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

Anyone for a RELLY expensive 11/780 (UK)??!!

by pechter＠gmail.com

On 6/1/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > > At 10:25 AM +0100 6/1/07, Pete Edwards wrote: > >On 31/05/07, James <james at machineroom.info> wrote: > >> > >> > >> > http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180125971585&fromMakeT… > >> > >>Optimistic is an under statement :-) > >> > > > >I shudder to think what the price tag would be if it had a power supply > and > >a console:) > > At 1490UKP, I'd say they're crazy. Am I correct in assuming the > power supplies are likely to be the most valuable pieces on a > VAX-11/780? Without all the doors, it is even more worthless. I > wonder what condition the card cage & backplane is in, and how many > cards it is missing. > > 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/ | > Probably worth about $50 USD as untested spare parts. Not worth the petrol to drag it home in my opinion. Now if it was complete and in working condition... I might think it would have some value. Bill -- d|i|g|i|t|a|l had it THEN. Don't you wish you could still buy it now! pechter-at-gmail.com

19 years, 3 months

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[more-or-less-offtopic]:68301 stuff

by lee＠geekdot.com

For running generic 68000 code on a PC you can't do much better than this .. http://www.monroeccc.edu/ckelly/EASy68K.htm Lee.

19 years, 3 months

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Booting a Vax 11/750

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Well, the consensus is that I really don't need that RDM board in order to boot the Vax. So, I'm going to go ahead and see if I can boot something (anything) on this machine. I figure I'll start with NetBSD, since it's free and easy to get. I have no disk controller. But I do have an M7454 TU80 controller. Will this controller work with a normal pertec tape drive, like a Cipher? Since I have SCSI nine track drives, I can write a tape from my PC (linux box) and then I can move the tape over to the Vax. (hopefully). Once there, how do I boot - is the boot device switch controlled by the RDM, or something else? Thanks! -Ian

19 years, 3 months

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Byte magazines in SF for library or museum

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

There are some Byte magazines available to a public access home: > I have a fairly complete series of Byte magazine issues from 1/78 > through 12/88 (missing seven issues) that I no longer have space for. I > am looking for a library or museum to provide them with a good home -- > someplace with public access. I can deliver them within the San > Francisco Bay Area. If interested, contact Harry Chesley at > chesley at acm.org

19 years, 3 months

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Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life.

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Sounds like a good idea. How do I do that? Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Sridhar Ayengar Sent: 01 June 2007 01:22 To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life. Rod Smallwood wrote: > Boot er no but as it seems as the system spent some or all of its life > in the insurance industry I'm not surprised the disks have been wiped. > Ok so next move. I'm going to try and make a VMS 6.2 bootable tape on > the -200 as the -300 has a TK70. They both have ethernet, why don't you just boot the 300 from the 200 using MOP? Peace... Sridhar

19 years, 3 months

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Apple /// Power Supply

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 03:03:17 +0100 > From: "Ensor" <classiccmp at memory-alpha.org.uk> > Subject: Re: Apple /// Power Supply > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <006601c7a19c$a7e855e0$0a01a8c0 at memoryalpha.org.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="Windows-1252"; > reply-type=original > > Hi, > >> _If_ that PSU was easily available, I could agree with this. But >> it isn't. It's likely to take considerable time and effort to track >> one down, I think.... > > I don't know what the situation is in the US, but here in the UK > I've come > across exactly *ONE* Apple /// in some 22 years of collecting.... > > I'd put his chances of sourcing a working replacement PSU these > days at > ZERO. > > > TTFN - Pete. Actually I have a spare PSU, here in the UK, but sorry I'm keeping it for my own Apple ///s. These machines were so tightly engineered as regards FCC requirements that there always seemed to be a problem with getting the heat out and stopping the electronics shorting out against the case. Particularly the RAM daughter board at full capacity. The real time clock is a bit of a nightmare to get adjusted properly too. I don't mean to within spec, I mean to run so I don't have to adjust it every week, which is what I had to do with them when they were brand new. By contrast the 5MB or 10MB Profile hard drive sits in a box about five times bigger than is needed. It was a real luxury after doing the floppy shuffle for three quarters of an hour compiling Pascal programs, though upgrading to three floppy drives saved most of the arm work. Are logic diagrams available for the Apple /// now? If I remember right, even as dealers/service providers and hardware/software developers we were not allowed logic diagrams for the A///. That's where the rot started and we officially had to do module replacement, though we still replaced IC's when they had blown craters in the top of them, and were still able to buy AC power switches and such like >from Apple. Must drag them out from my brother's loft some time and see if either of them still work. Hope they're OK, they are stored above the cold water tank in their original boxes. Fortunately the loft is heated so should be OK. Roger Holmes.

19 years, 3 months

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Anyone for a RELLY expensive 11/780 (UK)??!!

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

There's so little of it left, mores the pity. I wonder if the guy was sold it as a rare item (which it is) without being told a lot of it was missing. Rod Smallwood The DecCollector -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of woodelf Sent: 01 June 2007 20:55 To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Anyone for a RELLY expensive 11/780 (UK)??!! Rod Smallwood wrote: > "Where have all the disk drives gone? ..." > "Long time passing" > "Where have all the disk drives gone? ..." > "Long time ago..." > " To the scrap man ... Every one... " > > "Where have all the power supplies gone etc. etc." Chuckle ... I have Bod Dylan on the CD ... so by luck I had the music to go with lyrics. :)

19 years, 3 months

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Anyone for a RELLY expensive 11/780 (UK)??!!

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

"Where have all the disk drives gone? ..." "Long time passing" "Where have all the disk drives gone? ..." "Long time ago..." " To the scrap man ... Every one... " "Where have all the power supplies gone etc. etc." What a plonker!! (British expression) Rod Smallwood DecCollector -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of James Sent: 31 May 2007 23:21 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Anyone for a RELLY expensive 11/780 (UK)??!! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180125971585&fromMa keTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:middle:uk Optimistic is an under statement :-)

19 years, 3 months

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Anyone for a RELLY expensive 11/780 (UK)??!!

by james＠machineroom.info

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180125971585&fromMakeT… Optimistic is an under statement :-)

19 years, 3 months

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Burroughs ICON

by devonstopps＠gmail.com

Someone on the list has (had?) a few. I can't remember who, check the archives. Devon >Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 15:52:37 -0400 (EDT) >From: bpope at wordstock.com (Bryan Pope) >Subject: Re: Burroughs ICON > >And thusly were the wise words spake by Chris M >> >> Anyone have one? They were popular in Canada (maybe >> made there??). I want it. >> > >Ontario to be exact, where I used them in high school. Their OS was >QNX, another Canadian company. :) I have yet to see in available, >though.. :( > >Cheers, > >Bryan

19 years, 3 months

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Apple /// Power Supply

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, >>....Repairing a switching power supply is one the last >>things I would want to do. > > Why? Personally I've never had any luck repairing switch mode PSUs either....obviously there's some hole in my understanding of them.... Actually, I have managed to repair a couple; but that was when I did a City & Guilds course in electronic repair at college (I was bored....) and had a full schematic and circuit description to work with. But going in blind? <shudder> TTFN - Pete.

19 years, 3 months

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WDXT-150 utilities?

by doc＠mdrconsult.com

Does anyone have them? I have a WDXT-150 board with a WD93024 drive. I suspect that the drive is dead, as it doesn't do anything, including spinning up, but I'd like to be able to run diags on it if any exist. Doc

19 years, 3 months

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I had no idea Kaypros were so valuable.

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

I can see paying $50 for a Kaypro II. Maybe even $75. But $25,000.00? eBay #300039229895 -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

19 years, 3 months

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Hazeltine 1400 info?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Hazeltine 1400 info? > From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 09:53:15 -0600 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > >In article <3629638E-1D52-4A9A-B23C-2639BEE62C5E at neurotica.com>, > Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> writes: > >> On May 30, 2007, at 3:20 PM, Richard wrote: >> > I just purchased a Hazeltine 1400 terminal from ebay. This terminal >> > apparently has no lower case, so it seems like quite an oldie. >> >> Cool! I saw that, and would've chased it if I weren't out of >> money at the moment. I sat in front of a 1420, and later a 1500, for >> a long time many years ago. > >It appears to be in good condition too. Do you happen to know what >year this would have been manufactured? Is it one of the Hazeltines >with core display memory that remembers the last thing that was >displayed after you turn it off? NO core, that was the 1000/1100/1200 series. Those were early 1970s as I used a 1200 on BOCES LYRICS TOPS-10 system in '72. The 1400 series was after the 1500 series and was effectively a cost reduced (cheaper to build and sell) terminal. The 1400 was circa 1976-78 or so. Allison >-- >"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download > <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> > > Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 3 months

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PixelCraft Pro Imager large format scanners CHEAP

