test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yes Newbury its at Newbury Racecourse about five miles from me. Power = Own substation Only used for races a dozen times year Indoor Facilities for 20,000+ Large Conference and exhibition spaces Buckets of Bandband More power sockets than a hackers bedroom Own train station. (London < an hour) Landing strip Helicopter pad Car parks Coach parks 300+ buses Short road and then dual carriageway to M4/A34 Junction (London Heathrow Airport 45 mins even if I'm not in a hurry!) Loadsa Local Hotels, Travelodge within five miles. (Empty at weekends when no racing) Wada-else-u-need? Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Liam Proven Sent: 09 August 2007 13:01 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: UK retro show thoughts I've tried to make a couple of points which seem to have sunk unnoticed. While you're all happily arguing about the comparative virtues of various models of generator, I have pointed out that there are already very large-scale computer shows happening in the UK on a regular basis: the commercial LAN parties. If a venue can handle a thousand plus PCs, it can handle a few hundred vintage computers. These places would seem to me to naturally be high on the list of candidate venues. I asked for commentary about the venue for the largest of these, Multiplay. http://www.multiplay.co.uk/ There is one this coming weekend. Perhaps someone in the area - Newbury - could pop over and check it out briefly and report back? Are listers even /aware/ that there are multiple such events every year in this country with literally *thousands* of gamers attending, the majority bringing their own hand-built high-end customised PCs to play on? The custom PC building fraternity is probably the biggest computer enthusiast scene or group in the world today. It's relevant to us. Highly relevant, I submit; their attendees could be some of ours, for a start, and their organizers could potentially tell or teach us a lot. Secondly, there is an existing UK retrocomputing event, although it's not that regular. It's CGE-UK. Here are a couple of reports from past ones: http://www.ukretro.co.uk/cge2004.htm http://www.consolepassion.co.uk/cge-show-report.htm http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/eug/revs/misc/r-cge.html I was at one of these - I don't remember now if it was '04 or '05. It was good fun. Strong games emphasis, which is of little interest to me, but a vast amount of fascinating hardware - all manner of 1980s exotica and obscurities, plus stuff from the '50s, '60s and '70s. For instance, as a child of the (computing) 1980s, I punched my first ever punch card and I handled some core store for the first time in my life. Several list members were there exhibiting. Care to stop debating generators and start making some constructive suggestions, folks? :?) For what it's worth, I was (somewhat peripherally) involved in the running of the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow. I know a lot of people involved in running SF cons and have some useful contacts from that field; I attend up to half a dozen such events a year. This may not sound terribly relevant, but the Worldcon is the largest amateur-run event of any kind in the world and it happens without fail every single year and it's been running for more than 60 years now. There is much we could potentially learn from them. They know how to put on a big event for hundreds or thousands of attendees with no professional help or involvement and a starting budget of zero or close to it. -- Liam Proven * Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk * GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 * Cell: +44 7939-087884 * Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com * MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk * Skype: liamproven * ICQ: 73187508

18 years, 10 months

Shifting meanings: "Spaghetti Code"?

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

> "... It is also easier to debug because it does not use the > structures of nested if-then-else statements known as spaghetti code > popular in conventional programming languages." ... > When did the meaning change? It hasn't. Let's just say that the quoted speaker has his own take on things. http://www.vsmerlot.com/ Click the "Wasn't the GOTO" link to see what he's talking about. Then take a look at the QuickSort example, to see how he's brought new clarity to the ghastly confusion of the usual coded implementation.

18 years, 10 months

Prime minicomputer simulator?

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Has anyone developed a simulator for Prime machines? The Oracle of WWW says no. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

18 years, 10 months

Interdata 7/32 C maintenance manual

by Philip.Hastings＠pseg.com

To Whom it may Concern, I saw a link on the net about you having two Interdata 7/32's. Do you still have and if so would you be willing to sell if were in the same ballpark as far as revision on the hardware is concerned? I am tasked with supporting two of these ( yes they are still in production here). Thanks Phil Hastings 856-339-1879 ----------------------------------------- The information contained in this e-mail, including any attachment(s), is intended solely for use by the named addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, or a person designated as responsible for delivering such messages to the intended recipient, you are not authorized to disclose, copy, distribute or retain this message, in whole or in part, without written authorization from PSEG. This e-mail may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately. This notice is included in all e-mail messages leaving PSEG. Thank you for your cooperation.

