test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Does anyone have any ideas on how to rehab cables that have gone stiff? Case in point, most of my old Apple cables are semi-permenantly set into odd curly shapes. -- 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?

17 years, 2 months

[FS] university surplus

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: [FS] university surplus > From: Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at Update.UU.SE> > Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:53:52 +0100 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >Hi > >A guy popped up on the vintage computer forums advertising his ebay >sales of surplus items. Some nice DEC and Sun gear: > >http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=14859 > >The PDT-11 caught my eye, what is that thing? Some kind of micro-11 > >Cheers, >Pontus. In one word Yes. PDT-11 is one of three possible configurations The most popular is the PDT-11/150 with is a box with 2 8" floppies (rx01 equivilent) that can run RT11 (cpu is LSI-11 + up to 28KW of ram and up to 6 serial ports). Next most common is PDT11/130 which is a Vt100 with base PDT11 CPU but instead of Floppies it has a parallel interface TU-58 dectape mounted. Each tapes are 256kb so it can store the same as RX01 Floppy and it can run RT11, but tape IO is SLOW. Least common was the PDT11/110 with is the Vt100 with bast PDT11 cpu but NO local storage device. The expectation with this is to remotely load it with MOP protocal from a host. Allison

17 years, 2 months

DEQNA/DELQA cab kits the same or different?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, I'm going through a box of DEC boards and I found a DELQA, probably my only one, and in the box is a cab kit with "DEQNA" stenciled below the AUI connector (DEC P/N 7-21202-1K). Will it work or do I need a DELQA-specific cable? I have very little Qbus Ethernet experience, or Unibus Ethernet experience... or for that matter, VAXBI Ethernet experience - in fact, the only DEC machines I've ever worked with that _had_ Ethernet were desktop/busless systems (uVAX 2000, MIPS machines...) Any and all advice or suggestions welcome. I remember that there was a driver issue/VMS version issue between DEQNAs and DELQAs (and DESQAs?) but since I never had to set any of them up when they were new, the details have eluded my memory. Thanks, -ethan

17 years, 2 months

Large cache of classic computer in Umeå, Sweden

by axelsson＠acc.umu.se

Hi List! I'm helping a friend to empty a storage which he has to have empty by the end of the month so time is short. This message is a mix between "look what I've got" and "Help, need a good home for this lot". I'm taking over a large part of this collection but I can only take care of the most precious computers. The contents of the storage is a lot of personal stuff and other random objects, but he also collects old computers with focus on Norsk Data machines. More or less of what we can see so far, this is the major parts... - ND-5700, two full rack, one complete, one missing a CPU. I'll take care of this system. - ND-Filestore, disks and tape. I'll take this one too - ND-110 Compact, 4 machines. I'll save all and reserve one for my self. - ND-110 Satellite, about 10 machines. I'll try to save all, reserving one or two myself. - ND-Butterfly, 2-3 machines, all spoken for. - A huge stash of manuals. Will be saved and scanned. A lot of doubles exists. See the list at http://www.ndwiki.org/wiki/Virtual_library#ND_Library_Teg_in_Ume.C3.A5 - ND-Notis terminals. (Nokia VT220 terminals). Circa 80 terminals. Only a few are spoken for, anything left near the end of the month will go into the dumpster. :-( - NEC Monograph, new systems in boxes 4-6 systems, complete with graphics controller and all. For running DTP under Win 3.0/3.1, monochrome monitor Maybe two spoken for. - A lot of Archie computer laptop parts, 286. - ISA IDE controllers, new in box. approximately 30 cards. - Some IBM system 3 manuals, RPG2 - ... plus a lot more that I can't remember right now. We have found a number of other computers among all the scrap, some really nice ones. I liked the ABC 1600, an unix machine made by Luxor with a twistable screen with white phosphor. But those computers are going to remain in my friends custody. If time permits we could send stuff by mail or in some other way. We might store some stuff if we know we could ship it off after the move but this month will take all our time just to clear space and move the bigger machines around. Local pickup is preferred and will get priority over any shipping. My phone number is int+46 (0)73 98 67 881. /G?ran

17 years, 2 months

Surplus stores in San Francisco / Silicon Valley.