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

This goes out to all the people scanning documents and maintaining archives. I just got in a large lot of PixelCraft Pro Imager 8100 and 8200 large format (11x17) scanners. These are refurbished units in their original crate, ready for shipping. The only downside: no software. At least none that I've been able to find so far, though I've been told by a former developer of driver and application software for them that the programs QuickScan or ColorAccess should work with these scanners, with (he believes) ColorAccess being bundled with the driver. I found a Japanese download site that seems to have ColorAccess v1.2, but damned if I can figure out what's going on: http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/dl/win95/net/se292407.html If someone knows where to find these programs then please let me know. Here's a quick review: http://www.macuser.co.uk/macuser/labs/17369/pixelcraft-pro-imager-8200.html… Here is a "shoot-out" that a manufacturer did to compare color scanning performance of various scanners, including an 8200 model: http://www.spectralmasters.com/Yellow%20Slide%20Shootout%20-%20Web.pdf Here are photos I took: http://www.siconic.com/crap/PixelCraft-PI-1.JPG http://www.siconic.com/crap/PixelCraft-PI-2.JPG http://www.siconic.com/crap/PixelCraft-PI-3.JPG Note: these were about $12,000 new. I'd like $50 each. Shipping will probably be about $100. They are already on crates, so shipping will be by freight. Please contact me directly if you can use one. Soon. ;) P.S. I'll be at VCF East 4.0 next week! http://www.vintage.org/2007/east/ -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

19 years, 3 months

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Apple /// Power Supply

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 31 May, 2007, at 17:22, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 06:00:46 -0500 > From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> > Subject: > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <465EAADE.6030809 at yahoo.co.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed >> >> I would hope that somebody here could look inside their machine >> and tell >> you the markings on the capacitor if the original one is so badly >> damaged >> as to be unreadable. > > If it was the mains suppression cap then I believe it's a standard > X2 class > 250V part* in the UK (but then presumably a different part gets > used here in > the US version) > > * I think they only sell X2's rated for 275V these days. Farnell > and RS do > them I belive, but I'm not sure that Maplin do any more. > > I might haul mine back home tomorrow (it's at Bletchley, but as we > now have an > A/// there it doesn't need to stay) in which case I can take a look > - I need > to replace that cap in mine anyway. There may be a difference between US and European power supplies. My spare one is in its original box, marked AP III Euro, EM WR SUP, 669-9050. The PCB is marked ASTEC AA11190 and the back panel is marked 220VAC 50-60Hz, so NOT 110 volt compatible. If it is one of the four black upright ones at the rear of the PCB, they are all marked 250v 100microFarad +105 degrees C. There is also a rectangular yellow one marked 0.22 microFarad at X 250v~MP whatever that means. There's another 20 capacitors on the board, so if yours is a european one and its one of the other 20 capacitors, you had better let me know which one. Roger Holmes Technical Director, Microspot Ltd. Developers of 2D and 3D graphic software for the Apple Macintosh.

19 years, 3 months

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Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi I managed to find a slim one that fits and the door shuts!!! Rod Smallwood DecCollector -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of arcarlini at iee.org Sent: 31 May 2007 22:11 To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'; 'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only' Subject: RE: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 Rod Smallwood wrote: > So whilst what I have will probably run, its not the correct cable. > It should be a right angled IEC type with a groove or slot opposite > the middle pin. The right angle is needed only if you want to shut the front door. If you don't have a right angle one, you either leave the door open or remove it (it comes off very easily ... it becomes lost very easily too :-)) Antonio

19 years, 3 months

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Anyone know anything about old TEC Terminals?

by technobug＠comcast.net

On Thu, 31 May 2007 14:56:37 -0700, "Rick Bensene" <rickb at bensene.com> wrote: > I have an old glass TTY-type terminal made by a company called TEC. [...] > but figured I'd ask here first to see if anyone has > any information on the company or their terminals. > > Thanks in advance. > > Rick Bensene > The Old Calculator Web Museum > http://oldcalculatorm TEC was a Tucson, AZ based company that IIRC started out producing the logic-controlled, neon indicator lights that populated the fronts of IBM 360s and the like. Seeing the writing on the wall they branched into terminals and keyboards. The first terminals were upper case only. I was at the UofAZ computer center in the mid '70s visiting friends when one of TEC's folks brought in a new prototype upper/lower case terminals that we immediately hooked up to the local DEC10. We soon discovered that they used lower case for control codes... They really never got thing right. In the late 70's they spent a pile developing a mini which I, along with a group from the UofA were invited to evaluate. Seems that they invented the PDP8 right after the Nova 1200 and PDP11 had been released with a selling price higher than either of the competition. The indicator business died and they went under in the early '80s IIRC. Their legacy was a Superfund cleanup site... CRC

19 years, 3 months

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digital camera capabilities / was Re: 1000+ old computer in

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > But as I poitned out, it's not _just_ the cost of the camera. >What do you suggest I connect it to? Can you get digital cameras >that connect to PERQs or PDP11s? Actually, my first two cameras both connected to the host computer via RS232 (just data lines and ground) so in theory.... ;-) Newer cameras tend to have USB, but I've never used mine this way as I always remove the memory card and plug it into a card reader anyway. I've not seen any about recently, but before multi-format USB card readers became popular I remember there being numerous RS232, single format card readers on the market - I'm pretty sure Jessops used to sell them. Might be a solution. TTFN - Pete.

19 years, 3 months

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Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life.

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

It looks like the consensus is to get the -300 to do a network boot and then restore from the -200 to the -300. I have a few points relating to this. 1. The -200 runs TCPWARE and not DECNET. 2. I now understand what needs to be done but I need a bit more (step by step) detail on how to do it. 3. Is producing a bootable tape on the -200 and restoring it on the -300 too difficult? Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of arcarlini at iee.org Sent: 31 May 2007 18:51 To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: RE: Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life. Rod Smallwood wrote: > Firstly a big thanks (THANKS) to all those who responded to the power > plug question. > I bought the VAX 4000-300 system on UK Ebay and did the 250 mile trip > to Cambridge to collect it early on Saturday. These things are not > that big but weigh a ton!! The guy selling it was lot larger than I > (thank heavans!) I did not know the suspension in may car went that > low! Wait till you move a DECarray 900 full of RZ drives and a couple of TZ877s :-) > The -300 also has a KZQSA (SCSI) controller and whilst they are no > good with hard drives I think they work with CD ROM's I also have a > stand alone SCSI CD drive (Yamaha CRW4416SX) it has the really small > SCSI plugs (inch and a bit long) on the back and the KZQSA has the > really big ones. There are cables that go from the Amphenol 50-way (on the KZQSA) to whatever might be on the Yamaha. There are also various adapters that might help. > Comments on which is best way to proceed welcomed. Here's the abridged version: Given that you have another VAX, the easiest way is to configure the existing VAX as a cluster, configure the existing VAX to accept the VAX 4000-300 as a satellite and then boot it as a satellite. Now initialise the disks on the VAX 4000-300, if required. Restore the .B saveset onto whichever VAX 4000-300 disk you want to use as your system disk. Copy across all the installation savesets (VMS062.* and DECW062.*) onto that disks [000000] directory. Shutdown the VAX 4000-300 and reboot from the new system disk. Answer the questions. Enjoy your new VMS system. Antonio

19 years, 3 months

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desirous of acquiring a Tektronix TC-2000

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

protocol analyzer/dos luggable. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/

19 years, 3 months

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Burroughs ICON

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Anyone have one? They were popular in Canada (maybe made there??). I want it. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL

19 years, 3 months

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FW: More about the dead VAX 4000-200

by cheri-post＠web.de

Ok, here's some additional information, which lets me think that the CPU-Board is definetly dead: I inserted a KZQSA-Board, as this board has an additional green DCOK-LED. While the one on the CPU-board does not lit, this one turns on (as does the one of the power supply). Moreover, I measured the supply voltages with an osciloscope, they are fine. The DCOK line has 3,51 Volts, and I assume that this can be interpreted as a "high" (please correctly me, if I'm wrong). There is some "noise", but this is just a very small voltage with a Vpp of 5 mV. The peaks appear with a frequency of 250 kHz, so I guess that this can be neglected and should not disturb the CPU-board logic. Well, I guess that I have to watch out for another KA660 board.... Regards, Pierre > Hi all, > > With the help of your hints, I did some measuring today regarding the voltages. > The voltages of the supply all lie in an acceptable range: 12,22V, 5,17V, 3,29V, -12,25V. > > I observerd recently, that when I turn on the VAX, it comes up with the languages menu und then freezes. The diagnostic displays turns from F to E and then back to F. > Turning it off and on again doesn't let the menu come up anymore (and the "E" on the display") anymore. It's completey frozen then. > I've got the impression, that some capacitors are playing bad games somewhere. > > Another thing: On the KA660-board, there are four other red LEDs, which turn on all together (and stay on) and there's a green LED. > In the CPU maintenance manual, it says that this green LED stands for "DC-OK". Well, it doesn't burn when power is applied... > Furthermore, I measured the DCOK and POK signals: The voltage is 3,51V. Do I have to interpret that as a "signal high" ? > > Tomorrow, I'm going to measure the signals and voltages with an oscilloscope. Do you guys have any further hints? > > > Regards, > Pierre > _______________________________________________________________ > SMS schreiben mit WEB.DE FreeMail - einfach, schnell und > kostenguenstig. Jetzt gleich testen! http://f.web.de/?mc=021192 > > _______________________________________________________________ SMS schreiben mit WEB.DE FreeMail - einfach, schnell und kostenguenstig. Jetzt gleich testen! http://f.web.de/?mc=021192

