Powered up an old Compaq Portable II and was greeted with a cloud of
smoke; a tantalum cap's gone to capacitor heaven (it's next to silicon
heaven).Unfortunately it's now so far gone I can't read its value --
anyone have a schematic or know what the capacitor at C19 is supposed to be?
Thanks,
Josh
You will but you won't have the sata connector.
I guess its immune to that bacteria or fungus and/or scratching of the label? I've had lots of cds I've burned go bad in their padded cd holder. (Holes/flakes in the label) making it a seemingly poor decision unless I burned 2 or more of each archive.
------Original Message------
From: Chuck Guzis
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: OT: 1000 year DVD storage
Sent: Mar 19, 2013 3:54 PM
The M-Disc claims 1,000 year permanency.
http://www.mdisc.com/
Anyone have experience with these?
--Chuck
(wondering if we'll be able to find a 1,000 year old DVD player)
On Mar 17, 2013, at 1:36 AM, R SMALLWOOD <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> wrote:
>
> I have several of these beasts.
> I do go back to when they were current equipment.
> The price asked for an RX02 in unknown condition is well over the top.
> The shipping price may not be far off as they weigh a ton!!
I got one with my 11/750 15 years ago. I sold it for around $200, close to what I paid for the entire system. It was a local sale and I don't recall the drive's weight.
alan
Hi all,
I need another project like I need a hole in the head. However, I am
definitely on the prowl for a way to store and retrieve information in a
more physical fashion. Something like a tape punch/reader, or a mark-sense
card reader. (I'd have to find or print some mark-sense cards...)
Back in the day I used punch cards, mark-sense cards, and paper tape.
There's a certain "coolness" to actually seeing and holding the data in a
physical format. I think it would be great for my kids to see, and/or help
me build a physical storage device, to give them a more visceral sense of
computing. You can't exactly see the bits in a flash memory chip.
All that said - I've looked for homebrew projects of this type, and haven't
come up with any great candidates. I'm not the most skilled person at
mechanical stuff, so I do seek a starting point for ideas or plans. Anyone
have any comments/suggestions?
Goal would be a method to store (could be as simple as #2 pencil), a method
to read, and a serial RS232 interface (that part I can build).
Thanks!
- Earl
Bitsavers has the file
BB-M448B-BC_DECNET11M+_V2_NETKIT_1984.tap
which is (sadly!) exactly half of the DECnet-11M v2.0 for RSX. Missing is
the corresponding DECKIT tape. I know it's a long shot, but would anybody
out there have it??
Yes, bitsavers does have the NETKIT/DECKIT pair for V3.0 and V4.2, but I
need the older version.
Thanks,
Bob Armstrong
Anyone interested? Pretty much everything from 1 Gbyte
to 9.1 Gbytes that can go, from various vendors (Seagate,
Compaq, Quantum, Micropolis, IBM, etc.).
The disks have recently been tested. Furthermore, the
disks are located in the Netherlands and I will happily
ship to wherever desired and covered for.
- MG
A friend sent me a list today of documents he has, wondering if they are of
interest to classic computer folk. Most of these categories are outside my
expertise, so I'm asking here if these should get archived, and if so who
volunteers to do it :-).
Here's the list:
Control Data 6000 Series manuals
=====================================================
Kronos 2.1 Instant Manual
Control Data Cyber 70 Series Models 72/73/74 6000 Series Computer
Systems
Kronos 2.1 Terminal User's Instant Manual
Control Data Cyber 70 Series Models 72/73/74 6000 Series Computer
Systems
Small (6.5" x 4") "pocket" manuals for operating the Kronos OS
original printing dated 10/1973
Algol Generic Reference Manual
Control Data 3000/6000
Revision A, 5/31/1968
Modify Reference Manual
Control Data Cyber 170, Cyber 70, 6000 Series and 7600 computer systems
Card based version control
Revision E, 10/1/1974
APL*Cyber Reference Manual
Control Data Cyber 170, Cyber 70, 6000 Series and 7600 computer systems
Revision C, August 1974
Oregon State Open Shop Operating System (OS3)
====================================================
Assembly listing of OS3 operating system dated September 1974
Assembly language listing of core operating system.
