test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

Other interesting Intel chips (was iAPX 432 (was Re: 88000 machines))

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Eric Smith" <eric(a)brouhaha.com> > >It's pretty tough to get iAPX 432 stuff. The software is even more >difficult to find than the boards or chips. > Hi The 432 stuff is really hard to get. I do have another almost as hard to find Intel item. It is a evaluation setup for the i2920, not to be confused with the AMD 2920. It is an early DSP chip. It was Intel's idea of what should be done in DSP. It was not too successful because it was not a general purpose type processor like the TI and Motorola DSP entries. It was designed to do a single program, repetitively. One of the example programs was to make a simple spectrum analyzer. You'd feed analog data in and it would run an oscilloscope as the display. It would just need a anti-aliasing filter for the input and connect to the scope. Some of the other hard to find Intel parts are things like the 8021 and 8022 parts. Although not as rare, the 3000 series bit slice parts are getting harder to find as well but these were used on many of the older Multibus disk controller cards. Dwight

23 years, 9 months

RF output DOES NOT equal Composite!!!!

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > > btw if you need or know of anybody else here in town that does, I have an > > Amiga 1080 color composite monitor w/sound taking up space.. > > Those are very nice. But it will NOT work for a device that only outputs > RF. No, but he could tap the composite signal off of the Timex pcb a feed a composite monitor with it. Glen 0/0

23 years, 9 months

Network card for LaserJet

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> > Okay, Tony. You got me. I guess I should've said "...used for RS-232 >communication." > Or would it be RS-432? :P RS-4xx for almost all xx seems to end up being a serial protocol. RS-422/RS-423/RS-449 (and obviously RS-232) seem to be the most common ones but there seems to be a fair number of relatively obscure ones too. Antonio

23 years, 9 months

One SCSI tape connected to 2 hosts?

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>My vaxstation 4000/60's host scsi id is also 6. The early DEC SCSI machines set the host adapter to ID 6, leaving the highest priority ID (7) free. I read something somewhere that suggested that this was insurance just in case something came along that demanded to be the highest priority thing on the bus. Apparently nothing did because the later machines allow the host adapter ID to be set via the console. Typically disks are given lower numbers than tapes, CDROMs seem to sit in the middle. I doubt that it matters in most configurations (it's certainly nowhere near as critical as, say, Qbus priority). Antonio

23 years, 9 months

Sioux City hamfest

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Gary Hildebrand" <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com> > >Not much to report here, nice turnout, and a few odd items worth noting >. . . . . > >There was a Fluke something, that looked like some sort of terminal that >set up data acquisition on an IEE-488 buss. He had the complete unit >and software and docs. All I remember is that the CRT had a 2:1 aspect >ratio. I'm sure this will turn on some of you obscure stuff collectors. ---snip--- Hi This sounds like the touch screen terminal that Fluke made. This was early touch screen technology and was larger touch locations. Still, it was good enough for simple menu entry. Dwight

23 years, 9 months

Timex Sinclair 1000 Update and Questions

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Doc Shipley" <doc(a)mdrconsult.com> > ---snip--- > The card-edge cartridge connector is worn nearly through the traces on >the m/b. If the computer is jostled much at all, it loses the RAM and >its little mind. Next mod will be to do some (cheesy, yes I know) wire >patching to the finger traces. ---snip--- Hi As I've mentioned in the past, If you put some silicon grease, like DC#4 on the fingers, you won't have the erratic contact problem on things like the Sinclair. It improve contact by keeping surface oxides from forming. It is non-conductive so it won't cause other problems. Dwight

23 years, 9 months

Massive qty's VMS Condists available

by classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

I have, in some big piles here, a couple sets of every VAX/VMS CD-ROM Condist from 1991 or so to the present day. In many cases there are three or four identical copies. I also have a lot of Ultrix (VAX + MIPS) condists up through 1998 or whenever they stopped issuing them. There are some copies of the Y2K kits too. These are mostly "Software Product Library" and "Documentation" sets, so they're largely layered products, but some of them have bootable install kits too. I want to get these kits to hobbyists (is there a Ultrix hobbyist license? Of course there's a VMS one) in as widespread a manner as possible. It'd be easy for me to dump the whole big pile on one guy, but that's not the most efficient way to distribute them, as he'd just be in the same situation that I'm currently in. I'd prefer to not be distributing copies; I want to get the original condists out to folks who want them and will actually use them. Any suggestions as to how to do this in a way that's fair to both me and the recipient? I don't want to E-bay them, but I also don't want to foot the bill myself for shipping out hundreds of these kits. Tim.

23 years, 9 months

Nova 3

by eric＠rothfus.com

Hi, Anyone out there have schematics or info for the DG Nova 3? I'm restoring one, and am having PS troubles. I could really use CPU and console schematics too. Thanks! Eric Rothfus eric(a)rothfus.com

23 years, 9 months

Network card for LaserJet

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

> From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk > > > But, yes, I agree. Those hubs are the only time _I've_ seen RJ-45 > > used for serial communication. > > Perhaps somebody can explain why 10baseT ethernet is not 'serial > communication' ( :-) ) > > -tony > Okay, Tony. You got me. I guess I should've said "...used for RS-232 communication." Or would it be RS-432? :P -- --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818 Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5 Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash

23 years, 9 months

One SCSI tape connected to 2 hosts?

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>What you really need is a PC driver that accepts the fact it isn't >the highest priority device, and leaves the bus reset line alone. Don't forget that the MicroVAX 3100 console also assumes that it is the only master on the bus. I don't think anyone envisaged doing this sort of thing at the time that was written. Later on (sometime during Alpha development) consoles became a little brighter and a shared SCSI bus (mainly for OpenVMS clustering) became possible. Antonio

23 years, 9 months

HP IPC (update)

by vp＠mcs.drexel.edu

This is the information I have managed to gather on the HP IPC: First have a look at the definitive guide to the IPC (http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/integral.html) Apart from that, I have managed to find the following info by playing with my IPC: There is a ROM at the back behind a little door. This contains basically the Unix OS (HP UX) and at least in my case Tech Basic. Tech Basic looks surprisingly like Series 80 Basic (e.g the Basic on the HP-86 and 87) including many ROM additions (e.g. IO ROM). The funny connector on the back (like a small centronics connector) is HP-IB (the HP name for IEEE-488) which is used to connect peripherals like floppies and hard disks. The IPC talks CS/80 over HP-IB so it supports "modern" HP-IB peripherals like the 9122 floppy drive. The IPC also has in internal HP-IL bus (a two wire, low power version of HP-IB) which is used to talk to the built in printer. At this stage I haven't managed to investigate whether I can externalize this bus and connect additional peripherals. The built-in printer takes hp92261a print cartridges which (amazingly) are still available from major mail order firms (e.g. www.staples.com in the US, but I suppose you can get them in the UK as well). Since the print cartridge contains the print head as well, it is very probable that you can get the printer to work with little effort. The IPC site (see URL earlier on) has a number of diskette images. These are for double sided double density (720K) disks. I have been unable to get any modern PC to write compatible floppies using the standard double sided quad density drive (1.44Mb). I did find a 720K drive on eBay and bought a pack of 720K diskettes. Using OpenBSD on a PC I then proceeded to successfully transfer the images to the floppies and access the data from the IPC. BTW the IPC utilities in the IPC site (programs that can be used to read IPC floppies on a Unix host) work only on big-endian machines. You cannot use them on a i386. Before trying to use the built-in floppy drive, note the following: a) its totally non-standard. The connector is wrong and the RPM is wrong. I believe there is no way that you can use a PC compatible drive on that machine. So take good care of it! b) the heads need cleaning and the loading mechanism needs lubricating. If you haven't done this already, do NOT skip this step, you may damage the disk heads if you try to use a drive with a sticky loading mechanism. See later on for cleaning instructions. c) The built-in disk notifies the OS when a new diskette is inserted so that it is automatically mounted. This makes the built in floppy more convenient than external devices. Using the system: Just power it up and you should see the unix boot messages. Finally you see the desktop manager (PAM). You can type paths on the command line on top or use the cursor keys to navigate the file system. If you have an HP-HIL mouse so much the better you just point and click. You should find the BASIC interpreter in /rom/basic. Until you get the floppies from Peter's site, BASIC is the only way to use the machine. Use MASS STORAGE IS path to change your working directory and CAT path to list directories. If you need documentation on Tech BASIC, I suggest you buy an HP-86/87 Owner's manual on eBay. They are close to the real thing and far more common than IPC manuals. For a hint on how to use external peripherals check the file /documents/hp71_xfer on the IPC_BASIC_Bonus diskette. As an example, here is a program that collects readings from an HP multimeter (HP-IB device 13). 100 ! load HP-IB driver 110 MASS STORAGE IS "/dev" 120 ! on Series 80 the HP-IB card is always number 7 130 ASSIGN 7 TO "hpib" 140 ! The 13th HP-IB device is therefore 713 150 m=713 160 ! switch multimeter to remote control 170 REMOTE m 180 ! program multimeter for resistance, auto zero and trigger mode 190 OUTPUT m; "F3R1Z1T2" 200 ! initialize "previous" reading 210 v0=-1 215 DISP "Ready: press STOP to terminate program" 220 ! do while true 230 TRIGGER m 240 ENTER m; S$ 250 ! display value only if different from earlier reading 260 IF v0<>v THEN DISP v 270 v0=v 280 GOTO 220 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Drive removal: Get a torx #10 screwdriver, almost all the screws on the IPC are of this type so there is no point in trying to do any maintenance without one. The plastic diskette eject button seen from the front of the machine, is not attached to the drive and is likely to fall off when you remove the drive. It is best to secure it in place by covering it with a small piece of adhesive tape. This will keep it in place during the removal and subsequent installation of the diskette drive. First remove the back panel. You do NOT need to remove the system ROM to do this, so leave it alone. The panel is held by just two screws (probably the only screws that need a flat blade screwdriver) and hinges on the bottom of the machine. Once the panel is removed you can see the inside of the machine. A big PCB to the left and the floppy to the right. Open the printer door (on the top of the machine) and look at the bottom of the storage compartment next to the printer. You should see two black screws. Remove them. Now the only screw holding the diskette assembly is on screw on the bottom of the assembly (right on top of the PSU). remove the connectors and the last screw. The floppy should slide out towards you. Looking at the the floppy assembly you see a mounting bracket and a full height floppy. Before removing the drive from the mounting bracket mark the orientation of the floppy drive against the bracket with a pencil this will make reassembly easier. Remove the mounting bracket and the metal cover of the floppy. Do not forget to remove a black screw on the back of the floppy, otherwise you will not be able to slide the metal cover out. You should see the loading mechanism on the sides of the floppy. Try inserting a diskette to see how it causes the loading tray to slide along paths on the fixed sides of the drive. These are the only parts that need cleaning and oiling. Use machine lubricating oil (under no circumstances should you use stuff like WD-40). Apply one or two drops on each side and insert/remove the floppy until it slides in and out effortlessly. I use a cleaning floppy to clean the heads, so there is nothing more to do at this stage other than closely inspect the READ/WRITE heads. Hopefully they should have the obvious orientation that allows them to come into contact with the magnetic surface of the floppy. If this is so, then you are in luck, otherwise you lose. Replace the cover and secure the floppy on the mounting bracket. Orient the drive and bracket so that the two screw holes are on top and slide the entire assembly inside the IPC. Attach the top two screws and the bottom screw. You may need to slightly adjust the drive mounting assembly to align the bottom screw. Replace the power and data cables and reattack the back panel. Remove the piece of adhesive tape securing the eject button and you are ready. --------------- Corrections or additions are always welcome. **vp

23 years, 9 months

Amiga / Spectrum magazines available in UK

by vcf＠siconic.com

Contact the original sender directly if you are interested in these magazines. Reply-to: <john-patrick.stacey(a)wadham.oxford.ac.uk> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 09:47:04 +0100 (BST) From: J-P <john-patrick.stacey(a)wadham.oxford.ac.uk> Subject: Amiga / Spectrum magazines Hi, I have a few years' worth of Amiga Format (1992-1994-ish) and some Crash, Amiga Computing, Sinclair User etc. plus odds and ends. I'd love to donate them, certainly to get them off my hands! Do you have anyone in the UK that can take them off me? J-P -- 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, 9 months

Timex Sinclair 1000 Update and Questions

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Alex White <meltie(a)myrealbox.com> > If they are both plugged into the mains and it's a total > crash/scrambling of the system, my first instinct is an earth loop, > waddya think guys? > > Alex Nah, this is a common symptom of a program which failed to LOAD properly -- the machine may lose its mind and display garbage, requiring a power-fail. Check the tape and the cassette unit. Glen 0/0

23 years, 9 months

I hate Radio Shack

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Again and again, whenever enough time passes for me to forget how utterly incompetent these people are, and then I place an order for something - or should I say try to place an order for something - those neurons are refreshed with a new memory of exactly how much they *always* screw it up, and they try again to refresh the other neurons that tell me to never, ever expect anything but idiocy from that place, and that it's only useful if I can push them aside, get what I want, and get out without giving them the chance to screw it up. I needed to vent. Thank you. - John

23 years, 9 months

I hate Radio Shack

by blacklord＠telstra.com

Hi Owen, ----- Original Message ----- From: Owen Robertson <univac2(a)earthlink.net> > I had an experience where a RadioShack employee didn't know what a > null-modem adapter was. And several experience where in the middle of > describing what I'm looking for, I look at the salesman's face, > and realize > that he has no clue what I'm talking about. So I guess when you > walk into a > RadioShack store, and someone asks if they can help you, and you > tell them > no, you're being quite literal - They *can't* help you. This must be a US thing, in general, in Oz, they seem to be a much more knowledgable bunch. But, the drift has been away from electronic components to consumer electronics, that's the market these days, so you can't really expect them to know much about things other than that. cheers, Lance ---------------- Powered by telstra.com

23 years, 9 months

Does RF output equal Composite?

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Jeff Hellige <jhellige(a)earthlink.net> > I've often considered doing such a mod to my Spectrum so that > I could use it. I've got the directions for adding composite-out to > the Spectrum around here somewhere. That or feed it's output into > the input of my Amiga 3000's TBC+ and have it do the signal > conversion on the fly. The TBC+ is supposed to be capable of such a > thing but I've never actually tried it to see how usable the > resulting signal would be. Tony should be better able to advise you on the UK machines than I am, but a friend of mine has some of the Timex of Portugal (NOT Timex Computer Corp.) machines and a PAL-to-NTSC converter did the trick for him. They cost over $50, though. Glen 0/0

23 years, 9 months

Does RF output equal Composite?

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Jeff Hellige <jhellige(a)earthlink.net> > Another thing I've noticed with my T/S-1000 and ZX-81 are > that they seem somewhat picky about what TV's they'll work with. > I've got a 19" JVC that was made about 10 or so years ago and some of > the Sinclair's will work fine with it and some won't. They seem to > prefer older sets. I really should try them with the portable B/W > Panasonic that is the monitor for my SOL.... Even when you find a TV the TS-1000 like, the RF is usually dirty. Most cheap, modern B&W sets accept composite input. For fifty cents and 15 minutes time you can a crystal clear display. Glen 0/0

23 years, 9 months

Does RF output equal Composite?

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

Hey Doc -- > From: Doc <doc(a)mdrconsult.com> > Timex Sinclair 1000 - RF output, VHF Channel 2 or 3 > TV, no spade/screw VHS input > VCR has composite Video In, selected by switch. > > I'm not getting any picture at all running a composite cable from the > Timex to the VCR Video In. Do I need to make a Rat Shack run, or does > the Timex have a problem? You can easily tap off the composite video from the wires leading from the pcb to the RF modulator. If you'd like to buffer the signal, I can send you a small TIFF with a schematic showing how you can do this with one resistor and one transistor. Glen 0/0

23 years, 9 months

VS4000/90 documentation wanted

by rumi_ml＠rtfm.hu

Hello! I'm searching for VS4K Model 90 docs, in BookReader, PS, PDF, scanned images, or whatever electronic format. especially wanted: EK-KA490-SV (service manual) EK-VAXOG-DK (doc kit) Thank you in advance, Rumi -

23 years, 10 months

TI99/4A and C=Vic20

by donm＠cts.com

Ran across one each of these at a local thrift. Each in original box, though they have seen some "miles". The TI is a beige case and looks pretty clean. The Vic20 comes with the cassette drive and both look like they need a bath. If anyone is interested in either/both, email me off list and I'll confirm their availability and price and try to estimate shipping costs. If they have a bathroom scale there, I can probably come fairly close on shipping costs given the target Zip code. - don

23 years, 10 months

RF output DOES NOT equal Composite!!!!

