I was hoping there might be some sort of preassembled optical sensor array
available with the right spacing for paper tape holes, but maybe that is
hoping for too much. If you build one with discrete sensors, is it easy to
find ones that are narrow enough to stack side to side with the correct
spacing?
>Hi
> Ahh, such concepts as make one come to mind. You could
>scrap a number of mice for the optical sensors ( two for
>each axis, 4 total per mouse ) or you could buy photo
>transistors from Jameco. In a pinch, the clear lensed
>LED's make reasonable detectors.
> Use a little imagination.
>Dwight
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As promised in a previous message, last Friday I went to the office of the
guy with all the VMS manuals. It took me two trips, but when it was over, 11
boxes of varying sizes full of VMS and VAX docs sat in my garage.
Unfortunately, some of the older orange and grey binders were empty, and it
appears that I now only have full docs for VMS from version 6 to 7.2. Also
in there was one manual for MicroVMS 4.something. I didn't get everything,
so I will go back next Tuesday to finish up.
Today the university surplus shop had put out for sale the MicroVAX II
system that I had seen last week. It consists of a BA23 with RX50 and RD5x,
a Fujitsu(?) Eagle hard drive, and a Kennedy 9600 tape unit (looks like a
DEC TS05). Great, right? Well, un^H^Hfortunately, I had a job interview
today, scheduled such that I would be unable to attend the sale. I found a
trustworthy-looking person and bribed them to proxy-purchase the item for me
during the sale. It worked.
So tomorrow morning I will pick up the SA900 disk cabinet for the VAX 6K I
got last week, and now a MicroVAX II system. And there's no school for a
couple of days. Another great week.
The job interview took 3 hours and 20 minutes. I did well.
--
Jeffrey Sharp
On Nov 26, 15:45, John Allain wrote:
> FWIW here's some of the fuse types I've found:
>
> AGC 3AG 3AD GLH MTH MSL, none of which I know
3AG means "Automobile Glass size 3". I suspect those designations have
more to do with heating, rupturing, voltage, overload capacity, and most
especially materials, shape, and dimensions, than with "slow" or "fast".
> for the 1.6A MDL I have
> 2A "plain", 2.5A "plain", MSL 2A, MDL 2A
> as candidates. I guess a slightly higher value is OK when
> replacing a slo with a non slo?
Maybe, but how much is "slightly"? The slow-blow was probably intended to
cope with short-duration inrush current, but reliably blow if the current
was too high for more than perhaps a few seconds. A "fast" fuse will
typically blow at 250% - 350% of the nominal value within 1-2 seconds, but
a "very fast" fuse might blow within 0.2 seconds. I've seen some "very
fast" fuses described as blowing at 1000% current within 0.001 seconds.
That's only 10 times nominal current rating, so it wouldn't allow for much
of an inrush current! As far as I know (and I am not an expert, just
someone who is sad enough to read lots of catalogues), the difference
between slow/medium/fast/very fast is primarily tolerance to short-duration
overloads like that, ie like inrush current.
> Also I imagine all of those letter codes are different blow rates?
Nope, see above.
Fuses aren't expensive. I'd try to find the right one.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
>From: "Steven Edwards" <chessnotation(a)mac.com>
>
>Greetings to the list:
>
>It looks like the IMSAI Series Two (the "S2") is nearing its first
>production run. (See http://imsai.net/ and
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imsaiusergroup/)
>
>I've ordered one of these as a replacement of sorts for the IMSAI 8080
>I assembled back in 1976 but managed to, uh, "lose" in the early 1980s.
> It's been a long time since I've had a chance to fool around with a
>machine equipped with a real front panel.
>
>I had thought I'd seen about every S-100 machine ever made, but I
>recently came across a net reference to the Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1.
>It looks almost identical to the IMSAI 8080 except that the DPS-1 front
>panel is styled more in the way of Digital's later PDP models. I note
>that the DPS-1 PSU is somewhat different from the IMSAI 8080, but other
>than that. the internals seem to be very similar.
>
>So, are there any other IMSAI 8080 fans on the list?
>
Hi
I have one that I fixed the front panel, a number of bad RAMs,
and added an extra RAM card to bring it to 64K. I then read the
ROM's in the disK controller ( state machine, not uP ) and
figured out how to format, read and write disk. I then wrote
my own BIOS and combined it with the CP/M I got from the net.
Ya, there are a few IMSAI fans here. I'll have to admit, I'm
not overly excited about the IMSAI series two but I do wish
them the best of luck.
Dwight
Hi
One thing to reflect on. In my hand, right now, is
a small board with three major parts and a total of
six IC's. I have at home, an IMSAI with 64K of RAM.
This board has 128K RAM, 128K FLASH and a processor
that runs at a clock speed that is 20 times as fast.
The board was made in '96.
