test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by univac2＠earthlink.net

Among many, many other projects I need to tend to, I am working on finishing up on my Nova 3 restoration project. The last thing I need to do is replace the burnt out incandescent light bulbs on the front panel. I wanted to replace them with LEDs, but white ones cost $4.99 a piece at RadioShack. Plus, I'm betting that the bulbs take enough power to blow out an LED. RadioShack doesn't seem to have the exact kind of bulb that is on that panel. So, might anyone be able to tell me what kind of bulb I need to get to replace the bad ones, or how I might be able to use LEDs instead, which I would prefer, as I don't want to be replacing burnt out bulbs all the time. -- Owen Robertson

23 years, 4 months

Heath/Zenith thingy

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Hi, Does anyone know what exactly a Heath/Zenith SW-3000-A is? The plaque on the front says Heath/Zenith Computer-based Instruments, and there is a card in it with 2 coax connectors that looks like maybe its some kind of broadcast crud? The machine itself is a rackmount passive backplane 286, with the video I asked about in it. I really need to take a pic, it is one snazzy looking piece of hardware. Will J _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

23 years, 4 months

I need the settings for a Heath/Zenith video card

by cb＠mythtech.net

>About to scream trying to find docs on a Heath/Zenith video card... It's an >8-bit ISA board with both a 9 pin and 15 pin video interface, and the >confounded row o' dip switches... The part number on the board is 150-307... >Hope someone can help me! BTW I am trying to make it use the 15-pin port >(VGA) I have one made by Video Seven that I believe I pulled from a 386 Zenith PC. The part numbers aren't the same as yours, so the dip settings probably aren't the same (but in case you care 1 closed, 2-6 open). I also don't have docs, (nor were able to find them), but with mine, it auto selects the VGA or CGA based on which has a monitor plugged in. If both have a monitor, it uses VGA (I wasn't able to get it to work with both at the same time... maybe if I had docs and knew what the dips did). The interesting thing with mine is it is one of the few cards I have with a "Slot 8" jumper, which if I understand it right, was to let you use it in an XT that had slot 8 reverse wired (or something to that effect). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 4 months

I need the settings for a Heath/Zenith video card

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Hi all, About to scream trying to find docs on a Heath/Zenith video card... It's an 8-bit ISA board with both a 9 pin and 15 pin video interface, and the confounded row o' dip switches... The part number on the board is 150-307... Hope someone can help me! BTW I am trying to make it use the 15-pin port (VGA) Will J _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

23 years, 4 months

Need your help

by harvey＠staples.demon.co.uk

Hi, I have just bought an Osborne Executive computer but I need an image file of the system disk for it, I have tried to boot with an Osborne 1 disk, but it does not work, can you help me. Regards, Harvey --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.393 / Virus Database: 223 - Release Date: 30/09/02

23 years, 4 months

Convex Supercomputer

by cmcnabb＠4mcnabb.net

Here are some responses to a question I asked of the people-who-who-would-know about the Convex C210 that is currently on Ebay. It looks to me like the machine hadn't been used in quite a while. Also, It doesn't look like the power cable assembly is included. Also, it seems that the machine was NOT in use in Oct of this year, regardless of what the Ebay blurb says. Email addresses and last names have been removed to protect the innocent. -----Forwarded Message----- > From: Phil > ----- Forwarded message from Roger ----- > > Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 11:06:37 -0500 > From: Roger > > Yeah, we dumped it. Hasn't run in sometime to my knowledge. Had a very > heavy power cable assembly that we kept. I unbolted the cables myself, > and disconnected the cables between the units. I wonder if Mo remembered > to format the drives before it was dumped? > > We have been surplusing lots of Mo junk here recently. > > Will be interesting to watch this auction. Can't believe the guy has a > reserve on it. > > - RAL > > Phil wrote: > >Did the Convex get surplussed? > > > >----- Forwarded message from Christopher McNabb <cmcnabb(a)vt.edu> ----- > > > >Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 00:42:42 -0500 > >From: Christopher McNabb > > > >Know anything about this one: > >http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2072169868&category=1479 > > > >It is in Blacksburg and come from the Physics dept. at a "Major > >University" > > > > > >Looks like VT property tags in the upper left hand corner of each > >cabinet (first photo) > > > > -- > Roger > Virginia Tech Physics Department, Computing Systems > > ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Christopher McNabb <cmcnabb(a)4mcnabb.net> The McNabb Family

