>
>I was looking at the Altair kit on E-OverPay. The owner says that his
kit
>didn't come with the Altair label. I also have an Altair that was
build
>from a kit. Mine didn't come with the label either. Anybody know why?
>
> Joe
My kit did not have a label with it when shipped either.
I have corresponded with others who tell me their's came
sans label too. One speculated that it is the early ones
which were sent out without labels. Don't know why.
Bob Wood
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
First I am Maurice Hamm 30 years old and living in the Netherlands.
I have a privite collection of old Radio's, Tv's and computers.
The datapoint 1800, a dec pdp 11/23, a zx81, a commodore 64, a IBM 8086
etc.
What has happend.
I have reorgenized my collection room and got the craziesed idea to
start up my DATAPOINT 1800 computer. (1980 )
This was my first computer and had for several years lot of fun with it.
I am industrious seeking for somebody that knows something about this
machine or has some information or docs
I got the machine in 1988 and has worked for several years whith it.
But now after several years I start up the machine and it did not start
up, the screen keeps black !!
There is power in the machine, the disks spins and the picture tube is
glowing.
There is also no response of the keyboard.
I think the ROM is emty.
There is no self test.
I know for certain that it was in a working state the last time I had
used the machine +/- 7 years ago.
I opened the case to look for bad fuses or contacts but every thing
looks ok.
What has gone wrong?
Question:
I know its a long time and a very, very old machine But I just like to
see this machine working again.
The comp. works under DOS.G
I have several programes and documentation and a wheel printer attached
to this comp..
Please help me.
Greatings, and a Happy new Year,
Maurice Hamm
You have GOT to see this page! It will sure as heck lighten up your day,
especially if you're looking at the ice collect on the phone and power
lines like I am.....
http://viperspit.com/funny.html
Check the "dancing baby" page out as well, very funny.
And now back to our regularly scheduled mailing list....
Hi,
I've got a Qantel model 10 system sitting around the house.
My wife used to (I guess she still does occasionally) program
on it.
Qantel was a hardware manufacturer out of Hayward Ca.
They went out of business (sort of) around 1987/88. I say
'sort of' because I think Mohawk Data Systems bought
the support rights. I also think that someone may have
attempted recently to relaunch parts of their product line.
Anyway this system isdefinitely 10 years old. I'd like to see
what hardware documentation might be floating around out
there for this.
In particular I have a real nice High-speed line printer that
I would like to get service and interface info on. It was
manufacture by Teletype but I haven't been able to find a
model number on it and I didn't want to disassemble it
right now.
It is currently still working fine, but I'd like to connect it to
some other equipment. From the little I've examine it, it
appears that it might be a current loop interface (the era
is right for this also).
Anyone familiar with this printer?
Thanks,
Jon
> > So I built the PC to 8 inch floppy converter and
> > got the software working (see other message).
> > I have tested four of the six drives I have and...
> > THEY ALL WORK!
> > Not only that, but they all agree with each other.
> > That is, a disk formatted and written on one drive
> > will read on any other drive.
> >
> > Can I assume that this means they are all
>
> What you've done is called an 'interchangeablity test' in the manuals. It
> doesn't mean all the drives are correctly aligned, or even that they're
all
> aligned exactly the same. It does mean, though that they're all pretty
close.
> It's possible that they're all way off, but I doubt it. After all, how
would
> they have all been aligned to each other?
>
> So I think it's safe to say that they're probably aligned well enough to
use.
Now I'm 6 for 6. All six work, all pass interchangeability. For those
keeping score:
3 Seimens model FDD 200-8P
1 Seimens model FDD 120-8
1 Seimens model FDD 100-8
1 Shugart model 801 (missing one cap)
Now to go through and jiggle all of the boards in the C3-D, power it up
and see if she boots. Wish me luck.
Can anyone point me to a good utility for testing memory that DOS 6.22
(HIMEM) occaisionally reports as suspect? I'm looking for something
other than yanking the SIMM's out, and testing them (it's a govt owned
'puter, and the repair person 'll take forever if I don't provide some
kind of
serious guidance as to the cause of the problem).. Yeah, I've thought
of opening it up, and cleaning the contacts on the SIMMS etc, but, as
a Contractor Employee, I don't want to risk getting my company getting
blamed for anything..
AdvTHANKSance
Will
I have an IBM XT with monitor & keyboard. Anyone interested?
___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
I was looking at the Altair kit on E-OverPay. The owner says that his kit
didn't come with the Altair label. I also have an Altair that was build
>from a kit. Mine didn't come with the label either. Anybody know why?
Joe
In a message dated 12/31/98 9:42:11 PM EST, adavie(a)mad.scientist.com writes:
<< I wonder if there are other examples of
ins/outs that you oldies remember and would care to share. Things that were
ubiquitous and no longer with us. >>
how about BBSs? they are still around, but with the net catching on and
everyone getting on it, bulletin boards are all but forgotten it seems.
> On Thursday, December 31, 1998 7:49 PM, Andrew Davie wrote:
> A gent I've just traded with to obtain a boxed SYM-1 casually
What version of SYM is it? I have a SYM that is a slightly later one,
1.1? It's not the one that took a 680x chip (version 2?), but the one
after the VIM. I'm looking for a manual, or at least a photocopy of the
schematics. Someone from Australia sent me an old SYM manual set, but it
was for the earlier VIM.
He also sent along the BASIC and RAE (assembler) proms. I'm keeping the
BASIC, but would be willing to trade the RAE for a SYM manual.
Al McCann
amc358(a)interserv.com
Hello.
I have a WANG WLTC computer that I would like to either sell for a
reasonable price, or trade for another laptop/portable computer (preferably
classic).
Here are the specs:
-8086 (8MHz?)
-10MB internal HD
-WANG compatible LCD (can emulate CGA or Hercules)
-Built-in thermal printer w/plain-paper capability (ribbon available)
-512K RAM
-50-pin Centronics SCSI port for floppy drive, external HD, etc.
This computer supposedly has an in-ROM wordprocessor and spreadsheet, but I
have yet to figure out how to get into them.
I have a not-so-good battery for it, so it will occasionally not boot (sort
of like the Mac Portable - must have a charged battery to run correctly).
The internal P/S has a small problem in that it will occasionally blow a
cap. I think this is either caused by the bad battery or because some of
the other electrolytics are starting to go bad (I have no way of testing
them).
It requires an 18vDC, 1.5 amp external P/S, which I don't have.
The person that I previously had a deal with seems to have backed out again,
so I'm offering it to the first person that responds with a reasonable
offer.
I have two WLTC's , and I don't like to have more than one of a single type
of computer, so I'm offering it here, where someone would would possibly be
able to fix/use it. I'd say that it's a fairly durable computer, since my
other one has nearly (a guess) 27,000 hours on the HD, with no bad sectors,
it still ran fine, even after it was dropped, until the external P/S got
zapped last year. Now I run it off of three 6v Power Wheels batteries.
If anyone is interested, or wants a picture of it, send me a personal email,
and I can send you one (about 40k).
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
PS>> If anyone has any spare WLTC power bricks, and you want to sell one,
let me know. -ThAnX!
<The "glass capacitors" that look like diodes look that way because they =
<ARE diodes. It turns out that one of the cheapest and best ways to make =
<0.1uF capacitors is to make two diodes in the same case, in series with =
This is inaccurate. The size of the junction needed to create a .1uF cap
would be huge. It would not be cheap nor effective. The cap inside is
similar in construction to those now seen on SMT loaded cards.
It is possible to make caps using the junction and there are devices
that use this principle. However the capacitance is A) variable with
voltage imposed across the reverse biased junction and B) 300-500pf is
about the upper limit for them. They are known as varactor or varicap
diodes and are not found on SA8XX drives.
The glass caps were generally just a different package with one advantage
in that glass is hermetic. Or better said compared to plastics and some
ceramics they are impervious to moisture.
Allison
The "glass capacitors" that look like diodes look that way because they ARE diodes. It turns out that one of the cheapest and best ways to make 0.1uF capacitors is to make two diodes in the same case, in series with opposite polarities (it never conducts because one of the diodes is always back biased). The back-biased junction forms the capacitor, and it has very good characteristics for bypass (decoupling).
As for the 104 notation, this is 10**4 (ten to the 4th power). Thats 10,000 pF = 0.1 uF. 50V is the voltage rating.
