Well I work at Caltech (Pasadena) and live in a city immediately adjacent and
I'm not aware of any good "classic computing" spots. Wish I did.
My favorite electronics spots are Dow (now Mavac) and C&H, both on Colorado
Blvd. Tim Shoppa turned me on to Empire Electronics in Old Town Pasadena.
That's about it.
Good luck,
John
> I'm going to Los Angeles, CA for a few days next week on business. Are there
> any good spots to check out for classic computing / electronics gear? I'll
> probably be in the Pasadena area. Last time I went I was in Ceritos, and all
> the cool electronics surplus places I've heard of were closed. I also have
> the luxury of several equipment boxes that will be shipped along with me and
> returned on my way back :)
>
>
>
5-6 years ago someone decided I could provide a good home for (most of) a
retired NorthStar Horizon... It came without drives, software and the HSIO-4
serial port card for which I did receive a manual.
I didn't have a pressing need to have it working, so I've taken my time
assembling the parts necessary to revive the beast - I finally had enough
supporting materials to plug it in last weekend.
The first thing I saw was a bright flash and "pop!", which led to a quick
unplugging. I couldn't locate anything that appeared to have blown, so I
_hoped_ that it was a stray piece of conductive junk that got blown away by
the initial power.
I then became methodical, and disconnected the power supply from the
motherboard, and used an external supply to try charging each of the great
honking electrolytic capacitors - they were all OK: internal leakage is
really good, considering their age and period of inactivity. With the PSU
running unloaded, the caps charged to 20 volts on the 16V rails (positive
and negative), and about 11V on the 8V line - perfectly reasonable for an
unloaded supply.
Next I reconnected the boards and repowered the beast - the unregulated
supplies were all holding up without complaint, so I tried booting a disk.
The floppy drive was spinning, and it stopped when I hit Reset, but there
was no drive select or seeking.
Then something (it used to be a tantalum cap) caught fire. Unplug again.
The former capacitor was the input filter on the 7812 12-volt regulator on
the HRAM6 64K DRAM card. There was also a dead short on the 7812 output,
caused by its output filter tantalum. There's also a wrecked tantalum on
the input side of the 78L12 regulator on the CPU card: it didn't burn, it
just blew half its coating off (it may have been the original flash...?).
Now, the questions: what the hell happened? Failures of tantalums (I've
witnessed) are usually due to reversed polarity: not only are these
particular parts long-term residents of the boards, but the unregulated +12V
supply is the highest DC voltage in the machine - how did the - terminal (DC
Ground) become more positive than the +? How did that happen on two S-100
cards when the main supply, motherboard and floppy drive show no problem?
Has any other Horizon (or S-100) keeper experienced anything like this?
Next, the problems: I've got replacement regulators and capacitors, but
what if the damage spread to the DRAMS (16Kx1, qty. 36) and the boot EPROM
(2708, labelled HGT E000)? If I need them, does anybody have spare
memories, or a copy of the EPROM image? I can even rig a 2716 (one
supply... yay!) as long as I know what belongs inside.
I really want to know what went wrong before I try plugging this thing in
again.
Regards,
Bob
Tomorrow at about 1400 I will be going to a computer disposal
session that is held infrequently. Among other items that I will
be taking for disposal is the subject printer. It is a unique
item in that it is one of the very early inkjet printers and
information about it is scarce.
It is of typical size and weight for a desktop unit - about the
size of an Epson dot-matrix unit - and in rather good condition.
If anyone wants this piece as a collectible and is willing to pay
packing and shipping from 92037, I will hold it back. But, I must
know before 1400 PST or it's gone!
- don
Just got a copy of OS/2 Warp version 3 with the Bonus Pack. (on diskette ... )
Loaded it to a notebook I have, 486sx - 8 megs , seems to run just fine. Problem is getting it onto my LAN and the Internet. Win 95 worked fine on this notebook, slow but fine, and I'd like to see what OS/2 looks like on the 'net.
Unlike most everyone here, I am NOT a rocket scientist and I'm wondering if there is a fairly simple download or something that would let the notebook see the LAN. The manual says something about needing a LAN server and MPTS. Thanks!
Does anybody know how to get a Toshiba 4010CDT to accept a larger hard
disk. It comes with 4 GB but when I want to work with three operating
systems (MSDOS; modern Windows and LINUX) this will be a problem if I also
want to include applications! Conversely, I am satisfied with the computer
otherwise, although it is somewhat older by now, and would like to upgrade
instead of retiring it or maintaining two Laptops in order to have space
for the bigger operating systems.
I did look at Toshiba's site but found nothing except some information that
such support is NOT provided by them! They suggest an alternative company
but this company does not show any sign of supporting my model. I also
would be happier to find a way to alter the BIOS and buy a HDD locally,
though I did find one company offering hard disks which they suggest will
work with the 4010CDT, while giving no clue that they in some way deal with
the BIOS problem. (In any case, it would mean importing the HDD, with a
bunch of associated problems, especially if something goes wrong. I have
my fill of that trouble!)
Thanks to anyone able to help.
Bob
Someone just gave me a boxed Acorn Electron and donated a Tandy TRS-80
Colour Computer 2 at the same time.
I have no desire to hang onto the Tandy. It seems to power up ok and be
in very good condition under the dirt (it needs a clean!) - no case
yellowing etc.
