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

by tlindner＠ix.netcom.com

I decided to pull out my first Mac and try to boot it. It won't boot. The power button on the mother board and the keyboard both do nothing. So I decided to test the power suppily. I could not find any pinouts for a IIcx power suppily. Does anyone have that information? Also I took a close look at the motherboard. It has 7 silver cans. Capacitors I think. They are all surounded by a thin layer of sticky goo. Is this a sure sign my caps have leaked? <http://home.netcom.com/~tlindner/temp/DeadIIcx.jpg> I appologize for the blury photo, but it gets my point across. You'll also notice my batery is pulled. Everything on I've read so far say a IIcx should boot without the batery. Thanks for the help! -- tim lindner tlindner at ix.netcom.com Bright

21 years, 4 months

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test

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

sorry!

21 years, 4 months

1
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Questions - Universe/68, HP-9134A,VT420 composite video

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

It does appear to be the 4 x 1.15MB version. There's an HP warranty label on the back that dates it to 1982. Crumbs. I'm glad I lugged it home. --- "Joe R." <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com> wrote: > they're even there. BTW if your drive is configured > as four floppy drives > then it should be valuable and VERY desirable to the > HP collectors. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

21 years, 4 months

5
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Questions - Universe/68, HP-9134A,VT420 composite video

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

Dave, My serial number is 2203A01125 so that would confirm the 1982 date. Does your documentation give any indication of which jumpers need to be changed to reconfigure the drive ? There are several on the controller board but nothing explicitly marked Option 010 or anything. --- "J. David Bryan" <jdbryan at acm.org> wrote: > On 18 Apr 2005 at 18:05, David Comley wrote: > > > It does appear to be the 4 x 1.15MB version. > There's an HP warranty > > label on the back that dates it to 1982. > > Well, you still might be in luck if you want to use > this with your 64000. > The configurable controller appeared after serial > number 2151A04165 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

21 years, 4 months

2
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Looking for VT1300 load image

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Dan Williams <williams.dan at gmail.com> wrote: > I don't know anything about this machine but I think this is the > software you want : > > http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware40/ews/ That's it, thanks! Jan-Benedict Glaw <jbglaw at lug-owl.de> wrote: > On Tue, 2005-04-19 20:11:51 +0000, Michael Sokolov <msokolov at ivan.harhan.= > org> wrote: > > So, does anyone have a copy of the VXT EX load image? TIA for any help= > , > > I've got a boot image for a VXT2000+ around somewhere, but I don't know > what kind it is exactly. Damn thinkos spoil the post... :-( I meant VT1300 load image, I already had the VXT and VXT EX ones. But thankfully Dan pointed me to what I was looking for, so I'm happy. :-) Now I've looked at the EWS documentation and realised that it won't do what I need after all because it's based on X11R3 and predates MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 and XDMCP, so it'll be unacceptable security-wise. Which means that I'll have to cash out for a VXT 2000 so I can run VXT EX on the hardware it's designed for. :-( MS

21 years, 4 months

4
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At Last - A Control Data 160-A!

by bpettit＠ix.netcom.com

Eric Smith wrote: >> Put it in the garage, powered it up and it ran! >What??? You didn't test the DC power supplies first? Naughty, >naughty! Well, it pwered up and ran when I bought it. Tested it then of course - wouldn't spend that kind of money on a dead one now. So my main concern was damage caused by the move, especially the memory. And 160-A would sometimes need module reinsertion after a move. The power supply was one of the old Ault Magnetics types with ferro-resonant transformers and built like a boat anchor. I've never heard or seen of one going bad. If it ever did, you'd need a very muscular friend to help you move it. So I felt pretty confortable turning on AC without a pre-test. The typewriter chassis is a different story. The power supply was cut out with a pair of dykes! I'm going to be putting in some hours of wire splicing, tracing, testing before I put the PC boards back in. >Los Altos Typewriter. They restored the IBM Model B electric >typewriters used as console devices on CHM's IBM 1620 and DEC PDP-1. >Don't expect them to do anything with the computer interface part, but >they do great work on the typewriter mechanism. >Eric Thanks for the name - I will visit them and get an estimate. The typewriter mechanism and encoder, I feel comfortable with. Fixed enough of them over the years. It's the cosmetics that suck. And some of the rubber grommets are powder. My biggest worry - the rubber belts and power roller look to be in great shape. Even the platen doesn't seem to be hard or cracked. It's the chassis panels that I will need help with. I can get the rust off and primer it. But to keep the original texture, I'm going to have to match the color and paint type. These were originally given multiple coats and baked. How far do you go on restorations? Match original paint or just the color? Use current spray paint or the old enamels? What have others on the list done for paint restoation? What do the museums do? Billy PS: Anybody one the list have a couple rolls of 1" paper tape they'd like to sell? I'm down to 2 half rolls, barely enough for adjusting the two punches.

21 years, 4 months

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HP CRT mould update

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Just for info, following up on a discussion a while back :) I've just removed the faceplate on the CRT for an HP 250 that was suffering from the dreaded mould. Used a bit of resistance wire as someone here had suggested, and it was a remarkably easy job. Took about ten mins to make it all the way across the CRT (although I was only running from a 10V DC supply - I expect there's a lot of scope for increasing the voltage without risk of damaging the CRT) The sealant stuff pretty much just peels straight off the front of the CRT / rear of the faceplate once the two are separated. A knife blade, not water, and washing detergent shifted the rest and cleaned everything up. I'm not sure about trying to re-seal it; that could go horribly wrong and leave air bubbles trapped in there. Not even sure what stuff to use. Padding the faceplace out as necessary right at the edges (where it won't be visible when everything's back together) is probably the best course of action and it'll look as good as new when back together. Next interesting task will be getting the paint off the 250's console desk though - seems like when they were scrapped someone just went around with a spray-can and put big X's on anything that was being disposed of... cheers Jules

21 years, 4 months

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LOL !!

by news＠computercollector.com

Can you believe some schmuck put this under "vintage computers"...!!?? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4193&item=5186732050& rd=1 ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: www.snarc.net *** Tell your friends about the (free!) Computer Collector Newsletter - 700 readers and no spam / Publishes every Monday / Write for us! - Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all - W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news at computercollector.com

21 years, 4 months

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ebay: what are those unibus boards

by vax9000＠gmail.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3360&item=3969936532… seems a gold scraper got the lot

21 years, 4 months

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[Bulk] Re: HP CRT mould update

by marvin＠rain.org

Of the monitors I have, there is mold or ??? under the front glass on the screens of: * ADM3 Terminal (or ADM3A, don't remember) * Soroc IQ120 * HP Terminal (don't recall model) * DIGITAL monitor (don't recall model, but 12" or so screen) The HP Terminal was stored in a station wagon, others were stored in the garage and back porch. I don't remember seeing mold on any monitors used for the IBM PCs or Apple computers. The weather here is mostly moderate all year long, and I am about 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean. > >> On Mon, 2005-04-18 at 15:40 -0700, Vintage Computer Festival wrote: > >> > The HP300 at the Computer History Museum has the same "mold" effects, as > >> > does a 2648 I've got in my warehouse. HP CRTs (especially the elongated > >> > ones found on the mentioned machines) seem to be more typically > >> > susceptible to this effect than other CRTs. I wonder what it is about > >> > them? > >> > >> Yep, I've not seen it on much else. Digico springs to mind, plus a > >> couple of others that we have whose names escape me right now - but it's > >> almost exclusively the HP stuff. > > > >Another product where you see this effect consistently is with ADM 3A > >terminals. > > Hmm. I've never seen it on one. I expect that the source of the device > and where/how they were stored makes a big difference. > > Joe >

21 years, 4 months

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Asimov mirror?

by cb＠mythtech.net

> Does anyone have a local mirror (or maybe an ISO or Torrent) of the >Apple II/Asimov archive that I can grab? I find it difficult to capture the >"disk images" directory without timeouts and other delays causing problems. <AOLer> Me Too </AOLer> I tried archiving the FTP site a while back, but it always failed at about the same point. It almost seemed to me they were cutting off my access to avoid having people siphon out all the images. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 4 months

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Asimov mirror?

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: Does anyone have a local mirror (or maybe an ISO or Torrent) of the Apple II/Asimov archive that I can grab? I find it difficult to capture the "disk images" directory without timeouts and other delays causing problems. Thanks. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

21 years, 4 months

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Goodwill find from Nintendo

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Found a Japanese game diskette for use in the Nintendo Famicom external disk drive unit. I could only find one disk in a clear carrying case. The game is called ZANAC and from the pic's looks like a aircraft shoot-up game. Also at another thrift today I found 4 game cartridges for the Super Famicom. I'm still looking for a power supply for the Super Famicom console I got from this same thrift last year.

21 years, 4 months

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NEC "Advanced Personal Computer"?

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

While digging through a pile of PCs headed for the recycling/re-use center, I found a couple neat items. One is a NEC Advanced Personal Computer. Or at least I'm pretty sure that's what it said on the front. It's an all-in-one case, dual 8" floppy drives mounted vertically on the right side. Beige case, black trim. And the Keyboard to go with it. Is this thing worth saving for a museum or something? Free, pickup in New Haven, CT. Also was in the pile, and IBM server type item. Small, about the size of 2 Thinkpads stacked on top of each other. Has 3 1/2' floppy, twin-ax connections on the back. Didn't notice any console (key/mouse/monitor) connections on the back. And I believe there is a terminal server under that also. Any interest? Free, pickup in New Haven, CT. -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818

21 years, 4 months

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Help ID this operating system?