Barry Watzman
On Jan 1, 0:08, Tony Duell wrote:
> Yes.. 104 -> 10*10^4 pf (read the numbers like the bands on a resistor,
> but in pf) = 0.1uF. The Z is the tolerance, I think. 50V is the maximum
> working voltage.
Yes, the letter is the tolerance, as defined in IEC 63(1963) (and possibly
elsewhere). J=5% K=10% M=20% and Z means "something else" or "not very
good" or "unclassified", often +20% -80%.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Mr "TV Dog" is back up and around with his MSDOS/Tandy 1000 realm and
has posted a page of general purpose software for internet use on older
non-windows machines at http://www.agate.net/~tvdog/internet.html
Just in case you wanted to know <g>
<The AIM-65 (single-board, full keyboard, LED display and 20-column
<printer on-board), SD Systems Z-80 starter kit, Motorola MEK6800, VIM-1
<(predecessor to the SYM-1).
What about the Intel SDK80, SDK85, SDK88, NEC TK80, the AMI EVKseries and
the IMSAI IMP48?
Allison
<I am fortunate to have recentlyly added a SYM-1 to my collection.
<Could anybody with instructions/documentation for this machine please
<contact me. I'd like to explore the possibility of purchase or trade of
<these documents, or copies. I now have the KIM and SYM - would anybody car
<to suggest another target to aim for? ie: What other single board computer
AS a collector you should study records of the time (magazines and the like)
for your targets. IT would give you a better idea of the significance and
the relationships of thse items.
FYI: AIM-65 would be one to looks for.
Allison
On Dec 31, 20:01, Sam Ismail wrote:
> AppleSoft didn't have a PRINT @ statement so chalk that one up to my
> arrogant ignorance. Interestingly though, Woz squeezed the '@' symbol
> on to the original Apple ][ keyboard above the P key (shift-P = @). Who
> knows why. The @ wasn't used for anything inherent in the Apple.
It follows teletype usage, I think; CTRL-SHIFT-@ = CTRL-@ = NUL Probably
Woz had a use for 'NUL' rather than '@'.
w.r.t. "PRINT @", several BASICs (but not Applesoft) had "PRINT AT"
instead.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
>The AIM-65 (single-board, full keyboard, LED display and 20-column
>printer on-board), SD Systems Z-80 starter kit, Motorola MEK6800, VIM-1
>(predecessor to the SYM-1).
>
I have a full doc set for the AIM-65 if anyone needs any info on this
machine.
Happy new year all!
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
>> to suggest another target to aim for? ie: What other single board
computers
>> from the era, with on-board keypads, would be fitting companions for the
SYM
>> and KIM?
>
>The AIM-65 (single-board, full keyboard, LED display and 20-column
>printer on-board), SD Systems Z-80 starter kit, Motorola MEK6800, VIM-1
>(predecessor to the SYM-1).
>
>There are many more, but you only wanted those with on-board keypads.
>
A few more keypad systems immediately come to mind..
Heathkit ET3400: 680x based
HP5036A: 8085 based
IMSAI 8048 controllers:
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
Hi,
I have some old memory boards that use the EMM SEMI 4200 Chip (the same
as the Altair 16K Static RAM 16-MCS Board uses). They have TRI-DATA etched
into the copper. They also have "MCI 1" in white silk screen on the card.
They have a strange configuration: 6 Bit colum X 4 Bit row. They also
have an EPROM on board.
Does any one know where they came from, what they are used for and if
they are worth anything.
If they are worth something, I would be willing to exchange them for a
fair price. If they aren't worth anything, I'll just scrap them and sell
the memory for use with an Altair.
At any rate, if anyone knows anything about them, I would appreciate
knowing about them.
Thanks,
Neil.
On Dec 31, 20:07, Zane H. Healy wrote:
> As for the function keys, until recently I think the only thing I'd ever
> used them for was WordPerfect. Now I use them all the time on VT420's,
and
> wish I knew how to set them on a RS/6000. They would probably be used a
> LOT more if people knew how, or if there was some nice UNIX/Mac/Windoz
Apps
> for setting them to do stuff (of course there probably is, but I can't
> think of any).
I use them a lot too, partly because on my Unix box there's a little
utility called 'bindkey' to assign arbitrary strings to keys. It works for
any keys, but generally I find it more useful to assign command strings to
function keys, and I'm used to programming strings into function keys on
other micros (BBC Micro, Archimedes, mostly).
The insert() and string(string) functions in xterm should allow you to
program your function keys, but it's a bit tedious by hand, I expect.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
At 10:38 PM 12/22/98 -0600, you wrote:
> size keyboard and a 3x40 line lcd display. machine also has connections for
> rs232, telephone, and din plugs for modem and printer. machine can also run
>I tried to buy a lot of those once. I thought they were portable
>terminals, but they turn out to be "portable paging entry terminals" used
>to send pages to pagers, I assume.
> From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
> 25229 : This also has the 40 pin ASIC but with a totally different
> layout. C1 is a 0.1uF cap Near the power connector. CR1 is a 1N4148 a few
> components back from the middle of the front edge. There are 2 zeners,
> CR8 (12V) near the head connector and CR18 (2.4V) about halfway between
> the front edge of the board and pin 1 of the 40 pin chip
That's the one! I suck at ASCII art so lets try text. Looking
at the board component side towards me, 50 pin edge connector
up. In the upper right corner is a tin can cap aligned veritically,
silk screen seems to be "C26". To its left is the power connector.
Below it, aligned horizontally, is a clear component with bright
copper ends and fine black print which (straining my eyes) seems
to read:
104
Z
50V
The silkscreen that seems to be associated with it is "C25".
Directly below that is where the missing component was,
also aligned horizontally. The silkscreen that seems to be
associated with that position is "C1". The leads that remianed
had the same bright copper ends still attached. There were
bits of curshed clear material stuck to the board.
In a message dated 12/31/98 10:14:47 PM EST, sinasohn(a)ricochet.net writes:
<< > size keyboard and a 3x40 line lcd display. machine also has connections
for
> rs232, telephone, and din plugs for modem and printer. machine can also run
>I tried to buy a lot of those once. I thought they were portable
>terminals, but they turn out to be "portable paging entry terminals" used
>to send pages to pagers, I assume.
>From my research into alphapaging standards (I was working on a program for
the RS m100 to use it as an alphapaging station) I believe that is exactly
what it is. A tech from airtouch recommended I just buy one of those
instead of writing my own program. (Probably shoulda listened; the pgm
isn't done yet.) >>
well, if anyone wants this alphamate, just let me know. i dont want it.
Before I go into the detail, let me first say that this bug likely
is as old as V5.5 (I only have looked at the V5.6 code
on a friend's system) which is when extended device drivers
were first introduced. So, we can say that the bug is about
10 years old and qualifies for this list since V5.5 of RT-11
was released in 1989.
The bug in RT-11 occurs when RT-11 has had a SYSGEN to allow
extended device drivers and a device driver which is extended
(allows more than 8 devices - in my case, I was using a DU:
MSCP device driver which allowed 64 partitions). In a test
case, the following sequence produces a crash:
SRUN KEX.SAV/LEVEL:n/NAME:KEXn for n = 1 => 6
after each do a CTRL/B to return to the background
Then do:
ABORT KEXn for n = 1 => 6
UNLOAD KEXn for n = 1 => 6
I tried this under RT11XM on V5.6 with an RL02 being
the boot device and DU: being auto-installed and not
referenced the whole time. In the actual situation,
DU: was being referenced on a magneto optical disk
drive to obtain specified files, but the DU: device
driver was not LOADed since there was insufficient
space left in low memory. So, although there are
probably a number of work arounds, the real problem
is that UNLOAD has a bug and does not work correctly
in these circumstances.
UNLOAD in KMOVLY has a bug, as far as I can understand.
In fact, possibly more than one. But, for now, just one that I can
handle. It would seem, in addition, that co-ordination between
different portions of the monitor may not have been done very
successfully since the USR does have the correct code to handle
the situation (a "Beq" instruction) while UNLOAD seems to
want to ignore the problem. Of course, if the USR had not
handled the problem correctly, there are likely going to be many
more occasions when the bug would have occurred, so in the
USR it was caught and the code is correct.
The exact description of the bug and owner tables may not be
correct. If so, please refer to the SSM. But the essential nature
of the bug is, I believe, correctly described.
