--- Paul Thompson <thompson(a)new.rr.com> wrote:
> From: Paul Thompson <thompson(a)new.rr.com>
> To: cctech(a)classiccmp.org
> Subject: [CCTECH] QBUS backplanes, potentially free for shipping
> Reply-to: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
> Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 09:18:58 -0500 (CDT)
>
>
> I will probably have some empty BA213 QBUS housings available free for
> shipping. I will know if I want to grab these if I find anyone interested
> in them and if I can find a box big enough to hold them as I have little
> use for them myself.
I'm interested. I have no Qbus boxes newer than BA23/BA123.
> Either of these units might help give your QBUS Microvax some Q22
> breathing room.
Yay!
> On a related note, I recall that there was some ability to convert the
> KDJ11 module for this DECserver into a working PDP 11/xx (83+?) with a
> PROM swap? Does anyone know more about this and its feasibility?
I traded some BA23 handles to Jon Engdahl for a DECserver CPU board
with BA213 handles. I haven't pulled its handle yet. He did the work
of putting "normal" KDJ11 boot ROMs in it (and moving a jumper or to,
ISTR). It's an 11/53, effectively, based on speed and local RAM (there's
a couple of flavors of it). I don't know much about the board other
than the obvious CPU flavor and RAM, etc. I am not a guru when it comes
to stuff that new. I'm fine with Qbus, but I really know the KDF11 stuff
best.
My goal is a 2.11BSD system, especially since I have more than one
KDA50 (and a couple of RA70s). KA630s just aren't special enough
for me to spend lots of time on; I'd rather fire up the 8200.
-ethan
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience
http://launch.yahoo.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rod Young [mailto:rodyoung@shaw.ca]
> So, I made the correct console (shorted pins 8-9) and presto,
Sounds good.
> I have a DELNI that was going to attach to the thickwire
> port, but then
> there's that cable issue. I think it's odd for the VS2000 to
> have the posts
> on the thickwire port... cuz it just doen't fit with the
Actually, yes, it is -- I don't think that my 2000s are like
that :) You could possibly open the case up and just remove the
posts.
> cables and DELNI
> stuff I have. Must be a different cable out there for the
> VS2000 thick wire
> port. Oh well, I'll make it work!
Or your port is just strange.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
There were a lot of changes to the proposed hardware after the fact that
caused the price to change. These were all due to the 1U case that we got.
Once the case was in, it turned out that the case only supported a slimline
(laptop style) cdrom, not a regular size one. Also, the heatsink/fan for the
proposed 1.2ghz cpu was too tall, so we had to use a smaller fan/heatsink
which also meant changing to a slower processor. The 256mb DRAM that was
donated was too tall, so I had to trade it in for two 128mb simms that fit.
Then the supplier ran out of the motherboard that I was quoted, so we had to
use a different one there.
Loosely translated, 1U cases are a royal pain (I also had to take a dremel
tool to the eject button on the floppy drive that someone donated to get it
to stick through the hole on the front of the case). In any event, here is a
complete accounting of who donated what, and what the exact costs were.
Donations (Hardware):
Pat 1.44mb floppy drive
James Rice 256mb DRAM
Jay West 4gb IDE hard drive
Jay West 20gb IDE hard drive
Note - Chad Fernandez was kind enough to donate a 32X cdrom, however, I had
to return it because of the 1U case issue above
Donations (Cash):
Stan Sieler $25.00
Paul Williams $30.00 (-1.47 paypal fee)
Bill Richman $50.00
David Mcguire $10.00 (-0.59 paypal fee)
Nick Oliviero $10.00 (-0.59 paypal fee)
Jon Engdahl $10.00 (-0.59 paypal fee)
Peter Turnbull $10.00 (-0.69 paypal fee)
Henk Gooijen $8.40 (-0.63 paypal fee)
Rich Beaudry $50.00 (-1.75 paypal fee)
Totals gross donations $203.40 less paypal fees (-$6.31) = net donations of
$197.09 cash
Hardware costs:
1U rackmount case w/slide rails $172.00
Mitsumi 24x slimline CDROM $50.00
Asus TUSI-M motherboard $66.00
(2) 128mb PC133 DIMM $72.00
Intel P3/667 cpu $110.00
Tradein for one 256mb DIMM $-72.00
Total hardware cost $398.00 less donations above (-$197.09) = balance
covered by Jay West $200.91cash
First, I want to GREATLY thank all those who donated hardware and cash. As
you can see, every little bit truely helped. I am at a loss to explain why
paypal charged different fees for some of the $10.00 donations. I do know
that the first few donations came in when my paypal account was a regular
account, and part way through receiving donations I upgraded it to a
"premier" account (at no cost). I did this so people could donate via credit
card as opposed to bank draws; perhaps that explains the differing amounts
due to some difference in account type charges.
If anyone wishes, I would be happy to provide scanned copies of my paypal
account history and the invoice from my vendor to substantiate the above
numbers.
I took some nice pictures of the fully assembled system, they are still in
my digital camera awaiting download. I need to go down to the datacenter and
take some pictures of the unit with it installed in a rack. Once I get those
too, I will post all the pictures on the web for those curious.
System specifics: Asus motherboard, 256mb ram, 4gb ide drive for the FreeBSD
v4.5 release operating system, 20gb drive for archives and webspace, 10/100
ethernet and video built into the motherboard, Pentium III cpu @ 667mhz,
1.44mb floppy & 24x cdrom. Packages installed - analog/reportmagic
webstatistics reporting, apache 2.0 webserver, bison1.3 parser generator,
cygnus gnats 3.113 bug reporting system (with wwwgnats for web based bug
submission), mailman 2.0.10 mailing list server, and python 2.2 language.
There's also a bunch of dependency packages (gd, gettext, jpeg, a bunch of
p5 stuff, etc.). I'm quite impressed with the case - it has a huge fan that
isn't a muffin style, it's more like a heater blower (enclosed turbo
housing) and it really pushes some serious airflow. The drive bays are easy
snap out the front (but not hot swappable). The top of the case slides off
by just pressing two buttons on top, no screws. Other than the installation
clearance problems, the case is a dream to work on. And yes, the front panel
has "cool factor" (read: blinkenlights).
Environment: The system sits inside one of the racks in our datacenter. The
datacenter building sits on two separate city power grids, so we're covered
if one grid goes down. The building is fed by five diesel generators
providing 7.5 megawatts (typically enough fuel for 3 days of continuous
power) and there is an external hookup to bring another generator in on a
tractor trailer flatbed if need be. Our room has it's own 30 minute online
UPS, mainly to carry through the 2 minute specification for the time it
takes the outside generators to come up to speed with clean power. All of
our gear (including the classiccmp server) is powered via APC
masterswitch's, so we can power on and off any device via any webbrowser
>from anywhere. The room is fully protected with FM-200 fire supression,
biometric access controls, remote video survellience, etc. The classiccmp
server ethernet port runs 100mb ethernet to our managed switch, and from
there hits the outside world via a Cisco 7206VXR router. Our bandwidth
provider is in the next room to us, so that connection is a direct gigabit
cable. In addition, all the major backbone providers are in the same
building, so in the event of a serious connectivity issue, we can
immediately run a cable to anyone we choose (sprint, MCI, ATT, XO, Quest,
SWB, etc.). Needless to say, the classiccmp server is in a great environment
and well connected. And again I'll reiterate for those new to the list - I
would be happy to host any classic computer related website, ftp site,
mailinglist, etc. at no charge.
My sincere thanks again to those who donated!!!!
Regards,
Jay West
_______________________________________________
cctech mailing list
cctech(a)classiccmp.org
http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech
> On Wed, 22 May 2002, Gary Hildebrand wrote:
>
> > Slowly drying up, but there are still a couple. Computer Garage has a
> > very small variety, off of I-35 at Johnson Drive, on Merriam Drive.
>
> You mean there's a competing Computer Garage in Kansas, now that Jim
> Willing has moved there? I'll bet they never saw that coming.
>
> Speaking of which, why not go visit Jim Willing?
>
> I'm sure he'll pipe up about whether he wants random visitors to his farm
> or if he'll take shots at you with salt to drive you off his
> propatee. .
Rock salt tends to scatter when used by itself... for best results,
pack it in with some country bacon... better chance of striking
the target.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Lafleur [mailto:bob_lafleur@technologist.com]
> I will shortly be receiving a MicroVax 3100/90 and a TK50Z-GA
> tape drive.
> Both have SCSI, and I assumed they would work together.
> However, I just read
> something that seems to imply the TK50Z-GA is "incompatible"
> SCSI, and will
Well, I've never heard of anyone getting it to work with anything
else. :) You could try it. It's the one without the ID selector,
right?
I think the ID is fixed, since the other alternative is to pass
it through the cable, and that would be, well, interesting, to
say the least...
> only work on the MicroVax 2000. Can anyone confirm this
> either way? If it
> will work, what type of SCSI cable will I need - a standard
> one, or some
Should be a standard cable.
> proprietary one? If it won't work, is there any way to "fix"
> the TK50Z-GA so
> that it will? Thanks.
Um, yes, but it will require the internals from a tk50 drive that
will work ;) (Seriously, the drives are all the same, but some of
the logic that's packed in the case with them is different... so
I've heard.)
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
From: Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca>
>Ken Seefried wrote:
>> Does anyone know of a free or cheap, usable meta-assembler for AMD 2901
>> microcode? Or anyone have one they want to get rid of?
>I don't there was such a beast (FREE or CHEAP) as most micro code
>designs could not use a standard assembler because of hardware
>variations.Any that were developed would be custom software.
There are, at least, AMDASM, MetaStep, Hale & MacASM. All of these are of
dubious free-ness and current status.
Ken
From: Pat Finnegan <pat(a)purdueriots.com>
> Is VENIX worth trying on this thing?
It's been a decade or more, but I recall Venix being a completely
serviceable Unix. More along the lines of V7 that anything you might run on
a PeeCee, but if you've got the inclination, I'd say give it a try.
Ken
> From: Christopher Smith
>
> <<File: ATT44037.txt>>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rod Young [mailto:rodyoung@shaw.ca]
>
> > So, I made the correct console (shorted pins 8-9) and presto,
>
> Sounds good.
>
> > I have a DELNI that was going to attach to the thickwire
> > port, but then
> > there's that cable issue. I think it's odd for the VS2000 to
> > have the posts
> > on the thickwire port... cuz it just doen't fit with the
>
> Actually, yes, it is -- I don't think that my 2000s are like
> that :) You could possibly open the case up and just remove the
> posts.
>
> > cables and DELNI
> > stuff I have. Must be a different cable out there for the
> > VS2000 thick wire
> > port. Oh well, I'll make it work!
>
> Or your port is just strange.
>
> Chris
>
Hey! I seem to recall having to add a clip to the AUI port on my
VAXStation 3100m38, so I could hooked up a transceiver. IIRC all computers'
with AUI ports, have the clip side, not the stud... Well, they're supposed
to, at least...
--
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
HEAVY as LEAD, and build for a nuclear war, IMHO. Pain to store too, as
they're huge.
Hi, Cameron.
Jim
Jim Brain, jbrain(a)aegonusa.com
"Researching tomorrow's decisions today."
(319) 369-2070 (work)
SYSTEMS ARCHITECT, ITS, AEGON FINANCIAL PARTNERS
-----Original Message-----
From: Cameron Kaiser [mailto:spectre@stockholm.ptloma.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 11:59 PM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Recent score: CBM 8032
> Wow wouldn't mind having one, as they are the grandaddy to the VIC-20
> and C=64 machines. Some VIC/64 software is directly useable, other
> software takes minor tweaks. Now you'll need the matching floppy
> drives, and they use that (typical commodore offbeat) IEEE interface. I
> guess use the common steps troubleshooting the p/s.
I've got a PET 2001-16B myself, and a C2N datasette. Works great.
To the original poster, yes, the power supply and/or fuse are likely
suspects. PETs are pretty tough systems.
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/
--
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University *
ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- The world is coming to an end. Log off now.
--------------------------------
In a message dated 5/22/02 10:34:02 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
lemay(a)cs.umn.edu writes:
> Inside the box of floppies for the Intel MDS 800, was a single tape
> cartridge.
> Its a HP200, certified data cartridge, series 9800. Is this something that
> can be used with a MDS 800, or is it something that someone else needs?
>
Interesting. No, it is not usable with the MDS 800.
The tape cart is for the 98XX series of computer/calculators. It is also used
in the HP85s and with the tape drive for the HP41 calculators. IIRC it is
similar to the DC100 series of tape carts.
Paxton
Astoria, OR
> From: Louis Schulman <louiss(a)gate.net>
> Does anyone have a source for the above-mentioned (or equivalent) chip?
>
> Second question. Am I correct that a 74367 or 8T97 will substitute
> directly for a DM8097 hex tri-state buffer?
Don't know about the DM8835, but the '367 or 8T97 should work in place of
the DM8097.
Glen
0/0
The Surplus Exchange at 1107 Hickory KCMO has several floors of computer and
office surplus. They are normally open on Saturday but not on Sunday. I
just called and they will be closed for Memorial Day from 5 PM Friday
evening until 9 AM on Tuesday morning.
They receive all of the old computers from many of the Kansas City companies
and their branches throughout the Midwest. Lots of Mac stuff from Hallmark.
PS/2 stuff from IRS, DEC stuff from engineering firms.
If you are looking for specific stuff I may have some in my garage, which
needs cleaning. I live on a lake outside of town and the boat needs to hit
the water.
Mike
contact me off-list at mmcfadden at cmh dot edu
>
> I'll be in Kansas City this weekend. Can anyone syuggest any good classic
computer places to visit?
>
> Joe
! From: Doc [mailto:doc@mdrconsult.com]
!
! On Thu, 23 May 2002, Bob Lafleur wrote:
!
! > > It has a SCSI-I style (50pin amphelon) if that's what you mean by
! > non-mangled.
! >
! > 50-pin "amphenol" you mean... Is that like a 50-pin centronics? I've
! > basically seen either the 50-pin centronics, or the DB25 type.
!
! Oh, gods, here we go....
!
! Doc, limbering up his Delete Key
Methinks somebody needs to search the archives, to see what kind of
havoc the "amphenol and/or centronics usage" thread caused...
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1.2 - Darwin Kernel Version 5.2:
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
Kind of like what Gillette did in giving away razors so you will buy their
blades, only now it's giving away printers so you will buy the ink.
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) [mailto:cisin@xenosoft.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 2:08 PM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: HP DJ540 out of paper???
On Thu, 23 May 2002, Chad Fernandez wrote:
> I was given a an HP Deskjet 540. I bought a rebuilt ink cartidge for
> it, which is over 20 dollars, so I'd like to get it working if I can.
I was considering repairing a deskjet, but the price of ink cartridges was
kinda steep. The best price that I've seen for reliable cartridges (after
trying several "rebuilt" ones that were NFG), was $40 for both a new color
one and a new B&W one. But the $40 deal also included a new printer.
That kinda took away some of the incentive to repair the old printer.
If I'm not mistaken, the 540 takes the green top cartridges, like the
original Deskjet minus and Deskjet plus, although the case of the 540 is
like the case of the 600 series that use the blue top cartridges.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
> On Thu, 23 May 2002, Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote:
>
> > Rock salt tends to scatter when used by itself... for best results,
> > pack it in with some country bacon... better chance of striking
> > the target.
>
> As the not-terribly-proud owner of some rock-salt scars, I can verify
> that it gets out to 50-60 feet just fine, in a fairly tight group. At
> that range, you get about .125" penetration.
Cuttin' through on the way to the creek, he got the
back of my calf and that tender spot behind the
knee from a shot 150 feet away... years later, I
asked the fellow what his secret was, bacon was the
reply...
> FWIW, the treatment for embedded salt particles is a long soak in a
> warm bath. Hurts a _hell_ of a lot worse than getting shot.
Heh, I went for the cold of the creek, and an infection
a few days later...
-dq
On May 22, 23:17, Louis Schulman wrote:
> It works!
>
> After a few consultations, I have my vintage 1975 SWTPc 6800 up and
> running!
Another success! :-)
> Well, I learned several things.
> And finally, a cheap Radio Shack logic probe can "see" a lot of what
> you
> can see on an oscilloscope, if you listen to the tones carefully. The
> data train on reset makes a nice little set of beeps.
Seems like that was a good investment!
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> From: Chad Fernandez
>
> David Woyciesjes wrote:
> > - I assume you've looked for any reed/pin switches, or anything of
> > that sort. Is there a mechanism on it that is supposed to lift the paper
> > tray?
>
> I can hear one. I assume that switch is working since the paper light
> goes out if I have paper in it, and press the paper button. The
> computer still claims that the printer is out of paper, so I'm thinking
> it maybe deeper in the printer.
>
> I was hoping that this is a common problem and would have an easy
> solution.
>
> The paper loading mechanism still doesn't move however.
>
- I would crack her open, then, and see what's going on with the paper
lift...
--
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
> From: Chad Fernandez
>
> ..
> The thing tells me it's out of paper even when it has paper. It just
> doesn't want to grab it.... it doesn't even try. Is this something that
> is easily fixed, or do I need to toss the printer?
>
> The head seems to move back an forth just fine, but after it "discovers"
> that it has no paper it just sits.
>
> Chad Fernandez
> Michigan, USA
>
- I assume you've looked for any reed/pin switches, or anything of
that sort. Is there a mechanism on it that is supposed to lift the paper
tray?
--
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rod Young [mailto:rodyoung@shaw.ca]
> Thought I read somewhere, that a VS/MV2000 will not complete the POST
> without happy ethernet termination. Could be wrong, but best
> bet is to
> resolve the cable issue first, so I can see what's going on...
You may have read that, but it's incorrect ;) It will complete the
tests, and then complain because the network test failed, for obvious
reasons. It may also complain about your console not being "known"
to it (IE not either the built in graphics, or a VT-whatever plugged
in as it would be on a MicroVAX), but again, this is non-fatal. The
console problem doesn't even stop it from auto-booting.
You can still use the system, but it won't autoboot after that -- you'll
need to type 'boot' at the console.
> I might have odd thichwire cables, but then I have 3 of them
> ! hummmmm!
Um -- you do know that AUI ports really aren't designed to talk
directly to one another, right? You need an AUI multiplexer or
a transceiver on each port. (You can make a crossover cable, but
that's a different story and doesn't always work well -- so I
hear.)
The transceivers will have (male) plugs with the small metal knobs
on them, and the port will have (female) plugs with the clips that
hook into those knobs. The AUI cables usually (AFAIK) have one
of each end. At any rate, it's ok to ignore, better if you terminate
it eventually, or better yet if you just plug it into a working
network ;)
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
I will shortly be receiving a MicroVax 3100/90 and a TK50Z-GA tape drive.
Both have SCSI, and I assumed they would work together. However, I just read
something that seems to imply the TK50Z-GA is "incompatible" SCSI, and will
only work on the MicroVax 2000. Can anyone confirm this either way? If it
will work, what type of SCSI cable will I need - a standard one, or some
proprietary one? If it won't work, is there any way to "fix" the TK50Z-GA so
that it will? Thanks.
- Bob
I will probably have some empty BA213 QBUS housings available free for
shipping. I will know if I want to grab these if I find anyone interested
in them and if I can find a box big enough to hold them as I have little
use for them myself.
One is a pedestal enclosure which orignally housed a DECserver 500 and
features 12 slots of Q-CD goodness and a single H7868 power supply.
I mention this because it appears that DEC shipped some sort variation of
the 213 for the DECserver 500 which did not support a second power supply.
The spot for the card edge backplane connector is there where the second
H7868 would plug in but no connector is present. Obviously it would not
be a big trick to rig some sort of separate power supply for drives or
tapes.
The other unit is from a rackmount DECserver 550 and appears to have a
more normally configured BA213 with space for two working power supplies,
although none are included.
Either of these units might help give your QBUS Microvax some Q22
breathing room.
On a related note, I recall that there was some ability to convert the
KDJ11 module for this DECserver into a working PDP 11/xx (83+?) with a
PROM swap? Does anyone know more about this and its feasibility?
Paul
--
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http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech
I sent this to the CCTECH list maybe six hours ago and haven't seen it
yet. I figured I'd try to the CCTALK list just in case, and it is
definitely on topic.
This webpage goes over the inner workings of a vector graphics generator (as
used in arcade games circa 1979-83). Quite interesting:
http://www.jmargolin.com/vgens/vgens.htm
-spc (Enjoy ... )
Most likely everyone who'd be interested in this has already gotten notice
of it from their saved searches, but ... take a look at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2026242813
It's a 5100 with BASIC only. As I write this, the auction has 9 days to
go and bidding is up to $995 ... yow!
Norm
Since we are talking about scratched glass, do you
have any ideas on how to remove scratches from the
face of a CRT?
I use Jewelers rouge I got from a Jeweler friend many
years ago. It works well on surface scratches such
as those you get from laying the monitor on the tube
face.
Lee.
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ethan Dicks [mailto:erd_6502@yahoo.com]
> Perhaps. Large RD-series drives are somewhat rare these days.
I will say that with a (pretty common) seagate 40M disk, you
can get a bare install of VMS 5.5 on there, and that's more
than enough to drive a tk50 and transfer files to other systems
over DECNet.
Could also netboot it from the other system.
> single memory card over 4MB (and only one ethernet module). The uVAX
Really? I don't believe I've ever seen one without the ethernet module.
That is to say, the cable that comes out of the ethernet ports on all
of the ones I've seen is always plugged into something. I know that the
ethernet was optional, and that the co-ax/aui ports were there whether
the board is there or not.
> MMJ adapter is also somewhat hard to find unless you get it with the
> computer (it fits over the DA15/DE9 and give you three serial ports
> from the mouse/keyboard/console ports)
Were they sold apart from the systems? I wouldn't expect them to be
available in most cases apart from a system that was sold as a MicroVAX.
That said, DEC was supposedly very prolific with these systems, and you
ought to be able to get plenty of parts for them. The extreme
configurations (color graphics, 8/12[?]MB memory options, etc) are going
to be more difficult. The median seems to be b&w VAXStation, ethernet,
4M RAM option. That kind of thing ought to be pretty easy to find.
The "box" that the 2000s set on, which exposed the SCSI port, etc, is a
bit harder to find, but there are a few around. More common on the
"MicroVAX" variant, so if you have the choice, go for one of these.
(Unless, of course, the VAXStation would give you the color framebuffer,
or a large memory board)
Also, you have a better chance of finding a disk in the "MicroVAX" systems,
too. The VAXStations (more common too, I think) were lots of times run
diskless. It's interesting, because they put "load boards" in them for
that. Basically these are resistor packs that load the PSU up so that it
won't panic due to the lack of disks. They're nice to have for -- for
instance -- running a system with no disk, or use with Wolfgang Moeller's
SCSI drivers for these systems. (Which I've not tried yet, but will
eventually, supposedly, you can put SCSI disks in them that way. It's
_very_ unsupported, of course :)
> If all you want is a disk formatter, though, a uVAX-2000 with no
> ethernet, 4MB of RAM and no disk should be cheap.
Honestly, any 2000 you find will probably be reasonably cheap (like in the
$20 range, max) At best, you'll find one in a scrap pile somewhere.
They're solid systems, so even if it's gotten left in a warehouse for ages,
I wouldn't expect much trouble with it.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
>From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk
>Subject: Re: [CCTALK] [CCTECH] scanners & circuit boards...
>
>> Hi Tony
>> You can order the right stuff for optical work from
>> places like Newport Glass and William-Bell. You can also
>
>Anyone know a UK equivalent -- a company that sells optical abrasives?
>And for that matter optical adhesives and glasses? Or can I assume that
>because almost no real science/engineering is done over here any more
>that such companies don't exist?
>
>-tony
>
>
Hi Tony
You might contact Stephen Tonkin at webmaster(a)astunit.com. He is
in the UK and is also a telescope maker. I'm sure he can point
you to some place with supplies.
I'm not sure what Doc is talking about with Cerium oxide.
It cleans up well and is a little off white in color ( sometimes
a little yellowish ). Rouge is really messy and will stain everything.
I've not worked wit chromium oxide so I can't say it is
better or worse that cerium oxide but I don't know how it
could be a powder and be any better.
Dwight
Hi everyone!
I'm not sure if this list is even active anymore, but let's hope that
this message will get routed to its proper destination.
Essentially, I'm cleaning out part of my basement, and I have a ton
of stuff that I really don't want anymore. I am offering it free of
charge to anyone willing to come out to Kalamazoo, Michgan and pick
it up. Here's what I've got:
* IBM PS/2 Model 50Z, partially stripped.
* NCR System 3300, no HDD (scsi), floppy, or MCA cards.
* DEC VT420, some scratches on screen but works AFAIK.
* Apple Power Mac 7200/90 and 7200/120, stripped, although
if someone wants them, I'll put them more or less back together
sans RAM and HDD (scsi).
* IBM ThinkPad 750 laptop, for parts.
* Compaq Contura 420CX laptop, for parts.
* Toshiba T3100 (gas plasma screen) laptop, for parts.
* Roughly three large cardboard boxes full of boards, including
some of the following items.
1. 8088, 8086, 80286, 80386, and 80486 motherboards and CPUs
2. LOTS of ISA cards, including video, I/O, hard disk controllers
(even some hardcards), LocalTalk cards, networking, etc.
3. Some VLB cards, mostly video, although some I/O and hard
disk controllers are also around, I believe.
* Data General dual 5.25" floppy drive, rack mount. I don't know
if it works or not, but it seems to be in good condition.
* USRobotics TotalControl rackmount chassis with network management
card, around 15-20 modem cards, dual power suppies, and some other
stuff. I've got a bunch of cables for it, too. I'm currently using
it as a table, but if someone wants it, I'd be glad to get rid of
it. :)
* Token ring hardware -- lots of nice 3Com/Madge/Proteon cards and
some MAU/CAU units.
* Some other stuff, maybe -- PS/2 Model 5x and 70 systems, Commodore
64 equipment, etc.
In general, I've got a TON of stuff sitting around here that I'd really
like to get rid of. If there's no interest, most of it's going to go in
the trash in a couple of weeks here. If you might be interested in paying
me a visit (or having a proxy do so), please contact me and we can get
something worked out -- I hate throwing stuff away, but I really want the
space!
Thanks!
Sean
BTW -- I've also got a fully loaded, functional PDP-11/34a system in my
basement and a broken RX02 dual 8" floppy drive laying around. I'm not
really looking to get rid of it PER SE, but I do realize that I will
probably never do much with it. Therefore, if anyone might be interested
in making trades of interesting equipment (e.g. larger SGI systems, LISP
machines, strange Xerox computers, etc), please contact me as well, and
perhaps we can get something worked out!
--
Sean Caron http://www.diablonet.net
scaron(a)engin.umich.edu root(a)diablonet.net
[This is a repost because classiccmp ignored it the first time
around. I tries cc to cctalk just to test. And copy to
Jay West to be sure he gets an exact copy of the message I'm
sending.]
Hi,
in my VAX 11/780 I have the PDP-11/03 alias KC780. And it has
the following memory board right now:
M7944 MSV11-B Q 4-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM (external refresh)
But, since I'm planning to upgrade to an 11/785 I need additional
RAM. When it showed up on ePay I buyed a
M8044-DA MSV11-DD Q 32-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM
but the boot program will not load with this. Why would that be?
From the error I got it appeared as if may be there is just some
jumpering to do, but I have no clue as to where and what.
Looking at the UNIBUS/Q bus field guide beginning from M7944
and then scanning forward to the next MSV11 I find:
M7955-AD MSV11-CD Q 16-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM with on-board refresh
and then the family of M8044s
M8044-AA MSV11-DA Q 4-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM
M8044-AA (Also M8044-AB, -AC, -AD)
M8044-AA Refs: EK-MSVI1-OP, MP-00566
M8044-BA MSV11-DB Q 8-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM
M8044-BA (Also M8044-BB, -BC, -BD)
M8044-BA Refs: EK-MSVI1-OP, MP-00566
M8044-CA MSV11-DC Q 16-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM
M8044-CA (Also M8044-CB, -CC, -CD, -CE, -CF, -CH, -CL, -CM)
M8044-CA Refs: EK-MSVI1-OP, MP-00566
M8044-DA MSV11-DD Q 32-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM
M8044-DA (Also M8044-DB, -DC, -DD, -DE, -DF, -DH, -DL, -DM)
M8044-DA Refs: EK-MSVI1-OP, MP-00566
Does that mean that I should have the M7955-AD RAM instead?
This is confusing. And I'm not even asking for Q22 bus or PMI
memory stuff. What's the thing I'm missing?
thanks,
-Gunther
--
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org
--
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org
>From: "Ken Seefried" <ken(a)seefried.com>
>
>
>Does anyone know of a free or cheap, usable meta-assembler for AMD 2901
>microcode? Or anyone have one they want to get rid of?
>
>Ken
>
Hi Ken
I wrote one once in Forth for a 2901 project. It was relatively
trivial ( at least in Forth since the essense of Forth is
to change Forth into the application and not to write the
application in Forth ). It would be difficult to have a
good general purpose meta-assembler since the variety of
ways to wire up a bitslice are so great that a "one size
fits all" would be difficult.
In my case, I just coded up the bit fields of my controller
( some of the bits ran outside hardware ) with meaningful
names. It put things into a binary image file that I
first blew EPROMs with and later, after debug, faster ROMs.
I was years ago but these really are not that hard to write.
Dwight
>Well, several of us have print sets for these. If someone will scan them in,
And some of us have already scanned their 750 printsets
and sent them in. It's the *750* tech manuals and the
*780* printsets that are not available anywhere
(AFAIK)>
>i will send him my 11/750 print set. It's hard to read in some places but
>to my knowledge it is complete (its about three inches thick :-)
If you meant me, no don't send me a 750 printset: I
think I have two anyway :-) Now a 780 printset
would be good (but you'll find it not too cheap
to send it to the UK (and it seems to be about
*double* the price to send it back!). There must be
one in the UK (or someone in the US with a suitable
scanner ...)
Antonio
>From: "Ken Seefried" <ken(a)seefried.com>
>
>> http://www.decodesystems.com/help-wanted/1802-board.html
>
>STDBus 1802 board?
>
>Ken
>
>
Hi
I think from what Dan says, it isn't a STDBus. I think
STDBus is 50 pin. This board has a 44 pin connector.
This is similar to what was used on the COSMAC stuff.
Maybe it is compatable with that??
( also used on the KIM/SIM stuff ). Of course, it
may just be some propietary bus.
Dwight
>SC41MS.pdf was an Emulex manual that probably wasn't
>from moremanuals --apologies. To be fair it is a PDF that
>has been OCR'ed down to text, then recomposed as the
>document it was. Probably beyond the scope of this
>discussion. Here's another** example,
> ENIAC press release (3 pages / 48 K)
> http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist/pr1.pdf
>although admittedly from people with a lot more time and
>money on their hands.
The main reason I scan at 600 dpi and not save space
by dropping to 300 dpi is that the current crop of OCR
software seems (in my limited experience) to produce
better results with 600 dpi. (I cannot go higher than
600 anyway, but I probably would not bother with 1200dpi
because the OCR stuff I have won't even accept it).
I'd rather scan the manuals once and wait 10 years
for OCR to get to the stage that it can handle the docs
with maybe one error per 100/pages (rather than
the current standard of multiple errors per page ...).
I don't really want to be going back and doing it again!
The long term goal is definitely OCR. Although by the
time it's good enough we may well all have OC48 feeds
to the home and C3D recordable 125GB drives so there
may be no need :-)
>I did notice that many of the moremanuals pages tend to
>show a scanning line when the're first displayed, as if true
>white is noisy in some way --it either is light grey or contains
>significant dot content.
Is that when a page is first displayed (i.e. for each
change of page) or just the first page? I assume that
you download and then view locally (I have issues
with both NS & IE when trying to use then to view
local PDFs via HTML ... I assume it would be
even worse with a download thrown in for
good measure!)
>BTW thanks for doing all the work!
No problem. I'm was backing up my manuals
just in case and then saw others making theirs
available and followed suite. I just forgot to
stop when I ran out of my own manuals ...
>**a pretty spectacular example showing the alignment
> problems of the original typewriter, etc. Parent page:
> http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist
An interesting PDF. They get strange changes of font
on pages 2 & 3 - I wonder if the original has that or
whether it's just an artifact of the OCR. A mixture of
text and background image (which is also text).
I wonder if they might be interested in converting the
multiple hundreds of manuals that live on the current
crop of DEC document web sites ...
Antonio
> Ben Franchuk wrote:
>John Allain wrote:
>>
>> > Rather than pdf, consider ... LOT more compact
>>
>> How PDFs are made will effect their size.
>> On the moremanuals site I found some files
>> like m3100ma1.pdf at 800+KByte/page
>> and others, like SC41MS.pdf at 12-KBytes/page
>> it depends on the tools and care used.
>
>So what is the right tool!
The stuff I've scanned (like m3100ma1.pdf
mentioned above) is usually US Letter size
and done at 600 dpi bi-tonal (1 bit per pixel).
The scanner happens to LZW encode the
TIFF file. There is no option to G4 encode.
That usually turns out to be 200-400KB/page
but it so happens that one page in that
manual did not look too good. So I redid
that one page as greyscale (8 bits
per pixel) and that just so happens to
be over 50% of the total file size (i.e.
wipe that one page and you are looking
at more like 400KB/page). It's only 14 pages
or so, hence one greyscale page makes
a big difference.
I've seen someone else quote figures of
50-70KB/page for G4 encoded 300 dpi scans
of TOPS manuals, which I assume are the
typical US Letter size. Obviously going to
600dpi might be expected to produce a
factor of 4 increase (i.e. 200-300KB).
Or it might not - who can say with compression!
I don't see a SC41MS.pdf on that page so
I have no idea of the scanning resolution
or the encoding.
>Can one re-convert PDP^HF files?
I've found that using Acrobat 5 in the office
I can covert PDF to individual G4 TIFFs
(although this is *slow* but it is unattended)
and I can then re-import these (in groups
of 50 max) which is reasonably quick.
But it sucks away time. So if anyone else
needs them cut down, be my guest :-)
For the few that I've had to process manually
(i.e. book format, with pages individually
scanned as all-odd-ones, all-even-ones)
the conversion to G4 TIFF is a part of
the process I use to stitch everything
back together in reasonable time. In that
case I'm seeing a reduction of maybe 25%
in size (although I've not tried to measure
it on a reasonable sample ... so don't
quote me).
If the scanner gets an upgrade that allows
it to do G4 TIFF, I'll certainly use it. If a
tool turns up that can do unattended conversion
of TIFF-in-PDF -> G4 TIFF (or better yet,
G4-TIFF-in-PDF) I'll certainly use it.
Antonio
Hi Dan
I'm not sure but it looks like it may be
a "Standard Bus" type board. I don't recall the
pin combinations but it looks like the same
form factor.
There are a lot of different Standard Bus manufactures
and you should be able to get cards and back planes
easily. Count the pins and look the spec up on the
web and see if it looks the same.
Dwight
>From: "Dan Veeneman" <dan(a)ekoan.com>
>
>At 03:10 PM 5/21/02 -0700, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>>--- Dan Veeneman <dan(a)ekoan.com> wrote:
>> > Circuit board with a socketed 1802 microprocessor
>>
>>How about a picture? (the 1802 is one of my favorites)
>
>Sure. A few pictures can now be found here:
>
>http://www.decodesystems.com/help-wanted/1802-board.html
>
>
>Cheers,
>
>Dan
>http://www.decodesystems.com/wanted.html
>
>
Inside the box of floppies for the Intel MDS 800, was a single tape cartridge.
Its a HP200, certified data cartridge, series 9800. Is this something that
can be used with a MDS 800, or is it something that someone else needs?
-Lawrence LeMay
lemay(a)cs.umn.edu
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rod Young [mailto:rodyoung@shaw.ca]
> I actually have a DEC printer adapter (MMJ->9pin) which kind
> of works in the
> 9pin port on the VS2000 (I think) as it does display some
> text... but not
> all from what I can tell. Appears to only report lines with
> "?" marks...
> which are warnings and "??" marks I assume are errors. I get
> a ?? on the
It's odd that it works at all. :) Even stranger if you really
are only getting lines with ? in them ;)
Are you getting the "dead sergeant?" It looks like:
>>>
Do you see the system counting down in hex? (From F to 1, I think)
> device line "1" (ethernet) and thought I read somewhere that
> the thinwire
> had to be terminated or forget it... and given the 9 pin
Forget what? That will prevent an auto-boot, but won't keep the
system from operating. It's not serious; just serious enough that
they wanted to wait for some console input before going ahead. Go
ahead and try booting it.
> Yes, tried hooking up the AUI port too, but the thickwire
> cables I have
> won't fit! The gender is fine, but both the cables and the
> AUI port on the
> VS have the locking posts. I seem to be hitting dead ends
That's odd :) They might be strange cables.
> all over... but
> will try to connect the thinwire to resolve the "??"
> reported, and also make
> a proper 9pin cable, then will see where that gets me.
If you're getting the prompt, the counting in hex, and the
CPU ID (something like KAXXX-XX, I think), you're doing
fine in the cable department. I suppose if not, maybe the
VAX prints its errors to all the ports on bootup. In that
case, it won't take input from that port, and you'll need
to get the right cable to tell it to boot. You still don't
absolutely have to get the network connected, though.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
Yes, I'm short-circuiting the cctech->cctalk posting system, but
this hasn't gone through yet, and I'd like everyone to have a (somewhat)
fair shot at this...
This has nothing against our wonderful moderators at all. I can
understand that they may be busy.
--
> BTW, is it appropriate to (re)post classic hardware for sale, to the
> CCTECH list? I would think so, since none of us want to see it get
> scrapped...
>
> In my daily browsing of the newsgroups, I happened upon this pretty
> nice setup. I'd try to grab it for myself if I could, but alas...
>
> *** Reply to Les (les(a)uwo.ca), not me...
>
> Subject: VAX Hardware Anyone?
> Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 16:09:28 -0400
> From: "Les Flodrowski" <les(a)uwo.ca>
> Organization: The University of Western Ontario, London, Ont. Canada
> Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
>
> We have a dual VAX 4500a (4000-500a) cluster to dispose of.
>
> It consists of the following components:
>
> - 2 VAX 4500a systems clustered with the following storage arrays
> - R400X DSSI Storage cabinet with 6 x DSSI 1.0GB - 1.6GB drives
> - StorageWorks cabinet with 3 x 4.3GB SCSI drives
> - TX87 DLT Tape drive
> - TU81 Plus Magtape drive
> - VAX 4500a system complete spare
>
> At this time we are simply trying to find out if there is
> any interest in the community for these systems. If you are
> interested, and would like to make a serious offer, please
> contact me.
>
> BTW, we also have all media and documentation for VAX/VMS and
> a number of related applications.
>
> ---
>
> Les Flodrowski, les(a)uwo.ca
> Phone: 519 661 3595
> The University of Western Ontario
>
> =====================================
> --
> --- David A Woyciesjes
> --- C & IS Support Specialist
> --- Yale University Press
> --- (203) 432-0953
> --- ICQ # - 905818
> Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
> Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
> _______________________________________________
> cctech mailing list
> cctech(a)classiccmp.org
> http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech
>
>
The subject of my query isn't 10 years old yet, but
since it's DEC equipment and there are many DEC fans
here, I'd like to post it anyway.
About six months ago, a list member offered me one of
these Alpha ATX-factor motherboards for a very reasonable
price. As often happens with many of us, the deal has not
gone through.
If anyone else still subscribing has a cache of these
and is willing to part with one I'd appreciate it. I'd
prefer a trade for a Calcomp Digi-Board III digitizer
tablet with 16-button puck, but I could also trade a
Mac Quadra 700 or Quadra 650 (as I have a couple extra).
I also might have other trade-worthy items; just write
me and we can discuss it.
Thanks in advance,
-doug q
-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"]
Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away."
> > My bad, I don't have a 11/34, I meant a 11/23+. The question stands, though.
>
I have the KDF11-AA (11/23?) and KDF11-BA (11/23B)
manuals scanned as PDF. I don't know if the KDF11-B
(M8189) is what you ahve in your system (but I think
that's what a PLUS is). There is also a KDJ11
manual on the net.
That's obviously several hundred more pages than
you might care to read, but if noone has a canned
config for you, this might be what you have to do.
Antonio
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rod Young [mailto:rodyoung@shaw.ca]
> Yes, 2MB on board, but I'm looking for something bigger than
> the 4MB (it's
Me too ;)
> I'm just getting the unit going, and need the BNC terminators
> to make the
You know that you can also use an AUI terminator if your 2000 has
an AUI port? I think this goes without saying... :)
> ethernet happy, and also a cable ...08 to make the 9pin a
> console port (as
> this is a VS2000).
It's a simple straight-through serial cable with pins 8 and 9
tied together on the machine end. Nothing fancy. You can make
one up in five minutes with parts from radio shark.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
I couldn't help noticing this paragraph:
>Do you have anywhere I can FTP it to?
>The full manual will be in the region
>of 200MB.
Rather than pdf, consider using DjVu; it's a LOT more compact (I recompressed some pages from the RT-11 Software support manual that I'd scanned a while ago with DjVu, and went from about 900 Kb/page to 30-40 Kb/page). Needless to say, I was very impressed.
The DjVu viewer plugin for various browsers if free, and a program which scans images to individual files is also free from http://www.djvu.com/. I first heard about DjVu on this list, and it is one of the neatest pieces of compression software that I've seen.
Boris Gimbarzevsky
> Gunther Schadow wrote:
>
>in my VAX 11/780 I have the PDP-11/03 alias KC780. And it has
>the following memory board right now:
>
>M7944 MSV11-B Q 4-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM (external refresh)
>
>But, since I'm planning to upgrade to an 11/785 I need additional
>RAM. When it showed up on ePay I buyed a
>
>M8044-DA MSV11-DD Q 32-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM
>
>but the boot program will not load with this. Why would that be?
I'm at home now and I've been able to check
some manuals, without too much luck though.
The "LSI-11, PDP-11/03 user's manual" discusses
the KD11-F (M7264) and KD11-J (M7264-YA)
which seems to be the same module with
no RAM and packaged differently.
I don't know whether that's the module used in
the 11/780 console. I'm sure it's in one of those
manuals, but I bet you can find out quicker
by looking :-)
It also discusses usage (and jumpering) of
the MSV11-B (M7944) 4K memory board.
If your LSI CPU is the M7264(-YA) then you
probably want this manual anyway.
I also have a copy of the MSV11-P User
Guide but that discusses the M8067-LA,
-KA, -FA which are 256K, 128K
and 64K boards. Maybe useful as a
general reference but probably not applicable
to jumpering your stuff.
My random guess is either you have the
refresh wrong or the memory board
starting address is wrong. Sadly, even if
the guess is right, neither of these manuals
are likely to help you sort it out. Let me know
if you want them ftp'd somewhere anyway.
Antonio
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rod Young [mailto:rodyoung@shaw.ca]
> anyone have an *extra* memory for the MV2000?
Define extra. :) You know they have 2M on board,
right? Do you have one without any add-in memory
option?
I've honestly never seen one like that. Again, I
have plenty of "spare" VAXStation 2000 stuff, but
I'd like to stay away from committing to ship
anything just now.
The only memory options I have are 2 and 4M boards,
which would give you a total of either 4 or 6M.
You do know that you can only fit one RAM board in a
system, right?
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
Gunther Schadow wrote:
>Whoever scanned the KA780 and FP780 "Technical Description" documents
>and put them up on the moremaniuals site ought to be given thanks
>and praise!
I scanned all those 11/780 docs and sent them along
to DFWCUG but the real praise should go to
Alain Nierveze who sent copies of the manuals
to me in the post for scanning.
>These are wonderful in depth description that I had been
>searching for and that none of the "architecture manuals" etc.
>ever delivered.
These are certainly "old-style" DEC technical manuals.
They virtually describe the machine down to the
individual chips.
All we need now is a full set of prints
for the VAX-11/780 ... or a full set of
tech manuals for the VAX-11/750 (or
VAX-11/730) and someone can then do a
full implementation in an FPGA :-)
Antonio