Sure there isn't a typo in the url? http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/ works fine for me.
------Original Message------
From: Steve Hunt
Sender: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only
ReplyTo: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Whats happened to the Vintage Computer Forum?
Sent: Mar 27, 2013 3:55 PM
What's happened to the VCF? I'm just getting a place holder page that sells web sites.
I attempted to run an RT-11 program under V10.1 of RSTS/E.
Is there any way of invoking ODT or a DEBUG package under
RSTS/E which is similar the SDX.SYS in RT-11 or "/DEBUG"
in TSX-Plus?
I can LINK ODT into the RT-11 program and use ODT that way.
But I though that RSTS/E might support something a bit
more user friendly than ODT at this point?
Jerome Fine
Hi,
I know people occasionally access my domain at
classic-computers.org.nz for articles and resources. Just a note to
say it's down due to the 9GB monthy bandwidth allowance being
exceeded. The hosting service seems unresponsive at the moment (in
other words, I requested a bandwidth increase two days ago but
nothing's happened).
Hopefully it will be back up soon, but just letting folk know it could
be as late as the 1st April, when the allocation is reset (but
hopefully not that long..mind you with Easter coming up...!)
Terry (Tez)
In a vain attempt to find bits of a Ferranti Argus I uploaded myself with some parts of the iconic cold-war-era Bristol Bloodhound missile.
Which I don't really want....
What would be appropriate venues / mailing lists to get rid of those parts ?
( items : radar receiver dish with positioner, accelerometer, gyro, altimeter, bulkhead, but very litte electronics )
Location : Switzerland
The chap that sold me the parts uses the Bloodhound's ramjet engine as a coathanger.....
Are there any surviving Argus 100 or 200 systems ?
Jos
Hello all! I have recently added a DEC VT101 to my collection. Only
problem is, it came with no keyboard. The way I understand it, any VT10x
keyboard will work with it. So, does anyone have an extra that they
would be willing to part with? Thanks a lot! -- Tom.
Mouse ---
Is all okay with your servers?
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<201303212143.RAA02946 at Sparkle.Rodents-Montreal.ORG>
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On 3/21/2013 5:43 PM, Mouse wrote:
>> Well, it's been about a 3 year hiatus from the list for me...
>> How many of the old farts & curmudgeons are still around? ;)
> Not sure I count, though I have been feeling increasingly curmudgeonly
> in recent years. But I'm still here.
Good to see. Yeah, I think I recall you being a touch curmudgeonly
occasionally. ;)
>> One burning question, has the list's definition of a classic computer
>> been updated from the 10 year rule?
> I don't recall seeing the question discussed either way recently.
>
That's a surprise.
--
--- Dave Woyciesjes
--- ICQ# 905818
--- AIM - woyciesjes
--- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/
--- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/
Registered Linux user number 464583
"...Talking to you is like clapping with one hand."
Anthrax, "Caught in a mosh"
--
--- Dave Woyciesjes
--- ICQ# 905818
--- AIM - woyciesjes
--- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/
--- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/
Registered Linux user number 464583
"Computers have lots of memory but no imagination."
"The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back."
- from some guy on the internet.
As you know VCF E was cancelled this year, but now that power will be
available we're going to hold an "open house" May 18th and 19th.
WHERE: InfoAge Science Center (infoage.org) in Wall Township New Jersey
9032-A (same as last VCF Exhibit room)
WHEN: May 18th 9AM through May 19th until ??
WHAT: A combo-swap meet and workshop (a.k.a. vintage computing hackfest)
Half the room will be tables for working on computers. Half the room will
be for consignment.
We'll charge $5 if someone is merely attending, or $10 if they're bringing
something to sell or repair. We'll also take 10% of sales as a consignment
fee. (This income is for the club's general budget, not for food.)
We will NOT do is let strangers drop off computers for us to repair. This
isn't free service weekend. We will expect the MARCH veterans to serve at
least
some of their time during the weekend as mentors.
So basically it's just like our standard work weekends, except it'll be
open for outsiders to join in, and we'll formalize the "stuff available"
tables so the club makes some money.
OMARC's hamfest is May 18, down the street at the TIROS dish campus, from
7-11am. Our event will start at 9am. Both events will refer people to
other.
As at our past work weekends, this also isn't a party. we'll make some
plans for light meals, but food/drink is strongly discouraged in
repair/sales tables. Also discouraged are people who attend just to hang
out. We might have some sort of evening "thing" TBD (We have a lot of good
ideas, we'll announce soon)
Just for extra caution, all attendees in the work area will sign a
liability waiver. I know you're all smart and careful, but who knows with
the general public...
Some people may choose to bring their own items to repair. Others may opt
to work on MARCH systems (you must have permission). Still others may want
to be open for helping everyone else, or some combination of the above.
Let me or Evan Koblentz know if you have questions -
I can be reached via http://www.vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm
Bill
It pains me to criticize "the media" because I'm in it. But ... recently
I was grossly misquoted by the financial site Bankrate.com, re: any
value in vintage computing.
http://www.bankrate.com/lite/smart-spending/collecting-items-as-an-investme…
I don't even recall anyone from that site ever contacting me! I think
the write just copied information that I told another financial site,
Minyanville.com, two years ago:
http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/old-computer-apple-com…
Bankrate's story says that a desktop PC from 1998 could be a valuable
collectible, with the implication that I'm the source of such nonsense.
It also says that sky-high early Apple prices are "the excitement" that
"led to" formation of groups like MARCH.
(As many (most?) of you know, MARCH formed back in 2005, solely to allow
collectors in our region to meet, tinker on vintage computers, and have
fun.)
We retrocomputing folks will never have the numbers of the Beanie Baby
people, but, help a brother out: go to the Bankrate story, scroll down
to find my comment, and vote it "up" by clicking the caret symbol
underneath and to the left of the comment.
More bad news: the story was picked up by Fox Business, where presumably
many more people will see it than on Bankrate, but where there's no
comment system. Soooo, a bunch of people will see the Fox version and
get the idea that Pentium Windows 98 computers are ** L@@K R at RE !! and
worth BIG BUCKS over on eBay. Oh, joy.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/02/27/five-collectibles-to…
Please know that it's not my fault. ;)
- Evan
Hi Lawrence,
Thank you for the interesting pics and videos of the Selectric terminal. Not long ago I tossed an IBM model 50 electronic typewriter, which I had had since 1988. Have felt bad about that ever since. Now I feel worse! :) It wasn't working though, and I didn't know how difficult it would be to convert it into a terminal. By the way, the uneven spacing you were seeing is something that it would do, when the proportional spacing (PS) selector was set wrong. (Unlike many Selectrics, the model 50 did support PS.)
Also enjoyed your pages on the IBM 360 model 30. Having just finished reading the excellent book, "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems," by Pugh, et al, the additional coverage of the "baby" model really hit the spot. Your VHDL implementation of that machine is truly stunning!
All the best,
Steve L.
I have two things that may be of interest to list denizens:
IBM 5150/5160 power supply (part no. IBM-1501461).
Appears to work if given a load, but I don't have a 5150 or
an XT to test it with. Dirty, but it worked fine when I pulled
it from an XT in about 1996. Free for the price of shipping.
Apple IIe LC-PDS card, with breakout cable. I don't seem to
be able to find the time to play with this, so I'll sell it for a
pittance. Name your price and we'll see if my version of
"pittance" lines up with yours. I have several functioning
LCIIs as well, one of which I'll throw in free for shipping.
Also, those of you who requested 5.25" 1.2M drives from me
but haven't given me your address: they are still sitting
more or less ready to ship in the basement. I'd like to
free up some space for other things.
- Dave (off-list replies, please, unless you have reason to
spam the list)
>
> OpenBSD is currently installing (flawlessly so far) but I think I'll know
> in approx an half hour if I can boot the installed OS.
> OpenBSD has sized the a partition with 900Mbytes so all the needed files
> for booting should be below 1 GB.
>
The other thing you have to worry about is dumping. VMS uses the console
ROM routines to write system dumps and these can end up in the wrong place
on disks larger than 1GB on VS3100s. I don't know what unix does but if it
has a dumpfile, it would be good to keep it below the 1 GB line also.
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.
Hi all,
I've got some ugly dirty VAXstation lately, an 3100/M76 and two
3100/M38 (if I remember correctly).
I've cleaned the M76 and got it to work. Inside is an 200MB RZ24 Disk
ans since I want to boot some Unix this is pretty small.
I have a bunch of IBM DCAS3330 4Gig disks that where a good fit I think,
but there is a problem with the System disk size on the VS3100..
The limit is coming from using six byte SCSI commands instead of the then
byte versions in the boot software. I googled a litte and found this:
>:Yes. It's a limitation imposed by the boot ROMs. Just ran into it
>:(again!) a few weeks back and DEC reminded me yet again. Some confusion
>:exists because -- I think -- some models of the 3100 were
>:field-upgradable to have a new ROM set capable of supported >1 GB boot
>disk.
>
> No member of the *VAXstation* 3100 series support system disks larger
> than 1.073 gigabytes, and there are no ROM upgrades available.
>
> There are some members of the *MicroVAX* 3100 series that support or
> can have console ROMs upgraded to support system disks larger than
> 1.073 gigabytes.
I do have KA43 V1.2 Bootroms in the M76, so the question is:
Are there newer ROM versions than 1.2 und is there support for larger
System disks? Burning Roms is no problem. Does someone have a newer
firmware version?
I know that I can use the 200MB Disk to boot and use the larger for data,
but at least I do have a mechanical problem here, I had to make some
plastic Bumpers to mount the additional disk in the VS3100 on the lathe.
I would better use the RZ24 in one of my PDP 11's...
Kind Regards,
Holm
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583
www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741
I think the filesystem format is just called iso 9660. I believe the writer reads the info on the inner plastic and gets the media type since not only does it know the difference in size but it also reads the media speed rating to know not to burn at a higher than x speed (unless the user overrides that setting).
------Original Message------
From: Fred Cisin
Sender: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
ReplyTo: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: OT: 1000 year DVD storage
Sent: Mar 23, 2013 2:44 PM
On Sat, 23 Mar 2013, Jerome H. Fine wrote:
> Since a DVD drive can read both a CD and a DVD (as well
> as, for many drives, but not all) burn both a CD and a DVD,
> the media can't be that different. However, since my DVD
> drive is able to distinguish between a DVD blank and a CD
> blank, I assume that the media must be somewhat different.
Is there some info pre-recorded?
Hello everyone,
I got a board Xerox 820-II without any other components and without disk
controller.
After changing the video sync and created a composite video on video i have
the correct prompt.
I made a keyboard interface to convert a PS2 keyboard in parallel with the
same schematic that works well with my Ferguson Bigboard I and the other
card Xerox 820-I.
I saw that on the xerox 820-II board there are almost 2 ICs with the name
Signetics 3341PC (U102 and U101) that are between the U65 (system and
Keyboard PIO) and the 72LS74 (U96 and U97) that come to connect to the
keyboard input (see sheet 7 of thsi schematic
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/xerox/820-II/Xerox820-II_Schematics.p
df).
I come to requests:
1) The keyboard does not write. I read on a post that I can not find anymore
that without the inclusion of the disk controller card into its slot the
keyboard would not write.
Perhaps because there is not anymore the continuity of the chain interrupt
(see at the bottom of sheet 8 close to U65 into this schematic
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/xerox/820-II/Xerox820-II_Schematics.p
df )?
2) If i not find the disk controller card I was thinking about to self-build
it on a bareboard hoping that the diagram at the bottom of the last pages at
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/xerox/820/Xerox820_ServiceMan.pdf is
accurate. Where can I find a card edge connector male 72-pin 2.54mm pitch?
3) You also have some suggestions for me?
Thanks so much
Enrico - Pisa - (Italy)
I mentioned having a Univac 3 available for sale and have some interest.
When I watched a video linked to by a person on the IBM-MAIN mailing
list some time ago, there was a few Univac links, so I looked to see
what was there for Univac 3
this turned up which is supposed to be the US Army system
http://youtu.be/ICGPML5lzoY
There are tape drives in the short bit of video which are not
Uni-servo's and are probably not connected to the Univac near the end,
but you can see the system's drives in one bit of the video. NOte that
it had no disk storage it was all tape with the OS at the BOT of every
volume, or bits of the application.
Anyone recognize the logo on the tape drives (probably not Univac) at
the 23 sec point? it is a big red circle with two side bars. Rings a
bell to me but I haven't figured it out yet.
There was also a CHM show about timesharing with Univac that came up,
but I don't think the tape drives are the same Uniservo's that the U3
used, so is probably later. Also the theme is timesharing which of
course the U3 was definitely not ever going to do.
thanks
Jim
> On Mar 22, 2013, at 10:49 AM, Mouse <mouse at rodents-montreal.org> wrote:
>
> Often enough, especially with governments, the person put in
> charge of data preservation is not someone who has the foggiest
> idea of how to actually go about it.? They then have to rely on
> other people to do it, which is great if you know the right
> people and disastrous if you only THINK you know the right
> people.
these so called consultants have never
* used linux/unix or a 1980's or earlier computer system
* moved data between these system with sneakernet/null-modem[1] setup
> - Dave
[1] trying asking at your local computer shop about a Null-modem cable
tom sparks
Resend without attachments (too big; sorry 'bout that :-<). Anyone
interested in the missing attachments please contact me off-list.
On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 3:17 AM, Paul Birkel <pbirkel at gmail.com> wrote:
> No PDP-11-eating, please! The BC05C cable, and also the 7008360 cable,
> seems to be the key; these are shared across a number of DEC
> modules/variants.
>
> Finding documentation is quite a Where's-Waldo exercise, but a lot of it
> is "out there" it seems :->. In my case the attached two items were
> extracted from larger, varied, documents. Perhaps they'll be useful for
> the next challenged person :->.