THE PROBLEM, from what I can understand, is that in UNLOAD,
a system job MAY "own" a specific device (done via a LOAD
command). There is a two word owner table entry for each device
which has 4 bits allowed for each of the possible 8 drives normally
associated (DU0: => DU7:) with each device driver. When a
SYSGEN is done which includes extended device drivers, that
owner table entry of two words is too small and is used to "point"
to a 16 word (maximum size) table within the device driver ONLY
when the device driver is LOADed (I presume that a .FETCH may
also allocate the same 16 words, but they would not be used). SO
IF THE DEVICE DRIVER IS INSTALLed, BUT NOT LOADed,
the two word owner table entry can't "point" anywhere and the pointer
word is set at a default of zero. In the USR, when that word is picked
up, a "Beq" is used to detect that the device driver has not yet been
LOADed and no owner specific code is executed. BUT, UNLOAD
in KMOVLY does not have that instruction ("Beq") and merrily goes
and assumes that the extended device driver owner table entry (in the
case of an extended device driver SYSGENed system PLUS an
actual extended device driver such as DU:) is at the location starting
at zero. In the process of disconnecting the system job from a device
driver, the first 16 words in low memory are assumed to contain the
owner table entry AND the 8 vectors there (00 => 34 - which
obviously includes the EMT vector) can be "MODIFIED". Which
results in crashes in RT-11. If anyone is truly interested in this bug,
but does not understand what I have stated - the explanation I
have given is only a small portion of all the detail, please inquire
further.
Since this bug has not been encountered before - or if anyone has
but was unable to track it down - then likely the situation does not
occur very often. When DU: is resident, obviously DU: has been
LOADed. But I suspect that an extended LD: which is not LOADed
could also cause the same problem. The simple solution that I was
told about a number of years ago (when I had not yet been informed
that it was UNLOAD which was causing the problem) is to not
do the UNLOAD, but to instead do a BOOT which, of course,
does an UNLOAD of everything.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
Tim Hotze wrote:
>I agree here, too. Windows 95 really won't like a 486/20. Sure, in
>theory, it SHOULD boot, but your lifetime warranty on RAM might
>expire before you get to see a Start button.
Win95 OSR1 runs fine on my 486 33MHz. Well, good enough to run the
occasional game of multi-player Doom at any rate. Now if only I could work
out how it managed to upgrade itself from an SX to a DX whilst I was
installing Win95 ;)
-----Original Message-----
From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke(a)mch20.sbs.de>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, 25 December 1998 2:20
Subject: Re: vaugue musings...
>
>> Merry Christmas All
>> It's after 7:30pm Xmas Eve, and it's 36C.
>> Seeya
>
>If it wasn't for Christmas, I'll hate you for teasing us
>with this ridicoulus temperatures while we have -3C :)
Want to swap? I HATE summer. My shop is not airconditioned and
I can't take computers apart while I'm dripping on to the boards.
I really like cold weather. Mind you, it never gets below 0C here,
except maybe a couple below during the mid winter nights.
>Anyway, Fr?hliche Weihnacht to all of you.
And to you all. It's 9pm on Christmas Day, we had a cool
southerly change, and the temp is now a very comfortable
22C or so. But it's still 30+ in the shop. Gonna have to get
some exhaust fans or an evaporative cooler at least......
We had Xmas Dinner outside around the BBQ, but it was
a bit warm even there.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
So I built the PC to 8 inch floppy converter and
got the software working (see other message).
I have tested four of the six drives I have and...
THEY ALL WORK!
Not only that, but they all agree with each other.
That is, a disk formatted and written on one drive
will read on any other drive.
Can I assume that this means they are all
properly aligned? I find this hard to believe
as two of the drives were mishandled during
shipping so badly that they sheared off their
mounting bolts and a few of the components
on one of the electronics boards were
damaged (more in next message).
Finally, where is write protection enforced?
There is a signal from the drive to the controller.
Is that just for the controllers information or
does the controller enforce the protection?
If the controller or software is bad can a drive
be forced to write to a protected disk?
Bill Sudbrink
> If it has a C1 next to it you can bet it is a capacitor.
> You should have rows of them on the card.
Nope, I'm sure that it was a diode. The ends of it
were still on the leads. There is another one next
to where it was labeled "C25".
> Is it is the one by the resistor and transistor?
> Or the one by the two 'normal' looking capacitors on the other side?
There are no transistors on the board. The diode is in
the corner, near the power connector.
Just for reference, the main component on the board is a
40 pin IC labeled:
AMI KOREA
SHUGART
16271-0
8130B1M
There are only three caps that I see on the board. They
are the little silver can types, no ceramics. They are
labeled "C17", "C22" and "C26".
In a message dated 12/31/98 0:33:13 AM EST, Pjoules1(a)cs.com writes:
<< Agreed, apart from home produced or piarate ones which you have already
pointed out are always suspect. IIRC there have been rare ocasions where
floppies have been distributed with viruses in bulk, one was a batch of
preformatted ones where the master (or duplicating machine or whatever) was
infected with aa boot sector vvirus, and I belive that there has been at
least
on occasion where a major software house accidentally distributed some but
that was many years ago.
>>
i think not long ago that a commercial mac cd was shipped with a virus. can
anyone elaborate?
Using the CP/M FAQ I built a 34 to 50 pin
converter. A couple of notes:
1) read the whole FAQ. The wiring
instructions in Q14 don't take into
account the IBM-PC "floppy twist".
Q16 gives the wiring that worked for
me. Spent an hour scratching my
head on that before I read further.
Primary indicative behavior: seeks
with no head load, software reporting
access attempts with no head load.
2) The Radio Shack General Purpose
Component PC Board (Cat. No.
276-168B) makes a great platform
to build the converter on. Took me
about an hour to solder it up.
3) There seems to be a bug in 22DISK
versions greater than 1.31. The directory
read code does not seem to use the
seek delay. Either that or it simply
misses a head step. It always reports
cylinder 2 read errors. Despite this, it
can format, read and write just fine. It
just can't display directories. Spent
another two hours on that. BTW older
versions of 22DISK can be found with
FTP searches, sorry I don't remember
where I got 1.31 (I downloaded 5 different
versions from different sites).
Bill Sudbrink
Hi! I'm back! I've just been off the list for a few weeks - first a
course, then two weeks ill - and I came into work after Christmas to find
1200 messages waiting for me from Classiccmp.
I am trying to put replies to a few older threads together in this message.
SYSTEM/23
I too have a Datamaster, and a number of the manuals. I think these
machines ought to be kept running, so I'll provide what help I can. The
service manuals are mainly board swappers' guides, but there is some useful
info there if you dig hard enough...
SINGLE INSTANCE MACHINES
Do I have the only Tek 4052? I think there are at least three 4051s on the
list.
I also have an IBM 6150 but I doubt that's unique.
I don't have the only FTS Series 88 on the list - I distinctly remember
giving Tony Duell one for his 21st birthday - but I'd guess I have the only
FTS Series 86.
Oh yes. Tony's P850. Tony wrote:
> Mine was made in about 1971. Last time I powered it up was about 3 months
> ago, and it behaved perfectly. I've had it for about 12 years, and in
> that time it's needed the switch contacts on some of the frontpanel
> switches cleaning, and one new TTL chip in the processor. In other words
> it's pretty reliable.
And you had to re-solder some inter-board connecting wires on the core
memory modules. IIRC these wires were little strips of springy stuff.
Boards wired together with these while lying next to each other, and then
folded over, the springy connecting wire acting as a hinge. Unfortunately
springy wire doesn't take as well to soldering as ordinary wire...
Philip.
I recently unearthed an acquisition from several years ago (and
added it to my home_systems web page).
I have a TC200, a handheld, battery-powered portable terminal
which appears to have been built by IXO, Inc, yet it has a
Digital logo on it (so it either was, or was going to be,
marketed by Digital).
It is powered by a 6v Litium battery, like the kind you find
in a Polaroid film pack (but they are not identical -- the
battery terminals are in different places). It is called
a PolaPulse battery.
Does anyone know of a source for this battery nowadays?
Also, does anyone happen to have any documentation or
other information about this thing?
Thanks in advance...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
Dave Dameron wrote:
> OFF topic:
> Max wrote:
> There's little need to make coils these days, and wiring electric lights
> isn't very fun when one can play around with things millions of times
more
> complex.