OS3 was a demand-paged, virtual memory, multi-user operating system
that used a PDP8 as a front end to multiplex many teletypes scattered
around the Oregon State campus.
OS-3 Reference Manual for OS-3 Version 4.3
July 1973
OSU: Grope User's Manual
January 1972
"Grope" (Graphical Representation of Parameterized Expressions) was an
input and graphing system running on OS-3 and a Tektronix 4002A
terminal.
Grafit User Notes
February 1973
Jeff Ballance, Jo Ann Baughman, Larry Hubble
"The GRAFIT system is an interactive program for displaying data on the
Tektronix terminal and/or the Calcomp plotter or on a Hewlett-Packard
teletype compatible X-Y plotter and/or the Calcomp plotter."
Various OSU computer center manual on editing tools
Useful Features of OS-3
James S. Sasser
August 1974
Primer for Users of Oregon State's Open Shop Operating System (OS-3)
September 1972
A Brief Description of OSCAR (Third Revision)(Describes Version 56)
Joel Davis, Gilbert A. Bachelor
September 1969
"OSCAR" (Oregon State Conversational Aid to Research) is an
arithmetical interpreter for use at remote teletype or CRT connections
to the CDC 3300."
OSCAR: A User's Manual with Examples (revised September 1969)
Jo Ann Baughman, Mary Lynn Berryman, Joel Davis
September, 1969
MISC
====================================================
Concurrent Pascal - Introduction
Per Brinch Hansen
Concurrent Pascal Machine
Per Brinch Hansen
Concurrent Pascal Report
Per Brinch Hansen
Sequential Pascal Report
Per Brinch Hansen
Alfred C. Hartmann
Information Science California Institute of Technology
7"x10" manuals published in July 1975
Laural Manual
Douglas K. Brotz
Palo Alto Research Center
"Laural is an Alto-based, display-oriented, computer mail system
interface."
published May 1981
Sail
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Memo AIM-289, Report STAN-CS-76-578
edited by John F. Reiser
August 1976
"Sail is a high-level programming language for the PDP-10 computer. It
includes
an extended ALGOL 60 compiler and a companion set of execution-time
routines. In
addition to ALGOL, the language features: (1) flexible linking to
hard-coded machine
language algorithms, (2) complete access to the PDP-10 I/O facilities,
(3) a complete
system of compile-time arithmetic and logic as well as a flexible macro
system, (4) a
high-level debugger, (5) records and references, (6) sets and lists,
(7) an associative
data structure, (8) independent processes, (0) procedure
varaiables(sic), (10) user
modifiable error handling, (11) backtracking, and (12) interrupt
facilities."
various UNIX 'man' printouts and misc manuals.
Things like:
Berkeley Font Catalog (October 1980)
Typesetting Mathematics -- User's Guide (Second Edition)
Brian W. Kerninghan and Lorinda L. Cherry
Bell Laboratories, August 1978
Typing Documents on the UNIX System: Using the -ms Macros with Troff
and Nroff
M.E. Lesk
Bell Laboratories, May 1982
... many more UNIX Nroff and Troff manuals
ba.uuYumYum (March 1986)
a dining guide compiled from reviews public in group ba.general
--
o< The ASCII Ribbon Campaign Against HTML Email!
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:09:10 -0400
>> From: Bob Vines
>> To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>> Subject: Re: PDP 11/23 advice
>> Message-ID: <513DAD46.2010300 at verizon.net>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>
>
> UPS will ship fairly large items in their cardboard boxes, but it's
> *expensive*. I recently received some DECmates with their RX02s
> (which were still in their furniture/carts). Each 3x3x3 box weighed
> nearly 150 pounds.
>
I've had bad experiences shipping heavy stuff with UPS. I've had great
luck with FedEx, and FedEx ground is quite reasonable. The UPS
store is not operated by by UPS, and their insurance is VERY expensive,
probably 4 times more than FedEx. UPS admits the way they unload their
semis is to push everything out onto the ground.
Also, the UPS store charges $16 to 25 for each box, at FedEx, they are more
like $5.
Jon
Message: 10
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2013 18:32:26 -0500
From: "Craig Solomonson" <craig at solomonson.net>
To: cctech at classiccmp.org
Subject: Resurrecting a Bendix G-15
Message-ID:
<8e4be175ad314f9ab0f5ebe075accc8a.squirrel at www.solomonson.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
I was going through some boxes of old documents as I prepare to thin out
my computer collection and ran across a couple leads that I had 30+
years
ago on a couple early vacuum tube era computers--one was a Bendix
G-15 and
the other was a Royal Precision LGP-30. Thought it would be fun to
see if
either computer was still there and turns out that the Bendix G-15 is
buried in a storage unit yet! I haven't heard back on the LGP-30
yet. When
the weather warms up, I will get a chance to help dig out the Bendix and
hopefully make a deal on it.
Apparently, the Bendix was operational before going into storage in the
mid-1970's. So, what are the chances that after sitting for almost 40
years that it would still be operational? I know that vaccum tubes can
deteriorate but those are easy to replace. What about the capacitors,
resistors, and diodes? I do not know if the storage unit was climate
controlled, but if not, I assume corrosion could be a problem with
all the
contacts. What other issues might one expect with an old system like
this?
Unfortunately, I am not an electronics expert but always like a
challenge.
I now regret selling my Bendix Diode tester a few years ago on eBay!
Maybe
I will have to rent in some day if I make the deal!
Wow, that would be a real antique, and there are VERY few G-15's
running. Testing the diode cards would not be that big a problem
even without the tester. Major capacitors in the power supply
would be best replaced before they exploded.
Our G-15 had a scored drum, where dirt packed against the
heads and burned a groove through the oxide coating.
The other thing that didn't work well was the typewriter. I
don't know if it was the typewriter itself or the huge
box of relays that encoded/decoded the character codes that
was flaky.
Jon
On Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:36:51 -0600, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
> OK, I've got an HP X-Y display with the older power cord connector,
> where the three pins are round instead of two being blades and the
> only the ground pin being round. The entire plug socket is also
> rounded instead of angled.
> [?]
I believe what you are looking for is a PH-163 connector. AFAIK the last (current) manufacturer was/is Volex part number 17280 <http://www.datasheets.com/search/Preview.admin?v=0&flag=detail&comId=43188B…>.
->CRC
Hi folks,
there's an interesting complete core memory system on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190813695638
And yes: I'm the seller. But it does not come from my personal collection: I'm
selling it for someone else.
Perhaps someone on the list likes it. Personal offers by E-mail, not E-Bay...
Kind regards,
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
----- Original Message -----
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:14:10 -0700
From: Jim Stephens <jws at jwsss.com>
On 3/13/2013 1:41 PM, TeoZ wrote:
>> -<snip>
>> Pretty much every collection has that happen when the owner dies or fall
>> on hard times. At least some of it will go on in another persons
>> collection.
>This was not either of those circumstances, unless you call unethical and
>possibly illegal behavior toward the individual "hard times".
>I am hopeful most can own the place they store their collections or can at
>least have some real control. renting can result in what happened in this
>case.
...
----- Reply:
No, there are laws in pretty well every jurisdiction that protect a
*responsible* renter from this sort of thing and are in fact generally even
biased in the renter's favour.
But repeatedly not paying the rent on time (or at all), jerking the landlord
around with excuses, broken promises and missed deadlines, taking him to
court to fight a justified eviction and no doubt costing him considerable
money in legal fees etc., and, finally, not clearing out the contents when
given the opportunity to do so, *THAT'S* what usually predictably results
in what happened in this case.
