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

by fred＠MISER.MISERNET.NET

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: [talk about word processors, specifically WordPerfect] I would LOVE to find a (hobbyist) copy of WordPerfect for OpenVMS some day. Back in the day I could fly through those key combos on WP 5.1 ... Fred

9 years, 11 months

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DEC PDT-150 software

by fjkraan＠xs4all.nl

On 2016-07-10 07:00 PM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Greetings > > I have a restored and (I think) functional PDT-150 with dual 8? floppy drives but no software. I do have some blank 8? diskettes but no real means of transferring an operating system or (say) a word processing program onto them. > > Any assistance would be appreciated. Happy to pay for OS/Application diskettes and freight etc The PDT-150 was also sold with a VT-105 as the MiniMINC and can run some versions of RT-11 (at least V3b). On my site there are images of disks, but it requires a PC capable of writing single density format to an 8" disk. IMD is not the most common format in DEC circles, but it is in PC land. http://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/miniminc/floppyImages/ > > Many thanks > Brendan Greetings & success, Fred Jan Kraan

9 years, 11 months

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IBM 360/30 in verilog

by iamcamiel＠gmail.com

Hi Al, I have a 7201-2 set that I scanned. They're ~64 MB TIF files per sheet, about ~150GB in total. I can upload those where ever you want. Op 11 jul. 2016 6:58 p.m. schreef "Al Kossow" <aek at bitsavers.org>: On 7/11/16 9:14 AM, Jon Elson wrote: > The microcode was in the ALD drawings, and might even be in bitsavers archive, if they have the right manual. > 360 CPU ALDs are extremely difficult to find. If the 65 set could be scanned, I'd be happy to upload them to bitsavers.

9 years, 11 months

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DEC PDT-150 software

by brendan＠mcneill.co.nz

Greetings I have a restored and (I think) functional PDT-150 with dual 8? floppy drives but no software. I do have some blank 8? diskettes but no real means of transferring an operating system or (say) a word processing program onto them. Any assistance would be appreciated. Happy to pay for OS/Application diskettes and freight etc Many thanks Brendan --------------//---------------- brendan at mcneill.co.nz +64 21 881 883

9 years, 11 months

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Successor models that never were

by lproven＠gmail.com

Unfinished or never launched follow-ons to classic 1980s home micros... http://uk.pcmag.com/desktop-reviews/82794/gallery/7-classic-home-pc-follow-… -- Sent from my phone - please pardon brevity & typos.

9 years, 11 months

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Connectors: Both contact surfaces must also be the same material?

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

Stated Tothwolf tothwolf at concentric.net: "Both contact surfaces must also be the same material or tin oxide will form on the surface of the gold plating and cause a major headache. This was a serious problem with 486 and earlier Pentium PCs with 30 and 72 pin SIMMs and it led to a number of lawsuits." Almost every DEC System Unit ("backplane") that I've ever seen uses tinned-contacts, yet the Modules all use gold-plated fingers. How does that situation jibe with the SIMM issue/experience? ----- paul

9 years, 11 months

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TI Silent 700 print mechanism mechanical issues, and Model 763/765 bubble memory notes

