Hi,
> IMHO, more important than the EPROM programmer is an
>EPROM emulator....
Good point, and the exact reason I picked up a "Softy S3" about 10 years
back (which is in SERIOUS need of TLC unfortunately).
Great little unit, it's an EPROM programmer/emulator in a package about the
size of a large pocket calculator. Dump your code into it via a serial port
and enter emulation mode for testing, when you're done just drop in a blank
EPROM and hit the "burn" button. :-)
I really should get this thing working again....
TTFN - Pete.
Anyone with a 8 inch drive available. I'd prefer
DS/DD but frankly anything considered. I'm trying
to put together an external 8" drive for a PC to
allow archiving of 8" disks.
Reply of list.
Many thanks.
Ian.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Need a vacation? Get great deals
to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
http://travel.yahoo.com/
I'm going to be up in Seattle next week on Sun/Mon/Tue for the Microsoft
GameFest developer event. I think there's some time on one of the
evenings where there isn't a party scheduled :-). Anyone care to meet
for a beer or something?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
Pete Turnbull said:
> On 05/08/2007 21:10, Tony Duell wrote:
>>> Hire a genny.
>>
>> How stable is the frequency of such a unit? Remember many larger disk
>> drives have their spindle speed set by mains freqeucy.
>
> To say nothing of the fact that the output is often nothing like a sine
> wave, and many devices don't take kindly to that.
Thanks to Yorkshire Electricity Distribution Ltd. being bloody useless, I
am considerably more intimate with my building's generator than I was a
few short weeks ago, so this is a subject close to my heart!
Anyway, the long and the short is that gennys certainly can produce
reliable power - more reliable than YEDL, anyway. Our unit is an Iveco
6l 4-stroke diseasel driving a MarelliMotori genset, generating 150Kva
of 440v 3phase. Output voltage and frequency are programmable, and
frequency stability calibration is documented in the manual.
Modern gennies would be more than capable of doing the job, and should be
readily available for short-term lease. You'd be surprised how quiet and
clean-running they are as well.
Fuel isn't cheap though; IIRC running it at ~75% load it uses something in
the order of 200 litres/day of diesel; it should be OK to use red diesel
in a genny I think (for non-UKers - red diesel is diesel on which
fuel tax hasn't been paid,) but you're still looking at a fair old cost.
Oh, and to answer the original question - I'm up noorf in Yorkshire,
although I'd actually prefer such an event to be in London. I'd be
interested in going if it does happen, anyway.
Cheers,
Tim.
PS. Word of advice - check the fuel controller pump relay. Nothing more
annoying than being woken up at 3am because a poxy 5 quid relay has stuck
and caused the header tank to run dry. Voice of bitter experience there
;-). (On the bright side, if that does happen I can now show you how to
hand-prime a dry diesel engine :^).)
--
Tim Walls at home in Leeds
EMail & MSN: tim.walls at snowgoons.com
I finally got around to reverse engineering and understanding my PCjr
bus to 8 bit ISA bus adapter. The details are here:
http://www.brutman.com/PCjr/pcjr_isa_adapter.html
If you are interested give it a read and send me your comments; I'm kind
of interested in making sure that I've not written something blatantly
wrong. In the interest in keeping the noise level here low please
consider whether a comment should be public or off-list ...
Thanks,
Mike
>
>Subject: Re: newbie building a scratch-built computer
> From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
> Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:54:42 -0400
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>
>On Aug 5, 2007, at 4:16 AM, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
>>> Not the best choice, IMHO, a better one you might find at
>>> www.willem.org.
>>> There are commercial clones as well, like the one from
>>> www.silvotronic.de
>>> (board, kit available through ePay for instance). I have bought a
>>> kit from
>>> them and they work fine.
>>
>> One caveat with the willem programmers is that there really is only
>> Windows software available for them. It works well under Wine with a
>> bit of messing about.
>
> That in itself is a good reason to avoid them, in my opinion. I
>have two or three useless PC-based EPROM programmers sitting in
>various boxes in the garage. They're useless because the
>manufacturer has orphaned them (or just plain gone out of business)
>and I either lost the software, or it only runs under some release of
>Windows that isn't easily available anymore. (and I'll be damned if
>I'm going to have a Windows machine here just to run an EPROM
>programmer!)
>
> Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Get a standalone
>device programmer, not one that pretends to be a computer
>peripheral...or worse yet, a "Windows PC peripheral". With a real
>device programmer, you won't get locked into the whims of the
>manufacturer (at least not as easily), or worse yet, the whims of
>Microsoft. Having an important tool depend on an unreliably,
>proprietary operating system from one manufacturer who is well-known
>for sleazy business practices sure doesn't sound to me like a smart
>way to run.
>
> I used a Data I/O 2900 for many years, and I absolutely loved it.
>I recently replaced it with a Data I/O Unisite...a big beefy one with
>a hard drive. It's Good Stuff(tm) and can program pretty much
>anything. When designing or repairing something, I never have to
>stop and worry about whether or not I can program a particular
>device. These machines have floppy drives, and can deal with DOS-
>formatted disks (which most anything can write) and understand
>literally dozens of different file formats. They can also be
>remotely controlled via a *STANDARD* serial port, and the protocol is
>simple and openly documented.
>
> Like I said...anything worth doing is worth doing right.
DataIO is nice but if you don't have one the next best is anything that
has an interface that is easily coded for or the code is available.
I use a S100 Prommer and have the sources so the end result was a
SBC880, RAM-17 and an old 4slot mother using a PC power supply to
make a dedicated programmer with a serial port to any host. The
nice part about Eproms is they are standardized.
Allison
>
>Subject: Re: newbie building a scratch-built computer
> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:21:07 +0100 (BST)
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>[EPROM emulatoros]
>
>> *) Maybe your and my programming strategy differs; now with SW emulators
>> for almost any old CPU being available ona PC, I tend to test my code in
>
>It does. Remember I don't have anything that will run such an emulator at
>anything like a reasonable speed.
For test reasons often not a requirement to run at near real speeds.
Sometimes slower is good for testing, most sims can do things even
a hardware front pannel would envy. Usually I use a spare 486dx/66,
certainly not lightining fast but enough to test to see if the code
even runs and usually decently fast. the P1mmx/166 I use for email
and stuff runs Myz80 and Dunfields NS* Horizon (4mhz z80) and
CUBIX (6809) SIMs all run close to or better than real speeds.
Thats good enough considering the tools they provide as an offset
if any.
>Anyway, I like to write little test programs to run on the target
>hardware (maybe just outputing a message through the serial port, or
>blinking some LEDs, or...). Just to make sure the target is doing
>something sensbile.
I prefer to run on hardware too but, there are times when a my 486/75
laptop is at hand and I'm way from my bench so why not?
Allison
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NOTES: You can get the book from us or from amazon.com.
We thank all the people who emailed us about the book. We really
appreciate your interest and your comments. Please forward this note to
anyone who might be interested in Priming the PUmp.
> > They're made of copper, but they're also plated with iron, and once that
> > plating is gone the copper doesn't last -- it gets pitted, etc. On really
> > old stuff I used to file tips, but not any more...
>
> Back in the old days, we used to coat the copper tips with silver
> (hard) solder (56% silver) to extend the life. But you need a torch
> to do that--silver solder melts at about 1100F and requires a special
> flux.
For what I believe was a short time back in the mid-late-70's, Weller came out with gold-flashed
soldering iron tips. They seemed to last forever and kept a tin like a dream which might have
been one of the reasons they discontinued them (i.e. tip sales reduced). Mine might still be
usable today if they hadn't been lost in one of my trans-national moves (along with a large
collection of soldering equipment and aids).
____________________________________________________________________________________
Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
http://sims.yahoo.com/
Chris M wrote:
>
> though). Soldering iron tips are made of copper, so I
> don't see any reason why I couldn't chisel one down
> for a specific task. Any thoughts? Am I courting
> disaster?
Depends on the tip. The better soldering tips are coated/plated with another
metal, and filing removes that coating. It will still work, but will also
require more maintenance to keep the tip working properly.
> From: davis <davis at saw.net>
>
> > would a decent eye loupe do the trick, as far as
> > determining where the problem lay? Truthfully I've had
> > problem power supplies in the past, and nailed each
> > solder junction (on the underside of the board) w/a
> > hot iron, and it always seemed to work like a charm
> >
> > From what I understand about the problem, just remelting the junctions and not applying solder will do the trick.
Remelting the junctions IF you apply flux to the joint will work fine (if the
joint is not too badly oxidized.) Not applying flux is just playing the lottery
as to the quality of the resoldered joint. A badly oxidized joint probably needs
to go through the solder sucker routine before applying new solder w/flux.
Well, I tried today to bring up my 11/84 - initial
tests are showing me that there is something wrong
with the power supply, an H7200. While the fans run,
there doesn't appear to be any +5v. There is a faint
ticking sound heard from the supply, and when I drop
the power, there is a soft squeaking.
So, before I take the this thing apart, are there any
suggestions where I can look, common failures, etc?
Thanks!
-Ian
>
>Subject: Re: newbie building a scratch-built computer
> From: "Holger Veit" <holger.veit at iais.fraunhofer.de>
> Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 12:23:15 +0200 (CEST)
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>Tony Duell said:
>> IMHO, more important than the EPROM programmer is an EPROM emulator. This
>> is a box of RAM that connectes to the EPROM socket of the target system
>> (the board you'be just made) and also to a host machine (PC, parallel
>> port, serial port, USB?). YOu can quickly download perogams into the
>> emulator, which then appears exactly as the EPROM does ot the target, and
>> the latter can therefroe run said programs.
>>
>> The advantage over using EPROMs is that you can re-write the RAM as many
>> times as you like (EPROMS have a limited number of program cycles) and
>> rewrite it quickly. Unless your programming is a lot better than mine,
>> you will go mad if you have to wait 20 minutes for an EPROM to be erased
>> and reprogammed. each time you want to make a change!
>
>I haven't so far reached the maximum # of programming cycles for EPROMs in
>any experiment. *) As I recommended you might use EEPROMs instead of
>EPROMs mainly because of their moderate capacity (you won't need PC FLASH
>ROMs with 1MB or more for an 8 bit system) and because they don't need
>erasing in the UV coffin.
Neither have I. I have 2716s, 2732s dating back to early 1980s that
have seen many cycles in many many projects and they are still good.
The thing that seems to kill Eproms is excessive erase times and
reverse polarity.
Allison
>
>*) Maybe your and my programming strategy differs; now with SW emulators
>for almost any old CPU being available ona PC, I tend to test my code in
>an emulator, often with single stepping first before I make a HEX file to
>burn it; even with EEPROMs - the old turnaround cycle of change a byte,
>program, insert and test how far it works is still too long even with RAM
>boxes. Admittedly, in the old times, without PC emulation, I did a lot of
>paper testing work first before burning the stuff into an EPROM; this
>discipline meanwhile degraded...
>
>--
>Holger
All:
I just got my hands on an Ampro LittleBoard/286. It appears to be in
good condition but comes with no manuals or software of any kind. The power
connector is obvious but I would like to get a manual and do some reading
before getting deep into the board.
Googling produces very limited info and no manuals. Does anyone have a
copy of the manual they?d be willing to scan or copy for me? Of course, I?ll
put an information page on my Web site once I?ve collected a bunch of info
on it.
Thanks!
Rich
--
Rich Cini
Collector of Classic Computers
Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator
http://www.altair32.comhttp://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp
Does anyone here know of an online archive of docs for the Xerox 820-II.
I have a few binders for it and I'm wondering how much of this I need to
run through a scanner.
--
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?
Hi,
There's plenty of free x-assemblers you can find on the net. I run
x-assemblers for 8080/85, 8086/88, 6800, 6809, Z80, 2650, SC/MP and 68000.
They all run on a Windows box. I use two old PCs for my development, one is
a 166Mhz Pentium running Win98 and the other is a 486SX (25Mhz) running
Win3.1. Those machines can run all the x-assemblers and editors necessary
for developing code for most old 8-bit processors.
If I need to get serious and require some ICE then I have an Intel MDS220
and an Intel MDS IV, which can do 8080 and 8085 ICE, respectively.
You can find basic processor schematics on the net and do your initial build
on some breadboard. Depending on the complexity, my final build is usually
wire-wrapped or soldered on veroboard.
Most of the x-assemblers will create an Intel Hex object code file, and you
program your home-brew system to be able to download these files and that's
how you load code into your system. Of course, unless you have a front
panel, you'll need to create a boot EPROM, so access to an EPROM burner is
required. I use an old Microprofessor MFP-1P, which has the EPROM burning
board connected and it burns 2516, 2716, 2532, 2732, 2732A and 2764 chips -
which is all I use on my home-brew systems.
One of the projects I am intending to do is to build a dedicated EPROM
burner, using some old 8-bit processor that can program the above chips as
well as the 2708.
Seeyuzz
River
Andrew Burton wrote:
Well, I'm south-east UK (East Anglia) a few miles from Cambridge.
Regards,
Andrew B
------------------------
When I'm in England (4-5 months a year) I live in Colchester. Maybe we can
get together next time I'm over - mid 2008.
Billy
As of now, my two remaining P112 kits are spoken for (you know who you
are). Plans to make more will depend on getting at least 30 units
preordered. This brings me to VCF West.
I've been asked to do a workshop on the P112 at VCF West . I don't really
know what I'd talk about, but at the very least I guess it would be a
bunch of people soldering together their P112 kits. So far, my schedule
looks good for that. So, please email me at this address or my yahoo
account (cupricus) and let me know what you want.
--
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?
Hi,
I would have thought "scratch-built" implied designing and building your own
home brewed system. Building a kit like the Micro-KIM is not a scratch build
exercise. All it will do is give you more practise in soldering.
If the whole purpose of this exercise is to have an old 8-bit system so you
can program in hex and/or assembler, then you can download an emulator and
play around with it from there. If you mainly want to run things off the
various serial and parallel ports then something like the Micro-KIM would be
useful.
If you want to do the whole lot yourself, then the best way to get "dirty"
is to design your own system, build it yourself (either via wire-wrap or
soldering) and develop your own small debug/monitor program. There's plenty
of information on the Internet to find some small designs that you can use,
and also hints and ideas on debug/monitor code.
I design and build my own systems - not for anything really purposeful, but
mainly for fun. I like to see how many different processor systems I can
build. I also like expanding on old systems, such as the AIM65 or wire-wrap
extra memory/IO boards for Multibus-I, etc.
The easiest oldish 8bit processors to use for a homebrew system would be the
6502, 6802, Z80 and 8085. When you've built one... say a 6502... then the
next fun thing is to build (say) and 8085 system, with similar functionality
and using the Intel family peripheral chips. Then you can get onto the less
common processors like the 2650, 9980... or even the SC/MP.
In any event, whatever path you take, have fun, learn and enjoy yourself.
Seeyuzz
River
I'm in Yorkshire, but would travel anywhere in the UK
for a vintage show :) Outside London would be a lot
cheaper I would guess, also travelling into London is
not cheap these days - especially if you want to
exibit
and need to bring a car/van.
Manchester would seem a good place - as it has some
interesting exibits at the Science Museum too -
including
the SSEM (Manchester Baby) of course - a working
recreation
of the original - now that's vintage!
Ian.
____________________________________________________________________________________Ready for the edge of your seat?
Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV.
http://tv.yahoo.com/
All:
Does anyone know if scans of the Tandy newsletter ?The Whimper? exists
on-line? I did some Googling tonight and came up mostly with stuff on
Jessica Tandy whimpering :-) I?ve been told these newsletters had some good
T2k info in them but I don?t see them on-line anywhere.
Specifically, I?m fishing for information on getting MFM hard drives
working on Tandy 2000 machines. I have two machines with to seemingly bad
Tandon TM502 drives. I saw another thread from last month that complained
about the poor quality of the Tandon drives, so it?s probably bad drives. I
have an ST225 drive that I want to run externally as a test but I haven?t
been able to locate a manual on the T2k HD controller nor the external drive
(25-1025 I think). I don?t want to connect it blindly before I?m confident
the controller is setup properly. Irrational fear maybe but I want to
proceed methodically.
Any info appreciated. Thanks.
Rich
--
Rich Cini
Collector of Classic Computers
Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator
http://www.altair32.comhttp://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp
Hi
I have the system unit for a Victor V286C PC manufactured in
1991. Its in really nice condition.
Keyboard and mouse are no problem. However the display is a different
matter. It has a nine pin
display connector which would make it a CGA ,MGA or Hercules output.
Anybody any ideas as to where I might find a matching monitor?
Rod Smallwood
Hi,
>> there is static on the crt's face when you power up?
>>If there's no provision for an AC plug, then you have
>>your answer as to where the power comes from. Didn't
>
> Indeed.
As an aside to this, the Sirius' monitor (like that of the later Apricots)
has a thin sheet of fabric stretched across the front of it (secured by the
front bezel) so there is no noticable static charge on the screen when it's
powered up.
Kinda puts paid to the quick and easy method of determining if it's getting
power.... :-(
TTFN - Pete.