Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:03:28 +0100 (BST)
From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
Subject: Re: substitute tube for DEC VR201?
>
> On Saturday (09/13/2008 at 08:52PM +0100), Tony Duell wrote:
> > > I'm also toying with the idea of fitting an LCD into a VR201 cabinet
> > > and although it wouldn't be authentic, it would sure make the system
> > > more useable.
> >
> > I am curious as to why an LCD in the VR201 cabinet is more useable than
> > the CRT. I can't see much difference in useability (but would much rather
> > have to repair a CRT_based monitor than an LCD-based one).
>
> Well, if I can't find a tube to replace it... then I'd consider an LCD.
Do you really have no old 12" monchrome portable TVs/monitors around? I
am sure you could find a CRT that would work.
----------------------------
I've got a number of CRTs here, white/green/amber, new/used, various sizes,
if the OP's serious, but I'm not sure how I'd safely ship one.
m
Any progress on this HP-IB Mass storage device for a PC ?
Regards from
Mike Massen BSc
Network Power Systems
Lab 08 9444 8961
Mb 0438 048961
Perth, Western Australia
* VL/VK & VN/VP/VR GMH Commodore Fuse Rail that wont warp or melt !
* RB30 Skyline/Nissan/VL Milspec ignition drivers with diagnostic features now in economy trials
* Twin tyres for most sedans, trikes and motorcycle sidecars
* Industrial grade PolyVinyliDeneChloride (PVDC Copolymer) in bulk, the best
oxygen and water protective barrier you can find for circuit boards.
Web site under construction http://niche.ii.net
Pictures of visit to Mendulong re RAPS retrofit, http://members.iinet.net.au/~erazmus/Power/
On 15 Sep 2008 at 17:25, David Griffith wrote:
> Second, the prices of their boxes is astronomical.
> A 30x30x20 outer carton cost $12.
> The inner carton cost $8. The total just for packing this computer
came to $68.
> The computer itself sold for $55.
I work for a freight company; 36 x 22 x 20" boxes cost us $11.75 each,
when purchased in quantities of 50 or more.
We order full rolls of large-bubble bubble-wrap at aroudn $45 / roll;
1/4 roll would cost you about $11.25.
I'd say the price for packing is reasonable, taking into account
labor, and their markup.
If you're going to ship this type of equipment, it's best to get
a rough quote first, and simply advise the buyer that he is responsible
for all shipping costs.
Yeah, it's nice to have an exact dollar amount ahead of time,
but the only way that's going to happen is if you take your photos
first, have the unit boxed up, and then post it for sale.
Alternately, you can buy the materials yourself;
U-haul has an interesting selection of boxes, and
also carries rolls of bubble wrap. That has the added benefit
of knowing that your item is adequately packed.
T
Does anyone have a copy of this? Its needed for the MESS (a computer
hardware documentation/emulation) project.
--
Jonathan Gevaryahu
jgevaryahu(@t)hotmail(d0t)com
jzg22(@t)drexel(d0t)edu
To make space I am having to part with the above computer. Condition is "Good - Working" (i.e. no parts missing, a few scuff marks and other signs of wear. Boots up and runs fine.)
I have just tested it using Communique 3.1 (an old DOS word processing package) and - after adjusting a few keys in the keyboard - it works fine.
Description
Columbia 1600-VP
by Columbia Data Products
Date of Manufacture 2-84 Rev J
Serial Number 13136A
Portable (luggable 35 lbs/16Kg) IBM clone
9" green monitor
2 5.25 (360K) disk drives
128K memory
Other info on the 1600 can be found at: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=889
I have a boot disk for it and several word processing programs (it was used to teach word processing). I also have well over 100 5.25 disks as well. I'd be happy to include these for no additional charge.
Any reasonable offer plus shipping will be considered.
I went down to the local UPS store to have an Osborne Executive
double-boxed for shipping to its new owner. I previously had this store
double box two IMSAIs and two Altairs. Each time it cost around $35 to do
it. This time it was way out of line. First, they were out of big
bubbles, so they had to use lots more of the little bubbles to get
two-inches of padding all the way around. Second, the prices of their
boxes is astronomical. A 30x30x20 outer carton cost $12. The inner
carton cost $8. The total just for packing this computer came to $68.
