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

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Actually, I was bummed. I gave away about 1/2 lbs of candy corn and hardly got any votes. Many walked by and looked at my monitor and said " Ah, a Apple III." I finally had to put a piece of paper over the label so people would look a little closer. The monitor was just the first thing I could find at the top of the pile that lit up. I had a Poly-88 setup but I think only one in 10 noticed and even then, I think only 2 in those ten knew what it was. Of course, my display was all about tape recovery and not the Poly-88. I don't think, maybe, 5 people all together realized that. It was partly my fault. My title was a little small and I spent most of my time fighting with Larry over table space instead of talking to people ( Larry was cheating with Tootsie Pops! ). I had no cool graphics either. Next year I'll have better candy and a bigger title! Still, I had a great time. Thanks Sellam!!! Dwight >From: "Sellam Ismail" <foo(a)siconic.com> > >On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > >> Anyone out there want to enlighten us poor slobs stuck on the wrong side >> of the continent? Anyone putting any pictures on the web? > >It was a wholly awesome event. The most well-run VCF in the history of >the VCF (all talks on time and recorded and video taped). Nearly a >perfect exhibit (one problem with a circuit breaker on Sunday that was >promptly fixed) with Kraftwerk playing in the background, not to mention >the excellent exhibits themselves. We had broadband Internet access >in the Exhibit Hall plus a WAP. Plenty of good stuff in the vendor >area (much stuff for which I had to quell my impulse to buy, though I >did get a lot of keen donations). Lots of great literature at the >Propaganda Zone. Tours to the Computer History Museum, the California Air >and Space Center (which were only a short walk away) and an excursion to >the DigiBarn (http://www.digibarn.com). And the attendance was way >higher than expected (right up around 300). > >In my opinion it was one of the best VCF's yet. Next year it will be even >bigger and better. > >I will now turn my sights to VCF East 2.0. > >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, 7 months

4
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NeXT Dimension Question

by jingber＠ix.netcom.com

23 years, 7 months

2
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Tales of VCF 5.0?

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jim Battle" <frustum(a)pacbell.net> >At 06:09 PM 10/28/02 -0800, dwight elvey wrote: >>Hi >> Actually, I was bummed. ... >> I had a Poly-88 setup but I think only one in 10 noticed >>and even then, I think only 2 in those ten knew what it was. > >I spotted it, and I knew what it was. But how could you tell >that? Probably other people were the same. > >> Of course, my display was all about tape recovery and not >>the Poly-88. I don't think, maybe, 5 people all together >>realized that. > >That, I didn't spot. I noticed the waveforms on the wall, but amidst the >din (auditory and visual) it didn't register. I wish I had noticed, >though, since it is an area I want to spend some time working on one of >these years. Rather than letting it be lost to the moment, is there any >chance of you writing up your work and putting it online somewhere (even >posting it to this list and letting it get archived would work). > >I've read a half dozen very terse summaries of emulators and such that do >this, but most work only on really clean tapes. They simply do some DC >correction, perhaps a bit of filtering, and then time zero crossings and >decode from there. Have you done something more sophisticated than >this? Some of the Sol tapes I've looked at are way too corrupted for such >a simple technique to work. > >There are a lot of communication theory ideas that could be applied to the >problem directly; in addition, the file format is going to have some known >structure that could be used to help train the receiver and disambiguate >some cases. > >I'd be interested to hear more. >----- >Jim Battle == frustum(a)pacbell.net > > Hi Jim I will try to put something together. I did have an outline posted at the exhibit but hoped many would ask questions ( quite a few did but only about 1/3 of those knew what a Poly-88 was ). First, I didn't use any of the high tech methods. I know a reasonable amount about DSP, having taken a couple of courses and tinkered some as well. There is little in DSP that will fix a dropout caused by folded tapes. DSP can be used for such problems as high frequency rolloff or print-thru. These problems are often over stated and are not the most common problems. Understanding how the data is recorded and how your machine reads these back can be a large help. One also needs an alternate method of reading the tape because the canned software usually won't continue after an error. You also need to know the method used to validate the replay. If you are lucky, they used a CRC or ECC. In most cases, it was a simple check sum. Recovery is more about bringing all the known stuff together and recreating the missing parts. As long as the recorded data is something like a program or text the problem can often be solved. If it is something like raw data, ( strings of meaningless numbers ) the chances are poor. One of the first things to look for is duplicate tapes. Not all errors happen at the same place and same time. Like solving a mystery, it is all about putting all of the pieces together and not just a single part. It is easier then one would think but does take some time to develop the tools needed to get all the information. I don't have a web site to publish such information but I suspect someone will provide it. Anyway, I apologize for not having a bigger title. Even though Sellam gave us plenty of extra time, I was still doing a lot of last minute preparations. Dwight

23 years, 7 months

2
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KIM-1 24-hour clock

by richy2000_nl_2000＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi Ross, Do you have the Source of your "KIM-1" clock for me. You told me about your clock, here: http://www.learnmicros.com . I have a KIM-1, but I'm afraid to connect it with power. I only can test it on emulators, so maybe you have it for me... Greetz, Richard, The Netherlands. __________________________________________________ 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, 7 months

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VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5]

by Qstieee＠aol.com

Connecticut sounds good to me too. I am around Hartford and I presume David A. Woyciesjes who is often on this list is around New Haven. If someone wants advice on venues ask me by direct e-mail.

