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101090 discussions

Collection policy was Re: No space for vinatge computers in

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk ---snip--- > >> different today, how can people relate to this? While there are still a few >> people who know how to make a horseshoe at a blacksmiths there will be >> nobody who knows how to run the early mainframes in 50 years, things are > >Rubbish!. Are you seriously trying to tell me that these skills can't be >learnt? I would claim that anybody who _truely_ understood a modern >machine would have no problems on an older one. The fact that very few >people understand modern computers is the problem, not that the older >machines are so different. > >-tony > Hi I think these older machines are easier to work on. Things are more exposed and excessable. Most of the newer machines one has today are not even as repairable( motherboard fails, swap out motherboard! ). Dwight

22 years, 11 months

IIfx memory

by teoz＠neo.rr.com

Anybody know where to get memory (4mb simm or better) for a mac IIfx cheap or have some they dont want. I think its 64 pin proprietary memory (also used in a specific mac printer cant recall). Its funny how apple makes proprietary memory for only 1 specific model computer (how is that cost effective?), just like the memory upgrade for my apple 4/600 PS laser (one of a kind).

22 years, 11 months

Subscription

by sipke＠wxs.nl

Hi, What is the official current subscriptionprocedure to subcribe to the cctalk list ? Sipke de Wal ---------------------------------------------------- http://xgistor.ath.cx ----------------------------------------------------

22 years, 11 months

JC 80 parts

by jmackd1＠yahoo.com

Hello Toth, Noticed you posted on the web back in Dec of 2002 you had a pallet full of JC80 parts, we are still using the JC80 here at the University of Texas, do you still have those parts? Thank you, Jeff McComas The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com

22 years, 11 months

Looking to Buy

by kenny＠datexstorage.com

We are looking to buy SEAGATE, IBM AND QUANTUM SCSI DISK DRIVES If you have any for sale please let us know what you have. Thanks Datex Storage

22 years, 11 months

IBM System/36 - Advice Needed

by martinm＠allwest.net

This afternoon, I hauled home an IBM System/36 - PC (5364), complete with dedicated IBM PC (5150), Monitor, KB, cables and an IBM 4224 printer, but no documentation, all from my local Farmer's Insurance agent. The system is complete, including the "Farmers Master System Diskette". The components are badged "Farmers Insurance Group 5280Z". Googling indicates that these systems were fairly common. The system boots to the Service Control Menu, then continues the IPL to a IPL Sign On menu. Does anyone know the Service password or the Backup Service password for the Service Control Menu? Does anyone know another way into this system? I am an absolute neophyte on this system, so any help, warnings, war stories, etc. would be appreciated. Thank you, Martin Marshall

22 years, 11 months

OT? Supera and Diamond Multimedia support

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

I guess this might be slightly OT, and maybe a little bit of a rant, though lots of Diamond products are easily 10 years old or older... I just found out today that the massive archive of drivers and firmware that was on the the Diamond ftp server [ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/] is gone. I didn't have the bandwidth to mirror it, but I sure hope someone here got a copy when I recommended months back (Modem/Supra thread) that someone archive it. The support page for Diamond products [http://www.diamondmm.com/support/diamond/] formerly contained links to files on the ftp server. It now has the following posted: S3 or Diamond Brand Support We no longer support customer service or warranty claims on any of our legacy products sold under the former S3 or Diamond brand. As we no longer manufacture these products, and have not for some time, our customer care and warranty claim call volumes related to these products are extremely low. Because of this, we made the decision to discontinue support for these products. If you are experiencing problems with your Diamond or S3 legacy product please contact an independent repair professional. We appreciate your understanding in this matter and hope that this change does not inconvenience you greatly. The above statement seems totally ludicrous, as how is "an independent repair professional" (which I think I more than qualify for) supposed to support these products without the files that were available on the ftp site? I put in a call to their technical support staff at (206) 515-1400, and when I selected option '5' for diamond products, it referred me back to the above support url, claiming that support files were available on the website. The phone system then hung up, and I called back again selecting the Supra support and 'other' products...same thing. I finally got someone on the line by selecting Supra support and the first and only product the phone system mentioned. I think it was option 4 and 1. Talk about a nightmare. Turns out, they've suddenly had a massive influx of calls from other slightly annoyed customers who still support and use all this "obsolete hardware." Personally, I don't see how hardware can be "obsolete" if it works and does exactly what you need it to. They also seemed to have no clue that older versions of firmware and such are very important when maintaining and supporting these things. The ftp server formerly contained nearly every version that had been released. Now its all gone. Some of these products were only a couple of years old too. If other hardware forums haven't had info about this yet, they probably will soon... If anyone else wants to call and ask questions, the phone number above should get you though to someone. I've asked them about returning the ftp site to its former state, as that would seem to be the best solution for everyone right now. -Toth

22 years, 11 months

FT : Sharp MZ-100

by claudew＠videotron.ca

Going to kids garage sale or goodwill....or grab it here... Its a dual floppy 8088 10mhz laptop. I am not into x86 boxes Worked last timed I tried it out. You supply power supply... Offers welcome. Trade - not interested in cash (...): 72 pin parity ram, sun sparc 20 cpu module(s)... Claude http://computer_collector.tripod.com

22 years, 11 months

Revengish URL

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 27, 21:37, John Honniball wrote: > vassilip(a)dsl.cis.upenn.edu wrote: > > So when the BBC + Torch arrived, the genious who was responsible for > > assembling the kit, promptly added a mains plug to the power cable > > and plugged it in, feeding 240V AC to the +5 and +12V rails. > > Same thing happened at my Uni when one of the Prime operators took > home a BBC for the holidays. She had an external disk drive for it, > that plugged into the BBC's power underneath the machine (not at > all obvious). So, she went ahead and fitted a mains plug to the > three-core cable that fed the drive. Usual release of magic smoke... Ah, yes, that would be one of those drives suplied by a company who figured that you don't really need two 0V lines, and 3-core mains flex is cheap. I can add another to the "240-into-5 doesn't go" list. I ran the repair and engineering department for a large Acorn dealer/distributor. One Saturday, a customer with his son bought a BBC B, Torch Z80 with disk pack, and a high-res Microvitec monitor; well over UKP1000 in those days. He was back on the Monday, looking very sad. His son had connected everything together before finding that the "mains plug" didn't fit. When he changed it, the fuse blew, so he replaced it and tried again :-( He was very nice about it, quite philosophical, and so we tried quite hard to rescue what we could, and find second-hand parts. We salvaged one of the two drives. We repaired the monitor. We found a spare BBC B board -- the original was deemed unrepairable. The disk pack PSU was a write-off, but we got the original Beeb PSU back from the shop. The Z80 board didn't look healthy, and he let us keep that too. Eventually, we stripped every IC and some other damaged parts off the board, fitted sockets everywhere, repaired several tracks with quite a lot of wire-wrap wire and epoxy, and it became a test bed. The Z80 got similar treatment, except it didn't need track repairs, and we turned it over to a teenager who was with us for work experience. We thought it would be good (de)soldering practice. He was delighted when he ended up with a clean board, and even more so when the fully-socketed version worked at the the end of it, so I suppose some good came of it all -- he'd apparently been something of a problem to the college tutors before he discovered there was something he could actually achieve. Those Torch Z80's were a royal pain. After that incident, we told the shops not to take out or replace the BBC supply under any circumstances, and eventually Torch stopped the practice of replacing the original PSU. The Beeb SMPSU was perfectly capable of running a fully-expanded machine with a Torch processor, so using Torch's rather inferior (but more powerful) unit was not a good idea. The Torch Z80 board is about Eurocard size, fitted with a short 40-way ribbon cable, and was supposed to be mounted in the lid of the BBC B, using four PCB mounts of the type that have self-adhesive pads. They used to fall off after a while. Now you might think that's just irritating (it's certainly awkward to fit correctly) but it's more than that. When it falls, it tends to short things out. Unfortunately, the regulation on Torch PSUs is very poor when they crowbar, and when the 5V rail comes back after it's shut down, it tends to overshoot -- by about 4 volts, according to our scope. TTL doesn't like 9V. I've seen at least two Beebs destroyed that way. One of them looked fine, but didn't work -- something of a puzzle, as the owner had replaced the original Acorn PSU and we didn't know he had been using the Torch one. It just went "tick-tick-tick", as they do when they're shorted, or as in this case, detect over-current. So we put it on a bench supply, thinking either to blow off a faulty capacitor or maybe find a hot chip. No, but it drew 9 amps (a Beeb usually takes about two) and after a little while it was obvious several LS TTL chips were cooking. So we removed them. Back on the PSU, still several amps over normal. A few more hot chips after a short while. And so it went on, until all that was left was the NMOS (all of which still worked). Another expensive repair. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

22 years, 11 months

!HELP!! ALTAIR BLEW SMOKE!!!

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Peter Turnbull" <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> ---snip--- > >Not from a capacitor as a whole, but if you look inside the "black >box"... The discussion was about electrolytic capacitors. Of course >they have an insulator (the oxide on the aluminium foil anode) but they >also have an electrolyte (which is the cathode), and indeed wouldn't >(don't) work without it. It's the ability of the electrodes to conduct >electrons that give the capacitor its ability to store them. > >-- >Pete Peter Turnbull The other trick of the electrolytic is that the aluminum is slightly etched first before forming. This greatly increases the surface area and gives a higher capacitance per square inch of foil. I have a radio that was made in the 50's. I brought the capacitors in it up slowly. I've checked them on my bridge and they are all above 45% of the labeled value. The radio works fine. Dwight

22 years, 11 months

!HELP!! ALTAIR BLEW SMOKE!!!

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 25, 20:19, William R. Buckley wrote: > Steve Leach said: > > > If you could humor my electronic ignorance, what exactly > > is a tantalum cap and how does it differ from a normal > > capacitor? I was never before aware that there could be > > more to a capacitor than plates (or foil) and an > > electrolyte. How can a capacitor have a polarity? > > Not an electrolyte, an insulator. It is the inability to > conduct electrons which gives the capacitor its ability to > collect electrons. > [...] Now, by being ionic, these electrolytes > are well suited to the conduction of electron flow. This > is most definately not the kind of behavior which you wish > to obtain from a capacitor. Not from a capacitor as a whole, but if you look inside the "black box"... The discussion was about electrolytic capacitors. Of course they have an insulator (the oxide on the aluminium foil anode) but they also have an electrolyte (which is the cathode), and indeed wouldn't (don't) work without it. It's the ability of the electrodes to conduct electrons that give the capacitor its ability to store them. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

22 years, 11 months

Revengish URL

by vassilip＠dsl.cis.upenn.edu

This reminds me of a true story regarding a BBC microcomputer. This was in the early 80s when a company called Torch produced an auxiluary processor for the BBC (I think so that it could run CP/M programs). Anyway the Torch was an external box that contained its own PSU and connected via a ribbon cable with the BBC micro, which served as the keyboard/display peripheral for the Torch. Early BBCs had problems with their own PSU (it overheated), so the Torch people removed the PSU from the BBC and used another cable to supply power *to* the BBC from the Torch box. Unfortunately, they used a cable that looked like a power cable. So when the BBC + Torch arrived, the genious who was responsible for assembling the kit, promptly added a mains plug to the power cable and plugged it in, feeding 240V AC to the +5 and +12V rails. I looked at that mainboard afterwards and a lot of tracks had melted! **vp

22 years, 11 months

Where have all the Selectrics gone?

by jforbes2＠mindspring.com

> From: "Mike Ross" <mross666(a)hotmail.com> > IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric typewriter > - 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and you'll also find > several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM > Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype > alternatives. > > Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many > folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care, good > riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are (almost) ten a > penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have several. > > But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in over ten years of > collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see > http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so ago. > It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can receive > data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from the keyboard. > > I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic' terminal > for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone recommend a > Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle something THIS > mechanically-intimidating myself! Look at my sig...you'll see where they've all gone :) I have a dozen or so Selectric, Selectric II, and Selectric III typewriters, mostly in various states of sticky disrepair. Actually, I don't have any Selectric terminals, although I do have a Selectric Memory Typewriter. My brother worked at a Byte Shop in the late 70s, and recalls having either converted a Selectric or making a conversion work. I do have a manual from 1962 titled "IBM Customer Engineering Manual of Instruction, I/O Printer, (Modified IBM Selectric), which shows the glorious workings of this fascinating machine...the manual has lots of text and diagrams explaining the Selectric mechanism, but not much in the way of photos showing the solenoid mechanisms. We were thinking a few years ago of trying to rig up a homebrew conversion of one of my typewriters, but never got round to it. But I did (in 1999?) see a conversion kit sell on ebay...and I was foolish enough to not buy it. -- Jim Visit the Selectric Typewriter Museum! http://www.mindspring.com/~jforbes2

22 years, 11 months

Where have all the Selectrics gone?

by mross666＠hotmail.com

Subject: RE: Where have all the Selectrics gone? Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 00:36:49 -0400 Reply-To: cctech(a)classiccmp.org >Are these based on a Selectric? >http://www.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=206563&convertTo=USD Yes!!!! Exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Good catch! You can tell they're the 'I/O Selectric' by the extra-deep chassis, compared with a standard Selectric typewriter... no idea what interface they might be, but what the hell... Guess it's a bid on all 35 of them, or none at all... anyone else in with me for some? Mike http://www.corestore.org

22 years, 11 months

Gummint VAXen (was Re: More gummint surplus goodies)

by classiccmp＠crash.com

John Allain wrote: . > Not only that but I believe that Raytheon would rebuild Vaxes > from the circuit description using advanced SMD and hybrid > chips to make them something like 1/4 the size and weight > of the non-gov. models. Wow - now that would be something to add to the collection! Does anybody on the list want to confess to owning such a beastie? If so, please, don't be cruel - post a link to some pictures. --Steve. smj(at)spamfree.crash.com (lose spamfree to get through, m'kay?)

22 years, 11 months

QBUS board ID time

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 27, 16:34, Greg Elkin wrote: > Got given a couple of "Dyna 5" BA23-size QBUS enclosures a bit ago - > a bit tatty (rusted & dirty, must try to get a sandblaster or > something to see if they can be rescued) > just looking through the cards, can't ID this one yet : > > > dual height QBUS > Baydel (http://www.baydel.com) logo on the handles, "Baydel ltd" "CCK > 2789" "B01079 iss4 C1984 CTS-11" on the board. > Any ideas? Didn't turn anything usefull up on Google, I've emailed > Baydel support for a laugh... Baydel were (are?) latterly quite well known for RAID systems; prior to that they made (amongst other things) QBus floppy controllers, to connect to SA800/850 drives. I have a couple of single-density ones that emulate an RXV11 or a pair of RXV11s. I'd guess this board is an emulation of an RXV21, to connect to SA800/850 drives. Power it up, and see if it responds to the RXV21 addresses. BTW, I found Baydel quite helpful when I wanted some information about mine (labelled F11-311) -- but that was a decade ago and I don't know if the same technical staff will still be there. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

22 years, 11 months

zenith model ZFL-184-01 LAP TOP

by SRATPHESSA＠aol.com

is it any good

22 years, 11 months

Tektronix 4052

by tdodds＠attglobal.net

Hello, I know that your request is over six months old, so you may no longer be interested. Did you find the information you need on the 4052? I have a 1981 Tektronix catalog that has a one-page summary of the characteristics of this device. Let me know if it is useful to you and I will send you a scanned copy. Tom Dodds 869 Milwaukee St. Denver, Colorado 80206 Info request : Tek 4052 Hans B Pufal cctech(a)classiccmp.org Tue Oct 8 10:51:19 2002 Previous message: OSI disk basic disk Next message: scsi drive + misc. other stuff (free pentium machines & 10 year rule/windows) Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- We are exhibiting a Tektronix 4052 computer and I am looking for some info on the beastie: Year of introduction Price at introduction Memory size Processor Clock frequency Tape capacity Tape speed Screen resolution The web seems somewhat reluctant to divulge this info and I'd appreciate your help. Regards, -- Hans B Pufal

22 years, 11 months

openvms... another question

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Ok, I know NOTHING about openVMS. However, this just came up... A friend of a friend offered me what he says is a complete set of OpenVMS media. No manuals, just the media. Several questions: >From what I understand, isn't there some type of hobbyist free license for openvms? If so, not sure why I should grab the media from him if I can just download it. Or is there a value to getting the media from him, as to it giving me the ability to purchase a license transfer or something... in short, is there a special reason getting "real" media is desirable? Lastly... he said it runs on vax's and pdp's. Not sure if he knows what he's talking about, so I'll ask here. Could this run on my 11/44? Thanks for any enlightenment! Jay West

22 years, 11 months

Toshiba T1200 battery pack

by bglazar＠hotmail.com

>What is the polarity of the 12V DC connector on the back of the machine? The middle pin is positive and is commond to battery connector. _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

22 years, 11 months

!HELP!! ALTAIR BLEW SMOKE!!!

by stevenaleach＠mac.com

Well, I must say I'm rather amazed at how quickly I got a response. Within an hour of my post, two individuals (Steve Thatcher and Scott LaBombard) both provided the information on the tantalum cap, and I found the parts at DigiKey. Thanks guys! I'm so glad to see some hope at getting the Altair back up and running. When it sizzled popped and smoked, it was like an old friend had died. If you could humor my electronic ignorance, what exactly IS a tantalum cap and how does it differ from a normal capacitor? I was never before aware that there could be more to a capacitor than plates (or foil) and an electrolyte. How can a capacitor have a polarity? Another question, does anyone know where I can find a replacement for the two position front panel switches on the Altair which are marked "AMERICAN U.S.A ST1-1" These are 2 pos 3 contact switches, and I've not been able to find anything exactly the same dimensions. I am hoping that this is some standard switch and I'm just not aware of it :-) Also, I've come across rumers of Altair manuals online in PDF format. Does anyone know where I could find such a thing? I'm sure I'll have more questions once I get the poor machine put back together and start trying to figure out the disk drives and controllers :-) The machine was stored for over seven years in a barn wrapped in plastic bags (not my decision! Don't burn me at the stake!) I wonder how many more surprises I'm in for?

22 years, 11 months

Just bragging :)

by francois＠auradon.com

Went to a flea market today and I picked up and HP 29C in excellent condition for $2.00 That's it but I just had to brag so there :) Thank you Francois

22 years, 11 months

Practical Electronics CHAMP/Tangerine Microtan 65

by david_comley＠yahoo.com

Many years ago Practical Electronics in the UK published the design of a microprocessor-based system called the CHAMP. If I remember rightly it was built on Veroboard. I remember reading the articles in the school library and wishing I could build one. Did anyone ever build one of these ? Do the plans still exist anywhere ? Also, I'd like to re-acquaint myself with the Microtan 65 which was one of the first systems I ever owned. Are there any systems still in existence ? Dave. The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com

22 years, 11 months

Where have all the Selectrics gone?

by n8uhn＠yahoo.com

What about the serial or parallel line printers that used a type band/belt? i used to see alot in the add's for pc's now thier gone too. i wouldn't mind finding one for the pc just to hear the noise again;) i remember the operating noises they made paper clamp,line feed and the hammers hitting the paper - the order of printing was(from the back of the printer to the front of the paper) hammer's,paper,ribbon then type band. Bill Message: 1 Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 18:33:01 -0700 From: J Forbes <jforbes2(a)mindspring.com> To: Cassic Computing <cctech(a)classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Where have all the Selectrics gone? Reply-To: cctech(a)classiccmp.org > From: "Mike Ross" <mross666(a)hotmail.com> > IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric typewriter > - 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and you'll also find > several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM > Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype > alternatives. > > Where have they all gone? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com

22 years, 11 months

!HELP!! ALTAIR BLEW SMOKE!!!

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 25, 22:05, Steve Leach wrote: > If you could humor my electronic ignorance, what exactly IS a tantalum > cap and how does it differ from a normal capacitor? I was never before > aware that there could be more to a capacitor than plates (or foil) and > an electrolyte. How can a capacitor have a polarity? Almost all electrolytic caps are polarised. In principle, a tantalum capacitor is just like an aluminium electrolytic, only using a more exotic metal (tantalum pentoxide has a dielectric constant about 4-5 times higher than aluminium oxide) and a solid electrolyte. The anode is the foil (or bead, if it's sintered tantalum tantalum), the oxide layer on it is the dialectric, and the electrolyte is the cathode. Passing current from cathode to anode will build up the oxide layer, the other way will break it down. From a chemist's point of view, putting electrons into the cathode and taking them out of the anode makes some of the metallic aluminium (Al) ionise into Al+++, and if there are oxygen ions (O--) adjacent, it forms alumina (Al203) -- standard RedOx reaction, exactly the same as anodising aluminium for protection. You have to maintain the polarity to maintain the oxide layer; if you reverse it the electrons will break down the oxide layer. The aluminium ions would gain electrons, the oxygen ions would lose them, the alumina becomes aluminium and oxygen, and then you have no more highly-insulating aluminium oxide dielctric. Think of the aluminium-alumina junction as a junction diode, with a very high resistance in one direction and a very low resistance the other way. There's a brief description of construction at http://www.chipcenter.com/eexpert/akruger/akruger006.html -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

22 years, 11 months

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