You're right, this is not a case of the owner dying or falling on hard times
with no way of coming up with the rent (like selling off a duplicate piece
or two or asking for help); it's irresponsibility and negligence and if I'd
donated something in good faith I'd be pretty pissed when I saw it being
flogged on eBay as a result...
m
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").
Attached is what I've thus-far been able to find, which is jumper-info dug
out of a paper-tape reader manual!
Thank you,
paul
We have 10+ flat bed scanners, mostly SCSI, with ADF attachments. Most of
them are HP, a few are AGFA or another brand. $20 each plus shipping, tested
working. No software included.
Cindy Croxton
Electronics Plus
1613 Water Street
Kerrville, TX 78028
(830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax
AOL IM elcpls
_____
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2904 / Virus Database: 2641/6185 - Release Date: 03/17/13
I have 2 old, heavy machines that I looked up on Google over 10 years ago.
1 appears to be Unix-only document scanner with sheet feeder. The original
software, which came on 5.25" floppies, had OCR software. I MIGHT still
have the floppies here somewhere. Anyone interested in these 2 old beasts?
Bell & Howell Classic TDR-500 is apparently for microfilm capture? Parts are
still readily available online, if needed.
Xerox K5200 model SA4-2 with ADF-4, includes 2 very thick cables.
Both very dusty/dirty, never turned on.
Cindy Croxton
Electronics Plus
1613 Water Street
Kerrville, TX 78028
(830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax
AOL IM elcpls
_____
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2904 / Virus Database: 2641/6185 - Release Date: 03/17/13
My earliest memories of seeing computers in action were at the library. Old
ADM-3 terminals with light pens to scan in barcodes on the books and on
your library card. Plus the muffled sound of a line printer in back doing
lists of late check-outs.
This would have been in the 1980's. The library I used to go to still had
those ADM's well into the '90s, then replaced with gray sided, amber
screened WYSE VT-100 lookalikes. But the UI looked the same, so I assume
the backend was the same.
Anyone know what minis ran library management software back then? I know
the university I went to was all Amdhal with 5250 terminals, but the local
libraries obviously used something smaller.
At 20:32 -0600 3/1/13, <Ben> wrote:
>Offhand I would say yes. Now 20+ years later I don't have any paper
>docs of the COCO II and the XT.
For Color Computer
The Byte article on COCO (original) says 800 mV 1500 bps.
Greg Lomont's Color computer guide says:
Color BASIC saves a file as a series of blocks, each with 0-255 bytes
of data. Some blocks need
preceded by a leader to establish timing.
Each bit is recorded as a single cycle of a sine-wave. A "1" is a
single cycle at 2400 Hz, and a "0" is
a single cycle at 1200 Hz. Bytes are stored least significant bit
first. Bits are recognized when the
sine wave crosses from positive to negative, so loudness is not as
important as one might expect.
A file consists of:
1. a leader
2. a filename block
3. a 1/2 second gap
4. another leader
5. some number of data blocks
6. an end-of-file block
A leader is just hex $80(128 dec) bytes of hex $55 (binary 01010101).
A block contains:
1. two "magic" bytes ($55 and $3C)
2. one byte - block type (00=filename, $01=data, $FF=EOF)
3. one byte - data length ($00 to $FF)
4. 0 to 255 bytes - data
5. one byte - checksum (sum of data, type, and length bytes)
6. another magic byte ($55)
Filename blocks have $F(15) bytes of data; EOF blocks have zero bytes
of data; data blocks have
$00-$FF bytes of data indicated by length byte.
A filename block contains:
1. eight bytes - the filename
2. one byte - file type ($00=BASIC, $01=data, $02=machine code)
3. one byte - ASCII flag ($00=binary, $FF=ASCII)
4. one byte - gap flag ($00=no gaps, $FF=gaps)
(The tech manual incorrectly (?) shows 01 as the code for "no gaps")
5. two bytes - machine code starting address
6. two bytes - machine code loading address
There should be no gaps, except preceding the file, and in case the
filename blocks requests gaps,
in which case there is a 1/2 second gap and leader before each data
block and EOF block.