>
> Hey! I've wound several experimental coils this year. Did you wonder
_how_ a
> transformer works? I know the equations to design one, but am asking
> something more fundamental. The secondary winding of a transformer has
> voltage induced in it, but what couples the energy to it from the primary
> winding's magnetic field?
> (Hint: The magnetic field can be zero at the secondary)
As the list's resident electrical (as opposed to electronic) engineer, I
feel I must make a stab at answering this. Especially since my first job
at PowerGen was research on transformers. (Not at this fundamental level
though - I was looking at fault detection systems)
As I see it, when you have a winding linked with a magnetic field, you
induce a voltage in the winding proportional to the rate of change of the
field. If you like to visualise lines of magnetic flux, the voltage is
related to the number of flux lines that actually cut the wires of the
winding, not the flux linked with the winding at any time.
This means, among other things, that (for sinusoidal ac) the flux is zero
when the voltage is at its peak and vice versa.
The transformer, though, is not a differentiator since the magnetic field
is proportional to the integral of voltage in the primary. That is, flux =
integral (Volts in).dt; (Volts out) = d(flux)/dt (assume = means "is
proportional to")
Note also that the flux depends only on voltage, NOT CURRENT. You
associate magnetic fields with currents (well, I do, anyway), and as you
increase the primary current you expect the field to increase. But it
doesn't. An equal and opposite effect from the secondary current exactly
balances this.
This has a number of implications that are quite important for my current
(pun not intended) job, modelling power systems.
1. The equivalent circuit of a transformer has a branch in parallel with
the primary, the magnetising branch. This is an inductance representing
the magnetic field (and it's in parallel, so it depends only on voltage as
above) and a resistance representing "iron losses"
2. No transformer is perfect. There is regulation - inductance and
resistance apparently in series with it. The resistance represents "copper
loss" - the physical resistance of the windings. The inductance represents
flux in each winding that _does not_ link with the other, and therefore is
not backed off by current in the other winding. But in an electrical
system model, the simplest representation of a tranformer is a series
inductance connecting two sides of the transformer. Ironically, this
represents physically the magnetic field that does not connect the two
sides of the transformer!
3. For metering, protection and the rest, you see a lot of current
transformers. One of these consists of a high current, low voltage primary
- usually a bar running through the middle of the toroidal core - and one
or more multi-turn (low current) secondaries. The equation is simple. The
mmf (magnetomotive force = amps * turns) of all the windings add up to zero
(equal and opposite effect of secondary current again). Because the
measuring kit acts as an effective short circuit on the secondary - or
drops a few volts at most - the magnetising current is almost zero, and you
can thus make very accurate measurememnts.
Is this the answer you wanted?
Final note. What do you mean by "the primary winding's magnetic field" as
distinct from that of the secondary? To a good approximation, the magnetic
field is the same at both the primary and the secondary. It may be close
to zero, for reasons I described. But the difference between the mag.
field at the two windings contributes only to the equivalent series
impedance. It is not something to look at when discussing the detailed
operation of the tranformer.
> As for wiring lights, Christmas tree light strings here are now cheap
series
> strings although the bulbs may have some wire turns wrapped around the
leads
> to prevent a open circuit if a bulb burns out. This often don't work, so
the
> entire string is usually thrown away, like many modern ASIC type computer
boards
Aargh! I've not heard of that (throwing the whole string away) before but
I can well believe it.
Philip.
<> Yes. The 8259 PIC (interrupt controller) is fully programmable for edge
<> and level. It's possibel to go from edge to level on a common PC but you
<
<
<Unfortunately the interrupt inputs on the 8259 are always active high
<(specified clearly in the data sheet), so you still need inverters on all
<the inputs for active-low lines.
Yes and they would be needed as putting raw unbuffered mos inputs on a
bus is bad form.
<all, the reason for having a PC is compatibility. There are plenty of
<nicer machines to hack about with (which is where we started).
yes, multibus and other implmentations were better. Even S100 got that
part right!
Allison
I wonder if it was a mistyped $50.00....
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Clayton <musicman38(a)mindspring.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, December 31, 1998 3:11 PM
Subject: Osborne 01 for only $5000.00
>Gads!! Check this out on eBay !!! Ha! Ha! HeHeHe!!!
>
>An Osborne 01 for an opening bid of only $5000.00 HeHeHe!!!
>As stated in the ad it could be a "Corner Stone" of your computer
>collection..
>
>He is even generous enough to include free shipping.. HeHe!!
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=50980862
>
>Funny thing there are no bids on it yet.. <Grin>
>
>Phil..
>
>
>
I've got a Tandy 600. When I try to boot it, it gives an error message,
seeks the floppy, then shuts off. When I restart it, it says "critical
system error", or something like that, and goes into ROM (MS-WORKS). Then
when I try to access something, it locks.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch(a)30below.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, December 31, 1998 1:37 PM
Subject: ZDTV sightings...
>ZDTV is running a news story on donation of old equipment (right now) and -
>of all things - they had a *big* table full of classic equipment! Just in
>glancing, I saw 2 Tandy 100/102's, I think an Epson HX-20, and -
>wherethehell'dtheygetit??? a Tandy 600! That really caught my eye.
>
>I'd like to find out what they are doing with the machines *after* the
>story...
>
>See ya next year,
>Roger "Merch" Merchberger
>
>
I just obtained a like new CDR-84-1 SCSI cdrom, no docs as usual. I need
info on the jumper block (some may be DIP switches instead) numbered 1-6
on back as well as what speed (I'm guessing 3x) the cdrom is rated for.
If someone out there might knwo where I can get a copy of it's docs or
can scan and attach the pages to me it would be greatly appreciated.
The cdrom is going into my Dell 4066/XE server (#2 of 3) to be used on a
BBS I'm setting back up.
Tony Duell wrote:
> I'm quite sure that things like SPARCbooks are normally considered to be
> both laptops and workstations....
Oh yes. Obvious really. My SPARCbook has no internal floppy drive and
communicates with an external one via the SCSI bus. Since it is my
employer's property, not mine, I haven't dismantled it to see what's
inside, but I imagine a standard floppy drive and an interface board...
Some years ago we had a piece of data acquisition equipment called
MDAS-7000. Originally made by Transera corp., by the time we bought one by
Kaye Instruments. This had a 68000 CPU, a UNIX-alike in ROM (called Rnix),
and built in Tektronix BASIC.
The floppy drive on this was not connected to the CPU board. There was a
separate board controlling it, based around an 80188 CPU, that communicated
with the CPU board via, you guessed it, the SCSI bus.
I wonder if the box still exists, and if so, if I can get my hands on it.
Another potential Single Instance machine, I reckon...
Philip.
Hi Megan,
At 11:56 PM 12/30/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I recently unearthed an acquisition from several years ago (and
>added it to my home_systems web page).
>
>I have a TC200, a handheld, battery-powered portable terminal
>which appears to have been built by IXO, Inc, yet it has a
>Digital logo on it (so it either was, or was going to be,
>marketed by Digital).
>
>It is powered by a 6v Litium battery, like the kind you find
>in a Polaroid film pack (but they are not identical -- the
>battery terminals are in different places). It is called
>a PolaPulse battery.
>
>Does anyone know of a source for this battery nowadays?
>
Would it be this one?
http://www.polaroid.com/products/oem/battery/p100.html
-Dave
In a message dated 30/12/98 21:49:06 GMT Standard Time,
ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes:
> What you're not going to get is the odd one or two CD-ROMs that are
> infected, unlike floppies where it could easily happen.
Agreed, apart from home produced or piarate ones which you have already
pointed out are always suspect. IIRC there have been rare ocasions where
floppies have been distributed with viruses in bulk, one was a batch of
preformatted ones where the master (or duplicating machine or whatever) was
infected with aa boot sector vvirus, and I belive that there has been at least
on occasion where a major software house accidentally distributed some but
that was many years ago.
Regards
Pete
In a message dated 29/12/98 11:03:53 GMT Standard Time, tim(a)thereviewguide.com
writes:
>
> Yes, I booted from a write protected floppy, but before that I did a
> virus scan with a normal boot.
A basic precaution of which some are not aware.
> And of course I don't use MS Anit Virus. IIRC, it hasn't been
> updated since 1992 when Windows 3.1 shipped!
>
Once again, you would be surprised how many people trust it.
