Regarding the thread started by Peter Wallace of Mesa Electronics the
other month - I've been by for one load, and there are still tons of DEC
and HP, and a few RS6k, workstations/servers. Including a rare DECserver
that has a TurboChannel Expansion box. Lots of HP 712 and 715
workstations, a C110, DECstations (MIPS) and VAXstations (derp).
Please note that the vintage calculators shown are spoken for. Sorry.
Mesa has to vacate these offices by the end of the month. They're super
nice people, just trying to avoid anything involving a scrapper. Please
dig up that thread and have another look (sorry, traveling).
Link to some photos I took:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/smj_crash/albums/72157683795598746
Again, location is Richmond, East SF Bay, California, USA, Earth, Sol
System, Perseus Arm, etc etc. Convenient to highways and spaceports alike!
Best,
--Steve.
The most we saw had the full panel back in the day...
good lookin' 8!
Ed#
In a message dated 5/26/2017 12:06:07 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
Oh boyee:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/112414315290
I thought the M variants all had blank front panels and bootstraps, but
this has all the pretty stuff!
How difficult are those switchers to fix for one trained in EE, but better
at debugging logic?
=]
--
Anders Nelson
+1 (517) 775-6129
www.erogear.com
OK, go ahead and roll your eyes at me, but I was Dayton Hamvention last
weekend, and there was a lonely Teletype Model 43 sitting in the flea
market (on the ground, no less) for free, and so I decided I needed it
in my life.
I know it's not considered a "true" teletype, because it's essentially a
little uC, a KB, and a little dot matrix printer, but I will wear the
stigma of shame of not owning a "proper" mechanical model 33. I got
home last night, and the unit fires up and works (well, in local mode.
Docs claim it is rs232 out the back, but could not coax anything from my
PC to it yet), though the ribbon has seen better days. I used a bit of
WD-40 to free up the ink, and so things are legible now.
Not sure I need help yet (did not do much debugging yet on rs232), but I
see the ribbons are no longer available. Thus, I am wondering if anyone
has a spare one for it, or knows of someone who can restore this ribbon
(looks like it needs a new polyester ribbon and the internal foam roller
looks like it will fall apart if I try to rinse it out and re-ink it)
I know it's a long shot to ask, but I figure there was no harm in
inquiring, and I believe making a home for a model 43 is not entirely
without value. :-)
Jim
--
Jim Brain
brain at jbrain.comwww.jbrain.com
My monster lives!
After being brought home in a dozen parts, cleaned with Windex and an air
compressor, and reassembled, my Alphaserver 4100 is once again up and
running OpenVMS. There were a couple minor snags while I went up to the
attic to find a CPU fan, move a ton of stuff to find an electrical outlet,
and reseated the memory modules but all that is behind me now.
It is using lots of electricity and making lots of noise while displaying
a Motif session in a 19" liquid crystal monitor without a stand...
What could be better than this?
--
Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we wear,
Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!"
** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black
Hello,
given the rules, I think the winner could be me! :)
I hope it would not cost me a liver for shipment....
As I mentioned in my direct email to you,
if the DECtalk business goes to the end, I would be interested also on the
couple of Data General memory board, these could fit in a Nova I have here,
I think.
If you need address for shipping estimation to Italy, please answer to my
email, or write to the address used in this newsgroup.
Many thanks for your efforts! :)
Andrea
- DECTalk priority goes to the person who responded to my offer first.
After I get shipping estimates (FedEx services only, please) should
he/she
decline I'll offer it to the next person to respond.
> From: Anders Nelson
> Heavens, why are the bit positions in descending order right to left in
> that PCM-12?
Numbering bits in descending order from right to left (AKA increasing order
>from left to right) used to be the standard - IBM S/360, PDP-10, etc, etc
all did it that way.
Noel
On 24 May 2017 08:28:42 -0700 Chuck Guzis via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Mine are for specific-purpose applications, so they're not likely to be
> of use to anyone else. Note that I'm not interested in archiving disks,
> but rather getting at their content and saving that.
>
> But golly, it isn't that difficult--most MCUs have several timers, and a
> "capture" facility so reading should be easy. Writing is again, mostly
> feeding a PWM output to the drive. The floppy interface itself is very
> much brain-dead.
This is indeed very easy to implement, I did it in less than a day,
including some doc: https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/digaud/arduino/FDDExer/.
>
> This isn't news--the HxC emulator basically does the work and runs on an
> STM32F1 platform--which is weak tea compared to the ARM CPUs currently
> available.
I'm not sure this will work on my Teensy, but it will be fun to try. Or
else I could upgrade.
>
> My .02 cents.
> Chuck
Fred Jan
I have an Atari 1040ST that I picked up some time back. It is very clean
and for the most part appears to work. It has what appears to be some kind
of generic SCSI hard drive (no markings except a serial number on the back)
as well as a DMA/SCSI adapter. The computer will boot to GEM/TOS with or
without a floppy, but I can't seem to get the HD to do much. The HD powers
up and spins/clicks like you'd expect, but after that, I get nothing on the
desktop. I tried different SCSI device number settings as well as moving
the SCSI plug to each of the two plugs on the drive. It did not have a
SCSI terminator with it, but I picked one up...made no difference.