23 years, 4 months

Chip with holes in it

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

I find that sellers auctions disturbing, since at least one the boards has a comment of "just removed from the rack" : ( Will J _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

23 years, 4 months

Another TI-99/4a available

by vcf＠siconic.com

Please contact the original sender. Reply-to: <lbritton(a)sbcglobal.net> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 13:50:38 -0800 (PST) From: Lori Britton <lbritton(a)sbcglobal.net> Subject: TI99 Hello, I bet you already have a ton of TI 99's, right? :o) I have one, mint condition, in box. Let me know. Best regards, Lori -- 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 *

23 years, 4 months

vr201 available

by trestivo＠cfl.rr.com

mike, just read your thread. I've got a wall of vr201's and the keyboards. I've been testing them on decmate III's of which I have about a dozen. If your looking for a monitor and keyboard at a real good price email me at trestivo(a)tarinc.com. I don't know if this is proper protocol for this board as it is my first visit here. If I am out of line my apologies and please let me know. thanks, thom.

23 years, 4 months

History of computer architecture

by drizzi＠tiscalinet.it

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hello everybody, ~ I have to prepare a 1 hour lesson on history of computer architecture as a part of a university exam. It must be a technical lesson (ie: process technology, innovations such as pipelines & superscalar processors, risc vs cisc, and so on - I study informatic engineering), not just a historical resume. I started collecting informations, but I wonder if you can suggest me some interesting sites and/or books. Tank you! Davide Rizzi ps: Sorry for my bad english... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.0 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQE91kCbYBhzL9pH2nMRAtBEAJ9gsfVPsi+kfYbZYKhBos/dk2YZTgCcD2JU SZJC4PoFQkwnUM0utdi5Tw0= =mBsu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

23 years, 4 months

Chip with holes in it

by benb＠Basit.COM

I'm curious if anyone can ID this chip on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2070850586&rd=1 Does anyone know what the purpose/function of the holes in it are?! Ben

23 years, 4 months

Recent VAX Adventures (Long)

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> (0) A 6'Hx10'W superwall of VAX, VMS, and layered product manuals. There > is an orange wall, a grey wall, a white wall, a multicolored wall, > another white wall, and so on. I don't remember how far back it goes, Orange will be V4 and grey will be V5. Newer than that (V6 and V7) will be the perfect bound white books. That's assuming these are all VMS manuals - it's possible, given the history, that you may have scored some RT11, RSTS or RSX stuff. > (1) About 100 blank magtapes, as soon as <name> runs them through the > bulk eraser. If these are original DEC media tapes (rather than people's data) it might be possible to persuade him not to erase them, since the hobbyist program allows you to use them. (OTOH it might be safer to wipe them any way from <name>'s point of view). Antonio

23 years, 4 months

Whats wrong with chip collecting? (SOL-20)

by glenslick＠hotmail.com

At least $1500, ending today.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2071171983 >From: Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> >Reply-To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org >To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >Subject: Re: Whats wrong with chip collecting? >Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 14:04:53 -0800 (PST) > >I suggest the former. Prices for old computers are fairly well >established by now. These prices are independent of, for instance, the >CPU that may power the computer. For example, if a SOL-20 goes on the >market, chances are it could fetch up to $1,200, regardless of whether it >had an Intel C8080 on the original Processor Technology CPU board or if >it had a Cromemco ZPU with a Zilog Z80 (even a first run Z80). The CPU >has no bearing on the valuation of the machine. _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