Regards
Pete
<If I understood, this could be summed up as:
<When an interrupt happens, the interrupt line is pulled low by the
<interrupting device. If it's edge triggered, the CPU can't tell how many
<devices are causing the interrupt and only services the first one.
Assuming the interrupt was active low. the PC made it worse by being edge
and active high...poor.
<And are you saying that if they were level-triggered, I could have two
<devices on IRQ 7?
Yes!
<And is it easy to design a level-triggered equivalent
<to the PC on paper?
Yes. The 8259 PIC (interrupt controller) is fully programmable for edge
and level. It's possibel to go from edge to level on a common PC but you
have to write your own drivers and other drivers would blow up.
<Are all PS/2 s level-triggered or only the MCA ones?
Only MCA.
Allison
Recently a list of Russian Radios was posted to this group.
I have been in communication with the sellers, with an interest to having
them find me Russian calculators and computers (see my page at
http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/slide/calculator/soviet.html). They
indicated that they were able to get just about any model that I wanted, so
I asked for the "top 4" - three of which had never been seen other than as
grainy photographs. Within a day or so, they responded that they have the
calculators I asked for. I have asked for more details - pictures -
photocopy - serial numbers - anything!! No response, yet. It will be great
if they really DO have what they say they have, but at this stage my scam
detectors are hooting really loudly. I'd advise anyone dealing with these
people to exercise caution. They may be genuine, but usually if something
looks too good to be true...
I'll keep the group informed, if there's any further developments.
A
-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Willgruber <roblwill(a)usaor.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, December 24, 1998 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: Old Radios
I collect old radios, and I can definitely say differently. Just try
plugging in a metal-cabinet radio with a few bad tubes, turning it on,
and
touching the case. Also, get out of the way when a shelf collapses with
a
52-pound short-wave receiver on it. Other than that, you're probably
right.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Marty <Marty(a)itgonline.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, December 23, 1998 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: Old Radios
> Come now comrade Griffiths, an old radio never hurt anyone.
>
> Marty
>
>
>
<The bit is how would _you_ have done it in 1975 with the parts
<available then without knowing what would show up soon after.
Try more like 1977 for the apple controller. In 75 it was two or three
boards of TTL.
Allison
I have a Model 3 whose display has grown very dim. I also have the lead
on 4 Model 4's that I can get for a steal. I am hoping that the display
>from a Model 4 could be moved to my 3. Is this possible? Are they they
same? Thanks,
--
--------------------------------------------------------
Todd Osborne
Senior Software Engineer
FMStrategies, Inc.
http://www.fmstrategies.com/
--------------------------------------------------------
FMStrategies, Inc: tosborne(a)fmstrategies.com
Internet E-Mail: todd.osborne(a)barnstormer-software.com
--------------------------------------------------------
Founder of the Virtual Windows Class Library (C++)
http://www.barnstormer-software.com/vwcl/
--------------------------------------------------------
Anagrams? (http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/)
Can you figure out this one? Want the answer? E-Mail me.
COCO VERDI MOM (Hint: Think Late 1970's Computer)
--------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
2 Wrongs Don't Make a Right, But 3 Rights Make a Left!
--------------------------------------------------------
Hi Doug,
At 01:49 AM 12/30/98 -0600, you wrote:
>In any case, here's a picture of Simon, the first personal computer from
>~1950:
> http://www.yowza.com/classiccmp/berkeley/simon.gif
>
Very interesting. Are the approx. 6 rows X 20 "modules" relays? Looks like
something that could be built without too much difficulty.
I assume you have it to have made the scanned image. Have you powered it?
-Dave
On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
> What's particularly dangerous about the Mac Plus? I don't recall it being
> that bad when I was inside one.
You mentioned live parts in the power supply that shouldn't be live, IIRC
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
In a message dated 30/12/98 00:30:15 GMT Standard Time,
ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes:
> But I don't see how a CD-ROM could be infected.
In the case of file viruses it only needs the CD to contain an affected file.
In the case of bootable CDs all it needs is for them to be mastered on an
infected PC. In theory they can act just as well as vectors viruses but, of
course, it is less likely that you will get a boot sector infection from one
as I would hazard a guess that most people do not have their PC set to boot
>from CD first whereas a lot of PCs are left with the floppy as the default
boot device.
Regards
Pete
In a message dated 30/12/98 03:06:06 GMT Standard Time, kurtkilg(a)geocities.com
writes:
> For one thing, I've never gotten any virus. FOr the other, can't you get
> rid of boot sector virii w/FDISK /MBR? If not, what is a good way of
> getting rid of them?
fdisk /MBR is very dangerous unless you are absolutely sure what you are
doing. If the machine is affected by any virus which moves or encrypts the
partition table then this method will lose you all of your data. The same
will happen if you are using any disk remapping software such as DM to get
around size limits.
Regards
Pete
On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
> The PC? Well it has active high edge triggered signals. I believe
> (although I would have to check all the details) this saves one TTL chip
> on the PC motherboard. A chip costing <$0.50 in _1 off_. And we've had
> the IRQ sharing problem ever since....
If I understood, this could be summed up as:
When an interrupt happens, the interrupt line is pulled low by the
interrupting device. If it's edge triggered, the CPU can't tell how many
devices are causing the interrupt and only services the first one.
And are you saying that if they were level-triggered, I could have two
devices on IRQ 7? And is it easy to design a level-triggered equivalent
to the PC on paper? Are all PS/2 s level-triggered or only the MCA ones?
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
On Wed, 30 Dec 1998 tim(a)thereviewguide.com wrote:
> to any OS they've seen. (Seems that most popular OS's work in a similiar
> way, such as how you can change between DIR and ls fairly easily, etc.
> Sometimes not that related, but nothing's really far-out there.)
Yes, I've noticed that too. All variations on a theme. Except the GUIs
which are somewhat more variable, and the BASICs which often come up with
different ways of accessing drives.
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
At 01:15 AM 12/30/98 -0800, The Sam Ismail wrote:
>
>The OCR is OK when the text is just normal, and does remarkably well. But
>I need an OCR suite smarter than Xerox's TextBridge Classic. I also need
>some good post-processing software, or at least need to know how to scan a
>simple black & white document without the scanner introducing blotches and
>crap. Any suggestions?
I've used Caere OmniPage in the past, and it seemed pretty good, but
I wasn't trying to scan old computer docs, just nice typewriter pages.
I'm very interested in the collective wisdom about this, so of course
it seems quite on-topic to me. I'd like to scan the ASR-33 Teletype
manuals, which contain plenty of odd hand-set type, drawings, off-size
pages, schematics, etc. I'd also like to restore the UCSD Pascal
manuals, of which I've heard the only electronic copies at UCSD were
lost a long time ago.
Given these problems of line art and odd character sets, I suspect
the most useful first step would be to scan all docs at a given
resolution, then store them as bitmaps in a format most easily
loaded into any present or future OCR / PDF-ish program. Someone
mentioned the multi-page TIFF format. As for which resolution,
I think 300 DPI might be too coarse.
I like Doug's idea of shooting for HTML. I recall the multi-res
buttons on IBM's patent server, which allows you an easy way
to browse thumbnails, then zoom in on the desired page at various
resolutions. Is there an off-the-shelf tool for doing this?
- John
Actually, Netscape still goes wacky with 32 MB RAM, and a 4.3gig HD on a
P200. I think that some of the free browsers (IE, Opera, Mosaic, even
NETTAMER) outperform the overpriced netscrape.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>>Either buggy VGA driver or not enough ram. I found NS would do that with
>>8mb and with 12mb it wouldn't!
>
In a message dated 12/29/98 10:05:15 PM EST, kurtkilg(a)geocities.com writes:
<< For one thing, I've never gotten any virus. FOr the other, can't you get
rid of boot sector virii w/FDISK /MBR? If not, what is a good way of
getting rid of them? >>
two notes here:
you can use the /mbr switch, but if you are doing it off the hard drive, its
useless. of course you'd have to boot off a clean floppy. i know in the case
of pcdos7, sometimes you can run ibmavsh.exe which will immobolize some
viruses like the D3 one. in that case you can run ibmavsh, run /mbr and then
cycle the power and it's clean. in the case of monkey virus 2, if you run /mbr
you'll lose everything on the hard drive!
david
>Richard A. Cini, Jr. wrote:
>
>Well, more accurately Z80 based, I do not know of any CP/M
>implementations on MSX computers...
>
The SpectraVideo series, particularly the SVI-328, had a version of CP/M
available and lots of CP/M software (languages, Wordstar, DBase II etc) were
available from Spectravideo for this unit. The SVI-328 was not quite MSX
(but it was what Kay Nishi based the MSX design upon). The SVI-728 was a
pure MSX machine.
See http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-16418/ for more details on the
SpectraVideo including CP/M details.
Phil
Brisbane, Australia
>
>I think you're confusing it with the browser called 'Web Explorer' which
>was written at IBM and given away with their Internet Access Kit for OS/2
>Warp.
>
Nope. It was IE. It was back when the Internet was just starting to be a
big thing. I think maybe 1993 or 94? I saw it in an article in an old
computer magazine (PC-World?) article that was comparing OS/2 browsers.
There was IBM's, IE, Netscrape, and a few others. I knew it was a while
ago, because how many articles do you see comparing OS/2 software anymore?
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
Do any of the other Mac's have that sort of info thing in the ROM?
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh(a)aracnet.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, December 30, 1998 8:17 AM
Subject: Re: Looking for cheap Powerbook Duo parts
>Since I'm not sitting in front of one, this is all off the top of my head,
>but I do know that the info includes date of manufacture and how many hours
>it's been running. I would assume it also has a Serial Number had Product
>ID, but can't remember. I think the only way to get this info would be
with
>a software tool that specifically looks for it, but this requires the OS.
>I've used "TechTool" IIRC to view the data.
>
> Zane
>
*The broad traces are wrinkled and bubbled, light green in colour and
*coating is easily comes off.
Yup. And that coating burns easily, too.
*That transformer is under the floppy, and is about tad under 25"
*cubic size. Saw them in few III's. Those III's are very popular in
*high school they're by bunches.
Woah! a 25 cubic inch transformer! I hope that's a typo. It wouldn't even
fit in the case. Must be some special model of III. The only thing that's
under the floppies on mine (or any others that I've ever seen) is the ribbon
cable from the keyboard.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 gram(a)cnct.com wrote:
> Hell, how would Woz redo it knowing evolution?
*shudder*
He wouldn't. He would be running an ISP or be an 3133t \/\/4r3z d00d
or some other thing computer geeks do these days
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
<> >How is it then I got it for free off their site?
<> >
<> Not sure. Last time I tried to download it was about two years ago.
<>
<Netscape has been available for download since at least vers=2. I don't
<recall if i ever used version 1. heck, don't even know if there was a 1.
I ran 1.4 and it was cranky. the next version I used was 2.0 better and
free. The last one I DL'd was 3.0+ for w3.1 and that was free (about two
years ago!).
I use IE, NS for my work they, do what I want most of the time.
Allison
O.K. I decided to use my TRS-80 Mod III to type a story (about 100 pgs or
so) that was an assignment for my Communications class in school because it
has a good keyboard for lots of typing, and it has a clear printer. I get
it all typed up (three SCRIPSIT files), switch on the trusty DWP II, and
start printing. As the first two pages are done, I reach onto the shelf
(above the computer) to get a paperclip to hold the whole thing together
when it's done. Now the paperclip that my hand happens to grab is secretly
joined to another paperclip, which (naturally) decided that it didn't want
to leave the little cup they're all in. The whole thing spills out, sending
9 of them INTO the computer.
The screen blacks out, printer stops, I hear two sharp pops, a puff of
smoke, lights dim, and I hear the snap of the circuit breaker from across
the basement. I say a quick string of explicitives directed at the
paperclips while I'm searching for the flashlight, which (again -
naturally), has dead batteries. I start pulling all the plugs in the area
of the computer, and carefully make my way to the breaker box. I find the
tripped switch, flipped it back on, and went back over to the computer,
which was surrounded in a bit of a haze.
I grabbed a screwdriver pulled the case apart, removed the paperclip that
was shorting the main power transformer. I plugged it in, and turned it on
(at that time not knowing that 9 paperclips had went in). Smoke bomb.
White smoke was pouring out of the M/B compartment. I removed the cover and
found the other 8 clips, one partially melted into the Z80. The serial
board was almost totally black (never worked anyway). I was thinking four
words: Why me. Why NOW?!
Naturally, I have a spare P/S board, video board, and floppy controller, but
no spare M/B.
Does anyone have a spare board that they wouldn't mind selling for a couple
of bucks, or I could take it off your hands so you don't have to throw it
out :) My board had 48k RAM. Or was it 32? I forget, but it wasn't 16,
which is what the case says. I don't really care how much it has (16 will
run SCRIPSIT, won't it?), and I probably have chips laying around that'll
work in it, anyway.
If anyone has an RS-232 board laying around, I may be interested in that,
too (not a rush, though), so I can connect the 300baud acoustic modem and
have the "world's slowest computer connected to the Internet" :)
ThAnX in advance,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
> Totally crazy designs like the IBM PC interrupt system.
Well, I've heard many complaints about it, but I don't know what's
actually wrong with it, and I doubt I would understand if you told me. But
try anyway.
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 Pjoules1(a)cs.com wrote:
> Also, you do not say what virus scanning software you are using bear in mind
> that MS anti virus doesn't detect many common viruses.
Such as Windows 95...sorry, couldn't resist
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 gram(a)cnct.com wrote:
> If you're dual-booting, installing Linux (and LILO) will not get rid
> of many (installed under DOS) boot-sector viruses. I speak from
> experience I'd prefer to have avoided, but the experience was in the
> long run invaluable. I'll never dual-boot again, in fact I'll boot
> even my Linux-only systems from floppy most of the time.
For one thing, I've never gotten any virus. FOr the other, can't you get
rid of boot sector virii w/FDISK /MBR? If not, what is a good way of
getting rid of them?
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
In a message dated 12/29/98 8:43:40 PM EST, kurtkilg(a)geocities.com writes:
<< On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
> Totally crazy designs like the IBM PC interrupt system.
Well, I've heard many complaints about it, but I don't know what's
actually wrong with it, and I doubt I would understand if you told me. But
try anyway.
---------------------------------- >>
the way i understand it is that the pc interrupt system is edge triggered. i
think an interrupt went low only momentarily and if the machine happened to
overlook that interrupt, the machine would hang. on the ps2 models, the
interrupts on that are level sensitive, meaning that an interrupt request goes
low and stays low until it's satisfied. there is much less possibility of
level sensitive interrupts going unnoticed. ps2 models can also share IRQs.
In a message dated 12/29/98 5:15:15 PM Pacific Standard Time,
roblwill(a)usaor.net writes:
> >How is it then I got it for free off their site?
> >
> Not sure. Last time I tried to download it was about two years ago.
>
Netscape has been available for download since at least vers=2. I don't
recall if i ever used version 1. heck, don't even know if there was a 1.
kelly
On Dec 29, 19:49, Roger Merchberger wrote:
> Subject: Re: OT, but info needed: RAM uprade
> Once upon a midnight dreary, Jason Willgruber had spoken clearly:
>
> >Last time I checked on it, Netscrape Communicator was somewhere around
$45
> >in the stores,
>
> But *free* to download from the web. To purchase IE *all by itself* costs
> money, too. They can't print books / cd's, etc. for free.
> Netscape has not *always* been free. It was turned into free software in
> (IIRC) October or November of '97. Since then, if you got a stripped
> version, you *asked* for it (to save space) and all date-disabled
versions
> of the software disappeared.
It was free for educational use (including home users) since at least 1994,
when I obtained version 2.something to replace the 1.01 that was on the
machine I was using then. IIRC, you were supposed to register it, but
there was no fee if you "signed" a declaration that you were in education.
I remember that the download was a massive 2MB and I had to split it
across two floppies...
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Hi Joe,
Where is this scrap place you are talking about?
I know there are a couple of them here, never thought of looking there
before. Do they sell you the stuff as scrap ?
Or by the pound..?
Phil..
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, November 25, 1998 9:27 AM
Subject: more interesting finds!
>I went to a scrap place yesterday and found a couple of interesting items.
>One is a 16K core memory board for a Data General Nova. Huge sucker! It's
>marked "DATA GENERAL CORP DGC NOVA 800 16K MEMORY STACK copyright 1973".
>Anyone need this or should I just hang it on the wall to admire?
>
>
> I also found several odd looking boxs that are labled as HDS ViewStation.