Comes with:
Fitted dust cover
Couple of boxed cartridges
Several original tapes
TV + tape recorder leads
Tape recorder (standard 80's thingy)
Operation manuals etc.
Several large Tandy Basic turorial books etc.
It was destined for the skip otherwise so I couldn't say no - somebody
*please* take it off my hands :-)
cheers
Jules
I recently got my damned Linux box up and running and fully plan on using
it as a web/email server. Is there a decent and as close to free as
possible (hey, I admit it, I'm poor) antivirus that supports scanning of
email on the server?
-John
----------------------------------------
Founder, Lead Writer, Tech Analyst
and Web Designer Boff-Net Technologies
http://boff-net.dhs.org/index.html
---------------------------------------
Steve,
I use a program call PUTR (http://www.dbit.com/pub/putr/) which can create
RX50 formatted diskettes from any good DSDD 5.25" diskette. These are often
available at junk stores, scrap dealers, thrift shops, etc.
Lyle
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
Polling list wisdom here...
Hmm, any suggestions for anything creative to do with around 450 or so
5V relays? I have a bucket full here (literally).
I can't help thinking I should be able to wire up some sort of
interesting computer-esque demonstration with them! (Something nice and
power-hungry, noisy, and with plenty of obligatory status lights :-)
Sorry, brain randomly churning over here :-)
cheers
Jules
Damn site was working a couple of months ago, now Yahoo/Geocities claim
it doesn't exist, and Google seem to have done a spendid job of only
caching half the page, which is nice of them.
Unfortunately the bit I want is to do with the 4D-25 machines which is
on the missing part :-(
Don't suppose any SGI collectors have their own archived copy of the
page do they? (It was just the one page to the site IIRC; it was just
huge)
Original page was:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/2258/4dfaq.html
I won't post the Google cache link as it's huge. Does Google's web cache
- upon finding a big page - just cache half of it? Surprised they don't
either cache a whole page or nothing at all to be honest. Half a page
isn't much use to anyone :)
I *finally* got around to picking up that SGI which I posted on the list
about just before Christmas. I need to wire up an adapter cable for a
later SGI keyboard (I can borrow said keyboard from the museum then just
to make sure the system I got works), plus it'd be nice to know what
graphics options I have. There are a couple of daughter boards on the
graphics board so hopefully it's one of the better-specced systems...
cheers
Jules
Hi folks,
Had a mail from 'Steve' who's looking to buy some blank or reusable RX50
disks for a colleague of his who still writes using his DECmate III. I was
going to send some of mine but when I found that he's north of Boston MA I
figured one of you guys would be in a better position to help him.
His email is steve03054(a)yahoo.com so if you could reply direct to him that'd
be smart.
Cheers,
--
Adrian/Witchy
Owner & Webmaster, Binary Dinosaurs
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - possibly the UK's biggest online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - ex-monthly gothic shenanigans :o(
I just got an HP ScanJet ADF.
Does anyone have an opinion on this either way? Worth keeping or not up
to the strict scanning standards of a Vintage Computer Collector?
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
'lo everyone...
Who would be interested in a *new* classic computer..
it would have room for almost 640K of memory, the remainder being taken
by
a simple ROM monitor (like the apple I monitor, or the Polymorphic
monitor)
What Microprocessors are still being sold new? 6502? Z80?
It would consist of a small board with RAM, ROM, CPU, and a serial port.
Best use would be to connect it to a PC running a terminal emulator for
IO and Mass storage.
Is anyone interested?
Perhaps I should just go find a simulator? :^p
ron.
Interesting thread ... nice reading.
For the design of a small 6802-based system check:
www.pdp-11.nl/homebrew/startframe.html
and click the links "interface hardware" and "interface
monitor". The project has had little time lately, but I am
working on the mechanical part: a new sleakier front.
Anyway,
it has the CPU (...), 8 kbytes RAM, 8 kbytes EPROM,
and is very easy to expand with as much I/O you want.
Hey, if you are going to connect a "PDP-11" console
to it (relax chaps, a home-made one, the real consoles
stay on my machines!) you need *lots* of I and O.
All fits on a single board. I still can write a program
in hex opcodes for the 6802.
Risk of starting a flame: Motorola is way nicer to work
with in assembly language than all the Intel crap.
Words hi- and lo-byte swapped ... go figure !
gd lck with your hardware,
- Henk, PA8PDP
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ron Hudson [mailto:ron.hudson@sbcglobal.net]
> Sent: donderdag 19 februari 2004 20:57
> To: Classic Computers
> Subject: OT? What 8bit Microprocessors still available new?
>
>
> 'lo everyone...
>
> Who would be interested in a *new* classic computer..
>
> it would have room for almost 640K of memory, the remainder
> being taken by a simple ROM monitor (like the apple I
> monitor, or the Polymorphic monitor)
>
> What Microprocessors are still being sold new? 6502? Z80?
>
> It would consist of a small board with RAM, ROM, CPU, and a
> serial port.
>
> Best use would be to connect it to a PC running a terminal
> emulator for IO and Mass storage.
>
> Is anyone interested?
>
> Perhaps I should just go find a simulator? :^p
>
> ron.
Solved the kermit problem, and I see that, according to kermit, when
connected to the VAX:
CD = off
DSR = off
CTS = off
DTR = on
RTS = on
Still, as with tip and cu, no response from the VAX.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd(a)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Re: OS/2 support on laptops:
First thing you have to do is make sure that card/socket services or whatever
is required to get PCMCIA cards recognized. You will also need the NDIS
driver for whatever NIC you want to use. I use a 3com 3c589 in my thinkpad 770 and
it works fine. You really need to get Warp Connect. You can still make disks
off the CD if you have to. I have had to do that and noted no problems. Setting
up LAN access is not too bad as long as you do it right the first time.
Basically all you need is IBM peer. The main bug is that if the LAN settings are
incorrect, you get a message about netwrksta.400 or something like that won't
load so you have you edit the ibmlan.ini file. The os2.setup newsgroup people
can help you out if you have problems.
--
I am not willing to give up my liberties for the promise of 'security'
Steve,
Go look for the Prolog service manual!
Here's a list of the stuff that I got at the hamfest.
Joe
Just got back from the last (1/2) day of the hamfest. Todays haul;
Two boxs of HP and Tektronix manuals.
A pile of IBM RS/6000 docs
A studio grade RGB monitor (hopefully to replace SEVERAL of the Sun, HP
and SGI RGB monitors that I current have)
A Compaq Portable III
A HP 214A Pulse generator (an oldie but it will pulse 100V into 50Ohms
and none of the new stuff will do that)
A Sinclair ZX-61 with accessories (Glen, are you listening?)
An IBM PS/2 model 8525 (Kelvin?)
A pouch with a HP Logic Probe, Currrent Probe, Chip Clip and Logic Pulser.
Joe
PS the LD Xpro programmer has the plug in for the 44 pin PLCC 80x51
type devices.
Two days down and one to go. Here's the haul so far"
HP 9845B (appears to be loaded)
HP 1000 computer (yes, another one!)
HP 1351 Graphics Generator (vector graphics for the HP 1000!)
HP 3468 DMM with HP-IL interface
Three large boxs of early data books
Original early IBM PC. Appears to be untampered with.
Some NEC APC III manuals. Passed up several more boxfuls of these.
Anybody need them?
NuBus prototypiong board made by Apple. This one has two ROMs and a
68000 installed at the factory. Anybody know what the story is on that?
P133 notebook computer with Network Stumbler installed (this should be
fun!)
A like new Logical Devices XPro EPROM programmer with the PLCC plugins.
An IR black body source with controller
Drum roll please. Taa Da!
National Semiconductor Pacer SBC
Passed up a Sparc notebook computer but got a lead on some Apple Lisa
parts.
Joe
I have a bag of lamps with no part number or identification. They appear
to be either 18V or 24V lamps, and a picture (85K or so) is at
http://www.rain.org/~marvin/lamps.jpg. Anyone know what these things are
used for?
Hi
Why not go with something like one of the DSP chips.
The ADSP218x family of parts are enough like a real processor
that one could do quite a bit. They don't require much
external glue parts and can bootstrap them selves from a flash
memory. The 2181 has 80K or so of internal RAM and
runs at around 30 mips ( or more for newer versions ).
You don't even have to deal with the DSP functions if
you don't want to. They are still a very powerful processor.
Things like bit-banging old flopy disk or tape drives
are well within it's capabilities ( I mean raw data ).
One can buy demo boards for around $100 and then make
add-ons to increase it's functions.
Anyway, just a thought.
Dwight
>From: "J.C. Wren" <jcwren(a)jcwren.com>
>
> If I were going for audience appeal, and you don't plan to be
>booting CP/M or some other free readily available O/S from the get-go,
>I'd aim for something that was was well supported. For me, SIMH was a
>powerful tool in getting the Z80 SBC up. I'd compile the BIOS under the
>SIMH Z80 emulator running CP/M, upload it to the Linux box, and download
>it to the ROM emulator. Turn around time was very quick.
>
> Problem is, Z80's aren't real interesting. There's lots of
>software, but they're kinda old hat. Homebrew 6502 systems seem a lot
>less common, making thier interest level, for me, higher. 1802's even
>more so. I would favor a CPU that has a static core. Being able to toy
>with the clock is helpful, especially in the early stages of bringup.
>
> While concievable that you could write a disk-based OS on a 8031,
>the architecture doesn't lend itself well to that. I'd pick something
>that has a real stack, with a real von-Nuemann architecture. Yes, you
>can play games with an 8031 and overlap the code and data space by
>AND'ing /PSEN and /RD, but the instruction set still lacks a real stack,
>and you're limited to 1.5 16 bit registers (I'm counting the MOVX @P2 mode).
>
> Obviously, building something with an external 32 bit bus is going
>to be more work than a 8 bit or 16 bit bus. 16-bit address and 8 or 16
>bit data would be middle of the road. Are you going to stick to 5V
>logic, or 3.3V? With 3.3V logic, you've got a lot more available
>choices, these days. If you wanted to play with an ARM core, as far as
>I know, there are no 5V ARM cores. Or if there are, they're not very
>common.
>
> One neat part is the Philips LPC2106. 128K bytes FLASH, 64K bytes
>RAM, all on chip. ARM core, timers, 2 serial ports, GNU tools readily
>available. But it's SMT only. And 3.3V I/O with a 1.8V CPU core.