Hardware
The cassette cable has a 5-pin DIN connector on one end, that plugs
into the back of the CoCo; the
other end has three earphone-style plugs, that plug into the EAR, AUX
(or MIC), and REMOTE jacks. The remote-control plug is smaller than
the other two. The other two are differentiated by
color: the black one plugs into the EAR jack, while the grey one
plugs into AUX.
Here is an ASCII drawing of that connector, including a pinout and
showing how the pins are
numbered. The drawing is of the connector at the end of the cable,
with the pins pointing toward
you. So if you are looking at the back of the machine, at the
connector there, this pinout is
backwards. My apologies for the wacky numbering; this is the same
numbering as in the CoCo-1
technical manual.
------- Pin# Name Connects to
/ \___/ \ ---- ------- -----------------------------------
/ \
/ \ 1 CASSMOT SG stem
| | 2 GND B stem, LG stem
| 1o o3 |
| | 3 CASSMOT SG tip
o o
\ 4 o 5 / 4 CASSIN B tip
\ 2 /
\ / 5 CASSOUT LG tip
-------
B=black SG=small grey LG=large grey
The names are given from the perspective of the computer, so "OUT"
means output from the
computer, input to the cassette, and it should go into the AUX (or
MIC) jack while the cassette is
recording.
--
- Mark 210-379-4635
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Large Asteroids headed toward planets
inhabited by beings that don't have
technology adequate to stop them:
Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.
I was going through some boxes of old documents as I prepare to thin out
my computer collection and ran across a couple leads that I had 30+ years
ago on a couple early vacuum tube era computers--one was a Bendix G-15 and
the other was a Royal Precision LGP-30. Thought it would be fun to see if
either computer was still there and turns out that the Bendix G-15 is
buried in a storage unit yet! I haven't heard back on the LGP-30 yet. When
the weather warms up, I will get a chance to help dig out the Bendix and
hopefully make a deal on it.
Apparently, the Bendix was operational before going into storage in the
mid-1970's. So, what are the chances that after sitting for almost 40
years that it would still be operational? I know that vaccum tubes can
deteriorate but those are easy to replace. What about the capacitors,
resistors, and diodes? I do not know if the storage unit was climate
controlled, but if not, I assume corrosion could be a problem with all the
contacts. What other issues might one expect with an old system like this?
Unfortunately, I am not an electronics expert but always like a challenge.
I now regret selling my Bendix Diode tester a few years ago on eBay! Maybe
I will have to rent in some day if I make the deal!
On 03/13/2013 01:46 PM, Robin England wrote:
> On 03/12/2013 09:29 AM, Robin England wrote:
>> Does anyone have a Brier Technology BR-3020 or BR-3225 high
>> capacity floppy drive I could borrow please?
>
>> Wouldn't an Insite I325VM work just as well if reading is your
>> object? I suspect that there are far more of them than the Brier
>> units.
>
>> --Chuck
>
> Thanks Chuck. Do you know for sure that the I325VM can read the
> Flextra 25MB discs?
>
>No, unfortunately, I can't say for certain Two companies, both in San
>Jose (wasn't Insite on "Fortran Drive"?) offering similar capacities
>using similar techniques at about the same time.
>
>The 25MB, as I understand it is "unformatted' capacity, so both drives
>are fairly close in advertised capacity. Both use zoned recording and
>RLL, but beyond that I can only say that the Insite devices are/were
>more common and so probably worth a shot.
>
>IIRC, Insite also trademarked the term "floptical"...
>
>?Chuck
Thanks Chuck. I have procured the I325VM now and will post back when I have empirical knowledge about the compatibility.
Cheers
Robin