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Your first, last, and perhaps only stop should be Weird Stuff Warehouse. yuk If you're in town this weekend, go to the DeAnza College flea market Saturday morning.

17 years, 2 months

xxdp diag listings? FKACA0.BIC?

by brad＠heeltoe.com

Does anyone have xxdp diagnostic listings, specifically for some of the 11/34 diagnostics, like FKACA0.BIC? I am led to believe the diag listings were put out on microfiche. Any chance someone has scanned these? thanks -brad

17 years, 2 months

The VAX is running

by david＠thecoolbears.org

After a very long wait and a lot of effort, my VAX is finally running OpenVMS. So, you know how boat builders break a bottle of Champaign on their new creations? Well, my tradition is to get Colossal Caves running on all new machines. The problem is that while I can find lots of downloads for OpenVMS, none of them seem to work. Mostly it seems like FTP'ing the data file corrupts it. Any suggestion on how to get advent running on VMS?

17 years, 2 months

LA30 - anyone got one?

by legalize＠xmission.com

I always thought the VT05 was DEC's first terminal, but it appears that the LA30 was introduced contemporaneously with the VT05. Does anyone have an LA30 in their collection? I know a few people here have a VT05, but I don't recall anyone saying that they have an LA30. If you have one, we could use some decent pictures of it. The extant pictures on the net are small and don't show the keyboard and controls clearly, nor do they show an example of the output. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 2 months

GSA: Concurrent Computer setup (Houston, TX)

by legalize＠xmission.com

Item 71QSCI09223115 (search for this on their site) Looks like a honkin' big pile of NASA gear. Anyone near Houston on the list? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 2 months

HP262x keyboard voltage

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Does anyone have an HP262x (2621, 2623, etc) terminal (with a DA15 keyboard connector) and a voltmeter to hand? If so, could you please open up the keyboard (4 screws on the bottom), plug the keyboard into the terminal, power up, and measure the voltage either between ; Pin 16 (+ve) and pin 8 (-ve) of any of the 3 chips in the keyboard Or Across the electrolytic capacitor on the keyboard PCB to the left of the 'Tab' key' Alternatively, measure the voltage between pins 12 (+ve) and 10 (-ve) of the DA15 socket on the terminal (temrinal powered up, it doesn't matter whether the keyboard is plugged in or not) All 3 should be the same voltage. I am guessing it's 12V, but it might be 5V. Tnakis in advance for any help. -tony

17 years, 2 months

HP 9825 16K 09825-66523 memoryboard failure

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I have a 16K memoryboard for my HP9825A it suffered from a bad -12V and destroyed all the rams TMS4080. I bought from ICI 32 pcs. nos uPD411AC-2 replaced all the rams but I'm getting an error when testing the board. The HP9825 isn't under suspect because it works okay with another 16k board. The systemtest (from the tape) says : 60K board failes Address 60100,60300,60400 not always the same sometimes only 60400. Bit 9 sense 0 or 1 (not consistent sometimes 1 sometimes 0) I swapped the LB9 and UB9 chips on the board with other 411's(new ones) But the error stays I replaced the refreshcounters decoupling caps but nothing. So any ideas are welcome. -Rik

17 years, 2 months

PDP-8/M power supply questions

by toby＠coreware.co.uk

I've just started the rebuild of one of my PDP-8/Ms. This is an early machine with the power supply mounted on the left of the chassis. One potential problem I am slightly concerned about is that the front two power transistors have been desoldered and removed. Does anyone know if these are a vital part of the PSU and if so what the part numbers are so I can try to source replacements? You can see a picture here http://www.pdp8.co.uk/ (enlarged view here http://www.pdp8.co.uk/files/2009/03/00016.jpg) If anyone else has a PSU of this type, could they take the opportunity to take a few pictures for me. Would be really useful to have another reference source for the rebuild. All the best, Toby -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

17 years, 2 months

Surplus stores in San Francisco / Silicon Valley.

by andrew＠smokebelch.org

I'm over in San Francisco on a mixture of business and pleasure, and was wondering if there are any electronic surplus stores I should check out? They don't have to be chock-full of vintage computing bargains (if such places exist anywhere any more) -- even places with surplus components would be good... Cheers, Andrew

17 years, 2 months

Text differences (Was: The VAX is running)

by david＠thecoolbears.org

>> Source files should not be giving you a 'record problem' (since they're >> text) - but there is another potential issue. I downloaded some BASIC >> source files on a PC, zipped them up and transferred them over to a VAX. >> I picked one to compile (this is BASIC we're talking about), and it >> failed with an error per line. I opened up the file in TPU and >> discovered that there was a 'spurious' CR at the end of each line. I >> removed those and everything compiled and linked. Take a look at the >> line-level translation that may be happening. -- Ian > New-line is not really standardized. > Although the machines may all claim to be using ASCII, > newline may be represented by > CR LF, > CR, > LF, > or LF CR (rarest) > > The reasons are enough for a thread of its own. This is almost exactly what I was seeing. I was able to resolve the problem by NOT transferring the source files with FTP's binary image mode turned on. I was then able to compile the source and I'm now in a maze of twisty passages all alike.

17 years, 2 months

YASBEC documentation needed

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Title says it. Does anyone know if the documentation for the YASBEC single-board computer has been scanned or is otherwise available? I have one, along with an unassembled memory board and the PCB for what appears to be a video card. Cannot find a shred of information on either of these. Steve --

17 years, 2 months

The VAX is running

by david＠thecoolbears.org

> Did you try this copy of the code? It appears to have the data file > in plain-text (atext.txt). > > <http://simh.trailing-edge.com/games/adventure.zip> I tried that and atext.txt looks better, but the fortran source files are still messed up some how - at least they won't compile and the error messages imply that there is still a record problem. I also tried a precompiled executable with the improved atext.txt, but that doesn't work either.

17 years, 2 months

That museum dumping vintage apples is at it again.

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-37-Vintage-APPLE-Macintosh-Museum-Surplus_W0QQit… http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-Commodore-128-64-Peripherals-Museum-Surplus_W0QQ… I wish I lived around there. Pickup only. brian

17 years, 2 months

vintage computer sighting

by legalize＠xmission.com

In the first part of "Three Days of the Condor", there is a PDP-11 clearly visible with tan colored panels and switches. I didn't see a shot close enough to read the model number, however. There is also a very loud printing terminal shown, one I haven't seen before, but its cabinet styling is similar to the styling on the VT05 cabinet. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 2 months

LA30 - anyone got one?

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:50:29 -0500 From: Tom Uban <uban at ubanproductions.com> Subject: Re: LA30 - anyone got one? I have an LA30 in my collection, although it isn't easily accessible at the moment. Unfortunately, the LA30 uses a non-standard paper width, or perhaps it was standard at the time and just isn't anymore. This combined with immovable tractor feeds make getting paper for it difficult. --tom ---------------Reply: Any idea what the actual width is? I'm about to throw out a few boxes of pinfeed paper of various sizes; maybe some is useful after all.

17 years, 2 months

Tek 40XX keyboard on epay

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

190294196331 seller thinks it's made of gold.. -Rik

17 years, 2 months

New Cromemco Forum

by dm561＠torfree.net

Hi there! In case you hadn't heard, there is now a new Google group for us Cromemco fans at: http://groups.google.com/group/cromemco?hl=en If you're interested why not join us and help make it a friendly place for exchanging info etc. Hope to see you there! Mike

17 years, 2 months

Wanted: CompuPro, DEC, Hitachi, Sage items [clean text re-post]

by js＠cimmeri.com

I'm looking for the following items for various hobbyist educational projects I'm working on. Top hobbyist dollar paid. - CompuPro CPU-68k S-100 board. - DEC HSD05. - DEC BA353. - DEC BA350 w/ BA35X-VA pedestal kit. - Hitachi Superscan SVGA monitor, models CM1587 or CM1711. - Sage II 68000 computer. I'm in Maryland, so unless local would need shipping. Please reply with asking price and eBay handle if you have one. Thanks very much, jS (mdnttrain on ebay)

17 years, 2 months

Tek 40XX keyboard on epay

by rikbos＠xs4all.nl

190294196331 seller thinks it's made of gold.. -Rik

17 years, 2 months

Text differences

by bqt＠softjar.se

Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > On Sat, 4 Apr 2009, Ian King wrote: >> > Source files should not be giving you a 'record problem' (since they're >> > text) - but there is another potential issue. I downloaded some BASIC >> > source files on a PC, zipped them up and transferred them over to a VAX. >> > I picked one to compile (this is BASIC we're talking about), and it >> > failed with an error per line. I opened up the file in TPU and >> > discovered that there was a 'spurious' CR at the end of each line. I >> > removed those and everything compiled and linked. Take a look at the >> > line-level translation that may be happening. -- Ian > > New-line is not really standardized. Definitely not. > Although the machines may all claim to be using ASCII, > newline may be represented by > CR LF, > CR, > LF, > or LF CR (rarest) ...or just a record end. > The reasons are enough for a thread of its own. If you even think that you can find a reason. :-) Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 2 months

Tape records

by bqt＠softjar.se

Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: > In article <2877e57dba24bc750739ccec428ded28 at lunar-tokyo.net>, > Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> writes: >>> In article >>> <f4eb766f0904031640g7c90507eo92411f16365021e1 at mail.gmail.com>, >>> Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> writes: >>> >>>> Back in the day, we used to move copies around on magtape, bypassing >>>> all sorts of stream-of-bytes issues. Today, of course, most things >>>> expect streams of bytes, so that's how most things are presented. >> On Apr 4, 2009, at 12:53 PM, Richard wrote: >> >>> How does magtape avoid the stream-of-bytes issue? >> Magtape has blocks. > > What exactly is a block? > > Is it defined as a sequence of bits or as a sequence of bytes? > > If its just a sequence of bytes that define a block, I'm not sure I > understand how blocks avoid the stream-of-bytes issue. Good question. And people have some interesting answers as well. :-) A tape block is simply a bunch of bytes. The point is that it is a spcific number of bytes. A single read or write will process one tape block. This is important. It means that doing two consequtive writes for n bytes will not produce the same result as one write for 2*n bytes. It also means that if you request to read n bytes, and the tape block is shorter, you will not get data from the next tape block in addition to the current, but instead the read will return less data. Assuming the block is n bytes long, and you request a read for x number of bytes. If x > n you will get the whole block, but no more than the block. If x < n you will only get x bytes from the block, while the rest will be skipped. The next read will read from the next block anyway. Each block is physically separated from other blocks by a inter-block gap. This is meta-data that is not received as a part of a read, but which can be inferred from the number of bytes actually read, unless you get a data overrun error, in which case the block was larger than the read allowed for. In addition to this, you also have something called file marks. When you read and the tape position is at a file mark, you usually get a return value indicating that you read 0 bytes. This is a hint that it was a file mark you passed. Convention then have it that two consequtive file marks indicates the logical end of tape. However, ANSI-formatted tapes look and work slightly different, but that is all still implemented on top of the concept of tape blocks and file marks. Those two details are defined by hardware. This means that a tape can never properly behave like a stream of bytes. As I've said, Unix have a way of trying to make tapes look like a stream of bytes, but noone uses that, since it's not useful, nor meaningful. Even in Unix, you can control these things correctly from a program. That's what ioctls are for. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 2 months

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