The computer itself sold for $55.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
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?
Please contact GARY below, these are not my systems.
----------------------------------------------------
One HP 150 touchscreen (1984), inkjet printer and software.
Also have one AT&T 3B1 UNIX box, with software.
They both work.
Free, you pay shipping.
Gary Redmond
gfredmond at comcast.net
----------------------------------------------------
Many of you may recall The Great Trailer Incident (tm) of 2004, in which
cctalk owner Jay West ventured from St. Louis to Boston for VCF East 2.0,
only to encounter a flat tire, incompetent police dispatchers, poison ivy,
and -- according to rumor on the VCF show floow -- arrest, fire, crashing,
computer tragedy, possibly death, and/or an encounter with a
minicomputer-hating wild boar.
Okay, so the part about the minicomputer-hating wild board MIGHT not be
true, but personally I think that's what really happened. Jay's version of
the story is here:
http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2004-July/045851.html
I'm simultaneously proud (and fucking ASTOUNDED) to share the news tonight
that Vince Briel, this weekend at VCF East 5.0 in New Jersey, ** BEAT **
Jay's adventure!!!!!
Vince's weekend began ordinary enough. He packed his car and left Cleveland
on Friday morning for the 8-hour drive to central New Jersey. He arrived in
the late afternoon / early evening.
Just like the other exhibitors who arrived Friday for the Sat./Sun. event,
Vince unpacked his car and began setting up his table. Then he came to me
after an hour and said, "Evan, there is a problem." He looked extremely
distraught.
I know Vince pretty well, so I figured either there was a real problem, or
(more likely) there was a punchline to follow, perhaps at my expense.
Vince was scheduled to run a replica-building workshop this morning. What
he revealed Friday night was that he forgot to pack the replica kits.
No boggie. Just cancel the workshop, and people will understand that it was
a simple mistake, I told him .... but Vince would have none of that .... in
the dark and in the pouring rain and clearly tired, Vince decided to DRIVE
BACK TO CLEVELAND TO GET THEM. I and others tried to talk him out of it,
with no luck.
Vince got home to Cleveland, slept for just 2 hours, then made sure he had
the kits this time and DROVE BACK TO NEW JERSEY -- for a total of 24 hours
of highway driving in about a 35-hour span -- much of it in the dark and/or
rain, and much of it on increasingly little sleep! Quite frankly, I
wouldn't want to have been the cars near him, especially on the second trip
to Jersey yesterday morning.
His workshop this morning was a huge success. Then a few hours later, after
the show ended, he (of course) drove home (again) to Cleveland.
In total that's 32 hours of highway driving, much of it in the dark and/or
rain, much on little/no sleep, spending hundreds of dollars on gas, all a
three-day span, just because he's a dedicated, hard-core, loyal, and
(apparently) clinically insane VCF supporter.
THE GREAT TRAILER INCIDENT HAS BEEN BEAT.
Vince is god.
- Evan
Sun Sep 14 12:17:30 CDT 2008, Jason T said:
> First of all, way cool project. I'm in now with a couple different
> clients (Windows and PuTTY in raw mode, showing the echo you
> mentioned.) Is anyone unable to route to this IP? I'm on Comcast
> cable and in fine, but a local friend with AT&T DSL shows no route to
> that host, which is a bit odd. You're on Charter (cable, I think?) so
> it's not like you're some offshore spamhaus. Then again it could
> just be him. Weird.
I'm using Qwest DSL, and have no problems reaching The Mighty
Peanut. We tried a couple of WinXP telnet and PuTTY sessions. I
noticed that the WinXP telnet client was listed as "ANSI" and the PuTTY
client was listed as "XTERM". I had to use Shift-Backspace or CTRL-H
to backup on PuTTY. The Win client worked fine with the backspace key.
I don't have any way to really pound the little peanut, but I did just
sit on
my RETURN key for a while, and let the peanut try to send the HELP
message as fast as my RETURN key would repeat. Seemed to hold up
just fine. Well done, Mike!
- Jared
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:28:07 -0700
From: dave hunter <hunt_x at hotmail.com>
Subject: manual 4 A B&C Microsystems 1409 Prom Burner
>Hi mike I just found a post where you stated you had a manual
>for one of these beasts (B&C Microsystems 1409 Prom Burner)
>whats the chance i could get a copy I could shoot you cash via
>paypal asap thanks a million
>Dave Hunter
---------
I replied off-list; let me know if you got it and if it's what you need.
m
>
>Subject: Re: ISO: NEC UPD72070 IC
> From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 08:36:26 -0700
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On 12 Sep 2008 at 18:58, Allison wrote:
>
>> It in the intel data book page 3-32 (1988 volume2 peripheral with black cover).
>> I have that datasheet but the scanner is down.
>
>You're not thinking of the 82078 are you? 64 pin, but very different
>chip, both in pinout and command set. If you've got a part number,
>I'll go digging for it, but AFAIK, the NEC part was a special for
>Apple--I've never seen it anywhere else.
>
>Cheers,
>Chuck
Oops, intel 82070 a reall oddball as well but not the same part.
Allison
I have an HDS10 in a BA350 I'd like to try attaching to a VAX 4000 but
I'm missing an appropriate external interconnect cable. It appears
that what I need is a BC29R (p/n 17-03855-xx) or equivalent cable with
a PS connector on the VAX end and a MR connector on the HSD10 end.
Anyone have some extra of these that they don't need and are willing
to part with them for a reasonable amount plus postage in the US?
-Glen
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/cable-guide.html
BC29R DSSI Cable for HSD.
Description: DSSI cable to connect the VAX/DEC 4000 system to the
HSD05 or HSD30 DSSI to SCSI adapter/controller.
Specification:
Connectors: One 50-way MR (micro-ribbon) right-angled connector for
the HSD, and one 50-way PS (pin socket or tab) right-angled connector
for the system end.
Ordering Information:
BC29R-06, -09, -16, -30, 45, -60.
p/n 17-03855-04, -05, -06, -07, -08, -09.
>
>Subject: Re: ISO: NEC UPD72070 IC
> From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
> Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:21:20 -0700
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On 12 Sep 2008 at 11:34, Al Kossow wrote:
>
>> Very unusual part. It was the only externally developed floppy controller
>> Apple ever used that supported GCR. Were you able to find data on it?
>
>In Japanese, a datasheet along with an app note on NEC's website
>(http://www.necel.com). Easy enough to suss out in spite of the
>chicken scratches. Basically a uPD765 controller with a bunch of add-
>ons for the GCR stuff.
>
>> I doubt you will be able to find one w/o unsoldering it from an AV board.
>
>I suspect as much. Maybe there's someone out there with a junker...
>
>Cheers,
>Chuck
It in the intel data book page 3-32 (1988 volume2 peripheral with black cover).
I have that datasheet but the scanner is down.
Allison
>
Waaaaaaaay too cool . . . .
-- "Michael B. Brutman" <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> wrote:
It's running! Telnet to 97.86.233.68 to take a look and help me test it.
You can use the standard Windows telnet program, Putty, Linux, or
whatever you have handy.
Around 10 users can be on at the same time. When you sign on (no
password required) there will be a little menu to help you waste some
time. Some things you can do are see who else is on the server, view the
machine type, ROM BIOS date and DOS version, check the TCP/IP statistics
to see how much traffic it is handling, etc.
There are some upgrades since the last time I ran this test (in Dec 2007):
- The TCP/IP stack is much better
- I'm doing 'telnet' negotiation to figure out the terminal type, turn
echoing on, etc
- Crude line editing has been added
Right now it is running on my PCjr using a Xircom PE3 10BT. I plan to
leave it up as long as it runs, or three days, whichever comes first. It
is a PCjr so if there is a momentary delay, don't panic - it's probably
just doing disk I/O.
Backspace is a little dodgy .. it really wants ASCII 8 and a lot of
terminals and emulators do ASCII 127 instead. Try variations with the
shift and control keys if it doesn't work.
