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101090 discussions

Atari 800XL and 1050 disk drive in Delray Beach, FL

by darin.lory＠gmail.com

NNNNNOOOO!!!! UGH!!! My heart!! SHE THREW AWAY AN ATARI COMPUTER!! Dang! I would have gave her cash money for that!! That's almost as bad as when I came home from college and my Dad THREW out all my COMPUTE! magazines that I had saved up and were in MINT condition. -Darin He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife. - Douglas Adams

19 years

Finally fixed it! (was: Re: Complete success, OS/8 is up and running :) not so fast...)

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

After intensive head scratching and hair pulling (accompanied by appropriate curses and a bit of scope and logic analyzer work ;) I finally found the problem with my 8/A this afternoon. First, of course, it was necessary for me to learn exactly how an M8315 CPU card works! The 7483 adder I suspected was not at fault since the logic analyzer always showed the correct outputs vs. inputs. I finally figured out that if the AC incremented properly, which it did, and was not data pattern sensitive, which it was not, that that ruled out almost all of the register circuitry except for a few gates unique to the MA (address) lines. For the curious, it was a bad 74367 (8097) hex buffer chip at E104 - actually only one section was bad, pins 14 -> 13 (which drives the ADD IN 4 line). Although both output enables were sitting low, every output matched its respective input except one... Even though the bit 4 line was a logic 1 (0 volts on that internal bus), the output was stuck at +5V (logic 0), explaining why on the next CPMA load that bit would always clear itself. Eureka... There was no hard short found, and connecting that line through a milliammeter to ground confirmed that only 5 ma would bring it to below .1 volts, so that current was mostly due to the 1K pullup resistor. The inevitable conclusion was that the output of that 74367 section was not able to pull low at all. I managed to change the chip without destroying the board too much and now all addresses increment properly again. Simple TTY print and keyboard echo programs work too :) Incidentally, I have pretty much given up trying to make a workable image with more than one 2 Mb partition on my RL02 drive. Every attempt to build one and boot it either hangs SIMH entirely, or worse yet, causes it to halt simulation with an error message, for some reason that's beyond my understanding. What the heck, 2 Mb is more than enough just to play around with OS/8 and run text adventure games anyway. If anyone can figure this out, I can email you a copy of my (currently working) image for reBUILDing. Of course the system now still won't boot (I can hear the drive head move, and then the RL02 FAULT light comes on) but it's likely the OS/8 image got clobbered when the chip failed and the CPU started writing to odd places. You can't write-protect the pack either, since OS/8 swaps in and out frequently to maintain such a tiny "footprint" in core. Anyhow I'm leaving tonight for three weeks of vacation in sunny Crete so it can just wait until I get home! -Charles >Naturally, I jinxed it by bragging about my success :( > >The next day, the system wouldn't boot and I could see the FAULT >light flicker as the system halted at address 10107. I initially >thought disk drive problems again, or the pack got clobbered >during swap-out for some reason. > >However, a little investigating quickly showed that even the most >basic ten-word TTY check program would not deposit or run. In >fact, when depositing or examining sequential locations I found >the address display would increment from 0200 to 0001. 0577 would >increment to 0400, etc. So something is wrong with address bit 4. >I pulled all the boards from the backplane except the CPU set and >it still does it. Now I've got to fix the hardware! Sigh. > >Meanwhile I have been SIMH-building a new OS/8 image from scratch >for two drives. After much struggle I have the RL20 handler >installed (which has logical drives R20A,B,C,D; the RL21 handler >with R21A-D, and I had to omit the last 20% (the "E" drives on >RL2E) because OS/8 can only allow fifteen handlers and space is >needed for (at least) the R2SY system handler, TTY, SYS and DSK >also... reminds me of Gates' "640K should be enough for anyone". > >-Charles

19 years

Trouble with HP 59309A Digital Clock

by PWalsh＠energysolutions.com

Do you know where I can get a manual for this clock? Just started using one and need the technical data and operating instructions. I can scan into a PDF if need be. Thanks Pat

19 years

Trouble with HP 59309A Digital Clock

by PWalsh＠energysolutions.com

Joe, Do you know where I can get a manual for this clock? I can scan one into PDF if need be. Just got one of these for a desk clock and need to know how to set the calendar addressed setting. Many thanks, Pat

19 years

Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:11:55 -0700 (PDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >> >OB_CC: Where can you get plywood that matches the Northstar Horizon? >> >The "home" stores don't even have the right thickness! > >On Sun, 17 Jun 2007, Allison wrote: >> That grade is for real carpentry not home despot wonder projects. >> The stuff used was real 3/4" finish grade with what appears to be oak >> veneer (mine is). The originals were fairly tough veneer and well >> fitted. Mitered corners and two cleats in the corner for a bit of >> stiffness. The front edge has a routed slot on the inside top and >> two sides to slide over the front pannel plate, The slot is 9/64 >> maybe 5/32" wide. Most of the early machines came with the dark >> stain wood but I'd like to find a metal one (less RFI). > >At one point Northstar was buying at Ashby Lumber, but I don't know for >sure that that was for the Horizon. > >> One of my NS* Horizon is wood cover and the other is missing the >> cover so I have a Lexan cover plate to allow airflow. > >There seem to be a LOT of missing Horizon covers! After about three to four years the glue dries out and you have a kit of cover. ;) Glue and clamps restore it nicely. Allison

19 years

T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:33:29 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 6/19/07, Robert Borsuk <rborsuk at colourfull.com> wrote: >> I've been loosely following this thread and never heard of a T11 from >> DEC. So good'ole Google and Bitsavers saves the day, but it get's >> me thinking. Has anybody done any design's with this processor? > >Yes (see the thread where it appears in a few video games). DEC used >it as a PDP-11-instruction-set-compatible microcontroller. It appears >on a few peripheral boards (the RQDX3 comes to mind), and a few other >places. Falcon card (Qbus SBC), KXT-11 (programmable Qbus slave), The RQDXn (all versions) and also the HSC50. I have one of the rare design guides and a good handful of parts both ES and production. Allison > >For some real boots-on-the-ground history, we turn to Bob Supnik... > >http://simh.trailing-edge.com/semi/t11.html > >(I did not know about his T-11-based RT-11 box - I should ask him about it). > >> Why wasn't this processor used instead of the 6100? > >In what? In video games? the 6100 _might_ have been a competetive >architecture when it was new in the mid-to-late 1970s, but as >competition against an early 8-bit micro, not a 16-bit micro, which >the T-11 is. From looking at the Atari line at the time, it seems >that they were positioning the T-11 against the Motorola 68000. >Presumably there was some engineering or marketing or production >reason to go with the T-11 over the 68000, but, as much as I like the >PDP-11, I can't imagine what that would be. Perhaps the $10/unit cost >that Bob Supnik cites was favorable compared to, say, trying to go >over 8MHz on a 68000, but that's mere speculation. I know that at the >low-point in the 68000 timeline, it was going for about $3 each in >reasonable quantities, but I don't know where that curve compares to >the $10 each for the T-11. The 6100 was PDP-8 and the basic archecture is 4k addressing, 12 bit words and not rom friendly so it was not a contender for rom intensive applications. >I'm not saying you _couldn't_ make a video game based on the IM6100, >but it didn't happen to have been done, and would probably just end up >as a demonstration of engineering prowess, not something that would >have made sense from a business standpoint in 1976. Exactly! The 6120 was faster and incorperated the MEDIC (interrupt and memory expansion similar to PDP-8) but still even at 4k paged and 32k (plus 32k CP memory) it was awkward compared to most micros. Allison

19 years

NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > From: "Andrew Lynch" <lynchaj at yahoo.com> > Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:35:13 -0400 > To: <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >Hi, > > > >I noticed in another cctech mailing list thread about the NorthStar Horizon >case cover replacements. Recently, I procured a NorthStar Horizon which is >missing its original wooden case cover and I was looking to either buy an >original replacement or make a new one. > >I did not get a lot of responses to my queries on other forums for a >replacement wooden case cover so I am considering fabricating my own. >Apparently, it is common for Horizons to have lost their wooden covers over >time for many reasons and others have done what I am considering. > >Has anyone built replacement NorthStar Horizon case covers before and would >be willing to build more? They do not look terribly sophisticated to build >provided you have access to a table saw and the proper bits. I was planning >on just copying the dimensions from another Horizon wooden case cover I >already have. > >If anyone has a spare NorthStar Horizon wooden case cover, has built new >ones, or knows how to build a replacement, I would certainly like to hear >from you. Please email me or post here. > >Thank you in advance. > First it's a simple 3 sided thing. with a groove routed (or kerf cut) to overlap the cover. The corners are mitered, grooved for biscuts and glued. I added two 1/2" cleats to the corners of mine when I reglued it. There are 4 recessed hole for screws to secure it. Nominal material is 3/4 oak ply though current dimension materials would work as well. There is nothing special about it or difficulty in making it. The metal cover is simple but without a bending brake it's not easy to do. Allison