23 years, 4 months

A tale of two Osbornes

by gil＠vauxelectronics.com

Hi Lawrence: I expected a keyboard problem, since the owner said it had a stuck key. Sure enough, the boot screen would flash as if you were holding down an incorrect key. When I opened it up, the row and column flex connectors were plainly visible. Also, the keyboard pinout is in the tech ref (which is online, if you don't already have it). I peeled a corner of the flex circuit up off the aluminum plate, and could see metallization crossovers where the shorts likely exist. I could punch a hole at the crossover to break the short, but then I would need to jumper the cut traces. And this does not look like a solder job -- liquid conductive ink perhaps? There could be shorts in the middle of the key array too. The keyswitches are plastic, with posts that protrude through the mounting plate, and then melted into place. All in all a nasty thing to even think about repairing. Perhaps I am on the wrong track (no pun intended), but I pulled the two flex connectors out, so the ribbon cable is not connected -- I can measure many shorts right at the flex terminals. All of the melted-in-place keyswitches would need to be removed to asses the situation properly. Bummer. At least I have a new keyboard I can plug in. I have not opened that one up, so I don't know if it is different. gil > Uh-Oh ! I picked up a beige Osborne 1 last summer. It's in my >lengthening To-Do queue. I booted it at the time but it had a problem >not recognising the keyboard. I simply figured it was likely a cable >fault. Now I wonder if there may be larger problems with the >keyboard. What was your methodology to check the k-b ? I don't >want to open mine up now to do a visual inspection, lest I be >captured by the "fix-it" bug and neglect more pressing tasks. ;----------------------------------------------------------- ; vaux electronics, inc. 480-354-5556 ; http://www.vauxelectronics.com (fax: 480-354-5558) ;-----------------------------------------------------------

23 years, 4 months

Unmolested Convex in Virginia (eBay)

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Complete, pristine Convex with lots of original docs, tapes, etc. No idea what the reserve is (and no connection to it): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2072169868&category=1479 Been up there for almost a week already and I haven't seen any talk of it here. Hopefully someone can save it - someone else, the house is filling up as it is... ;^) --Steve.

23 years, 4 months

Dying VaxStation 4000 VLC - help?

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Tony wrote: > <88W> ... since >it's steady, I think we can assume it's correct (at least for the moment). OK. I'll probe around looking for a resistor connecting high end to +5V. >What I would _expect_ is the following : > ... > >2) A potential divider across one of the supply rails (probably the +5V >rail), with the tap to the other input. Possibly a capacitor from the tap >to ground to provide a bit of power-on delay. The idea is to take the CPU >out of the reset state when the supply rails are high enough (== when the >comparator switches over) The orange 6192 may be that. Its job is just to make sure the voltage-divider tap comes up slower than the voltage reference? I'll look for another component (a black one this time) in parallel with the 6192, to form the bottom end of the divider. >3) A high value resistor from the output back to one of the inputs to >provide a bit of hysteresis and prevent the darn thing oscillating. May >not be essential, but it's good practice to put it in

23 years, 4 months

Dying VaxStation 4000 VLC - help?

by mtapley＠swri.edu

All, I didn't get around to the soldering last night. My wife informed me that we were going to get up at 0400 so the kids could see the Leonid meteor shower, so I decided to get to bed earlier. Glad I did, it was spectacular. I did do some more probing around the mainboard. >> <88W>...I'll probe around looking for a resistor connecting high end to +5V. I looked. It doesn't connect to anything nearby, and when I say "doesn't connect" I mean completely open circuit to everything. Practically every other connection shows at least *some* conductance to *something*. Also, I noticed that the other pins from SMD's like this one have a little trace running off to a microscopic little pit in the printed circuit board. I assume this pit is where the conducting path dives into the innards of the circuit board. There's no such trace and pit on the upper right terminal of this device. I think it really is a no-connect. On the 6192: I misled you all, I think. My apologies. Although I remembered the color as "orange", it's in fact a subdued burnt orange, in contrast to the bright international orange of the tantalum capacitors. Someone who didn't graduate from the University of Texas might reasonably refer to it as a reddish brown. :-) Meantime, there is in parallel with it, just as Tony predicted, a tantalum capacitor (bright orange, with a pip). One more piece of evidence: all the tantalum caps have, in addition to the pip, a "+" printed on the circuit board near one end. There is *one* exception to that, where the pip points toward the power supply and away >from the "+" on the PCB. It's over near one of the connectors on the back edge (maybe the SCSI, or 25-pin serial? I forget, but will post good directions if anyone wants). The "+" mark is not present on 6192's position on the PCB. 1) Anyone with access to a 4000 VLC mainboard, would you mind checking and confirming that *all* of the tantalums are supposed to have the pip near the "+" (and hence one of mine is probably in backward)? Or wait for better directions, and check just the one that's backward on my board? 2) What's the consequence of having it reversed? Is that cap. probably now dead? Anyway, by now I'm pretty convinced 6192 is the lower resistor of a voltage divider. I did not find a feedback resistor for the comparator. It still could be there, but I don't think it's very close by. - Mark