Thanks,
Mike
____________________________________________________________
Save hundreds on an Unsecured Loan - Click here.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3m3iTRdQUEvUXDmbZcm2uAgLT…
Hi mike I just found a post where you stated you had a manual for one of these beasts (B&C Microsystems 1409 Prom Burner) whats the chance i could get a copy I could shoot you cash via paypal asap thanks a million
Dave Hunter
_________________________________________________________________
> Anyone have a spare one of these chips? This was used as the floppy
> controller on the AV Macs.
Very unusual part. It was the only externally developed floppy controller
Apple ever used that supported GCR. Were you able to find data on it?
I doubt you will be able to find one w/o unsoldering it from an AV board.
The Texas Instruments integrated circuit is 50 today.
I have no idea what a "MicroChip" is. "Microchip" is
the company currently making PIC microprocessors.
Anyone have a spare one of these chips? This was used as the floppy
controller on the AV Macs.
Contact me off list if you've got one that you are willing to part
with.
Thanks!
Chuck
So I was complaining to my significant other on the recent dearth of
classic computers at out local university auction! Well the computer
gods must have heard me as I got a working Osborne 1 in great
condition, with even the cp/m disk in the floppy drive for $15.00 on
Tuesday!! I am now only missing a KayPro for my "luggable" collection to
be mostly complete!!
Cheers
Tom
Hey all --
I've gotten the power supply in one of my ND-812s running (thanks for
the help w/the 1103 data which helped verify the voltages) and it
appears to be within spec under load (correct voltages, no ripple in the
output, etc...) so I powered the machine on and despite having my
fingers crossed, the machine does not run. (No real surprise there).
Random lights on the front panel, and basically no response to any
toggle switches.
I started pulling out and reseating the chips on the main CPU board and
powered it up after every few rows, and every time the behavior was
slightly different, so I'm fairly sure that the sockets and chips aren't
all making good connections anymore. Seems like solving this problem
would be a good place to start.
The problem is that there are 25 rows of 13 chips each (all socketed),
in very close proximity to one another. The chips are in sockets with
wire-wrap pins underneath -- the underside of the main CPU board is a
maze of wire wrapping. Most of the chips have date stamps between 1971
and 1973, but luckily most of them aren't corroded to the point where
they're falling apart.
How would you suggest cleaning the sockets and the chips to ensure good
connections?
Thanks,
Josh
Hi,
I came across the following message from Dave Dunfield from a couple of
years ago during a search related to the Z80 i8272 home brew project I am
working on. I recently got the i8272 FDC to reliably read sectors from a
MS-DOS formatted 5.25" floppy disk drive. This project is underway but I am
a long ways from completion.
During the debugging of my system, I have noticed that there some possibly
useful raw disk signals being generated by the data separator chip. These
could be rather easily exported to support a disk imaging project were
anyone interesting in such a thing. The signals are going *into* the i8272
(NEC 765) for processing and are raw data signals. The i8272 would not be
used to process the data. This *potentially* opens up access to any FM/MFM
encoded disk even hard sector. I don't know about other formats such as
GCR, M2FM, RX02, etc.
Here is what I propose; my SBC and Disk IO board generates intermediate
product signals such as "separated clock", "separated data", "clock out",
"index", etc and buffer them through a 74LS367 or similar. I am willing to
make *MINOR* modifications to the Disk IO board to export these signals via
a connector and even add one or two small chips to the design to improve
signal quality. I am *NOT* willing to make major modifications to the
design at this point as I have a mostly working system and do not want to
start over.
The intermediate disk signals could, *I believe* be imported into a PC
parallel port with "clock out" (typically 500 KHz for MFM DSDD, 250KHz for
FM, etc) being used for latch signal. I think they are also slow enough to
be practically captured by the PC parallel port. The PC could then sample
the parallel port at high rate (interrupt driven? DMA?) to read the signals
and create a disk image from the data. Again, the i8272 would not process
the signals so they would contain all the data the i8272 processes but will
not pass along such as header info, IDAM, CRC, true gap length, etc.
I could even include true "raw read" signal which would be the bit
transitions straight from the drive however due to the high sampling rate
required to accurately capture it I really don't think it would be much use.
Would it be possible and/or practical to make a PC based disk imaging tool
using the SBC as an intermediate stage?
Please note, I am only offering to make minor modifications to my SBC and
Disk IO board to support such a project, not to conduct a PC based disk
imaging software development project myself. I wrote some hard sector
Catweasel programs earlier for Heath, Vector Graphic, and NorthStar so I
have some familiarity working with raw disk data, however, the home brew Z80
project is using up all my hobby time.
If you are interested please reply here or contact me. Thanks!
Andrew Lynch
PS Here is the Z80 i8272 home brew project I am working on for background
information
http://groups.google.com/group/n8vem?hl=en
Another disk imaging project
Dave Dunfield dave04a at dunfield.com
<mailto:cctech%40classiccmp.org?Subject=Another%20disk%20imaging%20project&I
n-Reply-To=>
Wed Aug 3 04:58:06 CDT 2005
* Previous message: ImageDisk and some 8' images posted
* Next message: Another disk imaging project
* Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
________________________________
Hi Guys,
I'm really getting fed-up with the limitations of the PC floppy disk
controller.
Here's another idea I've had on the back-burner for quite some time, I've
mentioned to a couple of you during private correspondance, but here it is
for open discussion.
The idea is to make a small single-board computer with a microcontroller,
a WD2793 or similar floppy disk controller, enough memory to buffer a
few tracks, and a high-speed serial port for communication with the PC.
The board would have connectors for 5.25"/3" drives and 8" drives, and
would properly interface to all drive types.
Firmware would be developed to provide read/format/write/analysis
capabilities around the more powerful WD chip. Images would be transferred
via the serial connection to and from the PC. This should allow us to
archive soft-sector formats that are not compatible with the PC, and also
to perform these functions under virtually any PC environment.
I just haven't had time to design and build the board ... anyone else
interested in working together on such a project?
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
>> Yes. Indeed. I checked it again and it is the
regular
>> CRC circuit with unusual initial value and
polynomial.
> What are these values? They are not documented in
the data sheet.
The polynomial is 0x140a0445
(x32+x28+x26+x19+x17+x10+x6+x2+1), the initial value
is 0x9dcd57c0.
It is need to do following steps to check crc:
1 Init sift register by initial value
2 Process 0xf8 (MSB first)
3 Process 512 bytes of data
4 Process 4 bytes CRC.
If everything is ok then value in the shift register
will be zero.
Alexander.
> The DEQNA and DEUNA print sets have been on-line for some time.
>
> Don't forget the archives and links at: vt100.net/manx
> Here is the DEUNA link:
>
> http://vt100.net/manx/details/1,3463
As for locating the DEUNA information, thanks to an earlier respondent, I have dragged a copy of that out of bitsavers.org. For some reason, I just couldn't find it. I must have looked in various PDP subdirs, the ethernet subdir, but missed it in the unibus subdir. Doh!
[BTW, a huge thank you to Al and Paul for building and maintaining such valuable resources. Where's the tipping jar, eh, gentlement?]
Thanks to all who replied to my original post. It is clear that the cab-kits for QBUS modules are more or less usable with UNIBUS modules. That's the news I was hoping to find. It'll still be a while before I'm ready to test it all out on the 11/750, due to ongoing power supply hickups and troubleshooting, but it shouldn't be long now.
Jared
Very last pre-show email ..... if you live within a few hundred miles of
the Jersey shore, and you dig vintage computers, then don't be a putz!
Come to the VCF East 5.0 this weekend. Tickets are 10 bucks for one day
or 15 for both days. Free for 17 and younger. Parking's free too.
Saturday is usually the busier day, but on Sunday (at 11:30) is a speech
by Bill Mauchly, who's the son of John Mauchly, of ENIAC and UNIVAC fame.
We're also opening the computer museum here in "beta" mode. More info is
at the usual spot:
http://www.vintage.org/2008/east/
I'm WAY too busy with final details to check back on cctalk, so if anyone
has questions, please just call my cell phone, 646.546.9999.
- Evan K.