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I've now got a TI Silent 700 Model 763, and it is partially working. The previous owner said that the line advance wasn't working reliably, but that otherwise it was working. As I received it, the thermal print head is only darkening the top scan line of characters, and only partially. The intensity pot is already at maximum. The line advance is working, but carriage return is unreliable, which results in the carriage banging against the right side of the mechanism and getting stuck there. The horizontal carriage positioning is done by stepper motor with an encoder for feedback, so I'm surprised that it isn't smart enough to recognize that it can't home the carriage, and avoid ramming it into the right end of the mechanism. I was worried that the thermal print head might be damaged. I opened it up and found that it uses the solenoid line advance mechansim, probably the same as is documented for the early production of Model 743/745. (Later 743/745 use a stepper motor for line advance.) With power off, the carriage can be manually returned to the left side. There were two loose parts inside, a spring and a small knob. These apparently belong to the solenoid line advance mechanism, belonging on the shaft at the opposite end of the solenoid from the link to the pivot. There are screws on the left and right end of the mechanism, which when loosened, allow the printhead to be moved up and down relative to the mechanism. The Model 743/745 maintenance manual suggests adjusting that if characters aren't fully visible. I tried that, and could see a little bit more of the characters, but couldn't adjust it to get the characters entirely visible. I accidentally discovered that with a small amount of additional pressure against the carriage assembly, toward the paper path, the characters are printed fully formed, and (quite suprisingly to me) the carriage return works properly as well. If I can't get this working reliably, I may start searching for a 743 or 745 with the solenoid line advance mechanism, to try a mechanism transplant. (The mechanism with stepper motor line advance is not interchangeable, and requires a different circuit board. I'm not sure whether that mechanism was used in any model 763/765 units.) The Operating Instructions manual for the Model 763 and 765 gives information on 13 different commands which are accepted in command mode. They mention the TEST command, which performs a self-test, and the TEST INIT subcommand which resets everything to factory defaults. There's a TEST MASK subcommand not documented in the manual which allows examining or altering the bubble memory minor loop masks. When installing or replacing a bubble memory module, it may be necessary to enter this information for the new module, from the mask data printed on the label of the bubble device. Unlike the later Intel bubble memory, the TI parts (at least of the 92Kbit devices) don't have a specified dedicated "boot loop" to store the mask, nor do they have a defined synchronization pattern to provide a detectable home position, so the TMS5502/TMS9916 bubble controller chip has to ensure that the device is rotated to the home position on power down or power fail. The terminal firmware may be using a specific normal minor loop, probably the first or last loop, to store the mask and a sync pattern, but the TMS5502/TMS9916 don't provide any automation for that. The TMS5502/TMS9916 also require that the mask bits be provided in a bit-serial fashion at the precise times needed during data transfers; TI app notes show the mask stored in PROM with a counter for addressing, but the 763/765 terminal doesn't do that. I'm not sure whether they have dedicated logic for the mask, or whether it's being done by firmware. The TEST MASK subcommand is probably documented in the Maintenance Manual, which I don't have; the only reason I know about it is that a technician left a printout showing the TEST MASK output for this terminal between two pages of the Operating Instructions manual. The terminal uses a TMS9980 microprocessor, which is an 8-bit-bus version of the TMS9900, which can only address 16KB of memory. The terminal has five TMS4732 4KB ROMS, as well as some RAM, so there must be some bank-switching going on. The bubble memory modules for the terminal came in two types: 1) A large "discrete" bubble module with one 92Kbit bubble device and a whole lot of non-bubble-specific chips (presumably because the SN753xx bubble memory support chips were not yet available for production). Two large modules are fitted, to provide the terminal's basic rated storage capacity of 20K characters (actually up to 22,860 characters if 18, 36, or 72 character record lengths are used). This leaves no room for additional bubble modules. The modules show up to the TEST MASK command as modules 2 and 6. 2) A small bubble module with two 92Kbit bubble devices and the SN753xx bubble memory support chips. A single module provides the 20K (22860 character) basic rated storage. Up to four of these modules can be fitted, for up to 80K (91,440) characters. My terminal had two large bubble modules installed. A friend gave me three more large modules, which have been treated roughly, so they have bent pins and possibly damaged components. I have one small module that came from eBay some years ago. I haven't tried any of them yet.

9 years, 11 months

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Connectors: Both contact surfaces must also be the same material?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

right on! In a message dated 7/10/2016 6:46:28 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, elson at pico-systems.com writes: On 07/10/2016 01:58 PM, Al Kossow wrote: > > On 7/10/16 1:14 AM, Paul Birkel wrote: > >> Almost every DEC System Unit ("backplane") that I've ever seen uses >> tinned-contacts, yet the Modules all use gold-plated fingers. >> > I'm not near one right now, but there should be gold plating on the finger in the DEC > connector block at the point of contact with the pcb edge connector. It's easier to > see on the VAX era blocks. > > Absolutely. The WW pins were tinned, but there was selective gold plating on the card edge contact fingers. It would take a strong light and magnifier to see it down inside the connector, but you can rest assured the contact was gold-gold. Jon

9 years, 11 months

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'Bounces'

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

Just re-subscribed to cc-talk. I'm wondering if anyone has an answer on this - every now and again I get these warning emails about 'excessive bounces'. I have to click a link and then they go away for a while. But sometimes I get busy and forget.. and then the list unsubscribes me. No idea what 'excessive bounces' means or what I can do to prevent it from unsubscribing. Any thoughts? Brad

9 years, 11 months

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TV Typewriter reproduction

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

Hey guys, Getting closer to the 'construction' phase of my TVT replica. I already built a mockup the case and reconfigured and painted the MDS keyboard I found to match the prototypes. I also got some 'natural' colored PCB stock and etched some boards. Pretty happy with the results. Hard to tell if I got the right color or not.. I notice in photos my boards look closer to the color of the original than they appear to me 'in person'. Anyway, I remember Nick Allen was kind enough to post that photo of his TVT unit - I meant to ask at the time, are there any more pictures of it, especially from underneath? Or is there anyone else out there with photos of original TVTs (not to be confused with the later CT1024)? I'm finding the few pictures I can find of assembled TVTs very valuable in answering assembly and part questions. The blog of my progress on my TVT is here for those interested: http://bradhodge.ca/blog/?cat=11 Thanks again! Brad

