Hey all,
Just saw this on ebay uk - a VT420 with a buy it now price of ?50.
Makes the one I got for free seem quite valuable!
Item number 110034030429
Simon
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, an engineer is not concerned with the truth; that is left to
philosophers and theologians: the prime concern of an engineer is
the utility of the final product."
Lectures on the Electrical Properties of Materials, L.Solymar, D.Walsh
Well, I finally finished the MAX233 based User Port Serial interface
(it was basically finished Sunday). In case anyone is curious, here
are a couple pictures.
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/MAX233-1.jpghttp://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/MAX233-2.jpg
Of course I finally get it so I can get my Commodore 64 online only
to find out that Quantum Link Reloaded is down at the moment :^(
So far I've connected to a BBS in Toronto :^) Seems strange logging
into a BBS for the first time in nearly 13 years.
Zane
PS the real question is who can identify what I built it into :^)
--
| 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/ |
Hi
--- Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/18/06, aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
> <aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I got some 68000 DIP chips for ???3.00 off of
> www.vint
> > agecomputermarketplace.com the other week. I
> finally
> > got around to checking that they are of use to
me
> (
> > by comparing them with notes I have on the
> internals
> > of my old A600 Rev 1.1) and discovered that the
y
> ma
> > y not be of use to me! :(
>
> Not of use how? I've never owned an A600 (I have
> just about every
> other model)... do they have PLCC (square-package)
> CPUs?
Aye, the main CPU is square.
>
> Were you trying to aquire these chips for spares o
r
> for an upgrade?
Yeah, I just wanted them as spares for the
existing co-processors on my Amiga's.
Besides, for $3 (USD) I'm sure you couldn't
resist either (if you own a 68K-based machine).
>
> > Here's the low-down on them:
> >
> > MC68000P10
> > 2 C91E DIP chip (rectangle with pins
on
> long sides) x 2
> > QEDB9215
>
> Sounds like a Motorola CPU that can run as fast at
> 10MHz (they marked
> them as high as 12MHz, but I think those can be
> clocked at 16MHz).
>
> > S (large logo S) SCN68000CAN64
> > 2208N19 DIP chip x1
> > 9035KE
>
>> snip <<
>
>
> -ethan
>
>
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
With Zane H. getting productive with his C64, I thought I would
throw in what I finally got working on my C64 setup...
Last night I was *finally* able to update one of the banks in my
Retro-Reply with "The Final Replay" rom. This gives you the command
"CODENET" which allows you to send and execute code on the C64 from
another computer over TCP/IP. I sent the WarpCopy server and now I
am able to archive disk to my PC or send D64 files to be wrote to
a floppy. It takes only 22 seconds to send the whole contents of
a disk to my PC! Now I just need to find three more drives...
WarpCopy can be found here: http://www.oxyron.de/html/wc64.html .
(The Final Replay rom is also available there.)
Cheers,
Bryan
For those interested in restoring old PDP-8's...
I received an 8/M in very rough shape; you can read the
adventures of restoration at:
http://www.parse.com/~museum/pdp8/pdp8m/restore.html
Cheers,
-RK
--
Robert Krten, PARSE Software Devices
Realtime Systems Architecture, Consulting, Books and Training at www.parse.com
Looking for Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-1 through PDP-15 minicomputers!
All:
I'm playing around with VICE, the Commodore emulator and I
wondered how others who use it deal with key remapping. Sometimes I find it
hard locating the mapped keys because I look at the keycap and of course,
the key is wrong (like TAB is CTRL, ESC is RUN/STOP, etc.)
I'm looking for suggestions beyond sticking little labels on my
keyboard :-)
Thanks.
Rich
Rich Cini
Collector of classic computers
Lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator
Web site: <http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/>
http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
Web site: http://www.altair32.com/
/***************************************************/
This past spring I took up Jay's offer of free hosting for classic
computer web sites (thanks, Jay!). I had been sitting on some domain
names for a while doing nothing with them, but his offer got me in
motion. Unfortunately, things heated up at work and at home and I
couldn't find the time in the past few months to finish off that last 3%
before publishing the new web site. It is finally ready for action.
http://www.sol20.org
The old web site pages just redirect to the new web site.
The content is slightly reorganized but for the most part is identical
with the old site. The only new, but interesting, addition is a scan of
the Sol schematics and PCB artwork that were offered for SASE in the
Popular Electronics article that introduced the Sol. The production Sol
had further changes after the article was published.
The new web site makes use of CSS, but no javascript. The layout pretty
much assumes that you have at least 800 pixels of horizontal resolution.
I've tried it out in firefox, IE 6, and opera 9 and it looks pretty
much as intended. I've even added some code to make the css disappear
if the site is viewed with netscape 4.x. If you notice anything weird
about the new look in a modern browser, please let me know about it.