In retrospect, I don't think software has made even
one tenth that improvement ( most is not as useful ).
Just more thoughts
Dwight
Can anyone provide me information on this board,
Approximately 4in X 3 1/4 in, plugs into a adapter that replaces the
processor, marked "Surprise" 1986 Maynard Electronics, INC. Arrived in an
aged IBM PC. It has a NEC V20 chip.
Also, anybody interested in,
Quadram Quadboard, complete but rather battered.
Memory Module, 16 meg IBM part # 11S9111010784AF05P8A 02K2288 DIMM
16M
Free for personal use, not for resale
Rich Stephenson
loedman1(a)juno.com
Greetings to the list:
It looks like the IMSAI Series Two (the "S2") is nearing its first
production run. (See http://imsai.net/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imsaiusergroup/)
I've ordered one of these as a replacement of sorts for the IMSAI 8080
I assembled back in 1976 but managed to, uh, "lose" in the early 1980s.
It's been a long time since I've had a chance to fool around with a
machine equipped with a real front panel.
I had thought I'd seen about every S-100 machine ever made, but I
recently came across a net reference to the Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1.
It looks almost identical to the IMSAI 8080 except that the DPS-1 front
panel is styled more in the way of Digital's later PDP models. I note
that the DPS-1 PSU is somewhat different from the IMSAI 8080, but other
than that. the internals seem to be very similar.
So, are there any other IMSAI 8080 fans on the list?
I've picked up some miscellaneous Qbus modules which seem to be related
to data acquisition. They're made by Data Translation: DT2768, DT2769,
and DT5712. From what I can find online, the DT2769 appears to be a
realtime clock interface compatible with DEC's KWV11-C; I assume this is
fairly useless without the RTC. I can't find anything on the DT2768,
and the DT5712 is an AD/DA converter of some sort.
Does anyone have details or manuals on these boards? For a long time
now I've wanted to use an AD/DA Qbus module as a primitive sort of
soundcard in one my Qbus VAXen. I'm not sure if the DT5712 would be
suitable for the task; hopefully it is. This would also give me a
/great/ excuse for learning how to write device drivers under NetBSD/vax.
Thanks for any info or tips.
-brian.
Hi Glen
There isn't much application for things with this spacing.
Remember, you will most likely be connecting this to a
uP. You really don't need to space then in a straight
line. You can stager them and reassemble the entire
byte width afterwards.
Another though would be to use one of the linear arrays,
used in scanners. Most of these are about as wide as
a paper tape. You could use a collimated source and
drag the tape directly over the array. You'd need
to do a little image processing but it shouldn't be too
difficult.
There are some mechanical options that might work as well.
Like I said, use some imagination.
Dwight
>From: "Glen Slick" <glenslick(a)hotmail.com>
>
>I was hoping there might be some sort of preassembled optical sensor array
>available with the right spacing for paper tape holes, but maybe that is
>hoping for too much. If you build one with discrete sensors, is it easy to
>find ones that are narrow enough to stack side to side with the correct
>spacing?
>
>
>>Hi
>> Ahh, such concepts as make one come to mind. You could
>>scrap a number of mice for the optical sensors ( two for
>>each axis, 4 total per mouse ) or you could buy photo
>>transistors from Jameco. In a pinch, the clear lensed
>>LED's make reasonable detectors.
>> Use a little imagination.
>>Dwight
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
>http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail
>
>
The manual I have is in the form of a large format (8 1/2 x 11)
paperback, 237 pages with the authors of the software listed as Dale
Buscaino and Scott Daniel (apparently aka Progressive Software Design)
with the authorship of the manual given as them plus Michael Shrayer and
Harvard Pennington ("TRS-80 Disk and Other Mysteries" and president of
IJG). It was published in 1983 by IJG Inc. (the Thoughtware Company tm)
of Upland, CA. A Google search revealed a review from 1984 by Betsy
Staples, an editor at Creative Computing.
It was a rewrite rather than a translation of the original code and had
some expanded features and additional support programs.
Bob Stek
Saver of Lost Sols
Well I wouldn't bid on it because I don't need 2... If someone does get it,
I have the manual. And, FWIW, it is not a 2784B, it is a 2748B... I dunno
what a 2784 is, but it ain't a paper tape reader...
Will J
_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
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On Nov 25, 8:30, vassilip(a)dsl.cis.upenn.edu wrote:
>
> In the 80s I had a BBC microcomputer, probably the best 8-bit
microcomputer
> there is.
I won't argue with that -- I still use mine, too :-)
> It had an 80x32 (I think) screen which you could configure to display
> as a ruled page (like a notepad) - very useful for looking across
> rows of numbers.
Mode 0 is 80x32 mono, with no gaps between lines. You're probably thinking
of Mode 3, 80x25, with gaps between the lines; also mono but you can set
the foreground and background to be different from the gaps.