9 years, 11 months

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'Bounces'

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I just resubmit each time and check the archive in case I missed something. works ok this way. never missed anything life changing. Ed# In a message dated 7/10/2016 12:42:20 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com writes: > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Brad H > Sent: 10 July 2016 19:34 > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: 'Bounces' > > Just re-subscribed to cc-talk. I'm wondering if anyone has an answer on this - > every now and again I get these warning emails about 'excessive bounces'. I > have to click a link and then they go away for a while. But sometimes I get > busy and forget.. and then the list unsubscribes me. No idea what 'excessive > bounces' means or what I can do to prevent it from unsubscribing. Any > thoughts? > > This has affected me recently, and another friend of mine also dropped off the list for the same reason. Regards Rob

9 years, 11 months

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Lunar Module Code Walk Through

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

I guess this is on-topic. http://hackaday.com/2016/07/05/don-eyles-walks-us-through-the-lunar-module-s ource-code/

9 years, 11 months

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'Bounces'

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

yes it had just tossed my email address too so I re subed maybe it does the dump all at once of us dumpees? Ed# In a message dated 7/10/2016 11:34:25 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, vintagecomputer at bettercomputing.net writes: Just re-subscribed to cc-talk. I'm wondering if anyone has an answer on this - every now and again I get these warning emails about 'excessive bounces'. I have to click a link and then they go away for a while. But sometimes I get busy and forget.. and then the list unsubscribes me. No idea what 'excessive bounces' means or what I can do to prevent it from unsubscribing. Any thoughts? Brad

9 years, 11 months

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Connectors: Both contact surfaces must also be the same material?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

actually some DEC backplane had gold dos inside on finders of backplane and in one instance we had a 8i that has all gold plated everything on the backplance and heavy gold too. back in the days - - Ed Sharpe retired CEO Computer Exchange Inc Phx In a message dated 7/10/2016 12:30:30 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, tothwolf at concentric.net writes: On Sun, 10 Jul 2016, Jon Elson wrote: > On 07/10/2016 12:07 PM, Paul Koning wrote: >> On Jul 10, 2016, at 9:07 AM, Tothwolf <tothwolf at concentric.net> wrote: >>> On Sun, 10 Jul 2016, Paul Birkel wrote: >>>> Stated Tothwolf tothwolf at concentric.net: >>>> >>>>> "Both contact surfaces must also be the same material or tin oxide >>>>> will form on the surface of the gold plating and cause a major >>>>> headache. This was a serious problem with 486 and earlier Pentium >>>>> PCs with 30 and 72 pin SIMMs and it led to a number of lawsuits." >>>> Almost every DEC System Unit ("backplane") that I've ever seen uses >>>> tinned-contacts, yet the Modules all use gold-plated fingers. >>> I'm not familiar with them used in DEC systems in that way, but the >>> problems with mixing tin and gold plated connectors is well >>> documented. Even the connector manufacturers warn against mixing >>> different platings. >> While "don't mix contact surfaces" is sufficient, it isn't necessary. >> What matters is the "anodic index" of the metal, or rather, the >> difference between those two values for the two metals in contact. If >> that difference is large, you have a problem; if it's small enough, you >> do not. "Small enough" depends on the environment; aboard an >> oceangoing ship the number has to be smaller than in an office setting. >> I remember looking into this topic for an investigation of what types >> of contact platings are acceptable for lithium coin cell battery >> holders in IT equipment. > > This applies to bolted contact for structural things. Gold connectors > usually have light contact pressure to preserve the soft gold plating. > Tin contacts usually have higher contact force to scrape the oxide off > the tin surface. When they are mixed, the tin can wipe onto the gold > and then allow oxides to form due to the lower contact force. Tin > contacts are supposed to provide enough pressure to form gas-tight > contact areas. Another thing to keep in mind here is that electrical current is being passed through the junction. Mixed metals greatly increases the potential for electromigration. > And, of course, when exposed to salty air, then everything goes downhill > REAL fast, corrosion galore. In a salt environment, I'd use > semi-hermetically sealed connectors, and still expect lots of problems. > The Navy probably knows a LOT about these things. Even in a reasonably good atmospheric environment weird issues can crop up. I once evaluated an air handler controller which had worked perfectly in product testing, but once field deployed, had a very high failure rate. It was made up of two pc boards with a pair of .100" pin and socket board to board interconnects. The two boards were physically held together with 4 nylon snap-in standoffs. The lower board contained terminal blocks, modular connectors, and the power supply circuitry and the upper board contained the microcontroller, network circuitry, etc. The cause of the failures turned out to be fretting corrosion of the board to board connectors caused by vibration. Another contributing factor was that many installers were not installing all 4 mounting screws when mounting the controller inside the unit (these were field retrofitted controllers) but were instead only installing 2 screws in opposite corners. The fix was to replace all of the existing board to board interconnects, both the header and socket with parts that had 30 microinches of hard gold over nickel (the original parts had 15 microinches of gold) and to use a contact lubricant during assembly. Repaired boards were also to be installed using all 4 mounting screws. The vendor later redesigned the controller so it was all on a single board (while still admitting no fault, of course).