Thanks.
Hi folks,
I'm curious if anyone has media for older IRIX releases.
Specifically, I'm looking for IRIX 4.0.5E, 4.0.5F, 4.0.5IOP or
4.0.6IPR on CD. Anyone know if this is still floating around
somewhere? It's for a restoration of an Indigo running period
software (instead of IRIX 6.5.22 or 5.3, both of which I already
have, but are more recent).
-Seth
>
>Subject: Re: CompuPro floppy controller differences
> From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>
> Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:00:18 -0700 (PDT)
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>> > >> keep all the FDC features you could put a 8" on a PC and read SSSD!
>On Mon, 18 Sep 2006, Bryan Pope wrote:
>> You would need quite the desktop case to house an 8" floppy
>> drive! :)
>
>It says put an 8" ON a PC, not IN it.
>If you use two side by side drives horizontally,
>then it is a lot more stable to put the PC on the 8"
Of course starting with the half height 8" drives helps. They are only
about 2.5" tall.
What is more interesting is what a PC with two 8" drives would
weigh in at! Most of the good 8" drives were a very solid hunk
of aluminum.
I have a heath H207 dual drive. That's two half height doubled sided
drives one atop the other and a linear power supply. Weighs more
than full up NS* Horizon (wood case)! It's only 13.5x5.5x17 inches.
Allison
For people who have dealt with Joe before, they've uploaded a metric
buttload of stuff to their eBay store jcmparts. He claims they're going to
scrap whatever doesn't move in the next two months. At his listed prices, it
will probably be most of it.
Hi All,
I have a number of boxes with DEC-related material available. These
are systems I no longer have or have no real possibility of obtaining.
These are available near Buffalo, NY for pick-up. I will entertain
shipping these, but the boxes are heavy and would require arrangements
to reimburse me for shipping costs.
I will be regretfully forced to recycle these documents if I receive
no response by 8 October, 2006. I don't want these to be disposed of but
I need the space that they currently occupy.
If interested, please contact me via e-mail or telephone as I don't
get to read newsgroups as often as I'd like.
Here's what I have at present:
R80 User's Guide (EK-00R80-UG-001)
R80 Service Manual (EK-00R80-SM-001)
R80 Technical Description (EK-00R80-TD-001)
RL02 Field Maintenence (RL02-TK)
Field Maintenence (CFG PKG #76) {I believe for the VAX11-730}
Field Maintenence (11730-Z)
VAX-11/750 Print Set
VAX VMS Manual Set v4.0 {I believe to be complete}
RSX-11M v4.1 {I believe to be complete}
RSX-11M+ v3.0 {I believe to be complete}
RT-11 v4.0 manual set {I believe to be complete}
Misc VMS v5.5 manuals
Misc PDP-11/24 prints
Misc PDP-11/44 prints
Thank you,
-John
P.S. I need power supply repair tips for my PDP-11/84 or if you happen
to have a spare supply. :-) I suspect dried-out caps, but still would
like to know if anybody else has any ideas to try.
A power supply print set would be welcome, too.
Any help would be appreciated!
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| John Maxwell | Disclaimer - |
| Equipment Repair Tech | "I know you believe you understand |
| SUNY at Buffalo | what you think I typed but, |
| B10 Lockwood Hall | I am not sure you realize that what |
| Buffalo, NY 14260 | you have read is not what I meant." |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| V-Mail: (716) 645-3900 x116 |
| E-Mail: maxwell at acsu.buffalo.edu |
| W-Site: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~maxwell |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Subject: CP/M for Fairchild F8 : resolved.
> From: Jos Dreesen / Marian Capel <jos.mar at bluewin.ch>
> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:03:24 +0200
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>I asked around and, as many posters suspected, the box was part of a
>larger system : A Sentry IC tester, made by Fairchild. That would
>explain the use of the F8.
>
>The row of DRAMs I thought to have seen was, at closer inspection, a set
>of bipolar PROMs. Total real ram on the board : 4 x 2114. So no CP/M for
>sure....
>
>Still, I have never before seen a floppybox with printeroutput !
>
>The CP/M disks (SSSD) are therefore most probably from another, unknown
>system.
>
I'd bet they are from an old Intel MDS800 development system [big blue box].
They ran ISIS but CP/M was ported to them as the first system and standard
distrubution CP/M for years after had the MDS800 bios in the text
(CP/M alteration guide).
Allison
On 20/09/06, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
>
> PS the real question is who can identify what I built it into :^)
TK50 box? Good for dice too :)
--
> Pete Edwards
> "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future" -
> Niels Bohr
I recently picked up an SGI Personal Iris 4D/35 and I'm struggling to
get IRIX installed and working (with emphasis on "working").
I currently have at my disposal a copy of IRIX 4.0.5 and a copy of IRIX
5.3. I've tried installing both, and the installation succeeds in both
cases, but neither installation works after install.
The symptoms are:
IRIX 4.0.5 installs. On reboot I get the typical chatter in the console
window (UNIX banners, fsck, "The system is coming up," etc.) after which
the screen goes black and stays that way forever and ever. Nothing I do
causes any response from the machine.
IRIX 5.3 installs. On reboot I get the same chatter as above, after
which the screen goes black, except with a red SGI-shaped mouse cursor
which I can move around with the mouse. After about 5 seconds the
screen turns light blue (the same light blue as the console screen at
power-on). At this point I can hit esc to bring up the console, and
the characters I type on the keyboard are echoed to it but nothing I do
has any effect.
Any suggestions?
I'm also looking for earlier versions of IRIX to run on this machine --
any good places to find them?
Thanks!
Josh
I have scored a few nice items this day, a PET 2001-8k with
lots of extra's like a lightpen, a sort of digitiser keypad,
an large expansion board which contains a compuware floppy
interface, a compuware dual floppy drive, about 3 dozen tapes,
4 boxes with floppies and a heavy Centronics printer.
Also a little gadget which allows me to select 3 different
character roms using a little switch.
And the best of all is that the machine works and the keyboard
just looks as new :) and that all for a bargain price of just
100 Euro's ($128).
Patrick
I saw your site on the web re; Saic V2-LC portable computers. I have one (without a hard drive) and the PIN # is:
56357. Can you tell me what CPU processor this would be?
Thanks
Don
deebee at mts.net
>
>Subject: RE: CompuPro floppy controller differences
> From: "Richard A. Cini" <rcini at optonline.net>
> Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:27:00 -0400
> To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only'" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>
>The board has all sorts of jumpers which is good. So I can pick and choose
>which ones to change with no problem.
>
>When reading the book it seems that if you want to use a "minifloppy" drive,
>there are several components you need to change -- a bunch of resistors, a
>crystal and a coil. I presume this is to change the recording frequency and
>spindle speed for 5.25" disks. I'm going to try it without modifications
>first, but since the HD drive is equivalent to an 8" drive for recording
>purposes, I don't think I have to change them.
Those parts are for the Clock, PLL, and write timing. They do not alter
spindle speed as thats the job of the floppy. FYI the 1.2mb floppy appeard
about 6 years after that board was sold.
If you doing 1.2mb 5.25 (or any 8" format) then you DO NOT change those parts.
If you want the conventional 360k two sided (40 track 2S DD) or 720k (80
track 2S DD) then you have to.
Those parts changes are why there was a Disk1A.
>As much as I dislike PeeCees, at least they have the benefit of
>standardization.
Ah, it's using the definitive PC FDC. It was developed well before
PCs standardized. PCs however don't offer much choice and if they did
keep all the FDC features you could put a 8" on a PC and read SSSD!
Allison
>
>Subject: Re: CP/M for Fairchild F8 ?
> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 00:00:24 +0100 (BST)
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>> The Z8 has nothing in common with the F8
>
>Sure it does. They're both silicon chips, they're both microprocessors,
>they both normally come in 40 pi DIL packages. But that's about it :-)
>:-) :-)
>
>> and it's remarkable that there are even these two. From a programmers point
>> of view the F8 was a real abortion: the only processor that I've heard of in
>> which a Jump corrumpts the contents of the accumulator.
>
>It does _what_??? Thank %deity I've never had to design with that thing.
If that were the only horror it would be ok. It's pretty poor but it was
one of the first controller chip that was 8bit and low chip count. The
8048/9 was vastly better!
Allison
Does anyone know if this is a real working PDP-1 or a mocked up, emulated
thingy?
Might be interesting for the games nostalgia for those (like me) whose
classic computing interest overlaps to classic gaming.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/gameon/
Precis below:
*21 October 2006 - 25 February 2007*
Explore the history, technology and culture of computer games in this new
special exhibition. From the *PDP-1* of the 1960s to the latest consoles, *Game
On* examines the technologies that have revolutionised the gaming world. See
the ten most influential consoles of all time, learn about the design
process behind games such as *Tomb Raider*, investigate the relationship
between films and gaming and play over 100 games including classics *Space
Invaders* and *Super Mario Brothers*!
--
Pete Edwards
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future" - Niels
Bohr
I found a scrapped box today at work :
2 8" floppydrives , RS232 and printer interfaces. Internally an F8
chipset ( F3850 / F3852 / F3854) with a WD1771 fdc.
