- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

by jingber＠ix.netcom.com

I have two different Lisa machines and both have a jittery display (one 1.2AMP PSU, 1 1.8 AMP PSU). I've followed the instructions in the Sun Rem. guide to adjust the power supply output. This works immediately after the adjustment, but the problem gradually comes back over time. I adjusted both machines around the September timeframe and the jitters have back on both machines. I'd like to get both of these machines in top-shape so I can have them running at my New Years party =) Before I go through the adjustment again, is there anything else I should be checking? I've also tried adjusting the V.Hold, but this doesn't seem to make a difference. Maybe I'm not using a precise enough adjustment? Thanks, Jeff

23 years, 4 months

6
11
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Snoopy was Re: M200 interfacing

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/30/02 1:13:16 PM Pacific Standard Time, cisin(a)xenosoft.com writes: > Don't forget how significant a part of the culture of the history of > computers is contained in all of those stupid line printer graphic > pictures of Snoopy ... Ah Yes, The first thing I printed out with my Litton 1251 when I got it into my living room in the mid 80s was a Snoopy calendar. All in punched tape. Nice machine, wished I had kept it. Paul Pierce has a Litton 1231 in his collection for when he gets his museum started in PDX. Punched tape, drum memory, console wi printer, Yum Yum... Paxton Astoria, OR

23 years, 4 months

6
7
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Amstrad PPC640

by lott＠austarnet.com.au

G'day I hope that I am not interrupting anything but I was browsing through on just this subject of the Amstrad PPC640 Portable. I was given one of these machines sometime ago and it has been standing in my garage for a couple of years. I had been buy on other projects and there was no power unit. Today I plugged it into the cigarette lighter socket of my 81 Volvo using the adaptor that was available. It worked first time, and requested Date and Time. Checking with the manual I inserted the System Disk and away she booted into DOS. I used to run an Amstrad 1640 ECD which was my first taste of computing back in the dark days of 1988. If you would like me to I will copy and forward the SYS disk PPC512 / 640 MSDOS V3.30, which apart >from the Main Op sys also has a programme on it called PPC ORGANISER. This has a Word Processor / Data Filing / Diary and Calculator. I also found that this computer has a PC200 Modem inbuilt which uses a programme called MIRROR 2. Speeds of 75 to 2400 bps are quoted using V21, V22, V22bis and V23 modes. Unfortunately I do not have the driver disk for the modem. Anyway should you require any further Info Please contact me. Dave Lott, Eden NSW Australia

23 years, 4 months

2
1
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VAX/VMS reference material

by eusty＠galaxycorp.com

Hi Justin, I'm interested in your VAX/VMS ref. material; please contact me off list at eusty(a)galaxycorp.com if they are still available, thanks Vincent

23 years, 4 months

1
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Hi!/ Sharing the technology/ LK401/ Thanks!

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 31, 5:04, Justin wrote: > Now I'm working on getting my VAXstation 3100 up and working. IT works > but my keyboard is shot. I have the LK201, which seems to have a matrix > fault. about 1/6 of the keys work. :-( I bought a LK401 on ebay and the > person said it had the right connector when I asked. I waited too long > after I got it and found out it didn't in fact have the right connector. > > Does anyone know about these? my VAX Station takes the 4 element RJ11 for > which I have the pinout from the netbsd archive. The LK401 I have though > has a 6 pin (5 of those are connected) minidin. ( I think its a minidin > anyway ). Oops. Sounds like you have an LK450, LK461 or LK471, not an LK401. LK401 uses a DEC protocol, the others are PS/2-style keyboards. They're not interchangeable, I'm afraid. There should be a label on the underside, with three barcodes, the top barcode being the model number. Does it say LK401, or something a little different? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Unibus UDA50 pinout, qbus RL02

by felten＠vaxnet.de

Hi, Does someone have the pinout for a UDA50 ? I have the two-board-set M7485-YA and M7486 but I don't have the cables >from the controller and no bulkhead. I'd like to connect a single RA80 and I know about the "uneven number of cables"-rule. Currently the RA80 has two cables connected to the cabinet (mini bulkhead?), from there's another cable haning loose. Can I make a cable that fits onto this cable and the UDA50 ? What kind of coaxial cable should I use ? Anything else I should know or check before powering up the drive ? Another topic: M8061 (qbus, RLV12 for RL02) Something strage is happening when I try to boot from or access my RL02.... Configuration: PDP 11/83, 4mb ram M8061 and one RL02 (drive0), terminator When I boot the RL02, the run light simply goes off. No error message, nothing. the clock signal from the controller should be there, because i can load the disk, the drive spins up and the Ready "0" light goes on. When booting 2.11BSD (from RD54) the same thing happens: the run light goes off, again no error message. The loaded diskpack contains afaik no usefull information. Trying another diskpack didn't change anything. The controller is jumpered as described in the RLV Users Guide and set for Q22 operation. The drive & cable are ok, because I can hang it on my 11/44 and boot RSX11M from another diskpack with it. Thanks, lothar.

23 years, 4 months

1
0
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Hi!/ Sharing the technology/ LK401/ Thanks!

by justin＠ingrid.raspberrytea.com

Hi guys. I stumbled upon your list while looking for LK401 schematics, and found that this is the kind of list I was looking for. My name is Justin, and I like classic computers. We have an interesting community of technology enthusiasts who hang out at a local coffee shop here in Houston, TX called Kaveh Kanes. For a while now I have been trying to get rid of a lot of my old computers, because I didn't really want to spend more time on them, but it was hard to part with them. So rather than toss them, I've been getting them functional and setting them up as internet terminals at the coffee shop. A friend, Barrett put his Intel FreeBSD machine up there to start. Now I have my SparcSTATION 5 exporting an X session from it so people can get on the web. Now I'm working on getting my VAXstation 3100 up and working. IT works but my keyboard is shot. I have the LK201, which seems to have a matrix fault. about 1/6 of the keys work. :-( I bought a LK401 on ebay and the person said it had the right connector when I asked. I waited too long after I got it and found out it didn't in fact have the right connector. Does anyone know about these? my VAX Station takes the 4 element RJ11 for which I have the pinout from the netbsd archive. The LK401 I have though has a 6 pin (5 of those are connected) minidin. ( I think its a minidin anyway ). It looks very similar inside, but I don't know what I can connect and I'm having trouble finding documentation for it. Well that was a windy introduction, but it tells you a little about myself, and what I'm trying to do. I just want to share old technology with people in a way that they can still use and appreciate it at the coffee shop. Incidently, I have the complete reference to VAX/VMS in 3 ring binders. I think its about 17 binders total. If anyone is interested, I'd be OK with parting with it. IT would be heavy to ship though. 70 lbs? Next on the list after the VAX is my Amiga 2000. It needs a 68020 processor card first before it can run either AmigaOS 3.9 or NetBSD.... -Justin

23 years, 4 months

2
1
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WWII fire control 'computers'

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

> Suggest you head over to usenet and ask on uk.rec.subterranea - the > folks there are experts on most things concering British bunkers... Sure - I've actually been out exploring with quite a few of the people who hang out on that group! Generally they tend to be keen in the sites for the exploration value though, but are less interested in how the sites actually operated. After 60 years or so most of that knowledge has been forgotten, and much of the printed material of the time has been destroyed. Having a machine and getting it working again would be one thing. Trying to find details on something that was melted down at least 40 years ago is easier said than done! :-) cheers & have a good New Year's, Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 4 months

