test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:32:09 -0600 > From: Kevin Reynolds <tpresence at hotmail.com> > To: <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: RE: Microvax II won't boot, hardware error? > Message-ID: <BLU157-W48E7D604E2D698A86B3819A27F0 at phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > > > I do have multiple memory modules, there are two in the chassis. I have spare modules, but they aren't the same, so I am not sure they will work in the system. > > > I did pull and replace the CPU, Memory and VCB02 modules, but the result is the same. The system did work fine recently, so I assume that the CSR/Vectors are ok on the cards. I don't have the manuals for everything, but maybe bitsavers does. > > > I don't have any spare grant continuity cards...will this cause me trouble if I just pull a ramcard out and have nothing in its slot? I seem to remember that you couldn't have an open slot between cards, unless you had a grant card in there... > > > Is there a standard VMS memory test I can run in conversational mode? > It actually runs a simple memory test during the power-up diagnostics, I think maybe it was 7...8 that is the memory diags. They are the ones that takes the longest to run, the others complete mostly in less than a second. You have to know the layout of your backplane to know where grant contnuity cards are required. Old uVax II backplanes have the memory bus on the CD rows for 2 or 4 slots, and need no grant continuity there, but the AB rows are Q-bus, and would need either double-wide Q-bus boards there or grant continuity. Later backplanes didn't have the Q-bus start until after the first couple slots. So, you really need to know what the backplane layout is. Jon

13 years, 5 months

New PDF magazine for Sinclair ZX-81 fans

by lproven＠gmail.com

http://zx81.republika.pl/monochrome_issue_3_magazine_zx81.pdf It is in the ZX font in block caps, which I found that I got used to remarkably quickly... MONOCHROME MADE WITH PC AND ZX-81 32KB (ZXPAND) FOR LOGO AND TESTING SOFT ZX-81 / TIMEX 1000 / TIMEX 1500 MAGAZINE ISSUE 3, ADDRESS:YERZMYEY at INTERIA.PL, 09.2012 (AUTUMN) MAKING A MAGAZINE CAN BE EASY HI GUYZ. YUPP, YOU WILL SUFFER MY ENGLISH LANGUAGE AGAIN. I MUST ADMIT I NOTICED LATELY THAT PREPARING MAGAZINE ABOUT SOME OLD-SCHOOL PLATFORM CAN BE EASY. :) IT CAN BE - AS LONG AS ENTIRE SCENE/COMMUNITY MAKES NEW STUFF FOR THE GIVEN PLATFORM - THEN PEO- PLE HAVE MATERIAL TO WRITE ABOUT. ;) AND THAT CASE WAS THIS TIME. THERE ARE MANY NEW THINGS FOR ZX81 LAST TIMES (AGAIN!) AND ALL OF THIS THANKS TO YOU ALL! AND IT IS NOT ONLY FOR DEVELOPED CON- FIGURATIONS, BUT ALSO FOR UNEXPANDED ZX81 MACHINES. AS USUAL I WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYBODY WHO SENT ARTICLES FOR THIS ISSUE OF OUR ZX81/T1000/T1500 MAG, AS WELL AS EVERYBODY WHO MAKES NEW SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE FOR THE MACHINE. ;) HMM, MAYBE I SHOULD CHANGE THE SUBTITLE, BECAUSE THOSE THREE MODELS ARE ACTUALLY NOT ENOUGH. ;) PEOPLE FROM BRAZIL ARE ACTIVE TOO AND THEY MADE A VERY INTERESTING ZONX-COMPATIBLE AY-INTERFACE FOR THEIR MICRODIGITAL TK85 CLONE OF ZX81. ;) YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

13 years, 5 months

amusing google image search results

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Yeah. It was a cool idea at first but I've mostly stopped trying to use images as a relevant computer search. I'm not sure why it always seems to pull up random peoples pictures or some underdressed women instead of the computer. Unrelated but also interesting (if it works) was the search the web for a matching photo. Sorta neat sometimes with auctions or forum/craigslist posts prior to a sale. ------Original Message------ From: David Griffith Sender: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org To: cctalk at classiccmp.org ReplyTo: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: amusing google image search results Sent: Oct 26, 2012 1:11 PM I noticed that doing a google image search on the string {kaypro 2/84} yields an interesting array of pictures that have nothing to do with Kaypro. For instance, there are oodles of classic synthesizer pics. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 5 months

Microvax II won't boot, hardware error?