18 years, 10 months

The storage question

by silent700＠gmail.com

Not disk, but physical space. I broke down yesterday and did what I said I'd never do to support my habit: I've rented a storage unit. So now I've got ~1500 ft^3 to help take the pressure off my living space. I may soon see my floors again! Being in the midwest, where we expereince just about every temperature and humidity condition, what do I have to worry about with storing old systems, media, etc in near-outdoor conditions (the unit is not climate-controlled?) The unit will be dry, at least as far as rain, leaks and flooding go. I don't think cold is a big problem, as long as I don't run any equipment that was out in -20F weather without allowing it to assume room temp first. How about heat? I'm worried about floppies and tapes there. Humidity seems like it would be the killer. I'll be storing my magazines there for a while, and I plan to wrap them all in plastic before boxing them. Maybe the same for magnetic media. Ideally I'd have a raised-floor datacenter at 65F degrees and the humidity control of a humidor, but circumstances are what they are, and it's this or start throwing stuff out :) Any advice is appreciated! -- jht

18 years, 10 months

Shifting meanings: "Spaghetti Code"?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Chuck asks: > Nested "IF-THEN-ELSE" is now spaghetti code? IMHO it's worse in most cases now. #ifdefs up the wazoo in C source code are beyond imagination. They aren't even executed run-time but clutter up everything! Sure, gnu config helps mechanize the process but when a problem is so bad it results in new tools being created to mechanize the badness it's a sure sign that something's gone off the deep end. Computed gotos are really pretty nifty. Alternative returns (as in Fortran) are really just wonderful for bugging out of deeply nested errors, way way better than a bunch of if-then-elses. Don't forget: A good FORTRAN programmer can write spaghetti code in any language! Tim.

18 years, 10 months

Fluke Dos Question

by d-salafia1＠ti.com

Stan, I was looking for a copy of the operating system for a FLuke 1722. Where I work we had 3 copies and the night shift folks tried all 3 copies before realizing it was a bad drive. These disk each offer different symptoms but are all bad I suspect. How can I get you to get me a copy of this or help me figure out how to save these disks? Any and all help would be appreciated. David Salafia Texas Intruments

18 years, 10 months

The storage question

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 8:32 -0500 8/16/07, Jason wrote: >Not disk, but physical space. I broke down yesterday and did what I >said I'd never do to support my habit: I've rented a storage unit. So >now I've got ~1500 ft^3 to help take the pressure off my living space. > I may soon see my floors again! I echo what other list members have said. You will catch a brief glimpse of floor, before it gets buried in more classic computer gear. Might as well clean, vacuum, wax, or whatever, this week, since it'll be the last chance you ever get. Here's a suggestion. Make 3 prioritized lists (examples below >from my collection): 1) With which of the machines I have do I intend to do something? a) Mac Plus - port distributed.net to this b) HP 712 - port distributed.net to this c) Color Computer 3 - program pythagorean triplet search in assembler d) PB3400 - port distributed.net to this .... y) SE-30 - no projects in mind z) Rainbow - no projects in mind 2) Which of the machines I have is really unique or irreplaceable? a) Rainbow, with graphics, hard drive, and 8087 co-processor b) Mac Plus with Brainstorm Accelerator c) NeXT cube with Dimension card d) PDP-11/60 .... y) SE-30 - stock z) Color Computer 3 - stock 3) To which of my machines have I the strongest sentimental attachment? a) Mac Plus - *my* first computer, did my college and grad work on it b) Rainbow - my second computer, duplicate of first machine I assembled c) NeXT cube - my first workstation, totally rocks ... y) SE-30 - scavenged from bottom of closet at work z) PDP-11/60 - waiting for another list member to come pick up :-) Now identify any machine that's on the bottom half of all three lists. In my case, it'd be the SE-30. Put all such machines on Vintage Computer Marketplace *this weekend*. Charge something above "cost of shipping" (since stuff that is acquired free is often thrown away) to be sure the thing has value to its new owner. If no bids on VCM in 2 weeks, put it on eBay, no minimum bid. If no bids on eBay in 2 weeks, *lose it* the cheapest way you can. Goodwill Computerworks, Apple electronics recycling, donate to a local private school, donate to one of the existing or nascent computer museums, whatever. Make sure this process takes less than 2 weeks. If no takers for freebies within 2 weeks, dumpster it. Better a quick death and you don't have to pay for storage while it rusts/deteriorates/loses magnetization for the hard drive bits. If you keep it, it'll die eventually anyway and you'll pay for it (fiscally and emotionally) over the decades it takes to die. During the 2-week VCM and eBay bid periods, expend round tuits on the top end of list 1 above. Having accomplished what you intended, re-evaluate lists (systems will move down list 1 but probably simultaneously up list 3). Repeat process until you can get rid of the storage unit. I say this because "storage unit" == "garbage dump" in my experience, it just takes longer and costs more. Once put into a storage unit, most equipment is dead - it'll never serve or run again, because of the trouble to dig it out and the damage done to it by humidity, time, dust, rodents, and neglect. In my opinion, if you can't climate-control the sensitive parts of your collection and store all of it such that you can be using any part of it within about 10 minutes' of the impulse striking, the collection is too big for you. Of course, YMMV! FWIW, my (relatively small) collection is climate-controlled, with the exception of monitors and the PDP-11/60 (CPU and power supply only), which are in the attic (where it gets hot, but since there's wood flooring and decent ventilation, no obvious humidity/mold problems.) So no, you won't see the SE/30 on VCM this weekend. But there are some printers that I really should dispose of.... >Any advice is appreciated! Heh. Sure hope you meant that literally; apologies if not. -- - Mark, 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