1
0
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DEC 3000 300X/300

by fire＠dls.net

Jochen writes > Why? You need pairs of 8 MB or 32 MB FPM parity 72 pin SIMMs. > Not that uncommon. Thanks for the useful information about the memory. I have already managed to locate 1 pair of SIMMs on Ebay. I will continue until maxed out. >> Now I look at the back of the machine and my main >> question is what cable do I need to hook up my VT220, or my VT420, Jochen replies > Any regular "null-modem" cable should do the job. I see how to hook up vt220 with db25 f-f null modem cable, but how does that get vt420 hooked up? It appears to have some kind of RJ connecton in back, not DB style. Is there a special cable for that? > >> or what >> model monitor with keyboard and mouse is this thing supposed to work with? > You need a LK201 or LK401 keyboard and a VSxxx mouse. The same keyboard > (and mouse) as used on the VT[234]xx terminals and the VAXstations. > Where do they hook up to? I see on ebay cables with db15 end and 3 bnc, keyboard and mouse at the other end. I hook this into back of DEC 3000 where it has tablet port? or do I need two separate cables, one for monitor from 3w3 connector and one from tablet port for keyboard and mouse? >> In a typical DEC fashion, in the manual they do not mention model numbers of >> monitor to go with it, > The video timings for the on board Smart Frame Buffer are: > 1024 x 786 @ 72 Hz for the 300L > 1280 x 1024 @ 72 Hz for the 300, 300X, 300LX > Any sync on green capable multisync monitor can be used. You just need > a 3W3 video cable. I have plenty of monitors, but not quite sure what you are saying. Say I have monitor with 13w3 connector on back, then I need 3w3 to 13w3 cable and monitor is set? Where do keyboard and mouse come into picture? Special cable plugging into tablet port (DB15) in back of DEC 3000? Sorry for so many questions, but I do not know too much about these machines (as if that is not obvious). Still I hope to soon have OpenVMS or Linux running on them. Bradley

23 years, 4 months

4
3
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Another Decmate III available

by trestivo＠concentric.net

Hi all, Happy New Year! Just wanted you all to know the first two Decmate III's have sold on Ebay, and A third one has been posted. These systems are pretty cool! Word processing software comes with it so it works right out of the box. Take a look at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2085176520 There's also a brand new DEC mouse posted at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2085185434 Have a great holiday! thom

23 years, 4 months

1
0
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Jupiter Ace repair update

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Hi, A little more news on the Ace repair front - I've pulled up the LS367s and found a load of tracks that were ripped up during resoldering - about half of these have now been repaired. It looks like the surge went straight through data line D3 - I've put the ROMs in my EPROM programmer and checked them against the ROM images Lee Davison sent me and they don't match at all. In every case, the output value is off by 0x04 - meaning data line D2 is probably cooked... I'm also beginning to suspect the video shift register - something isn't right. Address decoding is fine, the RAMs should have survived being de-soldered and re-soldered (IME they usually do) and I can't find any problems with the video timing chain (I assume the fact that I'm getting a video signal on my TV is good enough proof of this). It looks like the PCB was laid out with the main CPU section on the left and the video section on the right with a set of LS367s splitting them up. This is not as cheap a design as the ZX81 (IMO), but the PCB is complete and utter crap - the tin plating is stripping off all over the place, solder resist is cracking and has got thin, raised strips running along its length, kinda like the veins on a tree leaf. I've bodged a pair of 2732 ROMs I had in my junk box to fit the sockets and pinout. The video is reasonably stable, but it's mostly white. I haven't got any idea why the font RAM and video RAM aren't being loaded, though. Now if only Farnell still stocked 2532s and 2114s... Thankfully the buffers seem to have isolated a lot of circuitry in the video circuitry, especially the timing chain. The only possible fault condition I can think of is that Jupiter Cantab designed the Ace around National Semiconductor/Motorola/TI 74LS logic and the newer Fairchild Semi logic devices I'm using are incompatible with the existing logic... Stranger and stranger... Later. -- Phil. philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/

23 years, 4 months

2
1
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Hi!/ Sharing the technology/ LK401/ Thanks! (fwd)

by justin＠ingrid.raspberrytea.com

Hi guys. I stumbled upon your list while looking for LK401 schematics, and found that this is the kind of list I was looking for. My name is Justin, and I like classic computers. We have an interesting community of technology enthusiasts who hang out at a local coffee shop here in Houston, TX called Kaveh Kanes. For a while now I have been trying to get rid of a lot of my old computers, because I didn't really want to spend more time on them, but it was hard to part with them. So rather than toss them, I've been getting them functional and setting them up as internet terminals at the coffee shop. A friend, Barrett put his Intel FreeBSD machine up there to start. Now I have my SparcSTATION 5 exporting an X session from it so people can get on the web. Now I'm working on getting my VAXstation 3100 up and working. IT works but my keyboard is shot. I have the LK201, which seems to have a matrix fault. about 1/6 of the keys work. :-( I bought a LK401 on ebay and the person said it had the right connector when I asked. I waited too long after I got it and found out it didn't in fact have the right connector. Does anyone know about these? my VAX Station takes the 4 element RJ11 for which I have the pinout from the netbsd archive. The LK401 I have though has a 6 pin (5 of those are connected) minidin. ( I think its a minidin anyway ). It looks very similar inside, but I don't know what I can connect and I'm having trouble finding documentation for it. Well that was a windy introduction, but it tells you a little about myself, and what I'm trying to do. I just want to share old technology with people in a way that they can still use and appreciate it at the coffee shop. Incidently, I have the complete reference to VAX/VMS in 3 ring binders. I think its about 17 binders total. If anyone is interested, I'd be OK with parting with it. IT would be heavy to ship though. 70 lbs? Next on the list after the VAX is my Amiga 2000. It needs a 68020 processor card first before it can run either AmigaOS 3.9 or NetBSD.... -Justin

23 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

M200 interfacing

by foo＠siconic.com

Ok, so far so good. I've got my wire harness all wired up (I basically used a good quality 40-pin DIP socket: the signal lines going into one side and the returns on the other). Nothing fancy required. The reader is putting out TTL signals so all is good. One oddity: before hooking anything up, I measured the voltage between the Apple's ground and the reader's ground. It would start off at a very low amount of microvolts, climb slowly, then all of a sudden it would shoot to +5 and then go back down to 0, where the cycle would repeat. The cycle period was about 5-6 seconds. What the heck is going on? I tested it out with the indicator signals, i.e. BSY (Busy), HCK (Hopper Check), MOCK (Motion Check), Error, etc., and the VIA is getting the signals. I wrote a little program to print out the status bits of the port that is accepting the signal and ran a batch of cards through and everything is as expected. The next step is to wire in the data signals and start to read data. The VIA gives me two 16-bit ports and an additional 4-bit port. The 4-bit port is special in that it can generate interrupts, so it will work quite well for error signals. The problem is I don't know how to access that port through the card I have. It's a custom 6522 card that I built for a class on microcomputer interfacing I took a lifetime ago and I can't find my class notes. Anyway, I'm in the process of figuring it out. Everything on the card is accessed through it's I/O addresses, being C080 + (slot * 16). So I have it in slot 4 which makes all it's I/O available at C0C0-C0CF. I've found the timer locations and some 16-bit registers. I also found by accident a timer that generates a RESET interrupt when it elapses--at least that's the theory I'm going under since the Apple reset itself after I was playing with the registers. I also believe I remember there being this feature on the 6522, but I haven't had a chance to read that part of the docs yet. One thing I'd like to investigate after I'm done with this is to see if there are enough inputs on the Apple itself to forgo the necessity of the 6522. The Game I/O port has 7 inputs, if you count the 4 joystick inputs that can be used as simple TTL inputs, plus the 3 push-button inputs. The other inputs would be the keyboard. It has 10 Y-inputs and 6 X-inputs, plus SHIFT and CONTROL. I'm wondering if there would be a way to hook up the data signals from the reader in a way that the character data from a card column triggers a key input, which can then be cross-referenced to determine what data was actually sent from the reader. Whether this will work depends on how punch card encoding works. From what I can tell so far, there will only ever be one of the 1-9 numbered rows punched per column, but there can be any combination of the 0, 11, and 12 rows. Is this correct? If so, then there should be enough combinations of inputs on the keyboard port to allow the data signals to go through that, and then the GAME I/O has just enough inputs to cover all the status signals (HOPPER CHECK, MOTION CHECK, ERROR, BUSY, INDEX MARK, and READY). Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 4 months

2
4
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Anyone have a Western Digital XT-IDE hard card or ROM image?

by erd_6502＠yahoo.com

I've been trying to extract the data off of a 20MB XT-IDE drive (WD-93024X) that was once part of a hard card. It has the software for my B&C Microsystems UP600 device programmer. Too many swaps and not enough sleep later, I have inserted the card in backwards (no bracket and it's an 8-bit card). It's now DOA. The Compaq Portable II I'm using complains of an I/O ROM error. So... I can check/replace any of the TTL on the card (74LS13, 74LS14, 74LS244, 74LS30, 73LS260), but the contents of the 2764 are possibly lost to me. Does anyone have a ROM image or an old XT-IDE hard card? The P/N on the ROM is 62-000352-031. The assy no. on the PCB is 60-000227-03, the P/N appears to be 61-000347-01. No smoke got out, but it sure is unhappy. Thanks for any assistance. -ethan __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com

23 years, 4 months

5
10
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Anybody need a Telex FC500 keyboard?