> Something that is missing from todays machines. I just found out
> that my laptop decided to ignore its power settings, did not go into
> power save when I closed the lid, and kept operating in by backpack
> while I was running all over town. The machine overheated and the disk
> got trashed. Excellent.
You're lucky it was only the disk! Take a look at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/28245.html
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> > ghate(a)essar.co.id (A.M.Ghate) sent the following
> > comment about The NetBSD Project's WWW server:
FYI, .id would indicate Indonesia as the point of origin... I don't know
about the rest of the list, but I don't want another MV II badly enough to
go to Indonesia for it!
Will J
_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*
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>From: "Glen Slick" <glenslick(a)hotmail.com>
>I noticed that one a couple of days ago and was somewhat interested. But it
>is listed at 40lb so shipping would probably cost more than the opening bid,
>plus it looks like it needs some weird type of V35ish connector which might
>be difficult and/or expensive to source if you don't happen to have one
>already.
>
>
>Has anyone built their own optical paper tape reader? Where would you get
>the 8/9-bit sensor part?
Hi
Ahh, such concepts as make one come to mind. You could
scrap a number of mice for the optical sensors ( two for
each axis, 4 total per mouse ) or you could buy photo
transistors from Jameco. In a pinch, the clear lensed
LED's make reasonable detectors.
Use a little imagination.
Dwight
>
>
>
>>From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink(a)verizon.net>
>>Reply-To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
>>To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
>>Subject: HP 2784B Paper Tape Reader on ebay
>>Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 10:53:02 -0500
>>
>>Sorry if this screws up someone's snipe plans... but it was
>>offered a couple of weeks ago and closed with no bids. It
>>currently (10:50 am EST) has no bids with 11 hours to go. I
>>can't imagine that nobody one the list would want this:
>>
>>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1789314629
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
>http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
>
>
I noticed that one a couple of days ago and was somewhat interested. But it
is listed at 40lb so shipping would probably cost more than the opening bid,
plus it looks like it needs some weird type of V35ish connector which might
be difficult and/or expensive to source if you don't happen to have one
already.
Has anyone built their own optical paper tape reader? Where would you get
the 8/9-bit sensor part?
>From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink(a)verizon.net>
>Reply-To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
>To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
>Subject: HP 2784B Paper Tape Reader on ebay
>Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 10:53:02 -0500
>
>Sorry if this screws up someone's snipe plans... but it was
>offered a couple of weeks ago and closed with no bids. It
>currently (10:50 am EST) has no bids with 11 hours to go. I
>can't imagine that nobody one the list would want this:
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1789314629
_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
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>From: "R. D. Davis" <rdd(a)rddavis.org>
>
>Quothe John Allain, from writings of Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 10:06:30PM -0500:
>> This is marked "1.6A MDL" and I have no clue what MDL is.
>
>Might a 1A and a 0.5A fuse in parallel work?
No
Dwight
>
>> If it's marginal are you reccomending 2A? I perhaps could go even
>> higher and use a circuitbreaker as backup. No Variac here, now I know
>> why I want to buy one next time I see it.
>
>Yes, it's a useful thing to have!
>
>--
>Copyright (C) 2002 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
>All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
>rdd(a)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
>http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
>
Hi Jos,
what's the relation between a Bull D120 (which i don't know) and a Lillith ...
Bernd
On Mon, 25 Nov 2002 01:52:20 +0100, Jos Dreesen / Marian Capel wrote:
>
>
>If anyone on the list has a user-, or even better, a maintenance manual for a
>Bull D120 cartridge drive I would like to hear from them. ( a 10Mb cartridge
>drive ca. 1980 )
>
>Spare parts, empty cartridges or a complete replacement part would be more
>than welcome.
>They will form the basis for a new attempt to bring my ETH Lilith back to
>live.....
>
>
> Jos Dreesen
Charles has a Zilog System 8000 Model 31 available somewhere in Australia
(sorry, I don't know what city...I realize Australia is vast ;)
This is a development system based on the Zilog 8000 CPU. I have no idea
what it looks like (estimated to weigh around 20Kg) but here is a picture
>from a brochure:
http://siconic.com/computers/Zilog_System_8000_Brochure.jpg
Contact Charles for details.
Reply-to: <tjf(a)dodo.com.au>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 01:33:00 +1100
From: Charles L <tjf(a)dodo.com.au>
Subject: Donation
Hello,
I have a Zilog System 8000 Model 31 that I don't really know what to do with.
Would you be interested in it?
Regards,
Charles
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
All,
That does it. I'm turning off digest mode. Apologies if I miss an
important message, but this is just too annoying! ... well, that was easy.
Hopefully I'll hear back from myself in just a few minutes...