>
> Something like a 6809 would be fun (I like those). When you're
>done, you could boot OS/9 or Flex/09. If you want to write on the bare
>metal, it's got a nicer instruction set than the Z80, but lacks
>registers. You make up for that with more addressing modes, and better
>relative branches. With a 6809E, the bus interface doesn't get much
>easier. The original 6809 was a lot more trouble to work with because
>of the clock requirements.
>
> 1802s are fun, too. The have a really neat instruction set that's
>way ahead of it's time, in some respects. It lacks a real stack,
>however, so you have to use 7 instructions are so to build a real stack
>in external memory. There's a fair amount of software, but CPUs are
>going for ~$10/ea, and the commonly availabel CDP1802ACE is only a
>3.2Mhz part. If you want the 5Mhz part, you need a CDP1802BCE, and
>those are going for a lot more money. The max specs say you can run a
>1802 at 6.4Mhz with 10V, but the > 5V parts are less common. You also
>have to use all CMOS glue logic. Single stepping and using switches to
>enter/edit memory is trivial. The CPU design supports that pretty much
>instrinsically, with little extra logic needed.
>
> Then there's the venerable 6800. Lots of software, lots of
>emulators, and OSs are available. Common, easy to find. Sorta like the
>Z80, though. It's common.
>
> You could build a 68000 system. Those are pretty easy to find, have
>good support, etc. 68K homebrew systems seems to be far less common
>than Z80s and 6800s. I don't know what support chips you'd need/want to
>make it play. I've used 68K systems, but never built my own. Slightly
>on the sluggish side, if you're looking for speed. I don't think the
>68Ks started getting fast until the 68030 or so. The 68020 was better,
>but still no speed demon, IIRC.
>
> The NSC32000 would be an uncommon homebrew system. Software may be
>hard to find, including emulators. I don't see a lot of 32K parts going
>by on eBay, so you might be hard pressed to come up with what you need
>one. Same for the Zilog Z8000.
>
> These are all the common 8, 16 and 32 bit systems I can recall. At
>some point, trying to homebrew something like an 80286 gets to be too
>much trouble. And little reward, in my book. I feel good everytime I
>throw away anything x86 that's less than an Athlon 1Ghz. And even those
>are getting ready to get moved to the "why bother?" list. There were
>some oddities, like the 6502 Forth chip, and several other Forth
>processors. I don't think I'd want anything with BASIC build in, like
>the 8031AH-BASIC (you said you wanted bare metal, anyway).
>
> Any basic families I missed here, not counting variants like 6510s,
>CDP1805s, etc?
>
> --jc
>
>Ron Hudson wrote:
>
>>
>> On Thursday, February 19, 2004, at 04:06 PM, Philip Pemberton wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I'd be very tempted to add GPIB (aka HPIB, aka IEEE488) just because
>>> it's a
>>> very usable bus for connecting stuff like disc drives up.
>>>
>>>> Best use would be to connect it to a PC running a terminal emulator for
>>>> IO and Mass storage.
>>>
>>> I'd also add an IDE interface and an 80MB hard drive - fun factor
>>> again :)
>>>
>>
>> I suppose we'll have to take the busses out to an edge-card connector...
>>
>
>
The equipment has been spoken for. Thanks.> If anyone is interested in the
following, it is free for pickup (in the
> neighborhood of Salem, NH I believe).
>
> Please contact Marty at: mpdts20004 at yahoo.com
>
>=====
>
>> Hickok mdl 539B tube tester W/crt adapter
>> Dumont mdl 304-A o'scope
>> HP mdl 623B frequency/time counter
>> EICO mdl 304 signal generator (I built from a kit while attending Mass
>Radio School in 1961)
>>
>> Note: I haven't used any of this equipment since the 70's.
Ok, thanks to the cable Chris Bartlett sent me (thanks, Chris!) I was
finally able to bring up my Bernoulli box.
It seems the first drive system I tried has a problem. The driver does
not see the drive when it loads. The other unit is identified and comes
up just fine.
Now the problem is reading or formatting disks. I can't get a directory
listing or anything. I keep getting sector errors. Using the RCD utility
to perform a surface scan, I find that each disk I'm trying basically
fails at the same point. Sector #0 is always bad, then the rest of the
disk up to cylinder 195 or so verifies fine, and then the errors start
again. This is across the 10 or so disks I've tried.
I've tried cleaning the heads as best I can. I have a disk cleaning cart
but the pads were gone, so I replaced them with new pads (the fuzzy side
of some velcro patches) and ran that through the drive. It would be
otherwise very difficult to get at the head by disassembling the drive (I
tried) and besides, if the heads were still dirty they would not be able
to read any part of the disk, right?
Any pointers here? It seems odd that, with each disk, the first sector
would be bad but then the rest of the disk would be good, only to fail
again at a certain point. Was there ever a 20MB Bernoulli drive? If so,
my theory is that maybe these were written on a 20MB drive and I'm trying
to read them with a 10MB drive, and there's a format incompatibility.
Somewhat frustrating...
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
>From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk>
>
>On Thu, 2004-02-19 at 23:43, John Lawson wrote:
>> On Thu, 19 Feb 2004, Jules Richardson wrote:
>>
>> > Polling list wisdom here...
>> >
>> > Hmm, any suggestions for anything creative to do with around 450 or so
>> > 5V relays? I have a bucket full here (literally).
>>
>>
>> Form? Contacts? terminal type?
>
>D'oh, I put that in and then managed to obviously slice it out before I
>hit send :/
>
>Majority of them are just DPDT types, with a few even just SPDT. Not, I
Hi
With as little as a SPDT, you can build all of the needed computer
functions. the DPDT gives one more freedom in design. Using
DC and blocking diodes adds another advantage. If I were going
to build such a machine, I'd build it as a single bit alu and
serial registers. I'd have a diode matrix with pegs or thumb
screws for program memory. I'm not sure how I'd deal with RAM.
Of course, using just relays would work but it'd be nice to
have some type of non-powered method. The early Zuse machines
had a mechanical setup ( that didn't work ). Maybe biased reed
relays is an option.
Bit width could be anything, even adjustable. Four bits is actually
quite useful and less waste compare with 8 bits when you consider
that a true false flag would waste an entire word width.
Dwight
>suspect, enough poles to do anything serious with. They're all
>PCB-mounting miniture types (honking great things with open contacts
>would be nice, but I wouldn't have the space to store them even if
>someone gave me a pile of them!). No idea of switch speed, but then
>maximum speed would not be a design goal anyway!
>
>They were pulled from a pile of phone exchange boards; the various CPUs,
>ROM, RAM and a few useful logic chips + transistors were what I was
>really after as usable spares, but it seemed a shame not to save all
>those relays too.
>
>cheers
>
>Jules
>
Any recommendations out there for good Nascom resources?
I know nothing about these creatures; I went round to pick up a Torch
floppy drive unit from someone a few days ago and they happened to ask
if I wanted a Nascom before they threw it out...
It's housed in the biggest, ugliest wooden case ever so that's going to
have to go! The system board is a Nascom 2, whilst the PSU says Nascom
3a - maybe there was a crossover point when that practice was common?
Inside there's just a system board and memory board, and no bus slots
for anything more - is the bus anything standard and were other 3rd
party boards typically added to these machines?
It's complete apart from a broken reset key on the keyboard (luckily
said key is seperate from the rest of the keys, so fitting any similar
sized switch would not look out of place). The clock circuitry looks to
be bodged to hell and back; there's even a bit of breadboard glued to
the inside of the case with an IC plugged into it :-)
Several stray wires are evident amongst the nest of ones which are still
attached to things, so it'll be a while before I can see if I can get it
running!
Still, a curious one, and my first wooden cased computer. I'll have to
keep an eye out for a better shell for it though... (actually I know
where there's some antique furniture rotting in an abandoned manor
house... I'll have to go looking for a suitable cabinet, maybe there's
something there I can use :-)
cheers
Jules
>From: "Don Maslin" <donm(a)cts.com>
>
>
>On Thu, 19 Feb 2004, Tony Duell wrote:
>
>> >
>> > Hard drives are almost always driven by a DC motor (off the +12v line).
>>
>> Perhaps you could tell that to my RK05s, RK07s, RL01s, RL02s, SA4000s,
>> etc, etc, etc.
>
>And the Quantum 8" fixed drives which used an AC motor and
>required different motor pulleys for 50 and 60 cps power.
>
> - don
>
Hi
I remember when I worked for Intel ( late 70's ). We bought
a number of things like printers and disk drives that were
for 220VAC/50Hz. On the disk drives, we used a file and some
fine sandpaper to reduce the pully size on the motor to work
with 60Hz. The voltage problem was solve by a transformer
the was to be used on the uScope product. They made nice
auto-transformers. The printer I modified just needed the
transformer and the change of a cogged belt pully. I bought
the pully from a place called Motion Industries. Now if it
was 24VAC/400Hz, that is a different conversion problem.
For those doing the auto-tranformer method, you need to
know that only half the power goes through the transformer
for a 110/220 or 220/110 change.
Dwight
A friend and I were discussing 8" floppy drives recently, in particular
that they often have two pulley sizes so that the rotational speed is
360rpm regardless of 50Hz or 60Hz operation, assuming that they are
setup properly.
The question then turned to whether or not a fixed hard drive would
typically be designed in a similar fashion, such that the spindle
would rotate at the same number of RPM when configured for 50Hz or
60Hz operation, or if they did not worry about the speed differences
as the media was not removable?
Of course todays modern hard drives are driven with DC motors, so
they are not affected by the A/C frequency differences.
Does anyone know what manufacturers routinely did on this account?
--tnx
--tom
>From: "Tom Uban" <uban(a)ubanproductions.com>
>At 10:14 PM 2/19/2004 +0000, you wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 2004-02-19 at 21:54, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
>> > On Thu, 19 Feb 2004, John Honniball wrote:
>> >
>> > > Not many. You may find that only the high-volume distributors have
>> > > any of the 6502, Z80 or 6809 generation -- and you'd have to buy
>> > > in *huge* numbers. But having said that, many CPUs are simply not
>> > > made any more. So, you'd have to go to a specialist in obsolete
>> > > semiconductors.
>> >
>> > Or just sacrifice an old Apple //e (common as dirt) or C64 (common as
>> > lint) and use the chips inside.
>>
>>Well old process control equipment, especially telecoms hardware, tends
>>to be a good source of Z80 family chips, and typically there's no merit
>>in preserving the boards as they are.
>>
>>Better than wrecking a self-contained complete computer, even if it is a
>>common one!
>>
>>cheers
>>
>>Jules
>
>Z80s (and others) along with their support ICs are readily available from
>places like: http://www.jameco.com
>
>--tom
>
>
Hi
Still, all this stuff is from NOS ( New-Old-Stock ) as well as
bits and pieces from various manufacture stock rooms.
The most common 8 bit still in regular manufacture today
would most likely be the 8051 stuff from Philips. It is a
ugly processor to use as a general purpose processor but
quite nice for things like microwave oven controls. Large
memory access ( 64K ) is a pain.
Dwight
Some of you guys probably have piles of databooks lying around :-)
Can anyone tell me anything about a Philips MAB8031AH-12P CPU? Is it a
clone of anything more common? (given the 12MHz clock speed, 40 pin DIP
and a mid-80's build date, I doubt it)
There's a couple in each of the LVROM players that I'm trying to get
working, but I can't find any (accessible) data on the web about them...
(the ICs, not the players - I *may* have tracked down service manuals
for the latter)
cheers
Jules
Got a Perq 2T1 with the KME 1514 portrait monitor - the display on the
front of the unit gets as far as 999 on power-up so it's looking
reasonably healthy. Only problem is an unstable display; it seems to be
missing out every 4th or so scanline, plus there's some horizontal
instability (I can see what appear to be characters on the display, but
they aren't readable at all)
Anything prone to giving up in these monitors? From looking on the web
it appears they have a few custom parts in them :( (of course it's
*possible* the fault is in the system, not the monitor I suppose)
Oh, and if anyone's dishing out Perq wisdom there's also a Perq 1 with a
display fault too - on that one the image is centered on the screen, but
squashed into about 80% of the normal width, and maybe 10% of normal
height. It's also very non-rectangular in nature.
cheers
Jules
I have just finished listing a bunch of HP, Tektronix and Fluke manuals
on E-bay including several Logic Analyzer manuals. I've also listed sevel
books of particular interest to this list including a Synertek data book
showing the Super Jolt, SYM-1 and System 65 computers; an IBM Selectric I/O
manual; a front panel for some kind of military computer; an AIX
installation manual; and a manual for a Motorola EXORbus 6800 SBC.
<http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=rigdonj>
Joe
Does anyone know if CMU TCP/IP is still available anywhere? I was
going to try installing that and gcc on my VAX running VAX/VMS 5.x (I
don't recall the exact version number, since I haven't used it for a
while), but couldn't find anyplace to download it from. Since I seem
to recall the vax having kermit installed, I'm figuring that, since
I've installed latd on my FreeBSD box, I can just invoke kermit on
both machines and copy files over the LAT connection. Will that work?
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd(a)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
I've got a whole bunch of boards that fall into a couple of different
"categories" of what they look like. I've got a few different types of
HP boards and some "unlabelled manufacturer" boards (the DC1127
pictures). Note that I've probably got better looking boards on
average than these; these are just the ones off the top of the pile
that were easy to bring inside.
The pictures are up at:
http://computer-refuge.org/classiccmp/pics040216/
I'm going to guess the HP boards are labelled by the part number of the
machine they go in; the 09885 are for a 9885 and the 02116 are for a
2116? And before you go asking me for the boards, stop. I'm not going
to do anything with them until I know what they are. : )
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
I was working on my annual OpenVMS licensing a little bit ago, and
noticed that some more Layered Products licenses have been added;
UCX-IP-CLIENT, UCX-IP-NFS, UCX-IP-RT. Not sure what exactly they add
to TCPIP.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
Jay-
I think the parts for the M4 9914 are still available from
http://www.pine1nc.com/M4.htm
I ordered a new revision EPROM from them a while back.
-Ken V.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jay West [mailto:jwest@classiccmp.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 12:32 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Can anyone help this gent?
I mean, the SCSI board that goes into the M4 data drive is what I need, not
a scsi board for a host cpu.
Jay
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 12:28 PM
Subject: Re: Can anyone help this gent?
> No, but I would give my left arm for a SCSI board for the M4 Data drive :\
>
> Jay West
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bruce Lane" <kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com>
> To: <cctech(a)classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 11:20 AM
> Subject: FW: Can anyone help this gent?
>
>
> > I received E-mail this morning from a fellow who's trying to track down
a
> Windows or DOS driver for an M4 Data 9-track tape drive.
> >
> > I wasn't able to provide much in the way of insight. If anyone here can
> help, please reply directly to him. Thanks much.
> >
> > Forwarded message follows.
> >
> > -=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> >
> > From: Yung.Robert(a)northropgrumman.ca
> > Subject: Re: M4 Data 9914R
> >
> > I currently have a M4 Data 9914 Tape drive running off of a VAX system
> > that is reaching its end of life. I need to be able to transfer the
> > functionality of this system to a PC... hence the need for a PC version
> > of the driver. The code that runs the tape drive is written in Fortran
> > 77, which will also have to be converted to some other PC compatible
> > language. In any case, my current headache is to either find a win/dos
> > driver for the M4, or source a new 9mm (800-1600bpi) tape drive that
> > comes with a win/dos driver. Is there anything at all that you could
> > help me with?
> >
> > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> > Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
> > Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
> > kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
> > "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with
> surreal ports?"
> >
> >
> >
>
> ---
> [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
>
>
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
***************************************************************
This E-mail is confidential. It should not be read, copied, disclosed or
used by any person other than the intended recipient. Unauthorized use,
disclosure or copying by whatever medium is strictly prohibited and may be
unlawful. If you have received this E-mail in error, please contact the
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I already directly replied to him an hour ago and left a list of 4 sites he
can obtain software from for use with most Windows operating systems. I
hope it helps him since he was just looking for Windows software/drivers to
support the unit on a PC, not hardware.
-John Boffemmyer IV
At 01:51 PM 2/19/2004, you wrote:
>Jay-
>
>I think the parts for the M4 9914 are still available from
>http://www.pine1nc.com/M4.htm
>
>I ordered a new revision EPROM from them a while back.
>
>-Ken V.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jay West [mailto:jwest@classiccmp.org]
>Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 12:32 PM
>To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>Subject: Re: Can anyone help this gent?
>
>
>I mean, the SCSI board that goes into the M4 data drive is what I need, not
>a scsi board for a host cpu.
>
>Jay
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org>
>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
><cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
>Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 12:28 PM
>Subject: Re: Can anyone help this gent?
>
>
> > No, but I would give my left arm for a SCSI board for the M4 Data drive :\
> >
> > Jay West
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Bruce Lane" <kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com>
> > To: <cctech(a)classiccmp.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 11:20 AM
> > Subject: FW: Can anyone help this gent?
> >
> >
> > > I received E-mail this morning from a fellow who's trying to track down
>a
> > Windows or DOS driver for an M4 Data 9-track tape drive.
> > >
> > > I wasn't able to provide much in the way of insight. If anyone here can
> > help, please reply directly to him. Thanks much.
> > >
> > > Forwarded message follows.
> > >
> > > -=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> > >
> > > From: Yung.Robert(a)northropgrumman.ca
> > > Subject: Re: M4 Data 9914R
> > >
> > > I currently have a M4 Data 9914 Tape drive running off of a VAX system
> > > that is reaching its end of life. I need to be able to transfer the
> > > functionality of this system to a PC... hence the need for a PC version
> > > of the driver. The code that runs the tape drive is written in Fortran
> > > 77, which will also have to be converted to some other PC compatible
> > > language. In any case, my current headache is to either find a win/dos
> > > driver for the M4, or source a new 9mm (800-1600bpi) tape drive that
> > > comes with a win/dos driver. Is there anything at all that you could
> > > help me with?
> > >
> > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> > > Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
> > > Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
> > > kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
> > > "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with
> > surreal ports?"
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > ---
> > [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
> >
> >
>
>---
>[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
>
>
>***************************************************************
>This E-mail is confidential. It should not be read, copied, disclosed or
>used by any person other than the intended recipient. Unauthorized use,
>disclosure or copying by whatever medium is strictly prohibited and may be
>unlawful. If you have received this E-mail in error, please contact the
>sender immediately and delete the E-mail from your system.
>***************************************************************
----------------------------------------
Founder, Lead Writer, Tech Analyst
and Web Designer Boff-Net Technologies
http://boff-net.dhs.org/index.html
---------------------------------------
Greetings. You're getting this note because one of your e-mail
exchanges comes up on a Google search for "Northgate Keyboards." I'm
looking for one like you describe--with the control key just to the left of
the "a." Still have it? Wanna sell it?
********************************************************
William R. Freudenburg
Dehlsen Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4160
phone: 805-893-8282 fax: 805-893-8686
********************************************************
I received E-mail this morning from a fellow who's trying to track down a Windows or DOS driver for an M4 Data 9-track tape drive.
I wasn't able to provide much in the way of insight. If anyone here can help, please reply directly to him. Thanks much.
Forwarded message follows.
-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
From: Yung.Robert(a)northropgrumman.ca
Subject: Re: M4 Data 9914R
I currently have a M4 Data 9914 Tape drive running off of a VAX system
that is reaching its end of life. I need to be able to transfer the
functionality of this system to a PC... hence the need for a PC version
of the driver. The code that runs the tape drive is written in Fortran
77, which will also have to be converted to some other PC compatible
language. In any case, my current headache is to either find a win/dos
driver for the M4, or source a new 9mm (800-1600bpi) tape drive that
comes with a win/dos driver. Is there anything at all that you could
help me with?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"
Hi,
how do I go about to find me a PDP-11 in Scandinavia
and the close neighbourhood? England is close enough
for a mesure of closeness. I live in the south of
Sweden, close to Copenhagen.
TIA for all help.
/Ulf A.
Does anyone happen to know the spec's for a NCD Explora 451's power brick?
I just got one minus the power brick :^( I can't wait to try it out, it
looks like it's just the sort of device I've been wanting to get my hands on
as a VT420 replacement. Based on the spec's it looks like it talks LAT and
X-Windows out of the box :^) And even has VT320 emulation and will take a
DEC PS/2 keyboard :^)
Zane
Sir,
I have found an email dated Sep 29, 2002 from Eric Bal using a Google
search.
I would like to contact Mr Ball. Can you assist?
We operate a museum of old HP computers in Melbourne. The only "desktop"
machine that we do not have between the period 1969 and 1991 is the 9020
(or 9000/520). We would like to contact Mr Bal to discuss possible trade
or purchase.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Jon Johnston
Apologies for asking about specific chips on here - I hate doing that!
Does anyone have any data on a TCA240 IC, dating from the mid 80's, 16
pins. Looks to be some form of dual op-amp (there a quite a few of them
in some video circuitry that I'm trying to sort out)
A post to sci.electronics.repair proved no use, and the only web hits
are obsolete specialist resellers of the ICs themselves.
pin-outs would be great, a datasheet would be fantastic ;-)
fingers crossed...
cheers
Jules
Hi!
You send me 5 EA-850B and 5 EA-850C for sharp CE150 printer?
I send money by postage.
Send me e-mail please for total.
Thanks.
Best regards
Salvatore Piscera
Earlier this evening, I went down the basement to do some
laundry and noticed that one of the lightbulbs had burned out, over
where I keep some of my computer equipment. I only walked back there
with the intention of changing the light bulb, but, after the
discussions about VMS and VAXen, I noticed my VAX 4000-200 sitting,
all forlorn, under the basement steps, and underneath a TRS-80, which
was underneath an HP 9825B.
The VAX deserved better than that, to be closer to my sound equipment,
PERQs, Sun Sparcserver 1000, Sun Ultra, Sun 4/110 and it's stack of
four shoeboxes, a Microvax and PowerMacs, etc. Moving it, however,
wasn't easy, but I didn't think about that. Firstly, there was a
rather narrow passagway in front of the VAX---just, barely, wide
enough for the VAX, since opposite the VAX is shelving. Just past the
shelves is a not-easily movable tall file cabinet, just inside the area
where I wanted to move the VAX to.
One little problem: to get the VAX to its destination, I couldn't move
the filecabinet too easily (no place to move it to!). Caddycorner to
file cabinet was a stack of equipment consisting of: as a base, a
MicroVAX and Sun 3/150; sitting horizontally on top of those was a Sun
4/110, and on top of that were three Sun shoeboxes and one aftermarket
shoebox. Atop the four shoeboxes was a Sun Ultra-1, and on top of
that an 8mm tape drive. That entire stack was a few inches too close
to the file cabinet to get the VAX through, even if removed from its
base. I ended up disassembling that entire stack, and cabling, moving
it back some distance, and reassembling it. But wait, that wasn't all
of the fun! :-) Where I wanted to put the VAX was another pile of
equipment, consisting of an HP-9000/300, an Apollo DN3500, a Sun 3/60,
an IBM PC-AT and, on top of that, the little lightweight (sarcasm
intended) Sun SparcServer 1000, with a PC monitor on top of that. The
SparcStation 1000 now sits atop the VAX, with the other equipment
being put where the VAX was. All of that was done in very cramped
quarters... reminds me of that little game where one shuffles the
little red and white numbered squares about to get them in the right
order.
All that work just because a light-bulb needed changing! Sound
familiar? BTW, it only took one day for Encompass to issue my
new membership ID. :-)
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd(a)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Hello, all:
I'm looking for the following books. I've checked the usual sellers (ABEs
and Powell's) and they seems hard to get.
The book is called "Windows NT Internals Revealed" by Mark Russinovich.
ISBN is 0764580329. The other is "Inside Windows NT" by David Solomon ISBN
1572316772.
If anyone has spare copies of either book they'd we willing to part with,
please contact me off list. Thanks.
Rich
Rich Cini
Collector of classic computers
Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project
Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
/************************************************************/
Does anybody have one of these or even know anything
about it? All I know is that it existed back in 1975.
Desperately seeking more information...
- Evan K.
So here is my question then: if not tantalum, then what?
I've always been told that aluminum electrolytic caps were cheap stuff that
doesn't last and that tantalum caps are much better and (that was the claim)
eternal. So I guess this is wrong. What is the truth then? Is it the other
way around? Or are they both bad? And why are so many people, including on
this list, saying "aluminum electrolytics are cheap crap, use tantalum"?
And what are the *good* caps to use?
MS
I definitely want it! What do I need to do?
-Mike
On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 05:51:19 -0800 Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
>
>Someone just gave me a boxed Acorn Electron and donated a Tandy TRS-
>80
>Colour Computer 2 at the same time.
>
>I have no desire to hang onto the Tandy. It seems to power up ok
>and be
>in very good condition under the dirt (it needs a clean!) - no case
>yellowing etc.
>
>Comes with:
>
> Fitted dust cover
> Couple of boxed cartridges
> Several original tapes
> TV + tape recorder leads
> Tape recorder (standard 80's thingy)
> Operation manuals etc.
> Several large Tandy Basic turorial books etc.
>
>It was destined for the skip otherwise so I couldn't say no - somebody
>*please* take it off my hands :-)
>
>cheers
>
>Jules
>
>
You were asking for voltage on a Techstep. I have a complete unit
including Carrying Case, Diagnostic software, testing modules for the
Classic, SE, SE 30, II, IIx and IIcx as well as SCSI interface testing
to HD. Please let me know if you or someone is in the need to purchase.