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Anybody need an old Telex keyboard? The closest I could come to a model number was "FC 500" from a label on the underside. More or less normal pre-PC QWERTY keyboard, with a bunch of editing keys in the cursor cluster to the right. It's on a discount table at the MicroCenter in Cambridge, MA. If you really want this and will pay shipping, I'd be willing to go back for it. Probably $1.99, but I don't recall seeing it marked. I picked up a couple of Sun type 5c keyboards while I was there, since they have the control key where g*d and nature intended (just left of the "A" key). If you want such a beast for $1.99, check your local MicroCenter (www.microcenter.com) - matching Sun mice for $0.99, optical or mechanical. Dunno where they're coming from, but they've been there since before Thanksgiving. --S.

23 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Restoration Question

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "J.C.Wren" <jcwren(a)jcwren.com> > I have recently acquired a couple of build PC boards that are not solder >masked. There is some oxidation, ranging from minimal to mild (mild being >the not quite green, but a very hard oxide, as if the tin had reacted with >something else). Anyone got any good ideas on cleaning these? I'd like >something non-submersible, since one of the boards contains keyswitches. > > I have plenty of experience cleaning unbuilt boards. Normally, I'd just >hit them with some super fine steel wool, or buff them with 20lb paper. And >I've repaired boards, but usually to get them working, not to restore their >aesthetic appeal. > > I've considered using a baking soda solution and a stiff bristle brush. >This should neutralize any corrisive elements, and the baking soda might be >abrasive enough to remove the oxides without damaging the board. It would >wash off easily enough with water, and I could protect the switches during >that process. Hi Baking soda assumes that it is acid that caused the corrosion. If it was caused by leakage from NiCads, you'll need to use something like vinegar to neutralize it. You might try getting a fiber glass brush from a welding shop. These are sometimes used to clean aluminum. Sometimes it isn't the copper that is oxidized. They put a layer of nickel between the copper and solder on most PC boards. It may be nickel oxides ( bluish green ). If there is any kind of salts ( neutral ) you'll still have electrolytic corrosion. You need to make sure that it is well cleaned before you are done, regardless of what you use. Dwight > > Anyone got any ideas or standard procedures for this kind of thing? > > --JOhn > > >

23 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

6522 weirdity

by foo＠siconic.com

Ok, I've kinda figured out the control lines on the 6522. First of all, I've got them triggering a flag in the IFR whenever there is a state change on any control pin from a ground to either floating or +5V. For example, CB1 is plugged into ground. I reset the IFR (so no flags are set). I remove the ground from CB1. CB1's flag in the IFR gets set. I reset that flag. If I plug CB1 into +5V, I get no flag. If I unplug CB1 from +5V, I get no flag. If I plug CB1 back into ground, I get a flag. Why are the flags being set only when one of the control lines no longer senses ground? I tried playing with the PCR to see if setting whether the control pins are active positive edge or active negative edge changes this behavior but it doesn't. I can work with this the way it is: I'm basically tracking state changes on the control pins, which is fine for my purposes since the reader will go from TTL false to TTL true if there is an error, and back to TTL false when the error gets cleared. But I want to know how the behavior of the control lines is set. Now, I seem to have a problem with CA1. If I have CA1 connected to ground, it's stable. As soon as I remove it from ground and it's floating, CA1's state starts to fluctuate wildly for a little over 2 seconds. It's flag in the IFR keeps triggering over and over. If, right after I remove it from ground and it starts fluctuation, I plug it back into ground, it stabalizes (it stops changing states). As soon as I remove it again, it fluctuates wildly. Is CA1 tied to one of the 16-bit timers? It sure seems like it. The docs say something about being able to make one of the control lines trigger off a timer. Am I triggering the shift register somehow? What in tarnations is going on? Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 4 months

3
2
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6522 weirdity

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Sellam Ismail" <foo(a)siconic.com> > >Ok, I've kinda figured out the control lines on the 6522. > >First of all, I've got them triggering a flag in the IFR whenever there >is a state change on any control pin from a ground to either floating or >+5V. > >For example, CB1 is plugged into ground. I reset the IFR (so no flags >are set). I remove the ground from CB1. CB1's flag in the IFR gets set. >I reset that flag. If I plug CB1 into +5V, I get no flag. If I unplug >CB1 from +5V, I get no flag. If I plug CB1 back into ground, I get a >flag. > >Why are the flags being set only when one of the control lines no longer >senses ground? I tried playing with the PCR to see if setting whether the >control pins are active positive edge or active negative edge changes this >behavior but it doesn't. I can work with this the way it is: I'm >basically tracking state changes on the control pins, which is fine for >my purposes since the reader will go from TTL false to TTL true if there >is an error, and back to TTL false when the error gets cleared. But I >want to know how the behavior of the control lines is set. > >Now, I seem to have a problem with CA1. If I have CA1 connected to >ground, it's stable. As soon as I remove it from ground and it's >floating, CA1's state starts to fluctuate wildly for a little over 2 >seconds. It's flag in the IFR keeps triggering over and over. If, right >after I remove it from ground and it starts fluctuation, I plug it back >into ground, it stabalizes (it stops changing states). As soon as I >remove it again, it fluctuates wildly. > >Is CA1 tied to one of the 16-bit timers? It sure seems like it. The docs >say something about being able to make one of the control lines trigger >off a timer. Am I triggering the shift register somehow? Hi What is the weird behavior? I haven't seen anything I wouldn't have expected. Dwight > >What in tarnations is going on? > >Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org > > * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com * > >

23 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

M200 interfacing

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> wrote: > 80 characters x 11 bits = 880 bits / 9600 bps = .092 seconds. Should be > no problem. I'll see what the manual says about timing between card > reads. Except that, if you want to read binary cards (trust me, you will -- those binary cards are contain boot and other code for these machines), you need to do all 12 rows. 80 columns x 12 rows = 960 bits / 8 bits per byte = 120 bytes per record. OK, now as for sending that over a serial line, remember that serial I/O adds framing information , so it becomes 10 bits per byte supposing 8 data bits, no parity, 1 start and 1 stop bit. So 1200 bits at 9600 bps = 0.125 second. You probably want to do at least a simple checksum of the data for each record and send that too (so the receiver can verify, send ack or nak, and the sender can retransmit on receipt of nak or just non-receipt of ack). You've got RAM in the Apple, use it as a buffer between the card reader and the serial port. 16KB would hold 136 full card images, which you might think would be more than enough time to tell the reader to stop picking cards and actually have it stop. So, when the buffer's fullness gets above some threshold, stop picking cards until it gets below some lower threshold. You may be able to do some cheap buffer- and serial-time savings by either run-length encoding or just keeping a record length and not storing or sending trailing blank (unpunched) columns. Depends on your data. I think I would go for this last. -Frank McConnell

23 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

6522 weirdity

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 30, 13:57, John Lawson wrote: > On Mon, 30 Dec 2002, Sellam Ismail wrote: > > > Now, I seem to have a problem with CA1. If I have CA1 connected to > > ground, it's stable. As soon as I remove it from ground and it's > > floating, CA1's state starts to fluctuate wildly for a little over 2 > > seconds. > > Try tieing it to +5 via a 10K resistor, so it's either solidly a 0 or > solidly a 1. Many digital chips get cranky when their pins 'float'. Yes. Worst example I came across was a CMOS circuit which was designed by an "expert". It worked on a breadboard, but when transferred to the final PCB it misbehaved and eventually died of "dead chip". It turned out that a couple of unused inputs were left unconnected and floating. On the breadboard, that wasn't a problem, because it was dirty and there was enough leakage (a hundred megohms or so) to keep them in a reasonable and constant state. But the PCB was waterproofed, and they really did float, eventually leading to excess dissipation in the chip, and destruction of one of the gates. The reason is that a CMOS gate is basically two MOS transistor switches, one connecting the output to the power rail, and the other connecting it to ground. If the input floats halfway between logic levels, both turn on (at least, in older devices), and the current destroys one of the MOS transistors. Another example was a TTL circuit that ran fine at low to medium frequencies, but not at several megahertz. Floating input again; that sort of thing has a drastic effect on the speed of the gate. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 4 months

1
0
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Selling my Transputer collection.

by tim.myers＠sunplan.com

A shameless plug for my Transputer collection that's now for sale on Ebay - hope nobody minds :) http://www.andale.com/gallery?cid=10192480&mid=1 Tim.

23 years, 4 months

3
2
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6522 weirdity

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 30, 10:30, Sellam Ismail wrote: > > Ok, I've kinda figured out the control lines on the 6522. > > First of all, I've got them triggering a flag in the IFR whenever there > is a state change on any control pin from a ground to either floating or > +5V. > > For example, CB1 is plugged into ground. I reset the IFR (so no flags > are set). I remove the ground from CB1. CB1's flag in the IFR gets set. > I reset that flag. If I plug CB1 into +5V, I get no flag. If I unplug > CB1 from +5V, I get no flag. If I plug CB1 back into ground, I get a > flag. You're sensing noise. The inputs are not level-sensitive, they're edge-triggered. If you have the PCR set to zero (which is the default after a reset), CB1's flag will set whenever CB1 sees a falling edge. You're probably generating small noise spikes when you remove the ground (this is a bit like key bounce) or picking up stray current (the inside of an Apple is a pretty noisy place, electrically speaking). This would explain why the flag gets set when you initially remove the ground from CB1, and then again when you ground it again. Without the noise, it wouldn't set the flag when you remove the ground, only when you restore it. > Why are the flags being set only when one of the control lines no longer > senses ground? I tried playing with the PCR to see if setting whether the > control pins are active positive edge or active negative edge changes this > behavior but it doesn't. Actually it does, but I bet you've not got pullups or pulldowns on the pins, and you're seeing noise. These pins are fairly high impedance. And because the inputs are edge-sensitive, the flag gets set not just because it's low (otherwise it would get set if it were low when you configure it, and you'd not be able to clear the flag) but because it *changes state* to become low. > I can work with this the way it is: I'm > basically tracking state changes on the control pins, which is fine for > my purposes since the reader will go from TTL false to TTL true if there > is an error, and back to TTL false when the error gets cleared. But I > want to know how the behavior of the control lines is set. See my post from a few minutes ago. > Now, I seem to have a problem with CA1. If I have CA1 connected to > ground, it's stable. As soon as I remove it from ground and it's > floating, CA1's state starts to fluctuate wildly for a little over 2 > seconds. It's flag in the IFR keeps triggering over and over. If, right > after I remove it from ground and it starts fluctuation, I plug it back > into ground, it stabalizes (it stops changing states). As soon as I > remove it again, it fluctuates wildly. Noise. Floating inputs are A Bad Thing. > Is CA1 tied to one of the 16-bit timers? It sure seems like it. The docs > say something about being able to make one of the control lines trigger > off a timer. Am I triggering the shift register somehow? > > What in tarnations is going on? Did I mention noise? :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 4 months

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Recovering from disk failure - attn Adrian Vickers and Jim Austin

by t.myers＠protasis.co.uk

Hi, I've just had my disk holding my main mailbox fail on me (Yet another Fujitsu MPG fails, that's three in as many months.) Could Adrian and Jim please get back in touch with me, I've lost everything :'( Tim

23 years, 4 months

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M200 interfacing

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 30, 8:02, Sellam Ismail wrote: > On Mon, 30 Dec 2002 pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com wrote: > > That's an odd VIA. You mean a single 6522, right? > Sorry, it was a typo. I meant two 8-bit ports. Ah, I suspected it might be. > This is starting to make sense. > > But alll the documenation I've read so far indicates that the function of > the CA and CB lines is controlled by the PCR (Peripheral Control > Register). I'll go poke a 0 into the IER and then see if I can get bits > in the IFR to toggle by putting +5 on the CA1, CA2, CB1 or CB2 pins. The easiest way to set it up to play with, is first to pull each of CA1, CA2, CB1, and CB2 to +5V through four suitable resistors (anything from 1k to 100k will do for this). Then write 0x00 into the PCR, which makes the four handshake lines operate as independant inputs, with negative edge triggering. Write 0x7F into the IER to disable all the interrupts (so the Apple doesn't do any more resets), and 0x7F into the IFR to make sure it's cleared. Then keep polling the IFR while you ground one or more of the handshake pins. Look for any non-zero value. The relevant bits in the IFR should become set, according to which line(s) you ground. Note that this won't ever set bit 7 (MSB) of the IFR, because that only happens if interrupts are enabled, unfortunately. Also remember you have to manually clear the flags once they're set. If you want to use positive-going edges instead of negative-going, use pull-down resistors (don't rely on an unconnected input being low, it might float to any value) and set 0x55 in the PCR. If you are keen to use bit 7 in the IFR as a flag indicating "any input", stick an RTI instruction on the end of your code, and store the address of that RTI at IRQLOC ($03FE) first. That will prevent the interrupts upsetting the Apple. Alternatively, have the Apple execute an SEI instruction (0x78, sets the IRQ mask in the status register, to disable interrupts). Then write 0x64 into the IER to disable all the interrupts except from the handshake lines, and then write 0x9B into the IER to ensure all the handshake interrupts really are enabled (the default state, after a chip reset, is all disabled). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 4 months

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WWII fire control 'computers'

by mross666＠hotmail.com

Suggest you head over to usenet and ask on uk.rec.subterranea - the folks there are experts on most things concering British bunkers... Mike (the CoreStore is more than just ancient computers - see http://www.corestore.org/sub.htm ) http://www.corestore.org _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 3 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=74… http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_smartspamp…

23 years, 4 months

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M200 interfacing

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 28, 19:53, Sellam Ismail wrote: > The next step is to wire in the data signals and start to read data. The > VIA gives me two 16-bit ports and an additional 4-bit port. That's an odd VIA. You mean a single 6522, right? It has two bidirectional 8-bit ports, each of which has 2 associated handshake lines. Each of the bidirection lines can be set to be an input or an output, so it might seem like you have 16 possible inputs and 16 possible outputs -- but you only have 16 connections (plus 4 handshake). > Anyway, I'm in the process of figuring it out. Everything on the card is > accessed through it's I/O addresses, being C080 + (slot * 16). So I have > it in slot 4 which makes all it's I/O available at C0C0-C0CF. I've found > the timer locations and some 16-bit registers. The only 16-bit parts of a 6522 are the timers. Timer 1 is a 16-bit counter accessed as two adjacent 8-bit bytes, and two 8-bit latches (used to reload it when it counts down to zero). Timer 2 is a 16-bit counter accessed as two adjacent 8-bit bytes, without latches (so useful only for counting pulses, or as a one-shot interval timer). > I also found by accident a > timer that generates a RESET interrupt when it elapses--at least that's > the theory I'm going under since the Apple reset itself after I was > playing with the registers. I also believe I remember there being this > feature on the 6522, but I haven't had a chance to read that part of the > docs yet. A 6522 doesn't have any pin that would normally go to the RESET line, but it does have an interrupt output. If you set something in register 14 (the Interrupt Enable Register) and a timer timed out, or you created a transition on one of the handshake lines, the 6522 would generate an interrupt. The interrupts on a standard Apple ][, ][+ or //e aren't used -- it does all normal operations by polling, which is why it's so slow for some things -- and an interrupt causes the processor to jump to a location in the ROM. Just where depends on the ROM, but in an original Monitor ROM or an Autostart ROM, it ends up either going directly to the same routine as BRK does (which will perform the equivalent of a soft reset) or jumps through a vector which you're supposed to set up first. If you've not preset that, I think it ends up in the BRK routine (it certainly does in an Autostart ROM). > One thing I'd like to investigate after I'm done with this is to see if > there are enough inputs on the Apple itself to forgo the necessity of the > 6522. The Game I/O port has 7 inputs, if you count the 4 joystick inputs > that can be used as simple TTL inputs, plus the 3 push-button inputs. The > other inputs would be the keyboard. It has 10 Y-inputs and 6 X-inputs, > plus SHIFT and CONTROL. Er, not exactly. As Tony pointed out, the keyboard includes a decoder (called a ROM in the manual), and the key matrix is decoded by scanning. Either the X or Y lines are outputs (the manual doesn't say which, but IIRC it's the Y lines). Only SHIFT, CTRL, and SHIFT LOCK are plain inputs, and they only serve to modify the 7-bit code sent to the motherboard. > If so, then there should be enough combinations of inputs on the keyboard > port to allow the data signals to go through that, and then the GAME I/O > has just enough inputs to cover all the status signals (HOPPER CHECK, > MOTION CHECK, ERROR, BUSY, INDEX MARK, and READY). I would just use the 6522. You need 12 data, plus 6 status listed above. Is there also a strobe of some sort (or is that READY?)? 8 lines on port A, plus 4 on port B for the data, CA1 for the READY or strobe, and some mixture of the remaining 4 data lines and the other three handshake lines should do it. Don't bother with interrupts to start with. Leave the IER all zeros, and just poll the IFR to look for the flag for CA1. Or just poll it looking for a negative number (which means bit 7 is set, which means one of the other flags is also set). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 4 months

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Can't figure out CA and CB ports on 6522

by foo＠siconic.com

I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to use the CA and CB ports on the 6522 as inputs. From the documentation I have, it seems the CA port can be used for one TTL input, and CB can be used as two. But how do you set them up as such? The documentation is confusing. I'll sleep on it and see if either a) I wake up refreshed and figure it out or b) wake up and find a nice helpful message waiting here ;) Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 4 months

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DIY Equipment Racks

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 29, 22:06, R. D. Davis wrote: > While thinking about racks to use for mounting my PDP-11/44 > components, as well as other equipment from test equipment to audio > and synth equipment, something just occured to me: why bother with > hunting down steel racks when some 2x4s and lag bolts may suffice just > as well? I was thinking that one can just run 2x4s from the basement > floor up to the heavy wooden rafters, attach them to the rafters, and > then add horizontal supports at the bottom to space the vertical 2x4s > apart properly. Any thoughts on this? I guess the museum-type > equipment purists won't like the idea, but it would be a cheap and > functional solution for many of us. :-) Has anyone else here tried > this? Not exactly this, but in addition to (and adjacent to) my racks, I have some adjustable shelving which uses cantilever brackets, fitted to upright rails that are screwed to the 2"x4" vertical "studs" in the wall. The brackets are 610mm (about 24") long and so the shelves are 750mm (~30") deep. The brackets and rails are Spur "Steel-Lok" type and each pair of brackets is rated to hold 75kg (175lb). I tested their security by climbing up them before I entrusted my precious computers and VR14 to them, so I'm sure a 2x4 frame will hold any reasonable amount of rackmount equipment *providing* you have appropriate fixings. http://www.spurshelving.com/html/tech/steel.htm will show you the stuff I used, I'm sure there's something similar in the States. I used a baby version of the same stuff for shelves on a couple of steel-framed trolleys. HOWEVER, the real utility of a rack is that you can mount things on rails and slide them out whilst they're still connected; and that you can adjust the position of things as more interesting equipment comes along (thanks, James! [1]). In fact, it's very hard to work on some things unless you can slide them out part-way, like my PDP-8/E (which is slightly poorly ATM, but that's another story) or most of my PDP-11s. More than that, it's practically impossible to *use* certain things unless you can slide them out -- you need to slide an RL01/RL02 halfway out of the rack to change the disk pack, for example. Those b***s are heavy, and you really do want to use the proper rails. With the ball-bearing rails, changing an RL02 pack is an operation you can do without thinking about it; without, it becomes a "put it off until next week" job. The first catch is that rails and other (static) rackmount equipment are intended to fit precisely-spaced holes. Despite what some people think, they're neither random nor equally spaced (forgive me if you know this). They're in groups of three with one hole in the centre and one each 5/8" above and below, leaving 1/4" between the centre of the upper (or lower) hole and the start of the next U. In other words, the spacing goes 5/8", 5/8", 1/2", 5/8", 5/8", 1/2", ... and 1 rack unit (1U) is 1_3/4". American-style racks (RETMA?) use round holes, sized to be a good clearance for No.10 machine screws (or M5 m/screws) and are used with Tinnerman nuts. European racks use square holes, to which you fit cage nuts (usually M6 but sometimes M5), and the centre hole of each 1U group has, by convention, a little notch at the side, so it's easy to see where the centre of each 1U space is. For that reason alone, it would be much easier to buy the upright flanges which have the holes pre-punched in the right places. They look like overgrown Dexion angle, or steel angle with a lot of holes (front face) and slots (side, for mounting to the uprights). You can get them here in sizes >from 3U to 48U (common sizes are 3U, 6U, 12U, 18U, 32U, 42U, 48U). Price depends on quality (ie, strength) but they're not expensive. I bought a 24U strip and cut it up for my "hub of the universe" wiring rack. That's a 14" deep 6U high frame with sides of 1" square steel tube and flat-strip cross members at the back, mounted over the workshop door. It holds my main Ethernet switch, and several patch panels for UTP, coax, and fibre. Another reason to buy the proper uprights is that some rails, notably those for an RX02, PDP-8/E, and various other devices, fit to the back surface of the flange, not the front (as most "static" equipment does). If your wooden uprights are the right distance apart to directly fit the sort of equipment that has mounting "ears", ie screwing the ears straight into the front of the wood, you'll never be able to fit most types of slide rails, unless you do a bit of woodwork to provide a rebate. Ditto for most shelves, both static and sliding, except cantilever shelves (which fit from the front surface only, but cost more than ordinary ones). > Lastly, has anyone on this list tried retrofitting non-rack-mount > equipment into racks? E.g., welding (or "JB Weld"ing) rack-mount tabs > onto systems like PCs and Kaypros, as well as making rack-mountable > shelves to hold the Macintoshes, etc.? Rackmount shelves are good for that -- just make sure you have enough, or you end up with systems on top of each other again. Cantilever shelves are particularly good because you can always get at the mounting screws, which are only on the front. Conventional shelves are much cheaper but you need to be able to get your hand and screwdriver into the gap between the shelves to reach the screws on the underside of the shelf you're moving -- oh, and BTW they screw into the sides, which will be a little awkward with big woodscrews. We use lots of rackmount shelves at work, for PCs (mostly running Linux) and Sparcs that weren't designed to rackmount. Otherwise, just screw a bracket onto each side of the case. The screws needn't be very large, as most of the forces are in shear. Self-tapping screws will do for most metal cases, machine screws with washers and nuts on the inside for plastic. I wouldn't weld things. Cases are thin, usually zinc plated (nasty fumes), and hard to weld. I certainly wouldn't use epoxy or anything like that. If you ever want to remove the brackets, two or three small holes in each side is much better than the mess a broken weld or epoxy will leave. A few other thoughts: As someone else pointed out, having the side panels makes a big difference to the sound level. It might also make a big difference to the airflow, though, which is why proper racks have fans of their own, normally in the top :-) It's obvious that the width between the uprights is important, but just in case you're wondering, the depth is not (much). A lot of things are front-fixing-only, and most rails are adjustable. Anyway, most flanges have slots rather than holes for mounting, so some adjustment is possible. I can only think of two items where the exact depth matters: my SGI Origin 2000 (which has two slightly superfluous brackets at the back), and an RL01/2 drive, where the shipping bracket is supposed to be fitted to the rear flange (which therefore has to be a particular distance from the front flange). Nevertheless, there are standard depths, like 600mm, 800mm, and 950mm (in Europe) but they're more a matter of convenience. FYI, a standard DEC rack measures exactly 25" from front surface of front flange to back surface of back flange. To be honest, I think you'd be better off finding a secondhand rack. It will already have all the right holes, possibly the side panels, and if it has casters, it might be more versatile than a fixed frame. Providing the casters are strong enough to take the total weight (ie not intended to be supplemented or replaced by jacking-screw feet) it's useful to be able to move a rack a small amount from time to time. Don't forget you need access to the back as well as the front! [1] James is a list member who has occasionally helped me shuffle a PDP-11/40 up and down a rack. No need to remove the power supply if he's around :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 4 months

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WWII fire control 'computers'

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, >> Does anyone know anything about the mechanical fire control computers >> as used in second world war for UK coastal defence batteries? > > You might try posting this question to the guys that know, on the > coastal-defense mail list (yes, there is a list for geeks of all kinds). > I can post the question to the list, if you wish. hey, that'd be much appreciated if you can forward my posting on my behalf. It's probably worth me joining at some point anyway - I've visited most of the coastal defence sites in the UK, but those have all been stripped of nearly all metal. The site in New Zealand seems quite unique just because it is largely intact - power generation and hydraulics are all still present and we hope to have engine room systems running again one day. The 9.2" guns went for scrap years ago, but there are still a few examples left around the world. Having a gun moving around on the hillside under its own power would be pretty cool! > Getting any information or artifacts will be very difficult - about as > close to impossible as you can get. The reason for this is post-war, the > fire control computers were of little use (they do exactly one function) and > have large scrap values (for example, a Mk IV TDC has about a _pound_ of > gold inside). When the mechanisms were scrapped, the manuals were simply > thrown away. that is a lot of gold! A lot of other documentation relating to the site has survived in city archives, including manuals, site plans, the fortress record book etc. but for some reason information relating to the fire control systems vanished - almost as though someone had a paranoia attack and purposely destroyed it. There's a rumour that there is one photo of the computer somewhere - I'm trying to trace its wherabouts at the moment. >> It's possible that the unit shared a lot of commonality with ship-based >> systems, in some cut-down form or other, but I haven't yet located anyone >> who can confirm this. > > Possibly. They probably would be cut down, as there are less variables to > deal with - not being on a ship means that you can eliminate the stable > element and gyrocompass inputs. yes, that's what I figured. Logically there are common elements between the systems, and probably enough to justify sharing of parts. Of course, whether this sort of foresight happened or whether the Army took the Navy's equipment and simply trimmed redundant functionality out is debatable! They may well have been completely different systems... (the 9.2" guns were ex-navy and I believe the hydraulic systems were shared too, but of course that doesn't mean to say that fire control systems were at all related) > I am very interested in these things (I think the fire control collection > now outweighs the computer collection). literally, I imagine - those mechanical systems must be pretty heavy :-) cheers Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 4 months

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(no subject)

by fm.arnold＠gmx.net

>Message: 3 >Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2002 20:46:01 -0600 >Subject: DEC 3000 300X/300 >From: Bradley Slavik <fire(a)dls.net> >To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >Reply-To: cctech(a)classiccmp.org > >I finally am almost within reach of getting my DEC 3000 300 working. A few >years ago I foolishly purchased it without memory, thinking it would be a >simple matter to inexpensively pick up some memory later. How wrong I was. >Now I have purchased a DEC 3000 300X with 160MB memory with the intention of >lending 32MB to the 300. > My 300LX uses 8 or 32 mb 72 pin FPM-DIMM's (with Parity, that's important!). Did not try 16 or 64 mb modules, anyone else? >Now I look at the back of the machine and my main >question is what cable do I need to hook up my VT220, or my VT420, or what >model monitor with keyboard and mouse is this thing supposed to work with? > >In a typical DEC fashion, in the manual they do not mention model numbers of >monitor to go with it, but there are rough instructions that I may be able >to follow to get dumb terminal console working. I would ideally like to have >real monitor on 300X, Read the manual at page 1-3 for supported monitors. I think you are aware of Keyboard-mouse Cable 17-02640-01 and the DEC-protocol of the mouse. Otherwise see: http://www.netclique.net/oldmouse/Hawley/DEC-VAX.html or http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal/dec_mouse_news.txt http://groups.google.com/groups?q=author:mzthompson%40aol.com&hl=de&lr =lang_en&ie=UTF-8&selm=20021016091543.01470.00001267%40mb-mb.aol.com&rnum=4 (on one line). > >VT420 on 300, leaving my VT220 free for my MicroVax II. > Any ascii-terminal will work, use 9600 baud setting. I just tried to connect a VT220 to my 300LX to the 25 pole D-connector (plug 4 on page 3-6) and was successful with a BC22A-25 cable. (Dont forget to detach the keyboard from 300LX!) It takes about 1-2 minutes before the first text appears to the serial terminal. Output comes just after the 3-tone melody. Build-in CRT-output comes much faster. I have a VR297-DA, and tried to connect it to the 300LX to no success. (There is some picture and synchronisation, but the information appears 5 times adjacent, and is not readable.) Either this monitor does not match the 300LX or the video-setup of the internal adapter has the wrong parameters. Anyone some clues about this? To what workstation will the VR297-DA fit? I hope this helps you. Frank Arnold

23 years, 4 months

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Sun workstation and HP 98789A monitor?

by rdd＠rddavis.org

Tonight while looking for a wall wart for an old Hayes modem, I discovered something that I didn't know I had: some sort of monitor cable adapter. At one end is a Sun workstation style monitor connector from which four cables are connected to BNC connectors with reg, green, blue and white labels. Does anyone on this group knows if it will work with an HP (Sony) 98789A fixed frequency monitor which has R, G, B and HD and VD sync connectors (can I use just one of these syncs?). I'd hook it up to see if it works without asking, but I'd prefer not to have to carry the monitor down to the basement if it isn't going to work. :-) -- Copyright (C) 2002 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.

23 years, 4 months

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WWII fire control 'computers'

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, A bit (er, lot!) of a long shot this, but it's probably vaguely on-topic... Does anyone know anything about the mechanical fire control computers as used in second world war for UK coastal defence batteries? I did some restoration work out in New Zealand earlier in the year on a wartime coastal battery which was built to a British design, and used British systems. Unfortunately all information on 'out' plotting-room computer mysteriously vanished in the 1950's, and the unit itself sadly was cut up for scrap value many years ago. It'd be nice to get some information on possible units though just for something to show on site open days. It's possible that the unit shared a lot of commonality with ship-based systems, in some cut-down form or other, but I haven't yet located anyone who can confirm this. I seem to recall a few posts about US equivalent systems a few years back, so there's probably a few current list members who are interested in this sort of system despite the units being non-electronic in nature! cheers, Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 4 months

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TMS9900 Lives! (fwd)

by spectre＠stockholm.ptloma.edu

Spotted on the ti99 list on YahooGroups. ----- Forwarded message ----- X-Apparently-To: ti99-4a{{{at}}}yahoogroups.com To: ti99-4a{{{at}}}yahoogroups.com Message-id: <200212292023.NAA07743(a)aztec2.asu.edu> X-eGroups-From: dlormand{{{at}}}aztec.asu.edu (DAVID L. ORMAND) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 13:23:55 -0700 (MST) Subject: [ti-99/4a] TMS9900 Lives! Just thought you guys would get a charge out of this: Regardless of what anyone else thinks, the Army thinks we will be at war with Iraq imminently. So the old TOW team has been busy through the Christmas break. And I got to play with 9989 assembly again! Joy! Furthermore, since the old development tools don't seem to be working anymore (VAX and HP9000), I had to drag in one of my TI-99/4A systems to do module testing! Much to the amusement of the rest of the team! The old dog still lives! For users/owners of TI-99/4A and compatibles everywhere! To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: ti99-4a-unsubscribe{{{at}}}eGroups.com ----- End of forwarded message ----- -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu -- Less talk, more synthohol. -- Lt. Worf, Star Trek: TNG ---------------------

23 years, 4 months

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Qs about big tape drives

by jss＠subatomix.com

All right. College is over, and I'm starting to map out plans for my Machine Room of Ultimate Power (Consumption). Trouble is, my 850 sq ft house is not much bigger than an apartment. I've found that vertical storage is my friend here, and I want to use as much of that as I can. I've got this Kennedy 9300 tape transport. It's big like a DEC TE16 and has vacuum columns and such. It will live at the top of a rack. Unfortunately...um...I've never actually *used* one of these big tape drives, or any tape drive for that matter, and I can find zilch docs on it. Are there going to be problems with sticking anything else (storage or processor) under it? Specifically, would vibrations from the 9300 cause problems (e.g. alignment) with a disk drive (e.g. RK05) mounted below it? Could vibrations cause problems (e.g. cards working themselves out of the backplane) with a processor (e.g. 11/34)? -- Jeffrey Sharp

23 years, 4 months

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Manual(s) for Fluke 9010 Troubleshooter 8080 and 8085 pods?

by alandevlin＠bigpond.com

Gidday Tony, you may wish to check my WEBSITE ! I have the (almost) complete SET of Service Manuals for this hardware. Cheers. Alan. Alan Devlin. RF RESALE... where Honesty & Integrity are paramount ! Melbourne, Australia. WEB PAGE URL http://www.users.bigpond.com/alandevlin/index.html manual(s) for Fluke 9010 Troubleshooter 8080 and 8085 pods? Tony Eros cctech(a)classiccmp.org Sun Oct 13 18:59:32 2002 Previous message: manual(s) for Fluke 9010 Troubleshooter 8080 and 8085 pods? Next message: 10 years Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

23 years, 4 months

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VAX 11/780 anyone with some working experience out there?

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>As for a second RX01, I cannot help you. On the 86x0 you have a command to say that you really want >to play with a second RL02 instead of the standard one, but it's not very easy to use, and not >really ment for customers to play with. Then again, there isn't even a DIR command on the 86x0 >console (nor a command file to do the same). I should read those 8600 manuals but, not having an actual 8600, I lack the incentive :-) On the 11/780 that I used briefly many years ago, you could get to the console devices by doing CONNECT CONSOLE within SYSGEN and then the CSA0: and CSA1: devices were available (this is under VMS). The EXCHANGE utility could then get to the RT-11 formatted data. Similar deal for the VAX 82x0/83x0 and its RX50. I'd expect that something similar would apply to the VAX 8600. >As for copying the RX01. Install VMS on a drive, and play with that. >You have a command file for making copies of the console media there. I seem to remember Gunther and VMS not being such good friends last time around on a VAX 6000 - maybe he should try a smaller system first :-) I'm pretty sure that something like: $ SYSGEN SYSGEN> CONNECT CONSOLE SYSGEN> EXIT $ MOUNT/FOREIGN CSA1: $ HELP EXCHANGE should help (OK - I forget how to drive exchange!). I don't remember whether the console devices will be CSA1: and CSA2: or CSA0: and CSA1: ... SHOW DEVICE CS will sort that out. Merry Christmas, Antonio arcarlini(a)iee.org

23 years, 4 months

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M200 interfacing

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> wrote: > Whether this will work depends on how punch card encoding works. From > what I can tell so far, there will only ever be one of the 1-9 numbered > rows punched per column, but there can be any combination of the 0, 11, > and 12 rows. Is this correct? No. Symbol characters do not follow this rule, for example the period character '.' is encoded as punches in rows 12, 3, and 8. You should assume that any combination of rows may be punched. As a general rule, I think you'll find that for cards containing printable characters, no more than 3 punches are made in any column, but I don't think you can assume this for cards containing binary data. Doug Jones has a page that you should look at: <http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/codes.html> ...but I can't get there right now, so you might need to look in Google's cache (long URL w/wrap): <http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:AeJS4EmmG4gC:www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/c…> -Frank McConnell

23 years, 4 months

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Incredible Find

by marvin＠rain.org

Well, occassionally we stumble across something that is kind of unusual at a great price! Yesterday at TRW, Dave (senior moment, can't remember his last name but former member of this list) told me about a Heath 3400 microprocessor for sale. Turned out that the guy had the Heath Microprocessor trainer AND and a mostly unbuilt (resistors only soldered in the board) Heath I/O interface; both were in the original box and included the original manual! I have seen very few of the Heath interface units, and finding one that was essentially unbuilt was ... inspiring :)!!!

23 years, 4 months

3
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Dinosaur Computer Company?

by netsurfer_x1＠fastmailbox.net

I had a friend who was telling me once about a computer company he had heard of called, oddly enough, Dinosaur Computers. If memory serves me right, they were based out of the state he was living in at the time (either Michigan or Wisconsin, I don't remember which). Anyone know anything about these guys? -- David Vohs netsurfer_x1(a)fastmailbox.net -- http://fastmail.fm - A fast, anti-spam email service.

23 years, 4 months

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Sound Computer Trades

by rdd＠rddavis.org

An explanation of the title: I'm looking to trade some of my surplus classic computer, and other, equipment for used pro-sound equipment (what I'm looking for is listed at the end) Some of what's available for trade: * A large, double-height, non-DEC, Qbus expansion chasis, complete with it's own power supply, lighted power switch, etc. on the front panel. This is rather large and heavy. * A set of DECVoice cards for a q-bus VAX * Kaypro IV computer * Many Sun-3 VME-bus boards (sorry, still no complete list of these) that have taken over too large a part of the garage and the top of my workbench. What I do know is that there are many CG3 boards that I'd like to get rid of, along with graphics accellerators, etc. If you've discussed these before with me, please don't hesitate to pester me to check to see if I have a board that you're looking for... sometimes I forget, and sometimes there are other things in the way of my getting to these boards. * PDP-11/03 chasis (may or may not have any boards, such as a CPU, in it) * 25" Zenith picture tube from the 1970's or earlier (I've no idea what to do with this, but it would be a shame to toss it in the trash... it's been taking up space for a couple of decades, and I'd like to find a good home for it). Somewhere, I may even have the solid metal front panel that goes with it. Buy this tube (for a ridiculously low price!), and I'll toss in the front panel for *free* if I can find it ...don't delay, as this special bonus offer may expire within the next decade or so! :-) * 17" HP color monitor * 19" Apollo color monitor * Apollo DN3500 with color board. * Parts for a PDP-11/34A, including power supply in bits, front panel, assorted hardware such as cables and screws, boards, etc. Just add a chasis and you may find that you have nearly a working system... maybe you can even convince me to part with the real core memory for it! * A Falco 5000 (F5000?) terminal that needs a few adjustments * A Macintosh 512K * A 19" wide rack-mountable slide-out drawer. You need one of these in your PDP-11's rack, don't you? Yes, you do! :-) * A QMS printer controller (?) board for Macintosh computers Other things that may be of interest to some... * CRT from an ancient Dumont oscilloscope * A modular GE mobile transceiver with valves in the transmitter and receiver. The third module is a vibrator type power supply. This was originally used as a police radio or somesuch. The case that surrounds this is missing, but you get the frame that holds the modules together. Somewhere, I may have the service manual for it. * A vintage Kenwood (KR-7070, IIRC) top-of-the line receiver, from the 1970s, in need of a little restoration work, complete with real-wood, not veneer, cabinetry. = = = = = = = = = Items on my audio and synthesis "want list" include: * compressor/limiter (preferably one using tubes) * spectral enhancer or similar equipment (e.g. DBX model 726) * instrument condenser microphone (at least 30Hz to 20KHz bandwidth, +/- 3 db); * Tascam DX-4D, 4-channel DBX-1 unit * 8-channel 1/2" reel to reel with good heads & motors ...and other mechanical bits in good or repairable condition. Test tape for calibration must still be available from some source. * old 12-plus channel mixer board (must have analog VU meters); ok to be in need of electronic/electrical repairs; prefer Yamaha boards, but that's not a definite requirement * 19" mobile console rack that will hold rack-mounted multitrack recorder at a 20 to 45 degree, or so, angle (e.g., something resembling a Tascam CS-607B rack) * phase shifter * factory patch tapes for Juno-60 synth * audio patch bay (16 to 32 channels) -- Copyright (C) 2002 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.

23 years, 4 months

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Mac Plus and Signatures

by cb＠mythtech.net

>If you really want to open it, take a >BIC disposable pen, and remove the ink and the black end piece, leaving >an empty tube. Shove a hex shaped pencil in one end, and a T-15 driver >bit in the other. This creates a crude, but very functional Mac opener. >If you use a long enough pencil, it is pretty easy to use. Now if that ain't the coolest Mac Hack! >Getting the >case apart after the screws are out can be tricky too, and they sold a >special tool to do it, but I have always just to be able to pull the >halves apart. A small spring wood clamp with the rubber end caps removed works well. Stick the clamp end into the slot between the front and rear halves, and then squeeze the handle. As the clamp goes to open, it will pry the halves apart. Do this gently in a few places around the case, and the whole unit will easily pop apart. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 4 months

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Looking for Definicon DSI-32 board ...

by bernd＠kopriva.de

Hi, i've put this request on the list some times ago, but i was unsuccessful :-( ... ... maybe i've more luck now ?? Thanks Bernd Bernd Kopriva Tel: 07195 / 179452 Weilerstr. 24 E-Mail : bernd(a)kopriva.de 71397 Leutenbach

23 years, 4 months

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Intermittent power supply (OT)

by foxvideo＠wincom.net

Hi, has anyone experienced a condition in a pc power supply that would intermittently put out a high enough voltage to zap the hard drive? Regards Charlie Fox Charles E. Fox Video Production 793 Argyle Rd. Windsor Ontario Canada N8Y 3J8 519-254-4991 foxvideo(a)wincom.net Check out the "Camcorder Kindergarten" at http://chasfoxvideo.com

23 years, 4 months

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Mac Plus and Signatures

by cb＠mythtech.net

>Were there some that were individually, personally signed? >Were all Mac plus delivered with these mass produced signatures? >Or were only some delivered with these mass produced signatures? >If these mass produced signatures were only on some Macs, >approximately how many were supposed to have these signatures? All Mac Pluses have those signatures. In fact all Mac's starting from the first (128, but before it was called that), thru the SE have signatures. And, I believe all the IIs, and some of the IIx's, and maybe others. I'm not as positive at what point in the II line it stopped, and I know it stopped somewhere midline with a model, so there is at least one model that has sigs, but not in all of them. So people that sell their 128, 512, Plus, or SE with "signatures" are either ignorant, or trying to jack up the price hoping to catch other ignorant people. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 4 months

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the 'Garage, Garage Sale'...

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

Having (almost) survived the traditional end-of-the-year cleaning and general re-shuffling... I'm preparing some more things to place in the 'Garage, Garage Sale' and wanted to check something. Knowing that I'm hopeless in keeping track of such things... Has everyone who had purchased something from the Garage Sale so far received their item(s)? If not, please drop me a note and I'll try to get it out ASAP. (I'm such a space case) Thanks; -jim --- jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw

23 years, 4 months

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cctalk digest, Vol 1 #319 - 51 msgs

by bqt＠update.uu.se

On Thu, 12 Dec 2002 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > > Huh? No. Actually, the data track itself is used as the servo signal. The > > head centers in on the track by centering on where the amplitude is > > strongest. > > Do you have any evidence for that? Yup. I quote: "1.3.3.2 Sector Format - As shown in Figure 1-3, each sector contains: * Servo information for head positioning * Head (address) information * Data - 128 words of 16 bits each, or 256 bytes of 8 bits each, or 170 words of 12 bits each Only the data portion can be written by the user. The servo and header information is protected by the drive logic and controller to ensure disk integrity and cannot be written in the field. Each sector starts with a sector pulse that is produced by a sector transducer mounted on the drive unit. It senses the sector notches that are machined into the hub of the disk cartridge. During the time that sector notch passes by the sector transducer, the heads detect two servo pulse bursts (S1 and S2) that are prerecorded on the platter. These servo bursts are used by the drive logic for head positioning." Seems like there shouldn't be any argument about this. The RL drives have the servo information embedded in the normal track. > > seek to a track, you check the current track, calculate the track delta, > > and request that of the drive. When the drive report ready you once again > > check the track to see which one you actually are on. Hopefully it is the > > right, but if not, do another seek. > > Incidentally, every drive I've ever worked on records the current track > number in the header. Even drives (like the RK's) where you can command > the drive to move to a given track. It is possible for the drive to get > confused and think the heads are on a different track to the one that > they actually are on. It's better to do a restore (seek to track 0 -- > something that is detected by a separate sensor) and re-seek to the > desired track than to overwrite the wrong sector. Eh. This is on most controller not something you check or take care about in software, but hardware. When you specify to the controller (for instance en RK11) that you want track 10, it both figures out how many tracks the heads need to move, and in which direction. It then checks that you really are at the right track, otherwise you get an error back. The RL11 have no such sophistication. You request a head move, and the drive hopefully does it, and then you can carry on with the next command. There is no checking at all in hardware, except for moving outside the data area, which just stops the heads at the end. > > Correctly position the heads when you don't have a servo track, and the > > heads are actuated by voice coils, means you cannot position the heads at > > all. > > You _can_, but you need a specially-modified drive. You can't use the > off-disk signals for position feedback. Instead you have to couple up > some other kind of transducer to the positioner and use that. An optical > interfereometertype thingy is the normal thing to use I believe. Sounds like a probable setup, yes. > Incidentally, RL's don't use a voice coil. It's a little DC motor and > pulley mechanism. Hmmm. I'm pretty sure it's voice coil. You want me to dig out that manual too? :-) I could also open up one of the many drives I have around me. The only pulley I've ever seen is for the spindle. And one have even trashed on me. > > Which no RL01/RL02 controller can do. There is no function to write sector > > headers. So, in addition to finding another drive to be able to position > > the heads, you need another controller, to be able to write the data. > > Getting round this is the easy part once you've got the drive to keep the > heads in the right place. The RL controller is conceptually simple (and > as you're only _writing_, you'd not need to bother with the PLL (used to > produce a read clock) on the homebrew header-writter. Well, now that I've pointed out that the servo information is also expected to show up, and that the drive checks that, and the rest of the information is constantly checked by the controller, it should be appearant that it's not that easy. While the RL controller might be conceptually easy, it's a rather complex thing as stuff normally done by the drive on other subsystems are actually done by the controller here. Basically, if you don't have the servo information correct on the platter, the drive will signal errors to the controller, and the controller which just miserably fail unless header infomration keep coming in when the drive is running. Johnny Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt(a)update.uu.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

23 years, 4 months

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DEC 11/03 on eBay

by jwillis＠arielusa.com

I found paw prints, likely that of a ferile feline, outside my door, in the snow. -----Original Message----- From: Jerome H. Fine Sent: Sat 12/28/2002 3:36 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Cc: Subject: Re: DEC 11/03 on eBay >John Lawson wrote: > > On Sat, 28 Dec 2002, Jerome H. Fine wrote: > > Seller also seems to has used an out-of-focus set of shots to blur > > any damage. > Gee, Jerry, I dunno... the cat seemed pretty sharp to me.... ;) > John Jerome Fine replies: I don't normally reply to the banter, but in regard to the cat? A cat that looks almost identical "ADOPTED" my wife about 3 years ago. She is a stray and stays out almost all summer in Toronto when it is warm. In the winter, right now there is about 2" of snow on the ground (Toronto does NOT get the snow storms that Buffalo gets), so she only goes out for an hour or two each day - 15 minutes at a time. She hates being cold. Every time the door bell rings, she runs upstairs and hides under the bed - when she is already inside - obviously. As for her claws - they are VERY, VERY SHARP!! She needs them to climb the trees and the fence. And her teeth are just as sharp. YES!! I admit that I also love her very much. Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine -- If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the 'at' with the four digits of the current year.

23 years, 4 months

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AVAIL: Xerox 630 Memorywriter system disks

by rschaefe＠gcfn.org

Found a disk case at the thrift store that claims to contain the system software for a Xerox Memorywriter 630. Contains four 5.25" floppys marked as follows: white XEROX 630 Memorywriter label, blank, non-write-protected green XEROX 630 Memorywriter label, `Base System', `REORDER NO. 9R23303 VERSION 6.0 3Q85-B', write-protected blue XEROX 630 Memorywriter label, `Options', `REORDER NO. 9R23302 VERSION 4.0 1Q85-B', write-protected pink XEROX 630 Memorywriter label, `Forms', `REORDER NO. 9R23301 VERSION 3.0 1Q85-B', write-protected also 2 each spare pink & blue labels w/o the version, etc. info. No apparent physical damage, and the oxide showing in the window isn't funny-looking, but YMMV. Avaliable for shipping, but I'm currently in need of a set of four 2MB SIMMs (w/ IBM's SPD) to fit in a P70... hint hint... :) Bob

23 years, 4 months

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Other (non-HP) DOS clamshells?

by fmc＠reanimators.org

evan <evan947(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi all... besides than the HP-95/100/200, what are > other DOS clamshells of the era? I'm aware of the > Atari Portfolio and the Poqet device, but there are > several more, methinks... Olivetti Quaderno? I haven't thought of those in years, but my recollection is that it's a small XT clone with a voice recorder feature. More popular in Europe than in the US, too. -Frank McConnell

23 years, 4 months

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HP Integral?

by mattis＠mattisborgen.org

Hi! I just acquired an HP Integral on Ebay. Unfortunately there was no "Software Engineering ROM" in this one so it is quite limited in terms of what one can do with it. ( I guess it is quite limited anyway since is is almost 20 years old ) Is there any one out there that has a "Software Engineering ROM" to sell? Does any one have a binary image of the contents of the ROM chips? In that case it wouldn't be to hard to do a simple board one self. Other stuff for the HP Integral is intersting as well! Thanks, /Mattis

23 years, 4 months

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