19 years

Help on HP 82901 drive

by rbazzano＠alice.it

Hello. I have a partially defective HP 82901 drive. I found the problem on the controller card. I found a service manual on HpMuseum site, named "82901-82902_CEServiceHandbook-Partial_17pages_1982.pdf". Following it, I made all self tests and the problem is on the read circuit. I'm sure about that because the two Tandon drives work fine with another controller card. In this case, the service manual suggest to verify read oscillator frequency. Unfortunately the section VI of the manual describing the procedure is completely missing from the pdf file. Perhaps someone has this manual? I would be very gratefull if someone can help me to fix this drive. Thank you very much. Roberto

19 years

Floppy Disc Capacities [was Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)]

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

> Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 22:08:44 -0700 > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Subject: Re: Floppy Disc Capacities [was Pictures of My Machine Room > (So Far)] > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <4677026C.408.5FBF8B36 at cclist.sydex.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > On 18 Jun 2007 at 21:36, Wayne Smith wrote: > > > My first iteration of Windows 95 was on 3.5 inch floppy > diskettes. At > > some point, I wanted to make a backup copy on diskettes but couldn't > > because the file sizes of the Windows distribution floppies was > > 1.8-1.9MB each. At the time I thought it was some sort of copy > > protection. I assume they must have been able to format > the discs for a > > higher capacity - close to 2MB. > > > > Does anyone know how? > > Uh-yup. Microsoft used a format they called DMF, for about 1.68MB-- > 21 sectors per track, with a very small gap between sectors. IBM had > a rather more complicated format called XDF, which used one 8K, one > 2K, one 1K and one 512 byte sector on a track for about 1.84MB. > > Handling the DMF format wasn't too hard, although if your drive was > marginal, it could create problems. The XDF actually used larger gap > sizes, but required special drivers. There was also an XDF format > for 5.25 HD that was about 1.6MB and one for 3.5 DSED which was about > 3.84MB. > > If you want to pack an amazing amount of data on a 3.5" DSHD, I > believe that there's a program for the Catweasel that will give you > something close to 4MB using a few tricks. > > Cheers, > Chuck > Cool. Great info. Thanks! -W

19 years

Atari 800XL and 1050 disk drive in Delray Beach, FL

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Please contact Kathy for more information if you're interested: Kathy Knaack <khknaack at bellsouth.net> As far as I know it is free for the taking. -- 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 ]

19 years

odd software request

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Does anyone have any Chebyshev or Butterworth LC filter design/ analysis software in FORTRAN-II or FORTRAN-IV? (don't ask..) My google-fu is failing me on this one. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

19 years

manualsplus.com has 50% off all manuals right now

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Some coordination may be in order. It sounded like Richard was going to buy some Tek graphics manuals. I bought most of the orignal 85xx service manuals they had to fill in the holes on bitsavers.

19 years

manualsplus.com has 50% off all manuals right now

by legalize＠xmission.com

I just received email from the people running this business I mentioned the other day <http://www.manualsplus.com>. They are in the process of trying to sell off the business, so they are currently selling all manuals at 50% off. -- "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/>

19 years

Available - DEC RX-180 AB dual 5-1/4 inch diskette floppy drive.

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I have this DEC RX-180 AB dual 5-1/4 inch diskette floppy drive - why, I don't know. Working condition is unknown. Please make an offer if it suits you to do so. Located in southern California (OC). Paypal accepted! Thanks- Steven T. --------------------------------- Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.

19 years

Computer Flooring

by marvin＠west.net

A friend of mine has about 1200 Sq. Ft. of 2' x 2' aluminum computer flooring available. They were either made by or provided by "Floating Floor, Inc.". The pedastals and stands are not available. I haven't seen them yet, but can find out more if anyone is interested. Apparently the scrap value is about $20.00 each, so any offer would need to be enough more than that to make it worth while. If anyone is interested, let me know ASAP as these will be going to scrap *very* shortly.

19 years

RL02 fault (OS/8)

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

>Hmm... I don't think filesystem problems will cause the Fault light to >light up, just problems within the drive. You may need to trace back >all of the causes that sum up to "Fault" to see what's going on. I was trying to talk myself out of that one, but I suspect you're right :^P The problem I was thinking hopefully of was a checksum error caused by an aborted or other improper write... but then again the controller card and disk internal logic board probably do restrict writing by complete sectors? I'll have to download a copy of the RL02 manual from bitsavers to read while I'm sunning on my mom's terrace. Remember also that I had that problem occur once before (on my first boot and before the chip failed) but after powering everything down, removing and reinstalling the pack, powering up and rebooting (shades of Micro$hit!) it did boot to the OS/8 "." prompt and was functional at least to the point of displaying a directory... Anyway it'll be easy enough to write a simple program to display the error word on the Programmer's Panel display and backtrack from there... maybe it's a bad pack. Or a bad cable (I spent hours when I first got this drive trying to figure out why the fault light wouldn't go out, and tracked it down to a faulty clock signal from the controller card. More specifically there was a single hair-fine wire strand sticking out the bottom of my IDC connector where it plugged into the controller card and it was touching a passing trace. The original BERG conn. would not have had a clearance problem (to the butt end of cut cable) there. Although the pack (that I copied my SIMH OS/8 image onto) had no bad blocks on it that I could discern under RT-11, I wonder if there could have been some that make a difference to OS/8. I'm getting out of my depth here. Anyhow when I get home, I'll find out exactly what the error is (I never liked that idiot light precisely because it doesn' t tell you WHAT the fault IS!) -Charles

19 years

Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > The Z80 was used in Neo Geo MVS games up until a couple years ago. As the "sound" processor, the main CPU was a 68K. TTFN - Pete.

19 years

HP firmware identification?

by larry_s_harris＠comcast.net

Do you still have the firmware chips that your identified in your Jul 4th, 2004 note? I'm interested in part number 13307-80037. Larry Harris STAR-TEK star-tek at comcast.net

19 years

Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by ploopster＠gmail.com

Most of the hardware hasn't been cabled up yet, and the hardware that's actually running isn't pictured because it's my network core and I won't put pictures of it on the internet for security reasons... BUT... Here are pictures of my machine room. It's a work in progress, but it shows what I've done to reinforce the floor. Because I've *decidedly* exceeded the floor loading capacity. Peace... Sridhar

19 years

Free computer bits in Montreal, Canada

by joachim.thiemann＠gmail.com

Hello, a few bits that I'd like to get rid of in exchange for empty space that would be more useful to me :-) - A 360k IBM branded full-height floppy drive pulled from an XT, a Tandon TM100-2A - An external 3.5" 720k IBM Type 4865 floppy drive - I think it came >from an early IBM portable PC - A german Apple ][e, with serial card, parallel card, disk II card and 2 drives, Microsoft CP/M card, original Apple DOS disks (3.3, some seem to be localised for germany) as well as the CP/M disk(s). I have no idea if it works, but it should. The power supply is for 220V, and I can't see a simple switch to make it take 110V. I assume putting in a regular north american PS would make it work without problem, but I have no idea if the video circuitry is any different - presumable monochrome should work with minor adjustments. This system was brought over to Canada when friends of the family immigrated, and was used with a simple 110-220V transformer. (I myself modified my C64 by swapping a crystal and replacing the PAL VIC-II with an NTSC VIC-II when I moved) Also comes with many Apple-II disks, some for CP/M - the motherboard of an old Apple ][ clone, with Z80 on the MB. Source of chips, if anything. Joe.

19 years

Simulated CP/M-68K?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I have a working Sage IV and would be glad to help with a simulation project > by providing boot prom dumps, docs, etc. Thanks! Adding dumps of the programmable parts from the machines that you have to your web site would seem to be a good thing independent of any simulation efforts.

19 years

2G SCSI-wide drives

by rtellason＠verizon.net

I have a number of 2G SCSI-wide drives on hand here (68-pin connector), and in conversation with a list member offlist it was suggested that perhaps these might be of use in certain of the older machines that a bunch of you guys have. Anybody interested in taking some of these off my hands? Feel free to drop me a line offlist... -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

19 years

Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Did any of the CPUs we know and love, like the PDP-11 CPUs, find their > way into commercial games machines? Atari System II used the T11 (a giant step backwards from the 68K in the System I IMHO).

19 years

Apple ][gs -- how to tell ROM version without booting?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Subject says it all. I have a ][gs Woz Edition but I read on the net that there are various ROM versions. How can I tell what ROM version I have without booting it up? I don't have the necessary additional hardware to power it on and see the screen or type into it (no RGB cable and no keyboard). -- "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/>

19 years

Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 13:00:53 -0700 (PDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Fred Cisin writes: > >OB_CC: Where can you get plywood that matches the Northstar Horizon? >The "home" stores don't even have the right thickness! > That grade is for real carpentry not home despot wonder projects. The stuff used was real 3/4" finish grade with what appears to be oak veneer (mine is). The originals were fairly tough veneer and well fitted. Mitered corners and two cleats in the corner for a bit of stiffness. The front edge has a routed slot on the inside top and two sides to slide over the front pannel plate, The slot is 9/64 maybe 5/32" wide. Most of the early machines came with the dark stain wood but I'd like to find a metal one (less RFI). One of my NS* Horizon is wood cover and the other is missing the cover so I have a Lexan cover plate to allow airflow. Allison

19 years

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test-drb