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

chiclassiccomp.org was Re: Mysterious website

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

I guess they didn't have permission and had to take it down. I'm sorry I know this is off topic, but why did the Atari group call themselves SCAT!?! >from the site: ============================================================== Chicago Classic Computing! A mailing list for classic/vintage computing collectors and enthusiasts in the Chicago, Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana area. Everything from 8-bit game consoles to the Big Iron is welcome. Subscribe to chiclassiccomp * * * VINTAGE COMPUTER FESTIVAL MIDWEST 2009 - MORE INFO SOON! * * * Documents Videos Local Clubs and Lists SCAT - Suburban Chicago ATarians Chicago Area Timex/Sinclair Users Group Glenside Color Computer Club (Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer) SWRAP - Chicago's Commodore Group Since 1983

17 years, 2 months

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Collection to go in San Antonio, TX - repost, now free/pick-up

by mtapley＠swri.edu

All, My friend John Gold has still got a respectable collection in San Antonio that needs to not be his. Surely somebody with a storage shed and a van wants to come by and collect this? He'd like it to all go at once, and not to the dumpster, but I think you can work with him on partial deals. I think at this point the price is "come get it". John can be contacted at: jhgold at stic.net Sorry to pester y'all again with this, but some of the gear in here really looks to me to be worth preserving, and John hasn't got the space to do it. ---------------- Computers IBM 5324 large old work station/main frame HP Pavilion 7370V IBM Power Server 320 Type 7012 Macintosh Power PC G3 M4405 233MHz w/ keyboard & mouse Apple 3 CompuAdd 212 Model A002 Leading Edge DC-3010 PC Clone Tall Tower Eltech desktop clone PC Clone mini tower CompuAdd 325 Desktop Dell Dimension XPS M200S Dell Optiplex GXi Sanyo MBC 550 NEC Power Mate V466 Toshiba T1000 Laptop (2) w/ parts Toshiba T1000SE Laptop (2) NEC Multi Speed Laptop Laser 128 Laptop/Portable Computer IBM PC single 360K w/ HDD 5150 w/ keyboard IBM AT clone NEC Ready 466ES NEC Power Mate 286 AT&T Complete system w/ monitor & keyboard AT&T Box (2) Model 6300 CPU1Z & CPU2 w/ 1 keyboard Compaq Presario 4550 mini tower Atari 400 w/ Cassette drive 410 IBM PS-2 Model 30 8530-001 IBM PS-2 Model 30 286 8530-U21 Packard Bell Legend 300SX 386SX-16 Compaq Prolinea MT4/66 tower GTE Government systems desktop Gateway P4D-66 Monitors IBM terminal 3151 RS-232 & printer ports (2) Atari SC1224 IBM 8513-001 SVGA Zenith Data Systems ZCM 1450DT IBM 5153 CGA Apple 3 monochrome XTRON RTB Technologies CM147E CompuAdd MCH 4095N (1989) WYSE WY50 terminal w/ keyboard Dell VM1 mono (1990) Samsung MA2565 (1989) Packard Bell PB1272A (1988) Standard MCH4095N (1988) IBM 5081-16 Composite Video (1990) Sysdyne CGA (IBM clone) AES SVGA (1996) Samtron SVGA (1989) IBM Terminal 3164-11 (1992) NEC Multisync XV14 IBM 6405301 Serial monitor in box IBM 3164 serial terminal w/ base CompuAdd SVGA 51086 (1990) Magnavox Computer Monitor 80 video only Visual 120 Serial terminal w/ keyboard NEC MultiSync JC-1401 P3A 13" (1986) NEC MultiSync 3D NEC MultiSync 3V Printers HP Desk Jet 500 Star NX-10 Dot Matrix Panasonic Quiet KX-P2180 Epson LQ570 Dot Matrix Star NX-1000 Multi font w/ box Texas Instruments Microlaser Pro E Epson LQ-1000 Wide Carriage Dot Matrix Qume Daisy Wheel w/ extra wheels and print cartridge Kodak Personal Portable Diconix 180si Miscellaneous IBM Keyboards (5) Canon Personal Copier PC-3 w/toner cartridges Seiko Digitizer Tablets (3) IBM SCSI drives 7204-001, 7207-001, 7210-001 EXABYTE SCSI tape drive CI Designs SCSI peripheral box / in box IBM PC case 5150 IBM XT case 5160 Musek scanner (no photo) Memorex scanner (no photo) IBM Keyboard??, 5015715, in box, never opened BK Precision 2040 CB Signal Generator Arnet serial expansion board, with software and cables HP 1611A Logic State Analyzer for Z80? Gould K105D Logic Analyzer for Z80? Various keyboards, internal cards, Creative Labs CD drives and Sound Blasters TRS-80 Printer Cassette interface for PC-2 (2) TI-74 Basic Calc hand held computer NEC Versa docking station, in box , never used. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

17 years, 2 months

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Telnet access to classic mainframe/timesharing systems

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 29 Jun 2009, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > From: Michael Kerpan <mjkerpan at kerpan.com> > Subject: Telnet access to classic mainframe/timesharing systems > What about various lesser-known systems? Given that most > people used these systems through remote terminals to begin with, a > public access system would seem to be an ideal way to experience them, > but how many of them are available in such a way? Mine is too old, no serial connection, no operating system, not even an operator terminal. Bootstrap from drum and read 80 column punched cards. I have modified the bootstrap to read from paper tape and I have now got a bit bashing serial link which uses 100% of the CPU to make it work - no time to service any terminals though, no interrupts and no multi-programming capabilities. It would be nice to see a ICT/ICL 1900 online one day. The first machine I used was an IBM 7094. We punched our cards, they were taken to London and next week we got our listing back saying syntax error on line 1. Roger ICT 1301 mainframe (1962)

17 years, 2 months

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A plan for a "universal" low-pin-count programmer

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, I know a few folks here (besides myself) have accumulated collections of older-generation (i.e. "obsolete") fuse-PROMs, GALs, PALs, and so on. A common complaint is that modern programmers won't touch these devices -- negative voltages (sometimes very high negative voltages) are required to program some of them, and for others the programming hardware just wasn't tested with them. In my experience, when confronted with the fact that their programmers don't actually work, most programmer manufacturers seem to respond by asking why you're even thinking about using 1702 EPROMs in their programmer, and sooner-or-later admit that they actually didn't test them on anything more recent than a programmer they last sold in the late 1980s, and that they "just ported the software across and thought it would work". So what I'm proposing is this. A completely open-sourced device programmer. That is, all the hardware designs, PCB layouts, software and firmware are (or at least will be) completely open. My "rough feature set" boils down to: * Single input power supply -- probably 24V DC. Fed from a normal mains adapter. I'm tempted to use 12V DC instead, and live with the higher current consumption -- my only spare 24V PSU is a massive 600W Nemic-Lambda dual-fan unit that makes a sound not unlike that of a mid-sized jet aircraft. 12V 2A power supplies are a bit more plentiful... * Two programmable positive power supplies, all variable between around 2V and ~24V (or higher if need be). Maybe add a third if necessary (for ECL maybe?) * Two programmable negative power supplies, variable between -2V and -50V. Meaning you can program 1702s with it. * 24, 32 or 40 individually-programmable pin drivers. More or less if you like -- add or remove a few pin drivers. I think the upper maximum is likely to be around 64 pins, based on typical CPLD pin counts. * Modular design -- one interface controller (computer -> driver interface), swappable power supply boards, pin count can be increased in 8-pin blocks by adding more pin drivers (or boards can be swapped to troubleshoot driver issues). There is one obvious limitation here -- you need the programming algorithm for the chip you want to program. The algorithms for MMI PALs are (I've been told) in their databook, the Signetics algorithms (for fuse-PROMs) are just as easy to find, and TI put their TIBPAL programming algorithms on their website. Things like Lattice GALs might be difficult, unless you could live with using an "unofficial" programming algorithm (*cough* GALBlast). I suppose you could reverse-engineer an algorithm from a working programmer and a minimum of two blank chips, but I suspect something like the GAL algorithm (in complexity) might be somewhat tricky to reverse-engineer. Does anyone (besides me) think this is a worthy endeavour? At the moment I'm thinking of using FET-based pin-drivers (lower pin count and voltage drop, potentially faster switching) and MC34063-based switch-mode PSUs. The control interface will likely be USB, possibly based on a Cypress EZ-USB FX2LP chip -- the advantage being that the firmware is stored in the MCU's RAM (uploaded from the PC on startup), so no PIC, AVR or 8051 programmer is required. Unless anyone has any other comments or suggestions? Cheers, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

17 years, 2 months

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Diskless Vaxstation 2000 (was Re: PDP-11/23 H786 PSU Fault Finding)

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > While I've seen it, I haven't used one myself (thus can't > check > details) - all of my uV/VS2000 boxes have drives. Thanks for pointing that out; I'd forgotten about the load board and the 12V situation. That's the first thing to try, loading up the +5V line. I'd be so happy if that's all it is. I have the exact opposite situation - my VS2000 is driveless and has the load board in it. I can't seem to keep an RD5x drive running long enough to install anything on it these days. I did try to get it to run OpenVMS 7.3 diskless at one point but to no avail. Perhaps they were never meant to ? I didn't spend long looking at it. -Dave

17 years, 2 months

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Mysterious website

by spedraja＠ono.com

Someone knows about this website ? http://chiclassiccomp.org It appears to be one website named 'Chicago Classic Computing' and mentions VCF 2009, but is accesible actually only using Google cached webpages. In appeareance has a repository of documents, being some of them Altos related. I'm actually searching all what I can obtain related with this firm and products. Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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Telnet access to classic mainframe/timesharing systems

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------Original Message: Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:57:52 -0700 From: Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> > From: Michael Kerpan > Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:51 AM > I'd be interested to know what's out there vis a vis classic systems > that are on the Internet offering public access. Currently, I know of > twenex.org (emulated KL-10B DECSYSTEM-20 with Panda TOPS-20), > pdpplanet.com (a TOAD-1 with TOPS-20, a DECSYSTEM-10 2065 and a VAX > 780) and cray-cyber.org (an emulated CDC Cyber plus a rotating > selection of historic super computers on weekends), but is there > anything else? Is anybody running classic versions of UNIX (UCB-era > BSD, AT&T-era System III/V, V6/V7, etc) Is anybody running a public > IBM system? What about various lesser-known systems? Given that most > people used these systems through remote terminals to begin with, a > public access system would seem to be an ideal way to experience them, > but how many of them are available in such a way? Among our next projects at the PDPplanet site (which will be changing names soon) are a PDP-8/e running either TSS/8 or MULTOS, and a PDP-11/45 running Unix v7. We will announce their availability here as well as other well- known fora for vintage/classic computing. Rich Alderson --------------Reply: Well, I've had a Cromemco running Cromix with two ports on the Internet a few times just as a proof of concept, and could put UNIX V or V.2 on it as well I suppose, but I thought there are already UNIX systems out there and Cromix would actually be more interesting; yeah, that's how they were used all right; I still have a few of the 1200bd modems...;-) I've only got dial-up access for it which makes it a little awkward, so I've been trying to talk some fellow Cromemco owners with hi-speed to put one up as a BBS system, but no takers so far... Unfortunately Howard Harte (who's done amazing stuff with the SIMH emulator) hasn't quite got a Cromix emulation finished. How would you tell the difference? Sort of the modern Turing Test: is it the real machine or an emulation... mike

17 years, 2 months

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OT Names was Re: chiclassiccomp.org was Re: Mysterious website

by marvin＠west.net

> On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 10:44, Chuck Guzis<cclist at sydex.com> wrote: >> > On 29 Jun 2009 at 10:27, Patrick Finnegan wrote: >> > >>> >> I'm haven't yet figured out if it's a sick joke, or if someone just >>> >> didn't realize that it's a bad name to use. >> > >> > Happens more often than you'd think. ?Long ago, a friend decided to >> > call his company "Tripas" (a variant spelling of "Tri-pass"). ?After >> > the corporate name had been registered, the janitorial crew informed >> > him that they thought it was funny--apparently it's Spanish ?for >> > entriails ?(tripe). > > Up here in Canada, the Reform party briefly renamed itself the > "Conservative Reform Alliance" Party: CRAP > > That lasted all of two days, IIRC. Anyone remember the eBay marketing promotion, "Do It eBay"? I still love it ... Do It eBay, short for DIE!