23 years, 7 months

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TRS80 Model 3 i/o connectors

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > IIRC, #26-1401 It is basically straight through, and can be made by > crimping a card-edge connector on one end of ribbon cable, and a > "centronics" amphenol connector on the other. Sorry, but I don't remember > which direction to offset the cable (for the 34 v 36) Thanks, Fred. The docs give the pinouts on the card-edge, so a cable should be no problem. > The other 34 pin is for external floppies. It should be possible to > identify which 34 is which by proximity to the disk controller. Piece of cake -- thanks again. > "expansion bus" On the model 1 it was 40 pin. Did they change to 50 on > the 3? I don't know -- I wonder why this is not shown in the docs? Later -- Glen 0/0

23 years, 7 months

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360K drives

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: DAVID L. ORMAND <dlormand(a)aztec.asu.edu> > I'm trying to help some guys outfit TI-99/4As with 360K > drives. A year or so ago, they were still available from > some of the surplus dealers I know about, but they seem > to have disappeared. > > Does anyone have a line on supplies of 360K drives? The > only ones I find via web search are $25, which seems a > bit much for a once-ubiquitous drive that is now a little > obsolete. I've been picking them up on eBay, often in never-been-used condition, for $10 - $12 including shipping. I've also found some in junk systems at thrift stores. They are not as easy to find (at least in my neck of the woods) as they were a couple of years ago, but the high-density "1.2 MB" drives seem to be everywhere (including my shop -- I've got almost 50 of them here!). Glen 0/0

23 years, 7 months

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Repairing devices

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 30, 16:38, Patrick Finnegan wrote: > I've got a 35mW HeNe Laser + Power supply that I picked up today for next > to nothing. It seems to be having some problems - the laser (somtimes) > blinks a few times when I first turn it on, and then stops. As a few others have said, most common cause of an HeNe laser failing to "lase" is loss of the helium. I, too, found that out the hard way. Interestingly, the more it's used, the less likely that is to happen in a given time (at least, so said the notes with the last HeNe tube I bought). > Now, I've never really worked on a HV power supply before, and I'm trying > to be careful when I play with things. First off, does anyone have a > general idea of what sized dummy load ("resisitor") I should try haning > off of the HV output to properly load it? I noticed that the laser tube > has 3x27kohm resistors in series, would a couple watt approx 81kohm > resistor be a good idea? Probably not. Although not always obvious from the specs, most resistors are only rated to some hundreds of volts, maybe a thousand or two. That's why your laser has three in series instead of one bigger one. > Also, does anyone have an idea for a failure mode to look for? I've got > an O'scope, dmm, and various other tools at my disposal, but no > 'authentic' HV test/mesurement gear. You want a proper insulated HV probe for a start... you need to be able to measure kilovolts if you want to check the power supply. Check out Sam's laser FAQ at www.repairfaq.org -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 7 months

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Manuals for IBM 2520 Card Reader?

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

Hi -- does anyone have any documentation for the IBM 2520 card reader? I know it's a long shot. (I checked Al Kossow's archive and don't see it there). Any leads would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Brian =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- _| _| _| Brian Knittel _| _| _| Quarterbyte Systems, Inc. _| _| _| Tel: 1-510-559-7930 _| _| _| Fax: 1-510-525-6889 _| _| _| Email: brian(a)quarterbyte.com _| _| _| http://www.quarterbyte.com

23 years, 7 months

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Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750

by jwillis＠arielusa.com

I've removed (as of tonight) all the parts out of the chassis, documenting where everything goes. I cleaned the chassis very carefully. Once the card cage/ backplane was out, it was obvious that these parts were in beautiful condition, if not more than a little bit dusty. A couple of bent pins in back were easily corrected, and the entire assembly sits waiting to be reinstalled in the chassis. The TU58, unfortunately, did not fare quite as well, as the mice had chosen it as their nesting place. After finally managing to get the tape that was in it loosened up, it came out coated with mouse fur and mouse droppings etc. The rollers are entirely wound up in this stuff. It sits in a box awaiting later attempts at cleaning. I hold out little hope. The power supply, which seems to consist of a controller and two actual PSUs, looks solid from the outside, and also what I can see of the inside. It appears to have large battery packs in the bottom of it. These, certainly, would be dead after all this time. Are they important? Maybe theyre not even batteries... The H7112A looks solid, but again, I haven't explored inside. Everything in the system has a light coating of New Mexico red clay dust. The blower/motor assembly from the bottom of the cabinet awaits cleaning. The blower itself turns freely, which I'm taking as a good sign. The cards are pristine, L0002, L0003, L0004, L0008, L0007, L0016. There are 8 memory boards (M8750), several bus grant cards, a card labeled "M9313" and one labeled "M9202." I also found in the bottom of the system an M9014 Unibus to H854 adapter that wasn't plugged in. I also have a DELUA. -----Original Message----- From: Zane H. Healy Sent: Tue 10/29/2002 9:35 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Cc: Subject: Re: Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750 > I just a couple of days ago picked up a VAX 11/750. This machine has Cool! > been stored > in a damp shed for ten years or so, has had mice living in it, and the > usual assortment of spiders, etc. Oh, SHUDDER! It sounds like you're in for an interesting restoration process. > to the control panel and TU58 tape drive. I'm in the process of cleaning > all the components, > but am in search of some advice on this process, especially the power > supply. How long > should I let the power supply dry out from its prior damp condition, and > what should > I do to bring it up for testing without risking damage to other > components? I wish to > do this methodically and carefully. Unless this is a powersupply that needs a load on it when you power it on (anyone know?), I'd recommend having it totally disconnected when you power it on. I'd also recommend you have someone else standing by with a C02 Fire Extinguisher for safety. As for how long it needs to dry before powering up, I'm not really sure, if you've got it in a warm, heated location, I'd say a week or two should be plenty (probably doesn't need that much but it's better to ere on the side of caution). Something to do in the mean time is to look for corrosion and to get everything good and clean. I'm most concerned about your powersupply and backplane. Also take a look at the rollers in your TU58. While the following is for a PDP-8, you might find it useful. http://pdp-8.org/revive.htm Definitly read up on what Aaron has to say about Backplanes. Zane

23 years, 7 months

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I can't believe this?!??!

by dittman＠dittman.net

BTW, I've found my VAX 4000 reports errors and will not boot if the KZQSA is not properly terminated. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

23 years, 7 months

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Best version of AIX for my RS6000

by ceby2＠csc.com

> ...Yes it does! I'm using it right now on a POWERserver 370 (7012-370) at > work an it runs just fine. (That's a 62,5MHz POWER proc, 64bit memory > bus, and MCA for those who don't know.) ... Let me just echo those sentiments. I'm currently running AIX5L on a 7013-591 at the office and a 7012-390 at home. Both of these machines are similar in spec to the 370 and 580 Pat mentioned. Mine have 128MB and 256MB RAM respectively. I can also add that I've had full graphic support on both. In fact the only graphics nightmare I've had with backward compatibility is with my 860(RS6000 Laptop). It depends on your card of course, but the graphics on my systems are just fine. Odd to say, but in most things non-CPU bound, these are the fastest machines I have at the moment, including the PII linux boxes. The IO in these boxes is fab'. > If you need any help with AIX things feel free to email me, I'm now > involved (somewhat) with some sysadmining of AIX boxen at work, so I might > be able to help with OT things (or talk to someone who has been for a > while).... I'll also echo Pat's offer of help. I'm trained, current and even somewhat proficient with both the recent gear and the vintage stuff. I'm not a sysadmin anymore, though -- I consult on performance engineering. Colin Eby ceby2(a)csc.com

23 years, 7 months

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[OT] paper on Retro ?

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

However, documentation/softwareless old computers make wonderful doorstops. Actually, I gave a couple gutted 5360s away to a friend who made them into a workbench, I had stripped the good stuff from them already. Waste not, want not. Will J _________________________________________________________________ Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 7 months

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Destroying a SX-64.. :-(

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Yeah, everyone knows you're supposed to put a blown, alcohol-injected 392cid Chrysler hemi in a T-bucket, not some chevy garbage... LOL Will J _________________________________________________________________ Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 7 months

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VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5]

by cb＠mythtech.net

>I'll second that, although a VCF 'near' New Jersey *might* be close >enough for me to attend... Being that everything in NJ is within driving distance (as opposed to RI where everything is within walking distance)... I would most likely attend if it were held within about 4 hours drive from Northern NJ (so DC or similar to the south, Mid to West PA to the west, and Boston or abouts to the North.... not much of a swimmer, so going east is out of the question for me). But I would attend purely as a spectator/buyer (I'm assuming that is allowed... you aren't forced to expo things to get in right?) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 7 months

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[OT] paper on Retro ?

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

All, Today I got a call from one of Holland's major daily newspapers (for those of you who are curious: its the NRC Handelsblad). They asked me if I were willing to write them a feature article on "Retro computing: strange people, or a necessity for the future?". This (working) title is mine; what they mean is: are we just being weird geeks, or is preserving the computing past something required for future generations to understand the world in which they live, and how things got to be that way? I have done books and various articles in papers before, but I do feel a little uncomfortable writing about things I have been involved in for only about 5 years or so. Any suggestions here? [the answer, by the way, is: "yes, we're weird. so deal with it."] Cheers, Fred

23 years, 7 months

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FS: hard sectored floppy disks, E&L Z-80 SBC, slide rules, CBM disk drive manual -- More!

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

<http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=rigdonj> Some ending today so check now!

23 years, 7 months

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Need a Corvus Mirror

by foo＠siconic.com

Does anyone have a Corvus Mirror? I need it for a project. Please contact me directly if you do. <sellam(a)vintage.org> 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, 7 months

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VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5]

by CordaAJ＠NSWC.NAVY.MIL

D.C. Sounds like a good idea. There are a also a number of other attractions in the area, such as the Smithsonian and various historical sites, etc. (Of course, the fact that it's local to me has had no impact on my opinion ;-) -al- > -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Veeneman [mailto:dan@ekoan.com] > Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 10:58 AM > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: RE: VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5] > > > At 10:11 AM 10/30/02 -0500, you wrote: > > > I vote for somewhere in CT this year, it will give those in the > > Southeast an > > > easier drive up (seems like a lot of people in Virginia > and PA would > > attend) > > > and be more of a median point for all. > > > >I vote for Washington, DC. The above mentioned people could attend > >plus the Florida contingent might come up. (Not to mention it's > >where I live :-) ) > > I vote for DC as well, or at least somewhere close by. It > would also give > the attendees a chance to visit the NSA's Cryptologic Museum, which > does have some interesting old computers as well. You can read more > about the museum at http://www.nsa.gov/museum/ . > > > Cheers, > > Dan >

23 years, 7 months

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I can't believe this?!??!

by dittman＠dittman.net

> I must be google-ly impaired, I tried all different combo's of kzqsa > jumpers, settings, technical and so forth and the closet I found was a > cryptic response from the HP/Compaq Vax Wizard which said a lot but told you > nothing, thanks Eric, where do you want that Jolt sent? :-) No charge, Curt. :-) -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

23 years, 7 months

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OK, I think I've stepped in it... (MICOM 2000)

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I just got the UPS tracking info, this thing weighs 100 pounds!? I thought I was being gouged on the shipping, but now I see I wasn't. It just doesn't look that big in the pictures. Anyway, when these two crates show up on my doorstep, my wife is going to have a cow! Space is tight here and I've just managed to get my collection as it stands under control. So, I'm going to need to move this beast fast. Is there anyone in the Washington, DC area that wants to take it off my hands for what I have invested in it ($30 cost + $50 shipping)? Email quick, UPS says it arrives on Friday (11/1). Thanks, Bill

23 years, 7 months

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I can't believe this?!??!

by dittman＠dittman.net

> In all that is the collective geek-dome of classic computers, I find it > boggling to see that no one has (or wishes to share... you greedy SOB ;-) > the technical manual and/or jumper settings for the elusive DEC KZQSA Qbus > to SCSI adapter boards.... come on, I challenge the collective knowledge > base of the DEC geeks to come up with this mysterious and treasured > knowledge and share it with the list. The winner gets a free 6 pak of > JOLT soda for those looooonnnnngggggggg caffeine induced late nights ;-) Courtesy of Google (first entry I found): There are three sets of jumpers on the KZQSA: 1) W1 to W7 select the CSR address; the interrupt vector is programmable, so there are no jumpers to set it. Since it sounds like your setup is fairly simple, I'll guess that your CSR is at or near the default address and list a few corresponding jumper settings ... if the CSR that CONFIGURE gives you is not below, you might want to post it, so that one us can verify the correct jumper settings, just to be on the safe side. CSR W7 W6 W5 W4 W3 W2 W1 ------ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 761300 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 (default) 761400 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 761500 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 But generally, you can work out the jumper settings as follows: if W7 is 0 (not set), the CSR is 76xy00, but it it is set (1), the CSR is 77xy00; the octal digit "x" is determined by the settings of W6 to W4, and the digit "y" is determined by W3 to W1 as illustrated by a few examples: 760100 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 760400 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 761000 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 764000 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 770000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2) W9 to W13 determine the memory base address; the default is the address range 01000000-01377777 for the 128 KB memory on the KZQSA, for which only W10 is set and the others are not. You need to arrange for all modules that use Qbus memory space to have unique address ranges ... but this is normally not such a problem, since not so many modules use Qbus memory space. To see if it is a problem in your configuration, issue a SHOW QBUS command from the console prompt (>>>); at the end of the output (after the scan of IO space), you will find the Scan of Qbus Memory Space, which shows which address ranges are in use. If 01000000-01377777 does not overlap any range currently in use (if any), you have no problem and can just use the default jumper setting here. Otherwise, the address selection jumpers just increase the base address of the KZQSA's 128 KB memory in steps of 128 KB; i.e., address range W13 W12 W11 W10 W9 ----------------- --- --- --- --- --- 00000000-00377777 0 0 0 0 0 00400000-00777777 0 0 0 0 1 01000000-01377777 0 0 0 1 0 (default) 01400000-01777777 0 0 0 1 1 ... 17400000-17777777 1 1 1 1 1 Also note that W8 is in the same jumper block as W9-W13; I have no idea what it does, probably best to leave it alone... 3) W14 to W16 set the SCSI ID of the KZQSA; W14 sets the MSB (4) and W16 the LSB (1). The default is 7, which should be OK for most purposes. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

23 years, 7 months

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Anyone need 486 motherboards?

by cb＠mythtech.net

Does anyone want some 486 motherboards? I'm not sure who makes them (made in Tiawan, SiS chipset). They have the CPU (486 DX/2 50Mhz); 6 ISA slots, 2- 72pin SIMM slots and 8- 30 pin slots, AMI bios, AT keyboard, SiS chipset. And I'll throw in the VGA card and I/O cards that are currently installed with them (I/O card has FDD, IDE, LPT, 2- Com). Both are ISA cards, but have a 2nd connector that looks a bit like AGP and hangs off the back end of the ISA slots (3 of the 6 slots have this addition connector, so these two cards fit into 2 of those). CMOS batteries are soldered on, and corroded, but were working and holding power as of not too long ago (these machines were last used a month or so ago). If anyone wants them (there are 4), let me know before I pull all the jumpers off and toss the motherboards. Or if anyone just wants 486 CPUs, let me know. I have the 4 listed above with the boards, and another 3 or 4 pulled from other boards (not sure on the specs for them, if there is interest, I'll check). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 7 months

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The 5155 Challenge...

by SecretaryBird＠SoftHome.net

could fit in there. > > Here is a picture of the (almost) final results... > Naturally, I forgot to post the link to the picture... http://www.oz.net/~otter/geekworks/Crysta-00.JPG -- Scarletdown

23 years, 7 months

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Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>I just a couple of days ago picked up a VAX 11/750. This machine has >been stored in a damp shed for ten years or so, has had mice living in it, Sounds like you are in for a bunch of fun ! If the mice chewed through the docs you can find a set of prints and a few manuals at: http://208.190.133.201/decimages/moremanuals.htm I don't think the Installation and Acceptance manual covers infestation in great depth though :-) Antonio

23 years, 7 months

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[maybe OT]: Removing pesky floppy disk labels

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Hi all, OK, so here I am sitting at my computer with a stack of 100 or so disks to reformat. Unfortunately most of said disks have been labelled using felt-tip pen. And the labels are the nasty kind that don't come off without a fight. Sooo... Has anyone got a method that will get these stupid things off without leaving a gummy, sticky residue or damaging my disks? I've tried WD40 (didn't work at all), 3-in-1 oil (don't ask), an upside down airblaster (freeze spray for half the price) and a few other things and nothing works! Anyone want to share their secret? Thanks. -- Phil. philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/

23 years, 7 months

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Removing glued on heatsink (was: Anyone need 486 motherboards?)

by cb＠mythtech.net

Ok, anyone know of a safe way of removing a glued on heatsink? I have a few of these 486 CPUs where the heatsink is glued down. I could just jam a screwdriver in and snap it off, but that just doesn't seem very good for the chip. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 7 months

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Wanted: KZQSA Adapter - Never mind

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

> Hmmmm, unobtainium huh??? Thats similar to Kryptonite I think ;-) No.. Kryptonite is sugar compared to Un. If you ever find someone you suspect of having, they'll fiercefully deny that... and then smile... --f

23 years, 7 months

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Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> I just a couple of days ago picked up a VAX 11/750. This machine has Cool! > been stored > in a damp shed for ten years or so, has had mice living in it, and the > usual assortment of spiders, etc. Oh, SHUDDER! It sounds like you're in for an interesting restoration process. > to the control panel and TU58 tape drive. I'm in the process of cleaning > all the components, > but am in search of some advice on this process, especially the power > supply. How long > should I let the power supply dry out from its prior damp condition, and > what should > I do to bring it up for testing without risking damage to other > components? I wish to > do this methodically and carefully. Unless this is a powersupply that needs a load on it when you power it on (anyone know?), I'd recommend having it totally disconnected when you power it on. I'd also recommend you have someone else standing by with a C02 Fire Extinguisher for safety. As for how long it needs to dry before powering up, I'm not really sure, if you've got it in a warm, heated location, I'd say a week or two should be plenty (probably doesn't need that much but it's better to ere on the side of caution). Something to do in the mean time is to look for corrosion and to get everything good and clean. I'm most concerned about your powersupply and backplane. Also take a look at the rollers in your TU58. While the following is for a PDP-8, you might find it useful. http://pdp-8.org/revive.htm Definitly read up on what Aaron has to say about Backplanes. Zane

23 years, 7 months

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(no subject)

by f.heite＠hccnet.nl

> gil smith asked: > I am curious what your favorite cp/m system might be. My first 8bit CP/M machine was made by putting a Microsoft Softcard into my Apple ][ Plus, early 1981. After sitting there for a few years, the Softcard was moved to a new Apple //f. That's an Apple //e, where I had the Rom software patched by my dealer, to prevent the hard reset routine from overwriting a few bytes in every xx KB's. And, of course, the startup text on the top line of the screen changed to Apple //f to make it my "personal" machine. The //f machine was upgraded with serial and parallel cards, a clock/interrupt card, extra RAM, and finally a SASI interface card, connected to a 10 MB Xebec harddisk. For that SASI harddisk, as sold by my dealer, I wrote the boot prom, patches and drivers for Microsoft CP/M 2.2, ALS CP/M Plus, Apple DOS, Apple Pascal and finally Prodos. In the end, it was a system that could run not only two flavors of CP/M, but also all other OS's that were available for the Apple - all with megabytes of harddisk space. CP/M Plus was my favorite OS as it was the fastest one, mainly due to the large numbers of disk buffers that were possible in CP/M Plus. Sometimes I feel sorry that I sold all this for about fifty dollars... Freek.

23 years, 7 months

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For Sale: Diamond D5 Wordprocessor

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, > > curious. Mine's definitely a Diablo unit and plugs into its own > > card within the > > Yes, a Diablo Hitype II. ha ha - just me being stoopid :) > > cardcage in the system unit. But there's also a seperate card > > in there (oddly, > > How many wires in the cable between the printer and this card? right, just taken another look... yes, it is 50 pins - but not connected to anything; the printer connects via a serial cable to a seperate SIO board (which seems capable of supporting 2 devices). A post-sale upgrade I assume, but they left the original Diablo board in the machine too. The SIO board has DIP-switches on it whereas configuration on the other cards seems to be solder-contact only. do you remember if your unit shows anything on the display prior to putting the system disc in? Be useful if it did in terms of tracing the fault with this machine. there's more cards in the cardcage than I originally remembered: disc #4 drive (x 2) disc #4 read/write disc #4 control 64K ram SIO interface 3 mode VDU output 3 mode VDU counter VDU memory CPU #9 Z80 RTC keyboard interface diablo interface The 3 VDU boards are coupled on the outer edge as well as on the backplane. Backplane connections are via 88 contacts, with the component-side of the cards being purely ground. Not sure if the layout was to any recognised design; probably proprietary though. cheers, Jules 88 __________________________________________________ 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, 7 months

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Swapping boards on ST225 drives / Philips P3800 help

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Tony (and others), > I have the schematics of the ST225 somewhere. I misremembered about the drive - I've just had the case off the machine to get some pictures in response to Stefan's post about the P4500 (at www.moosenet.demon.co.uk/temp/p3800 for anyone who's interested) The drive's a Rodime 202E which going from memory is 50MB or so. I'm quite keen to see if I can get this thing running now as it's got me curious. The key at the front has 3 settings - off, on and 'pm' - I have no idea what the latter does but the abbreviation might mean something to someone?? Applying power I get LEDs on the back of all cards, plus one labelled as +5V on the power supply board. No fan activity though and no hard disk spindle motor; maybe a +12V rail is dead or the problem might be more tricky to diagnose. There's five LEDs on the front of the case - labelled 1,2,3 and 4 plus one with a power symbol - none of those light when power is applied. Might be something stupid like the system is waiting for a console command before starting the disk but that's probably a little too hopeful :-) There's 6 cables hanging out the back, all terminated with 25 pin connectors. One's black and unlabelled, another is grey and unlabelled, and all the rest are grey and labelled as: '8 bit 3100', '16 bit 3100' '8 st' and '8 st4'. Mean anything to anyone? Are those terminal types or something? I'll reseat all the cards tomorrow and measure a few voltages to see what's what - plus connect the hard drive to a known-good supply and just check it does spin up. IC dates are all in 1984 so it's more recent than I thought (I'd guessed '82 or so) but no idea when it last ran or what it was used for. Hopefully the disk wasn't wiped prior to it being submerged in a flood! :) 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, 7 months

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IBM 5150 brings $910 on EBAY

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I would say that the three original manuals and the DOS SW contributes mightily to the value to collectors. When Items like this sell for such high values I notice they usually include the original Software and manuals. Often they have the original boxes. Also condition is very important to collectors. This one purports to be in near perfect condition which is somewhat rare in its own right. Paxton Astoria, OR

23 years, 7 months

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Micropolis hdd

by woftbo＠cox.net

I have been searching for information regarding the assembly of a Micropolis 1991 hard drive. What is the best method to disassemble the case to access the latching area? Dave S

23 years, 7 months

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Removing glued on heatsink (was: Anyone need 486 motherboards?)

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Don Maslin" <donm(a)cts.com> > > >On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, chris wrote: > >> Ok, anyone know of a safe way of removing a glued on heatsink? I have a >> few of these 486 CPUs where the heatsink is glued down. I could just jam >> a screwdriver in and snap it off, but that just doesn't seem very good >> for the chip. > >Better a single edge razor blade or a putty knife than a screwdriver! >Too much local load with the screwdriver blade - probably crack the >chip. > - don > >> -chris >> <http://www.mythtech.net> >> Hi I've always removed glued things from chips by heating it first with a hot plate. We used to remove the epoxied covers >from EPROMs this way in the lab when someone would plug one in upside down. This way we could replace the blown bonding wire ( the most common failure for reversed power ). It was handy to have a wire bonder around ( Ah, the good old days ). Dwight

23 years, 7 months

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Philips P4500

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

> Does anybody know anything about a Philips P4500 ?? > I just now the size which is well, a decent size.... :) > Maybe someone has a picture ? not as such, but maybe it's a bigger brother of my P3800. In which case I'll be amazed - I heard of one other Philips system a few years ago which was a similar but more basic version of mine (P---, can't remember the number now), but the owner had long since disposed of it when I made enquiries. Never come across anyone who has the same system as mine, or even heard of it, and not heard of a 4500 either. My unit's about 1 foot wide, 4ft deep and 3ft tall and is some kind of multi-user CP/M system, or so I was told. It certainly has a lot of Z80 CPUs on the cards in the cardcage! Not a particularly lightweight system either. I can email an image off-list if you want. 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, 7 months

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Philips P4500

by stefan＠softhome.net

Hiya, Does anybody know anything about a Philips P4500 ?? I just now the size which is well, a decent size.... :) Maybe someone has a picture ? Stefan.

23 years, 7 months

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Whats this nubus card?

by cb＠mythtech.net

>Whats this nubus card? > >Workstation Technologies card. No idea but I believe it was an early video >conferencing setup. Appears to have an ADB or S-video connector, mini-Din >serial, a three row DB-25. Has a 68030/33 processor on board so it must >have some amount of horsepower in its day. Awesome looking card anyway. Hey.. no fair... I was going to buy first, ask questions later! (does this mean you beat me to responding to the guy on this?) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 7 months

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[OT] Fun find...

by patrick＠evocative.com

I've had a "grab bag" of chips in a box for months that I haven't had time to sort. Last night I got the bug, and while straightening pins and sorting, I found an AY-3-8500-1, one of the original "Pong on a Chip" chips. I found some schematics online quite easily. Condition of the chip is unknown, and I guess I'm going to have to build to find out, unless one of you has a suggestion for a quick health check? Patrick

23 years, 7 months

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Drives? (was: RE: Tales of VCF 5.0?)

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Tom Uban wrote: > At 04:28 AM 10/29/2002 -0600, [Tothwolf] wrote: > >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/Tony%20Cole%20Vendor.jpg > >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/MemoryBillia2.jpg > > > >Does anyone recognize the drive with the numeric pad and LCD on the far > >right of the above two photos? It looks nearly identical to the 4 drives > >in my SGI 210S, and I'm still not exactly sure what type they are. > > It was labeled with a Seagate brand, but I think that when I last used one > like it it was a CDC brand drive, perhaps a Sabre. Didn't Seagate buy that part of CDC's disk drive business? -Frank McConnell

23 years, 7 months

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Apple II Programmer's Aid ROM

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

I didn't realize that Integer BASIC also included the ROM image...in which case I don't need it. Was there a special manual for those commands or were they covered in the DOS 3.3 book? Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:foo@siconic.com] Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 8:08 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Apple II Programmer's Aid ROM On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Eric Smith wrote: > Rich wrote: > > I just read about this in the A2FAQ. Does anyone have this Apple ][ ROM > > and manual? > > If you've got a DOS 3.3 Master diskette (or a "BASICS" diskette), you've > got the ROM image. It's in the INTBASIC file on the DOS 3.3 Master. > > I've got a manual, somewhere. And of course if you boot the DOS 3.3 System Master on a 64K Apple ][, it will load the Integer BASIC ROM image (containing the Programmer's Aid ROM) into the upper 16K of memory. Then you can switch into Integer BASIC from Applesoft BASIC by typing 'INT' (which is a DOS command). To get back to Applesoft type 'FP' (for Floating Point, as in floating point BASIC). INT basically bank-switches in the ROM image in RAM. You can also press RESET to get back to Applesoft. Switching using either command will init your environment from scratch (i.e. any BASIC program in memory, either Applesoft or Integer, is lost). 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, 7 months

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Need SA400 help

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com> > Drive select - a choice of 1/2/3 - is determined by the programmable > shunt at location 1F. Installing a DIP switch is a much handier means > of selection. Configured for multiple drive installation, MX should be > open, HS shorted, and only the desired DSx shorted. Okay, that's clear. > Termination is by a 150Ohm resistor DIP. Thanks. There's an empty 14-pin DIP socket adjacent to the above-mentioned shunt, so I'd guess this is drive is missing the terminator. > The power connector is the same as used on more modern 5.25" floppy > drives with pin-1 at 12VDC, pin-2 12V return, pin-3 5V return, and pin-4 > 5VDC. Pin one is identified on the component side of the PCB. Thanks again, this drive does not have a "standard" power connector such as is found on late-model 5.25" drives -- it only has a four-pin header. Not being familiar with the SA400, I wasn't sure if this header was normal for this drive, or if it was some user's modification. Fred Cisin wrote: > Termination is required on the last drive on the cable. Lack of proper > termination can make for flaky operation, but will not generally > prevent it from working. Sure, but I didn't know the details of the terminator since it's missing on this drive. > I've never seen a factory switch on the front of one. Are you sure that > that wasn't a user added switch, such as one to override the write-protect > for flippies? Not sure at all, but it certainly is professional-looking. Due to my inexperience, I've never seen an SA400 before and I thought there might have been variations. Thanks to both of you for the information. Glen 0/0

23 years, 7 months

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Apple II Programmer's Aid ROM

by paulrsm＠buckeye-express.com

Wayne Stewart did a PDF conversion--not just a scan--of the manual for the Apple II Programmers Aid ROM. There are a few typographical errors but it is very good. It is about 278KB. E-mail me if you want a copy. The empty ROM socket in the Apple II at addresses $D800-$DFFF never had an official Apple ROM but there were some third party ROMs such as the Inspector and the Senior PROM. In the Integer BASIC disk file on the DOS 3.3 system masters that area is filled with the Applesoft BASIC code from the same range of addresses. -- Paul R. Santa-Maria Monroe, Michigan USA

23 years, 7 months

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Need SA400 help

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > The original post on this thread mentioned not having a "standard" floppy > power connector (Molex), and not knowing the pinout of the > connector(s). Upon very close examination I can see some stray flux around the solder connections to the four-pin header (which is present instead of the Molex connector), so my guess is that the original connector was removed by a user. The additional write-protect switch, however, is a *very* professional installation. > Could it be that his SA400 is an aftermarket drive for > Apple (or something else), where the Shugart board was replaced by > something weirder? Possible. The drive came from a home-built enclosure which also contained a home-made PSU and ZX81-compatible keyboard (no ZX81 board, though :<( ) Also, since all of my other systems use 40-track drives, I doubt I'll ever have any use for this thing. Are they still commonly available? If not, I may hang on to it "just in case." Otherwise, it's probably off to eBay unless someone on this list wants it and is willing to pay postage. Later -- Glen 0/0

23 years, 7 months

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Tales of VCF 5.0?

by frustum＠pacbell.net

At 06:09 PM 10/28/02 -0800, dwight elvey wrote: >Hi > Actually, I was bummed. ... > I had a Poly-88 setup but I think only one in 10 noticed >and even then, I think only 2 in those ten knew what it was. I spotted it, and I knew what it was. But how could you tell that? Probably other people were the same. > Of course, my display was all about tape recovery and not >the Poly-88. I don't think, maybe, 5 people all together >realized that. That, I didn't spot. I noticed the waveforms on the wall, but amidst the din (auditory and visual) it didn't register. I wish I had noticed, though, since it is an area I want to spend some time working on one of these years. Rather than letting it be lost to the moment, is there any chance of you writing up your work and putting it online somewhere (even posting it to this list and letting it get archived would work). I've read a half dozen very terse summaries of emulators and such that do this, but most work only on really clean tapes. They simply do some DC correction, perhaps a bit of filtering, and then time zero crossings and decode from there. Have you done something more sophisticated than this? Some of the Sol tapes I've looked at are way too corrupted for such a simple technique to work. There are a lot of communication theory ideas that could be applied to the problem directly; in addition, the file format is going to have some known structure that could be used to help train the receiver and disambiguate some cases. I'd be interested to hear more. ----- Jim Battle == frustum(a)pacbell.net

23 years, 7 months

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Destroying a SX-64.. :-(

by bpope＠wordstock.com

This is very sick. http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/28/2137208.shtml?tid=137 This person modified a SX-64 to contain a 1.2 Ghz P3. Bryan

23 years, 7 months

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Pinouts schema for DEC PRO console on printer port

by franco.tassone＠inwind.it

Hi all, I've heard of the possibility to have a serial console connected to the printer port of the DEC Professional series computers, and it is what I'd ike to have. Do you have any pointers to get it solved, or any hints ? The pinouts schema could be the best for me. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Franco

23 years, 7 months

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Drives? (was: RE: Tales of VCF 5.0?)

by uban＠ubanproductions.com

At 04:28 AM 10/29/2002 -0600, you wrote: >On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Erik S. Klein wrote: > > > http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/ImageMap2.htm > >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/Tony%20Cole%20Vendor.jpg >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/MemoryBillia2.jpg > >Does anyone recognize the drive with the numeric pad and LCD on the far >right of the above two photos? It looks nearly identical to the 4 drives >in my SGI 210S, and I'm still not exactly sure what type they are. > >-Toth It was labeled with a Seagate brand, but I think that when I last used one like it it was a CDC brand drive, perhaps a Sabre. --tom

23 years, 7 months

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Fw: Free VAX

by rschaefe＠gcfn.org

----- Original Message ----- From: "dneprcomp" <dneprcomp(a)rmortho.com> Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 7:20 PM Subject: Free VAX > The following items are free: > 2 MicroVax II model DH-63003-E2 TK70 OS VAX IVMS ver. 1,7 > Terminal VT 220 > Tape Backup 8 mm > Plotter Bruning model ZETA 8A. > Location: Los Angeles > If interested please call Yakov at 818-704-8198 > >

23 years, 7 months

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IBM 5150 brings $910 on EBAY

by gmphillips＠earthlink.net

31 bidders. 4 willing to pay over $700. Are these machines in good condition really that rare? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2062770257

23 years, 7 months

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