test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by legalize＠xmission.com

I just purchased a Hazeltine 1400 terminal from ebay. This terminal apparently has no lower case, so it seems like quite an oldie. Does anyone have information on it? Manuals, escape codes (if any), etc. would be appreciated! -- "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

Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Zane See previous reply to Tony Duell. It may be a US right angled kettle lead but its not a UK type. Kettles here (at least ours does) use standard IEC connectors. Regards Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Zane H. Healy Sent: 31 May 2007 01:02 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 Adrian/Witchy wrote: > On 30/5/07 17:48, "Rod Smallwood" > <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > wrote: > > > The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC connector > > with one exception. > > Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a > > groove or slot in the mating free connector. > > Yep, it's a right-angle kettle lead; if you've got one that'll work nicely. > >From what I can see amongst my VAXen it was only the QBUS machines > >that > warranted that sort of power cable; the whole thing was interlocked so > that if there was a power cable in there you couldn't do anything > other than disconnect. Even when you wanted to remove the PSU you had > to make sure there was nothing in the way of the interlocks..... If he is talking about the type connector I think he is, it is notched to prevent plugging a normal cord in. This is due to it pulling more amps than most computer cords are rated at. I'm not sure if this is the same thing you're talking about, but I think you're talking about something different. IIRC, I've seen a couple Compaq or HP servers that use these as well. Zane

19 years

Anyone know anything about old TEC Terminals?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> The cabinets are painted almost an IBM-style blue. Interdata blue, most likely. They are shift register memory dumb terminals. The most common place I saw them was with Interdata systems.

19 years

Computer History Museum Article in the LA Times

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

This is an interesting bit about the upcoming anniversary of the founding of Fairchild Semiconductor, a collector who has helped the CHM, Duane Wadsworth, and trying to save computer history. Hopefully it raises the profile of our hobby a bit. I apologize for the stupid nag login. I add in a bugmenot.com login to get to the article. I won't send a copy of the article on the open list, but might send to selected people (don't want to 'publish' it w/o permission, and do respect copyright here). I found this today (5/29) by searching for "computer history museum" in the times search if the link doesn't work. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-semi29may29,1,5667117.story Username bugmenot at dodgeit.com Password bugmenot

19 years

Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yes I thought "Kettle lead" and shot off to the kitchen. Er nope, our kettle has a standard IEC connector as found on a million and one PC's. So rummage through cable collection and discover a cable with a somewhat longer IEC connector. Yes! it has a groove opposite the middle connector. But, what's this? The groove does not extend to the front of the connector. It must have been designed to work with a spring clip that was depressed as the connector was inserted and clicked into place when the plug was fully home. Needless to say, removing the small piece of plastic to extend the groove to the front took seconds and it fits. However its not the 'right' cable. I have read the manual for the 4000-300 and theres a nice section on the plug. However it refers to it as the 'power cable shipped with your system'. The picture shows it to be a right angled type and there's a picture of the various wall socket end plugs. None of them are UK 13Amp type. Whilst working at DEC I had a mains cable problem with terminals. The US claimed the German type (Round with two round pins) was standard for the UK. The guy came over for a meeting and I asked him to plug in the terminal using his 'British' standard cable. That cost him a very nice evening out. The solution? We shipped an IEC cable that had a standard UK 13A plug moulded on the other end. They took it to their cable sub contractor. He said "Oh you ment those!" He had thousands in stock and they were cheaper than the one they normally shipped!!! So whilst what I have will probably run, its not the correct cable. It should be a right angled IEC type with a groove or slot opposite the middle pin. Rod Smallwood DecCollector -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 31 May 2007 00:28 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 > > Hi > Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit > on a minor problem.=20 The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a > normal IEC connector with one exception. > Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a > groove or slot in the=20 mating free connector. > =20 > Before I start hacking up cables does anybody recognise this plug. Sounds like a 'hot condition' IEC connector. It was originally used on kettles, and the like, and was designed (a) to withstand higher temperaturs than the normal on, and (b) it's rated at 10A (IIRC), the normal one being originally rated at 6A. It's the latter that's important here. Any dectnet electronics shop in the UK would stock it. -tony

19 years

Aztec C (was: more eBay stuff)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 02:50 PM 5/31/2007, Bill Pechter wrote: >The Manx (Aztec C) folks were local in Shrewsbury or Eatontown, NJ.. My >wife actually worked there for a while... Eatontown. And what was her name? - John

19 years

strange *pc*

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-PC-Systel-Sytem-with-sensors-for-light-sound-temp_… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz

19 years

Sun, HP "scrap" (???)