17 years, 2 months

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D'oh - Re: PDP-11/23 H786 PSU Fault Finding

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

> On 6/29/09, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> > > My first question is 'do you have enough load on the > 5V line?'. If you > > don't, the chopper circuit is running very 'lightky', > and probably the > > 12V side isn't getting enough power to work properly. > I've certainly had > > DEC supplies where the 12V output is low untill I > loaded the 5V output. --- On Mon, 6/29/09, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:> > There's a load-board for the uVAX2000/VS2000 box for use if > you don't > have an internal hard drive.? AFAIK, that's why it's > needed - to > ensure enough load on the +5V line for the +12V regulator > to work. Well, as both Tony and Ethan noted, you do indeed have to load the +5V line up before the +12V line will regulate properly. I put a low wattage automotive turn signal bulb across the +5V line and the +12V line jumped right back to where it should be. Many thanks. I can now reassemble the 11/23 and get it back in the rack. Don't you love it when stuff works ! Now I just have to fix that RLV12... -Dave

17 years, 2 months

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MS Basic Interpreter and Compiler for Xenix Personal Computers

by spedraja＠ono.com

Well, finally came the time to install one find from over a couple of years ago: Five floppies with the MS Basic Interpreter and Compiler for Personal Computers running Xenix 286. I plan to install it in the Altos 586. The software don't have special indications about the SCO Xenix or so. The worst that could happen is that it don't work. But I plan to do some disk images of the floppies previously with Imagedisk. The Xenix default for installation is /dev/fd048ds9 Some conseils ? By the way, no problem to make them available in one of the well known repositories of people in this list. I don't have actually web site and storage for them. I suppose that the prosecution of this copy is not the main objective of BG or SB from MS actually having in mind how is raining in the world at date. In fact, if BG is suscribed to this list (who knows, with the tribe of spammers out of the walls which try to enter in the Fort everyday) I have no problem to send him a copy... I would be VERY surprised if even MS could have a copy of this stuff. Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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Diskless Vaxstation 2000 (was Re: PDP-11/23 H786 PSU Fault Finding)

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> wrote: > Is there enough memory in the system to bring up the > network? I'll pull it off the shelf and check what's installed. Memory sounds like a good place to start. -Dave

17 years, 2 months

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Diskless Vaxstation 2000 (was Re: PDP-11/23 H786 PSU Fault Finding)

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> wrote: > > I've clusterbooted a Vaxstation 2000 before. Ah - good to know. I'll take another look at it in due course. I'd like to have it up and running. As I recall it would hang while attempting to join the cluster but it's been a couple of years and I don't remember where exactly. -Dave

17 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/23 H786 PSU Fault Finding

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

Can anyone offer any guidance on an 11/23 switchmode power supply I'm attempting to repair ? It failed in use and started blowing fuses. I diagnosed a failed bridge rectifier in the primary side and replaced it. That resolved the problem with the fuses blowing. However, when I monitor the +12V line, I can see it peak around +11.5V on power up and then it slowly sags (off-load), all the way down to +4.5V over a period of a few minutes. With a small dummy load connected the 12V line drops down to 4.5V in a matter of less than a second. I can see why it stops at 4.5V; there's a diode, normally reverse biased when the voltages are correct, that's connected between +12 and +5. The +5V line is rock solid at 5.1V. The power supply has a single pair of transistors driving the primary side of T2, and +5 works so I am inclined to think that the problem is somewhere on the secondary side. I pulled the pass transistor (Q3) for the 12V line and checked it with the Huntron Tracker; it appears to be serviceable. The schematic for this is on p75 of http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/qbus/MP00740_1123_schem_Oct81.pdf. Is there a common cause for 'sag' in output voltages in switchmode supplies ? I am wondering if this is regulation issue or a problem with drive to the pass transistor ? Thanks, -Dave

17 years, 2 months

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Another mystery IC

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

I have another mystery IC in a hard disk. This one seems to be made by Analog Devices and is some kind of compaartor/filter. Basically the read signals comes from the HDA (there's a preamp in there I am pretty sure), through a couple of amplifier ICs (MC1350 and TL592) and then goes to this device. Here's what I know about it : -- 14 pin ceramic DIL package -- Analog Devices Logo, HP 1820-5489 house-code -- Inputs (from the amplfier chain) on pins 4 and 13 Inductors between 3 and 2 and 1 and 14 (2 inductors), there may well be other components connected there, some kind of filter +5V on pins 12 and 6 (one may be an enable or something) Ground on pin 5 Does that ring any bells with anyone? -tony

17 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/23 H786 PSU Fault Finding

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

--- On Mon, 6/29/09, dwight elvey <dkelvey at hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi > The schematics are not real clear as to what wires > are connected to what wires from board to board. > There seems to be a separate 555 that pulses the T4 that > drives > Q3. On page 80 there is several points you might probe. > You might check the voltages and signals at Q1, E1, Q5, > E2 and Q6. Will do. > The decaying voltage is most likely related to the > start-up +12. > It is only there for a short time to get the regulator > running. Good point - never occurred to me. Does the startup voltage actually get suppressed once the switchmode circuit comes up ? Thanks for the pointers, Dwight. I'll take a look tonight when I get home. -Dave

17 years, 2 months

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1541 drive emulators

by gklinger＠gmail.com

Zane H. Healy wrote: > I really like Jim Brain's uIEC, and it's fairly inexpensive. The uIEC is an excellent piece of hardware but it is worth mentioning that it isn't a 1541 "emulator" per se. The only device that can lay claim to that distinction would be the 1541 Ultimate [1]. Unfortunately it's quite a bit more expensive (although it does offer a lot of additional functionality) and doesn't fit in with the OP's requirements. [1] <http://www.1541ultimate.net/> -- Golan Klinger <gklinger at gmail.com> Dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.

17 years, 2 months

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Anyone got a 386/486 in the SF area?

by slawmaster＠gmail.com

Lately I've been fiddling around with old Unix versions and I'm finding that things don't work perfectly on QEMU. I'd really like to find a 386 or 486 around the SF bay area to work with... if anybody has a spare lying around, drop me a line. I'd especially like to find one made for running UNIX but that's probably less easy. Also if anyone has a 3B2 that's cluttering up the garage I'd be happy to take that off your hands ;) John -- "I've tried programming Ruby on Rails, following TechCrunch in my RSS reader, and drinking absinthe. It doesn't work. I'm going back to C, Hunter S. Thompson, and cheap whiskey." -- Ted Dziuba

17 years, 2 months

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HP32-II repair

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

Since we are talking HP calcs : Am i right in believing that an HP-32 II with broken LCD screen is beyond repair ? At the moment I would not even know how to open it.... Jos

17 years, 2 months

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FTGH: DEC TS30G (UK)

by robert＠irrelevant.com

Hi All. I'm set to no-mail, due to the volume of mail I was getting from the list, and severe lack of time. Please cc any list-aimed replies to me.. I'm currently clearing out, and have unearthed an old Digital TS30G laptop which up to now I had competely forgotten about. It's of no use to me, but, being DEC, I thought might be of slightly more interest to someone than the normal run of the mill machines.. Any UK collectors about? It's got a PSU with it, and no less than two docking stations. (handy, as they include ethernet interfaces not available on the laptop itself.) I've not tested it, but I seem to recall there was a fault last time it was used,with the screen going completely white. If anybody wants it, it's free to the first sensible reply from somebody who can collect it (Nr Manchester, England) or I might be persuaded to ship it, at cost, if someone is suitably desperate... regards Rob O'Donnell.

17 years, 2 months

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Altos Worknet and Altos 486 PSU

by spedraja＠ono.com

Hello. Some questions for everyone which could help me: * I'm searching for one Altos 486 PSU and Hard Disk * Someone worked with Altos Worknet ? * Is this available in some form in the actual simulators as AltairZ80 and so ? Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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Zax ICD-378 Z80 In-circuit Emulator Documentation

by mardy＠voysys.com

Does anyone have a copy of the documentation for a Zax ICD-378 Z80 emulator? Thanks, -Mardy

17 years, 2 months

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TRS-80 documentation

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

--- On Sun, 6/28/09, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > > I distinctly remember sending PDFs of the users and > service manual of > > the TRS-80 PT-210 terminal to someone who hosts a > website of > > documentation.? I forget who that was and Google > isn't helping me. > > So, who has an archive of Tandy docs? > > If it isn't Ira Goldklang, he would certainly know who it > might be... > > http://www.trs-80.com/ Yeah, but Ira doesn't actually have any documentation on his website. He's got pictures of the covers though. Must have been somebody else. -Ian

17 years, 2 months

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TRS-80 documentation

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I distinctly remember sending PDFs of the users and service manual of the TRS-80 PT-210 terminal to someone who hosts a website of documentation. I forget who that was and Google isn't helping me. So, who has an archive of Tandy docs? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

17 years, 2 months

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Sun 3/50 DVMA memory error, and another 3/50 with parity error

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

So, I have 2 3/50 boards I'm trying to resurrect. I thought one was good (passed diags with diag switch on). The other I know has a bad ram chip. The one I thought was good... gets (as one example): MEMORY ERROR! STATUS D4, DVMA-BIT 0, Context 0, Vaddr: FFE10C, Paddr: 003FC10C, Type 0 at 0FeF4C88 It gets several of D4, D2, and D1 when it attempts to boot, or if you interact with it at the boot PROM. I did try changing the large socketed (MMU + more) chips from the board with the bad memory chip... same behavior. I have not tried changing CPU, FPU, boot rom, or any PALs. As for the one with the bad ram chip, it fails quickly on power up with: Memory Parity Data Test Err 2: Addr 0x00000400, Exp: 0x00000001, Obs: 0x0080001, Xor: 0x00080000 I've not found any memory map to help me determine which chip this is. 0x00000400 is the 1024th byte of RAM... so I'd suspect the first bank... but which bank that is I don't know. Anyone have a 3/50 memory map so I know which chip to replace ? Or a good technique for figuring that out ? Thanks in advance, -- Curt

17 years, 2 months

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Looking for a Needham's PB-10 EPROM programmer

by les＠frii.com

As I said in the email I sent the original poster, I have at least one of these if he wants to make an offer. The only thing I can do with the PB-10 that I cant do with any other programmer are the Epson memory cards, like a PCMCIA (People Cant Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms) card with an edge connector. Les

17 years, 2 months

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Trouble with a M7559 TK70 Controller

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk- > bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jarratt > Sent: 27 June 2009 17:22 > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > Subject: RE: Trouble with a M7559 TK70 Controller > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk- > > bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jarratt > > Sent: 27 June 2009 16:35 > > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > > Subject: Trouble with a M7559 TK70 Controller > > > > Just as I got my MicroVAX II booting, the TK70 controller has started > > to > > play up and is no longer working correctly. If I try to boot off the > > tape I > > get a CTRLERR, and if I boot VMS from the network and then try to > mount > > a > > tape I get "%MOUNT-F-DEVOFFLINE, device is not in configuration or > not > > available". It was booting from tape just fine a few days ago. I can > > see > > that the controller has two LEDs on it. When I power it up they both > > come on > > but then one of them switches off leaving the other one on. The light > > that > > stays on is the one on the right when viewing the board flat, looking > > at the > > ribbon cable connector, with the component side up. > > > > > > > > I think this means its self test has failed in some way, but I cannot > > find a > > manual anywhere online to tell me. Can anyone tell me what this might > > mean? > > > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > > Rob > > Never mind. I cleaned the heads and the problem went away. Just a bit > surprised that this caused the errors I saw. > > Regards > > Rob Still having a few odd problems with this that I have not observed before. If I put a tape in that the TK70 does not "like" this is what happens in VMS: $ mou/over=id mua0 %MOUNT-F-DEVOFFLINE, device is not in configuration or not available And thereafter it happens even with a good tape. Any thoughts on this? Regards Rob

17 years, 2 months

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cheap KVM switches

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

Does anyone know of a good source for inexpensive KVM switches? Ideally, I'd like something that switches VGA, ps2 keyboards, and serial mice. I'd also like one that switches macintosh hardware, that is, the 15-pin monitor connector and ADB (if such a thing exists). brian p.s. I seem to remember asking this question somewhere in the past, but I can't remember if it was here. My apologies if this is a repeat.

17 years, 2 months

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Cromemco Dazzler Kaleidoscope

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I wanted to exercise my Dazzler and since I don't have joysticks yet, I wanted a non-interactive program. I looked around on the net and, while I found lots of references to it, I had a very hard time finding the kaleidoscope program itself. I finally found a paper tape image of it in a zip file on Dave Dunfield's web pages. There is a warning that there may be errors in these images so I disassembled the program to see where it should go in memory and whether it looked OK in general. The result is here: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/kscope_dis.txt I don't claim to exactly understand how it works, but it looked OK so I loaded it up and it works. So that I could easily load it up under Cromemco RDOS, I relocated it to 0x3000 and made a file that you can push straight into RDOS with a terminal program that supports "transfer text to host". That file is here: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/kscope_rdos.txt If you want to see the display that Stan Veit says stopped traffic in Manhattan, you can load it up under Richard Cini's Altair emulator with Dazzler support. Bill Sudbrink

17 years, 2 months

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hard drive compatibility

by keithvz＠verizon.net

I have a hard drive that I bought 15 years ago. Western Digital Caviar 2420. 425mb IDE drive. Still works fine in my Amiga. I recently tried to image the drive using DD under linux. While Linux recognizes the model number and capacity, it's unable to read even a single block off the drive. I get "ABRT" errors and "DRDY ERR" errors during a read. I have managed using another method to obtain an image of the drive as I'm sure failure is right around the corner, but I'm still interested in the problem I saw. The ATA-1 standard was passed in the same year as the drive was made, 1994 --- it's possible the drive is "pre-standard." The label on the drive says "AT Compatible Intelligent Drive." Think semi-recent BIOS and new versions of linux should autodetect the drive type ? Modify the (limited) info in BIOS? Use hdparam in linux? Thanks Keith P.S. drive data sheet at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/legacy/Legacy.asp?r=3 WD is awesome for still having this on their site. Although I couldn't check the warranty status w/ the serial number, what the heck!?@# :)

17 years, 2 months

10
17
0 0

Trouble with a M7559 TK70 Controller

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk- > bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jarratt > Sent: 27 June 2009 16:35 > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > Subject: Trouble with a M7559 TK70 Controller > > Just as I got my MicroVAX II booting, the TK70 controller has started > to > play up and is no longer working correctly. If I try to boot off the > tape I > get a CTRLERR, and if I boot VMS from the network and then try to mount > a > tape I get "%MOUNT-F-DEVOFFLINE, device is not in configuration or not > available". It was booting from tape just fine a few days ago. I can > see > that the controller has two LEDs on it. When I power it up they both > come on > but then one of them switches off leaving the other one on. The light > that > stays on is the one on the right when viewing the board flat, looking > at the > ribbon cable connector, with the component side up. > > > > I think this means its self test has failed in some way, but I cannot > find a > manual anywhere online to tell me. Can anyone tell me what this might > mean? > > > > Thanks > > > > Rob Never mind. I cleaned the heads and the problem went away. Just a bit surprised that this caused the errors I saw. Regards Rob

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Trouble with a M7559 TK70 Controller

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Just as I got my MicroVAX II booting, the TK70 controller has started to play up and is no longer working correctly. If I try to boot off the tape I get a CTRLERR, and if I boot VMS from the network and then try to mount a tape I get "%MOUNT-F-DEVOFFLINE, device is not in configuration or not available". It was booting from tape just fine a few days ago. I can see that the controller has two LEDs on it. When I power it up they both come on but then one of them switches off leaving the other one on. The light that stays on is the one on the right when viewing the board flat, looking at the ribbon cable connector, with the component side up. I think this means its self test has failed in some way, but I cannot find a manual anywhere online to tell me. Can anyone tell me what this might mean? Thanks Rob

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

UNIX V7

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 12:02 PM 6/10/2009, William Donzelli wrote: >I never said VMS is dead - if I did, please point it out and >acknowledge. I did say VMS is a "sinking ship". Not only is the market >share tiny and shrinking, but its installation base (number of >machines running VMS in production) is also shrinking. There are >pretty much no new VMS customers. VMS is speeding along to being >insignificant. Not intending to fan flames, but what might those two numbers be? What's VMS's present estimated installed base, what was its direction and rate of change in the last decade? - John

17 years, 2 months

31
120
0 0

PCjr Telnet BBS Test

by mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com

It's running again! Please drop in and help me test it ... For those of you who are new, it is a Telnet BBS that I am writing running on an IBM PCjr. I have written all of the TCP/IP code and the BBS code from scratch. The only thing I didn't write was the packet driver for the Ethernet adapter and the version of DOS it is running. The IP address is 96.42.239.42 . That goes to my cable modem - the router port forwards telnet traffic directly to the PCjr. Pretty much any telnet client will do including the one built into Windows. Since the last round of testing I have added the following: * A forum area with threads * A private message area * Bulletins (read only files that are longer in length) * Basic user profile editing functions * Better telnet protocol support with performance improvements It is a pretty big set of changes. I am hoping there are no bugs, but having a few people on at the same time will help flush them out and give me an idea on if the machine is capable of servicing multiple users doing real BBS functions. (My previous tests were pretty limited.) The machine is setup to handle 6 online users at the same time. I am also looking for feedback on the user interface .. if it is not usable, then there isn't much point. I am limited with what I can do given the hardware, but let me know what you think would be neat and I'll add it to the todo list. (ANSI graphics isn't there, but I know how to get it done.) I will leave the machine running for about a week. If it falls over before then I will fix the bug and restart it as quickly as I can. If it makes it a week with no serious problems I'll be pretty happy. Thanks, Mike

17 years, 2 months

5
9
0 0

Western Digital WD1000 for one SGS CP/M system

by spedraja＠ono.com

Hello. I think is difficult but... someone could have one Western Digital WD1000 controller in working condition ? I need it for one SGS CP/M system which comes with one 8" hard disk but without controller. Some equivalent device with working warranties (including other storage device) would be helpful too. Thanks. Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

2
2
0 0

Aten KVM

by doc＠vaxen.net

yes, it's on topic, I have one AT/DE9 breakout cable! Seriously, it works well with any x86 OS and old PCs. Other platforms, it's manageable. ;) 8-port Aten Masterview w/ wall wart, PS2 kbd/mouse & HD15 console 7 PS2 kbd/mouse, HD15 graphics breakouts 1 AT kbd, PS2 mouse, HD15 graphics 1 AT kbd, DE9 serial mouse, HD15 $30 + shipping, make offers offlist please. Doc Shipley

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

IndyCams

by doc＠vaxen.net

and Indy mics. These look like they're new - each cam is bagged with a microphone. $12 shipped to lower 48. Doc

17 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Lost mail

by doc＠vaxen.net

My colo provider got evicted last week, so if you've sent me email >from last Monday (June 15) to now, please resend. I probably did not get it.

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Tymcom-X

by john_finigan＠yahoo.com

I've been reading a little about the PDP-10 lately, and it seems like most of the operating systems have survived and are publicly available. Does anybody know if Tymcom-X by Tymshare survived? If it has, I wonder who owns the rights. John Finigan

17 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

SC/MP documents

by holger.veit＠iais.fraunhofer.de

Hi, some weeks ago I sent a query for some old SC/MP documents to this list, and Lars generously offered me these docs for scanning and providing to the community. Now, with a longer delay, these docs are available here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16799273/Scmp-Microprocessor-Application-Handbook and http://www.scribd.com/doc/16797738/Scmp-Programming-and-Assembler-Manual-Fe… I think to download them from there as a pdf, you have to register at the site. I uploaded them there as there are some restrictions to provide them through my employer's site, but as I haven't seen them yet in Internet, I used this way to spread them to the interested classiccmp community here. Feel free to get them >from there and reissue them in accordance to existing copyright issues. -- Holger

17 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

Tektronix Terminal

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

If anyone is looking for a Tektronic terminal and you are based in the UK - please email me of list. Thanks.

17 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Looking for a Needham's PB-10 EPROM programmer

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Does anyone happen to have a spare Needham's PB-10 EPROM programmer they'd be willing to part with? It's an old ISA based programmer, but I've come to really like it. I have one, and I use it an awful lot. But it's gotten to the point where it would be extremely handy to have another one that I could install into a portable computer for use elsewhere. So, if anyone has one they'd be willing to sell/trade/etc, let me know, I can sure put it to use. -Ian

17 years, 2 months

5
6
0 0

Concurrent 3280 (80s vintage realtime mini) on eBay

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

Item # 220437075128 . Two days to go. --Bill

17 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

PDP-11 Controller needed to use a couple of RX33 drive

by spedraja＠ono.com

I am searching one controller to use a couple of RX33 in one PDP11-23/PLUS. Someone knows what could I use ? Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

4
6
0 0

NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

--- On Wed, 6/10/09, Andrew Lynch wrote: > > From: Andrew Lynch > Subject: NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 8:45 PM > > Hi! Does anyone have the NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual? > > I am looking for one as part of research on building a home > brew NEC 7220 video board. > > Thanks and have a nice day! > > Andrew Lynch I waited with a response, assuming that somebody has the manual you are looking for. I am not 100% sure, but I might have that manual. I am sure that I do have _a_ NEC 7220 GDC manual, and I remember (15+ years ago) that I used that manual to write a BASIC program to calculate register values based on the timing parameters for the VDU. I don't remember if the manual contained hardware info, it might. Next time I am in the old house, I will search for the manual in the attic. Perhaps this weekend ... - Henk. -----REPLY----- Hi Henk! Thanks! Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated. I am interested and researching the possibility of a NEC uPD7220 home brew video board. The SY6545 video board I made for the N8VEM project is working out really well but it is just a simple character only display. Ideally, you could scan the book if that is possible but if not would you be interested in selling it? I contacted NEC and they didn't know anything about it. Apparently very few people still have the manual and bitsavers doesn't have it either. I did some library searches but no luck although it is cited as a reference in a couple of college papers like masters thesis, etc. What I really need to know is if I can implement a simple circuit using few enough 74LS TTL ICs to fit on a Eurocard ECB board. That means it can't be more than about 30 maximum. Using high capacity SRAMs should help but I think it requires some funky latching mechanisms to share the video address and data lines. I looked at the NEC APC video board and it is just huge. I hope that is not an indication of the complexity needed! Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 2 months

7
8
0 0

Portable ASR-33?

by evan＠snarc.net

Anyone know which model of the ASR-33 (perhaps from a different company) was sold in a portable case circa 1972, with one half containing the teletype and the other half containing an acoustic modem? (No, I don't mean the later T.I. Silent 700.)

17 years, 2 months

4
5
0 0

cool article

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

I personally like #1,#4, #13 and #15 :) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Mon, 15/6/09, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com> wrote: From: Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com> Subject: cool article To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Monday, 15 June, 2009, 6:25 PM I'm particularly impressed with the TI-99/4A in problem #13 http://technologizer.com/2009/06/14/fifteen-classic-pc-design-mistakes/

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Fwd: [alt.sys.pdp11] buy

by legalize＠xmission.com

This message has been forwarded from Usenet. To reply to the original author, use the email address from the forwarded message. Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:09:08 -0700 (PDT) Groups: alt.sys.pdp11 From: padilla <juanferzz at yahoo.com> Org: http://groups.google.com Subject: buy Id: <66e20698-e1d4-4101-8072-0804a08bc325 at s6g2000vbp.googlegroups.co m> ======== Need 5 DECtape II, TU58-K with the price of each one as soon as possible I would like to send me a quote if possible greetings

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

VT52 emulator (was: Fw: Still Falling for Tetris, 25 Years After Its Birth )

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Cool video. Thanks for the link :) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Sat, 13/6/09, Alexander Voropay <alec at sensi.org> wrote: From: Alexander Voropay <alec at sensi.org> Subject: Re: VT52 emulator (was: Fw: Still Falling for Tetris, 25 Years After Its Birth ) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Saturday, 13 June, 2009, 9:08 PM 2009/6/4 Alexander Voropay <alec at sensi.org>: >>> The 0177 character was a 6x8 block. >> >> The VT52 ignored 0177 on receipt, so this game won't work on any decent >> VT52 emulator. You'd have to guess where the pieces were. :-) Sergei Frolov made a video playing this TETRIS game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0gAgQQHFcQ Rather bad VTY/CAM interference, nice keyboard "clicks" :) Look at 2:25, the russian DVK (a PDP-11 clone) boots. -- -=AV=-

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

ISA MFM disk controllers

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

--- On Tue, 6/23/09, Paxton Hoag <innfoclassics at gmail.com> wrote: > WX-1 is 2 MFM hard drives only, WX-2 is hard drives plus > two floppys. > My CSC Hard Drive manual says it is an 8 bit contoller for > two hard > drives. To format use G=C800:5 (Why is > that so familiar!!!) OK, that makes sense. I ended up just using the WX-1 because I was familiar with it. I was able to format the drive from debug no problems, and the Compaq boots from it, despite not using the Compaq setup program. > >From the book the default jumpers on the WD 1002A-WX1 > are > W3,W4-2 & 3, W6-2 & 3, W8-2 & 3, S1-8 (AT > Mode) Hmm, I didn't change any of the jumpers on the card, I'll have to check those when I get home. I assume this just changes the controller to work with an AT BIOS? > I think you will need the compaq set up disks. I still have > a set but > not sure where they are. I might be able to locate them if > you need me > to. A kind listmember is already sending me a copy. I found _a_ setup program, but it's clealy not the one for this computer. At least I was able to change the time and date, but it's options for the hard disk were really limited. Right now I just have the 'fixed disk' disabled in the setup. The Compaq boots just fine from the controller as it is now. > I think an interleave of 3 would be OK as it is an XT > class > controller. But, as mentioned, Spinrite can optimize it for > you. The > nec drive is an AT class drive at 28 ms. It should work > fine. It does work, I just wonder if changing the interleave could make it any faster. I mean, the computer isn't particularly fast in any case, but anything to improve hard disk performance is a good thing. Do you have a version of Spinrite that will work? I was only able to find version 6.0 on the internet, and it won't even load on the 286. Just hangs. -Ian

17 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

Portable ASR-33

by rmu_scada＠yahoo.com

> > Anyone know which model of the ASR-33 (perhaps from a > different company) > was sold in a portable case circa 1972, with one half > containing the > teletype and the other half containing an acoustic > modem? (No, I don't > mean the later T.I. Silent 700.) > Anderson Jacobson perhaps. See http://www.pdp8.net/asr33/pics/old_sound.shtml. Not exactly portable, but it was on wheels. I had one at one time but not with wood case. It came with the A-C modem but that is long gone (kick self, repeat...) Joe

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

ISA MFM disk controllers

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Anyone remember the difference between the various Western Digital MFM disk controllers? I've got a few in front of me right now, and I'm trying to figure out which would be the best for this Compaq Portable 286. I've got the good ol' WD1002A-WX1, and what looks to be the bigger verison, the WD1002S-WX2, then another, even longer card, the one that came stock with the Compaq, the WD1015-PL03. Now, here's the dilemma. The stock card won't respond to the usual debug commands - they just freeze the computer. The original 20mb 3 1/2" Miniscribe hard drive is dead (won't even spin). I am going to replace it with a similar 3 1/2" form factor drive - the NEC D3142. (43mb! Woo!) I already got the drive formatted and working on the small WD1002A-WX1 card, but it's been a while since I worked with MFM controllers - and I seem to remember the WD1002S-WX2 being faster or something. Also, I don't remember the calculations for optimum interleave, I used 3, since that was the default.... Pointers? -Ian

17 years, 2 months

6
6
0 0

Macintosh Plus

by segin2005＠gmail.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I recently came across the an image on an anonymous imageboard called 4chan (if you do not know what 4chan is, be very glad, it's the absolute worst cesspool of the Web), and while this is a diagram of the original Macintosh (note the 128K RAM mentioned), it's still of one of the Macs from that era. The image is http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6631/macplus.jpg First of all, if anyone has any high-resolution copies of this image, that would be nice. Secondly, I used to have a Mac Plus, years ago. I had a 400K external floppy drive that I had salvaged from a trashcan on the side of the road, but the drive was burned out. I replaced the drive inside the external case with a 1.4MB internal from one of the early PowerPC Macs (But you were still limited to 800k disks). I originally made floppies on an old PowerMac by sticking duct tape over the HD hole on some floppies I found lying around, and imaging some old games disks (Arkanoid was fun!) Sadly, when I moved (this was back when I was 14 or so), the mouse on it had died, and so had the PowerMac. I had lost all my disks, and aside >from it going Ping! whenever you powered it on, I found no real use for it, and just left it for the junk pile. (You have *no* idea how much I curse myself today...) Being that my first jump into classic computing was these beige toasters, if someone could find me some good, high-resolution documentation (and maybe curse me for being such an idiot back then), it would be appreciated. Thanks. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkpCGI0ACgkQF9H43UytGia1PACfT+B4tutOFdpOPVleQtdPZnzv mYMAnipQX1dXQBUkquPQwzGKvMmxai6x =aLFZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Fwd: [comp.sys.sgi.marketplace] FS: two Octane systems

by legalize＠xmission.com

This message has been forwarded from Usenet. To reply to the original author, use the email address from the forwarded message. Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:16:05 -0400 Groups: comp.sys.sgi.marketplace From: "David Jackson" <jacksond at dickinson.edu> Org: LabeNet (leba.net) Subject: FS: two Octane systems Id: <4a4129f8$0$31877$a20654c8 at news.leba.net> ======== Hi. I've got two Octane systems. It's been at least three years since I've used these systems, so this is all by memory. The first system was an SI and had the personal video option. At some point, it had a problem that I was never able to figure out and bought a second system with was an SI with texture. I transferred the HD from the first system to the second and continued on for a few years but then eventually transferred everything to a mac when OSX came out. Anyway, I'm looking to get rid of everything I have. Two Octanes. One works the other doesn't, although it might be easily fixable by someone who knows these systems. There are two monitors, keyboards and mice. There is one external CD drive. There is also a tape drive for backup and a 2GB jaz drive. I just booted the second system and it's working fine. Not really sure what this is all worth. I'm not interested in shipping them so you'll need to be within driving distance of central Pennsylvania. Drop me a line if you're interested. I'd like to get rid of them in the near future. Cheers, David (jacksond at dickinson.edu)

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

11/03 score!!

by shumaker＠att.net

Not sure how much of a score it is but I'm now the owner of what was described as a fully functioning pdp11/03. This would be my first pdp unit Cards installed are: Cards are: M8059KJ M8186 M8639 M8028 I've done the obvious thing on bitsavers but whats a good place to start exploring with this unit? There's no drives or console with it although there is a large ribbon cable attached to the M8639 card. It also has a serial cable so one MIGHT be able to connect a console to it. Never had access to anything like this so it's all new.. The goal obviously is to assemble a complete system. Suggestions comments recommendation all welcome! steve shumaker

17 years, 2 months

10
20
0 0

Joystick reproduction (RC transmitter)

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I'm working on reproducing a pair of Cromemco JS-1 joysticks to display (and let the public play with) at VCF East in September. The one thing I'm missing is a small, panel mount joystick assembly with 5k Ohm pots. I have done a fair amount of googling. New assemblies cost anywhere from $60 to $200 each (I need 2). This is more than I want to spend on this project. I've already spent more on the Hammond enclosures than I really wanted to. It was suggested to me that a used radio control model transmitter might be just the ticket. Googling shows that at least some use 5k pots and they go fairly cheap on ebay. I don't want to end up with a collection of RC transmitters (and end up spending as much as I would have on new joystick assemblies) so my questions for the group are: 1) Anybody have a 2 stick transmitter with known 5k pots they want to sell? 2) If you have an RC transmitter you want to keep, could you open it up and check the pots so I can have a list of models to keep an eye for on ebay? 3) An finally, of course, anybody have a couple of panel mount joystick assemblies with 5k pots they want to sell cheap or work a trade for? Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

17 years, 2 months

5
10
0 0

DECServer 90TL

by chd_1＠nktelco.net

Someone mentioned the 90TL a couple of days ago which reminded me that I still haven't found a copy of the DECServer configuration backup utility for Windows. I had a copy, but my windows computer hard disk crashed and I lost it. Contact me if you know where I can get a copy. -chuck

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

WTB Replacement for one Qbus Dilog DQ614-s

by spedraja＠ono.com

As far as I can imagine from my tests, I have one Dilog DQ614-S which don't works. I tested it with a couple of 5.25 hard disks (one IMI, one RD52-A and one Seagate) all in the list of recognized drives. And, in fact, the disk can be accesed in some form (intermintent lights, etc). But when the format try to begin, the DL614P.SAV program answers me with one "UNEXPECTED INTERRUPTION VECTOR 000000" It could be the cables, with they work with other drive without problem. Now comes the real question: Do you have someone one DQ614 operative for trade which could be managed with the DQ614P.SAV program or another release of this one appropiate for the board ? Or eventually... Someone has or knows of another board which could manage one hard disk (MFM, ESDI or SCSI) as FOUR DLx disks as the DILOG DQ614 does ? Thanks. Regards. Sergio

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Surplus waves

by legalize＠xmission.com

Has anyone else noticed that there are "waves" of certain kinds of equipment being surplussed all at once? Its most readily apparent when monitoring govliquidation.com because the military tends to surplus an item across and entire force (Navy, Air Force, Army, etc.) and scads of the stuff shows up all at once. However, I see it as well in commercial circles. A new generation of technology is deployed and an entire wave of the old technology is surplussed all at once. After that big wave subsides, those items will be hard to find. I think these surplus waves are what people are remembering when they say "VT100s are all over the place, dirt cheap" because they remember the VT100 surplus wave when you could barely walk through a surplus house without tripping over one. Nowadays they are few and far between. I seem to recall some discussions of "ownership humps" over the lifetime of equipment. Initially noone, or few, owns it. Then lots of people own it. Then some people own it because lots of people surplus it and there's a glut in the secondary market. Then noone, or few, owns it again and the secondary market is pricey for spares. Then noone owns it anymore and the secondary market is overpriced, still thinking people need spares. Eventually the secondary market crashes and they dump their holdings and collectors might be able to experience a slight secondary surplus wave. After that, its hen's teeth time. Thoughts? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 2 months

4
5
0 0

VCF Archives: Just a few more days of helping hands needed...

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

This went out to the VCF maillist but I'm also sending it here because I'm desperate :) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:01:13 -0700 From: Sellam Ismail <sellam at vintagetech.com> To: sellam at vintage.org Subject: VCF Archives: Just a few more days of helping hands needed... Dear Friends of VCF, I am still moving. This is into the sixth week now. Never in my wildest nightmares did I anticipate this thing dragging out as long as it has. I'll keep it short and simple: I still need help moving through the end of this week. There's a deadline in there by which time I'm supposed to be out, but truth be told deadlines have no meaning for me at this point. I just want to be done. The sooner the better. My estimates of how much longer this will take have been laughably incompetent, so I won't say I need to be done by this Thursday afternoon. I *want* this to be done by Thursday afternoon. Heck, I want it to be done by the time I'm through writing this pathetic missive. But either way, it's only going to happen with just a little bit more help from the VCF community. The help received so far has been excellent. This past weekend was perhaps the most productive. We had something like 8 volunteers on Saturday and about 6 throughout the day on Sunday. If I had days like that everyday then I would've been long since done. To get finished this week, I would just need 2-3 people per day helping. Won't you come out for just an hour or two to lend a hand? It would mean the world to me, and your favor will be remembered, and more importantly, returned. Yes, now I'm begging. Please contact me ASAP if you can come out to help, even if just for a little bit, because every little bit counts in big ways. Thanks! Sellam Ismail Schlepper (spent) Vintage Computer Festival

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

cctalk Digest, Vol 70, Issue 3

by bqt＠softjar.se

cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 21 Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:16:20 -0500 From: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Subject: Re: 1964 Antique MODEM Live Demo To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20090601201242.03e96008 at mail.threedee.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 03:24 PM 6/1/2009, Gordon JC Pearce wrote: >> >Okay, let's try again. I have a circa-70s 300-baud modem, that will >> >generate incorrect tones when it's plugged into a USB-to-serial >> >converter, but not when it's plugged into a real serial port. >> >Why might this happen? > > USB only guarantees to supply 100 milliamps. Up to 500 mA can be > negotiated with the controller, depending. Might your older device > depend on more amps than the USB adapter can supply? Huh? The RS-232-port isn't supposed to deliver any power at all. Some devices admittedly abused the RS-232 by using something like DTR to actually supply the power needed to drive the thing, but that is abuse. But I'd be surprised if a circa-70s modem was ever designed to use the power from the RS-232 port to drive the modem itself. I'd expect it to have an external power supply. The problem description is a bit vague. How do you know it is generating incorrect tones? Have you used a frequency analyser to check the tone frequencies? Or might it just be that what has been observed is that the modem don't work when used with the USB-to-serial? If so, then we have a number of possible problems, none of which neccesarily is a problem with the modem. Or is it just a case of listening to the modem while plugging in the cable, and not the same thing happening on the different serial ports. Might the USB-to-serial not start driving signals until something talks to it on the software side? I'd start by checking that the USB-to-serial really delivers correct voltages. Break out the oscilloscope. Next, I'd check if the USB-to-serial is happy without all kind of signal "right", and if the modem supplies all the "right" signals. Also check cables. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 2 months

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Vaxen available!

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

At 12:17 PM +0000 6/23/09, shumaker at att.net wrote: >There 4 VAX 11/750s available on Craigslist in Kent Wash. Owner >claims they came from Boeing. no other details listed. he wants >$500 each. > >craigslist Seattle-Tacoma PostingID: 1231299617 To much, no space, and no time. :-( I'd love a VAX 11/750. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

17 years, 2 months

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Vaxen available!

by shumaker＠att.net

There 4 VAX 11/750s available on Craigslist in Kent Wash. Owner claims they came from Boeing. no other details listed. he wants $500 each. craigslist Seattle-Tacoma PostingID: 1231299617

17 years, 2 months

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WTB SCSI-50 to Centronics, mfm, esdi and flat floppy cables (for 5'25 units) (Spain)

by spedraja＠ono.com

I located some places where purchase it from Internet, but I should like to know if someone has some of these available. I need them to use in my PDP-11/23 PLUS. I pay the shipment plus a reasonable extra if neccesary. Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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WTB DEC cabinets (UK)

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Looking for a 19" DEC rack - any height - if anyone has one. Its to house some RL02 drives which are currently languishing on various tables/floor space. Will collect, etc. UK only thanks. Would prefer DEC originals but anything considered really. Ian.

17 years, 2 months

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DEC terminal

by slawmaster＠gmail.com

Don't know how often these come up; I spotted this while looking for a teletype for the office. http://cgi.ebay.com/Decital-Correspondent-Printer-Teletype-machine_W0QQitem… John -- "I've tried programming Ruby on Rails, following TechCrunch in my RSS reader, and drinking absinthe. It doesn't work. I'm going back to C, Hunter S. Thompson, and cheap whiskey." -- Ted Dziuba

17 years, 2 months

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Tandy 1000 to a good home, CIB, Calgary area pick-up preferred

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Cool videos. It would be nice if I could revisit my old Spectrum games I made, but my parents have put my Spectrum 128K (in its original box) someplace 'safe' :( Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Wed, 17/6/09, Shane Dorosh <scd.calgary at shaw.ca> wrote: From: Shane Dorosh <scd.calgary at shaw.ca> Subject: Tandy 1000 to a good home, CIB, Calgary area pick-up preferred To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Date: Wednesday, 17 June, 2009, 6:10 PM Hi all, I've got a much loved old Tandy 1000 I've decided to part with.? It's still working, and it's been well cared-for.? It has 640KB of memory and a 20MB HD.? It comes with the original boxes, disks, and manuals, including the original BASIC manual!? The monitor is monochrome, not color. I'm looking for collectors of Radio Shack gear in the Calgary area who would like this computer and who can come pick it up.? Failing that, I will ship the Tandy out to someone if you pay the shipping.? This is a great collector's item, so I hope someone will reply! I still need the Tandy for another week or two... I'm putting up videos of my programming experiences on Youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEwkd2Lk7Vs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWdsWmL_YFo ... but I should be done with it by the end of the month. Please let me know if you're interested! S. D. Calgary, Alberta P.S.? Last but not least, there's a DMP 430 dot matrix printer with the Tandy as well.? If you come to pick it up, I'll ask you to take it as well.? (I don't have a car, so I can't recycle it very easily myself.)? If you need me to ship the Tandy, though, I'm quite sure you will NOT want the printer, as it's huge and heavy and will probably double the shipping costs.

17 years, 2 months

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ISA MFM disk controllers (From 19Jun09)

by gstreet＠indy.net

Hello Ian, IIRC, the debug commands worked with XT controllers. It seems that the debug commands will not work with the newer AT controllers that have their own BIOS. Also, aren't you talking about 5 1/2" drives? I thought that the smaller 3 1/2 drives were IDE drives, not MFM. Disclaimer: I might be wrong. Others might have better answers. Regards, Robert Greenstreet ------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 9 Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:40:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Mr Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com> Subject: ISA MFM disk controllers To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <21393.98126.qm at web52703.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Anyone remember the difference between the various Western Digital MFM disk controllers? I've got a few in front of me right now, and I'm trying to figure out which would be the best for this Compaq Portable 286. I've got the good ol' WD1002A-WX1, and what looks to be the bigger verison, the WD1002S-WX2, then another, even longer card, the one that came stock with the Compaq, the WD1015-PL03. Now, here's the dilemma. The stock card won't respond to the usual debug commands - they just freeze the computer. The original 20mb 3 1/2" Miniscribe hard drive is dead (won't even spin). I am going to replace it with a similar 3 1/2" form factor drive - the NEC D3142. (43mb! Woo!) I already got the drive formatted and working on the small WD1002A-WX1 card, but it's been a while since I worked with MFM controllers - and I seem to remember the WD1002S-WX2 being faster or something. Also, I don't remember the calculations for optimum interleave, I used 3, since that was the default.... Pointers? -Ian

17 years, 2 months

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Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys (was: Re: UNIX V7)

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> From: Warren Wolfe <lists at databasics.us> On 15 Jun 2009, at 22:58, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > It's just a matter of degree. I suspect there were very many more > valve > radios produced than classic computers, probably a couple orders of > magnitude. Yes, there were only around 150 to 200 of my classic computer made. Imagine the labour in manufacturing 4000+ PCBs with getting on for a hundred hand soldered joints on each. Then wire them all together, add a dozen heavy machines driven by 3/4 horsepower motors, a few hundred power supplies, a few hundred light bulbs, a few hundred cold cathode indicator displays, a dozen control panels, three phase fuse boxes and power filters, a hundred thousand ferrite washers hand threaded with six enamelled wires and the battleship grade frames holding it all and then add on about 60 jacks to support it and over a hundred castors to allow it to be installed or moved. No wonder they cost about a quarter of a million new in 1962. > However, even those will be, for all practical purposes, > gone in time. While it won't have any effect on you or me, run the > clock ahead a hundred years... and very little of either will remain. > > >> I guess if you want a particular model of classic computer you are >> going >> to have problems finding it, but there seem to be plenty of >> classics out >> there at the momnet if you'll work on just about anything. >> > > True... but, even WAY old classic computers are less than 50 years > old. I mean, is there even someone out there with an IBM 360? My machine was killed off by the introduction of the 360, i.e. its older. The ICT1301 was announced 1959 and my one (the first to leave the factory) was shipped in 1962. The IBM 360 was I understand announced in 1965, probably shipped quite soon after.

17 years, 2 months

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Classic mac fun (and some questions) (continued...)

by trag＠io.com

> > Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:21:45 -0500 (CDT) > From: Doc <doc at vaxen.net> > Subject: Re: Classic mac fun (and some questions) (continued...) > Cameron Kaiser wrote: >> It should 'just boot' into the Installer. The Happy Mac you briefly get >> indicates that the Mac can see the disc, and the System Folder on it, so >> the CD-ROM is undoubtedly working. I'm still thinking about RAM being a >> problem, mind you, but your unit may just be plain broken if it's >> throwing >> bus errors. > > Or the terminator is bad, or if it's external, he's using an Iomega > 25->50-pin "SCSI" cable.... I would check along the lines that Doc suggested. Some times Apple's "bus failure" means a SCSI bus failure. Make sure that the SCSI chain is properly terminated. If you're using internal and external devices, confirm that both ends are terminated properly and neither end is double terminated. Check the SCSI IDs being used by all devices on the chain. Go ahead and just pull the SIMMs on the motherboard. There's 4 MB on the logic board and that should be enough to boot from, or if it gets that far, you'll get a message about lack of memory, which is further than you're getting now. If that happens, hold down the shift key during boot to not load extensions. That will often save enough memory to allow booting in 4 MB. I don't remember the beginning of this thread, but isn't there a suspicion that the internal hard drive is malfunctioning? Disconnect the internal hard drive completely, and only connect the CD-ROM drive. That will simplify your SCSI chain, and eliminate electronic babbling from the hard drive as a possibility. So, basically, pull the RAM and all SCSI devices other than the CDROM, make sure the CD-ROM drive is terminated and set to some ID other than 7 (SCSI ID 3 is traditional for CD-ROMs in a Mac) and try that. Also double check the cable you're using and try a different one if the first does not work. Once you get a successful boot, you can try adding things back in. Jeff Walther

17 years, 2 months

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Combination and Orientation of RQDX boards in one PDP-11/23 PLUS

by spedraja＠ono.com

Well, for my surprise I've discovered a set of three boards in a lot that received from the US some months ago and I couldn't poen until now. It comes with three RQDX boards, more exactly: * 7555 * 7513 * RQDX distribution signal As far as I can imagine it appears that they were used in one PDP QBUS system in the order, from up to down in the order of the previous list, with one ribbon cable from the RQDX3 to the 7513 J1 (?) connector, and another one from the J2 (?) to the RQDX distribution board. Exists another connector (J3 ?) in the 7513 that appears to point to one external connector that I saw in one BA23. Finally, the RQDX comes with MFM cables but too with one standard floppy PC cable. I have some doubts with this last matter: * Is used this crossed floppy cable in DEC systems too (as in PeeCees) or it's used other kind of cables ? * I have a couple of RX33. Must I use TWO cables (one per floppy unit) ? * Same question with the MFM disks * What is the orientation of the RQDX ? I imagine it with the connectors side turn down because turning it up would be a problem with the previous board in the BA11-SB Can this be possible ? By the way, these questions connect with your last comments about the matter in the list, which is being an open book of knowledge for a newbie as me. Thanks all. Regards. Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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11/03 score!!

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 11:39 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > Wasn't that a dual-height CPU board I saw? ?If so I am wondering what sort of boot ROM it might have. That looks like a plain KDF-11 to me (M8186) - no boot ROM on that board. Perhaps it had more boards at one time - that's a pretty lightly-loaded machine. -ethan

17 years, 2 months

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Dilog DQ615 information and utility program

by spedraja＠ono.com

Another Qbus board in the lot: one Dilog DQ615. In appeareance is one MFM to RK06/07 board. I know that someone has the program for one version of the DQ614 (the P if I remember well) but there is nothing available for the DQ615. Someone hasavailable the utility program for this board ? Thanks Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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SGI Indigo2 feet

by doc＠vaxen.net

I just unearthed several pair of deskside feet for the SGI I^2. I have a couple of teal pairs and a couple of purple pairs. USPS flat-rate is $10.35, so I'll take $16/pair shipped, first come first served. Let me know *off-list* whether you want teal or purple and we'll arrange payment. I'll post here when/if they're all claimed and will ship within 2 days after I receive payment. Doc Shipley

17 years, 2 months

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qbus board CESI PIOL11

by spedraja＠ono.com

Hello. One of the boards that I've located today is... absolutely unknown, for me and in appeareance for the Internet. It's a CESI PIOL11. It comes with two dip switches banks, the S1 with ten switches, and the S2 with five. Two connectors of 40-pin, one named "OUT J1" and the other "IN J2". Below them, a row of 18 pins with 17 of them with resistors installed, being free of them the 18 Any information would be welcome Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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PCjr Telnet BBS Test

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Ahh, I see. I will try and pay another visit to it tomorrow via a landline connection. I would do it tonight, but I don't have the time. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Sun, 21/6/09, Michael B. Brutman <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> wrote: From: Michael B. Brutman <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> Subject: Re: PCjr Telnet BBS Test To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Sunday, 21 June, 2009, 12:16 AM Andrew Burton wrote: > Well, you did want us to test it out and try and break it, lol. > Just glad I didn't bring it down completely. > Is there a way to adjust the retransmit time depending on user location, or is that impossible / too complicated? > Or will it be more friendly to everyone once it is increased a little? > > > Regards, > Andrew B > aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk Cosam and I were talking about it and the right neurons fired in my brain. Back in December I made a change to the way I measure elapsed time.? The change gave me like a 30% performance improvement because my original code was so bad, and the new code was counting timer ticks which is pretty easy.? When I made the change I changed all of my units of time measurement from 100ths of seconds to milliseconds. Except in the configuration file that defines the timeouts for the BBS. :-) The result is that I'm retransmitting packets if I don't get an acknowledgment in 0.4 seconds, not the 4 seconds that I intended.? Which? explains why your particular modem connection was driving the retransmits so hard.? Most broad-band users don't have that problem. It's not bad enough to stop and restart the BBS, but it definitely is exercising that path in the code pretty hard. Mike

17 years, 2 months

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trs80 Model 4 versus Model 4D

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I'm wondering if a TRS-80 Model 4 can be converted into a 4D simply by swapping out the floppy drives. Anyone? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

17 years, 2 months

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Tandy PC's

by rickr＠castles.com

On June 19, 2009, rickr at castles.com wrote: I have many different type of Tandy PC's. TRS 80 to the various types of Tandy 1000 xxx's. Tandy 100. Portable in a sewing type case - think it is a Model 4P. Monitors of three types. Lots of dos and cp/m (I think). And various types of programs and disks and peripherals. I'm being some what vague because it has been a very long time since I used them. The '80s I believe. They all worked then but the drives might need to be hand spun to free them from sitting. I have moved twice and they are packed up. I am in my early 60's of age now and will never get to put a collection room together. I would like to see them go to a worthy cause and be used - not destroyed. I was given your contact address: From: "Mike" <ba600 at ncf.ca> > To: <rickr at castles.com> > Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 5:14 PM > Subject: Re: Comment from a reader of your web page 'MyReference' "your best bet is to post a notice to this list ": cctalk at classiccmp.org including your general location. There are several collectors in the area, I'm on the East coast." Mike I am located on the west coast Bay Area of Calif. If you are interested OR know of someone who might be, please let me know. If I die my son will just trash them and I don't wish that to happen. Thank you for your time. Rick

17 years, 2 months

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PET Software on ebay

by silent700＠gmail.com

I don't know how much of the PET world is archived and available out there, but someone (not me, don't know him) but this might be a good project for someone willing to read these tapes: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320386939956

17 years, 2 months

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Installing and running other OS than RT11 and XXDP (with TU58 emu) or BSD (with Vtserver)

by spedraja＠ono.com

As I told in a previous message, I was success installing RT11 v5.3 in one ESDI drive managed with one Dilog DQ696 (treated as a DU drive) in one PDP11 where I boot with one copy of this OS managed with TU58EM (TU58 emulator) >from one PC laptop. I shall try in a while to install BSD2.11 with Vtserver, and to start XXDP >from TU58EM. But I should like to ask to ask everybody insterested about this question: Can I install other OS in the PDP11 using these pieces of software (Vtserver and TU58em) ? I was thinking in other versions of Unix previous to BSD2.11, or other OS as RSTS, IAS, RSX or DSM. By the way... Is this one (DSM-11) available in some form ? I know of one copy from one member of this list which was available some years ago but this is lost actually as far as I know. Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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Anyone got a good reference URL for Sun frame buffers?

by legalize＠xmission.com

cg6, cg12, etc. I'm looking for something that collects all the information in one place. Any suggestions? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 2 months

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ISA MFM disk controllers

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On Sat, June 20, 2009 7:27 am, Christian Corti wrote: > On Fri, 19 Jun 2009, Mr Ian Primus wrote: >> Now, here's the dilemma. The stock card won't respond to the usual debug >> commands - they just freeze the computer. The original 20mb 3 1/2" > > Normal MFM controllers never come with an own BIOS, so there's nothing to > jump to. XT controllers do. But now I recall that Ian said "WD1003" and I seem to recall that that's the AT controller series. I think I remember using an "IBM Advancced Diagnostics" floppy, or something like that, for this. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

17 years, 2 months

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MicroVAX II Diagnostics Config and Devices Display

by steve＠cosam.org

Robert Jarratt wrote: > I am trying to get my MicroVAX II working, and now, thanks to a generous > person on this list, I have a working CPU and Memory combination. I am now > trying to run the MicroVAX II diagnostics from the TK50 diagnostics tape > that came with the machine. The puzzling thing is that it does not seem to > display the correct configuration and devices when I select that option from > the menu. Here is what it says: ... > So, the question is, should I expect to see these devices listed, should I > expect it to tell me how much memory is installed? If I am not seeing the > devices listed and they are known to work, why would they not appear? I > suspect that the M7559 might not appear as it controls a TK70 and this > MicroVAX II probably predates that device. I'd expect to see total memory and a list of devices. Which backplane are you using and where are all the modules inserted? Have you tried moving them around to see if you at least get different results? Cheers, -- Steve Maddison http://www.cosam.org/

17 years, 2 months

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Terak 8510/a monitors available - Seattle WA

by bear＠typewritten.org

There are two Terak monitors at Re*PC in Seattle. They are headed for the Tukwila store, where they may remain for a short time, but I can't say from there whether they'll go on the floor, on eBay or be scrapped. My contact mentioned he thought he'd seen the keyboards come through separately, earlier, but that if so they'd already been sent to Tukwila. This should be taken as apocryphal as they keyboards really could belong to anything. Crappy cel phone photos: http://www.typewritten.org/~bear/junk/IMG_0065.JPG http://www.typewritten.org/~bear/junk/IMG_0066.JPG If you're interested, move fast. I am willing to serve as an intermediary if necessary. ok bear

17 years, 2 months

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MicroVAX II Diagnostics Config and Devices Display

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I am trying to get my MicroVAX II working, and now, thanks to a generous person on this list, I have a working CPU and Memory combination. I am now trying to run the MicroVAX II diagnostics from the TK50 diagnostics tape that came with the machine. The puzzling thing is that it does not seem to display the correct configuration and devices when I select that option from the menu. Here is what it says: SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND DEVICES SYSTEM CONFIGURATION CPUA ... MicroVAX CPU KA630-AA 1MB, FPU MC=00 HW=00 Press the RETURN key to return to the previous menu. > I have never used these diagnostics before so I don't know what should be displayed. However I also have in there the following devices: Two memory boards. M7559 - TK70 controller. Known to be working as that is what I booted the diagnostics from. M3106 - DZQ11 Asynchrnous Multiplxer (4 lines) M7555 - RQDX3 Disk Controller DEQNA - Known to be working as I can do partial network boots (fails for other reasons yet to be determined) So, the question is, should I expect to see these devices listed, should I expect it to tell me how much memory is installed? If I am not seeing the devices listed and they are known to work, why would they not appear? I suspect that the M7559 might not appear as it controls a TK70 and this MicroVAX II probably predates that device. I ran the diagnostic tests and it tested only the CPU, which passed the tests. Thanks Rob

17 years, 2 months

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IBM 2740/2741 terminal

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

Is anyone here interested in an IBM Selectric terminal? It is a 2740 or a 2741, but I'm not sure which. Please reply privately. --Bill

17 years, 2 months

1
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Service Manual for Ball TV-90 monitor?

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Decided to dig out my IBM 5120 and try to get its monitor working, at long last. It's a Ball TV-90. Anyone out there have the service manual for this? (Worst case, there's a copy on eBay right now, but before I go through that I thought I'd bug you guys...) I mentioned this issue a few years ago, here's a photo of the interesting distortion I'm getting: http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/5120disp.jpg. Thus far I've done a complete cap kit with no effect. I hate working on monitors, but I really want to get this running again... Thanks, Josh

17 years, 2 months

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Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Enthusiasts vs Replica Recreators

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 18 Jun 2009, at 20:06, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > From: Ray Arachelian <ray at arachelian.com> > >> I now plan to publish my emulator on the web, along with original >> software which non programmers can run on it. I am very unsure of how >> many people will be interested in such a thing. I need to get the >> physical machine running to retrieve said software from unique ten >> track mag tapes and from standard 80 column cards, though I could >> probably get the latter read elsewhere, I don't want to have to >> transport about 150,000 card somewhere to have them read, probably at >> great cost. > Hey, I'd happily play with it. I probably won't get very deep into > it, > but I would like to interact with it and see what it was like. (Which > mainframe btw?) The ICT 1301 dating from 1962. It is possibly unique in not having a program counter. Of course there is a way to get the next pair of instructions or a double length instruction. If you think of it as a three instruction pipeline which (in normal operation) always contain an instruction to do the instruction fetch that gives you the idea. The fetch instruction is an absolute jump, so contains the address. After execution it re-enters the pipeline with one added. There can of course be more than one absolute jump in the pipeline, it can even be all jumps, and the jump instruction can be used to jump to a subroutine which saves some of the pipeline in memory as its first instruction. > Hopefully you'll add various things to make the experience more > authentic, such as sounds and pictures/animation of actual tapes, > punch > cards, etc. (As much as possible.) Yes that would be nice. > You've done a wonderful thing by letting people look inside a large > machine. Hopefully you'll get the chance to do it again and get to > see > lots of smiles on the little kiddies faces. Thanks. Not so much smiles as wide eyed amazement. >> For micro computers I agree, not quite sure this applies to >> mainframes. I guess it depends on how you define software. If a >> single >> instruction is software then I suppose so. At the lowest level >> debugging I can set an instruction into control register one, set the >> machine to single cycle and watch the lights on the console as I send >> single clock pulses through the hardware every time I press a button. > Sorry, that's still running software. Microcode is still software My machine has no microcode its all hard wired logic. Confusingly there are two instructions, the multiply and the block move which proceed in small steps in what the manuals micro instructions but there is no memory of any sort they are read from, no micro instruction set, just logic which decides if the multiplier, or word count has reached zero and if a (decimal) digit is more or less than five to decide to subtract or add the multiplier. > You can hold a programming class. Maybe provide actual documentation > ahead of time so they know what to expect and can have an idea of what > sort of programs that they can execute, maybe provide some samples for > them to start with and tweak as they go along. For ordinary visitors we don't have contact beforehand. We could possibly have days in the same way as preserved steam railways have days when they sell people the experience of being a steam engine driver, under strict supervision of course. Car racing tracks have days when you are taught the safety rules and the allowed to drive around the track in a fast car accompanied by a professional racing driver. This costs a lot of money of course. For computers maybe something could be done on the web for free with emulation. This could be worldwide all year around. Any local people could arrange to come and run their programs on the real hardware in the warmer months. > If you can get actual > terminals to the mainframe, once they're done using the emulator, you > could fire up the real thing and let them play with that for a short > time. Maybe if you're worried about the cost of the electricity, you > could charge a bit of cash for that purpose and let them know what the > cost is for. Forget terminals, the machine never had them. A very small number of them had the optional teleprinter but I have never seen one. I could hook up a teletype, Flexowriter or a Creed but there is no operating system to use it with. There are 400 words of protected drum storage to hold a punched card bootstrap and a few utilities. > I don't think several hundred visitors a day would write code, they > might just want to see it in action, but maybe a few dozen would > like to > get deeper. Maybe I could ask people this year if they would like to do that. Too soon for this year anyway, 12th July is too soon to do anything much. > Sure, there will be much better 3D modeling software out there by that > time, but I imagine many would want to go back and see what it was > like > in the day and experience that for themselves. Hmm, I suppose I am falling into the same trap as the people who scrapped the mainframes, assuming that because things are no longer useful they have no reason to exist. > Myself, I have two little ones, they're not quite old enough to > understand computers yet, though I've given them one to play with - > right now they just use it to watch videos or listen to kids' > audiobooks > on. Rarely they play games on them. But when they're about 9 or so I > imagine I can show them a lot more and let them play with the machines > I've collected over the years and maybe they can play with the ROM > BASIC > and code a bit. :-) Something I'm looking forward to. Yes, before they become teenagers and have no patience. >> One aspect of emulators I have not yet explored is, well hold on a >> second and I'll explain. When looking through the 1301's >> documentation, circuit diagrams and instruction set, I am very >> tempted >> to add improvement which could have been done by the designer, but >> for >> some reason, either budgetary or lack of knowledge (some software >> techniques had not been invented yet). In an emulator I could add >> indexing or indirect addressing, or immediate mode data, or relative >> mode, or branch on NOT some condition without having to modify the >> actual hardware. I could then try programming the machine in that >> configuration and see how it affected the program size and ease of >> programming. >> >> It would be even more fun if the emulator was done at logic gate >> level >> and even more so if mated to an interactive 3D model of the hardware >> where you could open the cover, insert emulated scope probes and look >> at the signals. You could even emulate random logic failures for >> educational reasons, though to do so as a game would probably be a >> step too far for me, though programming the emulator to do it WOULD >> be >> fun. > Right, a logic simulator could be used to model this, and later you > could change the emulator around to match the proposed change. Gate > level emulation is very difficult. Not so much difficult to write, > but > its going to require a lot of processing power, and the timing aspects > will be very hard to get right. Fortunately I have a very slow machine to model, the faster instruction takes 12 microseconds. There are about 4000 PCBs, 1000 of which are JK flip-flops. The other 3000 have at most 4 And gates on each, plus wire-or so I would guess about 15,000 gates and 1000 flip- flops. I have scanned the 'Address Book' which lists all the interconnections in the machine. I want to OCR it and then write a program which generates C code to recursively process all changes in logic level for that clock cycle and then latch the data into the flip- flops at the end of the clock pulse. As there are so few logic levels which change on each clock cycle I would think that could be done in real time, after all a modern machine has a clock speed about 2000 times greater my 1301's 1MHz clock. > It has been done in the past, mainly to help designers test out their > designs, but they typically run several thousand times slower than the > actual machine. Presumably someone designing a new computer would be designing something faster than what already exists so the simulation would be often be running on a slower machine in the first place. > I remember there was something, possibly Java or such on that page, > but > it's long gone now. Unfortunately it wasn't something one could > download. That's one of the things that utterly sucks about the web. > You can archive it, but things that depend on a back end server > can't be > replicated without having what runs there (or a simulation thereof.) > It's sad that it wasn't released publicly. Now we have been appointed as the '1301 working group' of the CCS, the other half of the team gets a seat on the CCS committee (I'm too busy earning a living to keep going up to London every few months) so perhaps he can see if that is a possibility. > Most of Colossus was just circuitry, not much to program there, but > you > could code simulations of those circuits and provide code that does > similar enough things. (At least what little I know if it comes from > the book.) I think you need a knowledge of basic cryptography to make much sense of what the plug-able 'menus' do, knowledge I don't have. Roger Holmes.

17 years, 2 months

2
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PDP-11 Controller needed to use a couple of RX33 drive

by bqt＠softjar.se

Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> wrote: > On 17/06/2009 16:34, Johnny Billquist wrote: > >> > It's actually worse. The write enable signal apparently always gets to >> > both drives no matter what else you are doing. So when you write to one >> > drive, the other will also start writing, even if the head is moving >> > right at that time. I've had to recover an RD53 which was destroyed that >> > way. (Salvage as much data as I could, and then reformat the drive.) > > That won't happen unless both drives are also selected. Having the > write enable signal go to both drives at the same time is normal in > ST412 systems, and indeed all the signals go to all the drives at the > same time in such systems. Ok. I haven't checked all the details here, so it's part my research, and part information I've recevied from others. The only reason I even know about it is because I had to recover the data from a disk that they "destroyed" by doing this. >> > The funny thing is that DEC actually do write in the documentation that >> > it is not permissible to have two hard drives in a BA23, but that note >> > is not so easy to find, and if you don't have the documentation, it even >> > easier to assume that you can, since you do have connectors for two drives. > > The DEC information actually says that it's because of the power > requirements. The note that I read didn't say anything about power requirements, as far as I can remember. But maybe I should check the note I read again. This was about six years ago... (And as far as I know, the site is still running that machine, but they now have a couple of SCSI disks on it instead.) >> > I believe it's a hardware "bug", which can't be fixed without cutting >> > wires, and adding new ones. But maybe someone knows better here? > > Mine works, and I've not cut any wires. It could be that there are two revisions of the backplane? (Was it you who said that?) I know for a fact that a steel plant in Sweden stood still for five days because of this, six years ago. (Well, one part of it anyway.) Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 2 months

6
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PCjr Telnet BBS Test

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Well, you did want us to test it out and try and break it, lol. Just glad I didn't bring it down completely. Is there a way to adjust the retransmit time depending on user location, or is that impossible / too complicated? Or will it be more friendly to everyone once it is increased a little? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Sat, 20/6/09, Michael B. Brutman <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> wrote: From: Michael B. Brutman <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> Subject: Re: PCjr Telnet BBS Test To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Saturday, 20 June, 2009, 4:55 PM Andrew Burton wrote: > Yeah, I dropped by and had a blast (I'm Lonewolf10). > A neat all round experience. Just hope I don't get hooked on BBS's now! :) > > > Regards, > Andrew B > aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk Your connection was interesting - I noticed it was driving my TCP/IP stack nuts.? (It was retransmitting a lot of packets while you were online - far more than normal.) Your message about being on a USB modem made me feel slightly better about it.? That, and being in the UK probably is just causing a very long latency.? My retransmit timeout on the TCP/IP packets is probably too low ... Mike

17 years, 2 months

2
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One for Tony or other HP fetishists I suspect

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On Jun 14, 2009, at 10:09 AM, Gordon JC Pearce wrote: >> > I spotted what looked like an odd rubber-cased HP41 on a stall at a >> > car >> > boot sale. The guy also runs a small army surplus shop so although I >> > didn't get it there I might ask him about it if I go in during the >> > week. >> > >> > It had four openings at the back about the size of a matchbox end-on, >> > with brown flexiprint circuit stuff folded over plastic tabs in the >> > middle of each one. > > This description matches the expansion slots on a standard HP-41. > What's with the rubber case, I wonder? Some sort of protective cover > like the ones available for most mobile phones? I couldn't have described the ports any better myself. :-) The rubber case might just be one of the third party industrial cases for the HP-41 for it to better survive hostile environments. I don't think HP every did one, but I remember seeing other companies making them. No names pops up in my head right now, though. This was a long time ago. (Still have my 41CX around.) Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 2 months

5
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Computer Graphics History Museum Release 0.1: Visible Storage

by legalize＠xmission.com

Opening of The Computer Graphics History Museum Release 0.1: Visible Storage When: Friday, June 19th, 2009 9pm - 10:30pm Where: BFS Warehouse 555 South 400 West Salt Lake City, UT 84101 I am pleased to announce the first public opening of the Computer Graphics History Museum in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The collection of artifacts has moved to a location large enough to permit public viewing. The collection has been accumulated over the past 5 years, with a focus on graphics hardware. Please join us for an opening reception and walk through of the collection in visible storage. Refreshments will be served. Some highlights of the collection: - a wide range of SGI workstations and servers from the Personal Iris 4D/25 through a 4 rack SGI Reality Monster - Tektronix graphics terminals from storage scope terminals like the 4010 and 4014 to raster terminals like the 4105 and 4205. - Evans & Sutherland products: ESV workstations with CDRS 6.0 and Advanced Rendering System, Freedom series graphics accelerators Digistar II Picture System PS/390 ESIG image generator - Aesthedes graphic design system - Control Data Corporation CC545 Console - Megatek graphics terminal with the coolest keyboard you've ever seen -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 2 months

4
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Computer Graphics History Museum Release 0.1: Visible Storage

by mross666＠hotmail.com

> Wow, sounds cool. Is the PS390 a raster display? One piece of > hardware I'd really enjoy seeing again is the PS300. This was a > really high-end vector display for CAD work. The best configurations > had knob boxes and keyboards with alphanumeric LED legends you could > set. The quality of the display is something I've never seen > duplicated, even on modern LCD panels. > > Do any of these still exist? SLC would seem like a better than > average place to find one I have a PS300, possibly two, with all the displays, keyboards, dials and buttons, manuals, and software for the host system. I gave an additional unit to Jim Austin in the UK. Later this year I hope to start playing with it, will get material online in my copious free time. Mike http://www.corestore.org _________________________________________________________________ Bing? brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now. http://www.bing.com/search?q=restaurants&form=MLOGEN&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT…

17 years, 2 months

2
1
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How much would you pay for a working VT05?

by legalize＠xmission.com

...would you pay US$3900? Ebay item # 300323705513 Too rich for my blood. Lots of nice photos though. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 2 months

1
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Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On Jun 18, 2009, at 5:30 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote: >>>>> >>> > But I don't lioke changing the classic machine. Not even >>>> >>> replacing > PSUs >>>>> >>> > with switchers. The original PSU is part of the design, and I >>>> >>> want to >>>>> >>> > keep it that way. >>> >> While I agree with you here, I have to admit that, if my >>> >> PDP-11/70 had switching power supplies, I'd probably run it a lot >>> >> more often. I'd *never* make it an irreversible modification, >>> >> though. >> > >> > Um. An 11/70 have switched power supplies normally. Did you remove >> > them and install large transformers? That would become a very heavy >> > machine in that case. :-) > > Nope, see my other message...it already has large transformers, > and it is definitely a very heavy machine! ;) An 11/70 is a heavy machine, indeed. But if you were to have transformers to supply all the power needed, you'd increase the weight significantly... I have removed the power supply for the memory of a KL10, and that is really a linear supply. The weight, and power consumption of that is on a totally different scale to anything switching... Where have you seen any large transformers in an 11/70 by the way? Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 2 months

2
1
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PCjr Telnet BBS Test

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Yeah, I dropped by and had a blast (I'm Lonewolf10). A neat all round experience. Just hope I don't get hooked on BBS's now! :) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Sat, 20/6/09, Michael B. Brutman <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> wrote: From: Michael B. Brutman <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> Subject: PCjr Telnet BBS Test To: "CCTalk_list" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Saturday, 20 June, 2009, 5:19 AM It's running again! Please drop in and help me test it ... For those of you who are new, it is a Telnet BBS that I am writing running on an IBM PCjr. I have written all of the TCP/IP code and the BBS code from scratch. The only thing I didn't write was the packet driver for the Ethernet adapter and the version of DOS it is running. The IP address is 96.42.239.42 . That goes to my cable modem - the router port forwards telnet traffic directly to the PCjr. Pretty much any telnet client will do including the one built into Windows. Since the last round of testing I have added the following: * A forum area with threads * A private message area * Bulletins (read only files that are longer in length) * Basic user profile editing functions * Better telnet protocol support with performance improvements It is a pretty big set of changes. I am hoping there are no bugs, but having a few people on at the same time will help flush them out and give me an idea on if the machine is capable of servicing multiple users doing real BBS functions. (My previous tests were pretty limited.) The machine is setup to handle 6 online users at the same time. I am also looking for feedback on the user interface .. if it is not usable, then there isn't much point. I am limited with what I can do given the hardware, but let me know what you think would be neat and I'll add it to the todo list. (ANSI graphics isn't there, but I know how to get it done.) I will leave the machine running for about a week. If it falls over before then I will fix the bug and restart it as quickly as I can. If it makes it a week with no serious problems I'll be pretty happy. Thanks, Mike

17 years, 2 months

2
1
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ISA MFM disk controllers

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

"Back in the day" (which, some days, doesn't seem THAT long ago) there was a handy DOS utility called CALIBRAT.EXE, which would go out and do some read/writes, to determine the optimum interleave for your disk / controller combination, and even make the conversion for you, if desired. T

17 years, 2 months

2
1
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IBM Thinkpad 600e can't get past password prompt...

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

I bought a thinkpad 600e for a friend several years ago on eBay. She put it in storage for a year, and when she pulled it out the backup battery has died. I replaced it, but now the unit is asking for a password. We never set a CMOS password, the eBay seller's email no longer works and I need to get to her data on the HDD which is also locked. Everything I searched tells how to wipe the HDD, but not how to recover the data without shipping the drive to someone who will do it for much more than the laptop and drive is worth. Anyone have a way I can get into the unit and unlock it? I can buy another unit cheap, but that doesn't get me into the HD. Al

17 years, 2 months

14
25
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Who can tell me more about this really weird Z80 Canadian

by thomsondrp1＠rogers.com

If you still have it, or know who has, I might be interested in taking it off your/their hands - one way or another! For more than a decade I've kept 2 of them operating daily - one has double-sided drives, the other single. Over the years I've had to do without either printer, the monitor on the single, and now one of the double drives decided to destroy diskettes, which themselves are almost impossible to get. Usually I can run a Recovery program and regain all, or almost all, the data, but with only one drive the Recovery process can't be used - it reads from the damaged diskette in the lower drive and writes to a blank one in the upper. So, if you have a complete machine, or printer, working monitor, diskettes, or ESPECIALLY a double-sided drive (could be Tandon, Micropolis, Mitsubishi or other) I'd be interested in acquiring any or all. Anticipating your response, Doug Thomson

17 years, 2 months

1
0
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HP2000/Access BASIC (and Star Trek)

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

I'm not very knowledgeable about HP BASIC but I recall some discussions a few years ago about emulators and running Access BASIC or TSB. Sadly I didn't keep all the emails where I thought. Today I've been asked a (serious) question about actually running TREK73 from my collection of Star Trek programs at http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/startrek What's the easiest way to get an emulator to run a suitable HP BASIC? (by the way, the researcher who asked, spotted a typo in my TREK73 listing so I've updated it -- and yes, he does have a serious reason for running this in an emulator) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

17 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

The Commodore 64 has a Twitter Client

by marvin＠west.net

I just saw this, and got a kick out it! http://gizmodo.com/5296046/good-god-even-the-commodore-64-has-a-twitter-cli…

17 years, 2 months

1
0
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