by tpresence＠hotmail.com

I have been trying to get a microvax II fully functional over the last few weeks and I seem to have a roadblock. The system used to boot and allow logins, but now after connecting a VCB-02 cable to display, keyboard and mouse, it has become more and more unreliable. It may be possible that some assistance I got from a colleague might have helped to cause this situation, but I think its unlikely. When the system was booting properly, it wouldn't bring up decwindows even when the display, kb, and mouse were attached to the bulkhead cable (bc18z). I was asked to check the WINDOW_SYSTEM variable within sysgen to determine if the current value was anything other than 1. In this case it was 2. He asked me to change the value to 1, and then to write it to current and active, then complete an autoconfigure all. I don't feel this is a factor, because when I boot into conversational mode and set the WINDOW_SYSTEM variable to 0 the system still faults when I perform a @sys$system:startup. In conversational mode, when I launch the startup.com script, the kernel panics as it does when it boots in normal mode. I was hoping to edit the startup.com script (or move it to a safe location and place a partial startup script in its place), but I'm not sure what parts I need to have. If I dont run the startup script, I can't run anal/crash because of protection issues. At first when connected to a display the system would kernel panic during boot. It would boot WITHOUT the display being connected, however, so I continued using it without the display. Unfortunately, now it appears to panic every boot, and I can't get to a prompt to run any diagnostics such as anal/crash. No user based changes were made to the system between boots. The real brain teaser is that it doesn't always crash during the same process load, I have been trying to get a microvax II fully functional over the last few weeks and I seem to have a roadblock. The system used to boot and allow logins, but now after connecting a VCB-02 cable to display, keyboard and mouse, it has become more and more unreliable. The real brain teaser is that it doesn't always crash during the same process load, sometimes its OPCOM, sometimes its STARTUP, sometimes its DECW$STARTUP as it is below. Anyone have any insight on how to proceed? I'm not a very experienced user. A crash example is below: KA630-A.V1.3 Performing normal system tests. 7..6..5..4..3.. Tests completed. >>> boot 2..1..0.. VAX/VMS Version V5.2 Major version id = 1 Minor version id = 0 $! Copyright (c) 1989 Digital Equipment Corporation. All rights reserved. The VAX/VMS system is now executing the system startup procedure. **** FATAL BUG CHECK, VERSION = V5.2 MACHINECHK, Machine check while in kernel mode CRASH CPU: 00 PRIMARY CPU: 00 ACTIVE/AVAILABLE CPU MASKS: 00000001/00000001 CURRENT PROCESS = DECW$STARTUP REGISTER DUMP R0 = 00000000 R1 = 7FF38058 R2 = 00000000 R3 = 00000268 R4 = 00000000 R5 = 00000000 R6 = 00004152 R7 = 00000001 R8 = 0000026C R9 = 00003FDC R10= 000042DC R11= 00006CF0 AP = 7FF380FC FP = 7FF380C0 SP = 803AF1E0 PC = 8028D977 PSL= 04DF0008 KERNEL/INTERRUPT/BOOT STACK 803AF1E8 0000000C 803AF1EC 00000082 803AF1F0 7FF38058 803AF1F4 02000002 803AF1F8 00001534 803AF1FC 03C00001 LOADED IMAGES [SYSMSG]SYSMSG.EXE 800E0600 8010A400 [SYS$LDR]SYSLDR_DYN.EXE 80195200 80196C00 [SYS$LDR]DDIF$RMS_EXTENSION.EXE 80197000 80198200 [SYS$LDR]RECOVERY_UNIT_SERVICES.EXE 80198200 80198E00 [SYS$LDR]RMS.EXE 8010A400 80130200 SYS$NETWORK_SERVICES.EXE 80130C00 80130E00 SYS$TRANSACTION_SERVICES.EXE 80131400 80131600 CPULOA.EXE 80131C00 80133200 LMF$GROUP_TABLE.EXE 80133C00 80134600 SYSLICENSE.EXE 80134A00 80136000 SYSGETSYI.EXE 80136600 80137C00 SYSDEVICE.EXE 80138000 80139600 MESSAGE_ROUTINES.EXE 80139C00 8013C800 EXCEPTION.EXE 8014CC00 80155400 LOGICAL_NAMES.EXE 80155C00 80157600 SECURITY.EXE 80157C00 80159400 LOCKING.EXE 80159A00 8015C200 PAGE_MANAGEMENT.EXE 8015C800 80164800 WORKING_SET_MANAGEMENT.EXE 80165000 80169600 IMAGE_MANAGEMENT.EXE 8016A000 8016CA00 EVENT_FLAGS_AND_ASTS.EXE 8016D000 8016E400 IO_ROUTINES.EXE 8016EA00 80175C00 PROCESS_MANAGEMENT.EXE 80176200 8017E800 ERRORLOG.EXE 8018BC00 8018C600 PRIMITIVE_IO.EXE 8018CC00 8018DC00 SYSTEM_SYNCHRONIZATION_UNI.EXE 8018E000 8018F600 SYSTEM_PRIMITIVES.EXE 8018FC00 80193000 **** STARTING MEMORY DUMP.... ERROR WRITING 127 BLOCK(S), STARTING AT VBN 5471 - STATUS = 00000054

