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

[personal] Re: Stanford's PDP-6 ( was Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. EmulatorJockeys)

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

--- On Fri, 6/19/09, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > Would any of > the list members now take it on themselves to accumulate > all of the > Pentium I PCs that they could get their hands on? How > about CRT > monitors? I collect old CRT monitors. Primarily early workstaion monitors, monochrome monitors, unusual monitors and early VGA monitors. I collect them to go with the old computers I collect. I hate using old iron with new monitors. Doesn't seem right somehow. And, I have a real hatred of LCD monitors. CRT's have much better picture, IMHO. > For my part, today I'm taking a fixed-frequency HP > workstation > monitor down to the recyclers. It's a nice unit, but > it's large and > heavy and an LCD gives a better display. No point to > keeping it at > all. You shouldn't scrap that! For one, that's exactly the kind of monitor I've been looking for for a long time now, and for two - it's important to preserve this kind of hardware. I mean, sure, you _can_ use an LCD with an old HP workstation, but would you want to? Not exactly accurate, if you ask me. -Ian

17 years, 2 months

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

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

Dan, You seem to be missing the point of my request for help. 1. The laptop is worth about $50.00, I'm not spending $1200 to recover data off the HDD, and neither is my friend who it belongs to. She is upset losing the $100 it cost her two years ago. 2. The laptop doesn't boot. It asks for a password. This is in the BIOS. It can't be bypassed to boot from floppy or CD. Without this password, the system is bricked. There is no way to recover it other than changing the logic board and HDD. Since all I want is the HDD data, that is not the solution. There is a way to recover the password, but nobody will tell me where the TPM chip is located on the 600e logic board. I don't want to just take the laptop totally apart. I want to take as little apart as possible. I'm hoping someone knows the IBM master password so I can get into the bios and reset the system. Barring that, this system is junk. Thanks anyway. ----- Original Message ---- Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:06:28 -0400 From: Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com> take it to a data recovery place, ask for a free estimate. be prepared to pay $1200 or more. as for the CMOS, you can still wipe it. remove the HDD, then boot either floppy or CD that would bypass that password, would also confirm exactly how it is locked. you can still try to contact IBM for recovery (for a large fee I suspect) otherwise you're SOL Dan.

17 years, 2 months

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Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 16 Jun 2009, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > From: Warren Wolfe <lists at databasics.us> > > Roger Holmes wrote: >> 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. > > You have the FIRST computer of a type manufactured and shipped in > 1962? Yes that's right. The University of London twisted ICT's arm by saying if they did not fulfil the order, there would not be any undergraduate intake in 1962 and they would make sure everybody knew who was to blame. ICT made an extra prototype machine and shipped it. Every few weeks a group of engineers would come out and spend a day fitting the latest modifications to the prototype to bring it up to date. Students were not allowed anywhere near the machine, it was used purely for administrative purposes, plus putting examination results into grades and printing the pass slips and certificates. On de-commissioning it was offered to some engineering students who ran it as a bureaux come commune (this was the 1960s) on a what customers could afford basis. For instance it handled the membership list of the legalise cannabis movement which could not afford much but did not want their data got at by the authorities. That generated a few problems with the powers that be for the then owners. I bought it from them around 1977. > > That is a truly major score. That's freaking HISTORIC. Good lord, do > you store it in your house? It would not fit in my house. It is in a barn that used to be used for breeding rabbits (there's a job you'd think was easy) until they were wiped out by myxomatosis and the owners went bust. > How much power does it use? 13kVA three phase. It weighs about five tons and occupies 700 square feet. Roger Holmes. > > > > Warren

17 years, 2 months

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Speaking of rediculous prices

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

--- On Fri, 6/19/09, Ed Groenenberg <quapla at xs4all.nl> wrote: > Have a look at item 300323705513 on ebay. > > A rather high price imo. The VT05 is exceedingly rare, and much desired. It is quite possible the seller will get his price, though not from me. Gotta love that 70's styling, though. --Bill

17 years, 2 months

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Linus 1st Computer, Re: British Computers,

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

I think his Grandfather's VIC-20 did that. He was programming on that as a child. He bought the QL later on.. --- On Thu, 6/18/09, Julian Skidmore <julianskidmore at yahoo.com> wrote: > > Speaking of QDOS - Sinclair's uber-cheap 68008 QL also fell > into Linus > Torvolds young paws; setting him on the road to fame and > fortune - > kinda handy that :-) ! > > -cheers from julz @P

17 years, 2 months

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

by amouses＠gmail.com

Well a lot could be said about passwords! I have not seen all the posts but you need to clearly say the exact 4 digit IBM machine type and additional submodel code so everybody clearly knows the exact laptop you are fixing. Also identify which password you are trying to recover. I suggest the first point of call is the maintenance manual here IBM Thinkpad 600E maintenance manual http://www.linuxfocus.org/~guido/gentoo-tp600e/600e_hw_maintenance_manual.p… This will tell you about the different passwords: e.g. Power-On, Supervisor, Hard Disk .... It appears that for a 600E you can reset the Power On Password by shorting pads onthe motherboard. --------- I did find an entertaining article about hacking the Supervisor password http://sodoityourself.com/hacking-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password/ This sounds ideal if you really like soldering and have a lot of free time on your hands. Let us all know how you get on! PS: As an aside, if anybody has a good article on how exactly hard disk passwords work, please post the link. I never quite figured out the exact mechanism of storing the HDD password, and communicating it to the BIOS/OS on first access. regards marcus b.

17 years, 2 months

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Speaking of rediculous prices

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Have a look at item 300323705513 on ebay. A rather high price imo. Not affiliated etc. etc. etc.. -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10

17 years, 2 months

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British Computers, was: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

bfranchuk wrote: > My gripe with British Computers of that era, No floppy drive of any kind. Sure, if British=Sinclair. But if British=Acorn or British=Dragon Data (wow) or British=Amstrad or British=Nascom or British=... well you get the picture. But who would even want to complain about the cheap and cheerful Speccy? At only 175ukp in 1982 it was cheaper than a modern netbook and single- handedly put computers into the sticky, but impoverished hands of around 2% of Brits. You gotta give'em a bit of Kudos ;-) ! Speaking of QDOS - Sinclair's uber-cheap 68008 QL also fell into Linus Torvolds young paws; setting him on the road to fame and fortune - kinda handy that :-) ! -cheers from julz @P

17 years, 2 months

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hp laserjet 4si

by james＠jfc.org.uk

does anyone in the UK want one of these? it has postscript support, a duplex unit and a jet direct card. it was working fine until last week when it started displaying a "54 service" error. i have a spare maintenance kit (with fuser) and an unused toner cartridge for it. i expect the maintenance kit would get it going again, but to be honest i'd rather free up the (considerable) space. this would be pickup only from york.? it would be yorkshire's favourite price, of course. i'll help you carry it downstairs too! if you want it, let me know within the next week, or it might find a less loving home... -- James F. Carter www.jfc.org.uk www.podquiz.com www.starringthecomputer.com

17 years, 2 months

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Doing DU0 bootable with RT11 5.3 from one TU58

by spedraja＠ono.com

Hello. I started one virtual TU58 with RT11 5.3 from the COM1 of my laptop in my PDP-11/23 PLUS using TU58EM. In the same machine I have one DILOG DQ696 with one ESDI hard drive of 768 Mb. I want to convert the ESDI drive in a bootable device with RT11. I've initialized the DU0 and copied the complete system from the DD0 (TU58) Searching for the fast path to continue... Someone knows what must I do exactly now to continue ? Thanks in advance. Regards Sergio

17 years, 2 months

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Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On Jun 17, 2009, at 4:40 PM, Tony Duell 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. :-) 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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IBM 3420 tape drive and 3803 controller available (with pictures)

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

The seller for eBay item # 250445866736 has a complete 3420 tape drive and 3803 controller available. Located in Ladysmithc, Wisconsin. They are due to be parted out if no one speaks up for them. I inquired about these, and the seller sent me some photos. They are posted on my website at http://www.harlie.org/ibm_tape . I do not collect IBM big iron myself, but the 3420 is iconic, and folks look for them from time to time. I have no connection with the seller. --Bill

17 years, 2 months

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New communication method, old-school

by tpeters＠mixcom.com

Twitter from your C-64 http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/06/14/0218212/A-Twitter-Client-For-th… ----- 859. Help you I can! --Yoda --... ...-- -.. . -. ----. --.- --.- -... tpeters at nospam.mixcom.com (remove "nospam") N9QQB (amateur radio) "HEY YOU" (loud shouting) WEB: http://www.mixweb.com/tpeters 43? 7' 17.2" N by 88? 6' 28.9" W, Elevation 815', Grid Square EN53wc WAN/LAN/Telcom Analyst, Tech Writer, MCP, CCNA, Registered Linux User 385531

17 years, 2 months

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Printer rant

by technobug＠comcast.net

On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:10:42 -0500, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com > wrote: >> Have you replaced the fuser yet, or is it still the flaking one? > > It's still the flaking one. But It's bad. It's missing chunks from > both sides. I have a bid on a complete assembly at ebay. If I don't > get that today, I'll just order one. Partsmart <http://www.partsmart-corp.com/partsmart.asp> is your printer's friend. Just a very satisfied customer... CRC

17 years, 2 months

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

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

>From what I understand, the drive is locked by the system using the master supervisor password. Replacing the logic board (or the system unit as a whole) doesn't unlock the HDD. ? Only discovering and entering the master password will work. ? The unit will not boot to a floppy for a BIOS upgrade or to run a BIOS Password Crack program. It asks for the master password and refuses to go past that point. ? We didn't set the password, and presumably the original owner did and didn't tell us what it was. I tried contacting the seller, but the email address is no longer active. ? Replacing the security chip is more money and labor than the unit is worth. I can buy another unit for under $40 if I wanted to. ? I want to get to her HDD data, which she never backed up. Putting the HDD into a USB case results in a drive that is seen but won't mount on a PC, Mac or Linux Box. ? The drive is locked with an ATA command, and can only be unlocked by another ATA command supplying the password it was locked with. ? I can download a free utility to low level format the drive, but not unlock it. ? Paying $100 or more to have the data recovered is not in her budget, else she would have had the money to buy a new laptop rather than a bargain basement IBM Thinkpad. ? I've tried all sorts of supposed IBM Backdoor master passwords without success. I can't even find someone to tell me where the security chip is so I can use the circuit and software to read the password off the chip is. ? I really don't want to break the whole unit down if I don't have to. My eyes and hands aren't as steady as they used to be, and I'm not familiar with this unit as I am with Apple Powerbook G3 units. ? I've tried removing the battery for several days. Typing in every password I could think of. But, nothing works. ? I guess her data is gone, and my last backup of her data when I set the thing up for her is the best she is going to get. ? If anyone has any solutions, I'd be glad to hear them. ? Al Phila, PA

17 years, 2 months

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Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Enthusiasts vs Replica Recreators

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> From: Ray Arachelian <ray at arachelian.com> An excellent, almost definitive summary of the subject. I would just like to add a little of my own experiences. > I happen to be in both camps - yes, such a thing is possible. > Luckily I > do have enough physical space to be able to own a few dozen old > machines, though nothing very large, but certainly, I can experience > far > many more machines than I can house by emulating them. I have the real thing too (1962 mainframe) but also have an emulator for it. I initially wrote it so I could write software for it in the comfort of my house in the cold winter months without having to (a) risk damaging Germanium transistors which have a minimum official temperature rating of 50F, 10C. (b) having to warm up a whole barn to be comfortable to work in (c) having to hand start an old 3 phase 3.5 litre diesel generator with cold thick oil in it (d) having to pay for lots of diesel fuel or after I had 3 phase installed, to pay for 13 kWh electricity per hour. 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. I am also into classic cars and hold an annual car show at my home attended by about 4000 people. The opportunity to try opening the door and show visitors the mainframe was too hard to resist, so we did and were very surprised by the results. No negative comments, even by children who were amazed that computers were ever so much bigger than their familiar home machines. It was surprising how many adults people had experienced mainframes and who loved being reminded of just what it had been like, and having the opportunity for their children to experience what words alone cannot really describe. The smell of hot electronics by the ton, the heat, the noise, and of course the sights of the whole thing and the main console with its flashing lights, the scale of a machine big enough that you can stand INSIDE it and being told it weighs five tons. In the early years I had to simulate some of what the machine should have done, by using diagnostic facilities and one or three instructions entered directly into the control registers when the machine had failed. If the machine ever completely failed and had to be shut down I certainly would be very disappointed and I feel the visitors would be too, I'm sure a static museum exhibit just does not have the same impact. I once visited Manchester museum and they had a couple of old mainframe. No explanation, nobody to ask, I could have been very interested and spent hours there but without any information I passed on to the next room in about two minutes. I have to say the temptation to try the on switch was hard to resist, there wasn't even anything saying not to do so. > By and large, the people I've dealt with in regards to emulation have > been civil and friendly and appreciative. Some of these have never > seen > the systems they want emulators or, some of them have and wish to > relive > the nostalgia, some couldn't afford the real thing, or couldn't repair > it and so forth. In other words, they're hobbyists, just like the > type > of folks you'll find here on this list. And in fact, some were from > this list. The same thing in the classic car scene. There are people who spend years building replicas of E Type Jaguars (called XKE in the US), D Type Jaguars, AC Cobras, 1930s roadsters etc, often with better performance/handling than the originals. Very nice people, and I'd rather they did that than modify a working original. Like many others, I take an original car which should really be scrapped and spend much time and money to bring it back to how it left the factory, often to a better build quality. A few people then sell them at a huge loss because it is the restoration process itself that they enjoy. I keep mine (I have never ever sold a car - scrapped a few though) and enjoy driving it. I have seven cars - six are roadworthy, one under restoration, postponed due to the amount of work on my classic computer. > I will say this, a computer is nothing more than a bunch of parts that > don't do interesting things without software. Whether that > software is > a specific set of applications, an operating system, or a ROM with > some > sort of interpreter or debugger in it, or some code you yourself > have to > type in, there's not much a computer can do without code. All it will > do is sit there and take up space and, if turned on, consume > electricity > and produce heat. 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. > I'll assume that we're not in this hobby for the sole purpose of using > classic computers as space heaters. Not solely no. Just a useful side effect. > Now, of course, there is a lot of fun in the physical aspects of it, > repairing and reconfiguring systems, for example is a very good thing, > that's what allows us to keep our machines in running order, and > there's > certainly a huge sense of accomplishment in fixing a machine, and > therefore saving it from the scrap heap. Yes. > Ultimately, I believe that's the key here (at least it is for > myself - > and I don't presume to speak for others, except in the sense that they > might feel the same way) if you can't actually run the machine, it's > not very useful. It might be something nice to look at in a museum, > but > you won't be able to interact with it, you won't be able to *run > programs on it*. So, to me, a non working machine isn't very much > more > interesting than a statue, in fact, quite a lot less due to the lost > potential of what it could be. Couldn't agree more. > Walking by a cordoned off exhibit that shows a non-functioning > machine, > without the ability to see it run or interact with it, well that's > just > not very interesting to me. Watching the blinking lights of a powered > on machine might be fun for only about 3 seconds (unless perhaps > you're > one of those that tends to partake in mind-shrinking substances). > > The experience of actually running code, and even better, coding for > an > old machine is probably the largest part of the fun of this hobby. Yes but how can you give this experience to several hundred visitors in a day. With a multi-programmed machine this might be possible but with an older machine, specially ones without terminals (my one does not even have an operators terminal) you cannot do much without affecting the experience of the bulk of less technical visitors. I suppose it would be possible to provide an emulated machine to the minority but would they be interested in that? > ...... > > But there is one area where we are actually able to create and provide > immortality: software. So that's why I'm a programmer? I don't really expect my programs to be around in 20 years time let alone a hundred. One member here did express approval for a program I wrote in the 1980s but that is exceptional. The program drove a particular colour dot matrix printer, very few of which survive, and is of no use whatever without that hardware, which in time will become extinct. Applications I've worked on could fare better but why would anyone want to run a 2D drafting program or a 3D modelling program on an emulated Mac in a hundred years time? For me I think its pleasing people NOW which matters, and of course the money to spend on cars, old computers, food etc > ..... > > > I think the major complaint (or rather phobia) is that emulation can > allow one to run the same software WITHOUT the original hardware. Oh, > the excuses will come up from the back of the mind, dripping in terror > "But! But! But! If they can run it in software, they might throw out > the > hardware!" Well, yes, they might, and when /they/ discard that old > hardware, it will likely make its way to our hands. Sure, some will > wind up being scrapped by those who don't know any better, but a lot > of > folks realize our hobby exists. Some have various misunderstandings > about our ability to pay insane amounts for nostalgia (i.e. the rabid > ebay complaints that surface every few months), but others aren't > looking for a quick score, so they'll ask around or post on Craig's > List > or Goodwill and do the right thing. As I am not going to live for ever I want my old computer to go to a museum. I've already tried with one which eventually went to a privately run museum as I could not GIVE it to a publicly run one. I would like this to happen to my remaining one whilst I am young enough to tell them how to move it, reassemble it and help get it running, I don't want to be doing it in my eighties, but I MIGHT still be interested in running an emulator which does not develop faults and need a resident engineer to fix them. > (Some write emulators for the > challenge, for being the first to do so, etc. I admit all of those > sentiments in my own experiences, but preservation was the main one.) 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. > So the goals of those who repair, those who create replicas, and those > who write emulators are very much the same. > The goals of those who buy and collect older machines, and of those > who > run emulators are also similar. Yes. > There are also many reasons why emulation is a good thing. The > ability > to liberate the soul of the machine from the hardware (whether broken > beyond repair, fixable, or working) is a good thing. It provides us > with the chance to collect unwanted hardware, it provides anyone who > is > interested the ability to experience older software, and to some > degree > get an idea of what the older hardware could do. Sure, it's not the > same, but it can be if the guys who write emulators care to make it a > close experience. If we ask for them to be as close to the real thing > as possible, the guys that write emulators will make it so. Yes. > ... > > > While there may have been only a few Colossus machines, all of which > had > been destroyed after WWII, if someone can get their hands on the > emulator for it, they can run one whenever the mood strikes. Not as > many can build their own replica, however, and none will have an > original. > > (Speaking of which anyone know where you could get a Colossus emulator > from? - there was mention of one here: > http://designresearchgroup.wordpress.com/2007/11/23/a-post-modern-colossus/ > ) :-) The emulation page of the CCS web site seems to have disappeared so I can't check. As Colossus, like early US machines was not a stored program computer, I'm not sure at what level you want the emulation to run. I think there was an emulator for Baby, the first stored program computer on the web site. > Maybe emulators aren't for everyone, then again, neither is > collecting a > lot of classic machines, or building replicas of such. To each their > own. Each have advantages the others can't meet. > > And of course there is a huge spectrum between pristine sealed in > box to > damaged beyond repair. (Of course, ideally, every classic machine > should be in pristine condition, with unyellowed cases, and completely > working. But that's a pipe dream.) Never had a sealed in box machine which was beyond economic repair? :-) > That spectrum also includes modern peripherals or upgrades. Some > would > scream bloody murder at the thought of replacing a non-working hard > drive for a classic system with a modern hard drive (or CF card) and > interface, others would gladly welcome it as it means the difference > between an unusable machine and one that works. > > This can go all the way to replacing the actual internals of a machine > with a modern one running an emulator (I recall someone installed a > Mac > Mini inside a Mac Plus case and then ran mini vMac on it as an > example), > or of course, just a plain emulator running on a normal consumer > machine. > > I don't think we should be bickering and fighting over where our > preferences lie on the spectrum. To each their own, and no matter > where > your preferences lie, the end result is that more classic machines are > saved from scrap. Absolutely.

17 years, 2 months

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Any PACE users out there?

by eric＠brouhaha.com

The PACE was National Semiconductor's first single-chip 16-bit microprocessor. Its architecture was similar to National's earlier IMP-16 multichip processor, which in turn was inspired by the Data General Nova architecture. Godbout designed and advertised a PACE system, and built a prototype, but never put it into production. PACE never caught on with hobbyists, possibly because it was slower than the more common 8-bit processors. PACE, and the later INS8900 NMOS version, did get used in some embedded systems. In May I wrote an assembler and simulator for the PACE, and typed in the published source code for PACE FIG-Forth. I found and corrected a bug in the U/ word. In case anyone actually has a PACE system, I've put the sources online: http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/national/pace/figforth/ I'm not quite ready to publish my assembler and simulator, though if anyone feels an urgent need for such things, let me know. Eric

17 years, 2 months

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FrameMaker for SunOS

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Who were the people who wanted packages of FrameMaker for SunOS? I volunteered to take the lot from Dave McGuire and repackage them for those who wanted them. He's finally getting around to sending them off to me. -- 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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Computer history in New Jersey

by evan＠snarc.net

Hi cctalkers. Lately I've been compiling information about computer developments that happened at the former Army Signal Corps base ("Evans Signal Lab" ... no it wasn't named for me!) here in New Jersey. The base closed in the late 1990s and part of it became the computer museum where we hold VCF, etc. Some folks might find this interesting: http://www.snarc.net/cctalk-evans.pdf. The museum is open (most) Sundays from 1pm - 4pm, and other times by appointment for private tours, if anyone's taking a trip east this summer. (VCF isn't until September.) - EK

17 years, 2 months

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NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

--- On Thu, 6/18/09, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > the older one was the 7220 + DRAM + TTL + a chracter > generator EPROM. It "older one" as in earlier model QX10 or QX10 as opposed to QX16? I have a 10, w/the Titan 8088 board if anyone needs pics of that.

17 years, 2 months

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noise scolding circuit

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

A couple months ago someone mentioned an URL leading to a circuit that makes a horrible noise when someone is talking too loudly. I can't remember the correct keywords to find it in my archives. Would someone please post it again? -- 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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Optimem 2400

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Saw one of these on eBay (item 150352695537) and I'm intrigued. Seems to be a WORM drive that uses cartridges with 12" platters. (Kinda reminds me of the old RCA videodiscs :)) Anyone know anything about these? Not much info on the 'net. Josh

17 years, 2 months

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Stanford's PDP-6

by len＠shustek.com

> From: Al Kossow > Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 8:32 AM > I'm resending this with a revised title so someone has a chance of finding > this again in the future. I sent a similar message to alt.sys.pdp10 when > the subject came up last time. This issue resurfaces every few years. My first post related to it was to alt.sys.pdp10 on 2/28/1996 2:54 PM. The last time I saw it discussed was February of 2006. I have various messages on the subject in my email archive, including those between Gordon Bell and Rich Alderson in 1999. This supposed dismantling of the Stanford PDP-6 predates even my tenure on the board of The Computer Museum, which started in 1995, so I can't make a personal testimonial. But like Al, I've searched the files and spoken to people who were there. I have no evidence that it is true, and I have gotten multiple declarations that it is false. See, for example, the email below from Gwen Bell to me in 1999. I don't know what else we can do. I'm sure this is not the last time it will be discussed. In my 1996 posting I said, > It pains me to read some of the recent comments about TCM's collection > policy. I can't answer any of the complaints about specific items, > because I wasn't involved. I do know, and this comes mostly from > getting to know the Bells, that preserving computers in the context of a > financially sound organization that can survive our lifetimes is their > main priority. And it is ours still today. Len Shustek Chairman, Computer History Museum >Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 19:09:13 -0800 >To: Len Shustek <len at shustek.com> >From: Gwen Bell <bell at computerhistory.org> >Subject: Re: [Fwd: The Computer Museum did WHAT???? >Cc: gbell at Microsoft.com ... >The story of the "sale" of the PDP-6 boards is pretty simple. The >original Museum was in the MR-1 and MR-2 facilities of DEC. These >were the engineering/manufacturing locations for the PDP-6. The >Museum had access to the "trash", the boards that were discarded >for use in the computers to be sold. We held them and sold them >at a single yard sale. I can get the VPs and Engineers in Marlboro >at the time to attest to this version. The Museum did not "strip" >any workable PDP-6 machines, these boards were already "surplussed", >whatever that meant ... but they were not used. And, like the Apple I >boards that we not sold, they would have been shredded and recycled. >This can be attested to by Alan Kotok (part of the 6 project now at >MIT), Ulf Fagerquist, who was engineering head of large computers, >Bob Glorioso, as well as Gordon who was their boss at the time. >The Museum folks essentially scavenged the bays of boards that were to >recycled or just discarded in the dump to sell to "collectors." This >was clearly a market or purpose that the company did not see. But was approved for the purpose of history .. and building a body of >other collectors and establishing collectables, something that happens >for all kinds of technology museums.