Toth asked:
>...Have you checked the solder joints and connections between
>components with an ohm meter? That might help turn up any problems.
More or less. I tend to probe both on the component and on the pit next to
it for SMD's or on the pad for devices with pins. But I have not been
rigorous about it.
Tony said:
>You will _not_ see the oscillations of a 393 comparator on a VOM. We are
>talking about hundreds of kHz / a few MHz...
Oh, right. But I'm assuming the duty cycle of the oscillations can vary,
and I might be able to see that on the (analog) VOM.
>RIght. On the other hand, if it _is _ a capacitor, then it might have
>gone leaky, in whiuch case it will have an effect on the DC levels.
Oh my. Well, I don't know of any way to test the capacitor in circuit. Once
the comparator is out, I could measure resistance on the lower leg of the
divider. If it changes while I'm watching it, that'd be a clue, but with
power off the system I don't see what'd make it change. Or if I knew what
the resistance was supposed to be, and it was in the leaky state when I
measured it, that'd be a clue, but at least the first condition isn't met
and maybe not the second.
>Are there any component refeneces (Rnnn, Cmmm, etc) on the PCB?
None that I've seen, other than the "+" markings on one end of the tantalum
caps.
>It could be a resistor, sure. And perhaps, then, there's a capacitor
>elsewhere to hunt for...
This comment, waiting for me in my digest as I found the component in
question, was what convinced me to off digest mode.
Tony and Toth agreed:
>Get some silver-loaded solder.
Ok. I'm sticking with my plan, to wit replace the comparator and see what
happens. I'll measure resistance on both legs of the divider while it's
off. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll head back to the electronics
store and try to get replacements for the tantalum cap (and one more for
the backward one, while I'm there) and for the resistors in the voltage
divider - and some silver-loaded solder.
How will I know what values to shop for for the capacitor (maybe not so
critical?) and the resistor? Is there a catalog of 1992 or so surface-mount
devices?
Toth futilely wished:
>Erm, I just hope the iron is of fair quality, and is in the range of
>20-25W. Anything larger is likely to damage the board, especially those
>awful soldering irons Radio Shack sells (or used to?).
It's an awful Radio Shack pencil-type iron. It's about 20 years old. I
think it's about 20 W, don't remember for sure. I only have one tip for it.
Maybe I should think about a better iron while I'm at the electronics shop,
if it comes to that.
- Mark
Welcome to the club, Sol owner! I hope you have checked out
Jim Battle's SOLace website - lots of good documentation if you
need it. And if there is anything I can do to help, let me know.
I have lots of docs too.
Bob Stek
Saver of Lost Sols
The original bidder never came through, so I've placed a Dilog DQ142 tape controller and manual up on E-pay. The link is here if you're interested.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2075389363
Thanks for putting up with the occasional ad.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
ARS KC7GR (Formerly WD6EOS) since 12-77 -- kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
"I'll get a life when someone demonstrates that it would be superior
to what I have now..." (Taki Kogoma, aka Gym Z. Quirk)
Hi Alex,
I read your posting to classiccmp.org regarding an alternative for a Bull Estrella running AIX - do you have installation media for this (unfortunatedly) rare combination? I own such a beast and all my attempts to install AIX (in the original IBM flavor) have failed so far...
TIA!
Bernhard
--
Bernhard Buckel
Institut fuer Klinische Biochemie und Pathobiochemie
Josef-Schneider Str. 2 97080 Wuerzburg / Germany
Tel: +49 931 201 36312
Fax: +49 931 201 36793
In the 80s I had a BBC microcomputer, probably the best 8-bit microcomputer
there is. It had a ROM-based OS and an number of ROM-based applications
(you got BASIC with the default configuration, but you could add word
processors, spreadsheets, Forth, BCPL, Pascal and other languages).
I used it extensively for almost 10 years (I developed the prototype
for my MSc in CS and I also wrote my MSc thesis on it). Even after I
switched over to a PC, I did not pack my BBC away, as for many many
years (until I decided to leave my computer always on) it was the only
machine in my house I could use to scrible a few thoughts or a shopping
list without waiting forever for my PC to boot). The ROM based system
allowed instant switch on, like e.g. a Palm Pilot.
It had an 80x32 (I think) screen which you could configure to display
as a ruled page (like a notepad) - very useful for looking across
rows of numbers.
I had an Epson FX80 - it was a 9pin dot martix, but I had written a
program to print high quality output using the quad density graphics
mode. It was *slow* but almost typewritter quality.
But the good thing about that machine was that it was *convenient*
it didn't stand in your way, it was a tool to help you do your work.
Something that is missing from todays machines. I just found out
that my laptop decided to ignore its power settings, did not go into
power save when I closed the lid, and kept operating in by backpack
while I was running all over town. The machine overheated and the disk
got trashed. Excellent.
**vp