13 years, 5 months

It lives!

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Guess what computer I brought back from the dead? > http://raspberry-python.blogspot.com/2012/10/it-lives-hint-1.html > I'm thinking somebody on this list has used one and will recognize it. > Just a simple screenshot to start with... It's Applesoft, but says "PRESS RESET" at the top, so.... an Apple II (not plus) with Applesoft language card? Or upgraded with Applesoft ROMs? Personally I like Integer Basic :-) Tim.

13 years, 5 months

C.B. Falconer 1931-2012

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Reposted from comp.os.cpm by Charles Richmond I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away. He used to be a regular in alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.cpm, and comp.lang.c. He had a long and involved history with computers and programming. He was born in Switzerland on September 13, 1931 and passed away in Damariscotta, Maine on June 4, 2012. I'm sure most everyone here remembers him and his posts to Usenet. One of his many accomplishments was writing an article for an early Dr. Dobbs magazine on implementing floating point on the Intel 8080 microprocessor. His resent resume and the downloadable files from a recent web page of his... can be found at You can a recent resume of his at the ClassicCmp website: http://tinyurl.com/8fudn4o His obituary is at: http://tinyurl.com/8ahongj -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 5 months

Epson QX-10 question

by fjkraan＠xs4all.nl

> you put in a disk, you get a cursor, but that`s it. Puter won`t give > disk back. Do I have to take it apart? The SD-321 drives have a lock mechanism that should release the disk when the button is in the 'out' position. But it doesn't as the old grease keeps the lock in place. I have observed this with both the QX10 and the TF-20 which both use the 1/3 height SD-321 disk drives. So far I managed to get my disks back by prying the lock upwards (or was it downwards?) with my fingers (not very pleasant work). Everytime I plan to fix the drive by replacing the gunked grease, but so far it didn't happen. Greetings & success, Fred Jan

13 years, 5 months

Blue screen of Basic

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

and not playing Traveller? ------------------------------ On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 7:37 PM PDT Zane H. Healy wrote: >At 5:44 PM -0400 10/24/12, Sridhar Ayengar wrote: >>Zane H. Healy wrote: >>I've always preferred the following. The key part is how I end line 10 >>with the spaces and the semicolon. >> >>10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD "; >>20 GOTO 10 >> >>The first program I ever wrote in BASIC was (drumroll, please): >> >>10 GOTO 10 >> >>Peace... Sridhar > >LOL! Well I guess it has the advantage of being 'bug free'. :-) I >find myself tempted to turn on my Commodore 64 and try it. > >BTW, I'm quite happy to report that as part of the project to redo my >darkroom, I've set my Commodore 64 back up (yes, in the darkroom >area). In fact part of the time I was supposed to be working on the >Darkroom last Saturday I was actually playing a game on the C64. :-) > >Zane > > > >-- >| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | >| healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast | >| | Photographer | >+----------------------------------+----------------------------+ >| My flickr Photostream | >| http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/ | >| My Photography Website | >| http://www.zanesphotography.com | >

13 years, 5 months

Nasa Technical Report - An operating system for the LINC computer

by spedraja＠ono.com

Searching in the NASA Technical Reports Server I've located this document: An operating system for the LINC computer Url: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660006438_1966006438… It appears to contain the source code of a BLINK compiler. Regards Sergio

13 years, 5 months

QBUS/UNIBUS transceivers (again)

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

Hey all, Since I'm stuck in a hotel for the IEEE LCN conference, I had nothing better to do than look up lots and lots of datasheets in search for an ideal driver/receiver pair for modern DEC bus circuits. Warning: below is a lengthy missive. Ignore it if the subject line doesn't turn you on (so to speak). The driver is generally the easy part; there are quite a few FETs out there that ought to do the job acceptably. You need a total (driver + receiver) capacitance of 9.35 pf, which is generally the tallest order, but it's easy enough to limit the slew rate of the pulldown by putting a series resistor in line with the gate. I believe Peter Wallace recommended the FDV301N, which seems as good as any; put one for the driver and one at the source as a gate for a group of them, and you should have a pretty effective transceiver. It might take a bit of space, and you'll eat a lot in assembly if you're not doing it yourself, but as Dave McGuire pointed out, if your main logic is contained in a micro and/or CPLD/FPGA, you're going to have plenty of space. And for SOT-23 packages, you can probably get close enough to the density of the original (quad-gate) DIP devices. The FDV301N claims a Coss of 6 pf, though I haven't done my homework to think about how the other parasitics affect the input capacitance. The receiver is a little harder. In the National (now re-branded by TI, which is hilarious considering the part was obsolete and long out of production by the time TI acquired them) app note on the DS3662, they indicate that they essentially just did the obvious thing and used a comparator for the input. Doing so with discrete comparators is possible, but generally costly in terms of both money and board space, and I've found parametric searches of comparators to be a bit tricky, depending on where you look. At least looking through what Digi-Key offers (and they're pretty much the best parametric search I know), there are few quad units fast enough which don't break the bank. The MAX9108 is a good candidate, though (quad gate for $4, or $2 in quantity 100, which you'd certainly be looking at for more than one or two units). It's a TSSOP-14 package, which isn't exactly tiny, but it's smaller than a DIP in most respects. It has a dual-element cousin, the MAX9107, which comes in a SOT23-8 package; I believe you could achieve higher density that way, though you'd end up spending more per gate. The input bias current is in the sub-uA range, but there's no input capacitance listed, which bothers me a bit. The outputs are TTL-compatible, which is generally compatible with 3.3v logic as well; it has a typical Voh of slightly more than 3.3v, but at 100uA source current, which is well within the handling range of the built- in protection diodes of most FPGAs (and it's close enough that it probably wouldn't trip them). Another good candidate is the NE521, which has some very nice logical gating inputs (which would save some external components if you're using bidirectional lines on the FPGA side). It's also a dual part, but unfortunately only available as small as SOIC-14, which doesn't provide for a lot of density (it is available in DIP, though, which should make some people happy). Its propagation delay is 12 ns instead of the MAX910x's 25, though both are still comfortably below the 32 required for DEC buses. Bias current is a max of 40 uA over temperature range (DEC max for the receiver unit load is 80 uA). It also does not provide an input capacitance; I suppose it's common with comparators? This one is also not as cheap per gate; even in quantity 100, it's still almost $4 each ($2 per gate), which probably offsets the convenience of having the enables built in to the part for most people (especially considering the larger package size). In any case, the solution doesn't seem as infeasible as I previously thought. Anyone want to go in on a few test boards together to split the costs? It seems like it would be prudent to make a few short (2 inches, maybe) dual-width boards to test input and output capacitance/waveforms before we try making whole boards, and if someone has a UNIBUS machine they're willing (and able) to test out on, that would be handy since I definitely do not. Also, are there major flaws in the above analysis? Am I totally smoking crack? The app note I referenced is here: http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snla139/snla139.pdf There's another interesting related one here: http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snla134/snla134.pdf - Dave

13 years, 5 months

Looking for Roland LAPC-I & Creative CT1320C

by skaye2005＠gmail.com

I'm a newbie here so I apologize in advance if I am not doing this right! Anyways, I am a collector of vintage soundcards and I'm looking for a Creative Sound Blaster CT1320A or CT1320C as well as a Roland LAPC-I ISA sound card. Thanks!! Steve On 10/25/2012 2:30 AM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Send cctalk mailing list submissions to > cctalk at classiccmp.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > cctalk-request at classiccmp.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > cctalk-owner at classiccmp.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of cctalk digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Blue screen of Basic (Zane H. Healy) > 2. Re: VMS newbie with sick VAXstation (mc68010) > 3. Re: Superbrain schematics (Anthony Wallach) > 4. Re: pdp 14/30 chassis on ebay (Jochen Kunz) > 5. Re: Another Apple 1 for sale? (barythrin at gmail.com) > 6. Re: Blue screen of Basic (Sridhar Ayengar) > 7. Re: Surplus DE9F to 8P8C adapters available (Philip Pemberton) > 8. Re: PERQ monitor problem (was HP 9845 power supply > diagnostics) (Tony Duell) > 9. Re: Blue screen of Basic (Chris Tofu) > 10. Re: Surplus DE9F to 8P8C adapters available (Pete Turnbull) > 11. Re: Surplus DE9F to 8P8C adapters available (Tothwolf) > 12. Re: Blue screen of Basic (Francois Dion) > 13. Re: Blue screen of Basic (Zane H. Healy) > 14. QBUS/UNIBUS transceivers (again) (David Riley) > 15. Re: Blue screen of Basic (Chris Tofu) > 16. Re: QBUS/UNIBUS transceivers (again) (Dave McGuire) > 17. Re: QBUS/UNIBUS transceivers (again) (Guy Sotomayor) > 18. Re: QBUS/UNIBUS transceivers (again) (Dave McGuire) > 19. Re: Another Apple 1 for sale? (mc68010) > 20. Microvax II won't boot, hardware error? (Kevin Reynolds) > 21. Re: This is a VT180 right ? (Dave McGuire) > 22. Re: Surplus DE9F to 8P8C adapters available (Pete Turnbull) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:35:09 -0700 > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Blue screen of Basic > Message-ID: <p0624081accadd679caef(a)[192.168.1.199]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" > > I've always preferred the following. The key > part is how I end line 10 with the spaces and the > semicolon. > > 10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD "; > 20 GOTO 10 > > Zane > > > > At 10:56 AM -0400 10/24/12, Francois Dion wrote: >> On the last guessing thread (it lives! about the >> CES apple clone), William said: >> "Make it PRINT "HELLO" and then GOTO 10 for me >> one more time, won't you please?" >> >> And the C64 fans were also left in want, so I present to you the Blue >> Screen Of Basic: >> >> http://raspberry-python.blogspot.com/2012/10/blue-screen-of-basic.html >> >> I'm sure quite a few people already know what it is... The follow up >> post wont be a clue but simply a detailed post on this modern retro >> computer. >> >> >> Fran?ois >> >> -- >> solarisdesktop.blogspot.com - raspberry-python.blogspot.com >

13 years, 5 months

An 80386 CPU S-100 Board

by monahan＠vitasoft.org

In case you missed it on one of the web postings I would like to mention that Andrew Lynch and I have just completed a prototype of a new 80386 Master/Slave CPU S-100 bus board. This exciting board is capable of reaching up to12MHz in an S-100 system with an active terminated bus. This is an ongoing project. It utilizes the 16 bit mode of the 80386 to address the 16MG of RAM the S-100 bus is capable of addressing. A second daughter board system with an overhead ribbon cable connector is planned to for daughter board(s) to enlarge the RAM space up to the 4GB the CPU is capable of addressing (using high density static and DRAM chips). If you would like to read about this board please look here:- http://s100computers.com/My%20System%20Pages/80386%20Board/80386%20CPU%20Boa rd.htm It is too early to accept "orders" for this board, but if you would like to be kept in the loop as this board evolves keep an eye on the above page. John Monahan Ph.D e-mail: <mailto:monahan at vitasoft.org> monahan at vitasoft.org Text: <mailto:monahan at txt.att.net> monahan at txt.att.net

13 years, 5 months

Another Apple 1 for sale?

by david＠classiccomputing.com

> Did I miss something or is there another Apple 1 for sale > > http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2221860/Rare-working-Apple-1… Yep, and this one works, so maybe it will sell, considering the last one >from Christie's did not - http://www.classiccomputing.com/CC/Blog/Entries/2012/10/9_Another_Apple_1_A… This German auction house is seriously marketing the auction too. There's video of the machine working and they put an ascii graphic of Woz on the little monitor! http://www.breker.com/english/index.htm Best, David Greelish - Computer Historian, Author, Speaker, Blogger & Podcaster - Founder of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society Producer of the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 1.0 - 2/9/13 http://about.me/davidgreelish

13 years, 5 months

Blue screen of Basic

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

mine was in Atari 400 BASIC - 10 REM membrane keyboards are for the birds ------------------------------ On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 2:44 PM PDT Sridhar Ayengar wrote: >Zane H. Healy wrote: >> I've always preferred the following. The key part is how I end line 10 >> with the spaces and the semicolon. >> >> 10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD "; >> 20 GOTO 10 > >The first program I ever wrote in BASIC was (drumroll, please): > >10 GOTO 10 > >Peace... Sridhar >

13 years, 5 months

PERQ monitor problem (was HP 9845 power supply diagnostics)

by colineby＠isallthat.com

My recollection is it was both rolling and skewed. I need to get it in the queue for our CRT doctor to look at. He's got a never ending stream of Cubs to deal with supporting our BBC classroom systems. I have to nudge the PERQs monitor in among them, as well as an HP 2645 scan card that's puzzling me. I may have mentioned (?) I took the expedient measure of swapping the base from one monitor for the other to address the cable sheathing issue we had. This leave us the backup monitor on the injured list waiting for the doc. --Colin ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote: >> >> Tony and Rik, >> >> Can you guys just sanity check something? A colleague was scratching >> his head with this, so it seemed sensible to ask. >> >> On the mains input cable to the power supply, for 240 v external >> supply, what's the test voltage we should see across each pair? > >There are several versios of the HP9845. The 9845A is very differnet to >the 9845B. The 9845B anmd 9845C (colour) are similar apart from the >monitor section (which includes a lot of digitial circuitry, jsut to keep >you on your toes...) > >I beelvie the PSU come in sevearl version too, and that 9845Bs wit hthe >'high speed language processor' have a different PSU to normal ones. > >You can get my schematics for the 9845B from the Australian site, but of >course they only cover the machine I've got -- a 9845B with high speed >language processoar and enhanced monochrome nonitor. > >With that in mid... > >The easiest place to check the mains wiring is on the barrier stip of >faston terminals on the side of the PSU casing. There are 4 connections >there, iot may look like more, but theuy common together internally. All >the wires of the same colour are linked. > >Numbering the tags with 1 at the top and 4 at the bottom, and assuming the >votlage selector is set to 230V: > >Between 2 (White/.Red/Geey) and 3 (Grey) you should see full mains voltage > >Between 1 (White/Green/Grey) and 2 (white/Red/Grey) you should see half >mains voltage > >Btween 3 (Grey) and 4 (white/Yellow/Grey) you should, again, see half >mains voltage. > >The cooling fans are 120V AC units. The left hand one is conencted >between tags 1 and 2. The right hand one is conencted between tages 3 and >4. The internal circuitry of the PSU include asmall mains transformer >used ot power the chopper cotnrol circuitry. With the selector set ot >230V, the priomary of this transformer also acts as an autotransformwer >to split the maisn in ahlf for the fans. > >Are the fans running? If so, then the mains input is almost certainly >correct. > >This power supply is complicated -- very. The one I have is on 5 circuit >boards, in contains 17 ICs and has 4 chopepr transistors. Take care! > > >> >> BTW Tony, thanks again for your advice on the PERQ. It's been a working >> display for a couple of weeks now. I still on the lookout for an >> engaging app to demo. At the moment its just running Spy. > >What was the problem with the monitor? > >-tony >

13 years, 5 months

fine pitch soldering

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> From: David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: An 80386 CPU S-100 Board > > I suppose. I've had terrible luck with bridging, but I never > really kept at it long enough to get much good at soldering > fine-pitch parts. My wife got me a pretty decent iron as a > birthday present recently, though (I picked a good one!), so > I may be doing a bit more in the not-too-distant future (more > so if my QBUS board ever gets off the ground, because I don't > really feel like paying for assembly). > I have been doing fine-pitch soldering for a long time. I do stuff as fine as 0.4mm lead pitch, which is a bit of a pain. The bulk of stuff I now make with a pick and place machine and a reflow oven (converted toaster oven with thermocouple ramp-and-soak controller). But, I still do a lot of prototypes and rework by hand. The MOST important thing is a stereo zoom microscope with a long working distance. A working distance of 2-3" is necessary to get your hands and a soldering iron under it. A ring light can be made from a ring of PC board material that fits around the snout of the microscope. Carve a ring in the copper of the PCB so it becomes two concentric rings. Use a 12 V DC wall-wart power supply and 8 while LEDs, with about 1 K Ohm series resistors. Make a piece of cardboard with a 1/2" hole in it, use this as a mask to isolate the light from one LED at a time and bend the LEDs so they all converge about where the viewing area is. This mask is for alignment only, store it somewhere as you will occasionally bump the LEDs and have to realign them. Solder braid can be used to remove excess solder bridging the leads, which WILL happen frequently. For big, high-density chips, this is my procedure: First, put a tiny dab of solder on 2 corner pads. Align the chip with the pads, and solder the corners that have the extra solder. Now, use a piece of solid wire to apply GC brand (or equivalent) liquid flux across the leads. Just dip the end of the wire into the bottle and then wipe it across the leads. If the board has enough solder plating, you may not need to add any solder, just use the iron to reflow the pad solder onto the leads. I generally add a little speck of solder every 4th or 5th lead as I go down the rows. I use .015" solder, the thinnest I seem to be able to get nowadays. You used to be able to get .010" fairly easily. I've probably done about a thousand of these now using this technique. It is probably best to wash off the flux residue later with solvent. Jon