>they're made by a company called Human Designed Systems. They're about 2"
>tall and 12" square. They have connectors for all the following; thick and
>thin ethernet, twisted pair, sun keyboard, standard PC keyboard, RJ serial
>port, DB-25 serial, DB-25 parallel, PS-2 mouse and standard VGA video.
>Does anyone know what these are or why they have so many ports?
>
> Joe
>
>
>
>How is Netscape overpriced when it's free? (Admittedly some of the
>built-in links lead to adverts). IE is "free"? It is to laugh. It
>only "runs" under 1.5 operating systems -- Windows and the new MacOS.
>And it _really_ wants you to visit Microsoft and sign up for msn.com,
>fuck, it insists on it. It took my wife most of an hour to _not_
>sign up for msn, gods help anybody without competent advice, who
>might have given in.
Last time I checked on it, Netscrape Communicator was somewhere around $45
in the stores, where IE was free with about 10 different programs.
Netscrape came with the program that I bought, and it was a stripped version
that kept wanting me to sent $30 to Netscrape, and it stopped working after
6 months (date stamped). Let's see...IE only wanted me to sign up with MSN
once, and that was because I used an MSN trial CD to install it. First time
I ran it, I simply went into the settings, set the start page as blank, and
Bingo! no MSN. If you ever noticed, When you got Netscrape on an AOL CD,
it _really_ wants you to sign up for AOL AND pay $30 to them.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
Seems to me that I remember an old version of IE that was for OS/2, too.
<I ran it, I simply went into the settings, set the start page as blank, an
<Bingo! no MSN. If you ever noticed, When you got Netscrape on an AOL CD,
<it _really_ wants you to sign up for AOL AND pay $30 to them.
How is it then I got it for free off their site?
AS to which is better, neither when broken and both when working with one
little gotcha... If the site uses netscape tools to gen interactive queary
pages I've found IE to be univerally broken and netscape is required! Oh,
same for IE tooled pages.
Allison
>Oh, I see. Any ideas where the smoke is coming from? As is well known,
>computers and ICs run on smoke, so when the smoke comes out they stop
>working...
>
Basically, it's coming from everywhere. I think it's mostly the enamel
burning off the traces, and from the melting Z80.
>> I have a scope that someone was going to trash that appears to work, but
I
>> don't have any cables but a couple of old multitester cables.
>> I doubt there would be any _useful_ activity on the Z80 pins. The chip
is
>> basically melted. Most of the chips are like that. There's paper clips
>> permanantly fused to other parts of the board.
>
>Ouch!!! I'm not going to try to reproduce this, but I wonder what
>actually happened. Yes, OK, paper clips shorted all sorts of things
>out, but what did all the damage?
>
Huh? The solder melted in a lot of the places, and the paper clips stuck to
it. There's a lot of fried traces, too. Instead of trying to fix it, I'd
be MUCH better off just finding another board.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
<The 8086 had been around that long, the 8088 was done at IBM's
<request -- the marketing concept worked well enough that the later
<SX processors were done on purpose.
Ah, not really. the production start dates for both chips are within two
months. The 8088 was for those smaller (non PC!) apps that needed the lower
cost of 8bit wide everything but still needed more performance than the 8085
could deliver and also gave a migration path for those that grew out of the
8088.
The 8088 and 8086 were both second sourced before IBM did the XT. thats
based on my non-preliminary intel data books from late 78 and early 79.
NEC was making reverse engineered parts by 81! Even the V20 was in 81.
Allison
I know this is somewhat off-topic, since OS/2 2.0 is too new, but does
anyone know where I could get the software to get it to connect to the
internet via PPP? I installed it, and it's a fairly nice system.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
Hello all,
At 11:16 AM 12/24/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I did however do some major tuning tricks on the cmos and things like
>windows swap drive. Some of those old boards if you take the cmos defaults
>you get a very pokey system often 1/3 the performance or worse.
>
>Allison
>
Yes. I've been using a 386DX with 128k cache with Win3.1 and Netscape 3.0.
Doesn't seem significantly slower than my friend's P90 with W95. Sometimes
Netscape crashes with some .JPG files (GP fault in the VGA driver) and I
have to start over.
Haven't tried much newer, it doesn't seem right to require a 300MHz
processor and 64MB ram to mostly read email, much less type mail messages!
I did adjust several things, like remove smartdrv's "buffering" for the HD, etc.
-Dave
Doug Yowza
>I don't remember if Intel actually filed suit to protect "486", for
>example, but they would have had to fight standard industry practice of
>using similar part numbers to indicate similar functionality. Something
>like "pentium" is much easier to protect, but you could probably open a
>Pentium Shoe Store and be on perfectly good legal ground.
I seem to remember a company called Gentium being forced by Intel to change
their name during 1995 as it sounded to similar to their own processor.
--
Gareth Knight
Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856
http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"
Okay, so it's a little new for the list...
Next week I'm going to try and finally rebuild the 80386SL-based notebook
that's been a pet project for a while. Since I'll have it open, I thought
I might go ahead and install a math coprocessor. My only question is...
which one?
The 386SL was Intel's "notebook" CPU. Does it require a 387DX, 387SX, or
something else altogether? If it's the 387SX, can I use a Cyrix FastMath,
as I have a spare.
Thanks...
<<<John>>>
>
>But *free* to download from the web. To purchase IE *all by itself* costs
>money, too. They can't print books / cd's, etc. for free.
>
Yup. $5, I think.
>>Netscrape came with the program that I bought, and it was a stripped
version
>>that kept wanting me to sent $30 to Netscrape, and it stopped working
after
>>6 months (date stamped).
>
>Installed '98 lately?
That was the _first_ mistake...
It may be better than Win 95 (some say), but I don't like to run any OS that
crashes the demo computer at the launching of the software. No matter how
many "revisions" it has.
>
>Can you still get it? --- They had a version that was supposed to run on
>Linux, too. They almost got it out - 6 months or so behind schedule, then
>they scrapped it. Pi$$ed off some users with that one... Billy-bob doesn't
>care, tho.
>
No clue. It was back when OS/2 was one of the "good OS's that I didn't
have" - I was still running a Franklin 2000. When I got finally
PC-compatible, I was running Win 3.1. When I finally got OS/2, the
borrower's no where to be found. Figures!
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>
>How is it then I got it for free off their site?
>
Not sure. Last time I tried to download it was about two years ago.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>
>Especially if you live in the boondocks (rural area for those not
>accustomed to the slang) where MSN doesn't have a dial-up number. Then it
>*automatically* dials 150 miles away - and doesn't tell you it's making a
>long-distance call.
>
>$300 (or more) phone bill later...
>
Not if you go into the IE4 directory and directly run the installation of
the browser, instead of running the MSN setup.
>Oh, and Opera is *not* free. IIRC, they want $35 to register it. IMHO, it's
>worth the money -- it's *very* fast, and doesn't seem to crash often. But -
>it's not free.
>
Similar to what Netscape does (last version I had did it). I think it is
better, though.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
Hi.
I've got an old CGA laptop. (1988 Zenith SupersPORT). The display is dark
blue on light blue. I was wondering if there's any software out there that
will reverse the video so that the text is light blue, and the background is
dark blue.
ThAnX,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
> From: Phil Clayton <handyman(a)sprintmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Commodore Pet 2001
>
> Thanks Larry for all the information on the Pet,I feel like a kid on Christmas with my
> new find..
> Like I said in 1978 this is the very first computer that I got bug from.
> It was in a window of a High-tech Gadget type store with a great
> graphics demo running.
I have some of the original Commodore graphics demos (which they sold on
tape), there was the one with bar graphs and business stuff and another one
with like a mouse in a cage and star wars ships (not very exciting nowadays as
they were then), also one called mandala which is in ML and does a kalidescope effect.
> I inquired about it from the Clerk there who knew nothing
> about it. Nor did I, but it was pure Lust on my part with the thought of owning
> such an obviously powerful computer. When he told me the price of $599.00
My first view was from the cover of the October 1978 Popular Science:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/PSPETSM.JPG
The PET there was obviously one of the prototypes (note the rounded case, from
what I understand it was wooden, also note the cheap wood-grain contact paper
over the case. kinda looked neat though.)
> I know it would be some time before I could own it. So now only 21 years later
> I have one.
Yeah I think that sums it up for most of us classic computerists... (grin)
or better yet 'I have every computer that I wanted.'
>
> I will take look see if its the earliest version Basic or the upgraded one.