18 years, 10 months

ROM preservation (Data I/O system 19)

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

> From: briandixson at tiscali.co.uk> > Hi Chris,> > > > I was looking at your thread relating to the Data I/O Manual and understand> you have the manuals.> > > > I picked a System19 unit up a couple of years ago and it came with the> Unipack & 001, 011 Adapters.> > > > The manual I have only relates to the Adapter Codes & I have no info on the> Unipack Codes for Programming Chips.> > > > Do you have a copy of the codes as Data I/O are no help at all.> > > > Many thanks> Hi Brian I thought Al had a chart on his pdf pages but all I see are manual. I have a wall chart with codes but it is two large to fit into a copier. I can try to copy a bit at a time. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ Messenger Caf? ? open for fun 24/7. Hot games, cool activities served daily. Visit now. http://cafemessenger.com?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_AugWLtagline

18 years, 10 months

shorter 19" racks (was Re: Suggestions for rackmount floppy mounting)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 8/14/07, Jim Leonard <trixter at oldskool.org> wrote: > All this talk has inspired me to get a rack. But do such things exist > as "personal" racks and/or half-height racks? Or should I be resigned > to just finding a full-height rack somewhere for $400 and find a place > to put it? (I have only about 10us of stuff to rack -- two scan > converters, two computers, that's it...) 6' and taller racks are the most common in my experience, but there were plenty of 4' and shorter racks made, too. I just picked up a really short DEC rack from Patrick at VCFmw. I'd quote the model number, but it's hundreds of miles away and I can't check the label. It was a semi-common item - it originally contained a PDP-11/03 and RX01 and has approx 21" of rack space (12 U) and a wood-grain Formica top. DEC also made a large number of 42" cabinets with a curved-top profile that was meant to be suitable for office or machine-room environments. They will hold 3 RL02s or a CPU and two drives or whatever (approx 18 U, plus room in the bottom-back for a 3 U power controller (with a kick-plate in the front). A bit older than those were some similar-height racks from the 11/34 and PDP-8/e era with 3"-ish-tall 45-degree bevel/bezel on the top-front-edge, but I think those might be a bit rarer. If you want just your "10 U" and not any more, the table-topped rack I described would work. If, OTOH, you would rather have things more than a few inches off the ground, you could use a 42" rack and load it >from the top down (and have room in the future for more toys ;-) -ethan

18 years, 10 months

The storage question

by marvin＠west.net

> If no takers for freebies within 2 weeks, dumpster it. Better > a quick death and you don't have to pay for storage while it > rusts/deteriorates/loses magnetization for the hard drive bits. If > you keep it, it'll die eventually anyway and you'll pay for it > (fiscally and emotionally) over the decades it takes to die. > - Mark, 210-379-4635 I will rarely dumpster anything computer related ... at least intact :). The motherboards and cards usually have enough gold to be of some interest to gold scrappers (Pax may have more to say about this!) Personally, I have a box that I toss old cards into and sell them every six months to a year. Depending on the gold content, I usually get somewhere around $0.50 - $1.00 per pound. No idea if this is good/bad/indifferent but it sure beats giving it away to the electronic recyclers (we can't through electronics into the dumpster here in Kalifornia.)