9 years, 11 months

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Looking for old connectors

by lehmann＠ans-netz.de

Hi, for rebuilding a circuit, I'm in need of 3 old connectors used on the original board. ###################### One is easy - J3 is a 2x10 pin 2.54mm connector which is still common today. But it is higher than the usual connectors. It has a hight of 1.5cm. If you search for the printed A-MP number (1-87456-6), you'll find the housing, but not the soldered clips used inside this housing.... http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… ###################### The next one is a power plug used on a CDC FINCH harddisk. The manual states, that the Connectors AMP 1-87270-1 or 3-87025-3 can be used. I guess this where connectors used with cables - but I need a connector which can be placed on a circuit board like this one: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… ###################### The next one is also a power plug - but I have no idea about its AMP number or something: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… Its counterpart is shown here and labled with AMP, but no number: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_case/Disk-Tape-Component… Any info on any of this connectors would be great... Regards, Oliver

9 years, 11 months

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server maintenance

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

The classiccmp VM will go down tonight around 10pm-ish CST. There is nothing wrong with the VM, but the NAS it's disks are on is having some issues. We've live-migrated all VDI's off that NAS except classiccmp's. Due to the size of those drives, they will migrate a lot faster if that VM is shut down so that's the route we're taking. I would expect it to be back up in the wee hours of the morning - at least that's what the guy doing the work tells me. Just fyi.. J

9 years, 11 months

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VCF West has 30 exhibits

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

what kind of wooden modem? In a message dated 7/9/2016 9:04:37 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: >> So, I guess that I can bring a few items for the consignment sales, >> (which is also "information coming soon"), but NOT a station wagon full >> of boxes of books, classic vintage computers (QX10, SMC70, early 5150, >> 8201a, etc.), hundreds of hard-sector diskettes, 3", 3.25" disks and >> alignment disks, another wooden modem, ARC serial analyzer, etc. >> (priced to meet expenses and lunch both days) >> Oh well. I would have needed to get help packing the car, etc. anyway. On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Evan Koblentz wrote: > Sure you can bring a car full of stuff, as long as it's sold at consignment. > I do not know how much table space we will have for that. It is possible that > we'll ask you to bring in some at a time. At VCF6, I only brought a few things: http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/vcf6/vendor5.jpg but now I have more than ten times that, that needs to go or get DUMPSTERED. plus all that is left of http://www.xenosoft.com/FPUIB and at least 100 more boxes worth. But, my health is not good enough to even pack it all. My assistant at the last VCF died two years ago. I had been hoping to totally fill Prius station wagon, and sell enough first day to do an entire additional load the second day. But, I don't think that it is realiatic to imagine that I can manage to do that. Besides the need to channel it in small quantities through "consignment", I know that I can't manage even that level of physical exertion. So, I'll probably just fill a couple of boxes with IBM Technical References, Windows Resource kits, etc. and end up with most of the rest eventually going to paper recycling. (most of the FPUIB stuff has been in that list for 2 years, so there's obviously not a big pent-up demand) -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

9 years, 11 months

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offering part of uVax/VaxStation 3100

by jonelson126＠gmail.com

On 07/09/2016 09:28 PM, Jon Elson wrote: > I have the bottom part of a DV-31ETA-A-A01 VaxStation > 3100. It has the bottom of the case, the main CPU board > and the power supply. I think additional memory and the > graphics/SCSI adaptor were mezzanine boards, and are NOT > present in this. It was quite dirty when I found it, and > I have not tried to fire it up. Anybody have an interest > in this? > > Jon

9 years, 11 months

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VCF West has 30 exhibits

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Evan, I for one am very excited. I was wondering are there any vendors or consignment items at this time? Ali -------- Original message -------- From: Evan Koblentz <cctalk at snarc.net> Date: 7/9/2016 7:30 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: VCF West has 30 exhibits There are 30 exhibits for Vintage Computer Festival West XI next month: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/vcf-west-ex… Exhibit registration is full. Contact me privately if you'd like to join the waiting list.

9 years, 11 months

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word processor history -- interesting article (Evan Koblentz)

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

My first word processor was from Wang called ?Word Processor? and then IBM?s ?Displaywriter?. I tried ?Wordstar? originally called ?Wordmaster? but way too complicated. When desktop publishing came along WYSIWYG printing was made possible - the writer?s true handmaiden! In the microcomputer world, classic computing, it was ?Smartwriter? on the Coleco ADAM. Those were the days! Happy computing. Murray

9 years, 11 months

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HP 8510 network analyser

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

So a friend tells me there's a maybe-abandoned HP 8510 Network Analyzer in the hallway of the engineering building of the univ. he works at. I presume it's a unit like this, as he says it's over a metre tall: http://www.ece.lsu.edu/emdl/facilities/network%20analyser.html I figure its a little too far large and too far away from my needs to take it on, but out of curiousity does anyone know offhand what processor they used in these? (I haven't looked in depth online). Cursory guess is its mid-90s technology.

9 years, 11 months

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Second release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator

by jdbryan＠acm.org

The second release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator is now available >from the Computer History Simulation Project (SIMH) site: https://github.com/simh/simh This release adds a simulation of the HP 2607, 2613, 2617, and 2618 line printers and supports the use of custom VFU tape images, as well as the built-in HP-standard VFU tape. The full set of configurable options is detailed in a new section of the HP 3000 Simulator User's Guide that is provided in Microsoft Word format in the "doc" subdirectory of the code base snapshot downloaded from the github site. A PDF version of the updated manual is also available at: http://alum.mit.edu/www/jdbryan/hp3000_doc.pdf In addition, the preconfigured MPE-V/R disc image available from Bitsavers: http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/HP/HP_3000/ ...has been updated to add the following features: - The MPE cold load command files attach the line printer to the "lp.txt" output file and specify the "-n" option to clear the file before use. - Preinstalled User-Defined Commands (UDCs) provide access to the COBOL 74 compiler with the MPE-V/E :COBOLII, :COBOLIIPREP, and :COBOLIIGO commands, and to the COBOL 85 compiler with :COBOLIIX, :COBOLIIXPREP, and :COBOLIIXGO. However, note that the simulator currently does not provide the HP 32234A COBOL II firmware instructions, so programs generated by the COBOLII compiler will abort at run time with "ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION" errors, limiting the current utility of the compilers to syntax checking. Thanks once again go to Frank McConnell for providing the HP line printer subsystems manuals that facilitated development of the new simulation, and to Robert Mills for providing the COBOLII UDCs. -- Dave

9 years, 11 months

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Morrow and Kaypro newsletters

by dave＠661.org

I found some BAMDUA / BAKUP newsletters (Bay Area Micro Decision Users Association and Bay Area Kaypro Users and Programmers). Does anyone know anything about these user groups? -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

9 years, 11 months

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Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

My classic/vintage computer activity has taken a back seat lately but I did find a machine I had on the "classic" list for some time. It's now part of the collection. http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/collection/imac.htm Some would say this is not vintage, classic or collectible (and so shouldn't be discussed here). However, these are all subjected terms which can be (and are!) argued about at length. To me it's a noteworthy model which had some impact on personal computing (notably by helping put Apple back in the game). Vintage? At only 18 years old perhaps not but a classic and collectible? As time goes by I would say yes. Terry (Tez)

9 years, 11 months

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Fwd: Re: Front Panels - New development - Bezels

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: Front Panels - New development - Bezels Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2016 08:01:35 +0100 From: Rod Smallwood <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> To: Paul Birkel <pbirkel at gmail.com> On 07/07/2016 07:18, Paul Birkel wrote: > "MakeAnEight", oh my :->. Next it will be "SweetSixteen" I imagine. > > Great news on the casting-in-resin prototype. How much are these ending up costing? > > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rod Smallwood > Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2016 2:04 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Front Panels - New development - Bezels > > Hi Guys > > We are able to-announce the successful test production of a PDP-8 Bezel in cast resin. > > The result is tough, beige colored, slightly flexible copy of the original. > > Bonding the panel to the bezel or adding internal stiffening brings rigidity. > > Painting matches the color. > > This will be part of our MakeAnEight parts for reproduction or repair range. > > > Rod (Panelman) Smallwood > > > Hi Paul Well I was going to call it ElevenHeaven but I like your idea better. They got a good result first time. That seemed too easy. Then I remembered that when I went through the molding and casting process they said is that it? It just dawned on me. Screen printing is all about handling gloopy liquids. They have all of the knowledge of mixing and all of the measuring pots and stirring sticks you will ever need. Cost? Well that's interesting. Usually in a small run/custom situation its the labor cost that's the major element. Here it seems to be the cost of the materials to get the right result. I should know soon. Regards Rod

9 years, 11 months

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BASIC challenge on RetroBattlestations

by fozztexx＠fozztexx.com

July is BASIC Month and there's another challenge happening on RetroBattlestations. The type-in program for this challenge borrows a little bit of code from the very first BASIC challenge that I did. I've created a little "turtle graphics" type program that uses a stack based command interpreter. Right now the commands are very simple, pen up & down, move forward and turn. There's also looping to make it easy to create that spirograph effect that everyone loves to do! This time around there's more than just the random winners for typing in the program as-is. I'll also be choosing two people who can add the most interesting features or port it to the most exotic hardware. So far there are not too many platforms that have been ported to, and the only features that anyone has added has just been random colorization. You can check it out here: https://redd.it/4qs0f3 -- Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com

9 years, 11 months

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Megaprocessor

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

This gigantic, $53,000 hobbyist-built computer is making the rounds on Facebook: http://gizmodo.com/guy-spends-four-years-50k-building-giant-computer-to-178… A relay one from a few years ago: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~harry/Relay/ -- Eric Christopherson

9 years, 11 months

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Front Panels - PDP-8/e , PDP-8/f and PDP-8/m are ex-stock

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys +++++++++++++++++++++++ Panels stocked and ready to ship +++++++++++++++++++ I am pleased to be able to announce the following PDP-8 front panels are now ex-stock. Stock levels are 10 or less of: PDP-8/e (Type A) PDP-8/e (Type B) PDP-8/f PDP-8/m Please order now as each type takes ten days to make and the manufacturing slot for each comes round once in six weeks. Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

9 years, 11 months

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multiflow trace in Austin

by thebri＠gmail.com

It's not as old as some would like, but it's definitely unique enough. http://www.ebay.com/itm/UBER-RARE-MULTIFLOW-TRACE-14-300-COMPILER-VINTAGE-C… b

9 years, 11 months

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word processor history -- interesting article (Evan Koblentz)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mouse > "The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its > continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the > computer hardware industry." - credited to Henry Petroski There's a reason I run considerably older software (which I prefer because it's less bloated) on somewhat older hardware (which is cheap, used) - i.e. hardware that's considerably newer than the software running on it - and your quotation nails it. The response time I get with Epsilon V8.0 (circa 1996) on an Athlon XP is scintillating - my finger has barely started to come up on the key before the screen reflects the command (e.g. to switch buffers). The response time is blindingly fast. Now, admittedly, Epsilon was fast to start with (i.e. on contemporanous hardware), so perhaps it's not the best example. But the same is true for other things, albeit to a lesser degree; e.g. switching windows to different applications. Older software on newer hardware provides a sparkling user experience, in terms of responsiveness. Noel

9 years, 11 months

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"FIRST"??!? (Was: word processor history -- interesting article

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Many people used program editors to write articles and books in the early days! Myself included... Ed# In a message dated 7/6/2016 1:43:21 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes: > From: Fred Cisin > the first person to use a word processor was probably typing business > letters and/or legal documents, which is what they were developed for. Depends what you mean by "word processor". If you mean 'software intended to format text', you need to look back to things like TJ2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TJ-2 and 'runoff', both circa 1963. Much earlier than any of the 'word processors' this person wrote about. Noel

9 years, 11 months

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Front Panels - PDP-8/i Help!

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys, I have a nice big batch of PDP-8/i panels in production. I really need a real original panel to check against. Can anybody lend me one? Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

9 years, 11 months

2
2
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Front Panels - New development - Bezels

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys We are able to-announce the successful test production of a PDP-8 Bezel in cast resin. The result is tough, beige colored, slightly flexible copy of the original. Bonding the panel to the bezel or adding internal stiffening brings rigidity. Painting matches the color. This will be part of our MakeAnEight parts for reproduction or repair range. Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

9 years, 11 months

1
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UNIBUS M9312 ROMS

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Posted an inventory of my M9312 ROMs http://www.vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=638 b -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

9 years, 11 months

10
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Repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

I'm currently in the process of repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard which suffered shipping damage and I'm trying to find anyone else who might have one. I can't find any photos of one of these boards online (except for the one I recently purchased) and the board I have shows possible signs of prior rework that I'm trying figure out. The electrolytic capacitors on this particular board at locations CE1 and CE6 have Sanyo OS-CON 220uF 10V polymer parts (purple sleeve and appear to be 10SA220M) fitted and the solder work was done by hand. The joints were completely defluxed/cleaned, but the leads were hand sheared down into the solder joint. All of the other electrolytic capacitors on this board are Sanyo CG series 1000uF 16V (green) that were wave soldered. I suspect two of the Sanyo CG series parts were replaced at some point by a prior owner with the SA series polymer parts. According to the SA series datasheet, the largest 10mm diameter part is 220uF 10V, which may be why those were installed. I haven't used one of these boards since the late '90s when I built a workstation with one, and I can't remember with 100% certainty that Supermicro didn't use a few polymer parts on these boards. If anyone else has one of these boards and can physically check it to see what parts are installed, it would be really helpful. Many of the original Sanyo CG series parts were trashed on my board when it was shipped in one of those thin USPS Priority boxes, so I'm going to end up replacing all of them. If the two OS-CON parts turn out to be not original, I'll fit the correct value parts in those two locations while I'm at it.

9 years, 11 months

1
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word processor history -- interesting article

by cctalk＠snarc.net

All about some of the earliest people to write books using word processors. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/how-to-write-a-histor…

9 years, 11 months

5
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"FIRST"??!? (Was: word processor history -- interesting article

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Fred Cisin > the first person to use a word processor was probably typing business > letters and/or legal documents, which is what they were developed for. Depends what you mean by "word processor". If you mean 'software intended to format text', you need to look back to things like TJ2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TJ-2 and 'runoff', both circa 1963. Much earlier than any of the 'word processors' this person wrote about. Noel

9 years, 11 months

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VCF West exhibitor deadline -- Friday

by cctalk＠snarc.net

VCF West is Aug. 6-7 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. There are 25 exhibitors so far. Want to add to that total? Please click here -- http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/vcf-west-ex… -- the deadline is this Friday at midnight.

9 years, 11 months

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Source for server lift/hoist?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

just have to know what to ask google for https://www.grainger.com/category/ecatalog/N-1z0dxrh In a message dated 7/4/2016 3:58:05 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes: So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) Any ideas? Noel

9 years, 11 months

6
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M7237 KJ11-A Stack Limit Register scans

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

There was some recent discussion of the need for M7237 (KJ11-A Stack Limit Register) boards, and I said I had one, and could scan it (for the PCB traces - they aren't in the FMPS) if someone wanted to duplicate it; I had a request for same, so scans are now online, here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/PDP-11_Stuff.html It will be a little bit of work to produce PCB artwork, since some of the traces dive under chips (and I'm not about to lift the chips :-), but from the prints (in the 11/40 print set, page 112) it should be easy to work them out. Noel

9 years, 11 months

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The infinitely profitable program

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

Genius. But I would have thought CP/M would at least require a .com file to have a header. http://peetm.com/blog/?p=55

9 years, 11 months

7
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) Any ideas? Noel

9 years, 11 months

12
20
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AIX from Motorola

by plamenspam＠afterpeople.com

Hello, Anyone have Motorola based AIX installation cds at least 4.1.4r4 or newer? Regards, Plamen

9 years, 11 months

2
2
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything Oops, typo: "user" -> "used". (The prices I was seeing for these things was high, so I was wondering if used ones might be a bargain.) I also should have mentioned that I'm looking to put heavy assemblies (disk drives) up high in a 6' rack - say at the 5' level, counting the raised floor section the racks are one -q so the engine hoists aren't an option. (By an odd coincidence, I happen to have one of those Harbour Freight units in my garage, and it's a great engine hoist; not high enough for this, though.) And I was hoping for something in the $200 or so range, and even the cheaper manual units are more than that, new. Noel

9 years, 11 months

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Source for server lift/hoist?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

harbor freight has some excellent platform lift things... worth checking.... we like things like this as large TV studio cameras weigh 100 to 200 <<and one here is 300 (tk42)>> when we get a caucus in and want to clean it up and make it presentable for display we like to work on it at bench height... (once in a while it is good to raise a tape drive up in the air too...) << I can't believe I used to grab a 7970E out of a rack... walk it across the computer room and put in another rack by my self......no more.... I just look at it in the rack and get tired now!!>>> ED# In a message dated 7/4/2016 4:12:07 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, elson at pico-systems.com writes: On 07/04/2016 05:57 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote: > So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear > in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd > go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was > not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) > I've used an "engine hoist" around the shop to move heavy stuff. It has an extendable beam and a bottle jack to raise it. It folds up into a pretty small package when not in use. These can often be had pretty cheaply. Jon

9 years, 11 months

3
2
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

there ya go! In a message dated 7/4/2016 4:00:56 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, rich.cini at verizon.net writes: I just googled "scissor lift table" and came up with something that I might search for if I had a similar need. Look at the images and see if those would work for you. Rich Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 4, 2016, at 6:57 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > > So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear > in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd > go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was > not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) > Any ideas? > > Noel

9 years, 11 months

1
0
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Disc Imaging / Kryoflux - Acorn ADFS 800KB

by austinpass＠gmail.com

I'm trying to preserve my Acorn ADFS 3.5" discs. To this end, I've purchased a KryoFlux "Pro" board and a new-old-stock ALPS floppy drive. I've hooked it all up to a Windows 8.1 VM and everything *seems* to be working. However, the .adl images I create are all 0KB in size. I've created a profile to match the discs I'm reading (256byte sector size, tracks 0-79, MFM encoding, interleaved sides). Recording the flux transitions captures data, but when I run the resultant data back through DTC I get the same. Any ideas? -Austin. Sent from my iPad

9 years, 11 months

9
17
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Edinburgh folks heading for TNMoC, BP in Aug

by gtoal＠gtoal.com

Hi folks - if any of the folks I used to know are still on this list (Tony Duell? Pete Turnbull? Jim Doran? Jules Richardson?), I just wanted to let you know I'll be visiting TNMoC for the first time on 11th Aug. I mentioned this on the Edinburgh Computer History Project list and a few of the old Edinburgh hands will be coming along to make a day trip of it. If anyone is going to be in the neighbourhood and wants to say hello while we're there, let me know (or subscribe to our Yahoo group for updates) We had an Edinburgh connection with BP through Donald Michie, and I believe a bunch of our old computer center hardware (2976?) ended up in a shed at TNMoC. Best regards, Graham (PS I was never gone, I just don't post much.)

9 years, 11 months

3
2
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Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by microtechdart＠gmail.com

Bill, I hope that you can snap a few pictures with your phone to show us. This is quite the mystery device. On Sat, Jul 2, 2016 at 8:56 PM, Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> wrote: > No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that the paper > tape on this thing is for output, probably printed or > marked in some way because the paper seemed too flimsy > to hold a readable punch pattern. But now I'm pretty > determined to go back tomorrow and see if I can get > some more info. I didn't look at the bottom of it, maybe > there's a label. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck > > Guzis > > Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2016 11:30 PM > > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > > Subject: Re: Maybe interesting toy in junk shop... > > > > On 07/02/2016 07:32 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > > > I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time to time and I > > > saw a toy. It didn't really strike me as that interesting when I saw > > > it but I've been wondering about it since I left the place this > > > morning. The thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom. > > > It had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned" telephone > > > jack. It had two big buttons and a spool of paper tape mounted on > > > the front. The tape was about 1/4 inch wide. I call it a toy > > > because it had that sort of feel about it. It was not clearly > > > labeled as such. It was also styled in a way that suggested late > > > 1960s to me. The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box. I > > > can't find anything like it in google searches. I wonder if it might > > > have some early modem like device in it. Does this description "ring > > > a bell" with anyone? > > > > > > Sounds like a late-model Kilburg Dialaphone. 1960-ish. Early models > > directly operated the dial of the desk telephone--later ones just > > pulsed > > the line appropriately--something that AT&T objected to and that > > Kilburg > > unsuccessfully fought. This was years before the Carterfone episode. > > Memory was a paper tape with printed names on it. > > > > That particular unit sounds like a very rare piece of kit. > > > > Am I getting close? > > > > --Chuck > > > > ----- > > No virus found in this message. > > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > > Version: 2016.0.7640 / Virus Database: 4604/12477 - Release Date: > > 06/23/16 > > Internal Virus Database is out of date. > > -- Thanks, -AJ http://MicrotechM1.blogspot.com

9 years, 11 months

1
0
0 0

Early PDP-11/45 backplane SPC power

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

So, after finding that a DL11-E wasn't working in the backplane SPC slots (26-28) on my 11/45, I took a closer look. The problem isn't exactly what I had expected -- -15V seems to be distributed there, but +15 is not. Looking closely at the print sets, the listed configurations only mention DL11-A, the 20ma current loop model, which wouldn't require +15 to work. I wonder if some +15 distribution wires were added in an ECO, or maybe EIA console from the backplane SPC slots was never supported for these early 11/45s (mine is serial 152). There's one other oddity -- the power distribution table in EK-11045-MM-007, page 510, implies that +15 should be distributed to the SPC slots on CA1. I'm wondering if this is a typo, since I'd expect that pin to be NPG? The DL11-E looks to be expecting +15 on UA1 in any case.

9 years, 11 months

2
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