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

Data Systems Design DSD-880 8" floppy and hard drive?

by JHuang＠eminc.com

Hi Stuart. Do you still have this 8" floppy drive. If not, could you tell me where can I found it. I use this fool on old Amistar Insertion Machine and most of them can read/write. Thanks for ur response. Jeffery yjdhuang at yahoo.com

19 years, 7 months

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Minivac 601 documentation copies/scans?

by tony.eros＠machm.org

I've been building a bit of a collection of logic/computer trainers, one of which is a Minivac 601. Originally, there were a set of manuals for this unit that detailed some construction projects. I'd really like to get a copy or scan of the full documentation. Is there anyone with a full documentation set for the Minivac who would be willing to either copy it for me or lend me the manuals so I could scan them? I asked this question a while back on the list and someone replied, but I wasn't ever able to finalize getting copies and now I've managed to misplace the relevent emails... Thanks! -- Tony

19 years, 7 months

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a riviting topic

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

-----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jules Richardson Sent: 12 January 2007 17:15 To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: a riviting topic Brian L. Stuart wrote: > There's a type of rivit called a pop rivit that I've used before. I > get the impression that it's not as good a the sort used in > manufacturing, but for this kind of purpose, I'd think it would do fine. Is rivit a US variation or a typo? (it's 'rivet' this side of the pond) Anyhoo... agreed that for this kind of work it should be fine. The tool needed should cost virtually nothing (I'd certainly expect it to be less than $10US) and is really easy to work with. Places like Halfords and B&Q will sell them in the UK (along with better tool shops too); in the US Home Depot almost certainly have them and probably Wal-mart too. Same applies to the rivets themselves. I've always wondered how the massive rivets on ships are put in, in particular how on earth they get them to also be watertight around the hole! cheers Jules

19 years, 7 months

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FW: FREE! Motorola VME-10 System and Motorola Development Hardware

by DLawrence＠mctl.co.uk

Hi Bruce, A real long shot this - We have a poorly VME10. I know your web entry is dated 1999, and that you stated that you were going to ditch your VME10 'in the next week' if you had no response, but I was wondering if, by some chance, your VME10 was still available (I'm always the optimist ;-) ) Please could you let me know either way. Many thanks, David Lawrence I.T. Consultant MCT Limited Tel : 01730 894834 Fax : 01730 892641 E-mail : dlawrence at mctl.co.uk Internet : http://www.mctl.co.uk <http://www.mctl.co.uk/> ________________________________ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0703-0, 13/01/2007 Tested on: 15/01/2007 11:09:57 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.

19 years, 7 months

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Token ring hub

by Glen.Heiberg＠gijima.com

You could look out for an original IBM 8228 MAU (Multistation Access Unit). These have 8 workstation ports and a pair of RI/RO (Ring In-Ring Out) ports, and is a passive device (did not need AC power). Alternatively, you could look out for an IBM 8230 CAU and LAM (or the Madge equivalent). However, these are quite bulky. All the above use the big IBM connectors with type-1 cabling. Cat 5 cables with RJ45 connectors can be used as long as you use a balun. I have never encountered a tokenring NIC that only had RJ45 connectors; there was always a DB9 connector. Also, you don't need any "token ring starter upper". The first station that inserts into the ring generates the token. All stations must use the same ring speed (either 4Mbps or 16Mbps). The first station that joins the ring must be set to a fixed speed; subsequent stations inserting into the ring can be set to autosense the ring speed. If the EISA TR NIC you have is indeed a 100Mbps device, it will only do 100Mbps TR when connected to a 100Mbps TR switch, and these seem to be fairly rare. For moderate to high network loads, a 4Mbps TR network would run rings ;-) around an equivalent 10Mbps Ethernet network. For simple TCP/IP connectivity between a TR and ethernet network, setup a Linux box with any IBM TR nic based on the "tropic" chipset or a Madge NIC (Linux drivers availble from their website) and your choice of supported ethernet NIC, and setup IP routing. Regards Glen, Teo Zenios wrote: > >Also what is a good way to bridge Token Ring to Ethernet so that these 486 machines can use my router/cable modem? > > Jim wrote: >I purchased some 3Com 3c359's off ebay, and built up a linux box to >bridge them. > >There is a 3c509 on the ethernet side. There is a 3174 on the token >ring. It is a standard MAU, no rj45 baluns. Don't forget on ancient >MAU's you have to have a token ring starter upper, to charge up >the hub. I had a years old one, and was informed to use the supplied >IBM starter to set up mine. I might point out that the MAU had no >active power, as some of the ones which use rj45's do, and that >may have had to do with the "starter upper" gizmo. > >Anyone who can educate me on that one would do me a favor, I >just did it and it worked (after replacing the 9v battery in the IBM >gizmo) > >Jim

19 years, 7 months

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Olivetti M20

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

Can anyone please tell me if the Olivetti M20 used a Z8010 memory management unit? When I worked for Marconi Elliott Avionics at Rochester we designed the anti submarine sub system for the WG34 (Later EH101) helicopter using a dozen Z8001s and Z8010s plus lots of specialised processors. After I left the company, the project dragged on for many years before being cancelled and a rival, more mainstream system fitted. The Z8001 had 16 low order address lines and 7 segment selector lines, so even without an MMU, it should have an 8MB address range. IIRC, the MMU took the top 9 address lines and the 7 segment selector lines and could map them onto a 16MB address range. For speed and simplicity, I came up with the idea of never setting the bottom bit in the segment base registers so we could send the bottom 8 bits of the CPU address directly as the row address to the RAM chips and by the time they were ready for the column address, the MMU look-up was done. Hence we allocated memory in 256 byte chunks instead of 128 bytes as envisaged by Zilog. In the M20 uses a Z8010 I might get one if one comes up for sale in Europe. Roger Holmes On 10 Jan, 2007, at 16:36, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 8 > Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:49:27 -0800 > From: "dwight elvey" <dkelvey at hotmail.com> > Subject: Re: Olivetti M20 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <BAY130-F3347994A26286E3E09D04DA3B20 at phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed > >> From: Gene Buckle <geneb at simpits.com> >> >> dwight elvey wrote: >>> Hi >>> For those that might be interested in an Olivetti M20, there is one >>> on eBay. This was one of the few machines made with a Z8000 >>> processor. >>> I think the only personal computer. >>> If someone on this list gets one, contact me and I'll help you get >>> it up and running. >>> Dwight >> >> That's cool. I just posted PDFs of the CP/M for Z8000 manuals on the >> Retroarchive site. :) >> >> g. >> >> > > Hi Gene > I would suspect that the one on eBay isn't ready for CP/M8000 right > out of the box. I'm sure it'll handle PCOS, at least version 2.0f. > The problem is that most machines didn't come with enough memory > for CP/M8000. Although, the manual for CP/M8000 states that one > can run in a machine with 128K of memory, because of a number > of allocation issues in the M20, you really need 384K. > The M20's comes with 128K on the mother board and usually > have two 32K expansion memory cards. Even with three of these > 32K cards, your only up to 224K. Still not enough. > When I first got CP/M8000 running on my machine, I modified > two of my memory cards to take 64K DRAM chips. This brings it > to 384K. I was always going to increase it to 512K, the most that > the M20 decodes, but I don't see the need any more. > A fellow in Italy had thought that it might be easier to take two > 1 meg simm's and use those ( you need at least 2 because it > does access 8 bit or 16 bit and needs the separate selects ). > We talked it over and came up with a way to wire them up > such that they can provide 384K with a minimum of external > hardware( total of 512K with the mother boards memory). > The only painful issue is that the M20 normally has a select for > either 32K or 128K at each board position. The first solution > used three board edges to connect the two other connectors > selects. Another fellow built one that he made a header to > go under the NAND gate chip that normally sent out the > selects. This did require lifting one part and putting it on a socket. > It also seems that some of the memory boards came with sockets > and could be configured for either 32K or 128K by jumpers > but none of my board were that easy.

19 years, 7 months

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MODCOMP rescue pictures...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

The link below shows pictures and a brief description of the MODCOMP II that we rescued on Friday 1/12/2007. Restoration work has started on the CPU/MEM chassis - the I/O chassis is as we got it. [Note that the pictures are kinda large - so if you have a slow speed connection, they'll take awhile] http://bickleywest.com/modcomp.htm In case you're curious, here's a summary inventory of the systems we have inhouse [unfortunately, it's incomplete]: http://bickleywest.com/system1.html http://bickleywest.com/system2.html Cheers, Lyle -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. Mountain View, CA http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

19 years, 7 months

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Transformer Search

by grant＠stockly.com

I'm looking for a source of transformers like those used in the Altair 680. In addition, does anyone have any idea what the rated current output is with the Altair 680? I do not have an assemnly manual. If anyone has an idea of the watt rating I'd appreciate it. : ) It has 102620 and 9967736 written on it. It only has one primary coil. There are two secondary coils. One with a center tap and one without. Here are some stats I took: Primary: 121.4vAC Secondary 1: 11.13vAC (used for +9v/+5v) Secondary 2: 14.57vAC parallel, 29.2vAC series (used for +/-16vDC supply) Thanks, Grant

19 years, 7 months

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a riv[e]ting topic (Robert Greenstreet)

by gstreet＠indy.net

> >Are you perhaps thinking of the Bede 5? A friend decided to assemble >one in the living room of his second-story apartment. I think he >ruined the place utterly, what with the swarf from the thousands of >holes drilled or the broken-off stubs of pop rivets that were left in >the green shag carpeting, not to mention the oil from the snowmobile >engine, etc. I seem to recall that there some problem getting the >completed craft out of the building... > >At the same time, I was building a harpsichord in my third-story >apartment and while the carpet was pretty dirty from all of the >sawdust, I think it was salvageable. > >Cheers, >Chuck > > I think I must be thinking of the Zenith: http://www.zenithair.com/stolch801/construction.html It uses what seems to amount to "Cherry" rivets. I've forgotten the details of the difference between Cherry and CherryMax, but the "Max" are significantly stronger (and worse to drill out)... I could have sworn that I had seen a flying example of a 4-seater a/c that looked like the Zenith, with a big a/c engine providing the power. That was probably at least 10 years ago... Good to hear that you got the harpsichord completed, and that it is still playing! Oh, BTW, one of the engines that lots of people finally settled on for the BD-5 (prop version) was the 1200 Honda Civic engine (the "49 states" model, not the CVCC). You've got to have balls to fly the BD-5, especially with a Honda 1200 screaming at rpm's that it was never intended to run at, especially with high manifold pressure... Regards, Robert Greenstreet

19 years, 7 months

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a riv[e]ting topic

by carey.unruh＠gmail.com

Found on rec.aviation.homebuilt by veeduber via google groups... http://tinyurl.com/y8qfao or http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8qfao Riveting 101 http://tinyurl.com/se4pd or http://preview.tinyurl.com/se4pd Riveting 101 - continued (Part 2 of 3) http://tinyurl.com/y7ql2r or http://preview.tinyurl.com/y7ql2r Riveting 101 - Part Three of three. QUOTE/ Riveting 101 ...or Meet Mr. Smiley :-) Wanna learn how to rivet? Go down to the hardware store -- or whatever passes for a hardware store in your community -- and buy yourself a packet of COPPER rivets. They come in different lengths and copper washers are usually included in the packet. Now find yourself a small hammer (...no, smaller than that... about 8oz). Have you got an old shoe? An old LEATHER shoe? Okay, then howzabout an old handbag. Or even some heavy canvas. Okay, good... use that. (I never thought of riveting cardboard... I usually just weld it... ) What are you going to use for your anvil? (And yes, an anvil makes a good anvil. But real anvils are kinda thin on the ground this season.) No, wood won't work for an anvil, not even lignum vitae. (Yep, it makes good prop-shaft bearings for aircraft carriers. But it don't work worth spit as an anvil.) Well-made bench-vise... that oughta work. Face of a sledge-hammer will do too. You work it out. Last thing you need is a HOLE to put the rivet in. Lotsa folks forget that the hole is part of the process. When you're riveting leather, canvas or cardboard the hole isn't a very important part of the process -- not like it is when you're riveting metal -- but you can't rivet without a hole so go make one. Make it as big around as your rivet. You can make it with a punch or an awl or a drill. Got it? Okay, put the rivet through the hole, put a washer on the rivet and squeeze the rivet down tight against whatever it is you're riveting. How much of the rivet's shank is sticking up? That's too much. You only want two diameter's worth of the rivet's shank sticking up past the washer, so cut it off. Now hit it with the hammer. (Okay, then hit it again!) Keep hitting it until the shank is hammered into a button about twice as wide as the shank. Do a couple more. /QUOTE

19 years, 7 months

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Browning plastic cases

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 13 Jan 2007 at 23:45, William Donzelli wrote: > It should be noted that painting the yellowed case with a mild paint > is actually the most proper thing to do, in the mind of a professional > conservator. Even more proper, and as done with some aircraft at the > Gerber facility, is to apply a wax coating to the original finish, and > then paint over the wax. This allows the paint to be removed > completely and safely when it comes time to refinish the outer layer. Yup. If you're just doing it for show, a water-based paint would do the job, if you didn't handle it too much. Easy to remove--and actually serves to preserve things by sealing out atmosphere and UV rays. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 7 months

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Floppy Disk Cross-Reference

by marvin＠rain.org

Is there a cross-reference available on the web to show what machines used what floppy disks? I'm looking specifically for what machines use what 8" floppies, i.e. SS, DS, hard or soft sectored, TPI, etc. It seems like it would be a useful thing to have in a FAQ.

19 years, 7 months

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wall wart for TI-58-C

by vp＠drexel.edu

ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Oh yes, IIRC, if yuo put a TI58C on the cradle, it'll work, but you lose > the contents of the continuous memory if you turn off or unplug the > cradle from the mains. Regarding turning off the cradle, it depends on the model number. The PC100A and 100B models would cut off poewr to calculator when you turned off the cradle (using the big brown slide switch on its side). The 100C cradle will continue supplying power to the calculator even when you turn the cradle off. This is documented in the manual and was done specifically for the 58C. **vp

19 years, 7 months

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flash card adapter board

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

"The flash card adapter board contains the basic circuitry needed to add an SD/MMC, miniSD, and microSD/TransFlash socket to virtually any microcontroller application using as few as four I/O pins." introductory price - $39 US http://www.ecs87.com/adaptor.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

19 years, 7 months

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VAXstation 3100/76 configured as VAXserver and NetBSD

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> 9000 VAX wrote: > >> The SCSI connector on 3100 76 is wired differently from the standard. >> I was told that it was because there was no standard when the first >> vaxstation was out. You need a DEC specific SCSI cable to use the >> port. > > > The wiring inside the VAXstation 3100-76 may well be "non-standard", > but the external connector works perfectly well with any SCSI > cable which physically connects. Internally there is a single > cable harness even though the internal devices and external > devices are separate SCSI channels. So you cannot replace > the harness (with anything other than the exact same > harness) without knowing exactly what you are doing. > > If the external connector has been replaced with an > Amphenol one, then perhaps that was not done properly. > > There's a terminator on the harness too - and my recollection > is that without it things do not work well (if at all). > > Antonio > Internal works just fine, external has the Amphenol-50, but since there are 2 colors of loose wires and a proprietary internal connector it's unlikely I can figure the "proper" wiring out. I suppose I could trace it from the NCR chips, but for now I just pull the cover and plug stuff in the 1st bus. The ground wires on the external bus are all one color, and they seem to go to the right places - so it's partially right. If only DEC had better documentation. I hand installed NetBSD from the shell option, and it seems to be working better (no panics yet). sushi complains about libcurses and won't run, but vi runs ok. It isn't my main VAX, anyway, so I'll probably shove it back under the bed for now. I was going to junk it if it didn't work, but it pulled itself together. I'd throw VMS on it, but (a) everyone needs at least one BSD VAX and (b) the console is shared with the 4200 so it would be a bother to run them together as a VAXcluster. I'm considering clustering the 4000-200 and my 3000-300X, though. Too bad DEC doesn't have the ultimate useless feature: cross-OS clustering. Imagine a VMS VAX, Tru64 Alpha, and VMS Integrity clustered. Completely pointless, but cool sounding.

19 years, 7 months

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Browning plastic cases

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 13 Jan 2007 at 12:19, John Foust wrote: > > Recently Digg'd: A discussion of how plastic ages and discolors: > > http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189 When I saw the photo of the SNES case, I said to myself, "That looks just like the old high-density foam cases look like before they're painted." Why not paint the darned things? I'd rather have a somewhat un- authentic finish that looked good than a cruddy yellow half-and-half case. If done right, I doubt that anyone could tell at a distance of more than 6 inches. I remember the model shop guy at Durango making his prototype cases-- out of clear polycarbonate. I thought they looked pretty nifty as they were--but then he had to go and have them painted. He made the 14" hard disk case out of sheet ABS and said he'd never do that again- -he said it was like machining rubber. All production was of high- density foam, however--and painted. In any case, paint good--plastic colorants bad. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 7 months

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Token Ring Hub

by James＠jdfogg.com

> Also what is a good way to bridge Token Ring to Ethernet so > that these 486 machines can use my router/cable modem? > In today's hardware world, the easiest way to have Ethernet communicate with Token Ring is via a dual-topology router. The Cisco model 2514 with one Ethernet and one TR interface should be very affordable in the used market. If you can find older Cabletron MMACs or the chassis based Proteon equipment (70 series, etc.) you can bridge TR to Ethernet at layer 2.

19 years, 7 months

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HP 2117f cables needed, part2

by g-wright＠att.net

-------------- Original message from "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org>: -------------- > Jerry wrote... > > All of this HP 1000 talk got me going on mine. > Good. Mission Accomplished :) > > > Does anyone have a stash of these. > Yes. > > > I have no cables and > > cant seem to find anyone that does. It seems that most > > of these are offered with out the cables. I would guess they > > all go to bulhead connectors and are just easier to slip off the > > connector on the cards. > (on HP) No, I've never run into any cabinet bulkhead connectors except for > DB25 panels (well, ok, some of the 13037 stuff). Everything else was direct > cable from device to interface. On a properly buttoned up HP it wouldn't be > easier to slip them off the cards, what with ground cables sometimes screwed > in and the PCA retainer bracket locked in and the rear panel over the I/O > cards for proper ventilation and the battery backup over that ;. That's not > to say everyone observed those recomendations of course. > > > - Console 12966a > I don't have a spare, I make more anytime I need one from spare connector > hoods. The jumpers in the hood for wiring to a BACI are a pain. I pickup a few connectors today and will make up one shortly > > > - HPIB disk 12821a > I may have a spare, what length do you need. Beggers can't be picky . I can handle most anything Disk would be in a floor cabinet > > > - HPIB Mag tape 13183 > Hummm I don't have manuals in hand, but I don't believe 13183 is a HPIB card > is it? Isn't that the "normal" HP proprietary interface? > your right. The list I have does not really say. I have 4) 7970b's is this 2 card set for these ?? of coarse no cables > > Also Trying to figure out 2 cards > > > > HP 12250 60001 and a FDS n612 4256-001 The HP 12250-60001 is very close to a 12792 muxer card in chip type and layout. Both use 0.10" pin spacing on the external connector. The Other is a Typo It is a FPS n612 4256 001 (non Hp card) Date code is old. (1977) Have Pics. but no easy place to post. can E-mail > Doesn't ring a bell at all. Got pics? > > Jay > > This thing has 2 different disk interfaces. 13175D and 12821A I have both HPIB and 7906 dives I have both 7970b and 7980E Mag Tape drives Thanks, jerry

19 years, 7 months

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Sun E450 server officially vintage

by legalize＠xmission.com

Owner's manual has a date of 1997... Someone is giving one of these to me with 4 CPUs. What should I do with it? Its got no graphics, but I figure I could make it compute arbitrary precision deep Mandelbrot set zooms. -- "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, 7 months

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Free Boxes (??) (Texas Instruments)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Yes, you read that right. If there is someone who wants to have an original set of boxes for a Texas Instruments Professional Computer in pretty good shape (some tape marks), I have them. The provenance on these is excellent. One owner, stored in an attached garage since 1984. Looks like System Unit, Color Monitor and (I believe) Keyboard Located in Renton, but shipping a possibility.