18 years, 10 months

3c509b cards to good home

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Some time ago I asked if anyone wants a pair of 3c509b ISA ethernet cards. Someone replied, but I lost the email. Who wants them? -- 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?

18 years, 10 months

My rescue mission

by cctech＠retro.co.za

Hi all Drove up to Johannesburg from Cape Town (about a thousand miles each way) to rescue stuff. Osborne Acorn RISC PC 2 x Archimedes (no keyboards) SAM Coupe Spectrum + DISCiple interface SGI Indy SGI Indigo SGI O2 SUN Ultra 1 I had to leave two of the four monitors behind, no space in the VW Fox, but I did get an Indy presenter. And five or six cameras. Left one SGI monitor (both the Indigo and the O2 can use VGA monitors) and the SUN monitor (I have one available here). Will fetch them some other day. Moral question : I have Solaris 2.5, Solaris 8 and Ubuntu Linux. The Ubuntu complains about not enough memory (there's only 64 megs in there). But I'm more of a Linux guy than a Solaris guy... I did get a few CDs with Irix stuff, including the development stuff, seems like, and Irix 6.2 "upgrade". I'm sure I'll need more than this to get the SGIs up? The Indy looks fine but the O2 only comes up now and then. Havn't tried any of the rest yet. So... tips, tricks, etc? And who has SDIMMs for me? Or for that matter SGI memory sticks, they look pretty weird... W

18 years, 10 months

Suggestions for rackmount floppy mounting

by cclist＠sydex.com

I need to mount some full-height and half-height 5.25" floppy drives as well as a few 3.5" units on a standard EIA rack. Does anyone have any ideas about the best way to go about this would be? Thanks, Chuck

18 years, 10 months

Comdyna GP-6, Minivac 601 documentation

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

> From: tony.eros at machm.org> Subject: Comdyna GP-6, Minivac 601 documentation> > Does anyone have documentation sets for either of these systems? I seem to recall a while back that someone had a full set of Minivac manuals that were going to be scanned, but I never heard anything more.> > Also, I recently picked up a GP-6 and am looking for a user's guide or other operations manuals.> > Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.> > -- Tony Hi Tony The GP-6 has basic docs on the web someplace. I have a GP-20 but the principles are the same. They have a fast and a slow setting for the integrators. It also has a reset for these as well. If you don't find the Comdyna stuff with a search, I can look for you. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ Find a local pizza place, movie theater, and more?.then map the best route! http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&ss=yp.bars~yp.pizza~yp.movie%20theate…

18 years, 10 months

Source for TK50 Compactapes?

by derschjo＠msu.edu

Can anyone recommend a good source for Compactapes for a TK50? With all this talk of TK50s & DLT tapes I'm reminded that I have a PDP 11/83 and a MicroVAX 2000 that I'd like to write some OS tapes for, but lack media... I see a few for sale here and there on eBay but I'm not sure I want to go that route yet... Thanks... Josh

18 years, 10 months

DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Thanks for the detailed information. Having found the full set of docs in the box plus my what I remember from DEC, as I was there when this kit was current. I had a general idea as to how it worked. As my other hobby is amateur television (I build ATV repeaters) at least I was able to understand what you said. As to the VR241 I agree. A non working one would be a bit of a challenge. I'm trying to think of another DEC RGB monitor from around that time that might have been used. Do you know I can't actually remember if the one I had at DEC had one monitor or two. My best guess is I had one VR241 on my desk. I certainly used the Rainbow VT220 mode to talk to the SWS VAX for email, printing etc. Yes that's right email in 1983! DEC had a system called AllInOne or DECmail and IBM's system was called PROFS. There were standard DEC cables for the one/two monitor configuration. However I can make up cables from a diagram if needed. Thanks and Regards Rod Smallwood (Now seeking any DEC RGB monitor current between 1982 and 1990) -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 15 August 2007 22:43 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus > So phaseII is to locate a VR241 which is the 13" RGB colour monitor > that would have been used with the Rainbow when it was current > equipment. The Rainbow is specified to work with both monitors attached. YEs, you can use both the mono and colour monitors on the 'bow, but you need a special cable (and specialk programming?) Let me explain. The colour video card outputs _4_ video signals, which I call R, G, B, Mono. The 'Mono' signal is mixed with the text video from the 'VT100' circuit on the 'bow mainboard. This is the composite video signal that's sent to the VR201 (yes, you can use a mono monitor with the graphics card) The standard colour monitor is a sync-on-green TV rate analogue colour monitor. The standard cable connects it to R, Mono, B (to the R,G,B inputs on the monito), the 'G' output of the colour card is not used. This means you get green text from the mainboard circuit, and colour graphics. You can make a cable to connect a mono monitor to the 'mono' signal and the colour monitor to the R,G,B signals. You then get the mainboard video on the mono monitor only (along with grpahics, if you program the CLUT correctly), and colour grpahics on the colour monitor. I can send you details of the cabling if you want it Be warend that the real VR241 is a horrbile thing. It's actually a Hitachi chassis, complete with the well-known thick-film circuit in the vertical deflection stage. The PSU is plain crazy, the chopper is driven (indirectly) by a windign on the flyback (line output) transformer. So for the PSU to run, the horizontal deflection circuit has to be working properly. To get it started, there's an astable multivibrator o nthe PSU board that is disabled shortly after power-up, but which gets the chopper going for long nwnough that the delfection circuits can rattle into life. Debugging one of thise is 'fun' for suitable values of 'fun'. Just about all the likely-bits-to-fail have to be working before it'll do anything at all... -tony

18 years, 10 months

More on racks...

by cclist＠sydex.com

Just found a couple of pages on DIY racks: http://rack.modzone.dk/Worklog_rack.htm http://foobar.wykehamist.com/index.php?id=5 I think that the wooden version (second) would look very nice as a tabletop unit. I'd probably use "biscuits" for the corners unless I wanted to impress folks with my woodworking skill, then I'd make the box of Bolivian rosewood with dovetailed joints... Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 10 months

DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi I am part way there in that a kind list member has found a VR201 for me. However having gone through the box of items that came with the Rainbow. Lo and behold the colour/graphics card, its installation manual and its programming manual are all there. My aim for all of my DEC collection is to get the systems back to the condition that they left the factory in. As to software, anything that would have been available to run on the system during its normal life, is a collection target. An now for a quick off topic excursion. I bid for on EBay and got at a very low price an HP DesignJet 750CPlus A0 plotter. Somebody had broken inkjet rule number one. "Never never use refilled or non HP cartridges" They refill them through the vent hole. This enlarges it, air gets in and it leaks. The ink catchment reservoir overflows and ink gets everywhere. So I was presented with a plastic end shell full of low grade black ink. Desperate measures were called for. I turned the pressure washer loose on it. The results were amazing the ink went into solution and got flushed away. Result one totally clean cover. So, at your own risk, dirty plastic may respond to careful use of a pressure washer. So phaseII is to locate a VR241 which is the 13" RGB colour monitor that would have been used with the Rainbow when it was current equipment. The Rainbow is specified to work with both monitors attached. Rod Smallwood (The DEC Collector) -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 13 August 2007 22:10 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus > > Hi > I am now the owner of a DEC Rainbow 100 Plus. (10mb Hard Drive and > all) > Its just like the one I had on my desk at DECPark circa 1981=20 The > good news is its got loads of software with it. > The bad news is the tube in the VR201 monitor is shot. > The screen has mould between the tube and bonded on faceplate. > No amount of standard adjustment will make it bright enough to read in > normal lighting. > So... > I need: > =20 > a) A replacement tube. IIRC, the CRT is a pretty generic one, a 7 pin (modified B7G base) with 11.5V heater. I usepect (without trying it) that any 12" 90 degree deflection CRT with those cheacteristics will work. Last time I needed a CRT (to repair a somewhat odd terminal), I found the easiest/cheapest way to get one was to buy a monochrome portable TV and raid it for the CRT. But can you still buy monochrome protable TVs? > =20 > or=20 > =20 > b) a Digital VR201-A , -B or -C =20 > or > =20 > d) A colour graphics card for a DEC Rainbow. 100+ e) A normal TV-rate composite monitor and the right cabling. Basically, you have to wire up an RJ11 socket to the right 4 pins on the DA15 connector for the keyboard, and take composite video (and ground) from another 2 pins. By default the 'bow uses US rates, but I think you can set it to 50Hz vetical on one of the setup menus, so it should be close then to UK rates. Let me know if you want to do this and I can dig out the pinouts, etc. -tony

18 years, 10 months

ROM preservation (Data I/O system 19)

by briandixson＠tiscali.co.uk

Hi Chris, I was looking at your thread relating to the Data I/O Manual and understand you have the manuals. I picked a System19 unit up a couple of years ago and it came with the Unipack & 001, 011 Adapters. The manual I have only relates to the Adapter Codes & I have no info on the Unipack Codes for Programming Chips. Do you have a copy of the codes as Data I/O are no help at all. Many thanks Best regards Brian

18 years, 10 months

Comdyna GP-6, Minivac 601 documentation

by tony.eros＠machm.org

Does anyone have documentation sets for either of these systems? I seem to recall a while back that someone had a full set of Minivac manuals that were going to be scanned, but I never heard anything more. Also, I recently picked up a GP-6 and am looking for a user's guide or other operations manuals. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. -- Tony

18 years, 10 months

Sydex Floppy Driver

by fcwapp99＠163.com

Sydex Floppy Driver I want to find a Sydex Floppy Driver Plase HELP Me!!a file of sydexfdd.sys5.1 / Windows (R) 2000 DDK provider of otherVersior thank you !

18 years, 10 months

Connecting to Model EZ135A SyQuest drives

by ajwills＠paradise.net.nz

Does anyone have experience with connecting Model EZ135A SyQuest drives (that read 135MB removeable cartridges) to PCs? I think they were originally sold as external SCSI or parallel port devices. The bare drive that I've got has an IDE type interface, but I'm told they don't identify themselves properly on the IDE bus so that the PC BIOS doesn't recognise them. (I'm trying to find a way to read some old archive disks).

18 years, 10 months

Suggestions for rackmount floppy mounting

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 14 >From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> <snip> >Reminds me of the old-time custom of making rack panels out of 1/4" >masonite. I was thinking about 1/4" polycarbonate and a router (the >machine tool, not the network gear). <snip> My favorite source for aluminum sheet for making brackets, supports, cases, etc., is a cookie baking sheet. They are a lot less expensive than buying metal sheet at a hardware store. Bob

18 years, 10 months

Suggestions for rackmount floppy mounting

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Suggestions for rackmount floppy mounting > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:59:35 -0700 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 14 Aug 2007 at 11:11, Mr Ian Primus wrote: > >> Well, if you want the cheap-and-dirty way to do it (my >> favorite way!) you could use a piece of 1/4" plywood >> as a faceplate, cut square holes in it the size of a >> full height 5 1/4" drive, and scavenge some drive >> frames from junked PC mid-tower cabinets. Screw the >> drive frames to the back of the plywood, and paint the >> plywood to match the cabinet. The weight of the floppy >> drives shouldn't be enough so that it needs any more >> support than a few rack screws drilled through the >> edges of the plywood. > >Reminds me of the old-time custom of making rack panels out of 1/4" >masonite. I was thinking about 1/4" polycarbonate and a router (the >machine tool, not the network gear). I could make the side rails >from the same, just solvent-cemented to the front. > >I'm not sure how, using the tools I have to carve big holes in a >thick aluminum blank panel plate. Would a 3 HP router and a carbide >bit do it? Ideally, I suppose a vertical mill would be the "right" >tool, but I don't have access to one. Hand held saber saw (aka jigsaw) with metal blade does fine. I made the disk shelf for my PDP11 (RX33, RD52s, uVAX2000 powersupply, enable/writelocks buttons from BA123). Front plate was a blank and the shelf was another sheet of .100 Aluminum plus some supports salvaged from various older defunct machines. Allison > >Cheers, >Chuck

18 years, 10 months

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test-drb