I know very little about STs, so am learning as I go. I'm guessing that
maybe there should be a driver for the HD? The machine came with software,
but I don't see anything that looks like an HD driver disk. It has two
slightly different language disks and will boot each of them successfully,
but the HD does not show up. Is anyone familiar with this particular drive
and can possibly point me in the right direction?
https://imgur.com/a/pxMxl
The adapter on top is a male to female adapter. Not sure what that was
for. The SCSI terminator is plugged in the back below the DMA/SCSI adapter.
Thanks...Win
wheagy at gmail.com
On Wed, 24 May 2017, Pete Lancashire wrote:
> Displaying that Motif session on a 'real' CRT that takes 1/3 of your desk,
> weights 50+ lbs and takes around 150W.
I had a lovely 21" trinitron CRT here that I sent to the dump last year,
it had sat idle in the storage room for ten years and I needed the space.
That is shameful.
On the other hand, I feel no guilt about sending a few white box pentiums
to the dump along with a couple ghetto blasters. No jury would ever
convict me!
Oh! Wait! I have a VAXstation 3100 and its associated 50lb monochrome
CRT still in the storage room. I will have to dig it out some time...
--
Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we wear,
Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!"
** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black
Hi Jim,
Anybody that is paranoid about telling their location and the computer dinosaurs running in their basement needs a head alignment.
Another case of some guy over-estimating the worth of the junk we hold on to. It is zero, of value to only us that play with it.
And our numbers are diminishing every day.
Randy
________________________________
From: jim stephens <jwsmail at jwsss.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 11:26 PM
To: Randy Dawson; steven stengel
Subject: Fwd: Re: Directory of old computer collectors
Randy,
I'm sort of running interference for STeve on the list. Since his email is cc'd here and he's a subscriber I suspect has seen this.
the tosteve at yahoo.com<mailto:tosteve at yahoo.com> is his email for these computer matters.
People are getting a bit torqued out over non issues, I think, thanks for chiming in. Hopefully we can all help each others collecting efforts with a bit of visibility.
thanks
jim
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: Directory of old computer collectors
Date: Wed, 24 May 2017 05:19:41 +0000
From: Randy Dawson <rdawson16 at hotmail.com><mailto:rdawson16 at hotmail.com>
To: jim stephens <jwsmail at jwsss.com><mailto:jwsmail at jwsss.com>, steven stengel <tosteve at yahoo.com><mailto:tosteve at yahoo.com>, General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org><mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Hi Jim,
add me to your list.
I am in Thousand Oaks, CA (Los Angeles area).
I have a Tektronix 4051 vector graphics computer running, just BASIC games at the moment. I have a Compaq Model 1 with the PC-IDE flash setup, running Autocad, Versacad, Dr. Halo, Turbo-C, MS-Fortran.
I am in conversation with some Tek guys to add a modern RAM flash drive to the 4051 to replace the DC300 tape. We are about to build some PCBs for it, let me know if you have a 4051.
Randy
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org><mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of steven stengel via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org><mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 12:05 PM
To: jim stephens; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Directory of old computer collectors
I will post anything you want me to, just tell me.
email is not necessary, a link or website will do fine as well.The map is intended to be a method to see who's where for assistance, trading, meet-ups, etc.There's hundreds of people here, but few know where each other live, I suppose.
From: jim stephens via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org><mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org<mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 12:09 AM
Subject: Re: Directory of old computer collectors
On 5/22/2017 11:06 PM, Lyle Bickley via cctalk wrote:
> On Mon, 22 May 2017 16:29:22 -0400
> william degnan via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org><mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>> can you send a link to the people who are on the list so they can see
>> their listing? I personally don't mind as long as any record that
>> includes me personally does not include my email address or phone
>> number. I much prefer to send people to my web page contact form.
> Folks who are on the list should have the opportunity to approve what
> will and will not be posted about them. That's not only a legal
> requirement in many States, but also common courtesy.
>
> Regards,
> Lyle
You do get that this isn't cctalk, but one that people had already sent
contact info for. I sent him revised publishable contact info for the
list. I realize he probably made the request w/o 40 pages of consent
forms to read, but he seems to just be asking to allow him to publish
>from that list, and a note here for anyone who didn't see it in their
email, since the respondents came from here.
thanks
jim
>> On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 4:19 PM, steven stengel via cctalk <
>> cctalk at classiccmp.org<mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> In the past, I requested the email address and home city of old
>>> computer collectors to a compile a list for my own purposes.
>>> Over 120 people had responded, which is great! Now I want to make
>>> this list PUBLIC with a Google map showing everyones location,
>>> email, and collecting preferences.
>>> Since I don't have anyone's explicit permission to publish their
>>> information, I am now asking.
>>> Please let me know if I may, or may not, place your information on
>>> the public webpage.
>>> Thanks-
>>> Steven Stengelhttp://oldcomputers.net/
>>>
>>>
>
>
Is this a thing? There's an archive of vintage physical computer keys? This would be very cool. Heck one could potentially even 3d print a key for short term usage.
-------- Original message --------From: Dennis Boone via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: 5/10/17 4:13 PM (GMT-06:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Key for Intel MDS-800
If someone has one, let's get it added to the ccmp keys list: blank
type, cut info, etc.
De
On Wed, 24 May 2017, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
> Message: 51
> From: Anders Nelson <anders.k.nelson at gmail.com>
> To: "Peter C. Wallace" <pcw at mesanet.com>, "General Discussion:
> On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
> To whomever wants that DECTalk, I live in San Francisco and could pick it
> up and ship it for you!
I believe there was a gentleman in Italy that wanted it.
If that falls through, I would like right of next refusal, shipping to
Ohio. :)
Fred
Greetings,
I have three flakey floppies. I wonder if they are worth fixing. Two are
TEAC FD-55FRs. One appears to not report the INDEX mark, the other works
well until around track 35 or so then fails... The third floppy is a 1.2 MB
YD-380. It won't reliably move the head...
I've tried cleaning the heads (which rehabbed a forth drive: a TEAC
FD-55GFR) on these drives a few times. I'm thinking that it's too much
hassle and I should just trash them, at least the YD-380. I have 3 1.2MB
drives that work. The 55FRs are desirable to have working since I can put
them in a Rainbow, but even at ebay prices it isn't worth more than an hour
of my time to rehab.
Before I do that I thought I'd see if there was something simple I can do.
I did all my testing with the kryoflux board on a known-good disk (720k
5.25" drive so it tests both sides at the normal density and tests all 80
tracks w/o using the high density mode so the FRs can read it).
Warner
I have both a pdp 11/34 and 11/23 and am trying to find some bbs software
to run. Preferably something that will run under an os and not monopolize
the whole machine.
Any suggestions? i have not had much luck finding anything.
--Devin
Hi,
In the past, I requested the email address and home city of old computer collectors to a compile a list for my own purposes.
Over 120 people had responded, which is great! Now I want to make this list PUBLIC with a Google map showing everyones location, email, and collecting preferences.
Since I don't have anyone's explicit permission to publish their information, I am now asking.
Please let me know if I may, or may not, place your information on the public webpage.
Thanks-
Steven Stengelhttp://oldcomputers.net/
> From: Jim Stephens
> The fellow responded and as I had suspected had never seen anything
> this old before and had thought that the parts were separable.
> ...
> Also he is going to hopefully share photos of the entire pile and I'll
> try to help him market the parts in the most profitable way for him.
This is good to hear.
If he doesn't know about not trashing backplanes, etc (since most people save
the boards, and trash everything else), please let him know about that too.
I just lucked into a DH11 backplane, w/out boards. The boards are, however,
easy to find on eBay, due to people following the 'save the boards' method...
Noel
I've not hunted for anything much new on text usenet groups in ages.
However I ran across a reference to a mailman mail list from 2006 call
sun at home.
Then stumbled across something call os.solaris.at-home. I presume that
may be comp.os.solaris.at-home ?
Anyone have a pointer to stable archives. And perhaps what happened to
the mailman and archives?
the trail to that list runs like this:
This site with lots of Sun info I can use:
http://www.obsolyte.com/
References this which is "on hiatus":
http://www.net-kitchen.com/mailman/listinfo/suns-at-home
apparently above is by Dwight D. McKay.
From what I recall of Purdue IT and the like he is probably someone who
knows or worked with
George Gobel. (google his liquid oxygen BBQ sometime, for a taste).
This is the link, but the above will hit all sorts of fun madness. Way
before Mythbusters and the like
as far as "don't try this at home" (subscript, tell George and let him
set himself on fire).
https://youtu.be/sab2Ltm1WcM
thanks
Jim
Dan and I did a rescue run yesterday and came back with four Data General
systems; a Nova/3, a Nova/4, an Eclipse S/20, an Eclipse MV/4000, and a
large assortment of test equipment and spares. All of the systems are in
very nice condition. The Eclipse S/20 is mounted in a cabinet with a model
6125 1/2" tape drive and a fixed disk drive.
In the next week or so I will add them to the RICM WWW page.
--
Michael Thompson
Curious about this machine. ?I've seen a few come up on ebay and they've sold for not much money, mistaken as mere Apple II clones. ?I read Lee Felsenstein's account of creating them and they seem like interesting machines. ?Wondering what sort of value is reasonable to pay for one and how hard it would be to find or rig up a power supply, since they are usually missing that in auctions.
Risk indeed,..
Pity the fool that brags he has an APPLE 1...
In a message dated 5/22/2017 2:06:36 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
I really think you should give people the chance to yay/neh their listing
and a way to edit/delete. Otherwise it's a potential risk. Letting the
world know who has what where coukld invite a thief under the right
circumstances now that I think about it.
Bill Degnan
twitter: billdeg
vintagecomputer.net
On May 22, 2017 4:57 PM, "Jason Scott via cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> I have no idea if I am on this list or not but I do not want to be on it
at
> all.
>
> On May 22, 2017 16:52, "Mark Linimon via cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
>
> > I do not want my location information published other than city.
> >
> > mcl
> >
>
Regrading the previous message, the map would just show the city, not your actually home address, which I do not have, but to be honest, anyone could find it using the internet.
Very cool! ?Wish we had one of these up here in Vancouver, BC.
Sent from my Samsung device
-------- Original message --------
From: Jason T via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Date: 2017-05-20 6:05 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: chiclassiccomp at yahoogroups.com, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>, The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
Subject: Announcing: VCF Midwest 12!
We did this nerd-fest thing at this hotel last year and no one
complained (much), least of all the hotel, so I think we're up for
another go.
The TWELFTH edition of the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest is
happening September 9th and 10th, 2017 in lovely Elk Grove Village,
Illinois, mere minutes from O'Hare International Airport and an array
suburban shopping and dining opportunities.
Those who have joined us in the past will be happy to know that we're
running the same show (and more!) this year: same location, same
hours, still free to attend, show or sell.? If you're new to VCF
Midwest, you can find all the relevant details at http://vcfmw.org.
If you have any questions not answered there, feel free to contact me
directly.
Registration:
No registration is necessary to attend the show. If you would like a
table(s) for exhibition and/or vending, please contact us via the form
on our site at: http://vcfmw.org/signup.html.? We'll do our best to
get you the space you need.
Presentation:
If you would like to volunteer a talk or demo between 30-60 minutes,
please contact us via the form http://vcfmw.org/pres.html.? Our
friendly events coordinator will get back to you soon.
Accommodation:
Hotel registration is now open!? Follow the link here
http://bit.ly/2phDUyI or at vcfmw.org and reserve your room at our
reduced rate of $89/night. The nights of the 8th, 9th and 10th are
available, with either a single King bed or a dual Queen room. If
you're staying additional nights, they will probably have to be booked
separately at the regular rate - however it's worth calling the hotel
directly at (847) 437-6010 and asking them for the "Vintage Computer
Fes" (yes without the "t") or "VIN" rate on the extra nights. No
guarantees they'll extend it but it's worth a try.? If you have any
other booking needs or difficulties, please call that number as well.
Do not call the main toll-free line for Holiday Inn/IHG. They don't
have the rate code and won't be able to help you.
Hesitation:
Why wait?? Book your room and travel and mark your calendars TODAY.
Socialization:
For Facebook users, there's a FB event here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/805945506224113/
For the tweeting kind, you may follow us at: https://twitter.com/vcfmidwest
Does anyone use Google+ any more?? We have a page here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102061024739945029100/102061024739945029100
Donation:
VCF Midwest is a community-supported event, made possible through the
generous donations of attendees, vendors and the organizing staff.? As
such, we humbly beg for your contribution toward the show's expenses,
payable via the PayPal or GoFundMe links on our main page.? Every
donation helps and we appreciate them all.
See you in September!
-j
> And if you break one you have to call HAZMAT. You did realize that,
> didn't you? They contain mercury and any breakage requires professional
> remediation by law!!
Please quit spreading this urban legend. Some care in handling is
recommended, but no professional help is required, by law! or
otherwise.
https://www.epa.gov/cfl/cleaning-broken-cfl
As for power, if you have a wife and/or kids, a PDP-11's power
> consumption is not even above the noise floor in your electric bill.
> (Unless your trying to do it with RA disks!!)
>
> bill
Out of curiosity how much power do these wee beasties consume?
___________________________________
The plate on the back of my 11/93 says 345 Watts. That's about a fifth what your
wifes hair dryer draws. Or slightly more than 3 100 watt light bulbs (which your
kids leave on all over the house all the time!!)
bill
I run a similar PDP-11/83 system 24/7 on a BA23 in a Pedestal stand. It has two 2MB memory boards, an Emulex UC07 connected to two SCSI2SD Cards emulating two RD54s and two RA92s, and a DELQA-T running RSX11M+, DECnet and Johnny Billquist;s TCP/IP and it draws 100-105 watts on my UPS.
I also run a Simh PDP-11 on a Raspberry Pi 3 as an adjacent node and it is much faster, much quieter, but not quite as much fun.
Mark Matlock
> From: Jim Stephens
> I just ran across a sale on epay by a guy who thought you could pull
> the processor chip off the board and sell each in separate auctions.
There are a lot of idiotz out there.
I ran into one who'd removed a group of boards from (probably) an -11/40, and
then scrapped away the rest of the machine (including an RK11-D backplane).
I took _great_ pleasure in informing him that the stuff he'd scrapped had
been worth several times what the boards he had 'saved' had been worth.
Noel
> From: Raymond Wiker
> Steve Jobs ... was also a stickler for perfection and largely unwilling
> to make compromises.
Absolutely; and that's a large part of the reason for the success of Apple.
His products were just really well done.
It's also, I think, a big part of the causality for another Apple
characteristic: their push for closed systems. The thing is that Steve wanted
to make the user experience as good as possible (another hallmark of Apple
stuff) - and when the 'system' includes pieces being independently sourced
>from multiple entities, it's hard to make that happen - there will be
glitches, etc. So that's why he usually wanted to bring the entire thing
inside the Apple envelope.
> So, Steve Jobs ... should get some of the credit for the fact that
> we're not all running Windows on variations of crappy PC hardware.
I think that's not accurate; Linux may not have a large user base among
non-technical people in the laptop area, but it does show that there are other
alternatives. And when it gets to smart-phones, of course, things which are
neither Apple nor uSloth are the majority there, no?
> From: Chris Hanson
> What the Apple folks saw and what was implemented for Lisa and then
> Macintosh were vastly different.
I don't agree with the "vastly". (Having said that, I salute the Lisa/Mac
people for doing a very good job of producing a excellent user interface.)
The changes in the interface (menu bar, etc) are not that large; they are
mostly minor refinements to the basic image/pointing-based interface
pioneered by Xerox.
The biggest improvement, IMO, was not in the details of the window system, but
that everything used a common user interface - and the lack of that on the
Alto was not planned, but more a result of the fact that the Alto was so far
into new territory, and not done as an integrated system, but as a platform
for research.
> - The one-button mouse.
Err, some of us don't see that as an 'improvement'... :-)
> If you sit someone who knows how to use a Mac in front of a circa-1979
> Xerox Alto, they'll be pretty mystified.
Yeah, but that's in good part because the Alto user interface is such a dog's
breakfast - Draw is nothing like Bravo is nothing like etc, etc. But, like I
said, that was inevitable, given the process that produced the Alto.
Noel
Hello list,
does anybody need a broken MIPS-Server? The battery leaked and corroded
the mainboard. I already cleaned it up, but it still didn't work...
Maybe somebody can fix it or use it for spare parts.
(please contact me off list.)
romanis
I've inherited an LA424-A2 printer that had been stored for a while but
now has obvious problems. Powering up 'jogs' the paper feed motor,
flashes the three green LEDS on the panel through a rapid sequence, but
then it stops with the display showing what appears to be a fault code.
Unfortunately, one of the other parts that is failing is the LCD (16
char I think) that should be showing a fault code. It appears to be "CO
<something>" but I can barely make out the "CO".
Is this LCD use a traditional byte-wide interface and can it be replaced
with one of the current crop of cheap LCD modules?
Once I can see the fault code, I can begin to determine what else is
failing, though the manual doesn't seem to be much help on error codes:
they seem to be simple state-of-operation codes.
Thanks,
Gary
I just ran across a sale on epay by a guy who thought you could pull the
processor chip off the board and sell each in separate auctions.
I couldn't find the processor from the huge number of gold scrap chip
auctions he had, but he said it (or the other) chip(s) for the board
were listed.
I think giving him the benefit of the doubt, he thought that the two
were separable like motherboards and processors are now day. Worst case
he was just an unfortunate idiot that destroyed the board.
I sent him an email telling him the value I place on it (tested) and
suggested that he think of older boards as the full components to be
kept together unless he wants to destroy the board, or knows what he is
doing breaking them up. Of course on old Qbus and the like boards, one
does have some components that are more valuable if you break up the
board, and pull "unobtainium" chips. But pulling out the KDF processor
isn't one of them in general.
I just bought a KDJ Jaws chip for a "round 2it" project to try to get it
running, as I archived a PDP11 "Hack" page indicating how to get one
running on a proto board with minimal hardware.
I don't know if you could do that with the KDF, but that isn't what this
guy is doing.
thanks
Jim
Any idea what this thing is?
https://imgur.com/a/aNFiK
Didn't come up with much of anything with Motion Control, Inc.
I did plug it in, and it seemed to come alive. I tempted fate again and
plugged a composite video source into the input, and a monitor into the
output. One pot on top adjusts the vertical sync, apparently; other than
making the colors slightly weird, the video came through more or less the
same. The other two (marked Y and Z cal) seemed to change nothing. The
switch mounted behind the pots caused the LED display to change (as seen in
the pictures), though the switch mounted closer to the right side of the
unit seemed to make no difference.
When I get done moving, I'll dump the EPROMs and get more pictures,
especially if there's sufficient interest.
Thanks,
Kyle
I have a VAXstation 3100 m38 which fails its POST due to problems with
the on board memory. I am not particularly interested in trying to fix
it myself, as I have another VAXstation which I am fond of. However, if
anyone else would like to try and repair it, it is free to a good home.
It seems as though the battery had leaked and caused some. I've cleaned
it up a bit but of course this wasn't enough to fix it.
The only condition is that you also take it with its alleged life long
partner, a working VR290 display (cables included). I'm based in
Nottingham, UK. Please contact me off list if you are interested.
Thanks,
Aaron.
Hello list,
Paul Anderson and myself are trying to figure out the available cabling options that allow to connect an RK611 controller to RK06/RK07 drives.
To my knowledge, there is the possibility to get a drive connect via:
RK611 <-> flat cable <-> cabinet transition bracket <-> round cable <-> RK06/07
The part numbers I found so far:
Flat cable: BC-06R-xx
round cable: 70-12292
or BC23Z-xx
The transition bracket's PN is 70-12415 and is the same as for RL01/RL02 configurations.
The round cable with same connectors as used for RL01/02 cannot be used for RK06/07 as not all cables are wired to the connectors. But a RK06/07 cable can be used for RL01/RL02.
Can the BC-06R also be used for RL01/RL02?
Apparently, there are also direct cable connections between RK611 and RK06/07 existing. In that case, no transition bracket is needed.
BC80M shielded: RK611 to first drive
... and the cable required to connect two RK07/07 drives:
BC17E shielded
Can anybody help us in confirming and correcting us regarding the cabling configurations
and the part numbers?
Thanks a lot for your help!
Have a nice Sunday,
Pierre
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de
We did this nerd-fest thing at this hotel last year and no one
complained (much), least of all the hotel, so I think we're up for
another go.
The TWELFTH edition of the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest is
happening September 9th and 10th, 2017 in lovely Elk Grove Village,
Illinois, mere minutes from O'Hare International Airport and an array
suburban shopping and dining opportunities.
Those who have joined us in the past will be happy to know that we're
running the same show (and more!) this year: same location, same
hours, still free to attend, show or sell. If you're new to VCF
Midwest, you can find all the relevant details at http://vcfmw.org.
If you have any questions not answered there, feel free to contact me
directly.
Registration:
No registration is necessary to attend the show. If you would like a
table(s) for exhibition and/or vending, please contact us via the form
on our site at: http://vcfmw.org/signup.html. We'll do our best to
get you the space you need.
Presentation:
If you would like to volunteer a talk or demo between 30-60 minutes,
please contact us via the form http://vcfmw.org/pres.html. Our
friendly events coordinator will get back to you soon.
Accommodation:
Hotel registration is now open! Follow the link here
http://bit.ly/2phDUyI or at vcfmw.org and reserve your room at our
reduced rate of $89/night. The nights of the 8th, 9th and 10th are
available, with either a single King bed or a dual Queen room. If
you're staying additional nights, they will probably have to be booked
separately at the regular rate - however it's worth calling the hotel
directly at (847) 437-6010 and asking them for the "Vintage Computer
Fes" (yes without the "t") or "VIN" rate on the extra nights. No
guarantees they'll extend it but it's worth a try. If you have any
other booking needs or difficulties, please call that number as well.
Do not call the main toll-free line for Holiday Inn/IHG. They don't
have the rate code and won't be able to help you.
Hesitation:
Why wait? Book your room and travel and mark your calendars TODAY.
Socialization:
For Facebook users, there's a FB event here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/805945506224113/
For the tweeting kind, you may follow us at: https://twitter.com/vcfmidwest
Does anyone use Google+ any more? We have a page here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102061024739945029100/102061024739945029100
Donation:
VCF Midwest is a community-supported event, made possible through the
generous donations of attendees, vendors and the organizing staff. As
such, we humbly beg for your contribution toward the show's expenses,
payable via the PayPal or GoFundMe links on our main page. Every
donation helps and we appreciate them all.
See you in September!
-j
The early ethernet schematics are best read with the a copy of the
original patent (US 4,073,220) in hand. In particular, you can match up
figure 5 and the explanation in the text with the schematic from Xerox. I
wrote such a document decades ago but it has vanished along with many other
bits.
Has anyone interviewed Tat Lam about the transceiver?
When I got my first system running, S100, I had an Imsai 8080 with a
Hayes 103 modem. I used it to log into multics and some BBS's at the
time and record sessions and files and the like. I only had the usual
8" floppies, with eventually 1mb x 2 for storage.
However, reason for mentioning was that there was a simple program which
would auto answer on the Hayes modem and allow you to run things.
One evening when my roommates and I had gone to dinner, a friend who was
going to call at a certain time did so. However we had forgotten he was
to call, and I had left the system up and connected to the phone.
He called a couple of times and realized that we weren't around to pull
the line, or call back, so he got his terminal up and running and left
us a message on the screen for later.
I sort of count it as the first sort of BBS type I ran. There was a
program you could leave running which would challenge for a password,
and then re-run when the modem lost signal, so you could have a low
grade login that way. (password only).
And one could take ones choice of files and xmodem them (which he did in
future sessions).
I logged into many BBS systems which weren't much more than this or a
restricted menu program after you logged in. Some were nice with some
presentation, and some were just (enter 1 to do ... 2 to do ... etc).
Not much else really required if you want to get to very basics.
With any BBS having more than just the floppies, login and messaging and
more download options were the next level up.
And after that there were various BBS software packages that had
networks of like users that one could obtain.
thanks
Jim
I have here a shipping box, a shrink-wrapped TK50 tape and various
docs for Wollongong Group's "EUNICE BSD," which I take to be a BSD
Unix-like environment for VMS. I can't find a copy of either the docs
nor the bits online.
I will take care of scanning the docs. I would like to send this tape
to someone - Al K getting first shot if he's interested - who can
image the TK50 cart and make it available to all. I have a spotty
TKZ50 drive that I'd rather not risk this potentially valuable data
to.
The tape is marked:
"EUNICE BSD Binary Distribution Relase # E-11575-IP. Users: UL"
Hooray, unlimited license!
Any takers?
-j
On 19 May 2017 at 13:36, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Nope. Take a trip to Amazon and look at just how much power this stuff
> actually consumes. And, if you go back to the days when we started
> running this stuff in our homes, compare the draw of a QBUS PDP-11 to
> a TV with a picture tube, standard incandescent lights, a refridgerator,
> window air conditioners, etc. Our toys draw much less power than most
> people think. Heck, I have seen modern PC's (you know, the kind gamers
> use) that draw more power and are frequently run 24/7.
I wonder if this is one of those USA-vs-Rest-of-world differences.
I think I have seen a running PDP-11 twice in my life, and it was the
same one -- a machine I had to get exchanging files with Mac clients
acting as terminal emulators, in about 1989 in my first job. It was
already very old kit by then. I've no idea how much power they draw.
Window air conditioners are another thing I've never seen,
incandescent lights are now a rarity in Europe, hoarded by some
old-timers -- i.e. older than me, at a hair under 50. I've never
bought a new TV set with a CRT, either. In fact most of my CRT
monitors over my whole home computing time period -- nearly 40y --
were cast-offs, hand-me-downs, or bought 2nd hand.
I've bought a few 2nd hand LCD monitors now, because I like big ones.
(Oo er missus, etc.) I'm currently running a 23" + a 24" on a 2011 Mac
mini with a 1987 Apple Extended keyboard. All bought used. New kit is
for suckers.
So I don't look into power consumption -- used price is more important
to me, TBH. Probably bad of me, but wotthehell archie wotthehell.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lproven at gmail.com
Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven ? Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven
UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053
> From: Christian Corti
> I have a similar setup with our 11/34. .. It's not the fastest system,
> and the kernel uses overlays like crazy ;-) ... I still have to add the
> cache and FPP boards and see how that improves the performance.
The cache should help some, but the FPP, probably not (unless you are running
some application which actually does a lot of floating point).
Noel
we ran ours first on a hp-2000 then migrated to a hp-3000
final version had 100 boards on it email , multi user chat, poll and
voting and much more.
yep it kicked ass!
The machines were used also as board test machines etc when needed
and also some were used as sale of computer time to people tthat
had developed an application and did not want to rewrite it for a pc.
... and I found they were better to just run rather than turn on and
off..
but they drew power! and they generated heat.
... nothing like having a 10 platter 500 lb drive as a leg warmer next t
o your desk.
Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)
In a message dated 5/18/2017 1:23:13 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
On Thu, 18 May 2017, allison via cctalk wrote:
> Never forget, BBS were about storage and cheap which at that time were
mostly
> opposed (disks weren't cheap!). The amount of Ram and CPU were less
> important
> considering what had to be done. Often the modem and hard disk were as
> costly
> as the basic system and we didn't exceed 2400 baud till '85or later.
Most
> anything
> could keep up with IO at under 4800 baud.
>
Here's what amounts to a canonnical(sp?) list of BBS programs for a number
of different platforms:
http://software.bbsdocumentary.com/
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
> From: Chuck Guzis
> Well, okay--but then let's be period-correct. The PDP-11 dates from
> 1970, when, AFAIK, BBSes, if they existed, were far from what people
> think they were.
You're thinking of the -11/20, released in 1970. But that was only the first
PDP-11 model; the -11/23 dates from 1979, and the last -11 model, the
/93-/94, was released in 1990.
Noel
I know of several very different PDP-11 BBS's using very disparate architectures. Some were run on RT-11 or RSTS-11 entirely inside a BASIC program that managed every element of call answering, logging in, and disconnection. And others took advantage of TSX-11, RSX-11 and RSTS-11 login security and "captive accounts" that were either entirely menu-driven or had restricted command sets, with the menu options or command sets oriented strongly towards typical BBS functions.
I know Billy Youdelman's TSX-11 BBS in LA was operating in the 1980's and 1990's and may have gone on longer than that.
Tim N3QE
> From: Systems Glitch
> You need split I&D for 2.11BSD
ISTR reading that the network code runs in Supervisor mode, so you need that
to, technically (although all -11s CPUs with Supervisor also have I+D, and
vice versa).
Does the 2.9 include networking code? If so, it must use overlays like
crazy on a 'small' machine (/40-/34/-/23)...
Noel
Hi guys !
My name is Dominique, 43 , from Belgium (I apologize in advance for my
approximate English). I join this forum under the recommendations of
Curious Marc. It seems there are people here who can help me to get back
to life the venerable machine that I have just recovered.
Some pictures of the beast :
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/overview01.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/overview01.jpg>
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/terminal.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/terminal.jpg>
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/comrack_closeup.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/comrack_closeup.jpg>
It is a "Nixdor 600 series" (Apparently a Nixdorf 620/35), upgraded
several times until 1980, the CPU board is dated from this year. So I do
not know exactly what machine it is today the equivalent.
Anyway, the Nixdorf 620 is actually built by "Digital Computer Controls"
and after some researches it seems that it is a "DCC-116 E", the 17 slot
version of the "DCC-116" which Is a clone of the "Data General Nova 2/10".
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/DCC.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/DCC.jpg>
The machine has five Key-stations (ENTREX DATA/SCOPE), a Mag-tape Pertec
8840A - A Disk Cartridge Diablo Model 40 and a big line drum printer
(Data Products model 2230), strange machine, there is a tape reader
inside the printer.
Here is the list of the boards I have with the references written on
them and their position in the machine:
*17 HEX 0 ? 15 ENTREX INC 62 00 01842 002 REV A*
*16 HEX 16 30 31 ENTREX INC 62 00 01842 002 REV A**
15 OPTION 2 Empty**
14 OPTION 1 Empty**
13 PRINTER ENTREX INC SN598**
12 TAPE 556/800 BPI 2433 LFI 213**
11 TAPE 1600 BPI Empty**
10 DISK 2456 00 MP-Kontroller D44an620
6393500215 2456 7 0 1577**
09 COMMO Empty**
08 SCANNER Scanner BD 2431 NCAG 54147.1.15 2431 02394**
07 MEM 1609 0 7 02616**
06 MEM Empty**
05 MEM 1609 0 8 02367**
04 MEM 1615 01 9 5596**
03 TTY Empty**
02 DO NOT USE Empty**
01 C.P. 1509 05 4 04436*
Concerning this I also ask a few questions:
*
What are the boards in slots 16 and 17 for?