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

>From: Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com> > >--- woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: > > > Chris M wrote: > > > > > They use solvents or whatever typically I guess, > > but > > > the addition of a lot of heat might do it too. You > > can > > > build a small gas furnace for probably much less > > then > > > $100 USD. Theoretically the temperature will be > > > limited only by the quality of the refractory > > cement > > > used. Oi whatever. > > > > > Charcoal is the low cost fuel ... But then I don't > > think one would get that much gold to need a > > furnace. > > The books are here. http://www.lindsaybks.com/ > > Gas burns much hotter...unless you're talking about >*real* charcoal made from hardwoods. But you know >what...gas still burns much hotter. My point was you >could mess w/hydrochloric? acid and all that (wherever >you'd find it - I know someone's going to point out >how it could be commonly had, or maybe it's a >relatively *common* thing to find)...or you could just >burn off all the volatile gunk in a cheap furnace. But >you'd have some steel (pins) left over. That'll melt >too...at oh about 2800 degress Fahrenheit. Can't >remember if gold melts at a higher or lower >temperature. But at least you should be able to >separate the gold from the steel. Or come to think of >it maybe you could eliminate the steel before the >barbecue. > I'm not aware of a resistance element that'll go any >higher then ~2300 degrees, that being enough to melt >brass or prolly even pure copper. But the mints use >magnetic induction (with some sort of coil thingee). >But that requires and awful lot of juice I'm told. >Like enough to light a city block... > > Hi You don't want to melt the other metals first, most metals will dissolve the gold and just make it harder to refine. The best method is with acid. Muradic acid should work ok to remove the other metals. Gold melts quite hot. I don't recall any heater wire that wouldn't melt first. In an inert gas, as was mentioned by another, tungsten could be used. Other methods include things like carbon arc or oxi-acetylene. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ More photos, more messages, more storage?get 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail. http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migrati…

19 years

who invented IDE?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

I think I've even asked this question before, but got no response. Or at least no suitable ones. Hosers. Though I was recently told that the first IDE card appeared in a Compaq Deskpro. Can anyone confirm or deny? ____________________________________________________________________________________Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/index.php

19 years

Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life.

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

I'm not sure about the back up but the -200 has a TK70 as does the -300. So if I can prepare a bootable tape I should be able to boot the -300 >from it and maybe even get a system onto it. As to attaching one of the drives from the -300 to the -200. I'll investigate the types. However both systems are DSSI bus so to a first approximation they should be OK. Sorry I'm a bit slow, its not that my memory of stuff I knew 25years ago has gone its just the access time has increased!!! Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Zane H. Healy Sent: 31 May 2007 16:24 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Bringing the VAX 4000-300 back to life. At 9:48 AM +0100 5/31/07, Rod Smallwood wrote: >Boot er no but as it seems as the system spent some or all of its life >in the insurance industry I'm not surprised the disks have been wiped. >Ok so next move. I'm going to try and make a VMS 6.2 bootable tape on >the -200 as the -300 has a TK70. Can you run a backup from one disk to another. If you can clone the disk in your -200, then you can stick the new disk in your -300. >The -300 also has a KZQSA (SCSI) controller and whilst they are no good >with hard drives I think they work with CD ROM's I also have a stand >alone SCSI CD drive (Yamaha CRW4416SX) it has the really small SCSI >plugs (inch and a bit long) on the back and the KZQSA has the really >big ones. Cables for such connections used to be quite common, I should think it wouldn't be that hard to find them in the UK. The tricky questions are, does the CD-ROM drive support 512-byte blocks, as I believe that will be a requirement for booting VMS. (Actually is this still a requirement on the latest versions of the OS?) Also, does the board require DEC drives to work? A quick bit of googling doesn't answer the 512-byte question, but turnes up the following manual. http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/computer/pdf/crw4416sx_e.pdf I also see where it was apparently a popular drive for people wanting to hang a CD-RW drive off of a Sun box. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

19 years

Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yup that's it!! I wonder if they do a right angled version? -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Dennis Boone Sent: 31 May 2007 00:10 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Power plug for a VAX 4000-300 > Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit on a > minor problem. The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC > connector with one exception. Directly below the middle pin is a rib or > ridge that would require a groove or slot in the mating free connector. It's defined by the IEC-320 spec. The C15 type goes on the cord, the C16 is the back panel of the appliance. See e.g.: http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/IEC_Connectors/IEC_Inlets-Connectors.ht ml The principal difference between the C15 and the more common C13 appears to be rated operating temperature. De

19 years

Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Having just increased my collection with a VAX 4000-300 I have hit on a minor problem. The mains connector into the H7874 PSU is a normal IEC connector with one exception. Directly below the middle pin is a rib or ridge that would require a groove or slot in the mating free connector. Before I start hacking up cables does anybody recognise this plug. Rod Smallwood

19 years

who invented IDE?

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> On 30 May 2007 at 17:24, Chris M wrote: > > > I think I've even asked this question before, but got > > no response. Or at least no suitable ones. Hosers. > > Though I was recently told that the first IDE card > > appeared in a Compaq Deskpro. Can anyone confirm or deny? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Attachment "An early version of the specification, conceived by Western Digital in 1986, was commonly known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) due to the drive controller being contained on the drive itself as opposed to the then-common configuration of a separate controller connected to the computer's motherboard " ____________________________________________________________________________________Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC

19 years

Sun, HP "scrap" (???)

by marvin＠west.net

Interesting! I sold and am selling some type S thermocouples (Platinum/10% Rhodium vs Platiunum) on Ebay, and in doing some research, found that one use of this type of thermocouple is connected with the melting point of gold. FWIW, there are gold stripping solutions available. I don't recall what they are made of but probably some sort of cyanide concoction. The method *I* want to try someday is to use mercury to disolve the gold, and then boil off the mercury leaving the gold (I would guess as a powder.) And yes, I do know the dangers of using this method. > Hi > You don't want to melt the other metals first, most > metals will dissolve the gold and just make it harder to > refine. The best method is with acid. Muradic acid > should work ok to remove the other metals. > Gold melts quite hot. I don't recall any heater wire > that wouldn't melt first. In an inert gas, as was mentioned > by another, tungsten could be used. Other methods > include things like carbon arc or oxi-acetylene. > Dwight

19 years

Sun, HP "scrap"(???)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> Chris M Writes: > My point was you > could mess w/hydrochloric? acid and all that (wherever > you'd find it - I know someone's going to point out > how it could be commonly had, or maybe it's a > relatively *common* thing to find).. Someone had to do it ... Muriatic acid, available at any decent hardware store. Not sure if it's strong enough, but you can find it. Sadly, nitric acid is getting a bit harder to come by. Woodelf writes: > Yep! Hydrogen ... but you don't burn it - it > was a plasma arc of some kind. I remember > reading about in Scientific American 1961 I think. Monatomic hydrogen process? Used for welding? Arc splits H2 to 2 H, which then recombines releasing energy.

19 years

Lack of 8-bit threads (was Re: Linux question)

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, >....I'd also like to find one of the HP12x CP.M machines. But >I wouldn't even conisder shipping one, so it would have to be >somewhere that I could collect it from. Never come across one of those. Some 10 years ago I used to go to the Coventry radio rally every year, for about 3 years on the trot this one guy brought an original 150 with floppy and hard drives but never managed to shift it. Of course, the year I decided to buy it, I missed out on it by 5 mins.... :-( BTW I know I'm actually getting rid of stuff right now, but....I'd kill to get hold of an HP 370 or 380 (that's "9000/370" or "9000/380") with a hard drive. TTFN - Pete.

19 years

Early desktop film recorders (was Re: Early Electronic Image Capture)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 5/30/07, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On May 30, 2007, at 11:34 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote: > >> > I have something similar in a Polaroid product - a high-res B&W > >> CRT in a box with an internal motorized color wheel and a video input... > > ... about 6" wide, 5" tall, about 18" deep... > Ahhhhh ok. I've heard of those but have never seen one. I > believe it was (more or less) the predecessor of the computer-driven > one that my store used to sell. I don't recall the name "Palette" appearing on the outside, but I can't remember how it _is_ marked (some sort of "image copy processor"?) I'll have to check the next time I'm in the right basement. > Man, that box sounds like lots of fun! It is a lot of fun. I think it took me finding parts from 3 locations (Dayton, Uni surplus, and online) to get it working, but it's not difficult to use. In my googling tonight to remind myself of the name of it, I ran across several pages on Polaroid desktop film recorders. I had to chuckle (or was it wince ;-) at one page that decried pre-Digital Palettes as "totally useless" because they were designed for CGA and didn't work with any "modern" (VGA) output devices, nor were there any drivers. My device can be attached to a C-64 or a DVD player, or anything else with an NTSC video stream (RGB is an option for computer output) which is still ubiquitous (but for how much longer?) No OS or funky drivers required. My first test image was from a Sony LDP-1500 laser disc player since it has a nice freeze-frame when loaded with a CAV disc (but no freeze-frame at all with CLV discs - common with earlier players). -ethan

19 years

Acorn Second Processors (was: Re: Quick survey on equipment)

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > My experience is that all the second processors -- no, make that >all the 'cheese wedgrs' -- are rear. It's a shame I never got one when I picked up my other "wedges". It was always on my "list" of things to get, but they used to be reasonably easy to find at radio rallies and I always ended up finding something more interesting and leaving it for "next time".... :-( > I think you've forgotten the 'TUbe ULA' That's a 40 pin custom chip >that handles the communication between the Beeb and the second.... I certainly had. Bit of a show stopper that really.... ;-) <grin> I was just trying to remember where I'd stored that wirewrapping stuff I haven't touched for 15 years too.</grin> > The Torch Z80 board did, indeed, use only sandard chips. Changing the subject slightly, IIRC the original "Acorn 6502 Second Processor" cheese-wedge was just that, a faster 6502? Did Acorn ever release a "cheese-wedge" 65c02 or 65816? Also, is it possible to replace the 6502 in one of these with a 65c02; not that I'd actually try it, unless the 6502 was socketed, but I recall having BIG problems (in fact, total failure IIRC?) when I tried running a 65c02 in a Model B sometime in the early 90's? TTFN - Pete.

19 years

Hazeltine 1400 info?

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 15:30:34 -0700 (PDT) From: William Maddox <wmaddox at pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Hazeltine 1400 info? -------------Original Message: --- Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: > It appears to be in good condition too. Do you > happen to know what > year this would have been manufactured? Is it one > of the Hazeltines > with core display memory that remembers the last > thing that was > displayed after you turn it off? That would be a Hazeltine 2000. I'd like to find one of those too, or one of the CDC or Bunker-Ramo terminals that used an acoustic delay line. --Bill ---------------- Reply: I scrapped one of those CDC units many years ago; now that was a "real" terminal - made a nice printer stand... Still have the delay line and a few dozen boards out of it somewhere if ya ever need any parts for one. Also a Bunker-Ramo modem >from the days when a modem was a modem... m

19 years

82S131

by Felix.Kunz＠digitallogic.com

Dear Jay have you some PAL 82S131 for sale ? I'm looking for our PDP11 machines some. Offer me 100pc of 82S131. Thank you Felix Kunz DIGITAL-LOGIC AG | Felix Kunz | Chairman, CEO Nordstrasse 11/F | CH-4542 Luterbach | Switzerland Tel. +41 (0)32 681 58 00 | Fax +41 (0)32 681 58 01 www.digitallogic.com

19 years

IBM AS/400 iSeries 720

by kd7bcy＠kd7bcy.com

I've been offered an iSeries 720, near as I can figure it's probably a 720-2062 but that hasn't been verified. I'm waiting to hear if they have the manuals and software still. He IS sure that it runs on 220v. So, is this worth picking up? I've always wanted an AS/400 :-) Can it be changed to run on 120v? If I don't take it, I can probably pass his info on to someone else. He's located in Washington about 30 minutes out of Olympia. Local pickup only! ------------ John Rollins | KD7BCY | http://www.kd7bcy.com Ham-Mac mailing list http://mailman.qth.net ------------

19 years

More about the dead VAX 4000-200

by cheri-post＠web.de

Hi all, With the help of your hints, I did some measuring today regarding the voltages. The voltages of the supply all lie in an acceptable range: 12,22V, 5,17V, 3,29V, -12,25V. I observerd recently, that when I turn on the VAX, it comes up with the languages menu und then freezes. The diagnostic displays turns from F to E and then back to F. Turning it off and on again doesn't let the menu come up anymore (and the "E" on the display") anymore. It's completey frozen then. I've got the impression, that some capacitors are playing bad games somewhere. Another thing: On the KA660-board, there are four other red LEDs, which turn on all together (and stay on) and there's a green LED. In the CPU maintenance manual, it says that this green LED stands for "DC-OK". Well, it doesn't burn when power is applied... Furthermore, I measured the DCOK and POK signals: The voltage is 3,51V. Do I have to interpret that as a "signal high" ? Tomorrow, I'm going to measure the signals and voltages with an oscilloscope. Do you guys have any further hints? Regards, Pierre _______________________________________________________________ SMS schreiben mit WEB.DE FreeMail - einfach, schnell und kostenguenstig. Jetzt gleich testen! http://f.web.de/?mc=021192

19 years

enough already

by JeLynch＠stny.rr.com

The Micron Eye used controlling the DRAM refresh (soak) rate to provide gray scale. I used a Texas Instruments 256K (512 x 512) as an imager with a Texas instruments DRAM controller to vary the refresh rate. Any ceramic package DRAM could be used after removing the metal lid and more challenging removing the polyimide protective coating. Most DRAM have redundant cells and the topography has to be decoded. There are also some "blank" zones for be bit lines. It was pretty cool back in 1986. At 10:26 PM 5/29/2007, you wrote: >On 5/29/07, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: >> > What outfit first sold digital cameras where the sensor consisted of >> > a cermet-package DRAM with the chip cover replaced by a piece of >> > glued-on glass? >> >>Micron >> >>The product was called the "Micron Eye" > >I made one of those in the 1980s... I read about the trick in Byte, >then carefully removed the lid from a 4116 and installed a bit of >slide mount cover. To test it, I stuffed the altered DRAM into an >Apple II, covered the DRAM, cleared the high-res screen, then watched >individual pixels show up when I uncovered the chip and let light fall >directly on it. > >What I never did was to take it to the next stage and decode the grid. > >-ethan

19 years

Power plug for a VAX 4000-300

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

>> From what I can see amongst my VAXen it was only the QBUS machines >> that > warranted that sort of power cable; the whole thing was interlocked so > that > if there was a power cable in there you couldn't do anything other than > disconnect. Even when you wanted to remove the PSU you had to make sure > there was nothing in the way of the interlocks..... > > I've never gotten around to tracing out what that plunger under the sheet-metal does, though- my current hypothesis is that it discharges the HV caps.

19 years

Wright line mag tape cabinets at Boeing surplus Seattle

by g-wright＠att.net

Boeing Surplus has 2 7' Wightline Mag tape cabinets with roll up door. Both look good for there age. If anyone has a Need. Priced @ 35.00 each 05-30-2007 1:00 PM Jerry Wright JLC inc g-wright at att.net

19 years

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test-drb