Strangely enough a set of floppies lay on top, labeled Cp/M, Basic CP/m
Pascal etc.
Was there ever a CP/M version for the F8 ??
Jos Dreesen
--- Gordon JC Pearce <gordon at gjcp.net> wrote:
> aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have been having problems with my Dreamcast
> > (that I use to surf the 'net) resetting randomly
.
> >
> > After checking out the power lines, it seems
> > that the stepdown convertor is at fault. It
> > has a crack and 2 bulging bits (where the
> > plastic has been molded with lumps instead of
> > flat) on the underside.
> >
> > How dangerous is this if it is the cause of
> > the problem?
>
> Sounds like it's overheating.
>
> > It converts a 240V input to a 110V output (not
> > been able to check the exact specs on it, as
> > it's in use and very hot), as my Dreamcast I
> > am using is a Japanese model (my UK model
> > isn't fully functioning).
>
> I'm not well up on Dreamcasts. Do they have an
> external power supply?
> If they do, then you could use your UK PSU.
>
> Other than that, you might get an old switchable
> 220/110v psu and make
> it into an autotransformer.
>
> Gordon.
>
The one I am currently using is Japanese one
and they (like the USA?) have 2 pin plugs into
the mains, whereas our (UK) plugs have 3 pins
so I can't use a UK power supply on a Japanese
one.
Like I stated in another post (I think?) I got
a replacement off eBay which I received today,
so all is well again.
Regards,
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
I recently got this card in and have no idea who made it.
Anybody have an idea of what it is (I browsed through th99 with no luck, and google didn't help much either)?
Pictures:
http://home.neo.rr.com/unknownk/images/100_0897.jpg (the cable with in/out that goes on the end).
http://home.neo.rr.com/unknownk/images/100_0896.jpg (The card itself)
The main card is LV-007 and the TV tuner part is LV-008
Major chips are CHIPS F82C9001, Phillips Saa 7151B, Phillips 9065.
I am pretty sure it is a video capture/TV tuner card but I need to find out who made it to find drivers. The cable on top would be to connect to a VGA card I would think, but it looks like it also has VGA cable to put inline with VGA output (redundant?). The little connector on the bezel side bottom looks like a mini headphone jack.
The card came a little bent (they used a padded mailer and not a box for shipping) and EC4 is gone (but not found in the mailer, you can see what's left of the cap pins floating in air above and to the right of the 24.576 oscillator top middle of the card), wonder if that cap is even needed.
Any ideas?
Someone said (lost attribution)
>The original IBM PC version was a an abortion.
Perhaps "abomination" would be a less-charged word...
certainly applicable in this case.
>
>Subject: RE: CompuPro floppy controller differences
> From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
> Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 11:32:01 -0700
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>On 9/16/2006 at 4:30 PM Allison wrote:
>
>>Ah, it's using the definitive PC FDC. It was developed well before
>>PCs standardized. PCs however don't offer much choice and if they did
>>keep all the FDC features you could put a 8" on a PC and read SSSD!
>
>You could?!? (if I'm parsing your statement correctly). IIRC, the original
>PC FDC card had IBM's proprietary data separator on it (several hybrid
>packagaes) and couldn't read SD/FM to save its life. It also had the 8272
>(non "A") part, so it had other problems with "alien" formats.
Many can. The original IBM PC version was a an abortion. I'd always felt
they worked hard making that mess.
As to the A/nonA part thats less a problem than often thought. If it
really was a problem you could change out the part.
I have a few mid range ISA-8 FDC boards that use the 9216 data sep and
they do read SD 8" and a bunch more.
>Unless, of course, we're talking about PCs in the generic sense and not the
>5150 per se. There, it's a crapshoot as to what capabilites any given FDC
>card has.
In my original statement I was refering to the generic and as "Standard"
its still anything but. When you consider the number of drives and
configurations the floppy whent though on PCs over the years it's a big
mess. It's only that it's all behind us that was know where the bodies
lie and we can assemble it from known history. but it lead to 3.5" drives
with out drive select jumpers/switches and other "innovations".
Over the lifetime of PCs I've worked with:
5.25 180k single sided
5.25 360k 2 sided
5.25 720k 2 sided 80 track
3.5" 720k
3.5" 1.44mb
3.5" 2.88mb
Syquest, Zip, Jazz and other higher density removeables
The only thing they didn't do stock was 8" SSSD and 8"DSDD, and
hard sector! The aftermarket added those!
Standard, really, more like a computer version of a leatherman.. ;)
Allison
For a while, I thought it was a requirement that the laser be turned off at least when the drive was open,
so power-down circutry was required. Not sure if this requirement was relaxed.