a Lockheed SUE?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I turned up some CPU info on it, which I uploaded to bitsavers/lockheed/sue Dumps of the programmable parts on the CPU would be nice if anyone has one.

10 years, 10 months

4
6
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Slightly OT: XT-IDE

by afahimi＠fahimienterprises.com

Hello All, I've been trying to help a friend of mine get his XT-IDE (DP ver 2 board) up and running to boot a HDD in an IBM 8525. It is a bit difficult since he is across the country but we have made progress. However, we still cannot get the system to boot. The card is recognized by the system, the boot menu comes up. At first we could not get it to find a HDD. However, after a bunch of trial error we were able to get the drive to be recognized. We booted w/ a DOS 6.22 disk, ran fdisk /mbr, and everything seems to have completed but after reboot the HDD will not format. Checking with fdisk shown no partition info at all. The XT-IDE is the only card in the system, booting from floppies is fine with no issues. We also have gotten a 1h error at times. Finally, to rule out the HDD as an issue we tried to boot using the serial connection. The card is seen by the server but when we attempt to boot again we get a 1h error. Config info as follows: ide_xt.bin: v2.0.0B3 (2013-03-02) Full Operating Mode: No IDE Controllers: 1 Power Management: Disabled Device Type: XTIDE r1 Base Address: 300h Control Block: 308h Master & Slave Settings: Block Mode Transfers: Yes CHS Translation: Auto Internal Write Cache: Disabled User Specified CHS/LBA: No Boot Settings: Display Mode: Default Number of Floppy Dr.: Auto Scan for Serial Drives: No Default Boot Drive: 80h The BIOS chip is an amtel http://www.atmel.com/images/doc0270.pdf EEPROM type: 2864 SDP: Enable Page Size: 1 byte EEPROM Address: D000h Generate Checksum byte: Yes At this point I am stumped. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. -Ali

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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GRiD Compass power supply information

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Hi folks, I picked up an 1101 GRiDcompass with no power supply. I'd like to attempt a retrofit. Does anyone know what voltages are in play? I'm specifically worried about the EL panel and want to know if the high voltages for it are produced in the PSU itself, or the panel. Any information, or leads on a spare power supply are appreciated. Failing that, I'll start reverse engineering the PSU in my other 1101- they're just a pain to work on. - Ian -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 10 months

2
1
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E-mail Archives Was: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > You can find a discussion about it in the archives (well, actually, you > can't). > Which reminds me.. > The archive have never come back to http://www.classiccmp.org/lists.html Ah, which archives are we speaking of? The CCTalk archives? If so, I've been hosting an 'un-official' copy of the archives from March '97 to January '05 here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/cctalk/ and they should be in Google by now. I do have copies here of the archives from February '05 to Oct '14 (partial), which were wiped out in the big list failure last fall (I forget where I got them from), but they are not on-line. I think there was some talk of them coming back at the main site, but if that's not going to happen, I'd be happy to add them to the collection here. The actual conversion from mail archives to web pages (for the '97 to '05 archives) was performed by john_a_s2004 at hotmail.com (thanks, John!), and I don't have the code to do the transmogrification. I had enquired about doing the rest of the archives, but I didn't hear back. If there is significant interest in having them online too, I _could_ write new code to spit out the relevant HTML message and index files. Should I do so? Noel

10 years, 10 months

4
4
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More DEC boards

by useddec＠gmail.com

Well, here's another update on my never ending/ always changing list of quad and hex boards. These are all M7xxx, and the M8xxx should be done in a week or so. There are a few boards here I will be using myself, But I am planning on selling off about 80% of my DEC equipment. All is located in zip 61853 and most is shipable. There are a lot of boards to go through yet, and this list does not show any PDP8 parts or industrial control, but feel free to inquire. There are still some DEC things I am willing to trade for, but I also collect US, Great Britain, and Canadian and other coins, boy scout items, and from our English members or anyone else who knows what it is, Doulton, mostly Lambeth. Old microscopes, and almost anything Zeiss. Cash always works. Please contact me off list. https://doc-0s-6g-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/o60568klv0gtnika…

10 years, 10 months

6
12
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IMSAI VDP-80 documentation?

by santo.nucifora＠gmail.com

Today I am taking delivery of an IMSAI VDP-80 and am very happy to have found one. This helps fill in my IMSAI collection. While it comes with some disks (and I can deal with restoring the Persci drives), it comes with no documentation. I do want to restore it to working condition. I also have a PCS-80/30 that, I believe, shares some of the cards but not all and have the documentation for that one. Would anyone have any IMSAI VDP-80 documentation they can share? There doesn't appear to be any online; at least in the usual places. Thanks, Santo

10 years, 10 months

3
2
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Wang PC260 memory fault

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

Hi List, So a good friend of mine recently resurrected his childhood 286 Wang PC260 after I suggested he replace the keyboard controller. In the 14 or so years it's been unused, it has developed a memory fault in one of the conventional memory banks. The memory is soldered to the board so we're looking for anything that might assist in tracking down the dud memory IC. He can get it to boot if the memory size is set to 256kB, so I'm guessing the second 256kB bank is bad. Is there software that exists that can identify individual dead or faulty memory IC's, or at least the corresponding bit(s) which may not be working? According to Dr. Google, this machine was built by Tandy for Wang. Perhaps there's a Tandy diagnostic disk that'll work with it, or better yet a Wang diagnostic disk. (I'm wondering if this question has been asked/answered before too) Cheers, Alexis.

10 years, 10 months

3
2
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Help needed to read 5.2GB DVD-RAM Type 1 cartridges - UK

by PeksaDO＠cardiff.ac.uk

Can anyone help with this - A colleague (doing voluntary work) is trying to retrieve data archived on cartridges as per subject. Does anyone have a drive he can borrow or buy; can someone read them for him etc? If anyone can help, e-mail me directly and I'll put you in touch. Have seen a couple of drives on ebay.com but none on ebay.co.uk. As per my e-mail address, Cardiff area. Note - I read cctalk in digest mode. TIA. Doug.

10 years, 10 months

1
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And speaking of ALGOL

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

I assure you Chuck, I do know the original B5500 ALGOL having written my first program on one. For those of you who might be interested, I sent a listing of the B6700 ALGOL compiler source code to the CHM. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Burroughs extensions to ALGOL to optimise|ize the use of the native string instructions.

10 years, 10 months

7
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R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by supervinx＠libero.it

Older DOS utils like IMD or TELEDISK knew better about 8" disks and precompression, directly accessing the controller. If the Supercard software has been written with no 8" disks support it will be hard to manage writes correctly. My two cents -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: supervinx <supervinx at libero.it> Data:13/08/2015 08:28 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro He told me there's no Linux support. I should try Keirf's utils or access the hardware with a serial connection. May be I could try the Supercard in a VM. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: supervinx <supervinx at libero.it> Data:13/08/2015? 08:25? (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro Hi! A bit OT. I tried the fdadap card successfully reading and writing SD and DD disks, together with a standard ISA controller. Had to try a bit, since not every disk controller manages SD writes.? So the FDADAP should be ok, and the problems lie on the Supercard side. I contacted the Supercard guy, in order to know if there's a Linux support. I've no windows machines, only some specialized DOS one. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Data:13/08/2015? 04:46? (GMT+01:00) A: cctalk at classiccmp.org Oggetto: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out.? Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842.? I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task.? Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 10 months

2
1
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R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by supervinx＠libero.it

He told me there's no Linux support. I should try Keirf's utils or access the hardware with a serial connection. May be I could try the Supercard in a VM. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: supervinx <supervinx at libero.it> Data:13/08/2015 08:25 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro Hi! A bit OT. I tried the fdadap card successfully reading and writing SD and DD disks, together with a standard ISA controller. Had to try a bit, since not every disk controller manages SD writes.? So the FDADAP should be ok, and the problems lie on the Supercard side. I contacted the Supercard guy, in order to know if there's a Linux support. I've no windows machines, only some specialized DOS one. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Data:13/08/2015? 04:46? (GMT+01:00) A: cctalk at classiccmp.org Oggetto: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out.? Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842.? I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task.? Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by supervinx＠libero.it

Hi! A bit OT. I tried the fdadap card successfully reading and writing SD and DD disks, together with a standard ISA controller. Had to try a bit, since not every disk controller manages SD writes.? So the FDADAP should be ok, and the problems lie on the Supercard side. I contacted the Supercard guy, in order to know if there's a Linux support. I've no windows machines, only some specialized DOS one. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Data:13/08/2015 04:46 (GMT+01:00) A: cctalk at classiccmp.org Oggetto: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out.? Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842.? I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task.? Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Naked minis

by useddec＠gmail.com

I was having problems sending these to some members, so i'm trying to post them. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2MOaRm-6XKNfkxxZ0ZMZldZUGh0SjVMWHA…

10 years, 10 months

1
0
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Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I forgot to mention one item. Since I had VERY few Double Sided media with the index hole offset that extra 1/2" from the Single Sided index hole - and I have many RX02 compatible floppy media which are Single Sided with the index hole in the wrong place for being a Double Sided media - I added a DPDT switch to the sense circuit of the DSD 880/30 drive. In the normal position, the Single Sided floppy media are detected as Single Sided floppy media. In the opposite position, a Single Sided floppy media is detected as Double Sided and the DSD 880/30 is then able to read / write both sides of the floppy media. Since the DSD 880/30 is also able to perform a LLF (Low Level Format), I am able to use all of the RX02 media as Double Sided WITHOUT the inconvenience of having to punch the extra index hole. >Jerome H. Fine wrote: > >Josh Dersch wrote: > >> Here at the museum I'm evaluating the use of a SuperCard Pro >> (http://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCP) to archive and >> duplicate 8" floppies from various machines. It's not technically >> supported (the manual states that it *should* work but has not been >> tested, etc.) The disks I'm reading are nothing exotic (They're >> standard double-density, double-sided disks with an IBM format -- I >> could use a PC and ImageDisk to do the job, but the SuperCard is very >> convenient, in theory...) >> >> Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but >> less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair >> of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP >> (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 >> signals. (And the 851s are jumpered properly for the TG43 signal, as >> far as I can tell). I've also tried a variety of media (Verbatim, >> Maxell) with the same results (though the position of the bad data >> varies from attempt to attempt). >> >> The issue is that upon reading back a disk that has been written via >> the SuperCard, data is fine up until about cylinder 60, at which >> point bad sectors start appearing more and more frequently (though >> most of the data is still OK). I tried disabling TG43 just to see if >> it made a difference, and it does - with TG43 disabled sectors >> written past cylinder 43 read back as garbage. >> >> I'm running short of ideas. Anyone else have any experience with >> this combo? Any suggestions on troubleshooting tips? > > I doubt that this suggestion will help, but it might be > useful for what are called RX03 compatible media. > > The RX02 drive from DEC was emulated in hardware > by DSD (Data Systems Design). DSD Produced a > drive which was named the DSD 880/30 which consisted > of 3 * RL02 internal drives and a single floppy drive which > could read IBM Single Density and DEC Double Density > floppy media. The DEC names for those two floppy media > were RX01 and RX02. The actual DEC RX02 drive was > able to read in both Single Density and Double density modes. > In the case of the DEC RX01 and DEC RX02 drives, they > were both Single Sided. Further DEC did at one point intend > to support a Double Sided drive which I understand was to > be called the DEC RX03, but it was never released that I > ever heard about. The software support was specifically > included in V04.00 of RT-11 in the file DY.MAC, but was > probably never tested since the code was incorrect. By > V05.00 of RT-11, DY.MAC no longer contained the extra > code to support Double Sided media. > > DSD extended the support and the DSD 880/30 contained > an RX03 compatible drive which could read Double Density > Double Sided media. What I don't know is IF the physical > characteristics of the Double Density media which DEC and > DSD supported are identical to the Double Density physical > characteristics of the floppy media to which you refer as having > "an IBM format" since I have never encountered any floppy > media from IBM other than Single Sided / Single Density. > > To make matters simple IF the floppy media which you have > are compatible with DEC RX02 Double Density format, then > with the DSD RX03 floppy drive, I extended the DY.MAC > file for RT-11 and it now supports reading a Double Sided / > Double Density floppy mounted in a DSD RX03 drive. If > you can manage to locate a DSD 880/30 and controller to > run on a DEC PDP-11/73 with RT-11, then I can make the > DYX.SYS device driver available. To first make sure that > everything will work with the DSD 880/30, you can test your > floppy to see if a DEC RX02 can at least read the first side of > your floppy. > > Please let me know if you know the answer to if your Double > Sided / Double Density floppy media are DEC RX02 compatible > on at least the first side. If that is true, then the DSD 880/30 > drive will probably be able to read both sides very easily. > > If you have any questions, please ask. > > Jerome Fine

10 years, 10 months

5
10
0 0

Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task. Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by JoshD＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

Here at the museum I'm evaluating the use of a SuperCard Pro (http://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCP) to archive and duplicate 8" floppies from various machines. It's not technically supported (the manual states that it *should* work but has not been tested, etc.) The disks I'm reading are nothing exotic (They're standard double-density, double-sided disks with an IBM format -- I could use a PC and ImageDisk to do the job, but the SuperCard is very convenient, in theory...) Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. (And the 851s are jumpered properly for the TG43 signal, as far as I can tell). I've also tried a variety of media (Verbatim, Maxell) with the same results (though the position of the bad data varies from attempt to attempt). The issue is that upon reading back a disk that has been written via the SuperCard, data is fine up until about cylinder 60, at which point bad sectors start appearing more and more frequently (though most of the data is still OK). I tried disabling TG43 just to see if it made a difference, and it does - with TG43 disabled sectors written past cylinder 43 read back as garbage. I'm running short of ideas. Anyone else have any experience with this combo? Any suggestions on troubleshooting tips? Thanks, Josh Sr. Vintage Software Engineer Living Computer Museum www.livingcomputermuseum.org<http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org>

10 years, 10 months

8
12
0 0

Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I forgot to mention one item. Since I had VERY few Double Sided media with the index hole offset that extra 1/2" from the Single Sided index hole - and I have many RX02 compatible floppy media which are Single Sided with the index hole in the wrong place for being a Double Sided media - I added a DPDT switch to the sense circuit of the DSD 880/30 drive. In the normal position, the Single Sided floppy media are detected as Single Sided floppy media. In the opposite position, a Single Sided floppy media is detected as Double Sided and the DSD 880/30 is then able to read / write both sides of the floppy media. Since the DSD 880/30 is also able to perform a LLF (Low Level Format), I am able to use all of the RX02 media as Double Sided WITHOUT the inconvenience of having to punch the extra index hole. >Jerome H. Fine wrote: > >Josh Dersch wrote: > >> Here at the museum I'm evaluating the use of a SuperCard Pro >> (http://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCP) to archive and >> duplicate 8" floppies from various machines. It's not technically >> supported (the manual states that it *should* work but has not been >> tested, etc.) The disks I'm reading are nothing exotic (They're >> standard double-density, double-sided disks with an IBM format -- I >> could use a PC and ImageDisk to do the job, but the SuperCard is very >> convenient, in theory...) >> >> Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but >> less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair >> of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP >> (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 >> signals. (And the 851s are jumpered properly for the TG43 signal, as >> far as I can tell). I've also tried a variety of media (Verbatim, >> Maxell) with the same results (though the position of the bad data >> varies from attempt to attempt). >> >> The issue is that upon reading back a disk that has been written via >> the SuperCard, data is fine up until about cylinder 60, at which >> point bad sectors start appearing more and more frequently (though >> most of the data is still OK). I tried disabling TG43 just to see if >> it made a difference, and it does - with TG43 disabled sectors >> written past cylinder 43 read back as garbage. >> >> I'm running short of ideas. Anyone else have any experience with >> this combo? Any suggestions on troubleshooting tips? > > I doubt that this suggestion will help, but it might be > useful for what are called RX03 compatible media. > > The RX02 drive from DEC was emulated in hardware > by DSD (Data Systems Design). DSD Produced a > drive which was named the DSD 880/30 which consisted > of 3 * RL02 internal drives and a single floppy drive which > could read IBM Single Density and DEC Double Density > floppy media. The DEC names for those two floppy media > were RX01 and RX02. The actual DEC RX02 drive was > able to read in both Single Density and Double density modes. > In the case of the DEC RX01 and DEC RX02 drives, they > were both Single Sided. Further DEC did at one point intend > to support a Double Sided drive which I understand was to > be called the DEC RX03, but it was never released that I > ever heard about. The software support was specifically > included in V04.00 of RT-11 in the file DY.MAC, but was > probably never tested since the code was incorrect. By > V05.00 of RT-11, DY.MAC no longer contained the extra > code to support Double Sided media. > > DSD extended the support and the DSD 880/30 contained > an RX03 compatible drive which could read Double Density > Double Sided media. What I don't know is IF the physical > characteristics of the Double Density media which DEC and > DSD supported are identical to the Double Density physical > characteristics of the floppy media to which you refer as having > "an IBM format" since I have never encountered any floppy > media from IBM other than Single Sided / Single Density. > > To make matters simple IF the floppy media which you have > are compatible with DEC RX02 Double Density format, then > with the DSD RX03 floppy drive, I extended the DY.MAC > file for RT-11 and it now supports reading a Double Sided / > Double Density floppy mounted in a DSD RX03 drive. If > you can manage to locate a DSD 880/30 and controller to > run on a DEC PDP-11/73 with RT-11, then I can make the > DYX.SYS device driver available. To first make sure that > everything will work with the DSD 880/30, you can test your > floppy to see if a DEC RX02 can at least read the first side of > your floppy. > > Please let me know if you know the answer to if your Double > Sided / Double Density floppy media are DEC RX02 compatible > on at least the first side. If that is true, then the DSD 880/30 > drive will probably be able to read both sides very easily. > > If you have any questions, please ask. > > Jerome Fine

10 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

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