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

Still looking for: Nova 800/1200 power supplies

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Nearly two years back I picked up some Nova 800/1200 gear, mostly in pieces. I've been trying to track down power supplies for these for awhile, thought I'd try asking here again and see if I have any better luck this time :). Both chassis are the "Jumbo" variety, and take two power supplies each -- one that provides +/-5 and +/-15 and another that just supplies dual +5. At the moment I have just one power supply -- a dual +5 supply. I also only have one of the "DGC NOVA RESISTOR BD" boards that are the go-betweens between the backplane and the power supply -- the 52-pin edge connector from the supply plugs into this board, and the board plugs into the backplane. I need at least one more of these... It's relatively unlikely, but if anyone happens to have any 800/1200 power supplies going spare, in any condition, drop me a line. Thanks again, Josh

10 years, 2 months

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Stuff for sale in Seattle

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Spring is nearly here and it's time to clear out some space. The following stuff must go, drop me a line if you're interested. Local pick-up in Seattle, WA. Free: - 2x TI 1500S UNIX workstations. One's an S1505 with a 68030, one's an S1507 with a 68040. Both power up and pass built-in diagnostics. No OS media, no drives. - Honeywell/Bull DPS-6 workstation/server. No OS media, no drives, no drive controller. CPU, Memory, I/O present. Heavy. A bit dirty, but will clean up nicely. For Sale: - Zilog S8000. This is a Z8000-based machine that originally ran a UNIX port called ZEUS. System includes CPU unit, two 80mb SMD drive units (one with cartridge tape drive) and two empty units at the bottom. I had the system powered up and running a couple of years back, but I have no OS media (this would appear to be a theme) and the hard drives were either wiped or corrupted. I have a few spare boards as well. I actually really like this system, but I need the space. Asking $250. Thanks, Josh

10 years, 2 months

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In search of VAX 8550 or similar...

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Would like to purchase and restore a big mid-80s VAX. Stupidly passed one up recently. Let me know if you have one you'd be willing to part with- also open to trades. In the Seattle area, but a little too comfortable with arranging freight shipping... Sent from Outlook for iPhone

10 years, 2 months

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IBM/PC XT and AT boot disks needed

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? I?m helping a buddy of mine restore an original XT and original AT and I?m looking for original boot disks for them. I have the AT Diagnostics disk but the other disks I have seem to be bad. Does anyone have images that they could send me or point me to an archive of original disks? Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

10 years, 2 months

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websites on the classiccmp server

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

10 years, 2 months

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DEC LPS11 Laboratory Peripheral System for PDP-11

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

I saw a DEC LPS11 Laboratory Peripheral System for PDP-11 somewhere and was thinking of getting it just because of the Digital nameplate, but I was too broke. Now I see that an ebay listing[1] of it has the ambitious Buy It Now price of $1600 -- but that's with cabling and a book of schematics, and they've tested it out at least a bit; and it has analog in and out, and several specific boards in it. The one I found, on the other hand, is untested and doesn't have any external goodies; it does seem to be populated with boards, but I don't know what they are. It also seems to be lacking any analog in or out (unless the "DISPLAY" port is an analog out). I'm wondering if there would be a demand for this item. If so, I may have to send someone to pick it up for me when the place is open next. [1]: http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-LPS11-Laboratory-Peripheral-System-for-PDP-11-A… -- Eric Christopherson

10 years, 2 months

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H-11 Updates

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? It?s been a productive two weeks with my pseudo-DEC Heath H-11. I got myself an Emulex UC07 SCSI card and a SCSI2SD SCSI drive emulator. After a week of noodling around with why the on-board diagnostics wouldn?t load (stupid LTC jumper) I was able to confirm that the board and SCSI2SD setup worked. Tonight I built an RD54 image of RT-11 v5.7 using SIMH and dd?ed it to the card and now I have RT-11 5.7 running over SCSI. Yea! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

On 2016-Apr-08, at 11:58 AM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > I don't know why I bothering to be coy about it... > > My unit here: > > http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/cyclops-latest/P4060005.JPG > http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/cyclops-latest/P4060006.JPG > > Actually, I'm further along than that, but I > don't have more recent photos. > > Original unit here: > > http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Feb1975/PE_Feb_1975_pg30.jpg > > Schematic here: > > http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Feb1975/PE_Feb_1975_pg28.jpg Well that's neat. I assembled the Cromemco kit version of the Cyclops ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromemco_Cyclops ) ca. 1976 for a friend with an IMSAI, and built the companion adapter to provide display on an oscilloscope, but I don't know that it was ever made to work. (The kit version presented an interface for a computer rather than the scope drive of the magazine article. Hopefully you're more successful with your unit. (I think you'll find the MC7805 there is indeed plastic not ceramic. Moto produced various power transistors and regulators in those packages (case 90 in Moto parlance) as well as a smaller version from the same plastic material) A 9V wall wart would probably do for the power supply, or remove the regulator and use a modern 5V switching wall wart (not that I wish to promote wall warts, but if they're on hand . . )

10 years, 2 months

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ADM 3a with no horizontal scan

by lists＠loomcom.com

Hey folks, I've been on a tear trying to resurrect old projects here, and next on the list is an ADM 3a. This particular 3a has no horizontal scan. None at all. I just get a vertical line down the center of the screen. First thing I checked was the horizontal deflector on the yoke, which seems secure. Before I go diving into the schematics, I figured I'd ask here: Is this a common failure mode? Has anyone else experienced no horizontal scan on a 3a? Any tips on where to look first? -Seth -- Seth Morabito seth at loomcom.com

10 years, 2 months

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Stuff searching for new home around Duesseldorf, germany

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Peter Koch > rumours are that kids do place stuff like this into their parents > basement :-) I've even heard rumours of parents placing stuff like this into their kids basements! (I certainly have some PDP-11's in my daughter's old bedroom! :-) Noel

10 years, 2 months

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A tale of a chip and a socket

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Torfinn Ingolfsen > Most likely a bad solder joint. That was my first thought, and so I carefully inspected all the pins, but they all looked good to me. But I suppose it might have been something that wasn't visually obvious. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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A tale of a chip and a socket

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I just had the incredibly amusing experience of managing to repair an -11/04 CPU by un-soldering a chip, putting in a socket, and putting _the same chip_ back in that socket! Before you go 'WTF?!?!', let me explain what happened. The CPU wouldn't run, and in poking around, I stumbled on the cause: all the registers would not 'take' 1's in the 0360 bits. Hmm, 4 contiguous bits - sounds like it might be a bad register file chip. But before I pulled it, I wanted to make sure it wasn't some other part of the data path - Mux, ALU, etc. So I put a DIP clip on the chip, whipped up a 3-instruction 'scope loop that would exercise it, and... while I was looking at it, the problem went away! WTF? So I pull the clip - and the problem comes back. Repeat. Clearly there's a bad connection in the chip, and the pressure of the clip is 'fixing' it. So I pull the chip, put in a socket (I always use sockets on repairs, I'm paranoid I'll overheat the parts - I don't mind living with an potential eventual bad contact from corrosion), and figure what the heck, let me see if fiddling with it fixed the bad connection - and sure enough, it now seems to work! And if it eventually fails, no problem - it's in a socket, I know where to go if the machine stops working, those P3101A's are rare and expensive, etc! :-) Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Stuff searching for new home around Duesseldorf, germany

by cctalk.pkoch＠dfgh.net

Hi all, we have been using two Sun 6800 (each fully equipped with 96GB of RAM and 24 Sparc III processors 1.2GHz) for many years. Now they are retired and must leave our machine room to make place for newer machines. Anybody out there willing to give them a new home? They are very good in transforming electric energy into heat. And by activating only some of the processor boards you can regulate the heat flow. Your wife will love to stand behind it and use it as a whole-body blow-dryer. Take one for free and you will get another one for no additional costs. While rearranging our machine room, we found lots of other stuff that must go away too. Here's the current list: - Sun E250 - Sun A5200, 2xA5100, D1000 with lots of disks - Sun E450, 2x, one is still needed for a couple of months - Sun L1000, 3x, one is still needed for a couple of months - Sun 6800, 2 fully equipped and a third one for spare parts - Sun 880 with 12 disks - Sun 480 2x, with spare processor boards - Sun L11000 tape library (aka ATL P3000) with 6 drives and lots of tapes Be warned: You need a truck with lift to transport a Sun 6800. It's 191x130x61cm and weights approx 500kg. Same thing with the tape library: 192x72x145cm, approx. 600kg. On the other hand rumours are that kids do place stuff like this into their parents basement :-) I took some pictures and uploaded then to http://flic.kr/s/aHskuakSMT Peter

10 years, 2 months

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really old test equip

by sales＠elecplus.com

When I was at the recycler last week, I saw a lot of really OLD test equipment. I started looking through it to see if there were things I could recognize, but the closest thing I could figure out was a 1940s telephone equipment tester. All of these were portable, with lids that closed with latches. Probably weighed abt 20-30 pounds each. Any cables that might have been needed to run the equipment was gone. If things like this are of interest in the $25 range, then I can pick some up next time I see them. Unfortunately I have no cell phone numbers for anyone in the DFW area to tell them to come and see the goodies while I am there, and they will not let strangers come in and poke around. I am (or was) an electronics tech, but most of the functions on these old test machines eluded me. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 2 months

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Shipping big things across the atlantic.

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi. I'm considering to ship an empty full height rack from the USA to Sweden. It is definitely something I wont find here so it might be worth the cost and effort. What are my options to get it here safely? If you have any experience I would greatly appreciate if you could share them. Thanks in advance, Pontus.

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by wulfman＠wulfman.com

You should be just fine. On 4/7/2016 1:38 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > If you have a circuit which is normally designed to > operate with an unregulated supply, through a regulator... > say unregulated +8 through a 7805 to a regulated +5 and > you want to test it independent of the +8 supply, if > you leave the unregulated rail unattached and put +5 > switcher straight onto the regulated +5 rail, will you > damage the 7805? Clearly the VIN is open, but the ground > pin will still be attached. Would this push voltage > back through and screw things up? > > Thanks, > Bill S. > > > -- The contents of this e-mail and any attachments are intended solely for the use of the named addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized use, copying, disclosure, or distribution of the contents of this e-mail is strictly prohibited by the sender and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail.

10 years, 2 months

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Why do good floppy disks go bad?

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

I had one of those Japanese Koan moments recently when someone asked me "Why do floppy disks stop working?" and I realised I... didn't actually know. I thought I'd throw it to the group and get some theories/proofs. Let's work on the assumption we're talking about 5.25" and 3.5" disks. Several guesses: - Repeated use slowly wears away the magnetic media layer on the mylar. - When left in an unprotected state, or a poor environment, damp, mold and dust can damage the surface, either degrading the magnetic layer or causing the gap to shrink enough that the drive head physically damages the disk? - Quantum fluctuations in the state of the universe, caused by millions of mostly non-interacting particles passing through a disk in any given minute, alter the magnetic spin of the ferric atoms causing gradual data loss over time (mostly tongue-in-cheek) - Given the lack of use of most floppy drives they themselves pick up 'gunk' and on first reading a diskette after a long time of disuse damage it. It _seems_ like when you put a 3.5" disk down for ten years and pick it back up, a disk that used to work fine no longer does. Of course, after ten years, it could be your own memory that's failed. Dare I ask, what's the consensus? - JP

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > > 1) I have a 12 volt DC supply. 12 volts seems to be > > > within the VIN range for the 7805s whose data > > > sheets I've now read. Can I simply apply 12 volts? > > > > Yes, but that regulator might get mighty hot! I would > > not do this for fear of cooking the poor thing. > > That's what I figured to start with, before reading the > datasheets. If as your photos (in another message) suggest it will run OK from 8V with no heatsink on the 7805, then I would be pretty sure it will be OK at 12V if you bolt a reasonable heatsink to the regulator. Give it a smear of silicone grease, of course. -tony

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > First, a few quick "whys": > > 1) The 7805 is actually a Motorola MC7805CP, date > code 7308 with gold leads. Very hard to exactly > replace. Any reason why it would have to be an exact replacement? In any case, the behaviour of the 7805 if you apply a voltage to the output with the input floating may well depend on the manufacturer and even the date (some devices were improved over the years). Unless you have a 1973-or-so data sheet from Motorola, I don't think you know whether it will be damaged or not. [...] > 1) I have a 12 volt DC supply. 12 volts seems to be > within the VIN range for the 7805s whose data > sheets I've now read. Can I simply apply 12 volts? Yes, but... The power disipated in the 7805 will increase, in fact it will be more than doubled. To put it crudely, a linear regulator acts like an automatic variable resistor. I have no idea what current the load takes, let's call it I. If you supply 8V, then the power disipated in the 7805 is 3*I watts, if you supply 12V it's 7*I. This may or may not be a problem. > 2) Could I place a resistor in series between the 12V > supply and the 7805 to drop the voltage at the 7805 > to somewhere around 8? Yes. You need to know the maximum current the load will draw, which will be much the same as the current drawn >from the PSU. Then just calculate the resistor to drop 4V at that current. If you can find one, you could probably use a 7808 to supply 8V to the unit from a 12V supply. Or a 7805 'jacked up' with a 3.3V zener diode (in series with the common lead to the extra 7805 only). My guess is that giving it 12V will be fine though. What is the device, and do you have any idea how much current it is going to draw? -tony

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

> 1) The 7805 is actually a Motorola MC7805CP, date > code 7308 with gold leads. Very hard to exactly > replace. Is that the big flat plastic package with the wide flat leads? I might have a few of those around, but I agree, not an easy variant to find. > 1) I have a 12 volt DC supply. 12 volts seems to be > within the VIN range for the 7805s whose data > sheets I've now read. Can I simply apply 12 volts? Yes, but that regulator might get mighty hot! I would not do this for fear of cooking the poor thing. > 2) Could I place a resistor in series between the 12V > supply and the 7805 to drop the voltage at the 7805 > to somewhere around 8? Yes, you could do this. Pick an appropriate power resistor, or use a big wirewound rheostat. > 3) If I was to "tack on" a jumper between VIN and VOUT, > would that protect the 7805 and allow me to power the > circuit with 5 volts? I would not do this at all. -- Will

10 years, 2 months

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Dumb terminals for daily use today; failure scenarios

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

If one were to use a dumb CRT terminal from the early '70s regularly in this day and age, would it be more prone to hardware failure than if it were kept in storage or just kept to look at but powered off? -- Eric Christopherson

10 years, 2 months

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VCF Europe, April 30th - May 1st, Munich + registration for VCF Berlin

by stueberahoo＠yahoo.de

Hi list, the 17th edition of VCF Europe[0] is coming soon! It will take place on April 30th and May 1st in Munich, Germany. Please be aware that the information on the English version of the website might be outdated or less detailed than on the German page, but Google Translate will help. Also the registration for VCF Berlin[1] in October is open now. We are looking for speakers, workshop instructors and exhibitors, both for the regular exhibition and this year's special exhibition on computers and languages. It will be open for visitors on Sunday, 2nd and Monday, 3rd of October, as the 3rd October is a public holiday in Germany, but we are thinking about inviting people to build up on Friday already and using Saturday, 1st of October as a day just for the participants and the community. This way there would be more time to talk and see the other exhibitions. Maybe we could even offer advanced workshops on Saturday. Come and visit us! Ping me if you need a place to stay. Regards, Anke [0] http://vcfe.org/E/index.html [1] http://vcfb.de/2016/index.html.en

10 years, 2 months

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Pinging Joe Rigdon

by connork＠connorsdomain.com

Anyone know if Joe Rigdon is still around? Thanks, -Connor K

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by jrr＠flippers.com

On 04/07/2016 2:18 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > drlegendre wrote: >> Not saying it's going to smoke-out, but it does >> seem like a wonky thing to do. > I disagree about "wonky" let me try with more > diagram and less English: > > (+8) > | > VIN| ceramic cap > |-----][----- > ___|____ | > | 7805 |----------GROUND > -------- | > | | > VOUT|(+5) | > | | > ___|____ | > | LOAD |-------| > -------- > > +8 is not currently available (no pun intended). > I would like to test LOAD without removing 7805 > as it is soldered in place. Is damage to 7805 > likely if alternative regulated current is applied > at (+5) and (+8) is left open? > > Bill S. > > > Yes, you can damage the 7805 - READ the data sheets... Raising the Output Voltage above the Input Voltage: Since the output of the device does not sink current, forcing LM340/LM78MXX Series 3-Terminal Positive Regulators LM340/LM78MXX Series 3-Terminal Positive Regulators the output high can cause damage to internal low current paths in a manner similar to that just described in the ?Short- ing the Regulator Input? section. LM340/LM78MXX Series 3-Terminal Positive Regulato John :-#(# -- John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, VideoGames) www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"

10 years, 2 months

2
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Why do good floppy disks go bad?

by kspt.tor＠gmail.com

The problem with lifetime warranties is that they're not about the lifetime of the owner, and they're not about the lifetime of the product. What it means is "as long as it's a product we're still selling" (except for those cases where it *really* is the lifetime of the product.. in which case it means "the warranty is valid until the product fails").

10 years, 2 months

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Mac SE/30 analogue board and PS caps

by dave＠661.org

Does anyone have a list of the capacitors on the analogue board and power supply for a Mac SE/30? -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

On Thu, 7 Apr 2016, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > Maybe I'm overthinking this. If I just put > regulated +5 on the 7805 VIN will it work? > Isn't the minimum input voltage for a 7805, 6vdc? g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- From: Bill Sudbrink Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2016 10:38 PM To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source... If you have a circuit which is normally designed to operate with an unregulated supply, through a regulator... say unregulated +8 through a 7805 to a regulated +5 and you want to test it independent of the +8 supply, if you leave the unregulated rail unattached and put +5 switcher straight onto the regulated +5 rail, will you damage the 7805? Clearly the VIN is open, but the ground pin will still be attached. Would this push voltage back through and screw things up? Thanks, Bill S. --------- It is a special situation I have never seen, but I would try to disconnect the output of the 7805 before connecting a foreign +5V to the circuit. It is good practice to have a diode reverse connected from output to input to prevent damage to the 78xx in the case that the output voltage gets higher than the input voltage. Normally that would not happen, but if you have a high capacitance at the output and the load is minimal it could be possible when power is switched off that the input voltage dropped, but due to the big capacitor at the output the output voltage did not yet drop. And then that diode in reverse from output to input comes into play. Now the input is not connected, but GND and the output are ... I would have a look at a data sheet of the 78xx series to see what could happen if the input is not connected, but the output is. So, if possible, simply disconnect the 78xx output lead first. - Henk

10 years, 2 months

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Voltage regulator with alternate voltage source...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

If you have a circuit which is normally designed to operate with an unregulated supply, through a regulator... say unregulated +8 through a 7805 to a regulated +5 and you want to test it independent of the +8 supply, if you leave the unregulated rail unattached and put +5 switcher straight onto the regulated +5 rail, will you damage the 7805? Clearly the VIN is open, but the ground pin will still be attached. Would this push voltage back through and screw things up? Thanks, Bill S.

10 years, 2 months

1
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Front Panels Latest

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys PDP-8/e A panels now shipping PDP 8/e B panels ship on Friday PDP-8/ f and /m ship on 14th I have some extras of the above if you are quick. Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

10 years, 2 months

2
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DEC fieldguide

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I'm a modest collector of DEC and PDP11 stuff, I always thank who wrote the PDP11 field guide with the almost complete list of all the existing boards... Now comes the idea: could be useful having a website where the field guide assume a graphical aspect, including pictures of the parts, descriptions, and so on? Of course it would be almost impossible for one alone to do all the work, but I'm thinking of a sort of wiki, where subscripted users can upload pictures, informations and documentations. Maybe something similar already exists? Thanks Andrea

10 years, 2 months

2
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Giving away 0.35 metric tons of books*

by alexey.toptygin＠gmail.com

*some restrictions apply :-) Evan Koblentz pointed me to a rescue here in the triangle, NC area back in August 2015. Some items were set aside for VCFed, but there were A LOT of books and other media that were up for grabs. Because I'm a sucker, I took and then carefully cleaned and catalogued them all. The master list is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19UYeJlhiVYVExCAO2NSzcAkBww0kEeAYrEG… There really are 17 boxes, and they really do weigh 780lb or approximately 0.35 metric tons. They're mostly books (from the 80s and 90s), but there are some floppies, some boxed sets, and even a small box of VHS tapes. The previous owner stored all this stuff in abysmal conditions, so there was a lot of mold (and some dead insects and some live insects, and... you know how it goes). I cleaned every item as much as possible. Some items had to be disposed of for safety reasons. That which made it into the cataloging stage is at least scanable, but if it says 'mildewed' on it, and you have a mold allergy, you don't want it. I don't know if any floppies are readable, and unless the catalog says it comes with media, I haven't got the media. Luckily most items survived relatively intact. You can have anything in the spreadsheet free of charge provided: 1) You are willing to take WHOLE BOXES at VCF East XI, you let me know by Weds 4/13/16, and they fit in my car when I pack for VCF. OR 2) You want to come to Durham to pick them up at a prearranged time after VCF OR 3) You are willing to wait until the next VCF East, and let me know far enough in advance that I can set items aside for you. If you want single items, and you don't want to wait until VCF East 2017, I'll do my best to mail them to you after this VCF is over, but you'll need to pay for shipping. I would prefer not to ship whole boxes; they're sturdy moving boxes but they weigh 40-60lb each and I'm pretty sure if you drop them hard enough the contents won't like it. I'm in Durham, NC 27701. I don't want any of this to go to recycling, so I'll try to hold it for at least a year or the next VCF East after this one. After that, all bets are off. Let me know if you are interested in any of this stuff, or if you have questions; in case the mailing list(s) eat it, my email is alexey.toptygin at gmail dot com. Thanks!

10 years, 2 months

1
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AT&T 4425 (Teletype 56D) repair

by lists＠loomcom.com

About a month ago I was given a very nice AT&T 4425 terminal, which was AT&T's OEM of the Teletype 56D. Alas, the terminal suddenly died on me last week and I'm going to have to dive in and figure out why. It appears to be something going wrong with the digital board, not the analog, since sometimes I can get strange characters to show up on the screen (but not always). I did my normal searches of BitSavers and Google, but I haven't found any schematics for the 4425. I don't suppose anybody has them? At least it looks easy to work on. Kudos to whoever designed the innards, it comes apart very easily and cleanly. -Seth -- Seth Morabito seth at loomcom.com

10 years, 2 months

3
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VCF East update - three keynotes, TWO original Apple 1, etc.

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Hi classiccmp'ers. VCF East starts in just 8 days from now. It's at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall, New Jersey, USA. Three keynotes: John Blankenbaker (Friday), Stewart Cheifet (Saturday), Ted Nelson (Sunday). Three dozen hands-on exhibits. TWO original Apple 1 computers, including one up-and-running. Oh and there will be a Kenbak-1 also. :) A dozen-ish tech classes. 8-bit game programming competition sponsored by Hackaday. Consignment room. And the on-site, year-round computer museum is now TWICE as large as before. Come see awesome stuff such as our circa-1965 UNIVAC 1219B mainframe. Kids get in free on Saturday/Sunday. All the details, along with online ticketing, are at http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/.

10 years, 2 months

1
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RSX-11M trouble

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2016 20:44:26 +0200 > From: supervinx <supervinx at libero.it> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: R: RE: RSX-11M trouble > Message-ID: <1459795466.2891.10.camel at PIV-Ubuntu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Il giorno dom, 03/04/2016 alle 19.33 +0200, supervinx ha scritto: >> Il giorno dom, 03/04/2016 alle 14.59 +0200, supervinx ha scritto: >>> Hmmm.... RSX-11Mplus 4.2 aren't recognized as TSK images by "normal" 4.2 >> Well... the files have been correctly transferred... i did a DMP on both >> sides >> so definitely I need a 4.2 non plus. > I SYSGENed the 4.8 image on simh, and transferred ICP.TSK, just to do > another try... > > The newly inserted task, showed the same parameters, using TAL ...AT., > but issuing a @command causes the same big crash, dropping me on the > initial ODT monitor. > > I did another test, with DMP. > Only three blocks of the original ICP.TSK are unreadable: > o73, o107, and o177 (all numbers are in octal), with the usuale I/O > error -101, and no mention in ELI DU0:/SH > > I'm angry: the damaged ICP.TSK is TCP.TSK;3 and I did a purge to make > room on the disk the first day I got it. Can't remember if another > version was present... > > I've a couple of questions: > 1)VFY gives me two error I can't clearly understand. > 000541,000226 owner [1,54] > file is marked for delete > > 000647,000000 > I/O error reading file header -101 > > How can I associate xxxxxx,yyyyyy to a file name? > I tried PIP /FI:xxxxxx:yyyyyy/LI with no luck This is a good question but I do not know the answer. > > 2) the .tpc images found in the net, if converted to .tap, are suitable > for use in TU85em? Having no tape unit, I could try to install > everything from scratch using a tape emulator. I would use Simh to boot a BRUSYS tape then copy the tapes to make a bootable disk. > > But the best would be to have 4.2 (*not* plus) tape images or someone > with a running installation so kind to give me the four damaged files. > > VFY seems not to be able to repair the FS... > > Thanks The closest RSX11M (not Plus) distribution I can find is an RL01 distribution of RSX11M V4.1 Since it is disk and not tape it can be directly booted with Simh and it does have a ICP.TSK that should be pretty compatible with V4.2 since it is from V4.1 Baseline. You can find this RSX11M V4.1 distribution at: ftp://ftp.trailing-edge.com/pub/rsxdists/rsx11mplus_4_0_netkit_aq-ew97b-bc.… It will unzip into 6 RL01 disk images and 3 update E disk images. Below I mapped the first two disks and found a copy of ICP.TSK on the 1 disk which is a Baseline image that should run on a range of different hardware. sim> sh rl RL RLV12, address=17774400-17774411, vector=160, 4 units RL0 2621KW, attached to rsx11m41_1of6_rsxm35.ax-d518e-bc, on line write enabled, RL01 RL1 2621KW, attached to rsx11m41_2of6_excprv.ax-d521e-bc, on line write enabled, RL01 RL2 2621KW, attached to rsx11m41_3of6_rlutil.ax-d522f-bc, on line write enabled, RL01 RL3 2621KW, attached to rsx11m41_4of6_mcrsrc.ax-h927f-bc, on line write enabled, RL01 sim> b rl0 RSX-11M V4.1 BL35 124.K MAPPED (BASELINE) >RED DL:=SY: >RED DL:=LB: >MOU DL:RSXM35 >@DL:[1,2]STARTUP >* PLEASE ENTER TIME AND DATE (HR:MN DD-MMM-YY) [S]: 20:36 5-APR-86 >TIM 20:36 5-APR-86 >* ENTER LINE WIDTH OF THIS TERMINAL [D D:132.]: >SET /BUF=TI:132. >ACS SY:/BLKS=512. >@ <EOF> > >mou dl1:/ovr/pub/vi Volume Information Class: Files-11 Device: DL01 Volume label:EXCPRV Pack serial: 00000273341 Owner: [1,1] Protection: [RWCD,RWCD,RWCD,RWCD] Default: [RWED,RWED,RWED,R] Processor: F11ACP >ins $pip >pip [1,54]i*.tsk/li Directory DL0:[1,54] 22-APR-83 18:16 ICP.TSK;1 142. C 22-APR-83 17:48 INI.TSK;1 58. C 22-APR-83 17:48 INS.TSK;1 60. C 22-APR-83 17:48 Total of 260./260. blocks in 3. files >from the RL01 image you should be able to PUTR read and then write to an RX50 as you have done before. Good Luck, Mark

10 years, 2 months

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KY11-LB prints, and versions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I'm in the process of repairing a couple of M7859 KY11-LB -11/04-34 Programmer's Console boards, and the existing FM Print Set was kind of hard to read in some areas, so I looked online for another set, and although I didn't find one, I noticed several other people with the same issue - asking for a better set. My brain did eventually turn on, and I remembered DEC's habit of putting prints for included devices in with print sets for computers, and with that in mind, I managed to locate another set in the -11/34A print set; that one is a lot clearer. To my surprise, they showed a slightly different board from the one in the existing FMPS available online: in the later version, the four 8093 quad tri-state buffers between the UNIBUS data lines, and the internal bus, are replaced by 74173's. I'm not sure quite what motivated this change - no documentation that I know of refers to the existence of two different versions. The PCB is slightly different, but the ROMs are apparently all the same, so >from the point of view of the i8008, the two versions must look the same. (And given where the change is, it can't make any difference to the interface between the card and the front panel, CPU boards, etc, so either version should work anywhere.) Anyway, the version in the -11/34A prints didn't include the actual front console, plus to which the prints there had been heavily marked up by someone at some point. So I have produced a new set of prints: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/MP00015_KY11-LB_Jan78.pdf which includes the front console pages from the earlier set, and a cleaned up version of the pages from the -11/34A set for the M7859; hope this is useful to someone! Noel

10 years, 2 months

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What do members do for substitute monochrome monitors ?

by pete＠petelancashire.com

I'll soon be powering up a HP 9000/310 (98561-66525) but do not have an a single monochrome monitor. Suggestions ? -pete

10 years, 2 months

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Document treasure trove

by Paul_Koning＠Dell.com

While looking for DECnet documents, I noticed that there's a very large collection at http://manx.classiccmp.org/collections/antonio/dec/ . Probably not news to many, but in case some had not seen it... Among other things, there are two CD collections MDS-1997-10 and MDS-2000-01. The former contains a rather obscure document, the DECnet Phase IV Token Ring datalink spec. That also includes the Phase IV routing layer tweaks necessary to support token ring -- or other datalinks if you don't want to use the AA-00-04-00 prefix. paul

10 years, 2 months

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MEM11A Status

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, The board layout is complete and has passed all of the design rule checks from the board house. I?ll be ordering some boards for me to assemble and test next week. I have also received a quote for ?turnkey assembly? where I hand them the files and get back fully assembled boards. In order to get the price reasonable I have to have 25 *firm* orders for the boards. I?ll be charging $395/ea + shipping. If folks could let me know (private emails please) as to the quantity that they want (don?t send $?s yet) so I know I won?t be $1000?s in the hole on this before I order the boards. The timing is that I?ll probably place the order for the boards (assuming sufficient interest) in mid-May. I?ll let folks know when I have the minimum quantity. BTW, this is for the MEM11A 128KW SPC memory board (not to be confused with the UMF11). TTFN - Guy

10 years, 2 months

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RSX-11M trouble

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

>> The closest RSX11M (not Plus) distribution I can find is an RL01 distribution of RSX11M V4.1 >> Since it is disk and not tape it can be directly booted with Simh and it does have a ICP.TSK >> that should be pretty compatible with V4.2 since it is from V4.1 Baseline. >> You can find this RSX11M V4.1 distribution at: >> >> ftp://ftp.trailing-edge.com/pub/rsxdists/rsx11mplus_4_0_netkit_aq-ew97b-bc.… >> > > Perhaps you did a cut and paste of the wrong link? > > Maybe you meant this one instead: > > ftp://ftp.trailing-edge.com/pub/rsxdists/rsx11m41_and_update_e.zip Glen, Yes, I did paste an incorrect link. Thank you for catching my mistake. Yours above is the correct one. Mark

10 years, 2 months

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3B2 C compiler and Assembler

by lists＠loomcom.com

Now that I have my 3B2/300 up and running, I'd like to get developer tools installed. Unfortunately, I can't find any of them on the web anywhere. Apparently what I'm looking for are the following packages: * "C Programming Language Utilities" * "Software Generation Utilities" * "Extended Software Generation Utilities" Apparently these three packages are contained on five diskettes. If anyone has these, or can track them down, please let me know! -Seth

10 years, 2 months

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Front Panels - PDP-8/e Type A Availablity

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys I now have a limited quantity of PDP-8/e Type A Front Panels ready to ship. Type A is the early kind where the selector switch runs from the 12 o'clock position anti clockwise to the six o'clock position. If you have a paid order for a Type A then it will ship to-morrow. The others will go in the order that I receive payments via PayPal When they are all gone you go to the top of the list for the next batch. PayPal Payment as follows $150 per panel plus shipping at $20 per panel, You can order more than one but to be fair everybody who orders in time gets one and the rest to follow. Don't worry there will be a new batch of Type A next week. It gets better there will be a Type B release to-morrow. Same rules as above. Same Pricing Even better PDP-8/f and PDP-8/m artwork is complete and panels will be made starting to-morrow. Release 1-2 weeks Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

10 years, 2 months

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R: RE: RSX-11M trouble

by supervinx＠libero.it

Hmmm.... RSX-11Mplus 4.2 aren't recognized as TSK images by "normal" 4.2

10 years, 2 months

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Xerox 8010 Star software on Ebay.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Just saw this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331820201025 In case someone is interested. I was unable to quickly figure out if it already was archived on bitsavers. /Mattis

10 years, 2 months

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C & undefined behaviour - was Re: tumble under BSD

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mouse > A pity pdos.csail.mit.edu is willing to impair its accessibility for > the sake of..I'm not sure what..by refusing to serve it over HTTP. It's the latest cretinous-lemming craze in the world of high tech - we _MUST_ hide all our bits in encryption, because otherwise some dastardly, evil government agency will peer at them ... or something like that. Let's all just conveniently ignore the fact that if said government agency/ies _really_ wanted to know what someone was doing online, they'd perhaps infect that machine's bloat-/Swiss-cheese-ware, which passes for contemporary 'best software practices', with a virus that would report every keystroke ... or something like that. Never mind! Everyone turning on mandatory HTTPS on their server, refusing to even deign to talk to you without it, can sleep the oblivious sleep of the morally superior, rigidly secure in the knowledge that they have done their bit in the crucial fight of out time, to protect privacy and human rights. ... Or something like that. Sorry. You pressed one of my hot buttons - one that is connected to several other of my hot buttons. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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VR241 Substitute

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I could do with getting hold of a VR241, but these seem to be pretty unobtainable. So the alternative is to rig up an adapter of some kind to work with a VGA LCD, which also saves on space. I came across the following: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?38450-VR241-substitute-for-Rainbow -VT240-etc, has anyone else tried this with success? Regards Rob

10 years, 2 months

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List of HP 9000 200/300 i/O modules in plain text

by pete＠petelancashire.com

I'm looking for a list of the I/O modules that is in plain text before I start making one from surfing the web. Anyone have one ? -pete

10 years, 2 months

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AT&T 3B2 floppy format

by lists＠loomcom.com

I finally have my own AT&T 3B2/300, and I'm having a heck of a time getting disk images transferred to physical media. I have here a set of AT&T SVR3.2 diskette images, apparently made (not by me) using dd. I would like to transfer them to physical media in such a way that they're usable by the 3B2/300. Here's what I know so far: * 3B2 diskettes are 720KB, Double Sided Quad Density (DSQD) 96tpi * Each side is 80 tracks, 9 sectors per track, 512KB per sector * Sectors use 3:1 interleave * Physical media should be good quality DSDD * The 3B2 fdc is a TMS2797 (WD 2797 compatible) * The 3B2 floppy drive is a CDC 9429 On my PC, I'm using a venerable TEAC FD55-GV with the "I" jumper in place, so at double density it should be spinning at 300RPM. ImageDisk claims that reading and writing at 300kbps is successful. I have been using ImageDisk to translate the BIN files I've downloaded into IMD files with the following commands: D:\> BIN2IMD DISK1.BIN TMP.IMD /2 /U N=80 DM=4 SS=512 SM=1-9 D:\> IMDU TMP.IMD DISK1.IMD IL=3 (The two-step translation is necessary because BIN2IMD cannot directly write 3:1 interleaved data unless it's interleaved in the BIN image, so you have to use IMDU to reshuffle things... it's complicated!) Anyway, after doing this, what I end up with is a disk that is _almost_ usable. I can boot off of it, but it fails shortly after loading the UNIX kernel. I can run the 3B2's "dgmon" floppy diagnostics on it, and they almost pass, but fail to reliably read and write during the R/W test. Now, here's the thing: If I use the exact same media and low level format it _on the 3B2 itself_, the disks are 100% readable on the 3B2 and pass all floppy diagnostics with flying colors. So I'm trying to pin down what about my setup is not right. My pet theory right now is that the R/W gap and Format gap are wrong. The default values for the gaps when calculated by ImageDisk are 24/64. I've played with 22/32, 34/62, and 42/80, all based on reading the datasheet and/or old Linux "fdprm" settings, but nothing seems to make the disks 100% reliable on the 3B2 when written on the PC. Does anyone have any insight into the gap lengths used by the 3B2? Or, have you successfully written 3B2 floppies from disk image before? -Seth -- Seth Morabito

10 years, 2 months

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Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

what is tumble? Ed# In a message dated 4/3/2016 12:41:59 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, aek at bitsavers.org writes: On 4/2/16 2:01 PM, william degnan wrote: > Thanks for that. I could not find much about the 2116A (2114/15) software > on Bitsavers or the HP museum site. Where else does one go for these > manuals? > I have a bunch scanned, just need to post-process them. Now that tumble is running in my new workflow, I'll see what I can do.

10 years, 2 months

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Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

That is really neat to have an "A" We have a few manuals in the library and a few paper tapes. BUT! we recently were shipped crates of paper, some of which I never saw before in my life. There are some HP manuals in there Similar to what Al is mentioning. I will have to look again to see if we have anything out of the ordinary aside from the basic manual set. We have a 2116"B" here which was the Phx Union HS HP-2000 2000A main processor than became the I/O processor for their HP-2000F when Computer Exchange Inc. bought it. Unfortunately when I retired in the early 90's I did not save all the paper tape. I have the stuff in the drawer in the 2000 ACCESS cabinet ( yea was a neat addition to add a pull out drawer in the cabinet to keep taps, pens and etc in!) A few white boxes showed up in the garage at home I noticed recently when cleaning... always grateful to find neat stuff that got misplaced over 20 years ago.... We will wait to see what Al comes up with and see if a fill is needed from our sloooowwwwwwwww scanner..... Ed

10 years, 2 months

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Original HP 2116A is running again!

by jondjohnston＠hotmail.com

Just in time for her 50th birthday in November: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kko526UpHsM&feature=youtu.be www.hpmuseum.net

10 years, 2 months

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DECmate II Questions

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have been looking at my DECmate II recently. I got an Italian version of WPS 1.0 for it and that works fine, except that I don't have an Italian keyboard so finding some of the characters is a bit tricky. :) The machine came with an RD51 hard disk. I can't many references to MFM disks in DECmate IIs. The disk will sometimes spin up and sometimes remains motionless. I checked all three of the Darlington transistors on the drive board and they seemed fine (I checked them out of circuit). However, unless I have any really persistent problems getting the disk to run, I am not going to bother trying to make it start reliably. My main question though is this. From what I can see the WPS software does not access the hard disk, the manual I have does not mention hard disks. I executed the function for listing files and it said it found nothing, whether that attempted to access the hard disk or not I don't know. Should WPS be able to access the hard disk? Might it have been a later version that used the hard disk? If not, then would one of the other OSs for the DECmate II be able to access the hard disk? I don't have any other OSs for it though, does anyone know where I might find copies? I also have a graphics option board for the machine, which software actually uses this option? Any recommendations for how best to image RX50 diskettes? I want to preserve the diskettes I have. Regards Rob

10 years, 2 months

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VMS Software

by pete＠petelancashire.com

Pulled these out of the trash http://petelancashire.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=6062&g2_navId=x09e4617c The first picture are for VAX the yet to be check in the second photo are VMS for Alpha. Now that I have that little VAX 3100 I only want to get it configured. Is someone other there I should give these to, I want to make sure the contents are not lost. Bitsavers.org for example. -pete

10 years, 2 months

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Favorite Resolution && favorite monitor, sound, video, and capture (retro)

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

Since I doubt I'm the only one on the list with failing eyes. I thought I'd ask about monitors. Now, I'll preface this with the fact that I have some macular degeneration in my retinae. So, I prefer lower resolution monitors (so that fonts can't get too tiny). I also prefer as many NITs, CD/M2, candlepower, or whatever you like to call "brightness" as I can get (again, it's my eye issues). I was curious what folks liked? Since I mess with a lot of consoles and still occasionally play with the Amiga or MiST, I like to have the option to do composite video. Keep in mind is all geared toward retro users. I konw there is "better" gear than this, now. Favorite LCD Monitor line: NEC Multisync, Dell Ultrasharp Favorite CRT Monitor line: Iiyama (Sony Trinitron as a runner up) Favorite Video Resolutions: 1280x1024 4:3 and 1280x720 (16:9) Favorite display Devices: SGI O2 CRM graphics, The Voodoo3 for PC, The VillageTronic Picasso IV for the Amiga. Favorite retro NTSC/PAL Video capture devices: SGI Indy built-in composite/s-video, SGI O2 A/V option, Amiga Newtek Video Toaster Flyer, Quadra 880AV option for Macs, and the Matrox Rainbow Runner for desktop PeeCee. Favorite Retro Sound Cards: Gravis Ultrasound for PC, Sound Blaster emu10k ("Pro" PCI cards), Amiga Studio 16, SGI DM8 for SGI/IRIX, Pro Audio Spectrum for 68k macs. If we are going further back to the 90's I'd say I liked 640x480 for all the great artwork done in that res on various platforms and MCGA 320x200 for games (mainly because they finally got 8-bit color that way). The biggest downside to the NEC monitors is that few of them support composite or S-Video. The biggest upside is that most of them perfectly support sync-on-green. Another good monitor in terms of flexibility for retro use is the Dell 2007FP Ultrasharp. It's 20" I think, but has a plethora of ports and features. I also own a Sony Trinitron PVM-20M2MDU medical monitor for my Genesis, SNES, and Neo Geo MVS conversion system. It's around 50 pounds (22 kilos), but at 20" it's small enough to keep around. It's tough to beat these for any type of non-HD video. I'm getting interested in projectors, too. However, I'm doubting I'll find one that's bright enough and will do all the video modes I want (ie.. mix of sync-on-green with composite etc..) -Swift

10 years, 2 months

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Britain's first mass-produced business computer is now on display

by wulfman＠wulfman.com

http://www.gizmag.com/britain-computer-mass-produced-first-public/42595/

10 years, 2 months

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PCP11-E board

by jws＠jwsss.com

I have a PCP-11E board, which I'd like people to comment on, perhaps point me at some documentation if you know of any. Google is saturated with references for the three letter acronym for a controlled substance, nothing much has showed up, and the manufacturer was not very proud of the board, so that won't reduce ambiguity in searching for info. It has a z80, and a couple of Parallel I/O chips as well as a Zilog CTC on it, so it is smelling like some sort of equipment interface or perhaps a Laser printer or high speed printer board. Probably has a 2716 chip on it for code, would like to get it imaged and disassembled. http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/02/pcp11e-qbus-board.html I did a quick look at the thing and there are pictures of the overall board as well as closeups. I guess one could hope to play with CPM on it if nothing else. thanks Jim

10 years, 2 months

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Looking for RSX-11M V4.2 images

by supervinx＠libero.it

I'm looking for RSX-11M V4.2, not plus. Thanks

10 years, 2 months

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RSX-11M trouble

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> The SYSVMR.CMD shows that the Indirect Command Processor is named ICP.TSK. > Sadly, ICP.TSK is one of the four tasks that have read issues... > > I need another info: BAD is destructive or not destructive? > BAD is destructive to the data on the disk! If there are only four tasks that have read issues you may be able to move just those tasks over from a good version of RSX-11M with Kermit which you mentioned you had. > Here I am! > RSX-11M V4.2 BL38B > > I have two RX50 disk units and Kermit. > 512kb and one RD51 fixed disk. > I planned to archive separately every [*,*] and image the disks. > I tried and can write back and read RX50 disks with a properly setup PC. > I need only RSX-11M installation disks images but I'm confident they can be found somewhere on the net. > I'll give a look to BRU... A RD51 drive holds about 10 MB which is about the minimum for a RSX-11M system. The RX50 disks could load a version of Micro RSX which was a pre-GENed RSX-11M system. I used it one time to recover a non-bootable RSX system disk where someone deleted the RSX11M.SYS file that the boot block pointed to. I have not seem those RX50 images of Micro RSX on the internet so far. Since you can read and write the RX50 disks with a PC. Get a copy of PUTR from John Wilson Dbit site http://www.dbit.com/pub/putr/ to be able to write RX50s in RT-11 which can be read in RSX-11M with FLX. Then get a copy of Simh >from the GitHub: https://github.com/simh/simh Once you have a working Simh PDP-11 emulator (e.g. pdp11.exe) then get a bootable baseline RSX11M disk image ftp://ftp.trailing-edge.com/pub/rsx_dists/rsxm70.dsk.bz2 (Note: this disk image is actually RSX11M V4.8 The Simh will need a configuration file (e.g. sim.ini) that describes the PDP-11 system it is emulating like this: sim> do sim.ini set console log=./console.log set cpu 11/23, 256K set cpu idle set tto 8b set rq0 rd54 attach rq0 rsxm70.dsk sim>show rq sim> show rq RQ address=17772150-17772153, no vector, RQDX3, 4 units RQ0 159MB, not attached, write enabled RD54, autosize, SIMH format RQ1 159MB, not attached, write enabled RD54, autosize, SIMH format RQ2 159MB, not attached, write enabled RD54, autosize, SIMH format RQ3 800KB, not attached, write enabled RX50, autosize, SIMH format sim> b rq0 and it will boot RSX11M where this will bring up a baseline RSX11M system. DU3 should be a virtual RX50 that will create a disk image that can be read with PUTR and moved to a real RX50 or you could use Linux DD to image the RX50. At any rate the emulated RSX11M system will have the tasks that should be compatible on your real PDP-11. You might also be able to kermit from the simulated to the physical PDP-11. At any rate having a virtual RSX11M system to experiment with will help you a great deal in getting your real system running. If this is too complicated, I could try sending you an RX50 disk image with the tasks you need, but I only have RSX11M V4.8 (I mostly use RSX11M+ V4.6) handy so we'd have to try those .TSKs to see if they might work. > Well, let me understand better... > > 1) VFY reports errors on some files (-4 and -101), but ELI DU0:/SH > reports no soft or hard errors. > I have a defective disk or the file system is broken? > > 2) No ICX.TSK. Only ICP.TSK, (-4 and -101 errors with VFY) > > 3) I've found only tape images for RSX-11M. I have no tape unit. If you are not getting errors on the disk, then the disk is probably ok and the file system has some corruption. Remember that an RSX11M system should be shut down by running shut up to make sure all files are closed etc. >RUN SHUTUP BRU can do disk to disk copies but with only one RD51 and no tape it won't help much. In my RSX work I use a SCSI disk controller like a Emulex UC07 with the SCSI2SD card that emulates unto 4 DU disks on one microSD card. This makes it very easy to move large disk images from Simh on a PC to be bootable RSX disks on the PDP-11. It is easy to back up and very reliable. The SCSI2SD card is only $65 but Qbus SCSI cards are a bit pricey. By the way which CPU is in the PDP-11, a 11/23? Good Luck, Mark

10 years, 2 months

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USB on a TURBOchannel {VAX,DECstation,Alpha}

by abs＠absd.org

For anyone who has ever felt the urge to have a USB port on their VAX (or similar) http://www.flxd.de/tc-usb/ Now if only we could find someone who wanted to write a lot of VMS driver code.... :-p

10 years, 2 months

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Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I remember part of the history mentioning they wanted it to be known as an instrument controller at first.... Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 4/3/2016 12:12:19 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, nw at retrocomputingtasmania.com writes: Good work on getting the 2116A working again. Anyone care to speculate on the initial low sales of the 2116A? was it because HP weren't well known for producing computers at the time or was the $22K asking price too high compared with say DEC's less than $10K for a PDP-8?

10 years, 2 months

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Mac SE/30 pincushioning and flicker

by dave＠661.org

I recapped a Mac SE/30 a few months back and only just now put it back together. After a false start with dirty contacts on the ROM simm and resulting irregular vertical bars, the machine is working again. There are no more zipping sounds coming out of the speaker. Two problems remain: 1) There is slight pincushioning along the bottom of the CRT, about a third of the way in from the left. 2) The CRT produces a rather noticable and irritating flicker. I don't remember the one-piece Macs flickering like this. I think a cleverly-placed magnet might fix the pincushioning and recapping the analogue board would remedy the flicker. Can I get some thoughts, commentary, and suggestions on this? -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

10 years, 2 months

3
2
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Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

hardware or software manuals Bill? Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 4/2/2016 3:23:55 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, billdegnan at gmail.com writes: On Sat, Apr 2, 2016 at 4:29 PM, Jon Johnston <jondjohnston at hotmail.com> wrote: > Just in time for her 50th birthday in November: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kko526UpHsM&feature=youtu.be > > www.hpmuseum.net > > > Thanks for that. I could not find much about the 2116A (2114/15) software on Bitsavers or the HP museum site. Where else does one go for these manuals? -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

10 years, 2 months

1
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Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Yahoo! congrats! In a message dated 4/2/2016 1:29:56 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jondjohnston at hotmail.com writes: Just in time for her 50th birthday in November: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kko526UpHsM&feature=youtu.be www.hpmuseum.net

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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Broken BA123

by david＠thecoolbears.org

If my house were on fire and I had to pick what to save, near the top of my list would be my MicroVAX in a BA123 enclosure. It is by FAR my favorite computer. Sadly, there was a tragic accident and the ventilation louver, just about the power switch got broken. I know, I know. How could this happen? I am overcome by guilt. I can't rest until my poor, sad VAX is fully repaired and back to it's perfect condition. I've tried to repair it, but not had satisfactory results. Is there anyone out there that would be willing to sell me a replacement?

10 years, 2 months

2
1
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seeking EK-OLA30-OP - LA30 DECwriter User's Manual

by nw＠retrocomputingtasmania.com

Not an essential manual but for completeness I would like to find a copy. If anyone has one would they be willing to scan it please or I can arrange to get it done. The list of manuals for the DECwriter I LA-30 are: (missing) EK-OLA30-OPLA30 DECwriter User's Manual (online) DEC-00-LA30-DC1972-08LA30 DECwriter Maintenance Manual (online) LA30 Engineering drawings Nov-1973 (online) via Manx or bitsavers. If anyone has paper for these printers in the right size I'd be glad to have some (whatever would fit in an large envelope). LA30 is fixed sprocket position, needs 9-7/8 inch wide (1/2 inch pitch x 0.150 inch diameter feed holes) continuous paper.

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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Olivetti M24 Mounting Bushes for Bus Converter

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

The M24 I got the other day has the bus converter, whereas the other M24 that I already had does not. I bought a bus converter for the "old" one, but then realised I didn't have any mounting bushes or spacers in order to install it. I thought of removing some of the bushes from the new one to share with the old one, it wouldn't be as good but at least I would be able to install the converter. It looks like I might need some kind of special tool to remove the bushes >from the new machine. Is there a way to do this with ordinary tools? Does anyone know if the mounting bushes are any kind of standard part that could still be bought somewhere? Thanks Rob

10 years, 2 months

13
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Need info for a VAX Station 3100 SPX / VS42A-DA

by pete＠petelancashire.com

Won the guy on the big auction site, put the minimum bid down and $50 later it showed up on the doorstop. http://petelancashire.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=6027 Sorry for the bad photo's but the sun was going down fast. Been trying to find the display interface specs, pinout, freqs, etc. but so far have been overwhelmed with just about everything else. Other things I guess I'll need are Also what keyboard should I be looking for ? What options do I have for an O/S ? The last time I logged into a VAX was one of many 11/780s the company I worked for was like 198? something. A LONG time ago .. -pete

10 years, 2 months

4
4
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Looking for M865 serial card photo

by v.slyngstad＠frontier.com

Hi, I'm putting the finishing touches on my efforts to re-draw the M865 schematic for the website www.so-much-stuff.com (which has a collection of similar drawings). I am looking for photos of the front and back, reasonably square-on, with enough resolution and light to make out the traces easily. My intent is to "trace over the traces" with my CAD software (Eagle 6.6), to document the board while simultaneously verifying the work I've done to draw the schematic. Does anyone have photos of the component and solder sides of an M865? It's the older Omnibus serial card, with the current loop cable soldered in. Permission to use the photos on the website would also be great. The folks I've found so far who own boards can't get photos of them for a week or more, and I'd like to finish these drawings before my motivation fades. (I know from experience how long it can take me to get back to half-finished projects!) Vince -- o< The ASCII Ribbon Campaign Against HTML Email!

10 years, 2 months

2
1
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Sun keyboards, yellowed

by sales＠elecplus.com

I collected some Sun keyboards for a customer, but some are too yellowed for him to use. They are all complete, including the cable, if it is supposed to be attached. I am asking $10 each plus shipping. They are not tested or cleaned. I don't have any Sun terminals left to test them on. Type 4, qty 2 (deeply yellowed) Type 6 USB, Unix, qty 10 (moderate yellowing) 320-1273 Type 6 USB Unix, qty 12 (no or very slight yellowing) 320-1273 asking $20 each plus shipping Cindy Croxton --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 2 months

3
4
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R: RE: RSX-11 trouble

by supervinx＠libero.it

Here I am! RSX-11M V4.2 BL38B I have two RX50 disk units and Kermit. 512kb and one RD51 fixed disk. I planned to archive separately every [*,*] and image the disks. I tried and can write back and read RX50 disks with a properly setup PC. I need only RSX-11M installation disks images but I'm confident they can be found somewhere on the net. I'll give a look to BRU... Thanks!

10 years, 2 months

1
1
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RSX-11 trouble

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> > Well... > REM ...AT. worked since an AT entry was present in the TAL output > INS $BIGIND not > INS -- File not found > > Disk (RD51) has 850 blocks free after some cleaning up. It had 738 before. > Thank for your answer. > I'll try your suggestions. > It's RSX-11 and I've found some troubles on the disk. > I ran VFY with the /RC option. > Some files can't be read (it reports -4 and -101 errors, parity error > and forced error mark). > INDEXF.SYS itself appears to have a bad spot. > So I'm tempted to backup all relevant data and reinstall. > > BTW there's no [3,54] on the fixed disk. Ok, if you don't have [3,54] then you must have RSX-11M not RSX-11M+. In that case you should have two versions of Indirect: [1,54]ICP.TSK [1,54]ICX.TSK ICP.TSK is the default, "full capacity" version and in V4.0 of RSX11M it shows up under TAS as: >TAS ...AT. ...AT. 1.0 GEN 64. 00060000 LB0:-00114253 so try removing it as you did above and then INS the ICX.TSK and try it. >REM ?AT. >INS [1,54]ICX.TSK >TAS ?AT. ...AT. 9.01 GEN 64. 00060000 LB0:-00114033 It would be good to know which version of RSX-11M you have and also a bit about the configuration. You mention backing up your data, what disks do you have? To back up a system disk sometimes it is best to use BRUSYS.SYS which on M should be in [1,51] It is a memory resident version of BRU (running under RSX11S) that you BOOT and then can copy disks. Good Luck! Mark

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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MiST - Amiga ST FPGA + intro

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=96 I recently picked up one of these devices. I'll apologize in advance if you folks have already had a discussion about the MiST. Basically, it's an FPGA that's capable of emulation (for lack of a better term) of many platforms on a hardware level. I only got mine about two weeks ago, and I'm still sifting through a ton of material and focused mainly on the Amiga and ST platforms (stuff I played with as a pre-teen and teen). I have to say, so far it's pretty awesome. The coolest feature in my opinion is the standard joystick ports on the side that "just work" with all the emulation targets. I always favored using Sega Genesis controllers in those (rather than the rinky-dink little "red joystick" of the time). They work oh-so-great with this rig. The only issue is finding a monitor that doesn't have a fit over 15Khz refresh rates. I use an NEC MultiSync with sync-on-green and all that fun stuff. I'm still busy getting AROS running on "my Amiga" (which is represented by an SD card with my ROM image from my A3000 and a metric crapton of floppy images). You basically hit a keystroke or joystick combo and you can swap floppies, reboot, etc.. If you are into any of these, I can recommend the MiST: * ST/STE (also on SCART 15KHz) * Amiga 500/600/1200 ( AGA CORE BETA core) * C64 (partially - still developed) * Atari 8bit ( 96%) * Collecovision * ZX81 * Atari 2600 * ZX Spectrum with AY, aslo with DIVMMC and ESXDOS * SEGA GENESIS * Apple II(x) * MSX * AMSTRAD CPC (BETA) * A few others, you'll want to check. BTW, I'm new to the list (1st post). So, I'll introduce myself. I'm just another IT worker with a background in Unix systems. I'm 41 and I started with HP-UX 10.x (high school) and branched out to every kind of Unix box I could get my hands on (Yes. I'm one of those Unix zealots, but that might be too gentle a description). I spent the 90's with SGIs (which I still collect, I have an O2+, two Indys, and a bruzin' Tezro fully built out). I spent the early 2k's coding for supper as a "security engineer" (read: writing exploits which I don't much care for now) and some stints as a Tru64 admin. On the in between gigs and contracts I've touched just about everything (and in the last 10 years a lot of new Unix hardware). I've professionally admin'd or coded for IRIX, Solaris, Linux, Tru64 (OSF/1 or Digital Unix for some), FreeBSD, HP-UX, UNICOS, and AIX. As a hobbyist, I've also tinkered greatly with NetBSD (maybe my favorite), OpenBSD, and Minix. Then of course there is the spacey or rare stuff I've put hands on. I'm talking about things like UnixWare, Xenix, SCO, SunOS, BSDi, DG/UX, NeXTStep/OpenStep, A/UX, and even non-Unix stuff like Sprite, L4, QNX, HURD, BeOS, Haiku, AROS, Genode, and others. I code fairly well in C, shell script, and TCL. I code not-as-well in AREXX, Python, Ruby, PHP, Lua, and a few other scripting languages. I'm pleased to be on this list, and to make your myriad acquaintances. -Swift PS: My spell checker needs and ex-lax after going insane over this email full of Unix variants and ancient platforms.

10 years, 2 months

9
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R: Re: Subject: RSX-11 trouble

by supervinx＠libero.it

The SYSVMR.CMD shows that the Indirect Command Processor is named ICP.TSK. Sadly, ICP.TSK is one of the four tasks that have read issues... I need another info: BAD is destructive or not destructive? Thsnks!

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Old IBM and Apple computers, NIB

by sales＠elecplus.com

CCNY in NYC has old IBM computers, NIB. He usually sells for high prices on ebay, but I told him I have collectors who want them, but not at ebay prices. He usually sells 8025 with one floppy and 640K and monochrome monitor on ebay for $145, but he will do $125 off ebay, plus shipping. 8525 with two 8bit isa slots, 8086 proc model 25s, 30s, 56, 57, 76 and 77 8530's with hard disk and without <http://imgur.com/a/gLPa2> http://imgur.com/a/gLPa2 http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/fss/4e01ff8247d359c02237a965ea8f72af New in box IIc Too much other Apple stuff to list. send email to <mailto:lorenzo at nyce> lorenzo at nyceonline.net <http://online.net/> tell him Cindy sent you, and to be nice about the price! Yes, he will ship internationally. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

multinet 4.1 PAK

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Anyone have the multinet 4.1 PAK checksum and install key info? I need to re-install my PAK and I don't have *doh!* the checksum value. I thought I did but...nope. ------- Product ID -------- ---- Rating ----- -- Version -- Product Producer Units Avail Activ Version Date Expires MULTINET TGV 200 F 0 0.0 31-JUL-1997 (none) A-10098-116512 issued by TGV thanks Bill -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

10 years, 2 months

5
14
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PDP8-i front panel font.

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Does anybody know or can suggest what the font is on a pdp-8i? Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

10 years, 2 months

2
3
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Subject: RSX-11 trouble

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

The ?AT. indirect command task will be found in LB:[3,54] and there are three versions of it (ICM.TSK, ICMFSL.TSK, and ICMRES.TSK) if this is a RSX11M+ system. This is the task image that is failing to load is probably ICMFSK.TSK. There is a text file in LB:[1,54]SYSVMR.CMD you can type to your screen: PIP TI:=LB:[1,54]SYSVMR.CMD a line in the file is: INS [3,54]ICMFSL/INC=10000 ! Indirect command file processor just above that line should be: INS [1,1]FCSRES/PAR=GEN/RON=YES ! FCS resident/supervisor-mode library if this is the case then then the ICMFSK.TSK is the one that is failing to load. So after the system boots and the ?AT. fails, you can: >REM ?AT. >INS LB:[3,54]ICM.TSK >@LB:[1,2]STARTUP.CMD which should bring the system up. It is likely that you could also use ICMRES.TSK which also uses the FCSRES library. To see if the library is loaded the command is CBD. If you see FCSRES displayed then ICMRES.TSK should also work. Once the system completes STARTUP.CMD, then you should make a change in the system image [1,54]RSX11M.SYS to use the ICM.TSK at the next boot up. To do this you need to use VMR which makes changes in the system image similar to the MCR commands on a running system. >SET /UIC=[1,54] >SET /DEF=[1,54] >INS $VMR >VMR Enter filename: RSX11M.SYS VMR>REM ?AT. VMR>INS [3,54]ICM.TSK VMR>^Z (Enter a control Z) This sequence should cause the next boot to come up and chain to [1,2]STARTUP.CMD cleanly. Then you can rebuild INDFSL with the SYSGEN procedure as described by the previous post. Mark Matlock >> -----Original Message----- >> From: supervinx [supervinx at libero.it] >> Received: Donnerstag, 24 M?rz 2016, 23:30 >> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org [cctalk at classiccmp.org] >> Subject: RSX-11 trouble >> >> Hi! >> Got a MicroPDP 11 plus. >> It seems to be misconfigured. >> It can't execute .CMD files, reporting >> Task "...AT." terminated >> Load failure. Read error >> >> No disk errors are reported with ELI DU0:/SH >> >> Disk seems to work: I can run .TSK files. >> The file STARTUP.CMD isn't read at all. >> >> Any hints? Which file is executed right before STARTUP.CMD? >> I see two RED commands and a MOU before it tries to read [1,2]STARTUP.CMD and reports the aforementioned error. >> >> Thanks >> > Well... no IND.TSK is present :( > May be they had space issues?

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

WinWorld

by lproven＠gmail.com

Quote: ? WinWorld from the past, to the present, for the future WinWorld is an online museum dedicated to the preservation and sharing of abandonware and pre-release software, as well as any and all knowledge associated with such works. We offer information, media and downloads for a wide variety of computers and operating systems. Our collection includes abandonware operating systems (like Windows 3.1 or 95), beta operating systems (like Chicago, Whistler, and Longhorn), abandonware applications (like AfterDark, the epic screensaver software we all grew up with) and more. We offer all of our content free of charge to any interested party. Whether you're doing looking to go down memory lane and re-visit Windows 3.1, do some research on computing history, or repurpose an old system that can't run the latest and greatest, WinWorld is here to help by providing unrestricted access to our entire library at no charge. We do not accept donations, just download and enjoy. WinWorld provides you with large amounts of downloads and high quality information that BetaArchive FTP and Vetusware can't compare with! Get Windows Abandonware, Games, Macintosh old software and more from our software library right here at WinWorld! For news, support and discussion visit WinBoards. No registration is required to post, so why not drop in and say hi? ? Impressive assortment of OSes and apps for older PCs, Macs and broadly related systems -- CP/M etc. https://winworldpc.com/ -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

10 years, 2 months

11
20
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Sun 4 disk images?

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

I'm presently working on a couple of Sun 4/110 systems. To save time, does anyone have a bootable Solaris disk image for such - to use with SCSI2SD? Note sun4 architecture - not sun4c or sun4m. Also may be on the lookout for a colour frame buffer; mine may be terminally flaky. Anything that works with a 4/110 - VME or P4 bus. Thanks Mike http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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Here's what happens when an 18 year old buys a mainframe...

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 22:07:37 -0400 > From: Brian Marstella <brian at marstella.net> > Subject: Re: Here's what happens when an 18 year old buys a > mainframe... > > I'm still kicking myself for passing up an IBM mainframe and a Sun 2000 > that my previous employer no longer needed. I reasoned that I didn't have > space or power for them; never let logic and good sense dictate your > actions :) > I brought the Sun 2000E home, and its still here. I have to thin the herd a little so I can make room for some DEC equipment. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 2 months

3
2
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Apple at 40

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I wish to congratulate Apple on its 40 anniversary today. An early pioneer in our cherished hobby. Happy computing. Murray :)

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Random VGA question: 160x200 "high color" mode?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Awhile back a "pre-alpha" version of the PC classic "DOOM" was unearthed (dated Feb 28, 1993), and it claims to support a "high color" VGA mode. >From the README.TXT: "Use High-color DAC (160 x200, but great color!) (Only newer VGA cards have this-if it looks OK, ya got it) (This may--okay, will--REALLY screw up the playscreen's graphics. Just look at the neat colors and don't worry.)" I've tried it on a number of machines (from the 386 era to a modern PC) and they all just end up showing garbage when this mode is enabled. I cannot for the life of me find a reference to this mode existing anywhere, but I assume it must have worked on *some* SVGA chipset of the era since ID programmed in support for it. I'm guessing it was cut because nothing else supported it (and because 160x200 must have looked awful, even with lots of colors...) Does this odd video mode ring any bells with anyone out there? Any idea what hardware to look for that might support it? At this point I'm more curious about the actual hardware than getting this pre-alpha to run with it... - Josh

10 years, 2 months

5
5
0 0

WinWorld

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Fred Cisin > All this time, I thought that you had to be DEAD before they could take > your work. Actually, in most jurisdictions, it's death+N years. In the US, thanks to the sleaziness of Congress, and the spinlessness of the US Supreme Court, N is now 70. Noel

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Here's what happens when an 18 year old buys a mainframe...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45X4VP8CGtk It's pretty entertaining. :) g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

10 years, 2 months

23
28
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11/23+ going cheap on eBay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So here's an 11/23+ in a nice BA11 box: http://www.ebay.com/itm/322046582015 If I wasn't _already_ knee deep in the blasted things, I'd buy it myself! ;-) The other cards aren't too interesting - an MXV11-A, MRV11-C (I think), a 64KB memory card, and what looks like an off-brand DLV11-J; and some sort of disk. Still, not a bad price (so far) for the CPU, box, and a handfull of boards. Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

R: Re: RSX-11 trouble

by supervinx＠libero.it

Well... REM ...AT. worked since an AT entry was present in the TAL output INS $BIGIND not INS -- File not found Disk (RD51) has 850 blocks free after some cleaning up. It had 738 before.

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

RC2014 homebrew computer

by lproven＠gmail.com

I confess it is in no way a classic machine, but I thought that this might be of interest to some people here. I had not heard of it before until a chance retweet from a ZX Spectrum-related account today: http://rc2014.co.uk/ ? RC2014 is a simple 8 bit Z80 based modular computer. It is inspired by the home built computers of the late 70s and computer revolution of the early 80s. It is not a clone of anything specific, but there are ideas of the ZX81, UK101, S100 and Apple I in here. Built mainly with parts donated to Nottingham Hackspace and components salvaged from random bits of equipment, it uses modern PCBs. It runs on a backplane that hosts the individual modules. This has standard 0.1? header sockets meaning new modules are simple and cheap to design and can use Veroboard or even jumper wires to breadboard. For resilience, most of the modules have been designed on to dedicated PCBs. In it?s typical basic form it has; 32k RAM, 8k ROM (running Microsoft BASIC), 3.7628Mhz Z80 processor serial communication at 115200 baud. Other modules include 8k x 8 bank switchable EPROM, SD card bootloader, ZX Printer interface, Blinkenlights, LED dot matrix display driver, LCD display driver ? (Errors in the source material.) More info and purchasing sources: https://www.tindie.com/products/Semachthemonkey/rc2014-homebrew-z80-compute… And a (for my money, insane, but) interesting peripheral: https://hackaday.io/project/9567-5-graphics-card-for-homebrew-z80 -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

OT: was: Re: AT&T Uverse IPv6 vs. Mac OS X 10.(old)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Apologies all for the OT; just a few _brief_ replies. If anyone wants a serious discussion about this, the internet-history list would be the place to start it. > From: Charles Anthony > What they did was 'NAT plus IPV6 will solve everything.' Yes, but not explicitly; the 'official' IETF position was 'IPv6 will replace IPv4', and they pretty consistently refused to acknowledge that NAT would likely play a major role. I 'sort of' understand the second part - NAT is, architecturaly, very grubby (for a long list of reasons this is not the place to go into) - but it soon got the point of ostrich-like refusal to recognize reality - which meant that instead of an _architected_ approac to using NAT, it mostly got an utterly 'ad hoc' adoption. > From: Robert Johnson > So, I'm curious what your objections to v6 are It's different from IPv4 (i.e. old code can't understand it), but not different enough (i.e. it doesn't have enough new capabilities to make it worth switching to - IPv4 has many architectural issues, but that topic is too complex to go into here). > how would you solve the shortage of IP addresses? You have to start by realizing that IPv4 addresses serve at least three functions: i) identify the communicating device (in the sense that 'Noel Chiappa' identifies me), ii) says _where_ the thing is in the Internet (like a street address does IRL), and iii) is used by intermediate switching nodes to forward traffic. So the first step is to pull out ii) and iii), which can be done without modifying the hosts, and there are many designs that did so. Alas, a fuller discussion of this complex topic is not really appropriate here... Ask on internet-history, if you want to know more. Noel

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11 M873 ROM card info?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> Does anyone have a -YB we can dump? Can I repeat my plea for this? (And also a -YC?) > I have a -YA, and will dump that in a few moments OK, I'm mostly done with the disassembly; available here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/M873-YA.mac I haven't fully understood the TA11 code (and don't plan to), nor the DECtape/magtape code (might get to that some day), but the disk and paper tape code is completely done. (I'm currently loading over serial lines, for getting the machines running, etc.) The paper tape code is 'interesting'; it took me a while to figure out _exactly_ how it worked. It appears (to me, at least) that that code will not function correctly unless the abs-loader has at least one byte of '0' pad on the end of it, for two reasons. (See the comments on the listing.) Luckily, my copy of the abs loader binary has such; although real .LDA tapes have blank leader, of course, the .LDA files I'm generating don't. The serial line code in the M9301 (-YA at least, and probably the others too) uses the identical code, so it has the identical issue. Noel

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

RSX-11 trouble

by supervinx＠libero.it

Hi! Got a MicroPDP 11 plus. It seems to be misconfigured. It can't execute .CMD files, reporting Task "...AT." terminated Load failure. Read error No disk errors are reported with ELI DU0:/SH Disk seems to work: I can run .TSK files. The file STARTUP.CMD isn't read at all. Any hints? Which file is executed right before STARTUP.CMD? I see two RED commands and a MOU before it tries to read [1,2]STARTUP.CMD and reports the aforementioned error. Thanks

10 years, 2 months

2
3
0 0

MEM11A update

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I just finished laying out the board for the MEM11A. The last roadblock was figuring out where the last 3 unrouted wires were. EagleCAD didn?t make it easy to find them and I haven?t quite figured out how to use the autorouter on Eagle 7.5, so I did this all by ?hand? (at just under 2000 wires it took a while). I haven?t re-set the grid from all of the other boards (all thru hole parts) that I?ve done, so this board is probably not optimal (plus I was getting the hang of doing a 4 layer board). I ran into a lot of wiring congestion that caused me to reroute the entire board as I moved parts around. Even with a finer grid pitch it?s unlikely that the UMF11 will fit on a single SPC board. I?m going to check the board over for the next week or so before I send it out and about 4 weeks after that I?ll have the first boards that I can populate and try out! TTFN - Guy

10 years, 2 months

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Here's what happens when an 18 year old buys a mainframe...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

reminds me of myself dragging him big racks of military comm surplus gear when I was in HD Keep it up Connor! we are proud of ya! Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 3/29/2016 4:28:17 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: Evan wrote... > Connor is a member of our user group here in the Mid-Atlantic. He's > been learning at an astonishingly quick rate! > He's been a member on this list for quite some time, and is a regular on the evening crew of the #classiccmp irc channel as well. He was working on a DG Nova 3 before the Z machine arrived, hope he gets back to it as well :) J

10 years, 2 months

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Old PC Boards and some Books to go

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi Some gems in there. Will you ship? How much do you want for the DECsystem-10 books? /P On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 12:08:28PM -0400, Dave Mitton wrote: > Guys, > still trying to clean out my basement... recently I've gathered a bunch > of PC cards from over the years. > and some of my old text and data books. Still working on listing some more > and some various kits of PC software. > I'm not assuming this is worth much, just rather pass it on, than dispose. > > I've put a list (so far) of the stuff on this web page. I have photos of > the PC cards if interested. > http://dave.mitton.com/computer_clearance.html > > Dave Mitton, > North Andover, MA > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus >

10 years, 2 months

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Seiko Wrist Terminal RC-1000 software ??

by dave＠mitton.com

Another old thing I've been interested in selling, is my SEIKO RC-1000 Wrist Terminal. This watch has a two line 12 character display, where you could also load text and alarm/reminder data. I used it for phone lists and meeting reminders. It comes with a DB25 cable that connects to the watch to download data. Example on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RETRO-1980-s-SEIKO-WRIST-TERMINAL-S501-4000-RC-1000… I'd been trying to figure out where I misplaced the 5.25" floppy with the software, until this last weekend, I found it in a stack of old Infocom game floppies. Unfortunately, when I stick it in my one remaining working 5.25" floppy drive, it made a little noise and decided it couldn't detect formatting. Looking at the diskette, there seems to be some marks on the oxide. Possibly a head load problem. It's also possible that it's just an old format this system doesn't recognize. Anyone in the area (north of Boston) have a working old PC? This is labeled as an IBM/MS-DOS version. I used it once many years ago. Does anyone have this software archived or available? SEIKO PCDatagraph Data Manager circa 1984 Dave. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 2 months

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Old PC Boards and some Books to go

by dave＠mitton.com

Guys, still trying to clean out my basement... recently I've gathered a bunch of PC cards from over the years. and some of my old text and data books. Still working on listing some more and some various kits of PC software. I'm not assuming this is worth much, just rather pass it on, than dispose. I've put a list (so far) of the stuff on this web page. I have photos of the PC cards if interested. http://dave.mitton.com/computer_clearance.html Dave Mitton, North Andover, MA --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/04-34 Programmer's Console manual error

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: J?rg Hoppe > this is something every '34 owner must go through. Urrr, hadn't thought of that! Sigh. I wonder if it'd been mentioned here before, and I'd missed it because it was before I joined? Luckily, having that cable in backwards doesn't harm anything... Well, hopefully this: http://gunkies.org/wiki/KY11-LB_Programmer's_Console will save at least some other people... Noel

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/04-34 Programmer's Console manual error

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, something I just found out the hard way, while debugging another 'situation' with a PDP-11/04: The KY11-LB Programmer's Console maintainence manual contains a major error, in describing the configuration of the 20-conductor flat cable that connectors the front panel and the UNIBUS interface module (M7859). This is covered in Chapter 9, "Installation", which includes two figures, Figures 9-4 and 9-5. Those figures show the 20-conductor flat cable with the red edge stripe toward the outer edge of the front panel PCB (correct), and also toward the outer edge of the M7859 (WRONG). On the M7859, the red stripe edge needs to be oriented _away_ from the outer edge of the board. If it is plugged in as shown in these figures, the machine will not operate: the four 'RUN/SR DISP/BUS ERR/MAINT' lights will be on, but nothing else, and it will not respond to any keys. Fortunately, plugging the cable in reversed does not damage anything; simply reverse the cable. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Z8-02 demo PCB (was Re: Running a Z8-02 MPD on a breadboard)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 1:41 AM, Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote: > I designed a simple QUIP adapter for use with solderless breadboards, > and wired up a Z8-02 MPD along with a 28C16 EEPROM for the program > memory, a 62256 static RAM, address latch, and decoder. I programmed a > copy of the Z8671 Basic/Debug interpreter into the EEPROM. To my > amazement, it worked the first time. > > Photos: > https://www.flickr.com/photos/22368471 at N04/sets/72157652653732622 I had a PCB made of basically the same circuit, with a TLC7705 voltage supervisor/reset circuit added, and a stuff option for an actual RS-232 port. I've added photos to the album linked above. Unlike the solderless breadboard version, it did not work the first time, and I haven't yet figured out what's wrong with it. The reset circuit seems to work correctly. I should have added a bus connector for I/O expansion. I was in a hurry and it had to be under 100mm square to get the boards made inexpensively. Rather than soldering in the exceedingly rare 3M QUIP socket, I soldered down four 16-position single in line machined-pin sockets, and plugged the QUIP socket into those.

10 years, 2 months

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AT&T Uverse IPv6 vs. Mac OS X 10.(old)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jerry Weiss > Disabling IPV6 was the cure. I was _extremely_ amused to hear that. (Backstory: I'm a long-time detractor of IPv6 - I've always thought it's a rolling ball of digestive byproduct, to be blunt. In fact, if I had still been on the IESG when it came around, I'd have canned it. Unfortunately, I'd resigned a while before [for unrelated reasons], something that in hindsight I've greatly regretted, since it removed my ability to can IPv6. So to hear that IPv6 is _still_, all these years later, not that crucial to useful functionality, is very satisfactory to me - it says my assessment was right on the nose. Long may IPv6 fail to be successful! The single biggest/most expensive IT failure of all time?) Noel

10 years, 2 months

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OT RE: AT&T Uverse IPv6 vs. Mac OS X 10.(old)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

TSIA -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Robert Johnson Sent: Monday, March 28, 2016 1:36 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu Subject: Re: AT&T Uverse IPv6 vs. Mac OS X 10.(old) > > On Mar 28, 2016, at 7:32 AM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > >> From: Jerry Weiss > >> Disabling IPV6 was the cure. > > I was _extremely_ amused to hear that. > > (Backstory: I'm a long-time detractor of IPv6 - I've always thought > it's a rolling ball of digestive byproduct, to be blunt. In fact, if I > had still been on the IESG when it came around, I'd have canned it. > Unfortunately, I'd resigned a while before [for unrelated reasons], > something that in hindsight I've greatly regretted, since it removed > my ability to can IPv6. So to hear that IPv6 is _still_, all these > years later, not that crucial to useful functionality, is very > satisfactory to me - it says my assessment was right on the nose. Long > may IPv6 fail to be successful! The single biggest/most expensive IT > failure of all time?) > > Noel So, I?m curious what your objections to v6 are (I know there are some very good technical objections, because v6 is unlike v4 enough to be a breaking change from a programatic point of view) - or rather, how would you solve the shortage of IP addresses? Robert Johnson -- Gtalk/Jabber:aloha at blastpuppy.com AIM:AlohaWulf Yahoo:AlohaWulf Skype:AlohaWolf Telephone:+1-562-286-4255 C*NET: 18219881 Email:aloha at blastpuppy.com Email:alohawolf at gmail.com -- "Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity." - Thomas J. Watson Sr.

10 years, 2 months

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