19 years, 7 months

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BASIC in the Epson HX-20

by evan＠snarc.net

Help please .... I haven't programmed in many years and I'm winging this because I don't have the HX-20 BASIC manual (it's not among the other HX-20 manuals on the Epson support site.) How do I tell my program to halt and wait for someone to press RETURN before continuing? And would I then need a follow-up command to actually make it sense the keypress? - Evan

19 years, 7 months

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Anyone know where to find software for an hp 16505a prototype analyzer?

by paulp132＠comcast.net

I bought one of these and the hard drive is failing. Sometimes it boots, sometimes it doesn't. If I can find the install cd and floppy, maybe I can get this working. Of course then I'd need to find a cd-rom drive that works with the 16505. Thanks, Paul

19 years, 7 months

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Fibre Optic Channel Extenders on Epay (Bus / Tag)

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

I know there are only a couple of people interested in these, but this is probably the place to post this to get to who might want it. These units will take bus and tag in and allow one to run over a distance via fibre optic. Might be useful for a pile which includes such. hopefully the conflicting suffix numbers does not mean these do not have at least one pair that could work given the fibre optic connection. Jim ibm 3044-D01 extender link 5874992954 ibm 3044-C02 extender link 5874993303 ibm 3044-C01 extender link 290051556365

19 years, 7 months

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MODCOMP II rescued...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I had the good fortune of rescuing a quite clean MODCOMP II/12 today! The system has 64K of core memory, full front panel and separate I/O chassis and I/O panel. The I/O chassis contains a dual 9600 baud serial interface, a high-speed synchronous interface and a TTY controller (110-9600 baud). Does anyone on the list have schematics and/or writeups on Modcomp serial or other peripherals? If so, I'd really appreciate a pointer to the PDFs. If you don't have them in PDF form, I'll be glad to pay the cost for hard copies and shipping. Cheers, Lyle -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. Mountain View, CA http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

19 years, 7 months

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Cleaning House

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

>From: "Vincent Slyngstad" <vrs at msn.com> >From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> >>It was written... >>>Check out VCM and Ebay (ID=KE6HTS) for the stuff I am getting rid of. >>I know how to look up all the items a given seller is selling on ebay... >>but I seem to be too brain-dead to see how to do that on vcm. Can someone >>enlighten me? > >In Marvin's, case, I think you can just click on "See Everything" :-). > >You can also click on his name "marvin", next to any of his auctions, >then click on the little "437" or whatever next to "Current Postings". >(There are about 50 pages of them.) > >There may be easier ways, but that worked for me :-). > > Vince > Hi Even though I knew it was Marvin, a quick search of what were obviously Ham call letters found Marvin's name attached. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ >From photos to predictions, The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden Globes has it all. http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline1

19 years, 7 months

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a riv[e]ting topic

by gstreet＠indy.net

Hello All, > >While I was checking the spelling, I notice that wikipedia mentions >another name for pop rivets is blind rivets. > I _love_ Wikipedia, but it certainly has its share of errors. Please: Never equate pop rivets with "blind" rivets. Blind rivet is a sort of generic term -- meaning that it's a form of rivet that can be used even though you do not have access to the other side of the rivet. Blind rivets are used on commercial aircraft, but only in relatively small quantities -- and -- each catagory of (blind) rivet is carefully chosen to perform a certain task. Most times, when we install blind fasteners (rivets fall into the broad catagory of fasteners), we have to get Engineering approval. Most installations of blind rivets are actually considered temporary. They will usually be removed during a Heavy Maintenance Visit (often several years later). Pop rivets fall at the very bottom of the rivet catagory. Pop rivets are never used on commercial aircraft structure, although I've used a lot of (a certain higher quality catagory of) them to fasten things like nutplates (all they are doing is holding what amounts to a nut, in place, while a bolt is tightened). Once tight, the bolt is tight the rivets are meaningless until you need to remove the bolt again. If the "pop" (type) rivets don't hold, then a veritable stream of cursing insues, while you go and try to find the right drill bits to remove the offending nutplates. Then, the little buggers almost always spin while you curse more and try to get a small pair of ViseGrips on the bottom of them (often very difficult due to space constraints), so you can smash them into submission, while you continue to drill them out. "Cherry-Max" rivets are a very popular form of blind fastener (in this case, blind rivet). They have a solid core of wickedly hard stainless steel that remains in place as the rivet is "pulled" into its compressed final product. Not only are they relatively heavy, they do not expand in the same way that solid rivets do -- plus you now have a dissimilar metal situation. Speaking of pop rivets: There is a kitplane (an excellent work horse of a plane) that makes use of thousands of closely spaced pop rivets. I used to be able to recall its name off the top of my head, but this library computer will not allow me to open another instance of my browser (to search google and figure it out). It was a sort of ugly, boxy, utilatarian looking plane. It was so "ugly" that it was actually very cool!! It's supposedly nearly "indestructable." Oh, BTW, "regular" solid aluminum rivets are only very slightly smaller than their correctly drilled, and in some cases, reamed holes. When the are compressed (bucked), they expand and tightly fill the hole. It's certainly an impressive art to get a properly shaped "bucked" head (also called "shop head"). If the bucked head is smashed too much or "leans" over, you've got to remove them. Technically, you are supposed to go to the next larger size because the material around the hole is now work hardened. If everyone actually removed ever screwed up rivet, there would be little hope of repair at a later time (because you don't have much leeway as to size). I'm pretty sure that that's how ships remained fairly water-tight. The final result of solid rivets are not always perfect. Upon close inspection of any commerical airliner, I can find dozens of leaking or "smoking" rivets. Technically speaking, they should be replaced. Realistically, it's a case of "what are you going to do?" I did a lightning inspection on a 757 that said they were hit on short final. It was raining and miserable (and very dark). It wasn't until the last section of inspection that I realized that I'd forgotten to check a few antennas. One thing led to another, and we eventually found way over 100 affected rivets (and outright holes). The plane was taken out of service for a couple of months, but I saw it again (with lots of very large rivets, which were used to "fill" some of the lightning strike holes). Always choose the correct rivet for the job(!!!). Regards, Robert Greenstreet

19 years, 7 months

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DTC MicroFile

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Does anyone have any recollections or information > about the DTC MicroFile? Data Terminals and > Communications made it. It's a piece of furniture > on wheels, contains a box with a dual 8" floppy drive and > appears to be designed to sit in between a terminal > and a daisywheel printer -- a primitive word processor? > Haven't had a chance to crack the box open yet, and am > curious if anyone has any concrete information. > > Cheers > Brian I just uploaded several documents on it to http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dtc/microFile

19 years, 7 months

1
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Compuserve wayback machine

by dave＠mitton.com

> Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:52:14 -0800 > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Subject: RE: Compuserve wayback machine > > On 10 Jan 2007 at 21:29, Richard A. Cini wrote: > > So, exactly the same thing happened to you that happened to me. > > > They actually want you to pay $18/month for access, which I guess represents > > the legacy dial-up business. > > Which is exactly the opposite of what you'd expect. When I dropped > service at the end of 2004, my monthly bill was about $9.50 /month. > How do they expect to compete with the likes of NetZero and PeoplePC? > I've actually kept my Compuserve account alive all this time as an emergency travelling ISP. One of the incarnations of my cable internet provider didn't allow off net access to POP and SMTP so I discovered that the extensive network of dialups was useful. Under the later revs of their network, you can dial in, authenticate, and then just use PPP to access the internet directly. You get about 3/hours/mo dial-in time for free and usage rates there after. I logged in yesterday via the web.... it takes a little redirection to the "native" Compuserve site as the inital screen wants a "Screen Name" and won't accept a PPN. I thought I set a name for my account but I don't remember it and I didnt write it down anywhere (it was too "obvious" ;^} ) There is a Vintage Computing forum still active, and the files area still has stuff dating way back at least to the 80s. I am still carrying a $9.99/mo legacy subscription, but I don't think they'll let you sign up for that anymore. They now have a BYOA (Bring Your Own Access) rate advertised. I noticed someone in a support forum mention some sort of backup rate of $3/month. I'm guessing that they'll have deals to try to keep getting some money from you if you may quit. I just got a Cingular 8525 and an unlimited data rate, so I'll probably drop this soon. I'm off to learn more about Windows CE. Dave.

19 years, 7 months

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only on govliquidation.com could this happen....

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:56:17 -0800 (PST) From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> Subject: Re: only on govliquidation.com could this happen.... > <http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1090219&convertTo=USD> > > Lot includes.... > ... > 10 RECTAL SPECULUMS - what?!?! That's for inserting the typing element. --------------------------------- ROTFL!!! Cameron, your humour (and medical expertise) make wading through the dreck worth while; thanks for a good laugh! mike

19 years, 7 months

1
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Vintage bitslice parts

by legalize＠xmission.com

A nice post from comp.arch recently.... <http://groups.google.com/group/comp.arch/msg/432b6e5023c3beb8> -- "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, 7 months

1
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wall wart for TI-58-C

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 11:30 -0600 1/12/07, Mike wrote: > I just checked my TI-58C, and it does indeed take a 3.3VAC 500ma power >pack. The links I posted earlier agree. The connector is keyed. The >part number is AC-9131. Are you sure that's the right pack, Stan? The >references say the TI-58 uses the same AC-9131 pack. The numbers so far are not totally inconsistent. The wart might supply 6.x V open-circuit or low-current, but rely on the battery pack to pull it down to 3.3V at 500 mA, running or charging. The circuit diagram on xgistor seems to indicate there's just a 4.7 Ohm resistor keeping the bus from being completely battery-limited. That said, the battery pack definitely contains 3 Ni-Cad cells, each typically around 1.1 or so V. (I have had mine apart, rebuilt with stock Ni-Cads, ond not fried anything.) Therefore 3.3 V to the electronics makes good sense. One thing I would *not* do would be to plug in the calculator without a good battery pack in place, based on the circuit diagram and on Tony's advice pertaining to the dire consequences of similar actions with HP calculators. FWIW, there is one more factor in the story. TI made a printer base (PC-100?) that you could place the calculator (TI-58, -58C, or -59) on to generate printouts. The method of connection was to take out the battery pack, and place the cavity that it just vacated over a protrusion on the face of the printer, which would then expand to lock the calculator into place. (There was also a compartment to put the battery pack into so it could charge while you printed.) Whatever the power supply in that doohickey was, it circumvented the battery completely. If anyone has one of those and could measure the voltage on its power pins, that would likely shed lots of light on what the calculator expects. (Sadly, mine went at a garage sale while I was away from home.) -- Mark Tapley, Dwarf Engineer (I haven't cleared my neighborhood) 210-379-4635 Dwarf Phone, 210-522-6025 Office Phone

19 years, 7 months

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a riviting topic

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

>From time to time, I've wondered about riviting whenever I come across a piece of computer cabinet metal that has rivits that have come loose or fallen out. The current case in point is the tilt latch on an 11/44 when it's in the 11X44-CA configuration (it's in the top of the rack, and tilts up on gas pistons). There is a little latch on the side (best way I can describe it is a metal rectangle cut on a diagonal) which is spring metal. You pull this latch in from the front with a pen or screwdriver, and it then clears the tab on the outer rack so it can tilt up. At the very back of this spring metal latch is a rivet holding it in place. This rivit has come loose. You can really only get to one side of it, that's when the cpu chassis is tilted up. I believe that in other (more common) rackmount configurations of the /44 when it's on slides that telescope out the front, this same latch is present but it's used to allow the cpu to slide forward rather than tilt up. I've seen riviters working on F18's at Boeing, and it sure appears to be a higher art form. Not sure it's something I could do, but thought I'd ask here. I've seen all kinds of rivits - different sizes - on an H960 I believe there are a couple? Anyways, what tools are required, where can one get rivits, what different types are there, and is it something a neophyte like me who has never done a rivit before can do? I'm looking for the basic intro to replacing a rivit for someone who has never done it. Jay West

19 years, 7 months

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HP11284 (or HP11285) datacomms interface

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Another of the interfaces I purchased is called an HP11284 data communications interface, it's part of the 11285 datacomms option (which also included firmware ROM modules for the HP9830). Anyway, this thing is complicated. It's 2 modules that plug into the 9830 I/O slots, each contains a PCB. One is stuffed with TTL and RS232 buffers (1488s and 1489s), the other has more TTL and 4 custom ICs. 2 20 pin ones (no idea) and 2 40 pin ones (maybe transmitter and receiver logic). The modules are linked by a cable, there's another cable from the first PCB I mentioned to the podem (or whatever). It ends in a 36 pin microribbon connector, I believe there was another cable which I don't have that connected to that and which ended in a pair of DB25 plugs, one for the RS232 signals to the modem, ther other carrying RS336 signals to an aautodialler. My first question is simple. Does anyone have this interface with that last cable and could 'buzz out' the connections so that I can make said cable, and/or figure out a little of the internal hardware? -tony

19 years, 7 months

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Looking for a service manual for the HP9865 cassette drive

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Well, the subject: line says it all really, but I'd better explain if only to avoid the 'You should be able to figure it out for yourself' (I could, if I have the drive) and the 'Most of it's the same as the drive in an HP9830' (it is, but it's the different bits I am interested in) type of replies. I've bought a few interfaces for the HP98x0 series of 'calculators' [1]. One of them is the interface for said tape drive, it's a single PCB containing about 10 TTL chips. What I am looking for, though, is a pinout of the interface connector on the drve iteslf so I have some idea what to expect on the end of this interface's cable. [1] They're called 'calculators' to get past the purchasing depatrments of the time. They're really computers -- the 9830 in particular programmed in BASIC, has an alphanumeric display and supports HPIB and I believe a hard disk. Other machines in the family (9810 and 9820) are more like calculators, but haev the same bit-serial 16 bit proceessor, etc. -tony

19 years, 7 months

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HP 500 Series BASIC MSI statement

by jondjohnston＠hotmail.com

We are looking for documentation on HP 500 Series BASIC software. Our immediate need is to learn the syntax of the MSI (Mass Storage Is) statement. Unfortunately, the form of the statement is not the same as with HP RMB or 9845 BASIC (we've tried those). Jon Johnston HP Computer Museum http://www.hpmuseum.net

19 years, 7 months

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only on govliquidation.com could this happen....

by legalize＠xmission.com

<http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1090219&convertTo=USD> Lot includes.... 1 PUNCHED PROGRAM TAPE - ok 50 FLEXIBLE DISK - ok 1 TYPING ELEMENT - ok ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 10 RECTAL SPECULUMS - what?!?! -- "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, 7 months

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govliq: 16 RP06 disk drives (Kapolei, HI)

by legalize＠xmission.com

<http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1095381&convertTo=USD> -- "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, 7 months

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HP 21MX/F and OS choices (was Lookee what I just got!)

by MGemeny＠pgcps.org

Should be TSB and IPL Bob, TSB assumes that it is the OS, so it is assuming that it ?owns? all of its peripherals, DMA and the Interrupt system as well. As long as these false assumptions are accounted for under IPL I would think that a single CPU TSB such as TSB E may run without many problems. The real problem comes with dual processor configurations of TSB. Ether processor can initiate communication to the other, although the Main is generally the one ?Calling the shots?. Ether way, they assume that their partner is listening attentively, and they don?t have much tolerance for a sluggish response. If ether one gives up on the other the result is DEATH. Under SIMH we had problems getting the timing right between the two virtual processors, but it does work, and on some platforms it still needs tweaking. On real hardware if you stop all user activity, you can get away with halting the Main processor, exploring memory from the front panel and pressing Run without causing a crash. But if any terminal were to strike a key while the Main was halted the IOP would give up on the main and die, when the main came back the IOP would be dead, so the Main would die too. If you try to halt the IOP with the system running the result is always death. I think that it may be the result of a lost clock interrupt, because we see the same thing under SIMH. TSB is rather particular about addresses of it IO devices, so running both processors on the same CPU may take a bit of creativity when allocating devices. The IOP of Access would give you the most flexibility, but it?s still rather strict. On the 2100 version of Access the IOP microcode went into the same sockets as the Main Processor?s floating point microcode so they were mutually exclusive and both required, but on the 21MX versions I think that was changed. So it may be possible to have both floating point instructions and IOP instructions in the same CPU. Although I seem to recall that the IOP instructions needed a stack pointer, and since they were not using some register of the memory subsystem they just used that register for the stack. I want to say that it was a ?memory fence register?, but I?m not sure. And the IMS that describes it refers only to the 2100a/s microcode, so I really don?t know what they did in the MX microcode. It?s possible that the IOP microcode for MX may interfere with something that IPL is counting on and Jay, Al, or Bob may be the best people to speak to that. Of course, this would only apply to real hardware, under SIMH the instructions are simulated without the constraints of the real hardware. It would be really cool if the interconnect kit (the channel between the two processors) could be virtual through IPL and perhaps even cause the change of context to running the other processor. The device drivers in the IOP are well organized, but the Main Processor is not. Sometimes it looks more like spaghetti code, with IO instructions all over the place in seemingly unrelated routines. (I?m sure they did that because they had both memory and CPU time constraints, ;-) None the less, my hat?s off to them. The last version of HP2000 Access had only one bug found in it that I am aware of. With that bug patched, I don?t think any other bug has ever been found. I don?t think I shall ever again see such perfection. On the special boot strap loader issue for Access, I don?t see it being a problem. We don?t use it or even load it under SIMH. We just let SIMH load the second half of the bootstrap paper tape image in low memory of the Main processor and start it. We also let SIMH load the whole image of a preconfigured IOP and start that. Sure someone could change the SIMH startup scripts to be absolutely true to the recommended boot procedures, but then again, a lot of these short cuts were well known back in the day of real production systems and we are trying to boot the system with minimal operator intervention. TSB E sounds like the place to start. Then I would try Access on two CPUs then each running under IPL. And finally Access with both running on the same CPU. If you decide to run tests with IPL and TSB under SIMH I would also caution that the simulated interconnect between the two processors has only (as far a I know) been working under Windoz. I think it has something to do with the ?Socket Connect? library code, which last I checked was only used by this device. Some day some other device may use it, and someone may take the time to fix it. But for now we are just so happy to be able to run dual CPU TSB that we put up with running it on Windoz. The quickest way to boot up a TSB E system is under SIMH. The URL for the ZIP is in the links section of the HP2000 Yahoo Group. The binaries are images of original HP paper tapes (Thanks, Al and Jeff), so they should be quite useable on real hardware if ported to a suitable media. Hope this helps, Mike Gemeny

19 years, 7 months

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a riviting topic

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

Jay West wrote: > I've seen riviters working on F18's at Boeing, and it sure appears to be a > higher art form. Not sure it's something I could do, but thought I'd ask > here. I've seen all kinds of rivits - different sizes - on an H960 I believe > there are a couple? Anyways, what tools are required, where can one get > rivits, what different types are there, and is it something a neophyte like > me who has never done a rivit before can do? I'm looking for the basic intro > to replacing a rivit for someone who has never done it. There's a type of rivit called a pop rivit that I've used before. I get the impression that it's not as good a the sort used in manufacturing, but for this kind of purpose, I'd think it would do fine. The basic tool is a squeeze handle device. You take a rivit that has a shaft running trough it similar to a finishing nail with a bulge on the inside end of the rivit. You put the shaft into the riviting tool and insert the rivit into the hole. When you squeeze, it pulls the "nail" inward and the bulge streches a cylindrical part of the rivit pressing it against the back side. Then the tool cuts the "nail" and the two pieces are tossed. What's left is the rivit pressed in place. I think most tool shops carry these as well as supplies of the rivits. BLS

19 years, 7 months

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DEC beige/creame/white paint

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I have the top panel of an 11X44 that is pretty scuffed up and needs some paint. That's the white/beige/creame color on the DEC "corporate cabinets" (not H960's). It is also the same color as the front of an RL01, RL02, RAxx, etc. Before someone says "just mount the RL0x at the top", that wouldn't be appropriate since this is an 11X44 configuration (11/44 cpu at the top with a full length door under it that has an opening for two TU58 tapes). The scuffs on the top panel are pretty bad so just a "paint stick" type of approach won't help. I'm going to be looking at wax & grease remover, sanding, self-etching primer, chipguard, and paint. What fun. In addition, I also have a lot of tiny touchup spots on various boxes - mostly the front of RL0x's - that needs just a tiny "paint stick" type of approach. So I took the panel into a metal paint shop in town well known for their expertise to see about getting the paint matched. They said that since the top is textured, the peaks & valleys will look brighter/darker and thus you can't put a piece like that on one of those optical scanners and get a good color match. They said it may give a starting point but it'd have to be matched by hand (eye) because of the type of textured surface the panel has. To come up with an exact match paint (done by hand/eye), I could get a quart for $50.00 USD. Then from that quart I could have spray cans made (they put custom paint in spray cans) at $7.00 each. I would envision having perhaps a can or two made for spraying, and leave the rest in the quart container for "paint stick" type of touchups - when there's a small scratch that just needs to be dabbed with a matchstick, etc. Since I know absolutely NOTHING about paint/painting, I wanted to toss this out on the list to see if what this place is suggesting sounds right, and if the prices seem reasonable. If so, then I also wanted to offer some spray cans of the paint to other listmembers to help defray the cost for myself. I know that one can probably buy a color that is sortof close right off the shelf, but I'd rather have an exact match... Thoughts? Jay West