19 years, 3 months

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Prime system available in UK

by james＠machineroom.info

Earlier this year I posted the following describing the Prime I need to get rid of. Despite some interest, it's still taking up valuable space in my workshop and I would really like it gone :-) I've offered to send one set of the full backup tapes (there's two sets) to Al Kossow (which I haven't yet got around to but will soon!) and some of the manuals are scanned and up on http://www.machineroom.info. I may even be persuaded into delivering at cost. If it doesn't go this time it will spend a week on eBay then sad to say will have to be scrapped after anything useful is removed. Cheers, James ---------------- Hi all, this is probably the shortest time I've owned a machine. Bought just a few months ago as a "project" I now have it to offer again. I simply don't have the skill to get this running. I've also got too many other projects :) It's ex Salford Uni Prime 2550. Comes with 2 disk drives, 1 tape drive, 3 boxes of manuals, 2 boxes of tapes, 4 5.25" floppy drives, a box of cables and a bunch of terminal lines. Pictures (including all the manual covers) are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/17208732 at N00/sets/72157594565763356/ Located in Southampton near M27 J7. It's yours for the taking. I'd like it to go to a genuine collector but will consider any and all interest! I can hang on to it for a few weeks but it's just taking up valuable space right now. If there's no interest in the entire system then I may part out boards, manuals, etc. As I understand it when I bought this it had previously sat for a year unused. Previous to that it had sat for a few years in a garage and been used occasionally and prior to that had been in the hands of the chap who rescued it from Salford. When I received it I had problems getting anything sensible on the terminal then things went downhill and I discovered the main 5V PSU had failed. I tried replacing that with an external 200A unit borrowed from my Cray EL but hadn't considered how many other signals are generated by the power supply. (MAN070 is available on bitsavers but this only covers the older Prime models - the power supply signals look the same but the VCP is very different). The ? 12 and +16 are all OK. I tried faking some of the power good signals and checked others (50Hz clock, etc). I even found one signal had broken on the backplane and have repaired that. Unfortunately without the manual for this specific model I'm stuck. In it's current condition it just sits with all front panel lights on and nothing on the console. CPU: As I say, the 5V supply has failed. I've patched several lines (the power good signals) inside the supply. I've had all the boards out, cleaned the connectors and vacumed the boards and case. I can include an 80A 5V supply if it's of any use to you (I'd hope 80A is sufficient. The 200A unit I was using is now back with the Cray!!) Disk drives: I found that the bolts holding the disk units in the casings were missing (a bag of "spares" was supplied which included the bolts and rubber mountings). I replaced the bolts before powering up, thankfully! One of the disk units powers up and spins. The other doesn't power at all. I removed all the dust too whilst the drives were out. Tape drive: Powers up and front panel buttons seem to "do stuff" but can't test any further. Tapes: These are all externally clean but a lot of the casings have cracked. You'll need some experience with 9 tracks to read these I expect. Documentation: There's a lot of very tidy manuals and also quite a few loose manuals in ring binders. There's also about 10 pocket guides. What is nice is the collection of history - there's administrator logs, service requests, etc. Floppy drives: I'm told the two original Prime badged units have failed. There's a couple of more modern replacements (and a handful of floppies) included - one of these should work! Without a working system I obviously can't test anything. Therefore, you should consider this as a source of spares or possible repair if you have the skill and/or manuals. I'm around most weekends for collection and can obviously give a hand loading. A standard SWB Transit does the job nicely. So come on, give the Prime a new home. Please :) James

19 years, 3 months

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Early Electronic Image Capture

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 09:07 PM 5/30/2007, Jason T wrote: >I remember the ads for those - I thought the color wheel was the >coolest thing. It's just a radio-control servo that connected to the spare mouse port. > I wanted one for my A500. Dunno what I would have >done with it, but it was on the back cover of every copy of Info >magazine, and it was from the Video Toaster people, so I had to have it. It was slow-scan, after all, so it could take the place of a scanner or a camera for static scenes. It was certainly cheaper. The Amiga had a real-time video digitizer caleld Amiga Live! with less resolution and color fidelity from not long after its release. - John

19 years, 3 months

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Hazeltine 1400 info?

by legalize＠xmission.com

I just purchased a Hazeltine 1400 terminal from ebay. This terminal apparently has no lower case, so it seems like quite an oldie. Does anyone have information on it? Manuals, escape codes (if any), etc. would be appreciated! -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 3 months

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Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Zane See previous reply to Tony Duell. It may be a US right angled kettle lead but its not a UK type. Kettles here (at least ours does) use standard IEC connectors. Regards Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Zane H. Healy Sent: 31 May 2007 01:02 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 Adrian/Witchy wrote: > On 30/5/07 17:48, "Rod Smallwood" > <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > wrote: > > > The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC connector > > with one exception. > > Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a > > groove or slot in the mating free connector. > > Yep, it's a right-angle kettle lead; if you've got one that'll work nicely. > >From what I can see amongst my VAXen it was only the QBUS machines > >that > warranted that sort of power cable; the whole thing was interlocked so > that if there was a power cable in there you couldn't do anything > other than disconnect. Even when you wanted to remove the PSU you had > to make sure there was nothing in the way of the interlocks..... If he is talking about the type connector I think he is, it is notched to prevent plugging a normal cord in. This is due to it pulling more amps than most computer cords are rated at. I'm not sure if this is the same thing you're talking about, but I think you're talking about something different. IIRC, I've seen a couple Compaq or HP servers that use these as well. Zane

19 years, 3 months

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Anyone know anything about old TEC Terminals?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> The cabinets are painted almost an IBM-style blue. Interdata blue, most likely. They are shift register memory dumb terminals. The most common place I saw them was with Interdata systems.

19 years, 3 months

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Computer History Museum Article in the LA Times

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

This is an interesting bit about the upcoming anniversary of the founding of Fairchild Semiconductor, a collector who has helped the CHM, Duane Wadsworth, and trying to save computer history. Hopefully it raises the profile of our hobby a bit. I apologize for the stupid nag login. I add in a bugmenot.com login to get to the article. I won't send a copy of the article on the open list, but might send to selected people (don't want to 'publish' it w/o permission, and do respect copyright here). I found this today (5/29) by searching for "computer history museum" in the times search if the link doesn't work. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-semi29may29,1,5667117.story Username bugmenot at dodgeit.com Password bugmenot

19 years, 3 months

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Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yes I thought "Kettle lead" and shot off to the kitchen. Er nope, our kettle has a standard IEC connector as found on a million and one PC's. So rummage through cable collection and discover a cable with a somewhat longer IEC connector. Yes! it has a groove opposite the middle connector. But, what's this? The groove does not extend to the front of the connector. It must have been designed to work with a spring clip that was depressed as the connector was inserted and clicked into place when the plug was fully home. Needless to say, removing the small piece of plastic to extend the groove to the front took seconds and it fits. However its not the 'right' cable. I have read the manual for the 4000-300 and theres a nice section on the plug. However it refers to it as the 'power cable shipped with your system'. The picture shows it to be a right angled type and there's a picture of the various wall socket end plugs. None of them are UK 13Amp type. Whilst working at DEC I had a mains cable problem with terminals. The US claimed the German type (Round with two round pins) was standard for the UK. The guy came over for a meeting and I asked him to plug in the terminal using his 'British' standard cable. That cost him a very nice evening out. The solution? We shipped an IEC cable that had a standard UK 13A plug moulded on the other end. They took it to their cable sub contractor. He said "Oh you ment those!" He had thousands in stock and they were cheaper than the one they normally shipped!!! So whilst what I have will probably run, its not the correct cable. It should be a right angled IEC type with a groove or slot opposite the middle pin. Rod Smallwood DecCollector -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 31 May 2007 00:28 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 > > Hi > Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit > on a minor problem.=20 The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a > normal IEC connector with one exception. > Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a > groove or slot in the=20 mating free connector. > =20 > Before I start hacking up cables does anybody recognise this plug. Sounds like a 'hot condition' IEC connector. It was originally used on kettles, and the like, and was designed (a) to withstand higher temperaturs than the normal on, and (b) it's rated at 10A (IIRC), the normal one being originally rated at 6A. It's the latter that's important here. Any dectnet electronics shop in the UK would stock it. -tony

19 years, 3 months

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Aztec C (was: more eBay stuff)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 02:50 PM 5/31/2007, Bill Pechter wrote: >The Manx (Aztec C) folks were local in Shrewsbury or Eatontown, NJ.. My >wife actually worked there for a while... Eatontown. And what was her name? - John

19 years, 3 months

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strange *pc*

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-PC-Systel-Sytem-with-sensors-for-light-sound-temp_… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz

19 years, 3 months

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Sun, HP "scrap" (???)

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

>From: Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com> > >--- woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: > > > Chris M wrote: > > > > > They use solvents or whatever typically I guess, > > but > > > the addition of a lot of heat might do it too. You > > can > > > build a small gas furnace for probably much less > > then > > > $100 USD. Theoretically the temperature will be > > > limited only by the quality of the refractory > > cement > > > used. Oi whatever. > > > > > Charcoal is the low cost fuel ... But then I don't > > think one would get that much gold to need a > > furnace. > > The books are here. http://www.lindsaybks.com/ > > Gas burns much hotter...unless you're talking about >*real* charcoal made from hardwoods. But you know >what...gas still burns much hotter. My point was you >could mess w/hydrochloric? acid and all that (wherever >you'd find it - I know someone's going to point out >how it could be commonly had, or maybe it's a >relatively *common* thing to find)...or you could just >burn off all the volatile gunk in a cheap furnace. But >you'd have some steel (pins) left over. That'll melt >too...at oh about 2800 degress Fahrenheit. Can't >remember if gold melts at a higher or lower >temperature. But at least you should be able to >separate the gold from the steel. Or come to think of >it maybe you could eliminate the steel before the >barbecue. > I'm not aware of a resistance element that'll go any >higher then ~2300 degrees, that being enough to melt >brass or prolly even pure copper. But the mints use >magnetic induction (with some sort of coil thingee). >But that requires and awful lot of juice I'm told. >Like enough to light a city block... > > Hi You don't want to melt the other metals first, most metals will dissolve the gold and just make it harder to refine. The best method is with acid. Muradic acid should work ok to remove the other metals. Gold melts quite hot. I don't recall any heater wire that wouldn't melt first. In an inert gas, as was mentioned by another, tungsten could be used. Other methods include things like carbon arc or oxi-acetylene. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ More photos, more messages, more storage?get 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail. http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migrati…

19 years, 3 months

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who invented IDE?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

I think I've even asked this question before, but got no response. Or at least no suitable ones. Hosers. Though I was recently told that the first IDE card appeared in a Compaq Deskpro. Can anyone confirm or deny? ____________________________________________________________________________________Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/index.php

19 years, 3 months

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Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life.

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

I'm not sure about the back up but the -200 has a TK70 as does the -300. So if I can prepare a bootable tape I should be able to boot the -300 >from it and maybe even get a system onto it. As to attaching one of the drives from the -300 to the -200. I'll investigate the types. However both systems are DSSI bus so to a first approximation they should be OK. Sorry I'm a bit slow, its not that my memory of stuff I knew 25years ago has gone its just the access time has increased!!! Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Zane H. Healy Sent: 31 May 2007 16:24 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life. At 9:48 AM +0100 5/31/07, Rod Smallwood wrote: >Boot er no but as it seems as the system spent some or all of its life >in the insurance industry I'm not surprised the disks have been wiped. >Ok so next move. I'm going to try and make a VMS 6.2 bootable tape on >the -200 as the -300 has a TK70. Can you run a backup from one disk to another. If you can clone the disk in your -200, then you can stick the new disk in your -300. >The -300 also has a KZQSA (SCSI) controller and whilst they are no good >with hard drives I think they work with CD ROM's I also have a stand >alone SCSI CD drive (Yamaha CRW4416SX) it has the really small SCSI >plugs (inch and a bit long) on the back and the KZQSA has the really >big ones. Cables for such connections used to be quite common, I should think it wouldn't be that hard to find them in the UK. The tricky questions are, does the CD-ROM drive support 512-byte blocks, as I believe that will be a requirement for booting VMS. (Actually is this still a requirement on the latest versions of the OS?) Also, does the board require DEC drives to work? A quick bit of googling doesn't answer the 512-byte question, but turnes up the following manual. http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/computer/pdf/crw4416sx_e.pdf I also see where it was apparently a popular drive for people wanting to hang a CD-RW drive off of a Sun box. 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/ |

19 years, 3 months

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Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yup that's it!! I wonder if they do a right angled version? -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Dennis Boone Sent: 31 May 2007 00:10 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 > Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit on a > minor problem. The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC > connector with one exception. Directly below the middle pin is a rib or > ridge that would require a groove or slot in the mating free connector. It's defined by the IEC-320 spec. The C15 type goes on the cord, the C16 is the back panel of the appliance. See e.g.: http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/IEC_Connectors/IEC_Inlets-Connectors.ht ml The principal difference between the C15 and the more common C13 appears to be rated operating temperature. De

19 years, 3 months

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Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit on a minor problem. The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC connector with one exception. Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a groove or slot in the mating free connector. Before I start hacking up cables does anybody recognise this plug. Rod Smallwood

19 years, 3 months

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who invented IDE?

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> On 30 May 2007 at 17:24, Chris M wrote: > > > I think I've even asked this question before, but got > > no response. Or at least no suitable ones. Hosers. > > Though I was recently told that the first IDE card > > appeared in a Compaq Deskpro. Can anyone confirm or deny? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Attachment "An early version of the specification, conceived by Western Digital in 1986, was commonly known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) due to the drive controller being contained on the drive itself as opposed to the then-common configuration of a separate controller connected to the computer's motherboard " ____________________________________________________________________________________Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC

19 years, 3 months

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Sun, HP "scrap" (???)

by marvin＠west.net

Interesting! I sold and am selling some type S thermocouples (Platinum/10% Rhodium vs Platiunum) on Ebay, and in doing some research, found that one use of this type of thermocouple is connected with the melting point of gold. FWIW, there are gold stripping solutions available. I don't recall what they are made of but probably some sort of cyanide concoction. The method *I* want to try someday is to use mercury to disolve the gold, and then boil off the mercury leaving the gold (I would guess as a powder.) And yes, I do know the dangers of using this method. > Hi > You don't want to melt the other metals first, most > metals will dissolve the gold and just make it harder to > refine. The best method is with acid. Muradic acid > should work ok to remove the other metals. > Gold melts quite hot. I don't recall any heater wire > that wouldn't melt first. In an inert gas, as was mentioned > by another, tungsten could be used. Other methods > include things like carbon arc or oxi-acetylene. > Dwight

19 years, 3 months

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Sun, HP "scrap"(???)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> Chris M Writes: > My point was you > could mess w/hydrochloric? acid and all that (wherever > you'd find it - I know someone's going to point out > how it could be commonly had, or maybe it's a > relatively *common* thing to find).. Someone had to do it ... Muriatic acid, available at any decent hardware store. Not sure if it's strong enough, but you can find it. Sadly, nitric acid is getting a bit harder to come by. Woodelf writes: > Yep! Hydrogen ... but you don't burn it - it > was a plasma arc of some kind. I remember > reading about in Scientific American 1961 I think. Monatomic hydrogen process? Used for welding? Arc splits H2 to 2 H, which then recombines releasing energy.

19 years, 3 months

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Lack of 8-bit threads (was Re: Linux question)

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, >....I'd also like to find one of the HP12x CP.M machines. But >I wouldn't even conisder shipping one, so it would have to be >somewhere that I could collect it from. Never come across one of those. Some 10 years ago I used to go to the Coventry radio rally every year, for about 3 years on the trot this one guy brought an original 150 with floppy and hard drives but never managed to shift it. Of course, the year I decided to buy it, I missed out on it by 5 mins.... :-( BTW I know I'm actually getting rid of stuff right now, but....I'd kill to get hold of an HP 370 or 380 (that's "9000/370" or "9000/380") with a hard drive. TTFN - Pete.

19 years, 3 months

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Early desktop film recorders (was Re: Early Electronic Image Capture)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 5/30/07, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On May 30, 2007, at 11:34 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote: > >> > I have something similar in a Polaroid product - a high-res B&W > >> CRT in a box with an internal motorized color wheel and a video input... > > ... about 6" wide, 5" tall, about 18" deep... > Ahhhhh ok. I've heard of those but have never seen one. I > believe it was (more or less) the predecessor of the computer-driven > one that my store used to sell. I don't recall the name "Palette" appearing on the outside, but I can't remember how it _is_ marked (some sort of "image copy processor"?) I'll have to check the next time I'm in the right basement. > Man, that box sounds like lots of fun! It is a lot of fun. I think it took me finding parts from 3 locations (Dayton, Uni surplus, and online) to get it working, but it's not difficult to use. In my googling tonight to remind myself of the name of it, I ran across several pages on Polaroid desktop film recorders. I had to chuckle (or was it wince ;-) at one page that decried pre-Digital Palettes as "totally useless" because they were designed for CGA and didn't work with any "modern" (VGA) output devices, nor were there any drivers. My device can be attached to a C-64 or a DVD player, or anything else with an NTSC video stream (RGB is an option for computer output) which is still ubiquitous (but for how much longer?) No OS or funky drivers required. My first test image was from a Sony LDP-1500 laser disc player since it has a nice freeze-frame when loaded with a CAV disc (but no freeze-frame at all with CLV discs - common with earlier players). -ethan

19 years, 3 months

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Acorn Second Processors (was: Re: Quick survey on equipment)

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > My experience is that all the second processors -- no, make that >all the 'cheese wedgrs' -- are rear. It's a shame I never got one when I picked up my other "wedges". It was always on my "list" of things to get, but they used to be reasonably easy to find at radio rallies and I always ended up finding something more interesting and leaving it for "next time".... :-( > I think you've forgotten the 'TUbe ULA' That's a 40 pin custom chip >that handles the communication between the Beeb and the second.... I certainly had. Bit of a show stopper that really.... ;-) <grin> I was just trying to remember where I'd stored that wirewrapping stuff I haven't touched for 15 years too.</grin> > The Torch Z80 board did, indeed, use only sandard chips. Changing the subject slightly, IIRC the original "Acorn 6502 Second Processor" cheese-wedge was just that, a faster 6502? Did Acorn ever release a "cheese-wedge" 65c02 or 65816? Also, is it possible to replace the 6502 in one of these with a 65c02; not that I'd actually try it, unless the 6502 was socketed, but I recall having BIG problems (in fact, total failure IIRC?) when I tried running a 65c02 in a Model B sometime in the early 90's? TTFN - Pete.

19 years, 3 months

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Hazeltine 1400 info?