23 years, 4 months

Ot -- hi-fi and tubes

by mikeford＠socal.rr.com

> > The tinker gene is alive, but tinkering is indeed getting harder to do. > > Kit building and ground up projects are very much alive in audio, > > especially speakers. If you visit www.headwise.com you will see close to > > a dozen different headphone amp projects. > >Is that url right? Looks like that one points to a web portal of >somesort... I may need to see a URLologist, try this one <http://headwize2.powerpill.org/index.htm>

23 years, 4 months

A tale of two Osbornes

by gil＠vauxelectronics.com

Hi folks: I recently got two Osborne 1 computers. The first one (blue case) had a dead power supply -- I fed +5/+12 DC power into the battery connector and was able to bring it to life, but had no software to test it further. This one has a double-density option board inside (and drives I presume), as well as the optional modem. I also got a second osborne (early beige case), which came with software and manuals. This one has a keyboard that seemed to have a stuck key. Turns out that the keyboard matrix has many shorts, not only row-to-column, but also row-to-row and col-to-col. It is a flex-circuit soft of design, and it appears to have a silk-screened or deposited metallization pattern for the matrix. There is an insulating layer of some sort and then a second metal layer. Anyway, it seems that the insulation between layers has failed where some traces cross. It'll be a mess to fix, if even possible. Anyone else have this problem on an early keyboard? So I plugged the later keyboard into the early unit, and was able to boot cp/m. I tried to copy the original cp/m disk to a new one, but copy had read errors on a couple of tracks. I could see some visibly-crappy spots on the disk surface too, but it did boot fine, and the utils seemed to run ok. So I formatted a new disk, copied just the system, and then pip'd the files over. Hmm, no errors on file reads with pip -- does that make sense, since copy previously found bad tracks? After booting and running off the new disk, it seems that all command files are working, with the possible exception of movcpm (which seems to hang the machine, though I am not sure how it works). So I finally got the original disks copied, and learned a bit about the machine in the process. I fired up the later (double-density) model, but it would not boot from the single-density disk. Should the DD drive be able to read the SD disk? The drive was making an odd noise, so it may be drive-related. Is there a way to boot from drive B? Can I swap the drives, and if so are there master/slave jumpers, or terminations that need to move as well? On the early machine, there was a diagnostic mode in rom (ctrl-D at the boot screen, I think it was), but the newer unit does not respond to that. Were diagnostics removed from later roms? I swapped the working power supply from the old unit into the new machine (yes, I know about the different jumper/harness connections). It worked fine. Then, I put the non-working power supply into the early unit, and it started working! I think the original power supply problem in the newer machine may have been an intermittant in the fuse/voltage-selector gizmo, which tells the PS whether to expect 115 or 230 -- in the early unit, this gets hard-coded by the jumper wire on the PS board. Crazy frickin' computers. Then I accidentally cracked the brightness trimpot on one, as I put things back together. Tacked a temporary pot in place while I look for a replacement. I shouldn't try to do this stuff at 2 in the morning, I guess. Well, that was sort of an FYI ramble, but any thoughts appreciated. Does anyone have double-sided software for sale or trade? thanks, gil smith ;----------------------------------------------------------- ; vaux electronics, inc. 480-354-5556 ; http://www.vauxelectronics.com (fax: 480-354-5558) ;-----------------------------------------------------------

23 years, 4 months

Whats wrong with chip collecting? (SOL-20)

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Makes life blow when you have no money, though... Trust me! Will J _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

23 years, 4 months

SOL-20 / eBay prices

by benb＠basit.com

Sellam Ismail wrote: > I believe the seller is being completely disingenuous when he says, "I > don't have a monitor or the expertise to test it", considering that he is > selling a monitor with the Sol! Being that it only contains a RAM card, > this is seller code for "it doesn't work but I don't want to let you know > that". Dishonest. > He says the keyboard lights up when it powers on, so it does also have the main board (which is where the processor is in a SOL), but still at these prices you're paying for collectability rather than functionality, so a non-original memory card doesn't add much value - it is a minimal SOL, albeit in nice condition. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he doesn't realize that the TV is meant as a display - he probably thought the PL-259 video connector was to attach a boat anchor or some other exotic accessory. It seems that a lot of the tech stuff on eBay is sold by people who are *completely* non-technical - I stumped one seller by asking him what card an Apple 3.5 drive was attached to - he had trouble "tracing the wires". Doh! Ben P.S. I read in the CCTalk archives that you had Bob Marsh as a previous VCF speaker .. did you ever put a transcript of his talk on-line, or maybe have a recording of it available?