17 years, 2 months

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NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

remember the APC had the ability to pan on a larger virtual "scree". The native resolution was 640 x 400/or 480. The virtual screen was like twice that (at least). That might be the reason for the complexity. I've seen much less dense boards based on the 7220. JOOC, where are you getting these 7220s from? --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Peter C. Wallace <pcw at mesanet.com> wrote: > From: Peter C. Wallace <pcw at mesanet.com> > Subject: RE:NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 9:45 PM > On Wed, 17 Jun 2009, Andrew Lynch > wrote: > > > Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:37:04 -0400 > > From: Andrew Lynch <lynchaj at yahoo.com> > > Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic > Posts" > > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > > Subject: RE:NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual > > > > --- On Wed, 6/10/09, Andrew Lynch wrote: > > 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 > > > > > Probably 30 would do, I have in front of me a S100 card > with a 7220. 128KB of > 64 Kb DRAM and 31 TTL ICs... > > > Peter Wallace > Mesa Electronics > > (\__/) > (='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your > (")_(") signature to help him gain world domination. > >

17 years, 2 months

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

by dgahling＠hotmail.com

can u boot from floppy? if its enabled its easy to wipe the cmos password. also check ibm website for a recovery disk but that still requires either floppy or cd boot ---------- Sent via Telus My Email 2.0 -----Original Message----- From: Al Hartman Sent: 6/18/2009 5:21:44 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: IBM Thinkpad 600e can't get past password prompt... 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

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Unusual semi-modern DEC terminal - "MT 505"?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, I'm going through piles of stuff at FreeGeek Columbus, identifying odd stuff (since most of the volunteers are really only trained on commodity PC hardware). We have a pile of DEC terminals and X Terms >from a local car dealer. The VT220s are, of course, easy to plug in and test. There is another terminal, though, that's clearly of DEC origin, but I can't find how to get into 'setup' mode. The terminals are marked on the front "505 MT", and on the back, the DEC label says something like "VT-42 - 505 MT". Physically, they look newer than a VT220 and sort-of resemble a Wyse 50. When powering them on, they appear to have some sort of graphic video memory test on startup. The same LK-series keyboard (not an LK-201, but something in the LK-4xx line) that works find with the VT220s does not give me the setup menu on the 505 MT from pressing F3. >From interpreting the 2-3 labels on the top, back and sometimes sides, it wouldn't surprise me that these are VT-420s with some sort of custom firmware for an ADP system of some kind. I've done some googling, but haven't turned up much except for replacement prices. All of these terminals are dirty and the plastic yellowed with age/UV exposure, but once I get them all checked out, FreeGeek Columbus is interested in selling them for a nominal amount (under $50). There are no keyboards or power cords, and they will all need to be cleaned, but I can say that each one sold will be tested (by me) to work with an LK-series keyboard and have stable video (VT220s have a common fault that takes out horizontal hold) and working serial line drivers (tested with a loopback plug). If anyone recognizes a "505 MT" variant of a VT420 and especially knows how to get into setup, I'd love to hear from you. If anyone is interested in one of these terminals (sans keyboard), I'd love to hear >from you on that, too. FreeGeek Columbus would like to place these terminals into loving homes and not have to scrap them. Thanks, -ethan

17 years, 2 months

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Corvus software support for Mac

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

I have some Corvus Mac floppies here. If they are still good, and I can image them... You are welcome to them. Al ----- Original Message ---- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:25:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> Just unearthed a Corvus Omninet interface box for Macintosh. It plugs into the older-style 9-pin Localtalk connector. Does anyone own or have a lead on the client software and admin tools that go along with it? Steve

17 years, 2 months

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Montreal: free Sun Ultra 30 barebones, Digital VRT-19 monitor

by alexandre.laguejacques＠gmail.com

Hello all, I'm in Montreal and am giving away: (1) Sun Ultra 30 tower (no RAM, no HDD but working and in good condition) (1) Digital (DEC) VRT-19 monitor (working, good image, cabinet in fair to good condition) For pick-up only and hopefully in the next few days as I'm moving! Thanks, - Alex

17 years, 2 months

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Printer rant

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

--- On Thu, 6/18/09, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com> wrote: > When I open the printer, the page is slightly mangled, so I > think it's > a jam. I can also hear the paper crinkling right > before it reports > the jam. It's also pinched on a roller at the top of > the page before > the fuser. But only maybe 1/4" is under the > roller. It gives me a > little resistance when I pull the page out. The error > is 13.5 and it > tells me to check the back paper tray. Check the whole paper path for bits of paper, paper clips, shredded fuser bits, junk, etc. That kind of an error is usally an obstruction or something. Take out the toner cartridge, fuser, transfer roller, etc, and blow all the dust and crud out of the paper path. Check that the transfer roller bushings are good and that it turns freely. Check that there's not a bit of paper stuck in the registration assembly. There are also two sensor flags in the fuser (an entry and an exit). Check to be sure that a bit of fuser hasn't gotten stuck in them... Also, if I remember correctly, there's a little conveyor belt looking thing in there too - make sure nothing is preventing it from moving freely. Honestly, with some of these printers, I wind up taking out the paper tray, the fuser, toner, everything you can easily remove, and turn them upside down and shake. It's amazing the crud that falls into a printer. I fixed a nagging jam problem in one machine by just cleaing out the paper clips. But, if your fuser is that torn up, I can just about garuntee you'll get a ton of jams in the fuser. But the paper should at least make it there. Manually turn through the fuser by turning the gear, and make sure that the ragged edges are "smooth" and won't catch easily on the paper. > Is that the 13.5 that appears on the display or is it > something else? Yeah, that's all - but the status log give a history of jams, in case you can't reproduce the problem, or if you want to see all the other places the paper is getting stuck. I generally have to resort to that, since intermittent jams always seem to behave themselves when I'm present. :) -Ian

17 years, 2 months

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logic probe happy-sad

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I needed a new logic probe, so I found one on Ebay. Whoops, no audio output. Found plans for a "super probe" based on a PIC16 (http://members.cox.net/berniekm/super.html). Still need a case for this thing. Found that kelvin.com has logic probe cases. Whee! -- 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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Printer rant

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

--- On Thu, 6/18/09, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks for the help. I was hoping there was a printer > repair guru on > the group. I haven't done laser printer repair since > the laserjet 2 > and 3. I was pleased to see how serviceable the fuser > assembly was. Yeah, it's definitely much nicer to swap than the older machines. The fuser, transfer roller and all the rubber rollers are all contained in a "maintainance kit", which is recommended at varying intervals depending on model. The test page should tell you the pages since last mainainence, as well as give you an overall page count, so you can get a feeling for how much use the machine has had. > Initially I thought they had run a transparency through and > melted it > to the fuser. But it's just as you're > describing. Pieces are coming > off of the fuser film. Yup. They switched from solid rollers to a flexible plastic film roller that goes over a ceramic heating element. It'll start to fail along one edge first, and sometimes a narrow strip gets torn off one edge, then you'll get weird printouts that look fine, save for an unfused band along one edge. Soon, the film just tears apart and starts jamming. The paper also gets caught on the fuser film, and jams. > The main problem I'm having is that every page jams right > before it > enters the fuser. Does this sound like the fuser or > some of the > rollers? Have you replaced the fuser yet, or is it still the flaking one? Is the paper actually jamming, or is it just stopping, and the printer reports a jam? There are various sensors in the paper path, and if the paper takes too long to get from one point to another (or if there's toner in the sensor optos), the printer simply assumes that it's jammed and stops trying. Another thing that really confuses the heck out if the printer is if the paper size is set wrong, or if one of the flags on the tray has broken off. The paper tray contains little levers that change flags on the side or back of the tray (depending on model). When you set the guides in the tray, it changes the flags on the side - this tells the printer what size paper is loaded. If one or more of the flags is broken, or the switches are faulty, the the printer thinks the tray contains another size of paper than it really does. This can also lead to "paper isn't where I think it should be, giving up" problems. The test page should tell you what size paper the machine _thinks_ it has. I'll look up the 4100 service manual and see how it's set up, it's been a while since I've worked on one (most of my customers are on different models), so my memory is a little rusty. In the status log, the paper jams will come with an error code number that can help determine the cause of the problem as well. -Ian

17 years, 2 months

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Printer rant

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

--- On Thu, 6/18/09, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com> wrote: > I agree. I should just order one now. I was > hoping to get a lot of > mileage out of the printer anyway. > You should. Those are workhorse printers. And, for reference, the "fuser flaking into bits" is a very common failure in these, but more especially the 4200/4300 series. HP hadn't quite worked out all the kinks in their film-style fusers. Something about the way the film wore over the guides causes them to fail prematurely. At least with the 4100 you shouldn't have to worry about the swing plate gear failing, that was a big problem on early 4200/4300's. Fixing that one is fun, you have to strip the whole machine down pracically. (I do a fair amount of printer repair for my job...) But, let me know if you need a part and can't find it, I should be able to get it through my parts supplier. -Ian

17 years, 2 months

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

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

I'm not certain of the mechanics involved, but, you shouldn't be able to trash the format of either drive, unless the Drive Select jumpers are set incorrectly. The only thing that might have an impact on this would be if you try it in a BA23 with an un-modified 4-button front panel. *Maybe* the fact that the Ready/Write Protect lines for the 2nd drive are left floating, is somehow confusing the RQDXn controller, but that seems doubtful. Those lines merely report status of the 2nd drive. The Drive Select and Head Select lines don't go anywhere near the front panel, and there are separate signal lines for drives 0, 1, 2, and 3. >From a modification standpoint, there are NO CHANGES required to the disk drive distribution panel; all of the signal lines are there, and ready to use for 2 drives. DEC sold the "upgrade" kit for 2 hard drives; it's called the BA23-UC. It consists only of a 6-button panel. This is the same 6-button panel that was shipped with later models of the MicroVax, which clearly supported 2 internal RD-series disk drives. All the 6-button panels did was to add the extra ready/write protect buttons. There is no extra logic involved. The Write Protect LIGHTS for the RX50's were deleted, as the newer RQDX3 controller doesn't provide any outputs for the floppy write protect lights. Most of this information is documented on-line, in the document "third-party disks.txt". All that need be done to the 4-button panels is to solder 2 resistors onto the boards, to pull the 2 signal lines to their appropriate logic levels. The RQDX3 only uses these signals to establish that the drive is on-line, and write-enabled. It has nothing to do which drive is selected when it goes to write. Have I trashed the format of a drive in a 2-drive BA23 configuration? Yes, I have. But only because I wasn't paying attention, and didn't set the Drive Select jumpers to "3" on both drives. Remember: The distribution panel shifts the signal lines around, and all hard drives need to be set to "3". This could easily trip you up if you weren't paying attention, as some of the drives had DS markings of 0 - 3, and some were marked 1 - 4 . . . Thus, depending on what DS settings you have, you could in theory have 2 drives responding to the same drive select signal, which could trash your format. T

17 years, 2 months

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

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

On 18/06/2009 08:05, Pete Turnbull wrote: > {re two hard drives in a BA23] Mine works, and I've not cut any wires. Let's dispel a few inaccuracies that have been presented about this. First of all, it *is* possible to have two hard drives in a BA23. However, it was not supported by DEC, partly because the particular drives they supported at the time drew too much power in a fully-populated system, and partly because the chassis would not then accomodate an RX50 or TK50 and would therefore not be field-maintainable (no way to load diagnostics from floppy or tape). Secondly, the RQDXE and RQDX1-E extenders are intended to provide additional connections for external drives, and are not used in a BA23 or BA123 for internal drives. I don't have one of either right now to check but I remember they're both purely passive devices. The RQDXE is M7512 and is used for an RQDX1; the RQDXE is M7513 and used for an RQDX2 or RQDX3. The card in a BA123 for internal distribution is an M9058, and is a buffered device. It's called a Signal Distribution Board, not an extender. The two systems (BA23/BA123) treat the drive selects in somewhat different ways, which is why you can't always simply take a drive configured for a BA123 and move it (successfully) into a BA23. An RQDXn controller provides four drive selects for hard drives. In a BA123 with M9058, each drive select is taken to one (and only one) of the 34-way connectors (J1 to J4) for the drives, but it's connected (unless you change jumpers) to all 4 drive select lines on that connector. However, as is usual, all the other signals are bussed to all connectors in parallel (though some are buffered separately to different connectors to reduce loading effects). This means you can (and normally do) set the drive select on each drive the same way - normally to DS3. This is analogous to the way you would set all drives to the same ID in a PC system, only there you use a twist in the cable to re-route the drive selects. Although all the signals are bussed, many (including Write Gate) are gated /in the drive/ with the drive select. Because each connector is connected to a different drive select, no two drives can be selected at the same time. However, this is not done in a BA23 distribution board, where all the bus signals are simply bussed. Normally in a BA23 you set the first hard drive to DS3, as that's the first drive select the RQDXn tries when it looks for drives. That's why the convention for the BA123 also became to set every drive to DS3. If you use an expander to connect an expansion box, again you set the first drive in the expansion box to DS3 but you set the second drive to DS4. If you add a second internal drive to a BA23, you must do the same thing: set the drive select to DS4. This is actually stated in the microPDP-11 Maintenance Manual, in more than one place. If you set two drives with the same drive select jumpering, they will both be enabled at the same time, regardless of position. Actually, you could set the second drive to any select except DS3, at least for RQDX2 and RQDX3, but you need to be aware that the RQDXn controllers use the same drive select signals for RX drives as for RD drives. In other words, it has only 4 drive select lines for all the drives connected to it, and it tests them in order DS3, DS4, DS1, DS2. You're supposed to reserve DS1 and DS2 for an RX50 if using an RQDX1. I've never tried this in a BA23 with its own distribution board, so I don't know if it actually connects all 4 drive selects. My 11/83 in a BA23 is set up exactly like this -- DU0: uses DS3 and DU1: uses DS4. It's always been this way, and has always worked. Nothing else has been modified. For the record, it has a pair of RD54 drives in it, and has been running 2.11 BSD for years. There is another gotcha, though. The RD console board on some BA23 boxes -- that's the small card just behind the front panel -- only has connections for one drive. That card has two pushbutton switches, for Write Protect and Ready, along with some very simple electronics including pullup resistors and LEDs. When the switches are open, the drive is enabled (able to go Ready) and write enabled (not Write Protected). Usually the same thing happens when the board is absent because the two signals tend to float high (though not always reliably). Each switch is arranged to short the corresponding signal to ground when pushed in. The LED on the Write Protect is connected between +5V (via a 150R resistor) and the WP switch, and lights up when the switch is pushed in (Write Protected). The LED on the Ready is fed via a transistor to invert it, so it lights up when the switch is /not/ pushed in (drive is enabled) but goes out when the signal from the RQDXn pulls the line low (as it does when it accesses the drive), or when the switch /is/ pushed in (not enabled). There are PostScript files showing the schematics of the M9058 and console boards, and the layouts and pinouts of related boards, at http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/RQDX/ I've just added PDF copies for the challenged. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

17 years, 2 months

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Printer rant

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

So I buy this lightly used "working" HP 4100n from ebay. They only allow pickups during the day, so my wife heads over to get it. I get home... the back cover is missing. Luckily they find it. She heads back over and picks it up. I put it on, plug it in... no toner cartridge. The guy hopes I'll understand. So I order a toner cartridge from ebay. I get it today, put paper in it... it jams every time. So I start taking things apart and notice that the fuser is hosed, chunks are coming out of it. So I ordered a new fuser from ebay tonight. My money is on the fuser not fixing the paper jam problem. I would never do this to someone. Am I weird?

17 years, 2 months

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sorry no manual but... was Re: NEC uPD7220/GDC Design Manual

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Sorry Andrew, I wish I had it myself (just so I could sleep w/it under my pillow and brag). I do have several boards that use the 7220. If you want digital photos of any or all, I'd be happy (but something less then joyous) to provide them. They might provide the clues you need in the absence of a bona fide manual. Included in that list would be the NEC APC vid board, the NEC APC III, and probably a few others. --- On Wed, 6/10/09, Andrew Lynch <lynchaj at yahoo.com> wrote: > From: Andrew Lynch <lynchaj at yahoo.com> > 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. > > > > On a related but different subject if anyone is interested, > I just got the > N8VEM VDU board working (SY6545 based) and there are photos > in the N8VEM > wiki. > > > > http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=VDU > > > > Thanks and have a nice day! > > Andrew Lynch > >

17 years, 2 months

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

by bqt＠softjar.se

Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 4:14 AM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote: >> > >> > ...and if you wanted to use more than one hard drive >> > on the RQDX3 you also need the RQDXE, since the BA23 distribution board is buggy, and >> > can't actually connect two hard drives, even though you have two connections. >> > I think it's worth pointing out that people should never even try connecting two hard drives in a BA23. >> > You'll definitely wreck whatever contents you have on the disks if you try. > > I thought there was a way to do it, but you had to start moving drive > select jumpers around and it was still easy to get a double-select and > trash your contents. 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.) 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. 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? > I remember trying to put a pair of RD52s or an RD53 and an RD52 on one > machine 20+ years ago. I also remember not succeeding. Clearly an > RQDXE would have made the job simpler (possible?), but we didn't have > one handy. The RQDXE will definitely do the trick. If your "not succeeding" just went as far as you didn't get it to work, without trashing the conents of a drive, you were lucky. 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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Vintage Computers w New Tech. was Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

Yes, but I also have a Wameco QM-1A S-100 board that if I find a CPU card, I would like to get this and get that running as well. The Northstar I will keep original since it is complete with boards. The Wameco is a empty board --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Dan Roganti <ragooman at comcast.net> wrote: > From: Dan Roganti <ragooman at comcast.net> > Subject: Re: Vintage Computers w New Tech. was Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys > To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 7:45 PM > > I remember you just bought a Northstar, wouldn't you > instead like to > learn how that hardware designed back then operates while > you restore > that machine ? > > =Dan > > > Christian Liendo wrote: > > That is REALLY nice.. > > Hmmmmm, I need to save $$ as I am trying to buy parts > for my S100 machines. > > > > I want this though. > > > > http://www.cpm80.com/superio.html > > > > > > > > > > --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Roger Pugh <rogpugh at mac.com> > wrote: > > > >??? > >> From: Roger Pugh <rogpugh at mac.com> > >> > >> > >> The 1541 Ultimate has audio out jack for that > authentic > >> drive head > >> banging experience! > >> > >> I have one, but yet to investigate its > capabilities. > >> > >> www.1541ultimate.net > >> > >> Roger > >> > >> > >>? ??? > > > > > >? ? ??? > >??? > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > > Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.77/2184 - > Release Date: 06/17/09 17:55:00 > > > >??? >

17 years, 2 months

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Taking apart a Brikon 723 floppy drive analyzer

by keithvz＠verizon.net

So in my hunt to find more information on switches I want to clean/replace(that was mentioned in another thread), I took this Brian Instruments Brikon 723 floppy drive analyzer apart. I've taken my share of equipment apart, but I can't believe the size of the components inside. Can someone help me make sense of this design? I find no fewer than 4 HUGE transformers: (2) Pacific 0288 DP100-16 (1) Pacific 0288 DP100-28 (1) Pacific 0388 DP30-36 There appear to be (7) terminals on each transformer. Maybe +,-,GND on the primary AC side, and then (4) terminals on the secondary DC side?? I guess all (4) terminals would be the same voltage? I've emailed Pacific for the datasheets --- I doubt they are current products. Then, there are these huge capacitors, (8) Frako 3300uf ones. There are about 20 leds and 20 switches on the front panel, which are not easily accessible from the back side. The front panel has a half dozen 7-segment LEDs. One of the more prominent socketed chips is a Burr-Brown DAC80-CBI-V. (http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/BurrBrown/mXrvxzt.pdf) There are a few daughter cards with a bunch of 74LS logic chips. There are other ICs that I can't get to without going deeper into the teardown. There's a decent size fan on the back of the unit for cooling. I guess I'm at a loss for the transformers. Why 4? So that you have separate stable sources of DC power so that the pull from one doesn't affect the others? Can I replace the power circuits with something smaller and newer? The transformers and caps make up easily 1/2 the total size inside the chassis and easily 75% of the weight. Thanks Keith

17 years, 2 months

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Vintage Computers w New Tech. was Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

That is REALLY nice.. Hmmmmm, I need to save $$ as I am trying to buy parts for my S100 machines. I want this though. http://www.cpm80.com/superio.html --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Roger Pugh <rogpugh at mac.com> wrote: > From: Roger Pugh <rogpugh at mac.com> > > > The 1541 Ultimate has audio out jack for that authentic > drive head > banging experience! > > I have one, but yet to investigate its capabilities. > > www.1541ultimate.net > > Roger > >

17 years, 2 months

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Vintage Computers w New Tech. was Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:08:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Christian Liendo <christian_liendo at yahoo.com> >I am a fan when it doesn't ruin the end user experience. <snip> >The technology has to be built in a way so that you don't have to harm the old computer so that if you want to run it the old way, >you can. I mean sometimes you want the experience of listening to the grinding of a 1541 drive. ----------------- One of the not-much-larger-than-a-postage-stamp SD card disk drive emulators for the C64 does exactly that; it makes the same comfortingly familiar nasty sounds that a 'real' 15xx CBM drive would make.

17 years, 2 months

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Corvus software support for Mac

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Just unearthed a Corvus Omninet interface box for Macintosh. It plugs into the older-style 9-pin Localtalk connector. Does anyone own or have a lead on the client software and admin tools that go along with it? Steve --

17 years, 2 months

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Looking for IMI 5018 MFM drive

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:30:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> <snip> >For reasons unclear, none of my followups to this have appeared on the >list. >Mike, Cannot seem to get to you via e-mail. Will you please contact me >offlist on the subject? >Steve --------------- Boy, take a weekend off and look what happens; relax, everyone, I'm alive and well, and we're talking off-list; I know you were worried... ;-) mike

17 years, 2 months

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early PA-RISC machines

by lee_courtney＠acm.org

I know that one HP reseller here in the Bay area had a 930 (TTL-based HPPA RISC) a couple years ago. You could root around for other resellers on comp.sys.MPE, assuming you want to pay money for one. Of course they were really really slow, wouldn't you rather have a 950? The 930 was in way a prototype that escaped from the Lab. Lee C. --- On Thu, 6/11/09, Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote: > From: Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> > Subject: Re: early PA-RISC machines > To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 8:46 AM > > > > > HP 9000 model 840 and HP 3000 model 930. > I think I have seen one of those here in Germany - running > HPUX 24/7 and being connected to the Internet. > > > -- http://www.hachti.de >

17 years, 2 months

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what are these?

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-VINTAGE-EXTERNAL-5-25-FLOPPY-DRIVES_W0QQitemZ20035377… One looks like the single sided floppy drives that came with the 5150. The other looks like it's from another planet. I originally though it was a QIC tape drive, but the shot inside the drive opening shows the slots along the side to hold the floppy disks.

17 years, 2 months

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fpga pdp's; [was Re: ...arrogance [was RE: UNIX V7] ]

by bob＠theadamsons.co.uk

Eric Smith wrote: >> Brad Parker wrote: >>> I did a "direct decode" pdp-11 in verilog recently just to see how >>> big it would be (and because I was frustrated with the pop-11 >>> project). It fits nicely & boots RT11 at 50mhz. >> At that speed, surely it hasn't finished booting RT11 yet! > sorry, I don't get the joke. clock is 50mhz, or 20ns; each state is one > clock and on average > an instruction is 3 states. I calculated 10mips. it seems to boot much > faster than my 11/44 :-) > > what did I miss? Possibly a pedant distinguishing (correctly) between mega and milli? ;o) Bob

17 years, 2 months

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

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

On Mon Jun 15 01:42:03 CDT 2009, spedraja at ono.com wrote: > But I have one question in addition... Are we speaking about a DIRECT > connection of the RX33 to the RQDX3, or we should need to use the BA23 > distribution board (or other) ? The home-brew cable I described goes DIRECTLY from the RQDXn controller to the floppy drives, and does NOT stop at any of the normal distribution boards / paddle cards. Controller <-----> cable <----- > drives This precludes using the RQDXn for any hard drives. On Sun Jun 14 03:14:57 CDT 2009, bqt at softjar.se wrote: > I think it's worth pointing out that people should never even try > connecting two hard drives in a BA23. You'll definitely wreck whatever > contents you have on the disks if you try. It is my understanding that this was true for older BA23 chassis, with only 4-button control panels. Ultimately, the problem was that the Ready and Write Protect lines were floating for the 2nd drive. Patching a pair of 10K resistors onto the 4-button control panel was all that was required to make the 2nd drive function normally, although admittedly, I can't recall if they needed to be pulled high, or low. Power supply loading may come into play, depending on how many drives & boards you have.

17 years, 2 months

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

by scd.calgary＠shaw.ca

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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CDP1802, was Re: Intersil EPROM

by jonas＠otter.se

Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: >> I don't think I ever did anything remotely interesting with it, but it's >> still a neat toy. > >It's a great toy. ...etc... In the 1980s, Chrysler made an electronic ignition system which used an 1802. It was fitted to all Volvos with mechanical fuel injection and catalytic converters sold in the US. Also the early versions of the Bosch Motronic fuel injection/electronic ignition system used 1802s. I believe the reason for using the 1802 was that it was more immune to interference than NMOS parts. Around 1982-1983 Bosch switched to the 8049. /Jonas

17 years, 2 months

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Need assistance in restoring to working order a MicroVAX 3800

by WVerish＠aol.com

Hi: I have a MicroVAX 3800 computer that went overnight from being able to boot from the hard drive to not seeing the hard drives at all. The computer will look at the TK70, but I do not have a bootable tape. I purchased a KFQSA board from the net, but that did not seem to help. A scan of then QBUS shows only UQSSP Tape controller MUA0 and the ethernet adapter XQB0. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please keep in mind that I am a "newbie", but I am learning as fast as I can. I am 60 years old, and serious about getting this system up and running again. I would also be happy to be able to find someone with an Open VMS VAX version that can build me a bootable tape using the STABACKIT.Com tool provided with Open VMS VAX...............or...................use a tape-bases distribution that would come with a TK50 tape kit, which is supposed to be read-compatible with the TK70. Thanks for listening, Wayne Verish (440) 885-0803 **************Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your fingertips. (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown000000…)

17 years, 2 months

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

by bqt＠softjar.se

SPC <spedraja at ono.com> wrote: > Mmm... this needs of one BA23, isn't so ? Not neccesarily. The BA23 backplane is also a distribution board for the RQDX controllers. But for the RQDX3 you also have a separate board, called RQDXE (if I remember right) which do the same thing, and makes it possible to use the RQDX3 without a BA23. If you have a BA123 you always need the RQDXE, and if you wanted to use more than one hard drive on the RQDX3 you also need the RQDXE, since the BA23 distribution board is buggy, and can't actually connect two hard drives, even though you have two connections. I think it's worth pointing out that people should never even try connecting two hard drives in a BA23. You'll definitely wreck whatever contents you have on the disks if you try. Another option to use a RX33 would be to get a RQZX1, but that is probably harder to fine, and more expensive. Johnny > > Regards > Sergio > > 2009/6/13 Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> > >> > On Saturday 13 June 2009, SPC wrote: >>> > > I am searching one controller to use a couple of RX33 in one >>> > > PDP11-23/PLUS. Someone knows what could I use ? >> > >> > RQDX3 >> > >> > Pat >> > -- >> > Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/ >> > The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org >> > > -- 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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Vintage Computers w New Tech. was Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

I am a fan when it doesn't ruin the end user experience. For one thing, I like when old computers can be used with new technologies. Like twitter for the C64. I think that is awesome. I also like when I still see old computers working in real settings, there are people still using old systems and not replacing them. I also like when we can adapt new technologies for vintage computers such as ethernet & flash storage. I think it's great.. I also like flash storage because it reduces the wear and tear on drives. I mean if you like to play with your computer on a regular basis, why wear down the mechanisms when you can dump it all on flash? The technology has to be built in a way so that you don't have to harm the old computer so that if you want to run it the old way, you can. I mean sometimes you want the experience of listening to the grinding of a 1541 drive. --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote: > From: Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> > Subject: Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys > To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp..org> > Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 12:24 AM > Just because I'm curious: > > How do folks feel about those who are interested in > extending the life of vintage machines by integrating them > with newer technologies?? That's my interest, allowing > both existing and a new class of users to enjoy a vintage > platform by making it easy to utilize the vintage platform > with contemporary ones. > > Jim > >

17 years, 2 months

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IBM 3420 tape drive on eBay

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

The seller has listed just a front panel, but it looks like they have the entire drive. Also, a 3803 controller. The drive looks to be in good shape cosmetically, but are headed for scrap. Item # 250445866736 --Bill

17 years, 2 months

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Intersil EPROM

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I have a friend that is repairing some video equipment and he needs some *odd* EPROMs. They are Intersil IM6654 (I think) - but they are the obscure 10 Volt variant. He has the chips, but he has not been able to find a programmer that can handle these. Anyone? -- Will

17 years, 2 months

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Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 16 Jun 2009, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > From: Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com> > > Roger Holmes wrote: >> The IBM 360 was I understand announced in 1965, probably shipped >> quite >> soon after. > > IBM announced the series including six models on April 7, 1964, with > deliveries of small configurations predicted for third quarter of > 1965, > and large configurations for the first quarter of 1966. > > Eric > Thanks for the clarification. So 1964-1959 = 5, 1965.75-1962 = 3.75 and 1966-1962 = 4 so the 360 was around 4 years later that the 1301. Wiped the floor with it though. The only thing 1300 had going for it was sterling arithmetic in hardware. In case anyone's interested the programmer could set a register to the ten shillings position. Digits to the left were normal decimal, the digit itself carried at two, the (shilling) digit to the right carried at 10 as normal, and the next digit (pence) to the right carried at 12, digits further to the right carried at 10, so if you wanted to calculate in farthings (quarters of a penny) you could set it up to have two digits to the right of pence. In all this gave the machine a range of plus or minus 4,999,999pounds 19shillings and 11.99pence, or if you didn't want farthings, plus or minus 499,999,999pounds 19shillings and 11pence, which in 1962 was a LOT of money! The Bank of England had a pair of 1301s. Roger Holmes.

17 years, 2 months

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Looking for IMI 5018 MFM drive

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------Original Message: Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:31:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subject: Re: Looking for IMI 5018 MFM drive On Tue, 9 Jun 2009, Steven Hirsch wrote: > Title says it. Need to replace the drive mechanism in one of my Corvus > flat-cable drives. Firmware expects 6-heads and 306 cylinders and gets > boggled by anything larger, unfortunately. > Could also probably work with Seagate ST419 or Rodime RO203, which are the > only other drives I've found with the same geometry. There were a few more "15 meg" drives with that structure. Sure that you can't fool it into ignoring a few heads or cylinders with a 8 x 306 or 6 x 600? 20 and 30 Meg are a little easier to find. -----------Reply; The 5018 was available with both the 34 pin IMI interface as well as ST-506; I assume you're looking for ST-506. If you *really* can't use anything else I have a few with the IMI interface; the only difference is the top board, so if yours is OK then no problem. There is also a 5021 which, *AFAIK* is the same geometry. mike

17 years, 2 months

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am29c111

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Anybody out here has a datasheet, manual or application notes ? Thanks

17 years, 2 months

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

by mjkerpan＠kerpan.com

Frankly I don't get what this whole fuss is about from either side of the argument. On the one hand, yes, classic hardware is finite and the more people who want it, the higher prices get. But that's the same for ANY vintage item. From baseball cards to Corvettes to classic computers, scaricty is the main driver of pricing for anything that can be collected. But there's also another advantage to people being into classic hardware: greater interest creates more preservation. Unlike, say baseball cards or classic cars, the perceived value of older computers is quite low, except among the dedicated enthusiast community. By expanding the number of people interested in old hardware, the number of old computers picked from the curb at trash day or successfully sold at a yard sale goes up. While this obviously does little to save mainframes and minis, whose owners are usually large corportae and educational institutions that, by and large, have been moving to a common policy where selling hardware for scrap if possible and destroying it before disposal if not are preferable to giving stuff away or even SELLING it to hobbyists, increased interest and awareness in classic hardware can, and probably does, save classic 8 and 16-bit micros from the scrappers all the time. Part two of my rant, about why emulation is also good will have to wait as my shift is over and I need to get home :) Mike

17 years, 2 months

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TC08 documentation

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Hi all, I'm troubleshooting a TC08 DECtape controller, and one thing I'm missing is the module 'utilization' (placement) guide that exists in other documentation (e.g. TC01, TU56). It appears from sequence numbers that the online copy of the TC08 Maintenance Manual might be missing that page. Does anyone have a copy that they would be willing to scan? I want to know which G888 is which, i.e. which one serves the mark track, which the diagnostics tell me is not happy. Also, the maintenance guide states that there are values for various settings on the engineering diagrams; no such values appear on the drawings in the appendix to the maintenance guide. Does anyone have the engineering drawings for the TC08? Thanks -- Ian Ian King, Vintage Systems Engineer PDP Planet Project Vulcan, Inc. http://www.pdpplanet.com

17 years, 2 months

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All this talk of Unix and other OSes...

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Yeah, but from what I have heard it will run alot faster :) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Sat, 13/6/09, Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com> wrote: From: Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com> Subject: Re: All this talk of Unix and other OSes... To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Saturday, 13 June, 2009, 8:09 PM ? ? The 68070 is basically a slightly improved 68000 core (does not have 68020 or later instructions) with a bunch of on-chip I/O.

17 years, 2 months

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Latest thrift store find - Ruby iMac (400MHz G3)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

So to turn a bit more on-topic, my big thrift store find of the week is a 400MHz Ruby iMac. It looks loaded with OS 10.4.2 on a 10GB Quantum drive, a Matsushita CD-ROM, 576MB of RAM (the original 64MB plus an add-on 512MB PC-133 DIMM), and no Airport/WiFi interface. I found the spot for it - a pair of mounting brackets and an antenna cable, but no interface. :-( I don't have a lot of PowerMac hardware, so this is an interesting find. I do have the guts of a Blue&White tower stuffed into a beige box, but this little guy is much easier to move around and store on a shelf when I'm not using it. Somewhere, I have Starcraft for the PPC Mac. I should try to fire that up. Oh... I forgot to mention. This working machine was priced at $20, about 2% of what it cost new (but it had a keyboard and mouse back then). After some poking around, it looks like the former owner upgraded it >from OS9 and used AOL, but did at least clean most of the personal data out. I should drop a larger hard drive in there and do a fresh install of 10.4 (since I never really used 8 or 9 much, and 10.4 is as high as it goes for PPC) -ethan

17 years, 2 months

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Fast EPROM eraser?

by caveguy＠sbcglobal.net

On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:41:40 -0700, Eric Smith wrote: >A regular camera flash is probably the wrong thing to use, as by design >they don't emit a large amount of short-wave UV. usually the UV filter is in the lens / cover not the cheep glass tube. The other Bob

17 years, 2 months

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cool article

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

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

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

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

A while back, I posted instructions for making a cable to go directly from an RQDX controller to RX33's an RX50's. While I didn't test it with more than 2 drives, I don't see why it wouldn't support 4 drives. For some reason (possibly my mail editor), the archive copy had ?'s in place of _spaces_ so I am reposting it below. ----------------------------------------------- If anyone is interested, here are the pinouts, and instructions for constructing such a cable. The instructions were created with the lay-person in mind. Copying this text into Windows Notepad should restore proper formatting. This cable was constructed using a BA23 distribution panel as a guide, and has been tested with both RX50's and RX33's, attached to an RQDX3. Cable diagram: Floppy RQDX Description --------------------------------- 1 21 Gnd 2 22 Density Select --------------------------------- 3 NC (Cut) 4 NC (Cut) 5 NC (Cut) --------------------------------- 6 24 Drive Select 4 7 25 Gnd 8 26 Index 9 NC 10 28 Drive Select 1 --------------------------------- 11 NC (Cut) 12 29 Drive Select 2 13 NC (Cut) --------------------------------- 14 30 Drive Select 3 15 NC 16 32 Floppy Motor 17 33 Gnd 18 34 Direction 19 35 Gnd 20 36 Step 21 37 Gnd 22 38 Floppy Write Data 23 39 Gnd 24 40 Write Gate 25 41 Gnd 26 42 Track 0 --------------------------------- 27 NC (Cut) 28 8 Write Fault --------------------------------- 29 45 Gnd 30 46 Floppy Read Data 31 47 Gnd 32 48 Head Select 0 33 49 Gnd 34 50 Ready Stuff you'll need: 1.) A suitable length of 34-conductor ribbon cable. Make sure you have enough wire to reach the controller, and enough slack on the other end to allow the drives to slide out of the bay. Add 6" onto this measurement. 2.) A 50-pin IDC-style "Berg" connector for the RQDXn. 3.) A 34-pin IDC-style "Berg" connector for an RX50. 4.) One or two 34-pin IDC-style card-edge connectors for RX33's. What to do: 1.) Split one end of the ribbon cable as follows. DON'T separate ALL of the wires individually; keep them paired! Peel each grouping of conductors back about 4 or 5 inches. 1,2 ------------- 3,4,5 ------------- 6 through 10 ------------- 11,12,13 ------------- 14 through 26 ------------- 27,28 ------------- 29 through 34 2.) Cut conductors 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, and 27. They won't be used, and there won't be a convenient place to terminate them on the connector. These wires will need to be insulated at some point. If you have wide plastic sleeving, then put a section of it onto the cable. Heat shrink will NOT work well. A simple loop of electrical tape should suffice. 3.) Conductor 28 needs to be fairly long, since it lands on the opposite side of the 50-pin connector. Trim about 3 inches off ALL of the OTHER wires. 4.) Using a pair of needle-nose pliers, REMOVE the following contacts from the 50-pin IDC connector: 7, 9, 19, 20, 23, 27, 31, 43, and 44. This will prevent certain RQDXn signal lines from being inadvertently grounded, and will help properly identify your landing positions for some of the connections. 5.) Line up the ribbon cable with the connector, and check to make sure that conductor 28 is long enough to reach across the cable, without placing it under any strain. 6.) Press the ribbon cable onto the 50-pin IDC connector. Refer to the chart at the top of this text; You'll see that they are grouped exactly as they should sit on the actual connector, with the exception of conductor 28. Note that SOME groupings start on ODD connector numbers, and some start on EVEN numbers. 7.) If you haven't done so already, refer back to step 2, and insulate the wires that were cut, to prevent them from shorting-out against the chassis. 8.) Determine where you need your floppy connectors, and press the connectors onto the 34-pin cable. Make sure that you observe the position of Pin 1. I made a "Universal cable" for my BA123. It has a 34-pin berg, and TWO card-edge connectors near the end (spaced about 4" apart), and then a THIRD card-edge connector about 10" down. This will allow double-stacked RX33's in a single bay, individual RX33's in separate bays, or a single RX50. 9.) Test, and enjoy !

17 years, 2 months

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PDP-8/L on eBay

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, there is a "PDP-8/L" on eBay: 180367591215 One should better say: A rudiment of a PDP-8/L. The system lacks all M series modules - so there is no logic left. The green part around the memory looks quite populated. No key and a switch missing. Cosmetic overall condition seems to be nice. I'm thinking of bidding on it as spares. Would be nice to get it for not too much - I would have to pay international shipping anyway... Best wishes, Philipp -- http://www.hachti.de

17 years, 2 months

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

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

I received the 600e cdrom drive and a MacOS 8 cdrom. I removed the other scsi tower I had been using and installed the 600e in its place. The 600e seems to power on and the tray opens and closes. The light flickers from green to yellow as it first spins up the disk. I'm using the same cable and terminator as I did with the tower. One of two things happens, either the quadra 700 ignores the cdrom and gets stuck at the happy face like the drive isn't there at all. Or sometimes, I get the Frowny face with the four tones. The error numbers are 0000000F and 00000001. Any ideas what's happening? brian

17 years, 2 months

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IBM 5100 cartridges

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I have the original Diagnostics cartridge for the IBM 5100, but it's the only cart I have. I'd like to make some copies of it, etc. What kind of carts are these, and is there a good source for any? I have both APL and BASIC 5100 systems, so it must be possible to copy it? Thanks- Steven

17 years, 2 months

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VCF East 6.0

by evan＠snarc.net

Hi all, Go here:http://www.vintage.org/2009/east/exhibit.php to register for VCF East 6.0 exhibits. It's okay if you only have a general idea of your exhibit right now. You can always fill in some more details later. However for the VCF's advertising / marketing purposes, it is MUCH better to sign up sooner rather than later! People who sign up sooner will also have dibs on the best booth locations. The event is Sept. 12-13 at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall, New Jersey. We're still in the process of arranging lecturers and special events. Please contact me off-list (evan at snarc.net) with any questions, notes about mistakes in the web site, etc. - Evan (& Sellam)

17 years, 2 months

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Further Emulator Discussion

by madcrow.maxwell＠gmail.com

Al Kossow wrote: > The version there is VERY old. Tom decided to not make later versions > available. Sadly, this has resulted in many forks of the last available > source base. I wonder if the Cray/Cyber group would have any luck with > BT granting use of cyber 70 class software for non-commercial use. Right > now there is no generally available software other than Chippewa to run > on it. I wonder what happened that made him decide that? Maybe the above mentioned lack of software to run on it had something to do with the decision. > With VMS support going offshore, I wonder how long that will last. > Thank Bob Supnik for the DEC hobby licensing. > HP has been very supportive of CHM's efforts to preserve their product's > software. There are several other agreements similar to the one we negotiated > for the HP211x/2100 software in the works. Given that a core of old DECUS folks inside Connect seem to do all the work involved with the VMS hobbyist license, I wonder if the higher-ups at HP even know that it exists. The HP 21xx deal is news to me, though. I guess it firmly puts HP into the "supportive" camp vis a vis classic computing hobbyism and research, especially if they're thinking of donating more stuff to the museum (which I really need to visit one of these days, by the way) Mike

17 years, 2 months

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Further Emulator Discussion (Warren Wolfe)

by mjkerpan＠kerpan.com

About that very high price: I think that may be a joke. DtCyber certainly always used free and open source. And it still lives in the FreeBSD ports tree. It's at least possible that this was done as a move of protest against BT Consulting's move to stop granting free (or even reasonably priced) hobbyist licenses for antique CDC software... It really is a shame that the only company that treated the hobbyist use of its old platforms as a good thing, was DEC. It's just a miracle that HP is still allowing things like the VMS hobby license and the 36-bit hobby license to continue. If that ended, we'd be stuck the IBM PD-era stuff as the only legally emulatable big iron :(

17 years, 2 months

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cleaning momentary push button switches

by keithvz＠verizon.net

Hi, I've got an old piece of test equipment that has momentary push button switches which are the primary "input" or control. While most of them seem to work, many of them are sticky, mushy, and just don't have a positive click. I'm not totally adverse to simply replacing them --- assuming I could find an exact match. Is there a way to effectively bring these back to life? Can I lube them? What should I use? How should I apply it? Thanks Keith

17 years, 2 months

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Fwd: Need assistance in restoring to working order a MicroVAX 3800

by WVerish＠aol.com

____________________________________ From: WVerish To: cctech at classiccmp.org Sent: 6/14/2009 12:58:24 P.M. Pacific Standard Time Subj: Need assistance in restoring to working order a MicroVAX 3800 Hi: I have a MicroVAX 3800 computer that went overnight from being able to boot from the hard drive to not seeing the hard drives at all. The computer will look at the TK70, but I do not have a bootable tape. I purchased a KFQSA board from the net, but that did not seem to help. A scan of then QBUS shows only UQSSP Tape controller MUA0 and the ethernet adapter XQB0. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please keep in mind that I am a "newbie", but I am learning as fast as I can. I am 60 years old, and serious about getting this system up and running again. I would also be happy to be able to find someone with an Open VMS VAX version that can build me a bootable tape using the STABACKIT.Com tool provided with Open VMS VAX...............or...................use a tape-bases distribution that would come with a TK50 tape kit, which is supposed to be read-compatible with the TK70. Thanks for listening, Wayne Verish (440) 885-0803 ____________________________________ Download the _AOL Classifieds Toolbar_ (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown000000…) for local deals at your fingertips. **************Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your fingertips. (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown000000…)

17 years, 2 months

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Natima (was: All this talk of Unix and other OSes...)

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

That was a typo on my part, I meant Natami. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Sun, 14/6/09, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> Subject: Natima (was: All this talk of Unix and other OSes...) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Sunday, 14 June, 2009, 4:31 AM At 5:22 PM +0000 6/13/09, Andrew Burton wrote: > Of course Natima is going to run the 68070, but don't quote me on that as I haven't been following the project that closely. Natima?? Google didn't pull up anything useful.? What is this? 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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Natima (was: All this talk of Unix and other OSes...)

by lproven＠gmail.com

2009/6/14 Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com>: > At 5:22 PM +0000 6/13/09, Andrew Burton wrote: >> >> Of course Natima is going to run the 68070, but don't quote me on that as >> I haven't been following the project that closely. > > Natima? ?Google didn't pull up anything useful. ?What is this? > > Zane WHS! -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

17 years, 2 months

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VMS/RSX manuals

by bqt＠softjar.se

Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: > Pontus wrote: >> Hi. >> >> I just got a mixed bag of VMS and MicroVMS manuals. Its programming >> guides and users guides, unfortunately not complete. I also have RSX >> manuals for version 2, these are complete I think. >> >> I'm not throwing anything away, but I'm wondering if there is any value >> in preserving these and if I should make an effort and scan them? >> >> (I can get more specific about what manuals I have if someone cares) >> > > More specific would be good. Many have already been scanned, though they > are not on line. Speaking of which - have the RSX manuals been scanned in color? For many volumes that is rather relevant, since DEC used colors to give additional information in the manuals. (User input is usually in red, sections with a pink background are RSX-11M only, while sections with grey backgorund are RSX-11M-PLUS only, and sections with blue text are multiprocessor systems only). 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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VMS/RSX manuals

by pontus＠update.uu.se

Hi. I just got a mixed bag of VMS and MicroVMS manuals. Its programming guides and users guides, unfortunately not complete. I also have RSX manuals for version 2, these are complete I think. I'm not throwing anything away, but I'm wondering if there is any value in preserving these and if I should make an effort and scan them? (I can get more specific about what manuals I have if someone cares) Cheers, Pontus

17 years, 2 months

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All this talk of Unix and other OSes...

by gordonjcp＠gjcp.net

... has given me an itch to do some bare-metal work on a classic, maybe a standalone Forth or something. Trouble is, I now have no "simple" classics. I don't fancy starting off doing this on an Amiga ;-) Has anyone in the UK (preferably the North, to make collection easier) got a smallish CP/M machine, or a BA23-cased PDP11? Drop me an email offlist and let me know what you want for it. I miss having a PDP11 about the place... Gordon

17 years, 2 months

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All this talk of Unix and other OSes...

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

To my knowledge Amiga's went all the way! I think the CD32 had one of the embedded chip CPU's (eg. 68ECxxxx), but I know Amiga's definately went to the 68040. Some did use the 68050 and 68060, but I don't know whether they were added later by users or whether they were added at the factory. Of course Natima is going to run the 68070, but don't quote me on that as I haven't been following the project that closely. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Sat, 13/6/09, blstuart at bellsouth.net <blstuart at bellsouth.net> wrote: From: blstuart at bellsouth.net <blstuart at bellsouth.net> Subject: Re: All this talk of Unix and other OSes... To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Date: Saturday, 13 June, 2009, 5:56 PM > ... has given me an itch to do some bare-metal work on a classic, maybe > a standalone Forth or something. > > Trouble is, I now have no "simple" classics.? I don't fancy starting off > doing this on an Amiga ;-) Assuming you have at least 1M of memory in the Amiga, a native Inferno port could be fun.? If your Amiga is re-68020 (I can't remember how far Amigas went in the family), you'll have to do a little work on the compiler to keep it from assuming a 680x0, x>=2. BLS

17 years, 2 months

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All this talk of Unix and other OSes...

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

________________________________ ... has given me an itch to do some bare-metal work on a classic, maybe a standalone Forth or something. Trouble is, I now have no "simple" classics. I don't fancy starting off doing this on an Amiga ;-) Has anyone in the UK (preferably the North, to make collection easier) got a smallish CP/M machine, or a BA23-cased PDP11? Drop me an email offlist and let me know what you want for it. I miss having a PDP11 about the place... Gordon -----REPLY----- Hi! You could build your own N8VEM system. CP/M is easy to get running. Better yet, get one of the new N8VEM 6809 host processor PCBs and port FLEX or CUBIX. Certainly that would provide untold hours of joyful hacking. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 2 months

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Zealots vs. Naval ships Re: Windows for critical infrastructure (was Re: UNIX V7)

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

I'm sorry I have to add to this, this is WAY WAY WAY OT but because this has been taken to all new levels. The argument about the USS Yorktown has nothing to do with Microsoft or windows. This has to do with boats. The people who are commenting on the fact that they do not completely believe the story that the ship needed to be towed. These people are not Microsoft kool aid drinkers, they are people that do not believe that the naval ship needed to be towed back, because the ships are built to be run manually if needed. Why? Ship propulsion systems do have manual controls, because even the best systems fail. So, if the systems fail, the engineers on board get them running manually and you get the ship back. This has nothing to do with windows, this has to do with how Naval ships are built. The Yorktown was commissioned in 1984, the incident happened in 1997. So this is not a brand new ship and they 99.9999% chance had ways of manually bringing the ship back to port. I mean seriously, do you in your right mind think they removed all the manual controls and just stuck a bunch of Windows NT machines? Again this has nothing to do with Windows, this has to do with naval personal being able to run the ship manually back to port. Anthony DiGiorgio who wrote the scathing report and was the person who stated NT was not up to the job, stated that the GCN misquoted him. So it is not a kool aid drinker that stated this. The person WHO stated that NT was the problem stated that it didn't need to be towed back. As for the news reports, it seems it all stems from one comment in the issue of Government Computer News. All the links seem to quote off that article. Some people are so blind with hatred against something (Microsoft, Apple, Linux, add your own) that they can seem to see what other people are saying. So if you don't believe the story, then YOU MUST be a Microsoft Kool-Aid drinker. If you are not for us, you are against us attitude. You know, there are different flavors of cool aid out there and over the last day or so I can see who has been drinking what.. I am going to make a nice glass of vintage CP/M kool aid myself and try and get my Northstar running and maybe find documents for my Wameco. If anyone would like to join in, I would be happy to pour.

17 years, 2 months

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The "Joys" of moving!

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

It's been a long hard day of moving stuff today, but we made great progress. We *should* finish tomorrow, I sure hope so. Basically we have two 19" racks left, a cart, BA123, and a couple little items, and a bunch of empty boxes. There have been some nice "finds" as a result of this move. I learned today I still have my DECstation 5000/133 that I bought to run NetBSD, that was definitely a highlight of the day since I've been regretting getting rid of it! :-) I found I still have my DECserver 200/MC as well, which I also thought was long gone. I've also learned I have even more DEC spares than I thought I had, including 1-2 more BA23's than I realized. The really shocking thing is that it appears I might actually have good access to a majority of my collection when I'm done with this move. If things work as planned in setting up the garage, I hope to have a corner with several different systems I've not had room for in years setup. The real question will be, when will I ever find the time. 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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Fw: Still Falling for Tetris, 25 Years After Its Birth

by alec＠sensi.org

http://thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/still-falling-for-tetris-25-years-a… http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=tetris P.S. I have the original TETRIS.SAV binary for the Elektronika-60 (a Soviet LSI-11 clone) for the RT-11. It works under SIMH. Unfortunately, I have NO good opensource VT-52 emulator to play. Original Tetris requires 0177 character to be BLOCK to draw. -- -=AV=-

17 years, 2 months

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Interesting IBM 5150... or something

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

it doesn't look all that muc like a 5150 probably because it isn't one. Durn looks just like a 5170 to me. I have the 5150 version. Don't know if it's tempest tested or not. Figured it was simply a loosely mil-spec, ruggedized, industrialized version for certain environments. There was a "compatible" CGA monitor (Terry Yager used to have one). Mine doesn't have a keyboard, so surely utilizing a vanilla k/b will render it "powerless". Or what have you. AAMOF, if anyone wants the thing, w/the rust that has accumulated due to being stored in a something less then sealed outdoor shed, it's their's for shipping. The power switch is also missing. I think the p/s is there though. You could strip it down and repaint it I guess :) --- On Thu, 6/11/09, Warren Wolfe <lists at databasics.us> wrote: > From: Warren Wolfe <lists at databasics.us> > Subject: Re: Interesting IBM 5150... or something > To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 5:55 PM > Brian Lanning wrote: > > I've never heard of this. Looks even more > tank-like than the 5150. > > Look at the backplane where the cables go in. > > > > http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-IBM-Tempest-Computer-for-Classified-work_W0QQit… > > > > Oh, for Pete's sake, a Tempest terminal, right when we're > talking about classified info. Just so you know, this > one is compromised by the insecure monitor (I think - it > should be MUCH bigger, and not plastic, if Tempest approved) > and the non-Tempest keyboard. "Tank-like" is a very > concise description. > > I worked for a company that made (CP/M capable) Tempest > terminals for the Burroughs TD-830 emulation market. > The government would not tell you what acceptable levels of > emissions were -- a company had to make a prototype, and > send it in for testing. A while (gov't time) later, > thumbs up or thumbs down. It often took many cycles to > get a good one. Once it was approved, they bought them > for HUGE prices. Quite a money-maker. > > > > Warren > >

17 years, 2 months

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Move on, nothing to see here (was RE: the arrogance of youth [was RE: UNIX V7])

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Wow. "I don't read [anything]." I'm done with this. This is either troll bait or a truly sad psychopathology. --- Folks, let get on with things. Hey, we just got a restored PDP-8/TC08/TU56 booting OS/8! After calibrating the TC08, I turned off the system to put all the 'skins' back in place, fired it up... and it wouldn't boot After checking the obvious things, I decided to let the system warm up for fifteen minutes or so. Yep, it booted fine. Something tells me I need to look at the RC components in those one-shots and clock circuits, and probably replace some realllllllllly old capacitors. -- Ian ________________________________________ From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Kirn Gill [segin2005 at gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 9:18 PM To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: the arrogance of youth [was RE: UNIX V7] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Rich Alderson wrote: > Simply because you don't hear about an OS in _Linux Journal_ does > not mean that it's dead, or even ailing. I don't read _Linux Journal_. Or _BusinessWeek_. Or any magazines. I occasionally glance at Slashdot if I'm desperate. It's quickly becoming a reorganizing 'digg' link aggregate. Otherwise, I just Google for nonsense terms. The news you find that way... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkox1yoACgkQF9H43UytGibF1QCggHyvvhtqRSMJs0TBQ8pftPrR ReEAnj0b/Xrp1PvkoUdRbRBS6lxPWRvk =JXAz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

17 years, 2 months

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fpga pdp's

by bqt＠softjar.se

Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com> wrote: > Eric Smith wrote: >> > Brad Parker wrote: >>> >> I did a "direct decode" pdp-11 in verilog recently just to see how >>> >> big it would be (and because I was frustrated with the pop-11 >>> >> project). It fits nicely & boots RT11 at 50mhz. >> > At that speed, surely it hasn't finished booting RT11 yet! > sorry, I don't get the joke. clock is 50mhz, or 20ns; each state is one > clock and on average > an instruction is 3 states. I calculated 10mips. it seems to boot much > faster than my 11/44 :-) > > what did I miss? That case matters. :-) m = milli M = Mega 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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PDP 11/73 on the Internet

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On Jun 11, 2009, at 7:32 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote: >> > Probably. I already have most of the TCP/IP stack running. :-) > > Under RSX? Really?? Yes. -------8<------ >set /host Host=MIM RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6 BL87mP >time 11:44:33 13-JUN-09 >ifc sho all Intf State Address Broadcast MTU ACP Line IF0: Run Madame.Update.UU.SE/24 130.238.19.255 1500 ETHACP UNA-0 IF1: Run Localhost/8 127.255.255.255 8128 >ifc sho arp Host MAC TTL Flg IF r1.n.it.UU.SE (130.238.19.254) 00-0B-BE-E8-A9-3F 1799 2 IF0: Tempo.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.17) 00-80-C8-76-E5-3E 1783 2 IF0: UP.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.210) 00-B0-D0-65-39-BE 1693 2 IF0: Wasabi.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.170) 00-06-5B-FE-4D-3E 1686 2 IF0: Boomerang.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.1) 00-06-5B-F2-44-1D 1543 2 IF0: Psilocybe.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.25) 00-07-E9-40-02-76 1493 2 IF0: Prus.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.50) 00-03-BA-06-37-7B 1452 2 IF0: Hygrocybe.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.76) 00-80-C8-77-0C-76 1427 2 IF0: Mim.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.211) 00-80-AD-41-CB-EB 1285 2 IF0: Amanita.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.70) 00-90-27-5D-10-2D 937 2 IF0: Peppar.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.172) 00-06-5B-6D-D7-19 854 2 IF0: Anis.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.174) 00-06-5B-6D-D7-B3 840 2 IF0: Kanel.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.171) 00-06-5B-68-92-78 838 2 IF0: Kummin.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.173) 00-06-5B-6D-D8-79 823 2 IF0: Saffran.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.176) 00-06-5B-68-92-58 819 2 IF0: Kardemumma.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.177) 00-06-5B-6D-D8-2C 805 2 IF0: Humle.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.179) 00-06-5B-6D-D7-B6 804 2 IF0: Basilika.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.169) 00-06-5B-6D-D7-26 782 2 IF0: Oregano.Update.UU.SE (130.238.19.175) 00-06-5B-6D-D8-C5 774 2 IF0: >trt 74.125.77.99 Tracing route to 74.125.77.99, max 30 hops 1 r1.n.it.UU.SE (130.238.19.254) 0ms. 0ms. 20ms. 2 ? (130.238.6.237) 0ms. 0ms. 0ms. 3 ? (193.11.0.233) 0ms. 0ms. 0ms. 4 ? (130.242.82.197) 0ms. 0ms. 0ms. 5 ? (193.10.252.161) 0ms. 0ms. 20ms. 6 ? (193.10.252.86) 0ms. 0ms. 20ms. 7 ? (193.10.252.94) 0ms. 0ms. 20ms. 8 ? (193.10.68.42) 0ms. 0ms. 0ms. 9 ? (209.85.252.186) 20ms. 0ms. 0ms. 10 ? (209.85.254.153) 40ms. 20ms. 40ms. 11 ? (216.239.48.10) 20ms. 20ms. 40ms. 12 ? (209.85.248.182) 160ms. 40ms. 40ms. 13 ? (64.233.175.246) 20ms. 40ms. 40ms. 14 ? (72.14.239.197) 40ms. ? (72.14.239.199) 40ms. 20ms. 15 ? (209.85.255.106) 60ms. 40ms. ? (209.85.255.102) 40ms. 16 ? (74.125.77.99) 40ms. 40ms. 40ms. > -------8<------- 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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Nearly there with IBM 029 KeyPunch

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> > > Roger Holmes wrote: >> >> The theory said to change the resonant frequency of my keypunch's >> ferro-resonant power regulator from 60Hz to 50Hz I should up the 15uF >> capacitor to 21.6 uF. Well I tried 21.5, and the voltage went up by >> ONE volt. Hmm, scratch head, at least it went in the right direction. >> Search around for AC capacitors and find one in a defunct large >> electric lawnmower. Its 30uF, I think about replacing the 15 with it >> but if an extra 6.5uF only gained one volt, and I need 6 then it >> seemed reasonable to combine it and try 45 uF. That gives me 46volts, >> only 2 volts short. I throw in the 6.5uF too and I get 47 volts. I >> try > > I had a niggling concern about this when the suggestion to change > the C was > first profferred. > I don't have a thorough enough understanding of the ferro-resonant > principle > to categorically say what the problem is but I can half-think of a few > possible issues: > > - Because the ferroresonance principle involves the inductor working > in the core saturation region, the standard resonance equation with > which you calculated the new C may not be applicable. (I see you got > the square of f proportion.) > > - If the changed LC relationship changes the circulating current > in the LC circuit then the core magnetic field will also be affected, > which would upset the rest of the transformer design targets. > > - Changing the C changes the resonant frequency in an LC circuit, > as you desire to accomplish. However, the Q factor of the resonant > circuit is dependant upon the ratio of L/C, so you have also changed > the Q factor. I'm less sure if this would matter, as the circuit > is operating at a well-fixed frequency. > > My remaining concern might be that even with the new C bringing the > V up, > the regulation function of the supply may have been lost if the > transformer > is no longer functioning in the regions it was designed to. Yes, but relays are unlikely to be damaged by a few volts too much. My concern is the current in the intermediate winding could damage itself. So far so good but I am charging a much larger capacitance for a slightly longer period so I would think the current would be higher. To get 48 volts I am going to have to add about another 6 uF, so about 48 F instead of 15, so very roughly three times the current, assuming (and its a big assumption I can't justify), that the voltage is the same.