*
I do not have a COM card, does that mean that I could not attempt a
serial transmission (type rs232) with this actual setup ?
*
I have no idea how many kilobytes are present, apparently there are
two core memory cards (8kb each? 16Kb each?), And non-core RAM board.
I first solved a problem with the power supply of the disk pack (bad HF
filter, short-circuited with the chassis, then it is also dead HF filter
in the "multi-plug" of the chassis that start to burn, once these
problems were solved, I cleaned the machine thoroughly, cleaning the
heads of readings with isopropyl alcohol, I Not yet cleaned the disc
himself which at first glance looks extremely clean, it has not left the
machine for 30 years.
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/disckpack01.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/disckpack01.jpg>
I cleaned all the guides and the heads of the nine track tape Pertec
8840A. There was also a false contact in the ON-LINE button. I did a
first cleanup. I think there is always a problem with the HI-DEN button
used to set the magtape to 800BPI. It is currently ineffective, but I
have a doubt about the contacts of the lamp socket).
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/ninetrack.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/ninetrack.jpg>
I then cleaned all the sockets and contacts at the boards of the
computer (logic and PSU)
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/clean_contact.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/clean_contact.jpg>
Unfortunately, after a couple of hours, the "POWER FAIL" light has
started to light up. The problem here is that I have no schematics, it
is a modular power supply consisting of two elements:
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/psus.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/psus.jpg>
One seems to be dedicated to the 15 VDC regulated, the second module is
in charge of the regulated 5VDC. Both elements have a "Power fail
module". When the machine is completely populated I now observe that the
+ 5VDC collapses at +1,9VDC.
Here what I measured out, you will also see what the boards of these
power supply look like.
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/psu_module_1.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/psu_module_1.jpg>
http://www.actingmachines.com/classiccmp_forum/psu_module_2.jpg
<http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/psu_module_2.jpg>
Another thing I noted during my measurements, where I should (I think)
measure 15V, I have 18V, looking at the documentation on the NOVA 2 (4
slots), I observed according to the diagrams below That there is 18V but
before a zener diode and not at the level of connectors where there must
be 15VDC, should I warn me ? Would the diode be dead ?
I tried to join temporarily a secondary regulated power supply to
reinforce the + 5VDC so as to be sure that the problem did not come from
the logical part of the computer which checks these voltages and
triggers the Power Fail status. By coupling this external regulated
power supply, the computer restarts again, thus it is definitively the
power supply (or the comparator component(s) of the power fail module)
If I removes all the boards (printer, core memory, scanner, disk
controller, etc.), the Power Fail light eventually goes out, I get again
the 5VDC, so the power has become "too weak" to power the computer when
it is fully populated.
Despite the temporary (and dangerous) look of my assembly with secondary
power supply, I could not stop myself and attempt a boot procedure via
the Cold Start button of the machine from the Disk Pack, and it works! :-)
http://www.zeltrax.com/classiccmp_forum/first_boot.jpg
It seems that I still have problems with the magtape, I had errors
trying to read a backup, but it may be simply because I still cannot get
the machine in 800BPI because of the capricious buttons of the front
panel. I also wrote a tape mark via a "WRITE TAPE MARK AND REWIND"
function, the mark seems to be written but does not do the Rewind,
however if I launch a REWIND only function, it executes the action
appropriately. In short, still things to investigate on this side.
Notes that the Operating system I used to make these tests is a very
limited OS named DIDOS which was distributed by Nixdorf for his 620
Serie. As the machine is a clone of DG NOVA 2/10, I wonder if the
computer is compatible with programs for the NOVA series of Data
General? So I wonder if the DCC-116 was compatible with the software for
NOVAs?
The other questions I ask myself at this point are the ways to transfer
softwares or bootable OS on this machine? I have no other disk pack on
another system but I have a nine track tape TU81 + connected to a VAX
4000-605A under OpenVMS 6.2, and I can put this computer on my network.
Do you think there's a way to make a bootable tape for my NOVA 2 clone
with the Pertec 8840A from a VAX 4000 with a TU81+ ?
Well, to continue, I have to repair this PSU, all information is
welcome, schematics would be ideal of course.
Finally, note that I am not a professional electronics technician, I
fixed a lot of machines basic knowledge, intuition, researches,
comparisons and logic, it is effective but full of limitations too, so
forgive me in advance If I do not always understand the possible answers
of electronics in "high engineering" mode ;-)
As a bonus, the V1 of a small video mounted with a few clips captured
during a session of my nocturnal repairs, during the first boot of the
machine since 3 decades ! (on my music, yes, I'm also a composer ;-) )
https://youtu.be/5jWOUtLKRIU
Thanks a lot to all in advance ;-)
Dominique