23 years, 4 months

VAX 6000-410

by pat＠purdueriots.com

There's one that I just saw get unloaded a few minutes ago at Purdue University Salvage. Looks to be in good condition... except it's laying outside on its side since they regard big things like it as 'junk'. Well, if anyone's interested and nearby, drop me an email and I'll get you more details. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll last too long outside - they may end up dumping more stuff on top of it, or mother nature may end up dumping stuff on top. I would get it myself but I don't have any way to get it, let alone somewhere to store it. Pat -- Purdue Universtiy ITAP/RCS Information Technology at Purdue Research Computing and Storage http://www-rcd.cc.purdue.edu

23 years, 4 months

Acquired some Nat Semi ICM-3216 systems

by classiccmp＠crash.com

As mentioned, I just picked up some new machines in Canada... A gent had saved some National Semiconductor ICM-3216's from a university lab and was glad to find a new home for them. These are fairly full- featured little systems designed to showcase NS's 32000 family, with on- board serial and parallel ports, a SCSI controller with it's own Z80 to mind the bus transactions, a modest expansion bus, etc. Since these were board-level products, everything else like cases and drives had to be built or found elsewhere. Two of the hosts I received were timesharing systems and are housed in nicely designed cases custom built from sheet steel. A third timesharing host has gone elsewhere, and a fourth ICM was later built in a PC/AT clone case where students could try coding on the bare metal by booting from a SCSI floppy drive. One of the timesharing systems powered up and ran just fine before loading for the trip South. The icing on the cake was an unexpected trove of manuals that originally came with all this stuff, including full schematics for the boards, and two (binary) versions of SysV Unix on QIC tape. I'm still sorting through all this stuff, which includes a folder full of notes, letters, and some brochures for different components like disk drives and terminals, mostly >from 1986. Eventually I expect to get some pictures up, and depending on where VCF East is I think I'd bring one along. --Steve.

23 years, 4 months

Paperwork to move classiccmps from .ca to .us?

by classiccmp＠crash.com

A while back I'd asked for tips on moving machines from Canada down to the US. Thought I'd answer my own question now that I've done it. The gentleman giving me the systems (details to follow) wrote me a note stating that they were obsolete, over 15 years old, and that any commercial value was less than $100. It also stated that the machines were a gift rather than a sale, which was the case. It looked like the US Customs agent wouldn't have bothered asking, but I mentioned the machines and handed her the letter. Had it been a trailer-load rather than a couple boxes in the back of the SUV, it might have been different, but as it was she just waved me through. --Steve.

23 years, 4 months

SOL-20 / eBay prices

by benb＠Basit.COM

Actually there's two SOL's currently on eBay. The 2nd one is currently "only" $500 or so: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2071406461 The difference being that it has no documentation (which I suspect accounts for the price difference), and also it only has a single card in it - a non-PT 64K memory card (I asked the seller if it was PT or not). In recent history SOL's have sold for anywhere from $490 to $2500! Documentation also seems to be what has so far driven this Altair to $4K: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2072033128 Ben Glen Slick wrote: >At least $1500, ending today.... > >http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2071171983 > > >>From: Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> >>Reply-To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org >>To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >>Subject: Re: Whats wrong with chip collecting? >>Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 14:04:53 -0800 (PST) >> > >>I suggest the former. Prices for old computers are fairly well >>established by now. These prices are independent of, for instance, the >>CPU that may power the computer. For example, if a SOL-20 goes on the >>market, chances are it could fetch up to $1,200, regardless of whether it >>had an Intel C8080 on the original Processor Technology CPU board or if >>it had a Cromemco ZPU with a Zilog Z80 (even a first run Z80). The CPU >>has no bearing on the valuation of the machine.

23 years, 4 months

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