17 years, 2 months

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Available: 5.25 inch disk duplicator (1987), ACM/IEEE magazines ('70s+)

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Please email Anneliese if interested: ------------------------------------- > My 5.25 inch floppy duplicating machine - > The Ventuno V5 - diskette autoloader.? > The documentation has a date of 9/24/1987.? > > It is in the original box from Ventuno and has never been > out of the box. > > I also have LOTS of old computer journals (ACM and > IEEE) and magazines - some going back to the 70s. > > Thanks, > Anneliese Gimpel <anneliese at gimpel.com> >

17 years, 2 months

1
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Looking for Tandon TM-100 service manual (w/schematics & waveforms)

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

I'm looking for Tandon TM100 service manual w/schematics; one of my TM-100-2 drives in an IBM 5150 here started acting up (stepper motor is stuck at track 40 and won't decrement) and I'm trying to find a useful service manual to debug it. The two tm100 documentation/service pdfs I've seen are a scan of a staple-removed 21 page or so packet (this scan is missing pages 8, 9, 12, and 13) which has no schematics and is missing some pages; The other is 7 pages scanned from part of a larger document (100 pages or so), which looks like it would be useful if I had the whole thing. Neither of them are particularly helpful. Does a scan of the larger tm100 service manual exist? Does anyone have a paper copy I could borrow/copy/etc? -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(@t)hotmail(d0t)com jzg22(@t)drexel(d0t)edu

17 years, 2 months

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Looking for Tandon TM-100 service manual (w/schematics & waveforms)

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:51:34 -0400 From: Jonathan Gevaryahu <jzg22 at drexel.edu> Subject: Looking for Tandon TM-100 service manual (w/schematics & waveforms) I'm looking for Tandon TM100 service manual w/schematics; <snip> Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(@t)hotmail(d0t)com jzg22(@t)drexel(d0t)edu --------------- I have a paper version of the technical manual here, but I can't believe that there isn't a scanned one out there somewhere; if no one comes up with one and you really can't find one, PM me off-list. mike

17 years, 2 months

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Further 11/40 unibus questions...

by bqt＠softjar.se

Catching up here, so it might be that this have been sorted out in later mails... Josh Dersch <derschjo at mail.msu.edu> wrote: > Ok, finally stopped being distracted by other shiny objects for long > enough to do some more fiddling with the 11/40. > > And of course, instead of hooking up the logic analyzer, I decided to > play around with the Console SLU/LTC board. Because I evidently don't > follow suggestions well. > > But this has a good ending, sort of. Maybe. > > So the SLU was unresponsive no matter what I did. Tried it at 9600 > baud, no go. Dialed it down to 300, no dice. Checked the continuity of > the dip switches, of which there are approximately 500. No problems > there. Checked, and double-checked the wiring on the serial cable I > built. No go. Stole the cable from my 8/e... still no good. > > So I moved it out of the 9th slot on the processor backplane and into > the first slot on Unibus backplane. (And put a grant card in the 9th > slot...) And hey, it works. Toggled in a short "echo" program and what > I type on the terminal keyboard is echoed back, at a blistering 300 baud. Excellent! > So... clearly there's something wrong with the SPC slot on the processor > backplane. A couple more questions: > > 1) Is the NPG grant on the unibus slot on the processor backplane (slot > 9) supposed to be connected to the NPG grants on the Unibus expansion? > That is -- right now if I set my DMM to continuity mode and put one > probe on CA1 on the first slot of the unibus expansion, and the other on > CB1 on the last slot of the unibus expansion, since all NPG grant > jumpers are in place, the DMM shows the circuit as closed. This is as > I'd expect. However, if I move the probe from CA1 on the first slot of > the expansion to CA1 on slot 9 of the processor backplane, the circuit > is then open. I'm guessing this is not correct. (There is currently an > NPG jumper installed on slot 9.) Are you *sure* slot 9 in the processor backplane really is a Unibus slot??? More correctly stated: the unibus out in the backplane A and B don't neccesarily imply that C-F is a Unibus SPC slot. I haven't checked the 11/40 drawings or manuals, and I assume you have been reading them some. Please check this. It's a big mistake to just assume that one slot is like another... 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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Fast EPROM eraser?

by cclist＠sydex.com

I was perusing DN's "Sherlock Ohms" series when I came across this article: http://www.designnews.com/blog/Sherlock_Ohms/15423- The_Adventure_of_the_Camera_Shy_Computer.php?nid=4785&rid=1504665 Has anyone tried a camera flash as a way of very quickly erasing EPROMs? --Chuck

17 years, 2 months

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bizarre capacitance

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

David writes: ? Anyone here use an Extech multimeter? This thing seems ? to get confused with certain capacitors. In particular, ? a new 10uF electrolytic register randomly from 1 to 8 ? nF whereas a 1-year-old 1uF electrolytic registers fine. I never trust autoranging multimeters. What's happening is that it is applying a charging current, seeing a dV/dt response that's in a different range, trying to switch to a different range, applying a different charging current, seeing dV/dt in some other range, switching to a different charging current, etc. The textbook definition of capacitance I = C dV/dt works great in a truly linear world but old electrolytics have leakage, soakage, nonlinearities, and other things messing up the textbook definition. Soakage is always fun. Take a big electrolytic, short it out and remove the short, let it sit for a while on the bench, then put a hi-impedance voltmeter on it. It will not read 0V. Tim.

17 years, 2 months

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PDP 11/73 on the Internet

by bqt＠softjar.se

"Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > On Fri, 5 Jun 2009, Sridhar Ayengar wrote: > >> > Dave McGuire wrote: >>>>>> >>>>> It's damnably slow, but at least it works. >>>>> >>>> Yep. The scary thing is...an OS like RSX-11 or RSTS/E is quite zippy >>>>> >>>> on a machine like that. >>>> >>> >>>> >>> Hmmm. Porting (or writing a work-alike of) RSX-11 for a newer >>>> >>> architecture (suck as PC -- for the low cost) comes to mind. >>> >> >>> >> That would be extremely yummy. >> > >> > I wonder how hard it would be? I can't say that I'm very familiar with the >> > capabilities of RSX, but, considering the size of the code we're talking >> > about, could it be possible that it wouldn't involve as much work as writing >> > a more modern, featureful, cluttered, bloaty operating system? > > The main problem I see with porting it is that to do so would be in > violation of copywrite. The second problem I see is that I'm not sure what > exists in the way of source code. You would need some sort of Macro-11 to > Macro-x86 compilier. An easier port might be something like RSTS/E, though > the source code for it is somewhere around 150MB, IIRC. RSX ships with full, commented source code. So the OS itself isn't a problem. Applications are where you'd suffer. But I don't think a MACRO-11 compiler for x86 would be the solution. We're talking about the OS here. There is way too much hardware-specific things going on that needs to be done differently on an x86. I'd rewrite it, using the same layout of the code and everything, but rewritten to use the x86 architecture instead. The MMU is different, and lots of code is playing with that. And registers and register conventions differ, not to mention processor context, and locking mechanisms. > Realistically time might be better spent on writing a TCP Stack and running > it under an emulator. Probably. I already have most of the TCP/IP stack running. :-) 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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Console debugging (was Re: UNIX V7)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 5:24 PM, Sridhar Ayengar<ploopster at gmail.com> wrote: > Even today, one of my favorite diagnostic tools is the two-digit display on > the front of RS/6000s. I haven't had the pleasure, but with so much time spent on various models of Elf, I approve. One of my favorite diagnostic hacks is Morse code messages blinked out via the power LED on an Amiga. If the processor isn't totally wedged and the hardware isn't so broken as to allow I/O port access, you can get your message. Rather low bandwidth, but huge portions of the machine can be borked and it still works. -ethan

17 years, 2 months

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UNIX V7

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Was the person injured? I understand about the hardware thing, I had assumed that the company had aqcuired it on your recommendation. It didn't occur to me that you would loan them your own hardware. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Fri, 12/6/09, Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> wrote: From: Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> Subject: Re: UNIX V7 To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Friday, 12 June, 2009, 5:52 PM Dropped the machine (no crate, it was a local move from another building) off the back of the truck and destroyed it. The person unloading it slipped and fell, the machine was thrown about eight feet. The case was broken, drives had failure warnings, and rather than take chances we parted the machine out. It was replaced because I am not interested in providing free hardware to the company on a long term basis. On Jun 12, 2009, at 11:09 AM, Andrew Burton <aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > Did they drop the crate it was in from a great height? Or was the vehicle it was being transported in involved in a road accident? Or was it something else? > > How much power would it require of the MicroVAX (I'm an Amiga/Speccy person, so have no clue about VAXen or PDP's etc.) too be a DNS server and why replace it if it worked? > > > Regards, > Andrew B > aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk > > > --- On Fri, 12/6/09, Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> wrote: > > From: Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> > Subject: Re: UNIX V7 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Date: Friday, 12 June, 2009, 4:22 PM > > Yes, but nobody will care until the law shows up or we get hacked, in which case things will still be my fault. He who bitches loudest gets what he wants, and I am outnumbered. (We run a data warehouse for government/corporate contractors to locate certified minority owned subcontractors for bidding disclosure compliance purposes.) > > To make things a bit more on-topic, for the first two weeks of our operations our DNS server was a MicroVAX standing in for a machine that was destroyed in shipping. >

17 years, 2 months

2
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IBM 029 progress

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

To cut a long story short, we have put a 240v/50Hz motor from an IBM 56 verifier in the keypunch and that part works great. We transplanted the motor cradle and motor start relay too. The manual showed how the DC power supply could be configured for 115v or 208v or 240v, though all at 60Hz. Well we tried that and the DC produced was about 41volts instead of 48v, which was more or less what was predicted by collective list wisdom. The relay logic intermittently seems to work. The existing capacitor in the ferro-resonant power supply is marked 15MF (incidentally, how come MF does not mean Mega Farad), and rated at 330VAC. I think this means ideally I need (90/50)^2 * 15 which is 21.6MF. I have ordered two more capacitors to connect in parallel, one 5uF and one 1.5uF, to give 21.5 total, both at 440VAC. There was one wire hanging off the bottom of the mechanism which we have reconnected. The mechanical side gradually came back to life, probably the grease had gone hard at the surface or oil needed spreading about a bit. It now fairly reliably moves cards from the input hopper to the output stacker. There were chads stuck all over the place and at first, the top row did not poke the chads out of the holes and we joked about hanging chads and George Bush coming back. Comparing my old keypunch and this one, there is an auger screw in the old one but not in this, but after looking through the parts list, it seems IBM deleted that part. Anyway a 9mm twist drill pushed up the empty auger hole and twisted and wiggled and a backlog of old chads and strangely black cloth came out and now it punches cleanly, or at least it does when the relay logic feels like it. It even prints the codes. To get alpha I had to hold down the alpha key, though I think it should latch in logic, probably the low DC supply again. The whole thing looks like it has been re-sprayed in the right colour/ texture of paint and thoroughly cleaned. Maybe a factory refurbished unit. Picture of it with cards in the track here, covers off: http://www.ict1301.co.uk/emulator/029_03_09 I hope to be using it soon to correct any cards which wreck when I try to read in the library of ICT 1301 software so I can capture it on my Mac, from where I can load it via RS232 into my 1301 as well as make it available to others. Roger Holmes

17 years, 2 months

20
48
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I thought these were worth $10,000

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

;-) http://cgi.ebay.com/KayPro-II-Vintage-Computer-System_W0QQitemZ220428904215…

17 years, 2 months

1
0
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UNIX V7

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Did they drop the crate it was in from a great height? Or was the vehicle it was being transported in involved in a road accident? Or was it something else? How much power would it require of the MicroVAX (I'm an Amiga/Speccy person, so have no clue about VAXen or PDP's etc.) too be a DNS server and why replace it if it worked? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Fri, 12/6/09, Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> wrote: From: Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> Subject: Re: UNIX V7 To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Friday, 12 June, 2009, 4:22 PM Yes, but nobody will care until the law shows up or we get hacked, in which case things will still be my fault. He who bitches loudest gets what he wants, and I am outnumbered. (We run a data warehouse for government/corporate contractors to locate certified minority owned subcontractors for bidding disclosure compliance purposes.) To make things a bit more on-topic, for the first two weeks of our operations our DNS server was a MicroVAX standing in for a machine that was destroyed in shipping.

17 years, 2 months

2
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DNS by MicroVAX (was Re: UNIX V7)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Andrew Burton<aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: >> To make things a bit more on-topic, for the first two weeks of our operations our >> DNS server was a MicroVAX standing in for a machine that was destroyed in shipping. > > How much power would it require of the MicroVAX (I'm an Amiga/Speccy person, so > have no clue about VAXen or PDP's etc.) too be a DNS server and why replace it if it worked? We ran primary and secondary DNS from a pair of Microvaxen at McMurdo in the 1990s with no load issues. They served up mcmurdo.gov for all comers, on and off the Ice (McMurdo has a 24/7 connection to the 'net via a relay station on Black Island). I think they retired those servers as part of the Y2K effort, not because they weren't going to work, but because they had a pile of money to modernize everything (like replacing the aged 64MB 486-based Novell servers that fed hundreds of 386SX/16s, etc). It was fun going down the Ice in the mid-1990s as a PC technician and finding out that there were VAXen at McMurdo and the Pole. I even got to help out with the occasional issue (like making a 'phone patch' (HF radio<->land-based PBX) to talk the Computer Technician at Pole through a SCSI disk replacement. I can't give you exact numbers, but I don't see a performance issue with using MicroVAXen as DNS servers in a moderately busy environment. If you only had a T1 or smaller to the outside world, there's only so many requests per second that can fit along with the data going to previous questors. I don't know if I could make the same endorsement if you had an OC3 and the traffic to fill it - that would end up being a lot of DNS requests. As for "why replace it", I'd say power consumption, possibly skillset (if I were the only one in the company who could keep it running), and maybe hardware maintenance concerns (especially if it was an RQDX3+RD-drive system, not a SCSI system). -ethan

17 years, 2 months

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