13 years, 5 months

VMS newbie with sick VAXstation

by spectre＠floodgap.com

So I finally got the needed MMJ serial cables and got my VAXstation 3100 setup using the Solbourne S3000 as a serial console. The boot monitor comes up just fine in cu, but the machine remains at the boot monitor and does not start VMS. TEST 50 says ?41 DEVASSIGN, TEST A SHOW DEV shows an ESA0, which I assume is the 10b2 Ethernet because it shows a MAC address, and a DKA0, which is a 1.05GB drive. So, I do BOOT DKA0 and it appears to start (transcribed from my Android, sorry for typos): %SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT Mapping the SYSDUMP.DMP on the System Disk %SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT SYSDUMP.DMP on System Disk successfully mapped %SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT Mapping PAGEFILE.SYS on the System Disk %SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT SAVEDUMP parameter not set to protect the PAGEFILE.SYS OpenVMS (TM) VAX Version V7.2 Major version id = 1 Minor versio [cut] %DECnet-I-LOADED, network base image loaded, version = 05.0D.00 %DECnet-W-NOOPEN, could not open SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSEXE]NET$CONFIG.DAT **** Fatal BUG CHECK, version = V7.2 KRNLSTAKNV, Kernal stack [cut] (system dump follows, I can type this in if you want it) Being a total novice to VMS system administration, what should I be looking at? -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- MOVIE IDEA: The E-mail Signature Who Loved Me ------------------------------

13 years, 5 months

Superbrain schematics

by adwallach＠gmail.com

Hi Andrew. I have a SuperBrain QD that I had up in the loft. Unfortunately the display no longer works as the graphite core that fits into a donut coil attached to the side of the Video case has snapped in two places. Though the display appears to work no characters are visible. It does boot and if the dir command is entered it is apparent that it is attempting to display the output as the cursor moves across and down the screen. I have tried looking for spares via Google but no luck. Hopefully knowing what the gizmo should do I could fix or replace it. Thus if you have still have the schematic package available in digital or hard copy, I would be grateful if you could let me know. I am retired and wrote business applications in the 1981's and am curious to revisit them to see how things have changed since the heady days of CPM 2.2. I realise that your post goes back to 1998 but it would be great to receive a reply. Regards Anthony

13 years, 5 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 110, Issue 59

by saquinn624＠aol.com

Message: 13 Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:19:19 -0700 From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: VMS newbie with sick VAXstation Message-ID: <CAM2UOw+PkTqm2cGiuWoVOKkPuLcBw1LkSyyBEFVcSfCqOWsVyQ at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On Oct 23, 2012 12:14 PM, "Cameron Kaiser" <spectre at floodgap.com> wrote: > > This is an M76. It doesn't need the terminator, does it? (It does not > have one.) > My 3100 M76 came with the external SCSI terminator. I'll have to take a look at it and see if there is a part number on it. -Glen The /76 has dual SCSI busses, so the presence or absence of the external terminator is not critical for proper operation of the internal devices, provided that the internal bus line is properly terminated. Another vote in favor of hacking in a CD-ROM drive and booting from the disks. Unfortunately, VAX-VMS doesn't have the "Minnie-VMS" environment that Alpha does.

13 years, 5 months

Removing mineral deposits from circuitboards

by derschjo＠gmail.com

So, here's a fun one: See the picture(s) here: http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/gridcase/ This is in a Gridcase 3+ I picked up last week off eBay for what seemed at the time to be a pretty great price. Heard some stuff rattling around inside so I opened it up before doing anything else and what I seem to have is a few large mineral deposits on the main circuit board. It's pretty well localized,and aside from a completely dissolved drive support post and a few rusted screws there really isn't all that much rust(amazingly). And thankfully the corrosion that's present has almost entirely avoided any custom ASICs or other parts on board. Everything else in the system aside from the bad patches in the pictures is clean (although the whole thing smells like a dank basement, geeI wonder why) and the underside is almost corrosion free so there's a non-zero chance I could get this running again. Except I have no idea how to go about removing the buildup of... crud... on this thing. It's pretty solid, I've soaked it for a few minutes in water and chiseled at it (gently) with the tip of an xacto knife and I got some of it off that way but it's very slow goingand I'm afraid of removing what's left of whatever's underneath it before I can identify it. Any tips for removing this stuff? (Also, as an aside -- my mails to this list are clearly making it to the list, but I never see my own posts/responses anymore... any ideas?) Thanks, Josh

13 years, 5 months

Interesting ePay find...

by jon＠jonworld.com

I was browsing on e-bay and found these TI-1500 systems. I have no link to the seller. I never heard of these before. http://www.ebay.com/itm/TI-1500-unix-computers-/251167418839 After a lot of Google I found this: http://www.?home.?unix-?ag.?org/?engel/?ti/? (which isn't working) The software that's available for it is still quite pricey: http://www.csisoft.com/applications/ti.php I don't see a NetBSD port for it, either. -- -Jon Jonathan Katz, Indianapolis, IN.