by vcf＠siconic.com

I'm trying to determine what the operating system is of some 8" floppies I'm trying to read. I found the directory on track 2 but it's not CP/M, and it's not DOS. It looks CP/M-ish, but the offsets of the file entries are not right. Anadisk says this is a high density disk, sector IDs 1-26 on side 0 and 27-52 on side 1, 256 byte sectors. I see this string in the first track: Type <CR> to load system. Some extra context around this string: 0000100: 3100 303a 0b00 b7f2 a034 3a8d 4811 363b 1.0:.....4:.H.6; 0000110: 123a 0600 4fcd 30f8 0120 4e0b 78b0 20fb .:..O.0.. N.x. . 0000120: 3a07 00c6 3132 7335 016d 35cd 243b 0171 :...12s5.m5.$;.q 0000130: 35cd 243b 0144 3bcd 243b 2144 3b22 d13d 5.$;.D;.$;!D;".= 0000140: c37b 3531 0030 3a07 00c6 3132 7335 0171 .{51.0:...12s5.q 0000150: 35cd 243b 21d3 3de5 01ca 3dcd 063b fe03 5.$;!.=...=..;.. 0000160: ca46 35fe 7fca 4635 fe08 ca46 35fe 15ca .F5...F5...F5... 0000170: 4635 fe18 ca46 35e1 7723 e53a ca3d fe0a F5...F5.w#.:.=.. 0000180: 20d6 d121 d43d afed 5221 d33d 200b 0144 ..!.=..R!.= ..D 0000190: 3bcd 243b 2144 3b18 2801 7835 cd24 3b3a ;.$;!D;.(.x5.$;: 00001a0: d43d fe3a 201b 3ad5 3dfe 21f2 4135 3ad3 .=.: .:.=.!.A5:. 00001b0: 3dd6 31fa 5c39 fe04 f25c 3932 0700 c3c3 =.1.\9...\92.... 00001c0: 3422 d13d 1835 0177 35cd 243b c3c3 340d 4".=.5.w5.$;..4. 00001d0: 0a54 7970 6520 3c43 523e 2074 6f20 6c6f .Type <CR> to lo 00001e0: 6164 2073 7973 7465 6d2e 0d0a 7f7e 1c1a ad system....~.. 00001f0: 7f0d 0a31 3e20 7f23 0d0a 7faf 32a2 3bed ...1> .#....2.;. 0000200: 5bd1 3dcd 6736 c457 39cd 9c37 cdc8 37e6 [.=.g6.W9..7..7. 0000210: fec4 5239 2a9d 3b22 f138 3e01 32f0 3821 ..R9*.;".8>.2.8! 0000220: a53c 22f3 38cd 0339 2aa5 3c7d b7c4 5239 .<".8..9*.<}..R9 0000230: 24c4 5239 2aa7 3c22 cd3d 1100 f0af ebed $.R9*.<".=...... (I haven't taken a stab at trying to determine what CPU these instructions are for. This is from the second sector read off the first track.) More strings: Opr= H Trk= H Sec= H Rec= H Cmd= H Sts= ? Drive not ready [Drv= ? Disk I/O error [Drv= ? Illegal disk address [Drv= ? Load address error ? Not a system exec file ? System file not found ? Illegal device name ? Illegal file name SYSTEM.IMF I found what looks to be an allocation table at the 17th sector of the first track: 0001000: ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ................ 0001010: ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff fff0 3fff f7ff ............?... 0001020: ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ................ 0001030: ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff 8fff ffff ................ 0001040: ffff ffff ffff c07f ff9f fe01 ff1f ffe0 ................ 0001050: 0800 0f82 0001 ff00 03ff e3fe 0000 00ff ................ 0001060: ffff fff0 3fff ffff ffff ffff fffe 87ff ....?........... 0001070: ffff ffff ffff fff8 0fff ffff fff7 ffff ................ 0001080: 1fff fe80 3fff ff8f ffff ffff ffff ffc3 ....?........... 0001090: ffff fff0 0000 f000 ffff 803c 1fff ffff ...........<.... 00010a0: ffff ffc7 fff9 ffff ffe7 ff8f ffff fff8 ................ 00010b0: 0000 7e08 0fff fffe 07fe 000f fc00 b07c ..~............| 00010c0: 1fff ffff e1ff fde8 0f3f 03ff ffff ffff .........?...... 00010d0: ffff fff0 3fff f807 ffff 3fff ffff f1ff ....?.....?..... 00010e0: ffff ffff ffff 80fe 7cfe 7fff ffff 0e00 ........|....... 00010f0: 01fe 0efe 3e7f ff80 0ff8 0fc0 0000 fef6 ....>........... 0001100: 3fff ffff ff00 00ff f83e 7ffc 3fff f9fd ?........>..?... 0001110: fe1f ffff e07c ffff fffd c000 3f00 0000 .....|......?... 0001120: 000f e3e7 ffff fc0f ffff dcff fe3f fc30 .............?.0 0001130: 7f0f fc01 e3e7 f800 0000 03ff 7e3f ffc0 ............~?.. 0001140: 0000 0fff ffff ffff fff1 feff ffe7 f07e ...............~ 0001150: 007f fff8 160b 3fc0 3fff fff0 1fff ffff ......?.?....... 0001160: 0781 ffff ffff 1fff ffdf c7e8 03ff ffc0 ................ 0001170: 0e00 9fff ffbf ffff f7ff e0ff ffbf fe00 ................ 0001180: 033f c01f ffe3 ffbf e7f0 003f c3fd ffff .?.........?.... 0001190: ffc1 ff9f ffff ffff ffff fe00 000f ffff ................ 00011a0: e3c0 7ee0 0000 1f3f c1ff ffff 000f ffff ..~....?........ 00011b0: ffff fff8 3f87 ffff fff0 ffe3 ffff ffff ....?........... 00011c0: fff8 ffff ffff ffe3 f000 07ff e783 ff80 ................ 00011d0: 7fff ff7f ffff ffff c3ff ffff ffff fffc ................ 00011e0: ff87 ffff c000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 00011f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ Sector 21 has the volume label: 0001400: 8080 004d 4953 432e 2044 4953 4b20 2331 ...MISC. DISK #1 0001410: 3020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 0 0001420: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2000 0000 0000 ..... 0001430: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 0001440: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ Here are the first two directory sectors: 0001a00: be00 424f 4f54 0000 0000 0000 0000 494d ..BOOT........IM 0001a10: 46a7 0010 0000 0000 0000 1001 0000 0000 F............... 0001a20: be00 5341 5400 0000 0000 0000 0000 494d ..SAT.........IM 0001a30: 46a5 0004 0000 0000 0000 0411 0000 0000 F............... 0001a40: be00 4c41 4245 4c00 0000 0000 0000 494d ..LABEL.......IM 0001a50: 4631 0006 0000 0000 0000 0615 0000 0000 F1.............. 0001a60: be00 4449 5245 4354 4f52 5900 0000 494d ..DIRECTORY...IM 0001a70: 46a5 0082 0000 0000 0000 821b 0000 0000 F............... 0001a80: be00 4944 3832 3600 0000 0000 0000 0000 ..ID826......... 0001a90: 0000 b107 0000 001d 1500 0701 0300 0000 ................ 0001aa0: be00 4944 3832 3700 0000 0000 0000 0000 ..ID827......... 0001ab0: 0000 f208 0000 001d 1500 0808 0300 0000 ................ 0001ac0: be00 4944 3832 3800 0000 0000 0000 0000 ..ID828......... 0001ad0: 0000 1c07 0000 001d 1500 0710 0300 0000 ................ 0001ae0: be00 4944 3832 3900 0000 0000 0000 0000 ..ID829......... 0001af0: 0000 5505 0000 001d 1500 0517 0300 0000 ..U............. 0001b00: 9c10 4249 3131 3100 0000 0000 0000 3200 ..BI111.......2. 0001b10: 0000 8506 0000 0060 0200 0222 0303 2c03 .......`..."..,. 0001b20: fe00 0106 0400 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 0001b30: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 0001b40: be00 4249 3131 3100 0000 0000 0000 3100 ..BI111.......1. 0001b50: 0000 9c07 0000 0060 0200 0330 0604 1307 .......`...0.... 0001b60: be00 5045 4332 3000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ..PEC20......... 0001b70: 0000 3804 0000 005f 0800 0313 2301 1739 ..8...._....#..9 0001b80: fe00 0332 0705 0908 0412 0803 3109 0303 ...2........1... 0001b90: 0a02 140a 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 0001ba0: be00 4655 5333 3400 0000 0000 0000 3300 ..FUS34.......3. 0001bb0: 0000 2607 0000 0060 0500 061c 0301 0704 ..&....`........ 0001bc0: be00 484f 4734 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ..HOG4.......... 0001bd0: 0000 d508 0000 001d 1600 0832 0300 0000 ...........2.... 0001be0: be00 4655 5333 3800 0000 0000 0000 0000 ..FUS38......... 0001bf0: 0000 3705 0000 007f 0600 0424 0301 0a04 ..7........$.... Filenames seem to be 12 characters plus a 3 character extension. Anyone? Anyone? -- 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 ]

21 years, 4 months

1
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PDP8 power supply G8018

by djg＠drs-c4i.com

> I am considering using two modern +5v at 25A switching power supplies to > replace the +5V source ( leaving the original -5V at 2A,+15 at 2A,-15 at 2A,and > +20 at 4A as original) in a PDP-8A. > If I remember correctly 8/A's had a single backplane so using two 5V supplies will be difficult unless they are specially designed for current sharing. Otherwise one will try to take the entire load. Also I think the 8/A is a switching supply. You should check to see if it will be happy with 5V unloaded. I would recommend measuring the current draw on the 5V supply. If you aren't near it then I would see if the fault can be fixed. If you are at capacity then using a single 5V supply with sufficient capacity should help. If thei internal 5V can't be unloaded you will need a more complicated current sharing booster supply or a dummy load on the 5V. I had that problem with my fully loaded 8/E using more than the rated 5V current. It had two backplanes without the 5V connected between them. I powered one half with the existing supply and the other with a modern supply.

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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TCF goodies

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

It did seem to be mostly PC stuff and rackmount servers, neither of which interest me particularly. I was there from about 11.00am onwards. However there were some other bits and pieces buried in amongst the new stuff. Was it me or was there a really *bad* smell in the air ? Anyway in spite of the smell I came away with quite a bit of gear. I have questions on these items which I will post separately. DEC Professional 350 ? no monitor or keyboard. When I inspected the unit at home I noticed the screws from the PSU cover are missing so I hope that doesn?t mean someone has been interfering with it. The unit is otherwise complete and appears to contain an RD51 drive (10MB) and the monochrome graphics option. I haven't tried powering it up yet - the missing screws on the PSU cover bother me enough that I want to poke around at it first before applying power. HP-9134A 5MB disc unit. These things are ancient. I have been looking for something like this to replace my HP7908 which is still languishing in the corner with power supply problems. Charles River Data Systems Universe/68 computer, badged as a Datapoint system. This is about the size of a MicroPDP-11/73 (perhaps a little fatter). In addition to the CRDS Universe subrack, the chassis houses a lot of terminal I/O ports and an 8? floppy drive on the front. There?s a SASI interface connector on the back for mass storage. Zia Tech ZT 488 GPIB Analyzer. I have had a CS/80 disc emulator project for Linux on my to-do list for some time. Perhaps this will get me moving on it. A couple of ?? tapes for my 9-track drive. Always useful. Books ? a couple of National databooks from the mid 70?s; a 1970 System/360 JCL book; a book about repairing music synthesizers and a Springer-Verlag publication ?Computer Architecture?, 1975. I passed on two Televideo 925 keyboards. I also passed on what appeared to be an IC test system. It had dozens of test cards corresponding to DTL/TTL devices of yesteryear, and a test slot where you'd presumably drop in the test chip. Looked like fine but was rather large. I forget who the manufacturer was. Regards, Dave --- chris <cb at mythtech.net> wrote: > I went to the Trenton Computer Fest today. I didn't > get over to the MARCH > table, sorry. I did see John Allain however, but > down the end of a row, > and by the time I got down there to say hi, I lost > track of him. > > Back to the point. I picked up a pair of NeXT slabs > for $2 each. I think > even Sellam would agree that is a good price ;-) > > One is a Turbo the other is a Color. No idea yet was > is in them other > than visually, there is a floppy drive and a hard > drive. I've never > played with a NeXT, and at that price, I wasn't > going to ask many > questions. > > The Turbo has a DA-15 connector that looks like a > Mac RGB connector. Is > it compatible with Mac monitors? The Color has a > connector that I don't > know what it is called, but looks like a Sun monitor > connector. Is it > compatible with those monitors? I'm crossing my > fingers for a yes on both > counts since I have both available to me already. > > And to verify, the keyboard/mouse uses ADB correct? > These slabs were just > the computer, nothing else. (although I did find a > guy that had a NeXT > mouse, but he was holding it to sell with his MacTV > and wouldn't part > with it. I considered getting the MacTV, but since I > got one from John a > while back, I decided against spending the $50 since > it didn't have any > docs, software, cables, keyboard, remote, or the > correct mouse). > > > The only other thing I picked up that might be of > interest to this group > is some kind of video conferencing terminal. I don't > know anything about > it at all yet, I wasn't actually interested in it, > but the guy said if I > took it away right then, I could have it for free, > so I took it simply > because it looked cool. > > > Over all, I was a little disappointed this year in > the items available. > It is only the 2nd time I've gone, the first was two > years ago, and I > remembered there being far more vendors with a > better selection. This > year was a bunch of so-so priced used PCs, TONS of > old laptops, and some > over priced used Macs. I was surprised I couldn't > find a decent deal on a > rack mount PC server, or much in the way of RJ-45 > patch panels (I needed > two 72 port ones, I was able to find two 48 port > ones at an ok price, and > that was about it). Its possible that some of the > vendors just weren't > there yet or fully unpacked, I was there from about > 10 am to 12:30. I > also didn't go indoors anywhere, so I may have > missed a bunch of other > dealers (I had limited time today as I had to be > back home by 2, and it > takes about 1.5 hours on the drive). > > Anyone else get anything of interest? Oh, and Hi > John, since I didn't get > to say it to you today. :-) > > -chris > <http://www.mythtech.net> > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide

21 years, 4 months

10
10
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Looking for VT1300 load image

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Hello fellow ClassicCmp'ers, Would any of you happen to have the load image for the VT1300 X terminal? VT1300 is actually a diskless VAXstation 3100 (SCSI controller daughterboard also omitted) that instead of running VMS or Ultrix netboots a special image that turns it into the VT1300 X terminal. I'm looking for that image. I have the boot images for the VXT 2000 X terminal (VXT and VXT EX software V2.1) which also support VS3100/VT1300 (I guess it was officially supported as a software upgrade from VT1300 to VXT 2000), but VXT software on VS3100/ VT1300 does not actually work too well. The VS3100/VT1300 is just a standard VAXstation while the VXT 2000 has some special hardware and console ROM adaptations to perform its special function. VS3100/VT1300 has just the minimal NVRAM used by the console ROM, whereas VXT 2000 has a much larger NVRAM that can store an entire X resource file. The VXT software is designed to use that NVRAM and works poorly when it is not available, as is the case on VS3100/VT1300. The result is that when you run VXT software on a VS3100/VT1300 and don't have an InfoServer, there is no way to save customizations to the terminal's configuration, not even the most essential settings like the DNS servers (which it does NOT take from the BOOTP server's response), which makes the terminal practically unusable. On paper VXT software supports three types of saved settings (resource files): NVRAM, InfoServer-based and host-based. NVRAM is not an option because it does not exist on VS3100/VT1300, InfoServer-based is not an option when you don't have an InfoServer, and apparently for it to fetch a host-based resource file via TFTP it has to first get the path to it from NVRAM, which is a chicken and egg problem when you don't have NVRAM. There is also the much more basic VXT EX software (just an X terminal without local clients) and it apparently does not use resource files like the full VXT does, but it still wants to save some things in NVRAM: again the DNS server (which it stupidly does not take from BOOTP), the host to connect (XDMCP) to, and the TFTP font path. It's a royal pain to reenter all that stuff every time, and not just on power cycles, but every time you log out you have to reenter it before you can log in again because it restarts and clears everything after XDM ends the session. I'm hoping to have a better lot with VT1300 software if I can find it, since it's a bare-bones X server just like VXT EX, but actually designed for VS3100/VT1300 hardware without NVRAM. From what I've read about it, it always XDMCPs to the boot host (the one that replied to BOOTP) instead of doing the song and dance that VXT EX does. So, does anyone have a copy of the VXT EX load image? TIA for any help, MS

21 years, 4 months

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HPIB fundamentals (was Questions - Universe/68, HP-9134A, VT420 composite video)

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

Thanks for the help Steve. How something simple like a printer ? I have two HPIB printers, one a full-size HP line printer and the other a 2225 ThinkJet. Having either printer hooked up to Linux would actually be quite useful. -Dave --- Steve Robertson <steerex at mindspring.com> wrote: > Do you have any other HPIB devices? If so, I'll help > you understand how > to talk to them before tackling the disk drive. > > See ya, SteveRob > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide

21 years, 4 months

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At Last - A Control Data 160-A!

by bpettit＠ix.netcom.com

Last week, I brought home my very own 160-A. Complete with the 161 typewriter unit and a bunch of spares. I had to move it about 300 miles using a garbage (U-Haul) truck. Put it in the garage, powered it up and it ran! Keyed in a couple of simple memory tests and an adder test. All passed. It was a great day. The 161 typewriter is very very rough. Lots of work to be done here. Heavy rust on the chassis, formica separating from the top, etc. Has anybody on the list had any experience on repainting these old chasses? I'm talking to some body shops, but would like to find a specialty paint within driving distance of Silicon Valley. Any suggestions? I took some pictures of the move, but don't have a place to post them. It's going to be a fun summer. Billy

21 years, 4 months

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OT Don't read this (was Re: Altair MBL source)

by cb＠mythtech.net

> Just imagine flying across the country and in mid flight having to shut > everything down and re-booting or even worse having to reload the airplane > in mid flight. Ask the US Navy about this... who had a WinNT system die on a ship, and had to be towed back to port because they couldn't get it running again. <http://www.gcn.com/17_17/news/33727-1.html> -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 4 months

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DEC M873 YB loader

by jim＠g1jbg.co.uk

Hi, does anyone know of an on-line manual for a M873 YB loader? I can find a few diagrams (hard copy) at work, but none of the associated documentation or listings (or what the installed loaders do). Thanks Jim. Please see our website the " Vintage Communication Pages" at WWW.G1JBG.CO.UK

21 years, 4 months

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Photos of the MARCH exhibit at TCF...

by news＠computercollector.com

I didn't have these links in time for yesterday's issue of Computer Collector Newsletter. Fair warning, some of the images are huge. Andy Meyer's photos: http://ahm.ath.cx/photos/TCF2005/Saturday/ and http://ahm.ath.cx/photos/TCF2005/Sunday/ Bill Sudbrink's photos: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/tcf/ (Anyone who's in the US mid-atlantic area should check out our club page, it's http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/ ) ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: www.snarc.net *** Tell your friends about the (free!) Computer Collector Newsletter - 700 readers and no spam / Publishes every Monday / Write for us! - Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all - W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news at computercollector.com

21 years, 4 months

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pdp esdi controllers on ebay

by williams.dan＠gmail.com

Any interest for these ? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=96944&item=5186209… I don't know seller just found them whilst browsing. Dan

21 years, 4 months

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PDP8 power supply G8018

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi He might check out the circuit breaker. These are know to go bad, especially if they are used often as a switch or have been tripped often. Unless there is a soft start circuit, it is unlikely that the filter capacitor would trip the breaker but otherwise continue to work after the power came up normally. Dwight >From: "Wai-Sun Chia" <waisun.chia at gmail.com> > >On 4/19/05, Steven_R_Hutchins at raytheon.com ><Steven_R_Hutchins at raytheon.com> wrote: >> >> >> I am considering using two modern +5v at 25A switching power supplies to >> replace the +5V source ( leaving the original -5V at 2A,+15 at 2A,-15 at 2A,and >> +20 at 4A as original) in a PDP-8A. >> My intent is to increase the reliability of the system. I have had trouble >> with keeping the G8018's operating. I occasionally trip the breakers on >> startup. I am thinking bad filter Caps. Perhaps someone could give some >> opinions on this (Crazy) idea. > >Hmm....here's a crazy thought.. >What about...replacing the filter caps? :-) >Or troubleshooting the PSU? > >A PDP8 with a SMPS to me is total heresy. >Where do you stop? > >One of the tenets in classic computing (to me anyway) is to retain >originality as far as possible or as much as your funding/SO permits.. >:-) > >/wai-sun > >

21 years, 4 months

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SCSI CD drive capable of reading CD-R (long)

by bpettit＠ix.netcom.com

In 1999, I went to work for Philips, managing customer support for CD burners and DVD burners. State of the art then was 2X, going to 4X. There were very few suppliers of RW media or burners; Sony had the biggest market share but exited quickly to free up capacity for the PlayStation 2. Philips had a large lab in Hasselt, Belgium. One section was to test all media in the marketplace to see that it was within spec, would work on the Philips' drives. And most importantly, that it was legal; ie paid the license fees to the patent owners - Philips, Sony, HP etc. CD-R and CD-RW fees are a huge source of income. And that little logo on the doors of drives also means that they paid the fees, another large source of revenue. This IP is agressively enforced. The test lab was fascinating. They went through thousands of disks a month. Various offices of Philips around the world would buy the media and send it in for testing and fee verification. Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul all sent in big boxes every month. There were many tools used to verify the p[hysical parameters and the electrical. They even had a calibrated dust machine to test door seals and dust read through. It was literally a chamber that would be filled with different particle sizes of fine dust for hours on end. I also got to visit the R&D lab in Eindhoven, where the original work on CDs took place. The still have the original CD that was the first to be read. And it can still be read. All of this leads up to some of the information being tossed out on this thread. I'll try to put down what I know. 1. There are very few high volume suppliers in the world of good tight tolerance polycarbonate disks. They have a huge investment in automated manufacturing equipment. Just like ICs makers, the start up costs prevent most companies from entering the market. 2. Thus, most CD-Rs and DVD+/-Rs come from a small number of physical plants. In 2000, you could count them on one hand. Since then, they may have doubled. 3. The major differences in media came from the dye and the process to deposit the dye. Many companies (such as Philips, HP, Memorex, TDK) have a propietory dye they have developed themselves. They contract out the manufacturing of the actual disks. As with any outsourcing, some companies may have multiple sources for the same part number. 4. Getting these processes under control takes time. The quality of parts made this year is orders of magnitude better than it was in 2000 and 2001. If you are making decisions based on media purchased a few years ago, your data points don't reflect what is out there today. This is one of the reasons for the varied experiences on the same media. The factories could be different, the processes better, the formula changed. But the brand and model number could be the same. 5. Saying a certain brand is crap, and another outstanding may be only a personal bias. For example, in the ealy days of DVD+RW disks, I visited the factory that Philips used for their brand name. In the same building, I saw production lines for the other 5 companies shipping DVD+RW at that time. In other words, it all came from the same factory! A couple of days later, I was in CompUSA and salesman lectured me on how one brand was so bad they didn't carry it any more; but Brand X really had their act together. Both brands literally came from the same line and dye process - they were under a cross licensing agreement. 6. There CAN be very real differences of user experiences. But media is not the only factor, not even the biggest factor. Just like magnetic media, these are complex systems of media, read/write channels,OPU construction, chip sets, software and firmware. 7. Lasers are an exception. There were only 2 laser sources in 2000 for CD-R devices. They used the Seagate "waterfall" priciple: the tightest spec parts went to the biggest buyer or payer of the best prices. Further down, parts with wider specs went to the next tier of OEMs. Finally at the bottom, what's left went to the companies you never heard of - they don't sell in the US marketplace for obvious reasons. The lasers go into OPUs (Optical Pick Up Units). There are again only a handful of OPU suppliers in the world. For a long time, if you bought a CD-R drive, the OPU came from one of two companies, regardless of the brand of the drive. Today 3 companies still have most of the market. 8. Another factor being ignored in this dicussion is the progress made in improving reliability. The CD recordable market went from 2X to 52X in around 3 years. Depending on how you count, that was 10 or 11 generations. Entire new chip sets and suppliers suddenly appeared, leveraging of the previous generations. New features were added. The firmware solved the over/under run problems, then the tracking at higher RPM, then the read through scratches, thermal compensation for thinner dye etc. Recently, the first SATA drives showed up. Unless you buy new drives every six months, your experience on a given drive and media can be radically different from somebody else with the same combination but newer/older than you. 9. After being involved with tens of thousands of disks burned, I have data that shows very little difference in performance from one type of media over another. There ARE some really crappy disks coming out of China - I've seen some I could read a newspaper through. Another factory ships everything pre-scratched. But with rare exceptions, these disks never reach the US or Europe. If you have personal preferences that lead you to pick one brand over another, go with it, But base your decision on the results of YOUR drive with YOUR media. If you run into a nay-sayer for a particular type, ask for his data - what drive, what media etc. The hits being given to certain suppliers or factories are probably not based on large scale testing on multiple drives. Some of these opinions don't sound like they are based on data at all. The current quality and state of the art at some of the companies being run down in this forum are excellent. It is probably 90-10 a drive or software problem rather than a media issue. Make your decisions on your data, not someone else's bias. Billy

21 years, 4 months

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Intergraph fans...

by pmackinlay＠hotmail.com

Just a short post to introduce myself and what I'm up to... I'm currently looking into one of Intergraph's old InterPro systems (a 2830) and trying to dig up enough documentation to allow me to ultimately port NetBSD to the box to replace the native CLIX (an old SYSV 3.2ish Unix). Have made some pretty good progress on disassembling the boot EPROM and writing the beginnings of a hardware simulator. After discovering the CLIPPER CPU book online (not to mention the DP8510 BitBlt unit databook!), I think my off-the-shelf chip documents are almost complete. Information on the custom ASICs is almost nonexistent, but the system diagnostics provide some good reference code which should provide useful information. I'm curious to know if there's anyone else out there that's interested in these relatively rare boxes? For anyone that cares, the basic hardware in the box is: C4M CLIPPER CPU at 70MHz, ECC RAM Zilog 85C30 SCC and 85230 ESCC - one port used by keyboard, other three available Xilinix XC3020 fpga controls Versatec, Centronics or Intergraph compatible plotter interface Intel 82596 ethernet controller NCR53c94 SCSI host controller NEC82077 floppy controller Dallas DS12887 RTC and NVRAM 128k boot UV EPROM 2x128k diagnostic/boot flash EPROM The graphics board is built up with: DP8510 BitBlt unit (x2 on dual head board) custom Bresenham line-drawing ASIC bt459 DAC (x2 on dual head board) 2x1M VRAM (double buffered), (x2 on dual head board) The real key to the missing documentation is the remaining IOGA and SGA custom asics on the system board. Anyone who has any other documentation on this stuff would be a friend for life ;). Regards, Pat Mackinlay.

21 years, 4 months

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OT? DLT4000 has come undone!!!

by waisun.chia＠gmail.com

Help, My Quantum DL4000 or DEC TZ88 has come undone... IOW, the leader which snares the tape has come loose, and I don't know how to wind it back... :-{ The mechanism has 6 heads; I tried to wind it around the 6-headed path, but the leader is not long enough, so it must be wound around a shorter path...but which one?? It's OK it nobody's understand what I'm talking about :-), as long as someone is kind enough to post naked pics of a working TZ87/88 of how the leader is being wound. TIA. /wai-sun

21 years, 4 months

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quality of writeable optical media

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

With regard to DVD-R media, FWIW, I've had surprising and unexpected consistently high quality performance with the "K-Hypermedia" DVD-R media sold by OfficeMax (on very few occasions, I've seen this brand at other retailers, but mostly at OfficeMax). I expected this to be a cheap off-brand, but I've been using it for almost 3 years now, hundreds of pieces, on several different burners, and I've had consistently excellent results (including, so far, good data retention and readability as much as 2-3 years later). And it's relatively cheap when it's on sale (often). And I've had a few other people who are more than casually into optical media (people formerly associated with Roxio) report the same finding on this brand. Note, this applies only to the Blue silk-screen DVD-R media, 1x, 2x and 4x. They make (or should I say sell) other media, both DVD+ and CD, but I've had no experience with any of the other types.

21 years, 4 months

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OT Don't read this (was Re: Altair MBL source)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 19 2005, 21:19, Wai-Sun Chia wrote: > We're WAY past that milestone... :-) > > On 4/19/05, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > > We all must do whatever it takes to make Bill Gates into a millionaire. I have a feeling Fred was thinking of reductions, not increases :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 4 months

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Questions - Universe/68, HP-9134A,VT420 composite video

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

--- "J. David Bryan" <jdbryan at acm.org> wrote: > Note that for use on the HP 64000, the 9134A must > have been built with > Option 010. That configures the drive as a single > 4.8 MB unit. The > standard configuration 9134A appears to the host as > four 1.15 MB volumes to > emulate four 9895A floppy drives. And that may be the problem. When I had this pointed to the 1631, it reported itself as a 9895. I do have the sticker on the back of the unit - can't recall which option was checked on it though so I will have to look when I get home. Can the option setting be tweaked ? Is it something as simple as a jumper setting ? Regards, Dave __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/

21 years, 4 months

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HP 700/RX xterm - RAM failure

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Just picked up an HP 700/RX xterm (would be nice with our big HP T500) - it's failing on-board RAM test saying that DRAM #6 is bad. Obvious question - anyone have manuals or other docs and can tell me which #6 is? :-) There are 16 ram chips on the board in a square, but no indication as to which number 1 is or how the numbering goes... None are obviously hotter than the others. (they're standard SMD parts, so I should be able to cull one from an old PC SIMM) cheers Jules

21 years, 4 months

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paging Jay: mail server change??

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Jay, Has something changed with the list software setup? Since Sunday night or thereabouts Yahoo seems to be tagging *all* messages from the list as spam for some reason. Could well be that someone at Yahoo screwed up of course (although messages to my other mailing lists seem ok) and blacklisted everything >from classiccmp.org :-( (copied to the list in case this has suddenly started affecting anyone else) I can't see anything obvious in the headers from having a (really) quick glance. Last 'normal' message I seem to have was at 'Sun, 17 Apr 2005 21:48:11' (classiccmp time :-) - after that time everything's being tagged as spam. cheers Jules

21 years, 4 months

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quality of writeable optical media (was Re: SCSI CD drive capable of reading CD-R)

by bpettit＠ix.netcom.com

Eric wrote: > > And the composition, thickness and uniformity of the reflective layer, > and the tolerance of the centering (spiral center vs. spindle hole > center), and the wear of the stamper, and a myriad of other > characteristics. The Red Book and Orange Book have a huge list of > parameters and their allowable ranges, and any one of them screwed up > will yield unreliable media. It's not just the dye and deposition > process by a long shot. Of course I simplified to keep this at a reasonable length. There are dozens of parameters requiring control to make readable media. But the major one that differs by brands from the same factory is dye formula. Most of the other parameters would be the same. One key your didn't mention is hardness and scratches. But the parameters you did mentioned ARE controlled by the tolerances in the Red/Orange/White etc books. If the witness disks don't meet the standard, the license could be pulled. These parameters have to be in control to qualify for carrying the logo. More importantly, they have to be in control to go into high volume production and get decent yields. Without tight quality, a factory can't meet its own numbers. > What you're saying about recent writable DVD media is not unlike > how the situation used to be with writable CD media. But there *are* > a lot more manufacturers of writeable CDs now. Maybe there aren't > many sources of bare polycarbonate discs, but everything else in the > process is done by many vendors. > >> Thus, most CD-Rs and DVD+/-Rs come from a small number of physical >> plants. In 2000, you could count them on one hand. Since then, they >> may have doubled. > > For CD-R and CD-RW, it has far more than doubled. > I think we may be talking apples and oranges. I'm refering to high volume plants - 100+ million units a year. The last industry survey I saw showed only 8 such plants. > Rare, my ass! In six different stores in three different major > US cities I have had no trouble spotting multiple brands of that crap. > It's routinely advertised as store specials in the local newspapers. > Usually with "no returns" in fine print.> Again, the factories and media I'm talking about are mainland China. They don't make it to the US because among other reasons, they don't pay the license fees. The Optical Storage forums watch very closely. As soon as they spot one, they head straight to Customs and plug it. Lots of cooperation these days from Customs given the current political situation. I'm not certain what brand names you are talking about. Two that are showing up in Silicon Valley but aren't very good are GQ and kHypermedia. Are these who you mean? > Lots of the stuff *does* make it to the US, precisely because there > isn't any accountability for it. If you have a bad disc (or a bad > spindle), who are you going to complain to? Stores buy it because > they know there are gullible customers they can flog it off to. For my personal use, I've had no problem taking a spindle back if I get a coaster. Both CompUSA and Fry's have stood behind their sales. Best Buy - I've never had a bad disk. Until I retired, I bought 1.5-2K work disks a month, most through dummy accounts. The people I dealt with were always willing to give a refund. > No. Saying that media from CMC Magnetics is crap is a statement of fact, > backed up by much evidence collected over a period of years. CMC Magnetics > discs purchased last month were not any better than those purchased > three years ago. I just looked at my test numbers from 2002-2004, and I don't see the problems you describe. CMC is not at the top of the list, but neither is close to the bottom. And the tolerances are tighter on more recent disks. > Multiple sources of CMC Magnetics media tested on thirteen different > drives from multiple vendors and of different generations from 1994 > through 2005. The CMC Magnetics discs are just crap, pure and simple. > > Readers: Toshiba, TDK, Teac, Philips, Sony, Plextor > > Burners: Yamaha, Plextor, Toshiba, TDK, Liteon, Sony, Plextor I've tested all those units, though mainly with Philips. Again, my data doesn't match yours. I'm especially surprised that you had burn problems with the Yamaha drive. They are by far the most roboust unit of those you tested. > Also, the fact that TDK has at times in the past shipped CMC Magnetics > media under the TDK brand does tell me something very important about > the TDK brand. Even though TDK might not be shipping CMC Magnetics > media today, there's no way in hell I'll ever buy writable optical media > from TDK again. Not because it's crap today; since I haven't tried it > recently I don't know. But instead, because it is proof positive that > TDK does not perform adequate qualification of their suppliers. Thus > there is no way to buy TDK optical media and have any reasonable > expectation that it is not crap. This is where I cannot agree with you. At Quantum, I had an opportunity to visit TDK head and magnetic media factories in Japan and China. I also took customers with me and they went through the Quality processes of TDK with a fine tooth comb. TDK has a world class quality organization. Later I tested their optical drives and media. Their quality is some of the best in the field. I just looked at the numbers on my DVD Recorder. In the last 18 months, I've used 1200+ DVD+R disks. About 250 of those were TDK. I had 2 bad burns, both just before I lost an OPU. The only other media that I've better luck with is Sony (who doesn't make their own anyway). Look, I'm not trying to change your opinion. You don't like CMC and TDK and feel you have results to prove your case. That is what I was suggesting people should do. My own data doesn't match yours. I don't agree with your conclusions about CMC or TDK. So what? You should buy what you like. I'll buy what I'm comfortable with. I've had good experiences with both. When the price is right, I'll buy them again. Interestingly, I just recieved an eMail with a long complaint about Memorex and how they've never made a good recordable media, DVD or CD. Yet Memorex usually came out high on our testing. By the way I'm curious, what software did you use for this testing - Roxio, Mediostream, Nero, Neo, Pinnacle, Sonic? This is one area where you can get widely divergent results from the same batch of media. Billy

21 years, 4 months

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Jupiter J12

by aek＠spies.com

Jupiter Systems was a company started by people who originally developed the AED 512 graphics display (I worked at AED in '84 and '85) Looking at the pics, the CPU is an Integrated Solutions QBus 68000 CPU board.

21 years, 4 months

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HP-2116A manuals

by aek＠spies.com

I have the manuals scanned, I'll see about getting them on line.

21 years, 4 months

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Sky Technical EBD

by cobb＠corning.us

Fractured omit we have been medians them flavoring. Consignee must felicitous her numerals. Befit's dogmas it did bellies. They frightening she mothball begetting be Coventry him. Instituting has forefather's, mine were mirror blocks. Cliche's brighteners he has been bachelor theirs. Byrd does doubter, them has outruns Theodore. Hipping Borg she might Brookline him. Graphing be Fredericksburg, me does Michaelangelo jalopy. Incontrollable must corking theirs england. Footbridge foresters they could coarseness. Alloy's bulged, we can flashlight me. Converge folder you be beaten them cordage. Alleviaters would cautionings, them can abstractor's ablative. Lunched are duration him coagulable. He Yugoslavia may groom his. Dialup gullible, he meretricious Johannes be carbonizers mine. Functionary must durable her motley. Yor alveolus must electrocution. Galen instantaneously, she is brothers them. Liens being museum her Pusey amphibian's. Miscible he does Hampshire, mine optional. Despicable they does bedeviling, its Willard. Yor metes I drawer maximized be Blinn him. Nectareous coexists we must consecrate mine. They loudspeaking can Lehigh. Bridgehead's expansive she be oblate its capturing. Asylum adherents, she be nasally them.

21 years, 4 months

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Attn: Sellam

by bpettit＠ix.netcom.com

Sellam, Are you still interested in the Bernolli box? I have one sitting in the pile waiting for the next freebie electronic garbage run. Alameda county has one every few months. Any way, it's yours if you want it. Was working when last used. Have a few piecces of media buried in the garage - saw them a few weeks ago. If Sellam doesn't want it, anyone else want it? I'll toss in the disks when I find them. Billy

21 years, 4 months

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Osborne 4 circuit diagram wanted

by swebb＠cix.co.uk

Does anyone have a circuit diagram for an Osborne 4 (otherwise known as Osborne Express, and in the States as Osborne Vixen) we could borrow? Simon Webb Curator, Museum of Computing www.museum-of-computing.org.uk

21 years, 4 months

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Altair MBL source

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Altair MBL source > From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf at siconic.com> >On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 rcini at optonline.net wrote: > >> I was able to get binary copies of some Altair paper tapes but none of >> them came with manuals. I believe that they can be loaded with the >> Altair Multi-Boot Loader, which I do not have. > >Did you pay a license fee to Bill Gates? If not, he might get very angry >with you and post a long diatribe to the CC list about how software >pirates are a hurting good software developers. > >"Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and >deluge the hobby market with good software."* > >Hahahaha. I laugh too. Myself as one that did buy the first three offered versions of MITS BASIC at the discounted extortion of additional memory I'll say this. It's 30 years later, I stull ahvent gotten a copy of MITS BASIC that wasn't buggy! I'd add that among the users of the day everyone lusted for it and then got is to say "this is really poor" then go of and type in a copy TBX, LLL-basic, or TDL 5k basic and there were more some distinctly better. Many of those were free, some cost money but, on the whole were cheap. When I got my NS* Minidisk system it had basic with the DOS I figured it was just another crappy basic. Turns out it was different than many but it worked, and worked well. Those of us remember when DRI was OS and MS was languages. Some of also remember that many of the MS languages were just a expensive and always a little off from the base languages we knew from minis and the like. So after all these years I'm not surprized nor disappointed. It's what we expected would happen. Allison

21 years, 4 months

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Jupiter J12

by James＠jdfogg.com

> I was just contacted by a guy asking if I have any info on > this computer called "Jupiter J12": > > http://www.geocities.com/australianvintcomp/Jupiter/Jupiter.html > > I don't - anyone got any information I can pass on ? >From the pics and the joysticks on the keyboard I'd guess this was for some sort of video editing.

21 years, 4 months

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Jupiter J12

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, I was just contacted by a guy asking if I have any info on this computer called "Jupiter J12": http://www.geocities.com/australianvintcomp/Jupiter/Jupiter.html I don't - anyone got any information I can pass on ? Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 4 months

2
1
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Power Supply for Laser XT Computer

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

Well... The power Adapter for my Apple IIC isn't compatible with the Laser 128. It needs +/- 5V and +/- 12V. Does anyone have such a power supply, or know where I could get one? Thanks! Al __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide

21 years, 4 months

4
3
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SCSI CD drive capable of reading CD-R

by bpettit＠ix.netcom.com

Oh what a long string and so much to comment on. Not certain who started this so don't know if he wanted only a read function SCSI drive or wants a CD-R burner with SCSI interface. If it is a burner, I might have a couple left. The Yanahas are all dead, but I think the Philips are still working. Billy

21 years, 4 months

1
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Magnesium Fires, was Re: HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by marvin＠rain.org

Many years ago, I did some machine work on magnesium and kept the chips. At some point, I wanted to see how it would burn and put a small pile of chips on the sidewalk and lit it with a match. Burned *very* nicely all the way up to the time the concrete exploded from all the heat being generated (and probably moisture from rain the day before.) It left a scar above one eye and put a hole in my dads brand new convertable top. People still wonder how I managed to live this long :). > > Alex wrote: > >> No need to worry - trying to get a magnesium case to burn is _hard_ > > > > Actually, it's very easy. You just grind it up into powder first. > > Time-consuming, but not particularly difficult. > > > Once a small part is ignited, it will burn quite well in solid chunks if > it gets enough oxygen. > A bit of iron oxide can make the situation very interesting. > > Drilling or grinding magnesium without proper precautions is risky. > Welding is done with inert gas, so that is usually quite safe. > > -- > Bj??rn >

21 years, 4 months

2
1
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PDP11/55 sells on Ebay for 5K$ - was it really the fastest 11?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

>Subject: Re: PDP11/55 sells on Ebay for 5K$ - was it really the fastest 11? > From: "Heinz Wolter" <h.wolter at sympatico.ca> > Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 01:00:13 -0400 > To: "Lyle Bickley" <lbickley at bickleywest.com>, <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >snipe >Lyle wrote: >> > I expected an 11/70 to be instruction for instruction faster - but >> > add all the cache and complexity - maybe the 55 with bipolar ~was~ >faster? >> > How about compared to a 11/70 with a PEP70 instead of factory memory and >> > cache? >> > Isn't a 55 just a 45 with bipolar instead of core? or was that a 50? >> >> Read "Computer Engineering" (Gorden Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John E. >McNamara), >> Copyright 1978 by Digital Equipment Corporation >> Page 408 >> -------- >> Model Basic Instructions Floating Point >> Inst. per second* Inst. per second >> ------------------------------------------- >> 11/70 36 671 >> 11/55 41 725 >> * Relative to 11/03 >> No brainer - the 11/55 wins hands down. > >sigh - I haven't memorized the DEC sacred texts yet;) no hardcopy, only >pdf... >So the 55 is roughly 14% faster than 70 - probably due to main memory >timing. >This might not be the case with the PEP70, though it's not stock. >Interesting >that the FP is only 8% faster - given that they are likely similarly >microded and >memory would not be such an issue working out of the FP registers. Clock >speed? >Then again... if one put 2 MW of 300ns ram on a 70.. well the 55 was only >18 bit address ;) >Anybody know the microclock frequency of both models? Variable timing/phase? >This variable microclock trick was later used in Vax/750 hot wiring kits.. >On a similar vein, wasn't the 11/34c clock slowed to allow for cache timing, >making >it slower than a 34A? (for uncached accesses) Is is this a possible reason >for the 70's >poor performance? Running code withing the cache should have beaten the 55! >h Sorry, while for those metric the 55 was a tad faster, for IO the 11/70 was massively faster. At that time to do large arrays of data you needed lots of fast IO to disks as you could only works with part of an array at any time due too addressing limitations of the PDP11. When you measure systems, measure the system not just the cpu. Allison

21 years, 4 months

6
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Questions - Universe/68, HP-9134A,VT420 composite video

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

I have a couple of questions - and requests for assistance - for some of the items I picked up this weekend from TCF. My other post to the list details what there are. Here goes: - HP 9134A: The unit is appears on the HPIB bus but doesn't identify itself correctly. From the HP64000 side I get a 'NO DISC' error when I try to format it. I am trying to determine whether the light on the front of the ST506 inside should be on or not once the drive comes up to speed or whether it only comes on when that HBIB address is being accessed. Any hints ? - Universe/68: Operating system for the Charles River Data Systems Universe/68 anyone ? I understand these machines used to run UNOS. It would be fun to try to boot this thing. Also - any background information on the machine itself would be of interest. - I'd like to use a surplus VT420 as the display for the DEC 350 Pro I picked up. This will entail identifing a point on the VT420 schematic where I can inject the composite video signal from the 350. So I need the VT420 schematic. Does anyone on the list have one ? - manual or operating notes for the Zia Tech ZT 488 ? I can probably figure this one out but documentation is always welcome. Thanks as always for the list's help. Regards, Dave __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide

21 years, 4 months

10
14
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WarGames tape

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

While working the flea market this weekend I picked a VHS copy WarGames and watched it Sunday afternoon. It was strange to watch the many shots of mainframes that were in the movie but I notice none seem to be in air condition rooms? One looks like a 360 or 370 system and another shot may be a minicomputer with all the disk/tape drives and printers. That IMSAI still looks great in his room, wasn't that computer sold on eBay? The VHS tape was only 50 cent at the market.

21 years, 4 months

3
2
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Looking for Multibus cards and SMD drives ...

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Looking for any Sun era multibus cards (anything) and a working SMD HD drive (anything that has some chance of working with a Xylogics 450/451 SMD board). Both for an old Sun rescue. Cheers Ian. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/

21 years, 4 months

1
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HP 2100/21MX boards available (and needed)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I have some boards available, and some others I desperately need. Trades anyone??? Available (and thoroughly tested to work - multiples of each available): + TRUE IN/OUT Time Base Generator (TBG) 13037 Disc Interface (the PCA, not the rackmount box) Jumper BACI High Performance Memory for E/F (various sizes) High Performance Memory Controller Standard Performance Memory (M, various sizes) 1K WCS for M?/E/F (only one available) WCS for 2100 (only one available - untested, and may already be spoken for) Need: 3 GRD TRUE IN/OUT 1 Firmware Accessory Board (FAB) 1 Dual Channel Port Controller (DCPC) 1 8-bit duplex register Notes: 1) I'd prefer the WCS & 1K WCS to go to someone who actually plans to do some microcoding, not just sit on a shelf 2) I'd prefer to trade some of the available boards for the needed boards, but may be swayed with other gear :) Regards, Jay West

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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OSI video

by kandres＠epssecurity.com

It seems to my memory that we used just a RCA phono jack to the board, and RG58 with RCA phono plug on one end and a BNC on the other with a standard black and white security video monitor in the field, typically already located at the site as part of the existing video surveillance, so service personnel didn?t have to carry anything with them. We used a RF modulator, channel 3 or 4, on a larger screen TV set in engineering spaces for ease of viewing when developing or modifying the embedded application we were running on these, again it seems to me we picked that up at Radio Shack when we needed one back then, and fed it directly from the OSI board. It seems to me we got power for the modulator from the same connector that the video appeared on. We ran these on a battery backed up linear power supply, in the event that AC was lost to the facility. We didn?t need video with our application, so video was never left running in the field. I can?t remember when I last had that Superboard fired up, but I did it with a 5? black and white security monitor from my truck I use to setup video camera views with. Nothing extra involved, and it hasn?t been powered since. It is stored downstairs with the PET and a Data General Micro Nova. Kevin J Andres Senior Technician Engineered Protection Systems Inc. mailto:kandres at epssecurity.com -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.16 - Release Date: 4/18/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.16 - Release Date: 4/18/2005

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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HP-2116A manuals

by Tim＠rikers.org

I'm making some progress on restoring my HP-2116A system. I really need the manuals at this point. I see a couple that are related to the 2116 on bitsavers: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/21xx/02152-90004_2116FPP_sep70.pdf http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/21xx/5950-8704_2116B_classVol2.pdf However I really need something more like a service manual. Schematics, test proceedures, etc. I know there are quite a few folks out there with 2116A systems. Anyone have electronic versions of the docs? I'd be willing to do the pdf conversion if someone would loan me paper manuals. FYI: I'll be out of town tomorrow through sunday. (SLC, UT) I continue to put up more pictures: http://rikers.org/gallery/hardware -- Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org Embedded Linux Technologist BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun!

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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HP CRT mould update

by sloboyko＠yahoo.com

I sealed the edges of the faceplate/CRT with aquarium-grade clear RTV. This was outside the field of view permitted by the housing of my HP terminal. Keep everything absolutely clean (I used acetone) so that no dirt or smudges will be permanently trapped between the two surfaces. Use good lighting, outdoors (because of the acetone). I would STRONGLY advise ALWAYS replacing this faceplate. I'm sure that having it in front of the CRT itself will be very helpful if there is an implosion. I have read that the neck a a CRT tends to be shot through the front of a CRT in the event of implosion. This would be bad. Once assembled this way, there has been no optical affect whatsoever visible on my CRT. It is impossible to tell that there is a space between the CRT and faceplate (in my case, around 1/4-1/8". -Steve Loboyko Website: http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl Nixie Watch (one-tube):http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/complwatch.htm __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

21 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

OSI video

by kandres＠epssecurity.com

It seems to my memory that we used just a RCA phono jack to the board, and RG58 with RCA phono plug on one end and a BNC on the other with a standard black and white security video monitor in the field, typically already located at the site as part of the existing video surveillance, so service personnel didn?t have to carry anything with them. We used a RF modulator, channel 3 or 4, on a larger screen TV set in engineering spaces for ease of viewing when developing or modifying the embedded application we were running on these, again it seems to me we picked that up at Radio Shack when we needed one back then, and fed it directly from the OSI board. It seems to me we got power for the modulator from the same connector that the video appeared on. We ran these on a battery backed up linear power supply, in the event that AC was lost to the facility. We didn?t need video with our application, so video was never left running in the field. I can?t remember when I last had that Superboard fired up, but I did it with a 5? black and white security monitor from my truck I use to setup video camera views with. Nothing extra involved, and it hasn?t been powered since. It is stored downstairs with the PET and a Data General Micro Nova. Kevin J Andres Senior Technician Engineered Protection Systems Inc. HYPERLINK "mailto:kandres at epssecurity.com"mailto:kandres at epssecurity.com -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.16 - Release Date: 4/18/2005

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 16 2005, 16:33, Tim Riker wrote: > The HP-2116A in my haul yesterday has a broken chassis: > > http://rikers.org/gallery/hardware/20050416_120314 > 3) Thoughts on repairing the chassis? I could bondo, superglue, epoxy, > silversolder, etc. the pieces together, and add a plate behind it > attached with countersunk screws. Would not be very visible once the > panels are put back. I have the two side panels and the bottom panel, > but no top panel. Thoughts on which would work best? Glues aren't going to be effective at all, and you can't silver solder aluminium. It's possible to TIG weld aluminium and that might not be expensive if you know someone who has a TIG welder (they're often found in small engineering shops and car body shops). It's also possible to MIG weld aluminium, but TIG is more common and tends to give better results in my experience. If you want to try it yourself, there are various forms of aluminium solder, but most need special fluxes to cope with the oxide, they can be tricky to use (depends on the grade of aluminium, which is rarely pure, it's normally really an alloy), and not very strong. They also need a lot of heat because aluminium conducts heat away extremely well (this is also one of the problems with MIG welding it). Aluminium is often soft-soldered with a stainless steel scratch brush to remove the aluminium oxide under the solder pool, or done with an ultrasonic soldering iron (expensive -- I once nearly bought a *cheap* one for UKP300). For hard-soldering, or fusion welding really, the best stuff is Techno-Weld. It really works, and you can get it in the States as well as in the UK: http://www.techno-weld.com http://www.techno-weld.co.uk One of the basic "kits" of rods would have all you need; they also include the scratch brush, abrading wire and instructions. Or just rivet or bolt an L-shaped bracket on each side. Whatever you do, be prepared to file a bit off the broken edges to make sure it fits back together; whatever broke it probably stretched and bent it too. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 4 months

10
10
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Dead AIM 65??

by dm561＠torfree.net

-----------------Original Message: Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 01:53:07 -0400 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Dead AIM 65?? >On 4/15/05, Andy Dannelley <andyda at mac.com> wrote: >> First, Thanks for all the helpful suggestions! >You are welcome. >> Couple of things about general AIM-lore: >> >> The original AIM 65 (not the AIM 65/40) had a 20 char alpha LED >> display. The Aim 65/40 had a 40 character vacuum fluorescent display >> and 40 character printer, much more friendly for development than the >> 20 char display and printer. >I think I have heard of the AIM 65/40... if someone here knows such >things, was the motherboard re-engineered? Is it possible to retrofit >the 40-col display to the original AIM? Also, was the 40-col VFD run >by something like an HD44780 chipset, or was it some kind of raw >interface? These days, 40x1 or 40x2 VFDs based on the HD44780 are not >difficult to locate and are not all that expensive. They are also >trivial to send chars to. >-ethan ---------------Reply: The /40 was considerably different; bank-switched memory, intelligent display & printer, different keyboard etc. (Also more than twice the price of a /20). Both the display & the printer had their own microprocessor (6504) and could be mounted off-board. See Interactive Issue # 5 for a preview (on Rich's site). Also see issue # 8 for a description of the "official" Rockwell case. There were also larger cases to house the /20 or /40 along with its expansion card cage. There was an application note (R6500 N12) describing how to build a video interface (including the software listing) and it even references Lancaster's TVT Cookbook! Those were the heady days of OEM support... If you have trouble finding a display maybe that's the answer; just stick it inside an old monitor or terminal. BASIC & the editor are 80 (79) column capable BTW. I did indeed find some extra display covers; I'll be in touch with you (Ethan) & Jules off-list. mike

21 years, 4 months

2
1
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Rescue in Wisconsin

by news＠computercollector.com

-----Original Message----- From: Gil Carrick [mailto:gilcarrick at comcast.net] Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 10:55 PM To: news at computercollector.com Subject: Rare Items looking for a home I was contacted this week by Larry Metzler of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is looking for a home for an IBM 513 reproducer and a 405 accounting machine. It is too far away for me. Anybody interested should contact Larry at 800-270-7725. Tell him I sent you. Gil A. G. (Gil) Carrick, Director The Museum at CSE University of Texas at Arlington Department of Computer Science & Engineering Box 19015, 471 S Cooper Street Arlington, TX 76019 817-272-3620 http://www.cse.uta.edu/TheMuseum at CSE/

21 years, 4 months

2
1
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TCF goodies

by cb＠mythtech.net

>> I was surprised I couldn't find a decent deal on a rack mount PC >> server, > >Wow, what was wrong with those dual PII/PIII ones in the pickup truck? >They had dual ethernet, dual RS-232, Ultra SCSI, were tested right >in front of the purchaser, and started at $40. Highway robbery (and OT >I realize). But they seemed rather "pre-Carly". Nothing was wrong with them. Somehow I managed to miss them!!! I went back today based on your statement that there would be someone with them cheap... I found the guy, and realized that I never saw him Saturday. I don't know how, and I'm kind of annoyed that I didn't see him. I got a good deal on a pair of them. 2u, dual p2 400 MHz with dual 9.1 GB scsi drives, $40 each. His Saturday price was $55 each for the same setup, and I would have happily paid the extra $15 each to avoid the drive a 2nd time (in fact, these units cost me MORE then the saved $30 combined between tolls, gas, and my time). So I'm happy now as I can replace my tower server and get it into my rack, and replace 3 other machines acting as web and FTP for a series of domains with a single one of these rack servers. Thanks for the heads up that he was there. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 4 months

1
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TCF goodies

by cb＠mythtech.net

I went to the Trenton Computer Fest today. I didn't get over to the MARCH table, sorry. I did see John Allain however, but down the end of a row, and by the time I got down there to say hi, I lost track of him. Back to the point. I picked up a pair of NeXT slabs for $2 each. I think even Sellam would agree that is a good price ;-) One is a Turbo the other is a Color. No idea yet was is in them other than visually, there is a floppy drive and a hard drive. I've never played with a NeXT, and at that price, I wasn't going to ask many questions. The Turbo has a DA-15 connector that looks like a Mac RGB connector. Is it compatible with Mac monitors? The Color has a connector that I don't know what it is called, but looks like a Sun monitor connector. Is it compatible with those monitors? I'm crossing my fingers for a yes on both counts since I have both available to me already. And to verify, the keyboard/mouse uses ADB correct? These slabs were just the computer, nothing else. (although I did find a guy that had a NeXT mouse, but he was holding it to sell with his MacTV and wouldn't part with it. I considered getting the MacTV, but since I got one from John a while back, I decided against spending the $50 since it didn't have any docs, software, cables, keyboard, remote, or the correct mouse). The only other thing I picked up that might be of interest to this group is some kind of video conferencing terminal. I don't know anything about it at all yet, I wasn't actually interested in it, but the guy said if I took it away right then, I could have it for free, so I took it simply because it looked cool. Over all, I was a little disappointed this year in the items available. It is only the 2nd time I've gone, the first was two years ago, and I remembered there being far more vendors with a better selection. This year was a bunch of so-so priced used PCs, TONS of old laptops, and some over priced used Macs. I was surprised I couldn't find a decent deal on a rack mount PC server, or much in the way of RJ-45 patch panels (I needed two 72 port ones, I was able to find two 48 port ones at an ok price, and that was about it). Its possible that some of the vendors just weren't there yet or fully unpacked, I was there from about 10 am to 12:30. I also didn't go indoors anywhere, so I may have missed a bunch of other dealers (I had limited time today as I had to be back home by 2, and it takes about 1.5 hours on the drive). Anyone else get anything of interest? Oh, and Hi John, since I didn't get to say it to you today. :-) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 4 months

3
3
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Another rescue, in Calgary

by news＠computercollector.com

_____ From: Garry B [mailto:garryb at hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 11:12 PM To: news at computercollector.com Subject: Toshiba T3200 Have a functional T3200 computer I no longer want/need wondering if it can be posted on your website or listed in your newsletter. I reside in Calgary Alberta Canada. regards Garry Beutler 403-275-5425 Cell/Voice Mail 403-630-9003 <http://graphics.hotmail.com/emwink.gif>

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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TCF goodies

by cb＠mythtech.net

>Hope this helps. Thanks for the info. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 4 months

1
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cctalk Digest, Vol 20, Issue 47

by cb＠mythtech.net

>and some Russian Vendor selling Blue and >White G3's for $100 that everyone said to stay far >away from. He was asking $150 each on those when I was there. I went back today, and most of the pile was gone. I didn't ask how much they were down to. I'd have considered one if they dropped below $35, but it wasn't important enough to me to ask. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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SMS FWD0101

by pspan＠amerytel.net

Hello, The Stomberg Carlson DCO switches used to use that combo and were based on a dec 11/23. I believe I have controllers and Documentation for the SMS Drives. If you would like to to try and dig up the info and parts That I have available, let me know. Phil

21 years, 4 months

2
1
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Data General books available in the UK

by jim＠g1jbg.co.uk

Hi, after a visit to the local tip this week, I have a few Data General books available (no computer though :-(). Data General Interface Designer's Manual for Nova and Eclipse line computers and the following EMI books detailing the system and programming of the DG machine coupled to a medical scanner: Scintron 3 camera diagnostic softwares Scintron 3 service manual Scinticamera detector head NE8900 & NE8960 IO tester for eclips processor Parts A & B Nova 3 Exerciser test (N3EXS) Eclipse microcode flowchart Eclipse basic instruction ROMS and Decoding Nova 3 Multi-Programming Rel (SH) (N3MORT03) a number of these seem to be re-bindings of the equivalent DG publication. They cost me a beer for the lot, yours for the cost of postage (and a beer if your feeling generous :-)) Jim. (weight is around 6lbs for the lot) Please see our website the " Vintage Communication Pages" at WWW.G1JBG.CO.UK

21 years, 4 months

1
1
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cctalk Digest, Vol 20, Issue 47

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

I went to Trenton too, I missed those two NextStations... I heard about them from the guy who had the MacTV and watched it being sold. I think it finally went for less than $50.00. There wasn't much there. I barely spent anything. I think I spent more on food from the food stand than I did on stuff. The only thing I got there, that I couldn't have gotten from a regular show, was a LaserXT computer. Which is an Apple IIc Sized Computer (Actually built into a case used for the Laser IIc Clone) that is an IBM XT Compatible. For $5.00, I got the unit alone. One Floppy drive and the manual. No software, no power supply (I believe it uses a IIc power supply, which should be easy to scrounge up), and unknown condition or RAM. Once I get a powersupply for it, it should be fun to power it up. Hopefully the 5 1/4 disks I've still got, are working and I can boot from them. But not much else... As someone else said, lots of PC stuff, overpriced beige Macs, and some Russian Vendor selling Blue and White G3's for $100 that everyone said to stay far away from. One vendor in the back had tons of tubes, so anyone there looking for tubes would have had a ball... The kids from the college made out like bandits selling sodas and t-shirts to raise money for their clubs. I brought $150.00 with more available from local ATM's and I think I spent less than $50.00 ($15.00 of which being the admission.) I did however, get a nice sunburn... I was hoping to see a TRS-80 Model I or III (or my holy grail an LNW-80), some NextStations (which I missed), maybe an Amiga 500 or an Atari ST, or assorted peripherals. I didn't see ANY Tandy stuff there. Not a Model 100, Coco of any type, Tandy 1000 or anything... I saw one vendor with an MC-10 Ram Pack, and that was it. A Commodore Plus/4 was there, but no C-64/Vic-20/C-128's... Or any peripherals. No Ataris, of any type... Including the VCS. Mostly PC, and the most Mac I've EVER seen at a TCF. Though this flea was about 1/5 the size of the show in it's heyday... If last year was like this, I'm not so sorry now I missed it. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Make Yahoo! your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 17 2005, 12:19, Teo Zenios wrote: > Pure magnesium ignites at 476 C and burns at 2200 C so if the case is pure > enough (doubtful, additives change the burning properties) and you get it > hot enough then good luck trying to put the fire out. That temperature is for powder or dust. It's much higher for bulk solid magnesium, normally quoted as 625C or thereabouts, though lower than its melting point (648C). There are various factors that affect ignition temperature. See for example: http://www.netl.doe.gov/coolscience/res_archive/q&a_36.html http://www.eh.doe.gov/techstds/standard/hdbk1081/hbk1081c.html and for common alloys: http://www.parkwayproducts.com/thixomolding/engineering_data.html Oh, and for some more pictures of what happens when it does burn, and how hard it is to make that happen: http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/012.2/ By the way, titanium dust and grit is worse than magnesium dust; when turning titanium you're supposed to use water-based collant to avoud ignition risk -- but it's only a few months ago I had my titanium spectacle frames welded back together. Aluminium too; damp aluminium dust will spontaneously ignite (another standard school chemistry demo, it used to be mixed with iodine to produce purple smoke) and its bulk ignition temperature is lower than that of magnesium's, but I've seen its auto-ignition temperature quoted as high as 780C. I suppose the reason I've replied to so many of the posts about this is that people remember seeing magnesium ribbon burning in school chemistry classes, but Real Life ain't like the science lab. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 16 2005, 21:32, Bob Shannon wrote: > I think the actual frame here is magnesium alloy, not aluminum. > > Any attempt to weld this might be spectacularly bad idea. Why? Welding magnesium alloy is done in exactly the same ways as welding aluminium, except of course that different composition filler rods are preferred. The relevant properties (strength of the base metal, electrical conductivity, melting point of the metal, high melting point of the oxide, hydrogen inclusion in the molten metal, etc) are very similar. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Dead AIM 65

by andyda＠earthlink.net

On Apr 17, 2005, at 9:32 AM, Jules Richardson wrote: > > On Sat, 2005-04-16 at 10:51 -0700, Andy Dannelley wrote: >> Well, I tried the next steps, with my limited equipment, and no joy. >> >> Here's what I've tried so far, > > Possible reset fault? Check connections to display logic too (PIA / > 6520 / U1) - pin 1 is ground, 22, 22 and 24 should be at +5V. Pin 11 is > clock, and pin 8 is the same reset line as for the CPU. > > I've got the schematic - it's around the size of 6 sheets of A4 so > could > just about scan it if you want (and can't find it on the web already). > > cheers > > Jules Thanks for the offer, But I still have the complete documentation set that I got with the AIM when I bought it way, back then... Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check out as soon as I can, Later, AndyD

21 years, 4 months

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HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by Tim＠rikers.org

The HP-2116A in my haul yesterday has a broken chassis: http://rikers.org/gallery/hardware/20050416_120314 A few questions: 1) does anyone have a 2116 on the list? working or otherwise? 2) The chassis sides appear to be identical. Having a cracked top would be much better than a cracked bottom. Anyone know if they are in fact identical and if it's possible to take the whole thing apart and swap the sides? Recommendations for or against? I know it would be a big project. 3) Thoughts on repairing the chassis? I could bondo, superglue, epoxy, silversolder, etc. the pieces together, and add a plate behind it attached with countersunk screws. Would not be very visible once the panels are put back. I have the two side panels and the bottom panel, but no top panel. Thoughts on which would work best? My door is missing the glass: http://rikers.org/gallery/hardware/20050415_131216 If/when I get the system up and running, I'd like high res scans of a front panel to recreate one. Anyone know if they panel was glass or some other material? Bob? I know your listening. ;-) -- Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org Embedded Linux Technologist BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun!

21 years, 4 months

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HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum) > From: gordonjcp at gjcp.net >> I think your best bet is welding. I believe that welding aluminum >> requires special equipment. A guy at my office does something called >> TIG welding for his robotics projects. > Aluminum can be direct welded but it's harder to do and many shops will resort to TIG as it gives cleaer results. Once you alloy magnesium more than 25% with anything ti's tendancy to burn like a torch drops ways off. I've done most Aluminum alloys using TIG and the preferd torch is the single arc (Arc to work) and the prefered gas either argon or helium. When done with He the process gets called heliarc. I've done both. In both cases you need a TIG rig and inert gas. Many welding shops worth their salt can do this. But often charge by the hour for a one off. It helps of you've done all the prep so they can hook up and go. A good TIG weld should require minimal refinishing to look good. Don't forget a lot of trucks and trailers these days have a lot of Aluminum and they do get repairs so the skills are out there. Due to costs, I'd seriously first try to fine a stripped chassis first. Allison

21 years, 4 months

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Dead AIM 65

by andyda＠earthlink.net

> The stock AIM 65 was offered with either 1K or 4K RAM, I bought a 1K > and a guy I knew at Rockwell gave me the other 3K. : That RAM wouldn't happen to be in 2114s, would it? If so, I'd suspect : those early on, I've had more trouble with 2114s than with any other : chip. I've lost count of the number I've replaced (certainly the RAM in : my Commodore 8050, the video RAM in my TRS-80 Model 3, the RAM in my : HP82163 (HPIL video interface)...) : -tony Yep, the RAM is 2114! I swapped the zero page RAM with others in several configurations. Out of 8 RAM how many would you suspect as bad? Could it be all 8, or a significant number such that getting just the right 2 for zero page wold be difficult, maybe I should buy at least a couple just to hope I get 2 good ones to try?! Thanks, AndyD

21 years, 4 months

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Questions - Universe/68, HP-9134A,VT420 composite video

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

--- Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> wrote: > First off, before you go around modifying VT420s, > you may want to test > the Pro first. Yes, the Pro is a complete unknown quantity at the moment. My suspicions about someone messing with the power supply were confirmed when, after removing the already-unscrewed top cover I found a nice green jumper cable across what was left of the fuseholder. I think I will take my time on this one. Perhaps I should make sure I have a fire extinguisher handy as well. > The 'composite' output of the > machine nicely matches > NTSC (RS-170) composite signal specs, so you can > hook the output > directly to a TV with a composite input. Beware If I can ever get the thing to power up I have an old portable TV upstairs I could use - no composite input but I do have an RF modulator I bought years ago. Perhaps that will work. And the VT420 I had in mind needs to be repaired anyway since it screeches at me when I turn it on, so perhaps that's not the best approach. Thanks for the advice. Regards, Dave __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide

21 years, 4 months

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HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 17 2005, 7:32, Vintage Computer Festival wrote: > On Sat, 16 Apr 2005, Bob Shannon wrote: > > > I think the actual frame here is magnesium alloy, not aluminum. > > > > Any attempt to weld this might be spectacularly bad idea. > > Listen to the man (with an emphasis on "spectacular" in the true sense of > the word). Probably not, actually. It's hard to get the stuff to burn, and it might well collapse under its own weight before you got it all that hot, at which point you'd probably remove the hot flame and emit a few hot words instead ;-) [1] Yes, the ignition temperature of some magnesium alloys is below the melting point, but you need an *awful* lot of heat to make it catch, not just a high local temperature. You also need an awful lot of heat to sustain it -- remember it dissipates heat readily -- and you need oxygen[2] to keep it going. Under normal welding conditions, the inert gas used for TIG/MIG excludes the oxygen (that's the whole point of the method) and the heat is highly localised, and other techniquesuse much lower temperatures. TIG welding of mag alloys is quite commonplace, and most items of magnesium alloy you'll come across are heat treated during manufacture, at high temperatures. This is not something you can do at home with a paraffin (kerosene) blowlamp, it's usually done in ovens in an inert atmosphere, but it's nevertheless standard procedure. If you want to know just how hard it is to burn a mag alloy chassis, take a look at Simson Garfinkel's infamous webpage at http://simson.net/photos/hacks/cubefire.html and note how much gas it took to cause even sporadic ignition. It was a pile of molten slag by the time it caught. Disclaimer: if you do have an enormous blowtorch, don't blame me if you set your workshop on fire. However, if you have such a blowtorch, you can do that more easily without the magnesium alloy :-) And if you do set a magnesium alloy chassis alight, there's not much will put it out. For small fires, copious water (not a spray) to deluge it is sometimes used, but common practice, I'm told, is to protect the surroundings and let the metal burn out. There's at least one firefighter on the list who might know more about that than I do. [1] Yes, I found out the hard way when trying to repair something. [2] Or more usually air. However, once the reaction gets going, magnesium is sufficiently reactive to burn in carbon dioxide or nitrogen, stripping the oxygen from CO2 leaving soot behind, or forming magnesium nitride. Standard school chemistry demonstration. That's why MIG/TIG for aluminium and magnesium (and their alloys) use pure argon instead of cheaper gasses. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 4 months

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HP-2116A chassis (or repairing cast aluminum)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 17 2005, 8:51, Bob Shannon wrote: > Could be I have no idea what I'm talking about here. > > But I do know many older HP devices use magnesium rather than > aluminum. As to how to weld these materials, I'm no expert. > > But I'd rather not hear that the machine, and the shop that attempted > the repair had been reduced to ashes. Agreed :-) To be quite honest, although welding would be the neatest solution short of finding a replacement chassis, I'd just buy a couple of those L-shaped brackets used for reinforcing woodwork, and rivet them onto the frame. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 4 months

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Cool test gear

by vcf＠siconic.com

I just checked what that GenRad box was and it's a 2610 Universal Field Tester. What the? Whatever it is, it looks complete with pods and a plug-in module in the inside compartment. Also realized I had an HP 1640B Serial Data Analyzer. Sweet debugging tools! -- 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 ]

21 years, 4 months

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1
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ebay score

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Every now and then, you can still get a good buy on ebay. Described simply as: 5 1/4 Full height floppy disk drives this lot: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4193&item=5183306657 is not one, not two, but three MPI B51 floppy drives. Ohio Scientific used this model in all of their "MF" (mini-floppy) offerings. If you don't want to bother following the link, I got the lot for $10 plus shipping. One of the drives has a gray faceplate, which I've never seen before. I've had a hard time figuring out what other manufacturers used B51s. Atari used the mechanism in some of their 810s but with their own custom electronics. Before any Atari enthusiasts scream, I have not and will not disassemble any working 810s for parts.

21 years, 4 months

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PAGING: Fred van Kempen

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Fred? Would you please contact me when you have a moment? I've still not heard back from you as to which address you want the tape drive you got from me to go to. Thanks much. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy, Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"

21 years, 4 months

1
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free stuff

by molsen＠runbox.com

I am moving from a home in South West Michigan, between St. Joseph and South Haven. I have old classic computer equipment I will give away, but will not ship, as I do not have time to pack it. It can be picked up between Monday April 25 and 29. Email or call me if interested. I have the following: DG Computer with 64 K RAM, Z-80 CPU DG Keyboard 2 Monitors that work but are not original DG Phideck with 4 drives. External Floppy drives Digital Group dot matrix printer. A box of misc boards for use in the DG Model 33 Teletype Model 40 Teletype One S-100 Computer configured to use with TurboDOS, a multi-user operating system much like C/PM. This has a 5 MB hard drive and one 8 inch floppy drive. I have additional software on disk for this system. It needs a minor repair, a cable needs to be made for the controller. Televideo terminal, for use with the S-100 box. Marshall G. Olsen molsen at runbox.com 312-498-2955

21 years, 4 months

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Stuff

by molsen＠runbox.com

Thanks to all that replied. I gave everything away to the first person that called to pick it up except I still have model 40 teletype printer. It is a great printer for Z-80 systems, printing 400 lines a minute. If interested, CALL my cell. 312-498-2955 Marshall G. Olsen molsen at runbox.com

21 years, 4 months

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7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?))

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

>Subject: Re: 7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?)) > From: Tom Jennings <tomj at wps.com> > Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 22:24:29 -0700 (PDT) >8251! Now there's a turkey! At least it was simple. One of the >buggiest pieces of crap I ever had to initialize. I use the for basic serial as they depending on version are predictable and easy to init. using them for other protocals, can you say masochistic! >Serial chips, I get post-traumatic-stress just thinking about >them. I'll remember that one. Though compared to serial chips many disk controllers and their associated stuff that wraps around them programtically are pretty horrid too. Allison

21 years, 4 months

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Dead AIM 65??

by andyda＠mac.com

First, Thanks for all the helpful suggestions! I plan to swap the RAM around this weekend, and do as Tony suggested, which is to use my VOM just to see if the clocks and/or address data lines are stuck high or low. I also have the assembler and basic ROMs installed (they were both options when my AIM was new) and I guess maybe it might be a good idea to remove them as well, just to have only the absolute minimum on the board. Also, I have been corresponding with another person off-list, so maybe I can get this thing repaired after-all!! :) Couple of things about general AIM-lore: Most AIM 65's were sold as boards, the case came later, but I never got around to getting one. The original AIM 65 (not the AIM 65/40) had a 20 char alpha LED display. The Aim 65/40 had a 40 character vacuum fluorescent display and 40 character printer, much more friendly for development than the 20 char display and printer. The stock AIM 65 did not come with the Assembler or Basic (those were options) Later Rockwell also offered a set of FORTH ROMs ( I have them, never did program much FORTH though) The stock AIM 65 was offered with either 1K or 4K RAM, I bought a 1K and a guy I knew at Rockwell gave me the other 3K. Way back then, I used to be a consultant, did most of my work with Rockwell PPS 4 and PPS 8 and 6502 I even used to teach seminars for Rockwell to their customers on PPS 4 and 8 (mostly PPS 4). The AIM 65 was a fair development platform, we used to use a Rockwell System 65 for much of our code development and test, but we also used the AIM 65 for development and test, and I could also my AIM 65 at home when I didn't go to the office. Way more than anyone wanted to hear, I hope it is not too long a message. Later, AndyD

21 years, 4 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 20, Issue 31

by james＠attfield.co.uk

If you hit T from an RDOS prompt it will enable the upper 32K, copy itself to 0xC000 and re-issue the prompt. I'm not quite sure where the stack goes, perhaps K still works to kick the stack. Not sure if this also works on a 4FDC Jim Message: 12 > Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 00:04:20 -0500 > From: "Randy McLaughlin" <cctalk at randy482.com> > Subject: Re: Some said they have CDOS and Cromemco disks > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <003b01c54241$c76faf60$023dd7d1 at randylaptop> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; > reply-type=original > That's great! I can make a few suggestions: > > I can send you older CDOS's that should be more memory lean. Some older > CDOS's had normal SA800 support via undocumented drive type 'X' > even though > CDOSGEN only references 'S'mall & 'L'arge. > > If you have 64K of RAM RDOS can be copied to RAM giving you access to the > full 64K allowing Larger CDOS's: Using a random address such as 1000H: > > ld hl,0C000H > ld de,2000H > ld bc,1000H > ldir > ld a,1 > out (40H),a > ld hl,2000H > ld de,0C000H > ld bc,1000H > ldir > ret > > Just use the substitute memory command to enter the above code > (hex) and do > a g 1000 (a return returns to RDOS). You are now running RDOS out of RAM. > You can have one 32K CDOS and maybe a 64K CDOS to transfer. BTW you never > have to use 8080 only opcodes since RDOS & CDOS only run on > Z80's. Also the > above code can go in any free space and is not address dependent. > > > Remind people of my favorite mantra: 3.5" drives with DD media will be > happy to act as 5.25" DD drives. > > > Randy

21 years, 4 months

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Searching: Info about Racal-Redac Monarch

by gerold.pauler＠gmx.net

Part of my last haul of pdp8/e equipment (more about this will follow when pictures are online) are 20 to 30 8" floppies labeled "Racal-Redac Monarch System Disks", etc. A quick google showed nothing relevant. Any info about this would be appreciated. Thanks Gerold

21 years, 4 months

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7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzerinfo?))

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: 7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzerinfo?)) > From: Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> >> The Zilog SIO types are fine by me. The yard sale full of assorted >> and scattered registers is annoying, but programmers opinions >> don't count. It does pretty much everything required for >> full-featured async. At least it does what you tell it to. They seem to. Darn things were never cheap though but being two for one made them tolerable if you needed two. >Well I favor dumb chips at the moment because I don't have >several MEG or EPROM to bootstrap my HOMEBREW computer.Infact I have >no PROM of any kind, just toogle switches*. Since I favor a 6809 >style of memory access** I am using 68B50's. I just need to finish >the CPU logic design and build it. :) I kinda liked that one to. The MITS 2SIO card used them and it worked very well. That was for 8080, works well for 8085 too. Allison

21 years, 4 months

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7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?))

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: 7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?)) > From: Scott Stevens <chenmel at earthlink.net> >You might want to check out the 6402. I have a bunch of them from some >syncronous modems I scrapped a few decades back. It has the distinction >of being from the same family as the 6100 'PDP-8 on a chip' micro, and >is fairly bare-bones. It has several simple registers, but much of the >config is done with hardware by enabling pins and what-not. ;) I have a few. They go well with 6100, 6120 and 1802 being cmos. Allison

21 years, 4 months

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7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?))

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

>Subject: Re: 7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?)) > From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com> >I've been saying for years that hardware design is far too important >to be left up to hardware engineers. :-) At an interview once They asked me what kind of engineer I am? I kept it fairly simple. I design things, I fix things and sometimes I fix things others designed. Hardware and software sould never be designed in isolation, they become poor partners from their estrangement. It's a good thing have all elements on friendly terms. Then again, lifes tough enough but, then we have commercally available parts. ;) Allison

21 years, 4 months

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Dead AIM ^%??

by andyda＠mac.com

Well, I tried the next steps, with my limited equipment, and no joy. Here's what I've tried so far, 1. visually inspect - looks OK, nothing obvious like cracked or discolored components 2. check power supply - OK 3. check voltages on board - OK 4. remove extra ROMs 5. check clock with analog VOM - did not appear stuck high or low 6. check low addess lines with analog VOM - did not appear stuck high or low 7. remove all but low order RAM 8. swap RAM to try to find if bad zero page RAM - could all 8 RAM be bad? 9. feel parts for heat - nothing extraordinary, all appeared cool to touch I have an offer of someone (he's got 6 AIMs) I can mail it to, and he said he would look at it, but if there is something I can do here I would not have to impose on him. Any more ideas, or have I reached the end of what I can do here? BTW: I am not comfortable with de-soldering and soldering, it's just been too many years. I'm out of practice. So let me know anything you think I can try (W/O solder) and I'll try. Thanks again for such a wonderful response. Later, AndyD

21 years, 4 months

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N8234N datasheet

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Does anyone have a datasheet for these? I THINK they're Quad 2 input multiplexers but I'm not sure. I found them in an i8008 computer system. Joe

21 years, 4 months

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N8234N datasheet

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Oops! I meant to add that these are 16 pin DIP packages and appear to have been made by Signetics in the early 1980s. Does anyone have a datasheet for these? I THINK they're Quad 2 input multiplexers but I'm not sure. I found them in an i8008 computer system. Joe

21 years, 4 months

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Some said they have CDOS and Cromemco disks

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Randy, >I can send you older CDOS's that should be more memory lean. Some older >CDOS's had normal SA800 support via undocumented drive type 'X' even though >CDOSGEN only references 'S'mall & 'L'arge. That would be ideal - It would be nice if I could skip the intermediate step of making a SSSD and go straight to making the final disks. It would also eliminate the requirement to have 48k in order to transfer the final disks. I'll email you the transfer program - perhaps you can read in a version of CDOS that INITs in 32k and send it back to me. Btw, it's pretty easy to test: - Gen a CDOS for 32k - Boot it, run INIT but don't respond to the first prompt - Reset system - Enter G100 - INIT will startup again, try formatting DSDD disk and see if it works. When I try to do a DSDD disk under 32k CDOS I get: Logical disk error 03h, drive 'h', block BC7241h Under a 48k or 64k CDOS it works fine. >If you have 64K of RAM RDOS can be copied to RAM giving you access to the >full 64K allowing Larger CDOS's: Using a random address such as 1000H: > >ld hl,0C000H >ld de,2000H >ld bc,1000H >ldir >ld a,1 >out (40H),a >ld hl,2000H >ld de,0C000H >ld bc,1000H >ldir >ret > >Just use the substitute memory command to enter the above code (hex) and do >a g 1000 (a return returns to RDOS). You are now running RDOS out of RAM. >You can have one 32K CDOS and maybe a 64K CDOS to transfer. BTW you never >have to use 8080 only opcodes since RDOS & CDOS only run on Z80's. Also the >above code can go in any free space and is not address dependent. I thought about doing this - in fact, you can use the 'T' command to cause RDOS to copyitself to RAM ... but I would like to keep it running in 32k as this is more easily achieved configuration in many cases. I've put together a bit of documentation, and I have the transfer program as well as CDOS and Cromix images ready to put up, however I'm having a bit of trouble with permissions on the server (which is remote to me)... I hope I can get it resolved this weekend and get the files up. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 4 months

2
1
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Identify this IBM box?

by pat＠computer-refuge.org

The seller (obviously) doesn't know much about it, but it appears to be a fairly large deskside IBM machine from around 1980. Link to auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5185251356 Ideas, anyone? Pat -- Purdue University ITAP/RCS --- http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/ The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org

21 years, 4 months

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7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 ProtocolAnalyzerinfo?))

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: 7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 ProtocolAnalyzerinfo?)) > From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> >Has anybody made a easy to use serial chip, all seem to be lacking some >feature? >The only way I like to program is I/O is 'hardware" setup ... Dip >switches and hard reset >lines. :) What you want then is a MITS SIO-B. Has a COM2502. That generation of chips trade extreme simplicity for dip switches and loads of support chips. When I build and use serial I look at a few things: Chip count < the fewer I have to wirewrap the better> Functions I want <Vs gobs of unused features> Availability (are they in my stock) Usually I end up with 8253 countertimer as BRG and 8251, or 8250. Though the 6850 is friendly enough. I also have others to pick >from like 6850, 7201, Z80SIO, 2681 and others. Allison

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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Dead AIM 65??

by andyda＠earthlink.net

> Couple of things about general AIM-lore: > > The original AIM 65 (not the AIM 65/40) had a 20 char alpha LED > display. The Aim 65/40 had a 40 character vacuum fluorescent display > and 40 character printer, much more friendly for development than the > 20 char display and printer. : I think I have heard of the AIM 65/40... if someone here knows such : things, was the motherboard re-engineered? Is it possible to retrofit : the 40-col display to the original AIM? Also, was the 40-col VFD run : by something like an HD44780 chipset, or was it some kind of raw : interface? These days, 40x1 or 40x2 VFDs based on the HD44780 are not : difficult to locate and are not all that expensive. They are also :trivial to send chars to. : -ethan The AIM 65/40 was quite different from the original AIM 65, it was really useable as a fairly powerful, though inexpensive 6502 development system. I never used one as I left consulting in 1980, but I did see one, and it appeared to be a pretty good computer. More details can be found at: http://oldcomputers.net/AIM-65-40.html which has info on the AIM 65/40 (which came in several models) and a Rockwell Design Center (which I never used) and System 65, which I did use and thought it was a very capable development system. As you can see, the AIM65/40 is a completely new board, I don't know if one could use the 40 Char display on a normal AIM 65, but I suppose you could, you would just need to write new driver software for it, maybe replace the AIM 65 ROMS with EPROMS with most of the AIM 65 OS and new drivers for the display. Could be an interesting Project, but it could compromise an otherwise vintage computer (the AIM 65) in the process. IHTH, AndyD

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzerinfo?))

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

>Subject: Re: 7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzerinfo?)) > From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> >I have *hundreds* of COM5025 chips on the shelf here. Never found a >use for them. Use them to make FDC for PCs to do other formats. ;) Allison

21 years, 4 months

1
0
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Some said they have CDOS and Cromemco disks

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Some said they have CDOS and Cromemco disks > From: "Randy McLaughlin" <cctalk at randy482.com> >The only real issues are either differences in different soft-sectored >controllers (Western Digital based chips have some formats that the 765 >based chips can't handle but are rarely used) or the basic ability to handle >FM (as in 3740 format). The difference between 1771 and 765 are that 765 only does IBM style formats FM or MFM. As a result you only supply Cylinder, Head, Record<sector>, and N a lenth encoding. The 1771 you pump every byte required for the entier track until it times out. That difference is significant as one was designed as a IBM format controller and the other was more universal. However the 765 series chip does do FM and at all data rates. Many boards for PCs limit that by not implmenting needed peices or not supporting it in the bios. So if the 765 based controller doesnt do any of the common formats (especially FM) blame the designer of the board. Allison

21 years, 4 months

1
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7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?))

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

>Subject: 7201 (was Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?)) > From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com> >That chip sucked when used as a plain old UART. In order to handle slight >speed mismatches between two modems emplying synchronous modulation, ;-) It was nearly a full clone of the Z80 SIO with one difference, the interrupt logic matched the 8085/8086 rather than Z80. As a simple SIO it was a major pita to use, too dang many registers. As a result I ahve a bunch of them and never use them. Ise the 2681, 8251 or 8250 before that beastie. The only thing worse to design with and use was the COM2501, dumb as a stump. Allison

21 years, 4 months

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OT: Prank paper accepted for computer comference

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

This is OT, but computer related. A computer-generated nonsense paper was accepted for presentation at the World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI). The story is at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4449651.stm and the paper can be read at: http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/scigen/rooter.pdf Bob

21 years, 4 months

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OS Challenger Video?

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

Re: "Can the Challenger drive a compostite video monitor directly or is it only designed to drive an RF modulator?" Since the input to a modulator is a composite video signal, the answer is that both of your "or" options are the same thing. However, some of the OSI video cards were 5-signal outputs (red, blue, green, H sync, V sync) which, in terms of your question, would be "neither". It's not difficult, however, to mix the two sync signals with one of the video signals and then drive a monochrome monitor or a modulator.

21 years, 4 months

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CP/M-80 Kermit source, in TDL/Xitan Z80 mnemonics, anyone?

by tomj＠wps.com

I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have a Kermit assembler source for the Phoenix Software Associates PASM assembler? I'm lazy, and trying to avoid lots of tedious editing to convert from some other version. Or a BDS C version?

21 years, 4 months

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Some said they have CDOS and Cromemco disks

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

I put a bios and boot code up on Howard Harte's site some time ago. This was source code for CP/M 2.2 (and it's in 8080 MAC/ASM assembler). If you have a working system, it's not too difficult to get this running. Again, the source code can be downloaded from Howard's site. As it exists, it's configured for 8". Should not be difficult to modify for 5.25". It works, I'm actually running it on a 16FDC (I believe that it will work on a 4FDC also).

21 years, 4 months

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