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 15:30:34 -0700 (PDT) From: William Maddox <wmaddox at pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Hazeltine 1400 info? -------------Original Message: --- Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: > It appears to be in good condition too. Do you > happen to know what > year this would have been manufactured? Is it one > of the Hazeltines > with core display memory that remembers the last > thing that was > displayed after you turn it off? That would be a Hazeltine 2000. I'd like to find one of those too, or one of the CDC or Bunker-Ramo terminals that used an acoustic delay line. --Bill ---------------- Reply: I scrapped one of those CDC units many years ago; now that was a "real" terminal - made a nice printer stand... Still have the delay line and a few dozen boards out of it somewhere if ya ever need any parts for one. Also a Bunker-Ramo modem >from the days when a modem was a modem... m

19 years, 3 months

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82S131

by Felix.Kunz＠digitallogic.com

Dear Jay have you some PAL 82S131 for sale ? I'm looking for our PDP11 machines some. Offer me 100pc of 82S131. Thank you Felix Kunz DIGITAL-LOGIC AG | Felix Kunz | Chairman, CEO Nordstrasse 11/F | CH-4542 Luterbach | Switzerland Tel. +41 (0)32 681 58 00 | Fax +41 (0)32 681 58 01 www.digitallogic.com

19 years, 3 months

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IBM AS/400 iSeries 720

by kd7bcy＠kd7bcy.com

I've been offered an iSeries 720, near as I can figure it's probably a 720-2062 but that hasn't been verified. I'm waiting to hear if they have the manuals and software still. He IS sure that it runs on 220v. So, is this worth picking up? I've always wanted an AS/400 :-) Can it be changed to run on 120v? If I don't take it, I can probably pass his info on to someone else. He's located in Washington about 30 minutes out of Olympia. Local pickup only! ------------ John Rollins | KD7BCY | http://www.kd7bcy.com Ham-Mac mailing list http://mailman.qth.net ------------

19 years, 3 months

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More about the dead VAX 4000-200

by cheri-post＠web.de

Hi all, With the help of your hints, I did some measuring today regarding the voltages. The voltages of the supply all lie in an acceptable range: 12,22V, 5,17V, 3,29V, -12,25V. I observerd recently, that when I turn on the VAX, it comes up with the languages menu und then freezes. The diagnostic displays turns from F to E and then back to F. Turning it off and on again doesn't let the menu come up anymore (and the "E" on the display") anymore. It's completey frozen then. I've got the impression, that some capacitors are playing bad games somewhere. Another thing: On the KA660-board, there are four other red LEDs, which turn on all together (and stay on) and there's a green LED. In the CPU maintenance manual, it says that this green LED stands for "DC-OK". Well, it doesn't burn when power is applied... Furthermore, I measured the DCOK and POK signals: The voltage is 3,51V. Do I have to interpret that as a "signal high" ? Tomorrow, I'm going to measure the signals and voltages with an oscilloscope. Do you guys have any further hints? Regards, Pierre _______________________________________________________________ SMS schreiben mit WEB.DE FreeMail - einfach, schnell und kostenguenstig. Jetzt gleich testen! http://f.web.de/?mc=021192

19 years, 3 months

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enough already

by JeLynch＠stny.rr.com

The Micron Eye used controlling the DRAM refresh (soak) rate to provide gray scale. I used a Texas Instruments 256K (512 x 512) as an imager with a Texas instruments DRAM controller to vary the refresh rate. Any ceramic package DRAM could be used after removing the metal lid and more challenging removing the polyimide protective coating. Most DRAM have redundant cells and the topography has to be decoded. There are also some "blank" zones for be bit lines. It was pretty cool back in 1986. At 10:26 PM 5/29/2007, you wrote: >On 5/29/07, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: >> > What outfit first sold digital cameras where the sensor consisted of >> > a cermet-package DRAM with the chip cover replaced by a piece of >> > glued-on glass? >> >>Micron >> >>The product was called the "Micron Eye" > >I made one of those in the 1980s... I read about the trick in Byte, >then carefully removed the lid from a 4116 and installed a bit of >slide mount cover. To test it, I stuffed the altered DRAM into an >Apple II, covered the DRAM, cleared the high-res screen, then watched >individual pixels show up when I uncovered the chip and let light fall >directly on it. > >What I never did was to take it to the next stage and decode the grid. > >-ethan

19 years, 3 months

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Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

>> From what I can see amongst my VAXen it was only the QBUS machines >> that > warranted that sort of power cable; the whole thing was interlocked so > that > if there was a power cable in there you couldn't do anything other than > disconnect. Even when you wanted to remove the PSU you had to make sure > there was nothing in the way of the interlocks..... > > I've never gotten around to tracing out what that plunger under the sheet-metal does, though- my current hypothesis is that it discharges the HV caps.

19 years, 3 months

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Wright line mag tape cabinets at Boeing surplus Seattle

by g-wright＠att.net

Boeing Surplus has 2 7' Wightline Mag tape cabinets with roll up door. Both look good for there age. If anyone has a Need. Priced @ 35.00 each 05-30-2007 1:00 PM Jerry Wright JLC inc g-wright at att.net

19 years, 3 months

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Properly "classic" digital cameras (and imaging) (was Re: enough already (was: digital camera capabilities))

by zmerch-cctalk＠30below.com

Rumor has it that Ethan Dicks may have mentioned these words: >I used a ~10-year-old Olympus recently for my EarthDial... What's an EarthDial? Awrighty, googling.... Some kinda flavour of Sundial device, hooked to a webcam & Interwebitated... ;-) http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/earthdial/network.html Is the Antarctic one yours? > I don't know if >it's easy to tell a "modern" camera to take a photo via USB, but all >the ones I know of just treat the camera as an external storage >device, not a scanner-like peripheral to be controlled. Sorry for the offtopicness, but I believe it's a "fairly standard" function of today's DSLRs - At least for my Nikon D70, it's called "tethered shooting" or "tethered capture." IIRC (tho I've never done it) you can either automate taking a picture to CF or directly down the USB to the software that requested the shot. Bibble can do this with most cameras that support it. Gratuitous yet sucky attempt to bring this back: View my digital photos of VCF-MW 2006! http://zmerch.30below.com/vcf_mw_06/ [[ Sorry. I said it was sucky! ;-) ]] Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger | "Bugs of a feather flock together." sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | Russell Nelson zmerch at 30below.com |

19 years, 3 months

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Properly "classic" digital cameras (and imaging) (was Re: enough already (was: digital camera capabilities))

by zmerch＠30below.com

Rumor has it that Ethan Dicks may have mentioned these words: >I used a ~10-year-old Olympus recently for my EarthDial... What's an EarthDial? Awrighty, googling.... Some kinda flavour of Sundial device, hooked to a webcam & Interwebitated... ;-) http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/earthdial/network.html Is the Antarctic one yours? > I don't know if >it's easy to tell a "modern" camera to take a photo via USB, but all >the ones I know of just treat the camera as an external storage >device, not a scanner-like peripheral to be controlled. Sorry for the offtopicness, but I believe it's a "fairly standard" function of today's DSLRs - At least for my Nikon D70, it's called "tethered shooting" or "tethered capture." IIRC (tho I've never done it) you can either automate taking a picture to CF or directly down the USB to the software that requested the shot. Bibble can do this with most cameras that support it. Gratuitous yet sucky attempt to bring this back: View my digital photos of VCF-MW 2006! http://zmerch.30below.com/vcf_mw_06/ [[ Sorry. I said it was sucky! ;-) ]] Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger | Anarchy doesn't scale well. -- Me zmerch at 30below.com. | SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers

19 years, 3 months

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Semi-OT: Need help identifying diode specs

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Patrick Finnegan asked: They appear to have a Westinghouse (underlined W in a circle) logo on them, next to a diode symbol marking polarity. Next to that is the number "18840100" (part number?) and "8206" (date code?). That part number could also be a house number. It sure looks like a Control Data number. All of their components' part numbers for the small computers started with 16 to 18 and were eight digit part numbers. Billy

19 years, 3 months

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enough already

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> What outfit first sold digital cameras where the sensor consisted of > a cermet-package DRAM with the chip cover replaced by a piece of > glued-on glass? Micron The product was called the "Micron Eye"

19 years, 3 months

2
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Repairing original AT hard disk

by fireflyst＠earthlink.net

So, I 've got this IBM AT, which is strangely enough, fairly rare in its currently equipped form (EGA, 30M HDD). I'd like to keep it original if possible. There is a weird problem with the hard disk. When I turn the machine on, the hard disk makes this 'CLOK' sound, like the head is trying to retract or something but can't. When the machine tries to boot the hard disk, it just sits there with the light on and then says it had a seek error or could not detect the disk. Any ideas what's wrong? Is it supposed to make that noise when you turn it on? It's awfully loud. Otherwise the platters spin freely and quietly, no bearing noise there. There isn't a head lock on this drive is there? Thanks Julian

19 years, 3 months

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More with the Vax 11/750

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Now that the Vax is in the basement, I've been cleaning and checking it out, trying to address what problems I can. First and foremost, there is no key. But, I found that I could pop out the control panel >from behind, and that contains the actual turn switch - the key is just the knob that turns the rotary switch. My bright idea was to simply remove the key mechanism for the moment, so that I could turn the machine between modes with a modified television knob or something. Simple - just remove a large hex nut collar from the back, and slide it out. Unfortunately, as it slid out, it ever so slightly caught the edge of the plastic overlay for the control panel, and left a little light colored mark around the bottom of the hole where the overlay isn't sticking to the back plastic, and has air under it. Nothing that affects the functionality of the machine of course, but it ticks me off, since I caused it. I can't think of a way to fix it without causing more damage, however, so I'll just have to live with it. Now that I can switch the machine on (once I get confirmation on the orientation of the power controller connector, see previous post), I should soon be able to test run it. One thing that needs to be addressed first, is that this machine must have originally been fitted with an external unibus expansion box - there is a large flat white cable inside, connected to a paddle board on the last Unibus slot. This cable was cut with scissors or something where it exits the cabinet. I have removed this, but I will need to install a Unibus terminator, correct? I should be able to steal the terminator out of my 11/84 for now - are they the same, or was the Vax Unibus a little different? -Ian

19 years, 3 months

10
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Q about a DEC board

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Hello All, Anybody familiar or does know something about the M3112 from DEC? It says 'NICSA CONSOLE' and is a hex card and has a metal bracket with a rotary switch commonly seen on the later PDP's, 2 buttons, a couple of LED's and 4 7-segment displays. There is also a DB25 connector on the bracket, probably for a serial line? Thanks, Ed

19 years, 3 months

3
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TRS-80 Model III available for cost of shipping

by legalize＠xmission.com

It has no peripherals, is dusty from being stored in a garage (although it appears to have been kept dry), and is missing the following keycaps: V, M and bottom-right key on the numeric keypad. The case says "48K RAM". Other than the missing keys it appears to be in good condition. I have not powered it up, but it was reported working the last time it was used. Shipping would be from US ZIP 84106 (Salt Lake City, UT) -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 3 months

2
1
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Meshna

by Mark.Aceto＠fcps.edu

Response to "John Meshna Post I was unable to respond to an Internet post I viewed, but I wanted you to know that after all these years (since about 1968) the address of John Meshna Jr. will forever live in my memory. As a teenager experimenting with electronic equipment, your father, whom I never meet, was a huge and positive influence to my life and endeavors. Kindest regards, Mark Aceto Vienna, VA

19 years, 3 months

1
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Storing hard drives

by png＠ideaphile.com

David Griffith wrote: > Gun shops sell plastic bags designed to deal with this kind of problem > with firearm storage. Dessicant packets are also available. Be aware that some gun-storage bags are designed to deposit a corrosion-resistant film on the contents by means of a chemical- impregnated liner, card, bag, or other insert. This would probably mean death to a hard disk. These bags are usually marked as such, but be careful. There are many kinds of dessicant. Silica gel is the best for this purpose, as far as I know. It's also possible to get packets of an oxygen-absorbing material, usually used for food storage. . png

19 years, 3 months

1
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Storing Hard Drives

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Do temperatures need to be a concern when storing hard drives? I'm looking at a temperature range for storage of about 50-110 (obviously over the course of a year). I've been keeping my collection of drives at home, but think it's about time to start thinking about putting them into storage. 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/ |

19 years, 3 months

10
14
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Nice PC-museum..

by fu3.org＠gmail.com

- http://www.switchtech.us/PCmuseum.html This is "SWITCHTECH'S VIRTUAL PC MUSEUM," which is interesting unless it's been posted here hundreds of times before.. ;)

19 years, 3 months

14
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Amiga scan doublers/flicker fixers

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

is anyone familiar with this devices? There seems to have been a few on the market back in the day. Here one on geekBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih= 005&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item= 150125339517&rd=1&rd=1 Seems relatively simple: memory/buffer (as Tony Duell described sometime ago), and other essential (hopefully discrete) logic. Does anyone know of schematics for any of these things? I suppose I could figure out how to build one *eventually*, just seems easier to mimic a known design, or at least to study one. ____________________________________________________________________________________Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting

19 years, 3 months

2
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WTB: MicroVax II Scsi

by silent700＠gmail.com

On 5/28/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > While these will work, you need a way to format them. A VAXstation > 2000, is a nice choice, if you can find one. Just got one, actually...and it's got a working RD54 in it, too. Bonus!

19 years, 3 months

2
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WTB: MicroVax II Scsi

by silent700＠gmail.com

My old uVax II (in BA23 case) has been sitting around idle for too long and it's time to revive it or let it move on. Right now it's got a TK50 or TK70 which works (can boot the diagnostic tape) and a flake RD5x drive. After laughing at the prices the gougers on ebay want for those drives, maybe it's time to shift gears and just go SCSI. I think the qbus scsi card is the KZQSA, or are there others that will work? Will the uVax just recognize the card and any scsi drive attached to it, or will there be more configuration involved (particular slots, firmware changes, etc?) Anyone got one for sale? Alternately, if I stay with the MFM controller I have now, will any old MFM drive work, or must it be DEC branded (custom ROM on the drive, maybe?) Thanks in advance -j

19 years, 3 months

7
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Apple /// Power Supply

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > _If_ that PSU was easily available, I could agree with this. But >it isn't. It's likely to take considerable time and effort to track >one down, I think.... I don't know what the situation is in the US, but here in the UK I've come across exactly *ONE* Apple /// in some 22 years of collecting.... I'd put his chances of sourcing a working replacement PSU these days at ZERO. TTFN - Pete.

19 years, 3 months

1
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by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://www5.ncr.com/support/support_drivers_patches.asp ____________________________________________________________________________________ We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265

19 years, 3 months

1
0
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DEC stuff in denver area

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Hi all, spring cleaning again, so, anybody in desparate need of some : rainbows (for parts) decstations, vaxstations (3100/xxx) terminals vt220, vt320 ... PROs (325, 350 for parts ...) BA23 boxes 9-track tape drives (ts05, ciphers) Pickup only, please contact me off-list. Stuff is in CO 80439

19 years, 3 months

1
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Apple /// Power Supply

by classiccmp＠vintage-computer.com

On 5/27/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > > Not to mention that Apple ///'s are rare enough these days that I'd > hate to see one sacrificed that another might live. I'm not asking anyone to pull a PS from a working system. I'm hoping someone has a service spare around or a /// with a bad motherboard or something similar. There's nothing wrong with taking two broken boxes and making one good one out of them if that's possible. -- Erik Klein www.vintage-computer.com www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum The Vintage Computer Forums

19 years, 3 months

2
1
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The Flexowriter Has Landed

by sethm＠loomcom.com

Hello folks, Yesterday I drove down to Glendale California to pick up my Friden Flexowriter. It's in fairly good shape, but will definitely need some serious TLC before I even think about plugging it in. I've put up some initial photos here (caution: the thumbnails link to very large files). http://www.loomcom.com/junk/friden/friden.html It's a model SPS-C. I'll need to do some digging to find the serial number and determine when it was built. This appears to be an upper-case only model. The printable character set on the type heads can be seen here: http://www.loomcom.com/junk/ friden/friden-Pages/Image7.html (around 2.5MB) The upper-case letters all print "~", apparently. The upper case numbers print the corresponding typewriter characters. I'm sure I'll have more once I open it up and start poking around at the internals. In the meantime, if you have a Flexowriter, would you mind letting me know what your model number is? Thanks! -Seth

19 years, 3 months

1
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Columbia Data Products VP portable free for cost of shipping

by legalize＠xmission.com

It has no keyboard, dual floppy diskettes, power cable, 7" monitor. It has not been powered up. It is slightly dusty from having been stored in a garage. Cosmetically it looks in good conition. It was reported working the last time it was used. You can see pictures of this model of computer here: <http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=889&st=1> Shipping is from US ZIP 84106 (Salt Lake City, UT) -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 3 months

1
0
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MS-DOS question

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've got a few nested (via CALL) batch files that create different files via the > and >> redirection operators under MS-DOS 7.01. Everything seems to work fine until I've created more than the number of files on my CONFIG.SYS FILES= statement--whereupon I get a "File creation error" message and DOS hangs, necessitating a reboot. It seems as if COMMAND.COM is keeping open any file created within a batch script by redirection. Is this really so--or is it the case that DOS isn't closing each batch file invoked with a CALL statement? Assuming that this is a real stinker of a DOS bug, how does one get around it? Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 3 months

3
6
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DLT 80 Tapes

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi, does anyone have any DLT 80 tapes the 40GB (80GB compressed) version. I have a HP Storedge backup unit I'd like to start using, having some trouble finding reasonably priced tapes. Thanks. Ian. ____________________________________________________________________________________Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&…

19 years, 3 months

1
0
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DLT 80 tapes

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi, does anyone have any spare/unused ____________________________________________________________________________________Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433

19 years, 3 months

1
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Complete success, OS/8 is up and running :) not so fast...

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

It's an M8315 card. I agree, the zero-page logic also does things with the bit 4 line. I'm looking into it. Whenever address bit 4 is "1", on the next increment it always clears to a "0" even though there is no carry that should cause that. I suspect the middle 7483 adder has an internal fault. On Sun, 27 May 2007 02:09:49 -0500 (CDT), you wrote: >From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) >> However, a little investigating quickly showed that even the most >> basic ten-word TTY check program would not deposit or run. In >> fact, when depositing or examining sequential locations I found >> the address display would increment from 0200 to 0001. 0577 would >> increment to 0400, etc. So something is wrong with address bit 4. >> I pulled all the boards from the backplane except the CPU set and >> it still does it. Now I've got to fix the hardware! Sigh. >> > >I am wondering if this has anyhting to do with the 'address in current >page / address in zero page' logic. > >Remind me as to which CPU you have. > >-tony

19 years, 3 months

1
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The Last of The Line

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Thanks Apart from my systems being 11/94's (Which I am not sure matters) That looks good. Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Doc Shipley Sent: 26 May 2007 22:03 To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: The Last of The Line Rod Smallwood wrote: > So Slot one: > M8190 > Or > M8190-AB 15Mhz > Or > M8190-AE 18Mhz > > Slot two/three > > MSV11-JD (1Mb) x 2 > or > > MSV11-JE (2Mb) x 2 > > So can we get to a consensus as to which boards in what order are > known to work? Empirical evidence, from visual inspection of the 11/84 I use for media transcription. Considering where I got it, this is almost certainly not factory configuration, but was almost certainly configured under DEC maintenance. Slot 1: M8190-AE KDJ11-BF Slot 2: M8637-BC MSV11-JB Slot 3: M8637-DF MSV11-JD Point of interest: I got this system when it was decommissioned from production work, in 2004. The other /84 is sitting behind some of my Spousal Equivalent's craft stuff, so I couldn't check. I do not move her toys uninvited. :^) Doc

19 years, 3 months

1
0
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freebie score

by legalize＠xmission.com

Someone in Ogden contacted me out of the blue and gave me: - Commodore C=64 - Commodore 1541 floppy drive - Commodore MPS801 printer - Texas Instruments color monitor - TRS-80 Model III computer - IBM 5150 w/1 floppy - IBM 5151 monitor - Apple ][e w/2 DISK ][ - Apple Macintosh Model M0001 - Columbia Data Products VP - Some diskettes, but nothing out of the ordinary Of these, if anyone is interested in the Columbia Data Products VP <http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=889&st=1>, let me know. It has just CGA graphics and isn't particularly interesting to me graphics-wise, but someone who collects IBM clone portables would find it interesting. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

19 years, 3 months

1
2
0 0

WTB: MicroVAX II SCSI

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> Heh....before I learned more about this board I made a "best offer" > for it for $25, thinking he'd never take it. Well, he took it. So > now I've got a tape-only quadbus scsi board on the way that may not > fit in my case. > > I read on one page that it may recognize CD-Rom drives, however. So I > guess that's something. KZQSA does more in real life than it's supposed to. I have one in a VAX 4000/200 that I use to run CD-ROMs (the VAX wouldn't start up from a Plextor 12x, but a Toshiba 4x is fine), and prior to my HSD05-AA hack it was running a Seagate 4GB disk. Not fast, but it worked. Not worth $100, but since you have it it will most likely function. Was it der Mouse or VAX9000 who has the Qbus MSCP SCSI card kit in beta?

19 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Intel 8086 Design Kit x10

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/8086-System-Design-Kit-intel_ W0QQitemZ150126261352QQihZ005QQcategoryZ1247QQrdZ 1QQcmdZViewItem ____________________________________________________________________________________ Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_tools.html

19 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Complete success, OS/8 is up and running :) not so fast...

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

On Fri, 25 May 2007 22:20:56 -0500 (CDT), you wrote: >Probably it didn't trup the first time you put the back in, when you >re-iserted it, and re-cloxsed the cover, it worked. You might want to >look at this, tweak the adjustments, etc. > >-tony Naturally, I jinxed it by bragging about my success :( The next day, the system wouldn't boot and I could see the FAULT light flicker as the system halted at address 10107. I initially thought disk drive problems again, or the pack got clobbered during swap-out for some reason. However, a little investigating quickly showed that even the most basic ten-word TTY check program would not deposit or run. In fact, when depositing or examining sequential locations I found the address display would increment from 0200 to 0001. 0577 would increment to 0400, etc. So something is wrong with address bit 4. I pulled all the boards from the backplane except the CPU set and it still does it. Now I've got to fix the hardware! Sigh. Meanwhile I have been SIMH-building a new OS/8 image from scratch for two drives. After much struggle I have the RL20 handler installed (which has logical drives R20A,B,C,D; the RL21 handler with R21A-D, and I had to omit the last 20% (the "E" drives on RL2E) because OS/8 can only allow fifteen handlers and space is needed for (at least) the R2SY system handler, TTY, SYS and DSK also... reminds me of Gates' "640K should be enough for anyone". -Charles

19 years, 3 months

2
1
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Punch card file drawers.

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 26 May, 2007, at 17:13, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > A while back, Someone here was looking for punch card file cabnets > and there was several > metos'. That was me, I asked for ones in the UK. What's a meto? > I have located 3 Standard 4 foot, 10highx2wide file cabinets. 2 > Gray and one Orange/Red. > They are here in Columbus Ohio. I will be looking into shipping > options next week for those > who are interested. > I have seen the packing and shipping subject raised here numerious > times in the past, and > am open to current comments and suggestions. > > I will take my portable scale over next week and get their > measurements and a weight. Well, I'd like to know how much, but I expect shipping will be uneconomic. Please don't use too much of your time. I remember the cabinets as about 2 metres high, though maybe that was two 1 metre cabinets on top of each other. I suppose if I didn't stack them I could use the top as a worktop.

19 years, 3 months

1
0
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pdp-12 diagnostic scans

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I have a large portion of the pdp-12 diags scanned. I'll try to get the tape diags up on bitsavers tonight.

19 years, 3 months

2
1
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The Last of The Line

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi There seems to be some differing views as to how the boards would be arranged in an 11/94 to use 11/84 CPU Board and memory. I'll describe the 11/94 box I have. The box has label saying 11/94-EF The first three slots in the first nine slot backplan have four edge connectors. In the space where the other two edge connectors would have been are IDC connectors for ribbon cables going to the front panel. The rest of the slots (6) in first nine slot backplane have six edge connectors. The second nine slot backplane has nine slots with six edge connectors in each. The forth slot has the M8191 Unibus controller in it. The main discussion seems to be which comes first the cpu or the memory. There is also an issue around, are the first three slots a Q-Bus or not? Currently my understanding is any M8190 CPU and any M8637 memory So Slot one: M8190 Or M8190-AB 15Mhz Or M8190-AE 18Mhz Slot two/three MSV11-JD (1Mb) x 2 or MSV11-JE (2Mb) x 2 So can we get to a consensus as to which boards in what order are known to work? Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Johnny Billquist Sent: 20 May 2007 20:14 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: The Last of The Line Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> skrev: On 20/05/2007 03:22, Jerome H. Fine wrote: >> > I have also read that the MSV11-JD and MSV11-JE boards should NEVER >> > be used together. Can anyone else confirm or deny this? > > No reason not to, except that you'd end up with an unusual amount of > memory (3Mbytes). It certainly won't hurt anything, though of course > you would need to set the start address of the lower board to the > correct value. It's settable to any 16KB (8KW) boundary. What do you mean "unusual amount"? I've been running one 11/83 like that for the last two years until today actually, when I upgraded to 4 megs. :-) I used to run my 11/84 like that as well. Currently it's shut down. Haven't had time to organize my computer room after I moved, so it just sits there... >> > I suspect that 3 * MSV11-JD boards may be used in a BA123 box with 4 >> > ABCD slots, but since I don't have any MSV11-JD boards, let alone 3 >> > of them, I can't verify this. > > I don't recall ever trying *that*, but it too would work, so long as you > set the start address of each board correctly, and again you'd end up > with 3Mbytes, which is an unusual amount. The manual just says you can > use "one or more MSV11-J memory modules", without mentioning size or > maximum number. 3 megs "unusual"? Hah! ;-) 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

19 years, 3 months

2
1
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Floppy configurations on IBM PC 5150/5160

by mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com

The standard floppy controller can drive up to four floppies, two internal and two external. And the motherboards of these machines have dip switches that allow you to tell them how many drives are connected. But those switches are just a simple count of drives, not which chain the drives are connected to. Normally I see these machines with two internal floppies, and nothing else. On the 5160 I have here in the office I am about to add an external floppy using the external connector on the floppy controller; the machine has a single drive installed internally now. How does the BIOS handle this situation? If I tell it that there are 2 drives will it try to figure out that one is internal and one is external? Do I need device driver help, or is this something the BIOS tries to handle? Is there something on the controller card I am supposed to do to tell it how the drives are connected/organized? Mike

19 years, 3 months

5
8
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Semi-OT: VCR help?

by mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA

I've got a VCR repair problem. (I thought it was just a broken drive belt, but apparently not.) Since this isn't really very on-topic (I doubt it's even ten years old), I'd prefer not to discuss it on-list. If anyone would be willing to lend a hand by email, could you write me off-list? I've set a reply-to pointing to two of my addresses, which between them give about as good a chance as is available that mail will actually reach me; in case the list mangles the reply-to, this means mouse at netbsd.org as well as mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca. /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

19 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

FA: 2 Sierra InterAction magazines

by jefftnc＠compascable.net

I thought these were all gone...but found 2 more. Sierra InterAction magazines - Spring 1997 - Summer 1997 http://tinyurl.com/ypju9e Excellent condition, have owned since new. Auction ends Sunday 5/27. Thanks for looking, Jeff No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.0/818 - Release Date: 5/25/2007 12:32 PM

19 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

grumpy

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

> Date: Sat, 26 May 2007 11:37:51 -0600 > From: "Michael B. Brutman" <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> > Subject: Re: Floppy configurations on IBM PC 5150/5160 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <4658706F.4070802 at brutman.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > > I understand that the nickname is 'Grumpy Old Fred', but it > is necessary > to YELL because I got the existence/non-existence of the twist in the > cable backwards? > > If I had said that the cause of the drive ID weirdness was because I > have my US electrical socket installed with the grounding pin facing > downward then I could understand the caps lock for emphasis, > but in the > grand scheme of things that was really a minor nit. > > > > Fred Cisin wrote: > > On Fri, 25 May 2007, Michael B. Brutman wrote: > >> For some strange reason, the IBM 4865 external drive unit > that I am > >> using showed up as drive number 3, not 2. (Counting from zero, of > >> course.) I wonder if there is a twist in the internal cabling, or > >> the drive select jumper is non-standard on this one. No > problem it > >> works just fine. > > > > a LACK OF A TWIST will do that > > > > > > yeah - happy holidays (stateside) Jack No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.0/818 - Release Date: 5/25/2007 12:32 PM

19 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Nice PC-museum..

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

>From: "Ensor" <classiccmp at memory-alpha.org.uk> ---snip--- > >I'd like to think that if the 68k had been chosen we'd have had far more >advanced PCs far quicker (I'm thinking back to the many 68k implementations >of UNIX amongst other things). But I do take your point about the >availability of software, let's face it, the *ONLY* reason I switched from >my Atari ST to the PC was software. > >Although....if we'd had 68k/UNIX based boxes on our desktops instead of >8086/DOS who's to say that there wouldn't have been a similar explosion of >software? Hi I think most software people would agree but that hard fact is that main memory is way behind processor speeds. This means that the more compact the instruction stream is, the faster the processor can run. We are quickly reaching the limits of clever caching, even for CISC processors like the X86 machines. I'm not saying that RISC machines are dead, just the opposite. Every X86 machine today has a RISC engine inside. I expect that the next generation processor will be even more CISC like and less RISC like to the external software. Memory bandwidth will dominate choices. Just my thoughts Dwight _________________________________________________________________ PC Magazine?s 2007 editors? choice for best Web mail?award-winning Windows Live Hotmail. http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migrati…

19 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

Dolch Ruggedized laptop Power Plug?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Not 10 years old, but definitely counts as unusual hardware... I bought a Dolch A320T ruggedized laptop at Dayton from a friend who was in from NJ and selling a few rows away from Dan Cohoe, but part of the reason it was so in expensive was that it didn't have an AC adapter. The laptop came with a hand-fashioned bit of cut PCB with leads, meant to plug into a lab-top bench supply (19V @ ~3A), but I'd like to at least get a "real" plug for it. The problem is that while it looks like an "ordinary" 2.5mm co-ax DC power connector, the center pin is mighty fat. My question is, how does one describe these sorts of connectors in enough detail to get the right part when ordering one? A standard, modern Dell PA-12-type brick pumps out 19.5V @ 3.33A, so that's not so much of an issue, just locating a mating connector is. Thanks for any help determining how to describe this. -ethan

19 years, 3 months

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WTB: MicroVax II Scsi

by silent700＠gmail.com

On 5/26/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > Well, for anything other than a KZQSA, I'd disagree, but for the > KZQSA I'm not sure the KZQSA has much value left in it. Maybe you > should just look at getting a VAXstation 3100/20 or a similar system, Ahh, I've got a couple of those. I just want to see this (slightly) older iron work. > http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_9254.html Thanks for the link - good thing I didn't buy that card in a fit of boredom last night :)

19 years, 3 months

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OT: Sun online game

by cclist＠sydex.com

Part of the spam that hit my inbox is a link to this Sun Micro online game: http://howmachineswork.com/sun/templeofthesun/?source=outsert There are cash prizes and some downloads related to Solaris and Sun Studio here also. Have fun--games are not my cup o' tea. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 3 months

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VCP200 chip available

by nanobot＠verizon.net

Hello, I think it is too late since this message looks old, But do you still have the VCP200 chip ? I thought I would ask. Thanks Scott

19 years, 3 months

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Vax 11/750 power supply questions

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Well, thanks to the advice of a knowledgeable Lowe's employee and a sheet of 3/4" plywood, I was able to move my Vax 11/750, by myself, from the garage into the basement. Initially, when I first unloaded the Vax >from the van, I removed the power supplies to make the machine lighter. I labeled the wires with masking tape, so as to get everything back correctly. I have cleaned and reassembled the power supply section save for one connector. It's a 20 pin ribbon cable that plugs into the top of the power controller, coming >from the 2.5v PSU. This connector is not keyed, and I don't know which direction it should go - unfortunately the way the cable is folded it could really go either way. So, those of you that own a Vax 11/750 - which side should be pin 1? Also, on each power supply, there is a three position toggle switch - Lo, Norm and Hi. What is this for? Similarly, I currently have the battery backup unit removed. It's obviously going to be totally shot - the sticker indicates the batteries were last changed in 1984. This isn't needed for the machine to work, correct? I'm not talking about the Time Of Year battery, I'm talking about the box mounted on the front left side, it has a couple lead acid battery packs in it - not enough to run the computer, I would think - did this just keep the memory alive? What's the pinout of the console port? Anything special, or should a null modem cable be all I need to connect a terminal? Thanks! -Ian

19 years, 3 months

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Looking for datasheet

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

I can't find a datasheet for the Texas Instruments SN74ACT8832AGB 32bit Bit-Slice Processor anywhere on-line and virtually no information about it. I'd appreciate it if anyone with information about it or access to a datasheet on it would let me know. Best regards, Bill B. ____________________________________________________________________________________Ready for the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/

19 years, 3 months

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Complete success, OS/8 is up and running :)

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

I am pleased to report a complete success with my 8/A,VTserver via 11/23+,RL02,OS-8 conglomeration. I think it's the *only* time that any project (with that many places for possible screwups) has worked for me on the first try :) As I had reported earlier, I managed to get *something* written onto an RL02 pack using VTserver to talk to my 11/23+. But when I put the pack in the 8/A's RL02, for some reason it wouldn't go Ready initially. After powering down the system and drive, removing the pack, reinserting, etc. then it did light the Ready light. No weird noises either. That was a relief. I had to do a little rewiring of the console port cable since I'd previously set it up for RS232 and I wanted to use an "authentic" ASR33 for the console with 20 ma current loop. I entered a short test program to read the keyboard and echo to the printer. That worked. So far so good, the 8/A is still alive after sitting for a year or more. Then I had to dig out the manual for the 8/A to figure out how to boot it from an RL02... OK, the boot ROM takes care of the addressing, just push the "BOOT" key. Not too hard :) SO I did that - the RL02 gently clucked and the Ready light flickered, and I heard one character print on the TTY across the room. I rushed over and peered at the canary-yellow paper while holding my breath (doing so helps 30 year old hardware and software work better) and lo and behold... a single "." Yee ha! I think it's up! I hopefully typed "DIR" and hit the return - and there came the directory of my disk image, just like on SIMH except with all the noise and oily scent of a Teletype. :) :) :) -Charles

19 years, 3 months

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PDP-12 MAINDEC Listing?

by ohh＠drizzle.com

Hey, all: Does someone have, or know of, an online PDF of DEC's "PDP-12 Tape Control Test" (parts 1 and 2) MAINDEC manuals? I've got a PDP-12 which I've gradually been breathing the life back into, and so far it's gone very well... but then I got to the LINCtape control and drives, which are acting like they're _trying_ to do useful things but aren't, and frankly I need to learn more to figure out what the heck is going on in there. MAINDEC listings are usually pretty helpful for that. :) Thanks! -O.-

19 years, 3 months

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SVD Update

by btt＠hughes.net

Hello, I just built one of these devices. It appears to work, but I cannot write any information to the virtual disk on an apple //e. I'm guessing thats because I need the version 2.4 of the firmware. Any idea where I can get this, or what could be wrong? Thanks, Brian Ties

19 years, 3 months

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Commodore 64 question

by bmachacek＠pcisys.net

I was just able to pick up 2 Commodore 64 units. One has monitor (1701) and disk drive (1541) and works fine. The other Commodore (computer portion only) has the Power light come on, but that's about it. It does not even cause the monitor screen to be active. My question is, is there possibly a simple solution as to why the C64 is not working? I have not opened it up yet, and I'm not a real "techie", but I could do some simple internal checks if I knew what to look for. Thanks for any help anyone may be able to give me. Bill Machacek

19 years, 3 months

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C.Itoh Keyboard repair (was CiTOH terminals (was Re: Well, now I've gone and done it..., Dragged home more big(ish) iron...))

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

I've actually fixed one of the CIT-220+ keyboards. It's *not* a job for the faint of heart. It requires desoldering all 130-odd keys (this REQUIRES a GOOD $250 desoldering iron, lacking this I paid someone $60 to do it for me), prying each key apart with two sewing-pins, pulling the contact out and scouring out the crap in between the little contact pads using a pin, and bending the sensor-push plate/spring back into an L shape so the key gets good sensitivity. The keyboard I had required this because someone at my university had spilled something (milk perhaps?) into it and it wicked up into about half the keys and got between the metal sensor plates. (The metal sensor plates are the C.Itoh cheap alternative to any DECENT type of keyboard key mechanism such as one the IBM model M clicky keyboard used. I also strongly suspect the real DEC vt-220 and vt-330 used better technology but I've never seen a real DEC one. :( ) I'm on the lookout for a C.Itoh CIT-220+ manual or a real DEC vt-330 (plus KB) since I have the manual for a vt-330 and it looks far superior to the CIT-220+. I've also dumped all the ROMs from the CIT-220+ if anyone wants/needs a copy. (IIRC it uses an 8085 plus two GFX chips plus RAM plus EEPROM plus a bunch of logic chips in the main unit, and an 8032 or 8048 in the keyboard.) I could also scan the VT-330 manual if needed, though it will take a while. Jonathan Gevaryahu jzg22 at drexel.edu

19 years, 3 months

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Free + shipping: IBM 4245 Printer manual

by silent700＠gmail.com

"IBM 4245 Printer, Models D12 and D20 Information Manual" Second Edition (July 1986) Good condition; hole-punched on left side and stapled twice. Could be unstapled for automatic scanning. Sent for the cost of shipping from 60074.

19 years, 3 months

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test-drb