13 years, 5 months

HP 9845 power supply diagnostics

by colineby＠isallthat.com

Josh, My apologies! I got tangled up with other things and dropped the ball. Do nag me if I seem to go away. Software -- I'm afraid the PERQ software is in the end of the archive they are still cataloguing. So I tried my luck a bit. I came across a games disk which appeared to have a copy of an asteroid clone on it, but the disk didn't appear to be readable. I've imaged it, but the system threw every kind of data error when attempting to read it. Attempting to execute the file I *did* managed to extract hung the PERQ up good and proper. I'm reasonably confident the drive is reading well and this is genuinely a diskette issue. I've also imaged a set of POS based utilities, but all those disks appeared quite badly damaged (one of them was actually clear in sections). I don't think much will come from a forensic examination of the raw image. But by happenstance, we have two copies of that set, and I've not tried the second set yet (about 8 diskettes). Depending on cirqs this weekend I might get an hour or two to slave over a hot PERQ backing off files and validating media. Nag me again Sunday, if I fail to report back! --Colin Josh Dersch <derschjo at gmail.com> wrote: >On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 11:43 PM, Colin Eby <colineby at isallthat.com> wrote: > >> >> >> BTW Tony, thanks again for your advice on the PERQ. It's been a working >> display for a couple of weeks now. I still on the lookout for an engaging >> app to demo. At the moment its just running Spy. >> > >Were you able to archive any of the software you got with the PERQ? Any >chance of making it available if so? Always looking for more stuff to run >on my PERQ (and PERQemu) :). > >Thanks, >Josh > > > >> -- Colin >> >

13 years, 5 months

Skipware level, late 2012

by lproven＠gmail.com

I just collected a new PC carcase this morning which was advertised on my local Freegle group (i.e., Freecycle by another name) last night. Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme 6850, 3GHz, 8GB DDR2 RAM. I fitted my own disks and graphics card. Apparently, that is the level of specification some people are throwing out now. Quite remarkable. It's jolly nice and very fast, though! -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

13 years, 5 months

Another Apple 1 for sale?

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

Did I miss something or is there another Apple 1 for sale http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2221860/Rare-working-Apple-1…

13 years, 5 months

VMS newbie with sick VAXstation

by technobug＠comcast.net

On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:56:00 -0700 (PDT), Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> wrote: >>> OpenVMS (TM) VAX Version V7.2 Major version id = 1 Minor versio [cut] >>> %DECnet-I-LOADED, network base image loaded, version = 05.0D.00 >>> >>> %DECnet-W-NOOPEN, could not open SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSEXE]NET$CONFIG.DAT >> >> Bizarre, even missing DECnet/OSI configs (which is what that error points >> to) shouldn't cause a crash. >> >> Time for a conversational boot. At the dead sergeant prompt (>>>) do B/1 >> >> You'll get a SYSBOOT> prompt. Type 'set startup_p1 "min"' then C to >> continue. This will at least get you running. Once logged in do 'product >> show product' and give us the output. DECnet is obviously not happy. > > So I did this. First time through, it appeared to boot happily and asked > for the date and time, let me log in, and then crashed, so I never got to > the point where I could PRODUCT SHOW PRODUCT. > > Next and all subsequent times through, it crashes at the same point above > without even getting to a Username: prompt, MIN or conversational boot or > otherwise. > > Ideas, or reach for the OpenVMS CD? Is there an easy way to use the SCSI > port on the VAXstation 3100 (I hear it has a different pinout)? Are you assuming the hardware is operating properly? I went through this a while back with one of my VAX Station 3520s. I could sometimes boot to a usable point, but then crash - normally, it wouldn't make it that far. I put a known good drive in and attempted to load a new version of VMS. It would get partially through and then crash. Turned out that a +5 volt supply had nearly 0.5 V of ripple. Changing a few caps in the power supply fixed things up... ->CRC

13 years, 5 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