> > Now when it powers up if it reads:
> > *** COMMODORE BASIC ***
> > you have the original classic (read 'bug-ridden') ROMs.if it reads:
> > ### COMMODORE BASIC ###
> > you have the 'upgrade' (mostly bug fixed) ROMs.
> > The earlier units used butchered SANYO cassette players
> Mine has the the Sanyo Cassette with White keysAlso the border around the screen is blue
> not White or Black like some others I have seen..
>
> Does this indicate an earlier Pet ?
Yes it does; so far so good. (Never seen a white trim myself unless you are
referring of the plastic frames on the later plastic-cased PET models (there
was still a black trim around the picture tube though.)
In a message dated 28/12/98 16:03:08 GMT Standard Time, marvin(a)rain.org
writes:
> I suspect a virus, but my antivius software
> > didn't find one, but I don't really trust it. I only really trust it if
> it
> > find a virus...)
>
> One of the ways I use to check for a virus is to run CHKDSK and look at the
> total memory. For a number of viruses I have seen, the normal number of
> 655360 gets reduced to some other value.
Many stealth viruses can hide from virus checkers as well as not showing the
memory they occcupy as used. When you ran the scanner did you boot from a
_known_clean_ write protected floppy, this is essential for reliable scanning.
Also, you do not say what virus scanning software you are using bear in mind
that MS anti virus doesn't detect many common viruses.
Regards
Pete
Oh. I didin't know that. You've got one of the cassette models. Wanna
sell the M/B??
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>I'm aware of that. Because mine did not come with ANY disk drives, it is
>also missing the drive mounting tower, drive PSU card, and controller.
>
>--
>ok
>r. r e d @ b e a r s . o r g
> ===========================
> [ urs longa | vita brevis ]
>
>
>Probably no great point in that. FDISK cannot usually see an ST-506/412
>interface HD that has not been low level formatted on the controller in
>use at the time. Set the switch for the appropriate cable, and power up
>the computer. Bring up DEBUG and at the '-' prompt, enter DC800:0<CR>.
>If you see ASCII text that indicates that you are looking at a WD
>controller, then enter G=C800:5 and follow the prompts to low level
>format the disk. If this is successful - if the disk is good - then
>FDISK should see it on the next bootup and you can go on from there.
>
>If it is not successful, you probably have a bad HD. Also, if your
>DC800:0 search does not yield ASCII, try other addresses in 200H
>increments. That is, such as CA00:0, CC00:0, etc.
>
I think I've narrowed it down to the controller being the problem. I
remember seeing somewhere that the WD-XT-GEN won't recognize the original
ST-506. I'll have to try it with another controller sometime, and if it
doesn't work, I'll try to find another HD.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
*One thing I ASK: HOW come those clips can slip in those slotted
*vents (it's blocked by screening too!) and trap into their deadly
*short circuits act on that _VERTICAL_ board?! I thought that would
*be more possible if the boards were horizontal.
Well, there was no screen on the vents in _this_ TRS-80. Also, when I got
the computer (it had been in a flooded basement), the rear CPU board
shield/cove had rusted fairly bad, and when it was on, the computer wouldn't
boot, so it wasn't there. I'm not sure of the exact path the paper clips
took, but once they hit electric current, they stayed there. The one that
fell across the 120v main PSU power connector actually fused to the
connector, and I had to use a wire cutter to remove it.
*That is what I'm talking about in those silver-grey clamshell with
*9" mono monitor, space for 2 5.25" FDs, orange reset key, great
*keyboard, cutouts for 2 extra add on cards to interface with outside
*world for external boxens. Power rocker switch on right side just
*underside.
Sort of. It's got a 12"mono TV tube in the case. Clamshell? Isn't that
what they called the Zenith laptops? Or are you referring to the color?
Mine had the two floppies, and the two cutouts for the add-on cards were for
serial and floppy (serial was optional, the floppy one was just the bottom
of the FDC). Mine had both, although the serial card (which never worked
right) is a charred mess. I'm not sure how it happened, either. There
weren't even any paperclips in it.
*I had it years ago but it blew up somewhere by stray static. No
*smoke to hint at all
The whole side of my basement had a slight fog. The whole house stunk, too.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
I did. I'm using Mac PPP, with System 7.5. The program still wants an init
string.
>
>What terminal program have you tried using? According to the manual, you
>must select "internal modem" in the "portable" control panel.
>----------------------------------------------------
>Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
>
>
>OK, I'll admit it, I hate waiting for RSX-11M to shutdown when I'm in a
>hurry to reboot into RT-11. How important is it to do a proper shutup?
>Modern OS's care, does RSX?
>
I just make sure nothing is writing to the disk and switch off. If
everything is idle just kill it. I have never had one come back to get me
in over 18 years. This works if you are the only user.
Dan
>
>All this reminds me that I'm still searching for disk drives and attendant
>hardware (and software) for my Model III.
>
Just throw in any old 360k drive. It'll work. Mine had one original TRS-80
drive, an IBM drive pulled from a PC, and the external drives were an IBM
4869 with a toshiba 360k drive pulled from a Leading Edge duct-taped on top
of it, using the 4869 P/S. The controllers for the externals were salvaged
>from dead Mod. I disk boxes, and housed in a Tupperware freezer container
that sat behind the drives.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
On RT-11 does DUSTAT care what kind of a disk controller you've got? I
just spent a bunch of time fighting to get it onto my RT-11 system only to
find out that once I got it assembled, it doesn't like something about the
system. I suspect it's either the WEQSD ESDI Controller, or the ESDI
drives I'm using. It gives the following error:
?DUSTAT-F-No translation for this unit! (?)
Or am I confused and using the wrong syntax?
.DUSTAT DU2:
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
Hi!
I was wondering if anyone knows the init string for the Mac Portable
Internal 2400 baud modem.
ThAnX,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
OK, I'll admit it, I hate waiting for RSX-11M to shutdown when I'm in a
hurry to reboot into RT-11. How important is it to do a proper shutup?
Modern OS's care, does RSX?
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
>I would bet on the FDC still being OK, though. I've found the 1793 chip
>(the big 40 pin one) is very easy to zap. And you'll not test that without
>a working CPU board (the motor on/drive select logic is totally separate,
>BTW)
>
Probably. No paper clips had fallen into it, and no signs of external
damage. I really won't know if it's good or not 'till I get a new board.
Even if it is blown, I have a good, spare one.
>If you connect the CPU board to the PSU does the PSU still come on? Don't
>connect any other cables at this point. Do you have a scope or logic
>probe? If so, is there any activity on the Z80 pins?
>
It still turns on, but makes the CPU board seem more like a fog machine than
a computer, and it stinks up the house pretty bad.
I have a scope that someone was going to trash that appears to work, but I
don't have any cables but a couple of old multitester cables.
I doubt there would be any _useful_ activity on the Z80 pins. The chip is
basically melted. Most of the chips are like that. There's paper clips
permanantly fused to other parts of the board.
>
>The model 4 keyboard is the same as the model 3 keyboard but with 5 etra
>swtiches. They're both 8*8 matrices of swtiches with some positions
>unused. And the keys are in the same electrical position on the 2
keyboards.
>
>So a model 3 keyboard should work with a model 4 CPU board - you just
>won't have the control/caps/F1/F2/F3 keys. Model 3 software running on
>the 'Model 4' shouldn't mind that. Some model 4 software will be hard to
>use without those extra keys, though.
>
Anyone have a spare Model 4 board laying around anywhere??
Model III?
ThAnX,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
On Mon, 28 Dec 1998 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
> > >Give an engineer a copy of the PC techrefs and count how many times he
> > >says 'They did WHAT???' as he reads the schematics :-). It appears that
> > >if there are 2 ways to do something, the PC always made the worst
> > >choice...
But then, how many PCs are there of which this can be said? I can think
of:
*IBM PC - tony said it, not I
*Altair - I think the general consenus is that it was a cheap design
*IMSAI - The PSU and cooling design
*Apple /// - I guess the main problem w/these was the high-density board
*Mac Plus - The PSU and probably other stuff too
*VICs and C-* - I've heard almost everything about these
Of course, I would have included many modern computers, but one can hardly
give someone the techrefs for those :)
> There's a difference between a cheap (either to design or to manufacture)
> design and a crazy design :-)
Any dangerous parts, like in the Mac Plus?
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor