test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I've got the weirdest disk drive ever. It's a standard 5.25" mounted inside a factory made metal enclosure. It has a fixed power cord coming out the back with a power switch. Inside is a simple power supply (transformer and a couple regulators and capacitors) that puts out +5V and +12V. There's a power connector going into the disk drive power socket. Here's the weird part: there is no data cable. There is no port or connector or anything on the enclosure for a data cable. There's not even a cut-out for a data cable. It's basically just a disk drive that powers up and spins if you put a disk in it. I initially thoughtt that it must be a degausser or something, but there's nothing inside that would indicate any such operation. OK, I admit it. I'm stumped. No markings on the enclosure anywhere. Any ideas? Responses copied to me directly would be appreciated. Otherwise, I'll follow any follw-up thread in the archives. Happy Holidays!! -- 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, 5 months

88-ACR KCS modification

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: 88-ACR KCS modification > From: Grant Stockly <grant at stockly.com> > Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 14:00:27 -0900 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >I'm trying to modify my 88-ACR to work with the KCS specification. > >Does anyone know where the information on modifying the 88-ACR to >read/wrote KCS audio is? > >Also, I was wondering if anyone ever looked at this card? The XR210 chip >MITS used for demodulation of the FSK signal is capable of MODULATING >too. (with both mark and space frequencies). Does anyone know why they >would have used 5 ICs and a few opamps to do the modulation when they could >have used the other half of a chip already present? > >Grant Not possible. The ACR is simple FSK and the KCS is redundent FM. As to the latter question of component use... the ACR was intended as a modem (bell 103) and it's design was based on that. Allison

19 years, 5 months

ebay seller computermkt

by marvin＠rain.org

One selling philosophy is that it is a lot less work to sell an item for $10.00 than 10 items for $1.00 each, or "make your money on each item" vs "make your money on volume." If someone is trying (or needs) to make money, it makes absolutely zero sense to price items *hoping* for the right bidders to come along and bid the price up. Take a look at the final bids on any item, and try to guess what the person who won it was actually willing to pay. Unless you talk to the person, you will have no idea how high the winning bidder was actually willing to go. My guess (now) is that computermkt has a pretty good handle on what an item *can* bring, and prices his stuff accordingly. There is also little doubt that unless he is buying things for his collection (assuming he is a collector), it costs nothing to put in a low bid on something and he will only win if he gets it at his bid price. I saw something simliar at an early VCF (Pleasanton?) where someone brought in some interesting machines, and priced them (in my mind) rather high. Just goes to show what I know since most of them sold! > From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > > He buys vintage computer items on ebay for a lowball price and then > marks it up sky high. Is he spotting "undervalued items" or is he > just pricing them with "wishful thinking"?

19 years, 5 months

IBM 2741 -- ASCII or EBCDIC?

by legalize＠xmission.com

The subject pretty much says it all... which character code did the 2741 typewriter/terminal use? -- "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, 5 months

IBM 3270 Data Stream Programmer's Reference

by legalize＠xmission.com

Does anyone have one of these they could scan? -- "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, 5 months

ebay seller computermkt

by legalize＠xmission.com

I just noticed another trend with this seller... He buys vintage computer items on ebay for a lowball price and then marks it up sky high. Is he spotting "undervalued items" or is he just pricing them with "wishful thinking"? -- "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, 5 months

Jumper settings for ClearPoint DCME Q2B 2Mb QBUS Memory ?

by bob＠jfcl.com

Does anyone know the jumper settings for the ClearPoint DCME Q2B memory? I have one that needs the base address changed, and I'm not looking forward to working out the jumpers by trial and error :-) Bitsavers has data for the Q22B, but unfortunately an older board that's quite a bit different. Thanks, Bob Armstrong

19 years, 5 months

multiple CGA cards on ISA bus?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Hi, Does anyone know if its possible to have multiple CGA cards on an ISA bus? I have a feeling the answer is no... If the answer is no, can anyone recommend a good set of docs on the bus interface of a CGA (memory mapped regions, relevant BIOS vectors, ISA bus transactions, etc.)? I have a project where I want to gang drive a group of CGA displays. Initially my thoughts were to just have N computers with CGA cards and gang drive the computers over a serial port. However, lately the talk of hardware on this list has got me thinking that it might be better to create a single FPGA implementation that gang drove N cards directly and dropped the machines in the middle. I'm thinking that on standard ISA bus only a single CGA card could be present because its vectors and memory map are fixed and not relocatable. So I'd need to gang up the cards by creating my own motherboard with ISA card edge connectors where each card thinks it is the only thing on the bus and then select individual cards and drive them with the FPGA. Things that would help me in this project are: - detailed information about the CGA video card, both electrically and software wise. - detailed electrical information about ISA bus cycles - existing FPGA designs that might have useful building blocks I could steal: ISA bus cycles, CGA implementation, etc. -- "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, 5 months

This just MADE my day

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I guess you should hold off on buying his PDP8 stuff Between what Eric Smith, CHM and others have I don't think I need any of his PDP-8 stuff. The Royotron stuff is much more rare since the punch is used in DEC reader/punches but the info in them isn't in the DEC service docs. I normally don't say anything about getting stuff run up on me, but paying $150+ to have the seller turn around and try selling scans for $10 was depressing (only good thing is he claims 200dpi, which won't be all that great).

19 years, 5 months

DEC Paper Tape Diags

by useddec＠gmail.com

I just found a box of about 10 DEC paper tape trays each having about 8 > diag tapes in it. The few I glanced were PDP11, but there could be a few PDP8 tapes in there. All are in excellent condiction. If you have any interest, please feel free to contact me off list. Thanks, Paul

19 years, 5 months

Merry Christmas!

by rdd＠rddavis.org

Quothe "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com>, from writings of Mon, Dec 25, 2006 at 12:00:32PM -0600: > I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas today! Thanks! A very Merry Christmas, Newtonsday and Winter Solstice/Yule/Midwinter to you and everyone else on this list! Hopefully everyone on this list got something hackish today and no one here got a stocking full of switches (by that I'm not referring to those of the electical variety! ...a stocking full of those would always be useful). Robert -- R. D. Davis 410-744-4900 Beware & halt the National Animal ID System (NAIS)! www.rddavis.org http://nonais.org http://www.libertyark.org www.danglingspiders.com http://www.rddavis.org/equitation/freedom-vs-id.html Dangling Spiders Electronic Music Studio http://www.stopanimalid.org

19 years, 5 months

This just MADE my day

by aek＠bitsavers.org

120066849881 US $41.00 Roytron 500 Series Preventative Maintenance Manual 120066855236 US $61.00 Roytron Punch/Reader Basic Mechanism Manual al_kossow (*) 120066858797 US $21.50 OEM Roytron Punch/Reader Part List Manual, Original 120066861636 US $22.50 OEM Roytron Punch/Reader Electronics Manual, 1966 or just wait 12 hours http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120068155568 and get the scans for $10 ---- THANK YOU VERY MUCH, members of the collecting "community" I should just run the paper into the shredder.

19 years, 5 months

88-ACR KCS modification

by grant＠stockly.com

I'm trying to modify my 88-ACR to work with the KCS specification. Does anyone know where the information on modifying the 88-ACR to read/wrote KCS audio is? Also, I was wondering if anyone ever looked at this card? The XR210 chip MITS used for demodulation of the FSK signal is capable of MODULATING too. (with both mark and space frequencies). Does anyone know why they would have used 5 ICs and a few opamps to do the modulation when they could have used the other half of a chip already present? Grant

19 years, 5 months

===== IBM system 34 SSP command ===

by F5INL＠wanadoo.fr

Hi, Does anyone know a way of listing the files of a diskette or a disk drive of a System 34 ? I tried the following SSP commands (normally used on S/36 computer), but it doesn't seem to work ... //LOAD $LABEL //RUN //DISPLAY LABEL-ALL,UNIT-F1 //END After typing these commands, I was expecting something should appear on the CRT but nothing arrived, neither a list of files, nor an error message, even if I had to wait few seconds before the computer returns me the hand... I don't really understand what they mean by the verb DISPLAY in the OCL statement guide. Does it mean DISPLAY on the CRT ? DISPLAY on the PRINTER ? DISPLAY in a file ?... grrrr.... Merry X-mas to all, and thank you for your help. Fred.

19 years, 5 months

Merry Christmas!

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

19 years, 5 months

Looking for HP 10342B Bus Preprocessor Driver disk/files

by maurice.smulders＠gmail.com

Hello, I'm looking for the HP 10342B files to use it on a HP 1652B Analyzer. I did find the documentation online - thanks to bitsavers.org - but am still looking for the software. Is there a place I could obtain the files required? Kind regards, Maurice

19 years, 5 months

Cylinders versus tracks...

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Out of interest, which is the correct terminology when defining a single point on a disk's surface - is it better to talk in terms of cylinders, or tracks? People often seem to talk about floppy drives in terms of tracks, heads and sectors (e.g. for an 80 cylinder floppy with two sides they'll still talk in terms of tracks 1-80 in conjunction with a side number, even though the media has 160 tracks in total) Talking in terms of cylinders seems to be generally the norm with hard disks though, and perhaps seems a bit more sensible - but remember that hard disk manufacturers are the people who introduced decimal megabytes into common use :-) Personally I prefer to talk in terms of 'surface number' rather than 'head number', as a given surface could conceivably have more than one head in order to improve media latency - but I'm unsure as to whether to use cylinder/surface/sector or track/surface/sector. It's all just semantics, but for the stuff I'm currently working on I'd rather go with the 'correct' version even if that happens not to be the one most commonly used... cheers Jules

19 years, 5 months

===== IBM system 34 SSP command ===+

by n8uhn＠yahoo.com

Oh Man, it's been years but, check out the "listlibr" (list library) command. i think it works with floppys but it may be a hard drive command. something like //listlibr dir the dir switch need to be in there somewhere. also i think display is the ocl command for display. the listlibr command uses a switch for the crt or printer too. keep in mind that the crt only displays so many columns you'll have to send the output to the line printer or a printer on the twinax to view the entire line. Bill Message: 30 Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 14:21:52 +0100 From: "Frederic BOSSU" <F5INL at wanadoo.fr> Subject: ===== IBM system 34 SSP command === To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Hi, Does anyone know a way of listing the files of a diskette or a disk drive of a System 34 ? I tried the following SSP commands (normally used on S/36 computer), but it doesn't seem to work ... //LOAD $LABEL //RUN //DISPLAY LABEL-ALL,UNIT-F1 //END After typing these commands, I was expecting something should appear on the CRT but nothing arrived, neither a list of files, nor an error message, even if I had to wait few seconds before the computer returns me the hand... I don't really understand what they mean by the verb DISPLAY in the OCL statement guide. Does it mean DISPLAY on the CRT ? DISPLAY on the PRINTER ? DISPLAY in a file ?... grrrr.... Merry X-mas to all, and thank you for your help. Fred. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

19 years, 5 months

RSS for new bitsavers files?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Is there an RSS feed that tracks the index by date or something? It would be nice to see what's new as RSS items. -- "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, 5 months

FREE Plotter - Last Chance!

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

This is being sent to the CCTech, Tektronix, HP, and Test gear mailing list. I have available, for PICKUP ONLY in Kent, Washington (about 30 miles southeast of Seattle), a nice HP DraftMaster pen plotter, a couple of packs of paper (sizes C and D), and a boxful of pens. This needs to be MOVED! I need the space far more than I need a plotter. If no one claims it, I will have to dispose of it as best I can, even if this means tearing it apart and recycling its guts. I know that sounds harsh, but I've seriously reached the point to where this unit has to go. Please get back to me by E-mail ASAP. If E-mail should bounce, please call me on (253) 639-2996. This is the LAST time I'll be offering this. I need to hear from whoever wants it in the next day or so, or it's gone. Thanks much. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy, Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"

19 years, 5 months

help ID this ISA card

by alexeyt＠freeshell.org

I have a 16-bit ISA card labelled "Arnet 30500404 Copyright 1993 Arnet Corp. Made in USA". It has 2 HD-15 female connectors labelled Line1 and Line2, a bunch of discrete logic, 6 PALs and a Hitachi HD64570CP 2-port Serial Communications Adapter chip. A google search tells me only that it might have been an S/570 adapter, but I have no idea what S/570 was (the most common hit seems to be for a scanning electron microscope?) and if I can trust the one parts dealer that seems to have one to know what it actually is :-) Anyone know what this board does? Anyone want it? Alexey

19 years, 5 months

Computer Music

by grant＠stockly.com

>3) A 1970s era microcomputer controlling an analog synthesizer. I have source code and custom interface cards from ARP's project to create the first consumer computer controlled synth. The prototype was built out of an Altair 8800. Never finished, never released. It was a top secret project within the company I will try to scan the entire binder and recover all of the source code off of the 8" disks if it will help your project. Currently I think I am the only person who still has a copy of this information. I got it by accident when I bought ARP's Altair. ;) The binder has been sitting between the two front seats of my car since September. I'll have a good excuse to scan it on the 26th. ; ) This information has been left out of the history books! I'll include a few routines below... NOTE, I tried to recover the assembler written in "Altair Basic", but it is corrupted on the disk. The assembler program appears to have been written in Altair Basic with line numbers and then assembled by a special program. I would appreciate ANY information on this basic assembler! The person who wrote the routines below wrote a thesis at MIT in 1971 about the possibility of a computer-controlled synth. He was using a PDP-15 at the time. I can provide more information, but a good quote about the Altair 8800 Synth "One of my more impressive demos was doing four-part harmony using a woodwind ensemble (flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon or French horn). Using the pro-soloists on the four-channel Bose system in the small lab sounded very grand. In fact, the lab was under tight security and not ever the VP of marketing was allowed in, though he tried. (We wanted them to sell what they had now, not get musicians waiting for things to come.) " Grant 0000 org 03fdh 0010 jmp presc 0100 org 0040h 0110 ************************************************************** 0120 * 0130 * Module PRESC 0140 * 0150 * Written by Bruce Cichowlas 8/25/76 0160 * Copyright Circle C - ARP Instruments 9/15/76 0170 * 0180 * PRESC - checks the preset panel and sets the previous 0190 * preset reading (prvpr), as well as the preset request 0200 * word (prerq). This routine should be invoked frequently, 0210 * as it actually does the preset panel scanning. 0220 * 0230 * No arguments 0240 * 0250 ************************************************************** 1000 presc equ $ 1010 push b 1020 lda ppadr ;preset panel addr 1030 ora a ;set flags 1040 jz pres1 ;none set 1050 mov b,a 1060 lda prvpr ;load previous reading 1070 ora b 1080 sta prvpr 1090 pres2 pop b 1100 ret 1110 pres1 lda prvpr ;find out if any were set previously 1120 ora a 1130 jz pres2 ;none before 1140 mov b,a 1150 lda prerq 1160 ora b ;include bits set in b 1170 sta prerq 1180 xra 1190 sta prvpr ;store 0 for the previous reading 1200 pop b 1210 ret 5000 ppadr equ 1800h 6000 *RAM 6001 prvpr equ 08ffh 6002 prerq equ 08feh 0000 org 03e8h 0001 jmp rdsld 0002 jmp clman 0003 jmp nmmsk 0004 jmp msknm 0005 jmp swpnl 0006 jmp clsw 0100 org 009bh 0110 ****************************************************************** 0120 * 0130 * Written by Bruce Cichowlas 9/3/76 0140 * Copyright Circle C - ARP Instruments 9/16/76 0150 * 0160 * CLSW - clears all switches. No arguments. 0170 * SWPNL - sets the switches from the scratchpad. Just 0190 * one byte of them for now. No arguments. 0200 * 0210 * MSKNM - Converts a one bit mask to a number from zero 0220 * to seven indicating bit position, e.g. 01h becomes 0, 0230 * 80h becomes seven. Input and output are from the A register. 0240 * 0250 * NMMSK - Performs the inverse operation of MSKNM. 0260 * 0270 * CLMAN - Clears the manual lights for the slidepots. No 0280 * arguments 0290 * 0300 * RDSLD - Reads a slidepot. On input, A contains 0310 * the slidepot number, and on return it contains the 0320 * slidepot's current value. 0330 * 0340 ******************************************************************** 1000 clsw equ $ 1010 sta swclr 1020 ret 1030 swpnl equ $ 1040 push h 1050 push d 1060 lhld prbas ;base of scratchpad 1070 lda slcnt ;slide count 1080 mov e,a 1090 mvi d,0 H 1100 dad d ;calculate address of switch values in the scratchpad 1110 mov a,m ;get word 1120 cma ;since switches use negative logic 1130 sta setsw ;set the switches 1140 pop d 1150 pop h 1160 ret 1170 msknm equ $ 1180 push b 1190 mvi b,7 1200 mskn1 rlc 1210 jc mskn2 1220 dcr b 1230 jnz mskn1 1240 mskn2 mov a,b 1250 pop b 1260 ret 1270 nmmsk equ $ 1280 push b 1290 mov b,a 1300 mvi a,1 1310 inr b 1320 nmms1 dcr b 1330 jz nmms2 1340 rlc 1350 jmp nmms1 1360 nmms2 pop b 1370 ret 1380 clman equ $ 1390 push b 1400 push d 1410 push h 1420 lda slcnt ;slide count 1430 dcr a ;convert to offset 1440 clma1 push m 1450 lhld lgbas ;man/auto light copy base 1460 call wrdbt ;get wrdbt offset 1470 xra a ;for reset 1480 call setwb ; adjust bit 1490 lxi h,lgdev ; light device 1500 mov e,b 1510 mvi d,0 1520 dad d 1530 mov m,a ;store new value 1540 pop m 1550 dcr a 1560 jp clma1 1570 pop h 1580 pop d 1590 pop b 1600 ret 1610 rdsld equ $ 1620 sta mxadr ;slidepot's MUX addr 1630 nop ;wait for MUX to settle 1640 nop 1650 sta strtc ;start conversion 1660 mvi a,6 1670 rdsl1 dcr a ;delay 1680 jnz rdsl1 1690 lda adout ;get a/d value 1700 ret 7000 *ROM parameter table 7001 prbas equ 0400h ;base of scratchpad 7002 slcnt equ 0402h ;slide pot count 7003 lgbas equ 0403h ;man/auto light copy base 8000 *Device addresses 8001 swclr equ 3003h ;store to this location clears the switch settings 8002 setsw equ 3004h ;store to this setting stores the complement of the 8003 * ;input into the switches 8004 mx88adr equ 3000h ;store to here sets the MUX slidepot address 8005 strtc equ 3002h ;store to here starts the conversion 8006 adout equ 3000h ;this is where the a/d output is put 8007 lgdev equ 3001h ;store to here sets the man/auto lights 9000 *Subroutine 9001 wrdbt equ 03e5h 9002 setwb equ 03e2h equ bins 6060 * 8000 swtch equ 01800h 9000 sortn equ 03f4h 9010 bncnt equ 03e

19 years, 5 months

Update, Free Plotter Model number

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

I was reminded that it would be a good idea to mention that the HP model number of the plotter is 7595C. Thanks much. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy, Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"

19 years, 5 months

Someone selling off dec disk packs before system

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

A seller on ebay is selling of the media while he / she claims to be in possession of the system as well, I assume for those who admire "disk packs" or such. Anyone interested might want to look in on the RK05 listed, and the 5 platter disk pack listed. seller: wvrunner rk05 auction number:220063749828 look under "view sellers other auctions" for the other pack, and maybe keep an eye on this guy. Merry Christmas to all Jim

19 years, 5 months

Weird disk drive

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Weird disk drive > From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> > Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 05:03:11 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>, > sellam at vintagetech.com > >Sellam Ismail wrote: >> It's basically just a disk drive that powers up and spins if you put a >> disk in it. > >OK, questions: > >1) Any sign of any additional drive boards within the case or anything that >might be ROM on the drive PCBs themselves? > >2) Does the disk keep spinning forever when you put it in, or just do a few >revolutions and stop? > >3) When you put a disk in, do the heads step at all? Or does it just sit on >track 0 all the time? > > >And some initial guesses: > >1) Homebrew case which someone just never got around to finishing and adding a >data connector to. > >2) Commercial prototype for testing various aspects (PSU heat dissipation, >drive mounting, power socket mounting, case paint etc.) > >3) Tester for a *floppy disk* manufacturer (i.e. does my product foul a stock >drive mechanism, does it fall apart in the heat of a typical enclosure etc.) > >4) Degausser (as you say) or other form of disk eraser > >5) TV / movie prop > >I'm quite liking the first and last ones - although the last one's probably >only credible if the disk keeps spinning forever when you put it in. > >Some form of eraser might be possible if the thing's just wired to write junk; >even if the heads don't move I suppose someone could have built a "poor man's >eraser" which just trashes track 0 :-) > >Commercial 'pre-production' type products (2 and 3 above) do seem less likely >- not because they wouldn't have existed, but because I'm surprised someone >would bother to save them and/or they wouldn't have had a data connector added >later to make a fully functioning unit. > >Can you take the route of asking the person you got it from - and if they >weren't the original owner, following the chain back to the person who was? > >cheers > >Jules Or #6: Many of the trs80 external drive boxes (early non-RS product ca1978) would just plug the cable to the drive and pass it out the case through a space or gap. There was no formal external connector. Also the external box for the NS* MDS-A (1978 also) had no external connector though there was a noiceable notch in the rear of the case to pass the 34wide ribbon cable through. I've seen several of thses. Allison

19 years, 5 months

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