>
> On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 5:08 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>wrote:
>
>> >
>> > --f46d0444e88960605904d821f7a5
>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>> >
>> > Can some kind soul point me to the technical documentation for the Q-Bus
>> > DLV11 M7940 Serial Line Unit? It has a 2x20 pin-out connector of
>> unknown.
>> > I gather that it's a pretty common card, so I'd expect the
>> documentation to
>> > still be "out there" ... like the truth :->.
>> >
>> > Not the DLV11-J, which is the 4-line card.
>> >
>> > The only good news is that the MC1488 and MC1489 are nearby, which will
>> > help a little. But documentation is *much* better! Probably any of its
>> > variants will do just fine (e.g., M7940-YA "M7940 W EXTRA WIRES TO BRING
>> > OUT CLOCK & 110/300 SPEED CHG").
>>
>> It should be much the same as the pinout for the DL11 (Unibus) seiral
>> interface or even the DL8 (Omnibus). It's a very ocommon DEC serial port
>> pinout. If there's no documetnaiuton on _any_ of thsoe out there, I will
>> eat a PDP11 or something.
>>
>> One trap for the unwary. These cards, or at least some of them, have
>> both RS232 and current loop interfaces on them. The outputs of the 2
>> possible receive buffers (1489 for the RS232, a nopo-isolator bnsed
>> circuit for current loop) appear on pins of this conenctor, as does the
>> inptu to the UART chip. You have pumper the appropriate pair of pins on
>> the connecotr of your cable. if you don't, you'll never receive anything.
>>
>> -tony
>>
>
>
Hi,
does anyone have XY8E plotter control schematics at hand?
I just plugged one into my currently active pdp8/e and it doesn't work :-(
And then I realized that I don't have schematics. At least not on my PC. And the
links on pdp8.net seem to be dead to me.
If anyone does have the schematics on his/her PC, please drop me a line.
But don't invest time to scan it. I'm quite sure that I have an original
*somewhere* in piles of paper...
Thank you
Philipp
--
Dipl.-Inf. (FH) Philipp Hachtmann
Buchdruck, Bleisatz, Spezialit?ten
Alemannstr. 21, D-30165 Hannover
Tel. 0511/3522222, Mobil 0171/2632239
Fax. 0511/3500439
hachti at hachti.de
www.tiegeldruck.de
UStdID DE 202668329
>The foam flaked off and seems to be deteriorating.
--- Hi Carl,
Just to add to Philipp's excellent advice: I replaced the foam in my RK05 with 1-inch high density foam from a JoAnn store:
http://www.joann.com/airtex-foam-chairpads-1-high-density/prd23481/?green=C…
Their warning not to cut with hot wire is not to be ignored! I found that cutting with an electric knife worked well. Used contact cement to glue it to the blower flange. Works great. There is about 3/4" clearance between card cage and blower, so it compresses appropriately.
By the way, removal of the blower is a pill. The fasteners are buried deep and require a hex key driver that is much longer than ordinary ones. Found an inexpensive set at Home Depot, which did the job. One fastener is particularly hard to get to. I decided to replace the hex fasteners with ordinary screws and emphatically did not install the fourth one. Three work fine. Note that the Velcro strap which is used to tighten the absolute filter is laid under the blower mounting, to secure it. I used adhesive to keep it in place when the blower is removed.
I notice that a lot of these drives seem to be missing the prefilter, as mine was. I used a common window screen kit to make the replacement filter. Used window screen on the outside but 100um nylon filter fabric from eBay, also tucked into the spline on the inside. Makes a decent facsimile of the original prefilter.
You can buy new-old-stock replacement absolute filters here:
http://www.varx.com/
I paid $60, plus shipping. A tip about getting the old filter out: I found it difficult to pull the filter off of the flange leading to the blower. Thinking that I must not be doing something right, I ended up pulling the blower off again to see what was happening. Finally decided that the old filter just had to be yanked off. Perhaps the plastic has stiffened with age. It finally came off. One thing that distracted me was the fact that, in spite of the flange blocking removal, the absolute filter fits the blower duct very loosely. Hence, a Velcro strap is provided to tighten the filter against the duct.
Some might think all this attention to filtering is overkill but after seeing the illustration on p. 1-17 of the 1976 RK05 maintenance manual of the 100um head flying height versus various contaminants, I have been very careful about dust. It's a relief that Philipp has had not-so-bad experiences with head crashes but I would like to minimize the risks.
Steve L.
http://www.tronola.com/
Don't know if any of you guys watch "The Americans" on FX. For those not in
the know, this show follows two KGB operatives living as Americans in the
US during the height of the Cold War in the early 80's. In the episode from
this week, there was a scene in an FBI building and in the background there
was a TRS-80 Model III sitting next to a bank of tape drives.