19 years, 7 months

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a riviting topic

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

> Is rivit a US variation or a typo? (it's 'rivet' this side of the pond) You should probably put your money on typo. Checking with google seems to confirm that. > Anyhoo... agreed that for this kind of work it should be fine. The tool needed > should cost virtually nothing (I'd certainly expect it to be less than $10US) > and is really easy to work with. While I was checking the spelling, I notice that wikipedia mentions another name for pop rivets is blind rivets. > I've always wondered how the massive rivets on ships are put in, in particular > how on earth they get them to also be watertight around the hole! I normally can't think that hard on a Friday :-) BLS

19 years, 7 months

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45 Apple IIe's available in San Antonio

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 11:30 -0600 1/12/07, George Currie wrote: >Someone in San Antonio has 45+ IIe's plus accessories for sale. Here is >the url for his Craigslist ad: > >http://austin.craigslist.org/sys/261497853.html > Wow. Almost a supercomputer of Apple-IIe's, if only we had the networking. ;-) I'm in San Antonio. I have an Apple-II, and don't have the skills to be in the computer-refurb/sales business, so I'll pass on this for myself, but if help is needed with pickup or shipping, let me know. -- Mark Tapley, Dwarf Engineer (I haven't cleared my neighborhood) 210-379-4635 Dwarf Phone, 210-522-6025 Office Phone

19 years, 7 months

1
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Strange disk controller in my new 8/A

by v.slyngstad＠verizon.net

Hi, I recently received my new PDP-8/A that I bought on eBay. The good news is that it arrived in useable condition, and comes with a 10Mb disk drive (Shugart 4004) and high-speed paper tape reader. The bad news seems to be that the software is all specific to the machine's former life as a CNC machine controller (MM180). The configuration seems to start with a standard 8/E cpu with EAE in the 8/A chassis with 32K of memory and the usual option cards. But for the disk and tape (which were the exciting parts, for me), there is a 3-card set with a 6800 on it that controls the disk, the paper tape reader, the CNC servos, and a bunch of other stuff. Effectively, all the non-console I/O is given over to the 6800 as a kind of I/O processor. Anyone have any experience with these? The 6800 board is KT (Kearney & Trecker) 1-20410, the board with the PIO chips is KT 1-20411, and the disk interface board is KT 1-20666. Thanks, Vince

19 years, 7 months

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45 Apple IIe's available in San Antonio

by g＠kurico.com

Someone in San Antonio has 45+ IIe's plus accessories for sale. Here is the url for his Craigslist ad: http://austin.craigslist.org/sys/261497853.html

19 years, 7 months

1
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Compuserve wayback machine

by jbdigriz＠dragonsweb.org

The message below is from August of last year. I just tried and got the old familiar CIS user ID prompt. Still can't remember mine, though. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ti99-4a/message/44436 jbdigriz

19 years, 7 months

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wall wart for TI-58-C

by RLAAG＠PACBELL.NET

I got a TI 58-c calculator a while back but there was no transformer with it... I was hoping someone would have one and could give me the specs on it and if it plugs into the calculator in either rotation... thanks, bob laag

19 years, 7 months

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Another Interesting Site

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Multics History Site - includes a few software notes. Gotta be a few people on thie list who remember.... Billy http://www.multicians.org/multics.html

19 years, 7 months

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Lookee what I just got!

by wizard＠voyager.net

Hello, Jay, especially, but any other HP types, Well, I went and did it. I am now the proud owner of an HP-2117F, if I can identify it correctly, shown here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320067174880 ... and, FPU, shown here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320067174671 My experience with the HP 1000 series machines is, almost exclusively, programming them in TSB on HP-200B, C, and F systems, many moons ago. Jay, you seem to be an alpha geek when it comes to HP iron. (A term of respect, no offense intended...) So, could you look at the above auctions, and tell me what I need to make a good system. Obviously, a disk system comes to mind... but, if you could be specific, I would appreciate it. Also, what are the chances of this being a suitable machine to run Time-Share BASIC, or TSB? I imagine I would need microcode boards or ROM for the microcode boards already there, but, for all I know, it already *IS* a TSB machine. Thanks for your consideration. Peace, Warren E. Wolfe wizard at voyager.net

19 years, 7 months

5
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wall wart for TI-58-C

by trag＠io.com

>Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:10:26 -0800 >From: BOB LAAG <RLAAG at PACBELL.NET> >I got a TI 58-c calculator a while back but there was no transformer >with it... I was hoping someone would have one and could give me the >specs on it and if it plugs into the calculator in either rotation... >thanks, bob laag If the TI 58-c is the same or similar to the old TI-58 which was the same as the TI-59 but without the card reader and half the memory, then it is TI Model AC-9131, 3.3VAC 500mA. In other words, the above AC adapter is for a TI-59 ca. 1979. It shouldn't matter which way it's connected, because it is an AC adapter. Inside the battery compartment of the TI-59 you can see the four diodes of the bridge rectifier. Jeff Walther

19 years, 7 months

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DEC beige/creame/white paint

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Chuck Guzis wrote: There used to be a "rattle can" textured finish that deposited various-sized blobs of differently-colored paint. I wonder if this might be a close texture (used as an undercoat). When repairing fiberglass-resin cases, a bit of foam rubber (such as that used to pack old hard drives) works pretty well for giving things a fine texture. Cheers, Chuck ----------------------------------- And these days, you can get a spare can of almost any texture you want at Home Depot or Lowe's. I've tried some of the "orange peel" with good results to match the old crackle texture. I agree it's not the best but it is hard to pick out without very close examination. So far, no problems with it coming off either (knock on wood!) Billy

19 years, 7 months

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Archiving workstation hard drives

by ken＠seefried.com

[catching up a bit] > Ideally though you're going to need to determine the model of HD, and get > some extras. Ideally, yes, but I've found that's not always required in practice (in admittedly limited experience). I've successfully dd'ed a couple of old SCSI drives to larger SCSI drives and was able to boot & run without issue (other than the wasted space). I suspect it works because SCSI hides many low-level details. I certainly didn't test all the boundary cases, so there certainly might be gotchas if you used the duped disk extensively or in production. On my VME532 machine, I dd'ed the ~150MB Maxtor ESDI drive to a ~300MB Maxtor and it boots fine from the larger, half-wasted drive. I wouldn't count on it working with another vendors drive, or for all permutations of ESDI controllers. YMMV. Ken

19 years, 7 months

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ISO: Everex DC2000 tape drive

by cclist＠sydex.com

Does anyone have a working Everex DC-2000 floppy-tape drive they want to part with? I checked ePay, but didn't find anything. Drop me an email and name your terms. Thanks, Chuck

19 years, 7 months

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Victor 9000 boot floppy, was RE: laptops and 5.25 inch floppy drives?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I've just uploaded scans of the Tech Ref and several other tech docs > to http://bitsavers.org/pdf/victor/victor9000 I just noticed that the figures are all missing in the tech ref. Most wouldn't matter, but the sector format of the floppy would be nice to have documented. Does anyone have the details of this (actual sync pattern, etc.)?

19 years, 7 months

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Needed: Someone to fix an 8/E in TX/USA 77385

by root＠parse.com

Hi folks, I received an email from an individual who is looking for someone to help fix their 8/E and possibly their paper tape punch unit. Yes, there is still an 8/E out there doing useful work -- well up until a few days ago, anyway :-) If you are interested, available, etc. send me an email to info2007 at parse.com and I'll put you in touch, and you can discuss rates etc. (I have various ISPs blocked due to excessive spam; +1 613 599 8318 9am to 9pm and leave a message if you can't get through). Cheers, -RK -- Robert Krten, PARSE Software Devices, http://www.parse.com/resume.html Wanted: DEC minis: http://www.parse.com/~museum/admin/wanted.html

19 years, 7 months

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wall wart for TI-58-C

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Bob et al, the plug is polarized, so I assumed there's diodes in the wall-wart. Mine (TI-59, should be same) is at home and I'm not, so I'm not able to give better first-hand info before tomorrow, but http://xgistor-echo.ath.cx/files/TI59/ has much useful info. I commend the TI59_PSU.zip file to you in particular. Let me know if you want measurements off of my wall-wart(s). I think I can arrange that. At 12:00 -0600 1/11/07, Bob Laag wrote: >Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:10:26 -0800 >From: BOB LAAG <RLAAG at PACBELL.NET> >Subject: wall wart for TI-58-C > >I got a TI 58-c calculator a while back but there was no transformer >with it... I was hoping someone would have one and could give me the >specs on it and if it plugs into the calculator in either rotation... >thanks, bob laag -- Mark Tapley, Dwarf Engineer (I haven't cleared my neighborhood) 210-379-4635 Dwarf Phone, 210-522-6025 Office Phone

19 years, 7 months

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"kinetic systems minicrate"

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I stumbled across this on an auction site. It looks like a cardcage, > but for what? Kinetic Systems made CAMAC crates and boards.

19 years, 7 months

4
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Cleaning House

by marvin＠rain.org

I probably should mention that stuff has been sold at VCF that was originally listed on VCM. I tried to remove most of it from VCM, but there are still a few items that I missed. My apologies for any inconveniences there!!! Marvin

19 years, 7 months

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Cleaning House

by marvin＠rain.org

It is looking more and more like I'll have to move and thus have a ****<<<LOT>>>**** (ask Hans) of stuff that needs to be tossed, sold, or stored. I'll be putting stuff on VCM and Ebay to 1) see if I can still make enough money to buy this house, and 2) reduce the clutter :). This will be a continuing effort for the next several weeks and I'll be listing more stuff daily. Off topic for VCM and maybe of interest here, I have a couple hundred Belkin NOS Cat5 (not Cat5/e) cables w/RJ-45 ends. They are bagged as 10 sets per bag and I have 30", 42", and 48" available at $10.00/bag plus $6.50 Priority Mail US shipping. Email me offlist if interested. Check out VCM and Ebay (ID=KE6HTS) for the stuff I am getting rid of. Thanks!

19 years, 7 months

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Compuserve wayback machine

by tim＠tim-mann.org

On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 12:00:45 -0600 (CST), cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > ate: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:52:51 -0800 (PST) > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > Subject: Re: Compuserve wayback machine > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <200701101752.l0AHqpJr014860 at onyx.spiritone.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > > James B. DiGriz wrote: > > > The message below is from August of last year. I just tried and got the > > > old familiar CIS user ID prompt. Still can't remember mine, though. > > > > > > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ti99-4a/message/44436 > > > > I *so* wish I could remember mine. > > > > Peace... Sridhar > > > > It wasn't hard to find my CIS ID, however, I don't remember my password. > Besides, I've not had an active account since sometime around late '93 most > likely, so I kind of doubt I'd actually be able to log in. Cool, I just tried this and actually remembered my old password (!). I got the following message. Note the "Last access" date. CompuServe Information Service 02:03 EST Thursday 11-Jan-2007 Last access: 20:00 28-Sep-98 Copyright (c) 2007 CompuServe Incorporated All Rights Reserved One moment please ... Thank you for signing on! Our records show that you once were a CompuServe member. Please call your local CompuServe Customer Service to re-activate your CompuServe account [70040,504] or use 'Sign-up' to set up a new account. 1-800-848-8990 (US and Canada) All other countries, please contact your local sales/service office. Thank you for using CompuServe! Off at 02:04 EST 11-Jan-07 Connect time = 0:01 Connection closed by foreign host. -- Tim Mann tim at tim-mann.org http://tim-mann.org/

19 years, 7 months

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floppies

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> what's the expected > remaining lifetime of a floppy? Time is probably of the essence Chuck and Fred have more experience, but I'm assuming once they're in a stable temp/humidity environment they should be ok for another 10 years. The stuff I'm dealing with now is stuff WAY past its shelf live (20-30 year old tapes). I've read hundreds of floppies over the past five years or so, and the only problems I've had have been with 70's 8" media that was stored in poor conditions where the oxide strips off upon head contact, and the common problem with all head-contact media of oxide/binder buildup reducing the signal level off the head. I absolutely agree that the discs should be copied in image format.

19 years, 7 months

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HP 21xx

by ken＠seefried.com

Marathon HP Mini knowledge dump makes me want one. Very much. This cannot end well...

19 years, 7 months

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Compuserve wayback machine

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 1/10/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > There is a web server for TOPS-20, however, I believe only a couple > sites were running it and the last ones running it have stopped due > to some serious security flaws. That it exists is mildly surprising. That it has security flaws (i.e., is old and exploited, not that it's obviously sloppily written) is not so surprising. > From what I've heard there isn't enough interest in patching them. That is unsurprising at all. -ethan

19 years, 7 months

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Beehive Topper (was: laptops and 5.25 inch floppy drives?)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

>> I have many hundreds of "alien" diskettes that were to go to him when I >> blue-screen. Now I don't know who to will them to. > Same here--probably nobody. My collection's a little unusual in that > it has a lot of embedded systems diskettes in it, for everything from > a CNC EDM machine, to embroidery machines to electron microscopes to > a cardiac monitor. Interesting, but who needs this kind of stuff > anymore? Someone who still owns one of these devices. Really more of an issue for software for test equipment, though, since that kind of stuff has a longer useful life (assuming the floppy for it doesn't get lost..)

19 years, 7 months

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floppies

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> it's nice that the stuff ends up with a museum where > lots of people can see it Another minor point is it is probably unlikely that ANYONE other than archivists would see the physical discs unless there is something really unique about how they look. The important thing to preserve is their contents.

19 years, 7 months

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floppies

by aek＠bitsavers.org

>> > Amen. Just this week, I found the envelope for the Kaypro disk he >> > sent me years ago. > > I have many hundreds of "alien" diskettes that were to go to him when > I blue-screen. Now I don't know who to will them to. There's always CHM. I may not get to them, but my successors will.

19 years, 7 months

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Looking for older Cisco PIX-520 images

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

I have this recently acquired PIX-520 with what seems to be an entirely *blank* FLASH boot card. The machine is so clean inside - not a speck of dust - that I think it may be a NIB unit that someone decided to disgorge onto eBay last summer. It goes through the usual PC-ish boot dialogs (there's an Intel Pentium board inside, with 3 Intel NICs and a 3.5" floppy as the only peripherals besides the boot board), but when all the PC stuff is done, the unit acts dead - no traffic on the serial port that I can see, no text on the (installed by me for debugging) video. I'd try the Cisco site, but besides lacking a current log-in, from reading some of the firewall mailing list entries about older PIX OS files, it seems that Cisco may have purged some of what I'm looking for. If anyone happens to have any archived files from older versions (pre 6.x) of PIX OS and the attendant boot helper files (secondary bootstraps), please contact me *off list* if you are willing to share. For starters, I'd love to find a file like bh510.bin, bh512.bh or bh514.bin, which are various versions of the "boot helper" for the less-obsolete versions of the OS. If I had a boot helper file written to floppy, I should be able to at least see some activity related to it _trying_ to install the OS. Thanks, -ethan

19 years, 7 months

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Fwd: Microvax IIs in BA123s

by legalize＠xmission.com

FYI... I'm just passing this along, please contact the original poster. -- "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/> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:19:01 GMT Groups: comp.sys.dec,comp.os.vms,comp.sys.dec.micro,alt.sys.pdp11,vmsnet .pdp-11 From: Jeff Shirley <spamalot at mindspring.com> Reply-To: spamalot at mindspring.com Subject: MicroVAX IIs/BA123s in Demand? Id: <9zyoh.8847$w91.8571 at newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net> --------- Greetings. I have a couple of MicroVAX II systems in BA123 boxes I would like to sell, hopefully to hobbyists rather than the local scrap guy. My question is whether it might make more sense to just pull the boards and cabinet kits, and scrap the BA123 enclosures. The first system has fairly standard components, a KA630 (M7606-AF), two 4MB boards (M7608-BP), a pair of DHV11s (M3104), a DELQA (M7516), RQDX3 (M7555), TQK50 (M7546), RD53, TK50, and a pair of boards from Ultimate Computer Corporation. I think the second system has some more interesting parts, like a pair of ESDI dives and a Pertec tape drive interface. The first system weighed in at 125 pounds, which would cost upwards of $150 to ship across the country from (from the Los Angeles area). I just do not know if there is any demand for the old BA123s in the hobbyist community. Opinions? Jeff. P.S. Apologies to the PDP-11 groups for the crossposts. P.P.S. This old DEC hardware amazes me. I hooked a VT220 to the first system described above, and powered it up. It booted right up with MicroVMS V4.7, circa 1987. -- Jeff Shirley spamalot at mindspring.com "Bill Gates is filthy rich, but that doesn't mean I want to be married to him."

19 years, 7 months

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replacing a dc005? (qbus chip)

by brad＠heeltoe.com

One of my rqdx3 boards suffered a trauma in a previous life and one of the "DC005" chips at the bottom cracked in half. Needless to say the board does not work. I removed the old chip, but what now? Does anyone have a spare DC005 or know of a suitable replacement? I assume this is one of the magic DEC chips for qbus. I suppose I could try extracting one from another board, but that is pretty painful... dips are easier to get out if you can snip their leads. -brad

19 years, 7 months

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Terminals (was Re: Paul Allen's DECsystem-10)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 1/10/07, woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: > I just got ADVENT running on my SBC6120 only to discover the terminal > I am using has a flakey keyboard. Bummer. > Just what do you use for a termial with the SBC6120? For times when I need to move files (like programming the Flash on my IOB6120), I use a Linux box and Kermit and whatever keyboard is on the Linux box (laptop or desktop). For real terminal use, lately, I've been using mostly LK201s on DEC terminals, and whatever keyboard is handy for my Planar ELT-320, a 9" orange-screen electroluminescent wee terminal that takes both PS/2 keyboards and DEC LK201 keyboards. Since the terminal is so small, I like to use my Happy Hacking PS/2 keyboard with it - the whole arrangement is smaller than many laptops. The heaviest part is the slug of metal in the base of the terminal to keep the screen from tipping over (I also have a wall-mount case for another ELT-320 with no base). So... depending on platform, a DEC LK201 or some random PS/2 keyboard (Keytronics are nice) -ethan

19 years, 7 months

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"kinetic systems minicrate"

by legalize＠xmission.com

I stumbled across this on an auction site. It looks like a cardcage, but for what? Is it some kind of process control enclosure? -- "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, 7 months

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Gateway destination - is it on topic?

by alexandre-listas＠e-secure.com.br

Is the gateway destination old enough to be on topic? :) Well, I'm in need of a radio reciver of a gateway destination keyboard. Anyone wanting to part with that? :) Thanks! Alexandre

19 years, 7 months

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Most expensive terminal I've seen on ebay...

by legalize＠xmission.com

OK, this blows the compucolor frenzy out of the water, folks... Item # 270073780561 Authentic Altair Compter Single Line Terminal $2,800.00 with 8 bids. -- "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, 7 months

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Mouse for Tektronix 4105/4205 terminals?

by legalize＠xmission.com

I didn't know this until I acquired some of these, but the keyboards have a mouse port on the back; it looks like a standard serial 9-pin connector and it has "MOUSE" labelled above it. However, I have yet to find any documentation on the pinout or electrical/comm specifications for the mouse. Does anyone recall having a mouse hooked up to their Tektronix 4105/4205 and what kind of connection it had? -- "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, 7 months

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Paul Allen's DECsystem-10

by legalize＠xmission.com

Is anyone else using this machine? I was thinking of getting ADVENT running on it. -- "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, 7 months

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Cleaning House

by marvin＠rain.org

> I know how to look up all the items a given seller is selling on ebay... but > I seem to be too brain-dead to see how to do that on vcm. Can someone > enlighten me? > > Jay I don't know if there is an easier way, but click on one of anyones items, and below the listing is a link to "seller's other Ads", in my case "marvin's other Ads." Also, I have quite a bit of HP stuff I have no need of that I just can't get to ... yet :) ... hp-8x, display terminal (bad screen rot), keyboards, printers, drives, and I don't know what else :).

19 years, 7 months

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OT but help rqd: website compromise

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Hi folks, Seems like my webserver was hacked on xmas eve by someone who managed to install a 'nice' little script called c99shell; fortunately they left their IP address kicking around and it resolves to a company called Staminus Communications in Fullerton, CA. Since the majority of this list is US based can anyone tell me if it's worth flinging them a message to abuse@ giving the culprit's IP address? I've already told my ISP over here but I doubt anything will happen. Message me off list if possible please, Jay, apols for the off-topic noise! -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

19 years, 7 months

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(somewhat OT) " Apple Computer, Inc." no more

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

Jobs has announced a name change: "SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday made the company's long-awaited jump into the mobile phone business and renamed the company to just "Apple Inc.," reflecting its increasing focus on consumer electronics. He said the name change is meant to reflect the fact that Apple has matured >from a computer manufacturer to a full-fledged consumer electronics company." I wonder if "devolved" or "degraded" might better describe the change than "matured". Bob _________________________________________________________________ Get live scores and news about your team: Add the Live.com Football Page www.live.com/?addtemplate=football&icid=T001MSN30A0701

19 years, 7 months

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govliq: mux and 26MB BAE/xerox hard drives

by legalize＠xmission.com

I don't recognize the hard drives depicted here; they look like cartridge drives? Govliq says they're all in brand new condition. <http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1088965&convertTo=USD> -- "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, 7 months

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Sun plastics

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Has anyone had success fixing the plastic "alloy" that Sun uses in their cases? MEK and cyanoacrylate turn it into a mushy grainy mess.

19 years, 7 months

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36-bits, no waiting (was Re: Paul Allen's DECsystem-10)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 1/10/07, Brad Pritts <bpritts at pritts.com> wrote: > Well, we used lots of PDP-10's in the timesharing... business in > the '70's and '80's. By the late '80's this business was dying fast. But it was fun. Indeed. > Yes, Compuserve was a big player... There are still 36-bit machines (Systems Concepts SC-40s, IIRC) running in Columbus at what _used_ to be called CompuServe Headquarters (now just another AOL campus :-/ ) They got rid of the DEC-manufactured machines well over 10 years ago, but still run their endlessly hacked version of TOPS-10 on real (not emulated) 36-bit hardware. I haven't seen them since 2003, but at that time, there were more SC machines at the WorldCom data center in Hilliard, OH (at what was _going to be_ CompuServe Headquarters before the company was bought and divided). I was told that WorldCom had to keep them running for some obscure billing app that was written in FORTRAN and couldn't be ported (or at least had been the subject of several failed attempts to port). Given the history of things, I would think it was full of CompuServe extensions, perhaps what they called XF4, perhaps something descended from that. So in Central Ohio, at least, 36-bits survived into the 21st Century for commercial usage. Personally, the last "productive" thing I did was to run Zork under the Panda distro of klh10/TOPS-20. I used to have a 36-bit account when I worked at CompuServe, but they'd cleaned all the old "service" menus and items off before I started there - it was an empty shell of its former glory by 2001. -ethan

19 years, 7 months

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getting started with your new HP 21xx

by jwest＠ezwind.net

It just dawned on me something that might be helpful... a quick list of the most relevant documents to look at first when you get your first HP 21xx box. Fortunately, Al at bitsavers has made a concerted effort to put up docs for these boxes, there's a lot of good info there - probably everything you'd ever need. Here are the manuals I'd suggest getting first.... For the hardware..... If you read nothing else, here's the one to read even for folks just curious what these boxes are. Very short (50 pages), quick read, but informative: Whoops... wow, apparently there's no 21MX E or 21MX F short user guide on bitsavers. Wierd! So there's no step by step tutorial on how to use the front panel, etc. My best suggestion - skim the 2100A user guide. The front panel is much different, but the instruction set (a subset), I/O architecture, etc. is pretty much the same. The main difference to keep in mind... the MX's have a store button. Use it :) 2100's autostore if you incM or decM or select a different register (select the register you're already viewing to revert contents). The 2100 doesn't have loader roms cause it's core (so MX's have a IBL button to load a given rom into upper ram). I need to get Al a 21MX E or F short user guide to put up on bitsavers, that's a big omission. The 2100 variant is here: http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/21xx/02100-90001_2100refManDec71.pdf this will get you the basics of your machine. Next essential reading to learn about setting up & configuring your machine... http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/12992-90001_loaderRomsApr86.pdf describes what loader roms are, what they do, how to install them, including source code listings. Essential for learning all about booting your machine. http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/12791-90001_fwInstRef_Feb86.pdf describes what firmware exists, what boards exist for you to install firmware in to, and how to do so. Includes not just firmware options, but base set firmware as well. You'll need this, it's the second thing to check if your machine doesn't boot. http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/5955-4310_stdPerfMem_Apr79.pdf describes the different memory boards & controllers & accesories, how to configure/jumper them and how to install them. Standard Performance memory only. One of the first things to check and change. http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/5955-4311_highPerfMem_Dec83.pdf same as above, but for High Performance memory. For any interface boards in the rear of the computer, see the manuals here: http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/21xx/interfaces/ Now... the heavy duty everything you could possibly need in the future definitive reference.... http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/1000_MEF_EngrRef/ For diagnostics: http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/Diagnostics/02100-90157_Oct-1980.pdf This is the diagnostic configurator manual. It's the program used to load all other diagnostics. Learn this one well. Note - older diagnostics exist that are standalone. Some (not all) standalones CAN run under the diagnostic configurator. I'd suggest just learning the configurator and sticking to the diagnostics which run under it (all are available). http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/Diagnostics/ is the main directory of diagnostic manuals. Each diagnostic has it's own manual. Note: HP diagnostics are (apparently) unlike DEC diagnostics for the 11/45 (my own experience, not neccessarily universal fact). The HP diagnostics work, and work well/right/AsDocumented. They are extremely thorough. They ARE the best and recommended test for if a given card is working properly before proceeding to attempt running anything else. If a card doesn't pass diags, DONT bother trying to use an OS/application to test it. If the card doesn't seem to work with the application, the diags ARE the best way to troubleshoot. They often tell you what section (or chip) on a card is suspect. The diag manuals on bitsavers aren't the complete set, nor the latest set. I have been working for some time on putting together a CD that contains the entire latest (last) diagnostic library for HP1000 stuff, including all manuals, source code, object code, and assembler output listings (with memory addresses). That will fix the above lack of info :) Once you have general 2100/21MX knowledge under your belt from the above, if there is just one manual you should keep handy... it's the ce handbook. It's a quick-reference cheat sheet on most of the above manuals. At least in the CE handbooks I have, little attempt is made to explain anything. It's just quick reference for jumpers, installation, etc. Note that it also includes quick reference information for many operating systems & software. The link is: http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/5950-3767_M-E-F_CEhbk_Jul84.pdf For operating systems: TSB: http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/2000TSB/ contains the starting point for the documentation you'll need/want. RTE: http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/RTE-IV/ http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/RTE-IVB/ http://bitsavers.vt100.net/hp/1000/RTE-6VM/ HP-IPL/OS: http://www.infionline.net/~wtnewton/oldcomp/hp2100/ Hope this all helps! Jay West

19 years, 7 months

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(somewhat OT) "Apple Computer, Inc." no more

by ken＠seefried.com

From: Scott Quinn <compoobah at valleyimplants.com> >Pat wrote: > > On Tuesday 09 January 2007 21:16, Richard wrote: >> In article <2c9905e7a0917a23c18369f94e997689 at valleyimplants.com>, >>> Especially interesting given the scorn that the DEC-VAX agreement >>> from the '70s had. >> >> Come again? That reads like a total non sequitur to me. > > He's probably referring to the agreement that DEC had with the company > that makes VAX vacuum cleaners, for both of them to be able to use > the "VAX" name for their respective products, in each other's country. > >As I understand it, DEC agreed not to make consumer goods, and VAX >agreed not to make computers. To an adolescent mind back in the mid >'90s it seemed a bit absurd and a waste of time, but maybe not so much >anymore. See: Apple Computer v Apple Corp

19 years, 7 months

1
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KLESI-UA cable help?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I'm looking for the cable that goes from a KLESI-UA card (M8739) to the I/O bulkhead on the back of an 11X44. In the absence of that, would anyone know for sure the part number for said cable? I would think it would be in the KLESI manual, but I don't seem to see one on bitsavers (other than prints for the Qbus version). Thanks in advance! Jay West

19 years, 7 months

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refurb qic capstans on eBay

by aek＠bitsavers.org

fyi http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200037680044

19 years, 7 months

1
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Cleaning House

by marvin＠rain.org

> From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > > Ah, so the mystery of who this "marvin" guy is, is finally solved! :-) > > Seriously. > > I have looked at a *lot* of your adds on vintage computer marketplace :) Thanks! If everything that I sold or tried to sell on VCM, VCF, Ebay sold, it wouldn't make a dent ... at least that I would be able to see :). I could put up several thousand items, and that *might* start to make a dent. The problem there is listing and packing time. I would *really* like to play with some of this stuff, but it is just too much stuff right now. Marvin

19 years, 7 months

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shelving storage solution

by legalize＠xmission.com

A little while back I asked about shelving. Noone suggested anything. I found what seems to be a good solution at about half the cost of the next nearest offering, so I thought I'd share. I had been looking at wire rack shelving. Some nice wire racks on casters had been purchased at work from Costco, so I started looking at those. Costco had Safco "LAN Management System" racks 72"Wx29"Dx73"H for $340, 48"Wx29"Dx73"H for $250, 30"Wx29"Dx73"H for $205. (Casters were extra.) They also had Safco wire shelving: 4-shelf 36"Wx18"Dx72"H for $120. Online I could find racks for comparable prices or a little better (like $5) and comparable shelving for $80. I found nice 5-shelf wire racks at Walmart for $40 ea. 36"Wx16"Dx72"H, black finish. Each shelf is rated for 200 lbs evenly distributed. They have levelling screwcaps on the feet. "5 Shelf Multi-Purpose Rack" by NSF is what the box says. UPC 0 34886 00012 Using this shelving, I can stack 10 terminals vertically, 2 per shelf for 5 shelves, which is a tremendous space savings. I had to go to several Walmart locations in order to get enough shelving units, so I don't know if these are end of inventory "priced to move" units or not. This shelving is not currently listed on Walmart's web site, but each store in the Salt Lake City valley had the units. There is also a 4-shelf unit standing 52" high with 14" deep shelves. Most of the stores had these, with fewer having the taller 5-shelf variety. The shelf heights are adjustable in 1" increments and no tools are required for assembly or disassembly. They seem sturdy enough when fully loaded, but I wouldn't want to trip and fall into them and put a big transverse load on the whole system. It would most likely fall over and have a danger of crushing you with what I've got loaded into them. I certainly wouldn't want to have 10 13" CRTs dumped on me. I should probably secure them in case of earthquake... -- "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, 7 months

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(somewhat OT) "Apple Computer, Inc." no more

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Pat wrote: > On Tuesday 09 January 2007 21:16, Richard wrote: >> In article <2c9905e7a0917a23c18369f94e997689 at valleyimplants.com>, >>> Especially interesting given the scorn that the DEC-VAX agreement >>> from the '70s had. >> >> Come again? That reads like a total non sequitur to me. > > He's probably referring to the agreement that DEC had with the company > that makes VAX vacuum cleaners, for both of them to be able to use > the "VAX" name for their respective products, in each other's country. As I understand it, DEC agreed not to make consumer goods, and VAX agreed not to make computers. To an adolescent mind back in the mid '90s it seemed a bit absurd and a waste of time, but maybe not so much anymore.

19 years, 7 months

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Paul Allen's DECsystem-10

by bpritts＠pritts.com

Well, we used lots of PDP-10's in the timesharing (oops, marketing calls it REMOTE COMPUTING) business in the '70's and '80's. By the late '80's this business was dying fast. But it was fun. Yes, Compuserve was a big player. I worked with ADP Network Services (originally Cypernetics Corporation); we had quite a few PDP-10's. (about 25). Also, we probably had 100 - 200 PDP8's and PDP-11's as network nodes. When DEC released its KS10 processor (minicomputer architecture), we ported TOPS-10 to run on it. We ran about 75 or 100 of these as dedicated mini's for individual clients. As I recall DEC only sold the KS10 with TOPS-20. For better or worse this machine was superceded by the VAX. What were these users doing? Mostly interactive management applications - financial models (think of Fortran meets Excel); stock analysis; engineering analysis; statistical analysis & forecasting. It really was "personal computing". Regards, Brad remembering those good old days... > Richard wrote: > > > > So what was the typical usage for a average user on a > PDP-10 back then? Word processing? Computer Science? > Acounting? Fortran programs? > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:47:49 -0700 > From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > Subject: Re: Paul Allen's DECsystem-10 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <E1H4Qh4-0002dn-00 at xmission.xmission.com> > > > In article <45A4276F.8000505 at jetnet.ab.ca>, > woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> writes: > > >>> I was thinking of getting ADVENT running on it. >>> >> You can do that with a PDP-8. :) >> > > Well, it would be a royal PITA for me. The only PDP-8 that I have is > a DECmate I w/out the RX floppy drives. > > But this wasn't a question of *what* machines I can use to run ADVENT. > > The question was: is anyone else using a login on Paul Allen's > DECsystem-10 or TOAD? > > I think the most I ever did with the DEC-10 at UDel was play ADVENT on > it :-). >

19 years, 7 months

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(somewhat OT) "Apple Computer, Inc." no more

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

George Currie wrote: > I wonder if Apple (the former computer company) paved the way for the > name change in the last round of negotiations it had with Apple (the > record label) as one of Apple's major arguments (hey, we're a computer > company, no one would get confused) is now officially gone. > Especially interesting given the scorn that the DEC-VAX agreement from the '70s had. The "why" question still remains on a technical level, given that all of their "consumer" products still are data processing equipment, predominantly based around microprocessors. They may not be intended to be general purpose computing machines, but then again neither was the PlayStation 2 et al, and look what's been done with them.

19 years, 8 months

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senseless rants was Re: garbled display

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

It's not my intention to exacerbate the situation, being that this lists already has a rather high drama index, but concerning the previous rant, I don't at all see the point of such non constructive criticism. If your "needs" aren't being met, simply move on. I for one find it to be unique and often useful exchange. The old adage sure applies here that if you can't say anything nice... And it wasn't that I found the reply funny, but rather laughable. Nearly comic. Just my 2 farthings. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

19 years, 8 months

2
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(Fwd) Re: laptops and 5.25 inch floppy drives?

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 9 Jan 2007 at 15:32, Chris M wrote: > *went out to the shed. Yes there is present in the > BIOS a service to format tracks. Not all clones comply > in this way though (but where would the routine to do > this be if not in the bios?). I noticed in the docs > for my NEC APC III that DOS function calls were more > or less the same as a vanilla pc, but I don't recall > seeing mention of the equivalent BIOS calls. Anyone know?* I believe that the APC follows the NEC 9801 convention, but I'm not certain. The BIOS calls are very diffierent from the PC version. A Google should turn something up; I know the calls are mentioned in Ralf Brown's interrupt list--and there was a rundown in one of the PC rags--maybe DOS/Windows Developer? I probably also have a list in my files. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 8 months

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Sun plastics

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

>> I've used a product called plastic epoxy which includes a solvent to >> eat >> into the items being bonded for a better bond. I've had the best luck >> placing a small piece of metal (paperclip) across the break and >> spreading >> an 1/8" thick layer over that. > > For plastics that it will disolve (if you see what I mean), I've had > great success using a liquid called 'Plastic Weld' available from good > model shops. It's basically dicholoromethane (methylene chloride). > > What you do is put the plastic parts together and run a brush dipped in > the solvent along the crack. For a stronger join, I cut a piece of > cotton > frabric to fit over the hack of the repair, put it in place and 'paint' > it with the solvent. Then push the cotton into the softened plastic. > > -tony Sun seems to use some odd plastic compound or alloy with two different types. I usually use MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) for welding plastics, and usually it either has no effect or works well, but with the Sun-type (I've seen it elsewhere, but first on Suns) plastics it dissolves one component but not the other, and the plastic turns into this yucky granular stuff with no strength to speak of (the bond will hold, but only until you move it). The epoxy kind of worked (it was one of the trim pieces off of a SPARCstation 20 (one of the $1 Boeing specials- thanks for the heads-up) it holds together O.K., but it's a little loose now (epoxy is much slower than MEK, and stuff moved).

19 years, 8 months

1
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(Fwd) Re: Sun plastics

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 9 Jan 2007 at 19:24, Tony Duell wrote: > What you do is put the plastic parts together and run a brush dipped in > the solvent along the crack. For a stronger join, I cut a piece of cotton > frabric to fit over the hack of the repair, put it in place and 'paint' > it with the solvent. Then push the cotton into the softened plastic. The faceplates of Overland Data tape drives are like that--try any "regular" solvent such as xylene or MEK or (worst) acetone and the plastic just crumbles away. Methylene chloride does seem to work better--and any gaps can be filled in with auto-body resin filler (Bondo) and the whole mess painted to match. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 8 months

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(Fwd) Re: (somewhat OT) " Apple Computer, Inc." no more

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 9 Jan 2007 at 15:04, Fred Cisin wrote: > "matured" v "devolved" v "degraded" has NOTHING to do with whether > computers are getting better or worse. It is ENTIRELY about the > transition from being a computer company into being a consumer electronics > company. Probably a very shrewd move, too. Computers are a commodity item now; just the thing you don't want if you're trying to run a high- profit margin operation. Better to produce new widgets that folks will pay a premium to own. Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 8 months

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looking for an old ad (Dimension 68000)

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

I probably have at least 1 issue of Byte that features advertisements for this computer, but a whole big box became unexpectedly drenched, and I don't have the heart to look at it. If perchance anyone has a scan of this ad, and you'll know what I'm talking about if you've seen it, it would be awful nice to get a scan of it. I bought one of those kits to make your own T-shirts a while back (especially since it was free after the rebate) and I thought a shirt with the D68K logo would look sick. (Trouble is I have to send for different transfer material. The stuff that came in the box is only for light colored shirts, and I thought black would be a better deal). __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

19 years, 8 months

1
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WTB: Nokia 9000 and HP OmniGo 700

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Does anyone have a Nokia 9000 (not 9000i) or HP OmniGo 700? Oh yeah? Want to sell them? ;) Please reply directly to me as I am not subscribed to the list. sellam at vintagetech.com Thanks! Happy New Year all! -- 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, 8 months

2
1
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Old DEC Software and Hardware Manuals

by frajkp＠netscape.net

Hi, these have all been taken. Thanks ________________________________________________________________________ Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and industry-leading spam and email virus protection.

19 years, 8 months

1
0
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wtd: Televideo TS-1603 (TS-803 lookalike)

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

but has an 8088 instead of the z80. Preferably the color model, but monochrome is nice too. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

19 years, 8 months

1
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Manchester Baby.

by austin＠ozpass.co.uk

Hello all! I?m a long time ?list lurker? but felt it was perhaps time to contribute. I?ve just spent the morning being shown a working replica of the Manchester Small-Scale Experimantal Machine (SSEM), also commonly referred to as the ?Manchester Baby?. It?s located in the ?1830 Warehouse? at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. One of the curators is (by lucky chance) my Uncle Michael and he?s personally written a number of programs for this old beast. The replica is fantastic, with incredible attention to period detail. For example, the switchgear is proper 1940?s vintage (salvaged from RAF aircraft) and the frames upon which the replica is built are from former GPO telecoms exchanges. Apparently the donor of said frames was using them to prevent his garden subsiding into a nearby river! The computer itself, for anyone unaware of it is regarded as the world?s first stored program computer. It ran its first program on June 21st 1948, jointly designed by Frederic C. Williams and Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester, UK. The stored memory is in the form of a ?Williams Tube? - a cathode ray tube capable of storing 32 X 32bit words. It?s an extremely limited bit of kit (as one might imagine!) with an instruction set of only 7, and no adder (addition achieved by negating numbers during their move to the accumulator). It?s a great exhibit if anyone?s in this part of the world on a Tuesday with nothing to do. No charge for entry into the museum. Here are some informative links, including a beautifully crafted ?Manchester Baby Emulator? (in Java). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Baby http://www.computer50.org/ http://www.davidsharp.com/baby/index.html Regards, Austin. P.S. The guys at the museum have hooked it up to a PC, so that programs written on the emulator can be loaded into the baby to be run. Does this qualify it as the world?s most ancient add-on / peripheral / co-processor? ;-)

19 years, 8 months

2
1
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rt-11 Documentation

by williams.dan＠gmail.com

I'm sure someone on the list asked a while back, but I couldn't find it. I have the complete rt-11 docs printed out. They are too heavy to post but can be picked up from here (Soho UK). Dan

19 years, 8 months

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