by mythtech＠mac.com

> Can't do it. VCR only accepts cable on RF In, and all I have to >convert the Timex' output is an old video-game input switch with spade & >screw output. > > Looks like a Radio Shack run tomorrow, so let me make certain I know >what I need. Sounds like something that will switch between CATV input >and the RF Channel 2 input from the Timex? I might see if Goodwill has >a $5 B&W TV instead.... What you can use is a "Balun". Its a little adaptor that takes the 300 Ohm spade and screw type connector, and converts it to a 75 Ohm F connector. Figure about $2 for a balun. They make them in both directions (screw to F and F to screw) so if your switch only has screw type connectors on both sides, you can get one for each side to connect it inline with the antenna in on your TV. Also, Rat Shack, I believe sells a newer version of that video game switch. One that will auto switch, and take either the spade and screw input, or F connector, and will output to an F connector (the F connector is the standard US screw on cable TV coax connector). However, that will likely cost you more than a $5 TV. (probably about $20 for the auto switch game adaptor). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 10 months

VS4000/60 and VRE01 problems

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Anybody had luck hooking a VAXstation 4000/60 with "GS-2" (?) graphics adapter up to a VRE01 flatpanel? I finally got the VS4K from Doc today (thanks for dropping it off, BTW, hope that mono video cable works for you), and got around to hooking it up to the VRE a bit ago. However, all is not right - there looks to be a scan rate/resolution mismatch, and I cant find ANY dipswitches, etc, to set.. Suggestions? Links to the 4000/60 owners manual possibly? I've got pictures of the results: http://gallery.mrbill.net/view_album.php?set_albumName=vre01&page=2 Any help appreciated. I'd LOVE to get this display working.. (and the pictures show the display as yellow - its actually orange..) Bill -- Bill Bradford mrbill(a)mrbill.net Austin, TX

23 years, 10 months

Does RF output equal Composite?

by mythtech＠mac.com

> OK, I obviously wasn't as clear on the keyboard as I was in my mind. > > Timex Sinclair 1000 - RF output, VHF Channel 2 or 3 > TV, no spade/screw VHS input > VCR has composite Video In, selected by switch. > > I'm not getting any picture at all running a composite cable from the >Timex to the VCR Video In. Do I need to make a Rat Shack run, or does >the Timex have a problem? You can't tie a modulated RF signal to a Composite RCA video jack. Your VCR doesn't have an RF antenna in? (or is that just in use at the moment). Rat Shack won't have a demodulator (go from RF to line composite), but they will have A/B switch boxes and baluns (if the timex has a 300 Ohm two wire lead and you need to go to a F connector). With that you can share an in use RF Input on the VCR with some other source. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 10 months

Diagnosing the Altos 8000

by pat＠purdueriots.com

OK, I've got the system set up on my 'test bench.' The system powers up and says: ---------------------------------------------------- ALTOS COMPUTER SYSTEMS Monitor Version 5.03 Insert Floppy Disk in Drive 1 for Autoload ---------------------------------------------------- Ok, now I insert a disk into drive 1 (which has it's LED on, close the door, it comes up to speed, and then nothing happens. The drive heads do not load onto the disk liked they're supposed to. A quick check with my multimeter reveals that all the PS voltages (including +24V) are pretty close to their ratings. All the cables are seated securely, Swapping the drives fixed the problem, and it will now boot 32K Altos CP/M 2.2. Sort of a waste with 208K of RAM, but I guess I'll try to figure out how to manufacture an MP/M-II BIOS for it, and get it onto a disk. CP/M-1.4 won't boot, however. It does read OK once I've booted CP/M 2.2, so it might just be a problem with its first track (it doesn't seek at all either). Same problem with the 'CP/M diagnostics disk' Any ideas? I've got a CDC 8" SS drive I got off ebay a few months ago I might try to use to replace these drives. Does anyone know if it's possible to use four drives on the system, since the drives have a DS1-DS4? Also, is there a way to run the diagnostic programs (.DIA files on the diagnostics disk) without booting from it? Pretty soon, i'll probably be digging into some CP/M source and attempting to at least get a 64k version running on here... Thanks -- Pat

23 years, 10 months

RL01 Field Maintenance Print Set

by fb007b4157_2＠blueyonder.co.uk

I'm trying to fix a problem with an RL01 drive; the drive spins up to speed OK (the scope shows that sector pulse is within required limits), but the fault light comes on before the heads move. The FMPS available at www.mainecoon.com covers version 1 of the Drive Logic Module, however I have version 2 (part 54-13531) and the circuit layout is quite different. Does anyone have a copy of the FMPS for version 2? I need to know what causes pin 11 of the 74279 at location E6 to go low. Hopefully the printset has a comment explaining what this latch does. I have a second drive working OK on the same controller, so I believe the controller is OK. Thanks in advance. Francis ----

23 years, 10 months

Jump to page:

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb