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

For HP fans: HP 85 + HP 7970 + HP 2631 demo

by curiousmarc3＠gmail.com

In case you had not seen it already. I finally managed to control my big HP 7970E 9-track tape and my HP 2631G dot matrix from the little HP 85 that could. Hey, they all talk the same HP-IB after all (well, not really but close enough). Here is the resulting demo of this odd 1970's trio: https://youtu.be/YS9dGYUbNd0 Marc

10 years, 4 months

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Programming

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ian S. King > so much for running that on my PDP-11/20 If you have an actual 11/20, you should be ecstatic! ;-) Noel

10 years, 4 months

8
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11/73 into 11/03 chassis?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jacob Ritorto > Can I tear apart my little BA23 .. and put the Micro/PDP-11 backplane > .. into the spot that my 11/03 backplane currently occupies and run it > via the (working) stock 11/03 power supply? > ... > Specifically, would I have to butcher power and clock lines to do this, > or is it all plug compatible? I'm not absolutely sure exactly what you have that's holding the '11/03 backplane'; if it's a standard BA11-M enclosure, the answer, sadly, is 'no'. The BA-23 uses the H9278-A backplane and H7864 power supply; the BA11-M uses the H9270-A and H780 backplane. The power connections between the first two are completely different from the latter pair; the first uses a long, single-width Molex-type connector, the latter uses bare wire ends to a terminal block on the backplane. Also, the H9270-A is a four-slot backplane, and the H9278-A (an eight-slot) almost certainly will not physically fit into the space for the former. If your '11/03 backplane' is a different kind of backplane, in some other kind of box (e.g. BA11-N or BA11-S), the answer, sadly, is still 'no', because they both also use terminal blocks for power. (Although if you have a BA11-S, you'd already be set, those are Q22 native.) Really, it's not that hard to upgrade an H9270-A (or the H9273-A in a BA11-N) to Q22 (I have done several of the latter); the transplant you speak of (were it possible) is on the same order of magnitude of work. Noel PS: In dragging my BA23 out to look at it, it dawned on me that I will probably never, ever use it - I now have several BA11-N/S boxes, and prefer them. (I don't need to run the later disks that need the BA23.) So if someone is interested in the either the BA23, or the spare H7864 I have for it, please let me know. I'll let either go for my original cost plus shipping.

10 years, 4 months

4
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Good memory board for Heath H-11?

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? I picked-up a Heath H-11 machine the other day and it has a single 4kw memory board. From my prior experiences with DEC (an 11/34a many years ago; now at the RI Computer Museum), I know my way around the field guide?but I?m having trouble trying to identify the correct module number suitable for the LSI-11 CPU. Even though it?s a Heath machine, I assume it?s module compatible with DEC. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

10 years, 4 months

2
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11/73 into 11/03 chassis?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I have an 11/73 card in one of my video editing systems... does this mean I can give my H-11 more balls? In a message dated 2/9/2016 11:36:30 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jacob.ritorto at gmail.com writes: On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 11:27 AM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > > > I'm not absolutely sure exactly what you have that's holding the '11/03 > backplane'; if it's a standard BA11-M enclosure, the answer, sadly, is > 'no'. > [...] > If your '11/03 backplane' is a different kind of backplane, in some other > kind > of box (e.g. BA11-N or BA11-S), the answer, sadly, is still 'no', because > they > both also use terminal blocks for power. (Although if you have a BA11-S, > you'd > already be set, those are Q22 native.) > > OK, now that I know what I'm looking for, my target options here are: Chassis: BA11-N and "OBA11-R" (an expansion box) Backplanes currently in these chassis are: H9273 and H9273-A Power supplies are all H786. > Really, it's not that hard to upgrade an H9270-A (or the H9273-A in a > BA11-N) > to Q22 (I have done several of the latter); the transplant you speak of > (were > it possible) is on the same order of magnitude of work. > > Noel > So, since grafting in the Micro backplane would involve butcher work, I'm now wholeheartedly convinced that I should be moving to your setup with the BA11-N/S boxes, Noel. And I'm sold on the Q-22 backplane conversion (despite failing the first time I tried it years ago). Going to study what prints I have, review previous advice and go for it. Thank you for all the tips and hand-holding! --jake

10 years, 4 months

1
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6502 CPUs

by allanh-cctalk3＠kallisti.com

On Mon, 08 Feb 2016 at 18:46:13 +0000, Adrian Graham wrote: > Having had another bit of CBM kit with a failed CPU I'm wondering where you > lovely US folk get your spares from since ebay seems a bit ridiculous for > replacements at ukp8 a pop being the lowest price. They're surely not THAT > valuable? The first place I always check for things like that is Anchor Electronics (anchor-electronics.com). I see that they don't list the 6502, but they do have the 6502B for $4.95. I have no idea whether they ship outside the US or not. The second place I check is Jameco, and someone else already posted that they have them. allan -- Allan N. Hessenflow allanh at kallisti.com

10 years, 4 months

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The PDP11/04 has landed..

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Henk Gooijen > you need some some components to generate the AC LO and DC LO signals. > The 11/04 needs them. You could also do what I did on an off-brand LSI-11 chassis I had, whose power supply was working (producing good +5V/+12V), but whose power control board (to generate AC/DC OK signals) wasn't working - and I didn't have a circuit diagram for it. So I was lazy, and cheated: I disconnected the control board connection to the backplane, and the pull-up termination resistors brought the AC/DC lines up to their 'OK' state! :-) I don't _recommend_ this, but it does work! If you do this, probably best to power on the machine with the HALT switch asserted, so it doesn't try to run while the power is still coming on! :-) Noel

10 years, 4 months

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The PDP11/04 has landed..

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

Yesterday I picked up the PDP11/04 that Jay mentioned a few days ago. Less than 15 miles from home ! The machine spend its early days as a processor in chemical analysis apparatus, and was subsequently bought by the employee using it. Before he could make use of it better, more powerful, easier to use machines came along and the -11 spend the next 30 years in a garage. The -04 is an entry level machine, and the cards inside match this : M7263 KD11 CPU 2 x M7264 16K DRAM cards M7856 DL11 SLU/RTC M7846 RX01 controller 2 x M7814 DZ11-F and of course the M9301, M9302 and M9202. Alas it has just the simple 2-switch frontpanel. The machine also had the battery backup option, and the lead/acid batteries will celebrate their 40th birthday next year ! Better not try to charge them.... Overall the machine is in very good condition, both CPU and RX01, and it is packed in a very nice half-height rack with the red PDP11 bezel at the top. Pictures next week when the machine is cleaned and reassembled, restoration is to start next winter, after a house move which will nearly double working area for the hobby. Many thanks to Roland for preserving the machine, and to Jay for acting as an interface ! Jos

10 years, 4 months

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2.9.1 BSD on 11/34 + sc21-bm + fujitsu m2333k

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Exciting stuff for a Friday night, right? Here's a visual aid in case you're needing further inspiration: https://www.instagram.com/p/_K-zHhHvLn78Qu5ijWqMf-HBem1LKMLaEdI1c0/ The M2333K is the smaller one on the left with the green and yellow lights on. I'm booting from rl0, which contains the tuhs 2.9.1 rl02 image I wrote with vtserver earlier. I want to use my nice, roomy smd disk so I can pull in all the sources and recompile stuff and I've managed to get this *so* close to working but I'm getting xp0a: hard error bn xxxx cs2=1100 <MXF, IR> er1=0 on every single block when I try to mkfs /dev/xp0a 4800 This disk was working fine years ago via MSCP attached to the 11/73 (before I lost the Micro/11 power supply). Anyway, I referred to http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/emulex/SC2151001-CC_SC21tech_Jan87.p… to set the emulation on the Emulex card for two rm03s and they're showing up in xxdp's zrmlb1 formatter, though they won't format there, screensful of errors. I think I set the m2333k to 32 sectors, per this manual: http://manx.classiccmp.org/collections/antonio/chrisq/B03P-4760-0101A_-_M23… Because XXDP is reputed to be really strict, I figured that was normal and then tried the Emulex on-board formatting procedure against both xp0 and xp4 and they formatted perfectly without error. Guess the Emulex on-board stuff doesn't bother verifying much? So I think that maybe I've misunderstood the hard sectoring / sector sizing thing. Does anyone remember the gist of it and would you be able to describe? Do you see any other mistakes? thx jake

10 years, 4 months

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6502 CPUs

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

2nd go, apologies if another version of this arrives but I sent it from a non-list address so it might not get through with the emergency moderation going on. Hi folks, Having had another bit of CBM kit with a failed CPU I'm wondering where you lovely US folk get your spares from since ebay seems a bit ridiculous for replacements at ukp8 a pop being the lowest price. They're surely not THAT valuable? I know Mouser have got the 're-released' WDC 65C02 which I may end up going for since for 10 they're as low as ukp4.37, but don't us collectors have bundles of spares? Funny when I think of the number of BBC Micros that have been tossed over the years.... -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

10 years, 4 months

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AIX 4.1-capable box

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Hi there! Does anyone on here do much with RS/6000 boxes? I'm looking for a 7009-C10, 7011-250, or (mostly) PCI-based 7012 system capable of running AIX 4.1. By any chance, anyone have such a system that they'd be willing to sell? Thanks much!! -Ben

10 years, 4 months

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PRM-85 board case?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Rumor has it that one or more people have designed and 3d-printed cases for their HP-85 PRM-85 boards. Anyone have any of those cases available? I'd like to get my PRM-85 a proper case :) Best, J

10 years, 4 months

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Free TK50 Tapes for Postage and Handling

by leec2124＠gmail.com

Five untested TK50 tapes available for postage and from 94025. Two have no labels, the remainder have the following: VMS 5.1-1 Maintenance Update OD/OT Drivers for VMS 4.x 20-MAR-89 CZTK1D0 MICRO-11 CUST TK50 Please reply off-list if you'd like. -- Lee Courtney

10 years, 4 months

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Solid state recommendations

by bryan＠bceassociates.com

Hi all I have the following gear in my stable: - Sun Blade 100 - SGI O2 - VAXstation 3100 - AlphaStation 500 - HP C3700 I would like to start eliminating spinning SCSI drives from these boxes for noise, heat and capacity reasons. Could you kind folks recommend a solution? I've seen SCSI to CF converters advertised but I didn't know if there was one kind over another that people have been successful with or if there is a totally different approach I should be considering. Thanks, Bryan

10 years, 4 months

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MEM11 update

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Just wanted to let folks know where I am with respect to the MEM11 project. I had decided to take a break from writing J1 code and updating the simulator to actually work on the hardware. To make things easy for myself, I decided to use my FPGA eval board and build a daughter board with CPLDs and other parts (FRAMs, etc) so that I could have another vehicle for validating the J1 code. This should also be a fairly simple board to build and I could focus on functionality (and test points) rather than trying to make it fit into an SPC form factor. I wrote a lot of the Verilog code for the CPLDs and quickly found out that my partitioning wouldn?t fit in any reasonably sized CPLDs. Even with some additional re-partitioning, it was touchy as to if it would fit (changing a couple of lines of Verilog code caused the design to no longer fit). I went back and thought about the problem and decided that the easiest thing to do would be to create a non-SPC formfactor board that was SW & HW functionally correct. So, I?ve been working on writing all of the code to fit in an FPGA. One advantage is that I could re-use a lot of the code that I wrote for the CPLDs. Last night I managed to get a reasonably clean synthesis of the design. The only thing missing is the UNIBUS code (which I hadn?t written yet). It fits easily into the FPGA that I?ve chosen (a Xilinx Spartan 3-E 500). By going this route, I?ve discovered some incorrect assumptions that I?ve made in terms of how the HW will appear to the J1 code. So I have to update the simulator to match this and the relevant J1 code. So, things are moving forward. I also wanted to get folk's opinion on the need to actually produce an SBC form factor board. In other words (and sort of in line with how peripherals were done on the original 11/20) is it OK to have the MEM11 be outside of the 11/20 chassis and connect via BC11A (my replica) cables? I wanted to put that out, because it may require a fair amount of work to make everything fit into an SPC form factor. That?s assuming of course that the power requirements for the MEM11 can be fulfilled by a single SPC slot. One of the things that I can do with the ?prototype? is actually measure the incoming power. I?m hoping that it will but in the worst case, it may require splitting the MEM11 functionality across multiple boards. TTFN - Guy

10 years, 4 months

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MEM11 update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor > I also wanted to get folk's opinion on the need to actually produce an > S[P]C form factor board. ... is it OK to have the MEM11 be outside of > the 11/20 chassis and connect via BC11A (my replica) cables? Well, that's going to up the cost; for some people, that might be an issue. Also, I dunno if there are people out there with table-top 11/15's-20's (they did exist BITD, I worked with a table-top one), but for them, an additional box might be a hassle too. > That's assuming of course that the power requirements for the MEM11 > can be fulfilled by a single SPC slot. ... in the worst case, it may > require splitting the MEM11 functionality across multiple boards. I guess I don't see the harm in making it two SPC (quad) boards? A flat cable or two to connect across (I dunno how extensive the interconnect requirements between the halves would be, and I have forgotten what the inter-slot interconnect capabilities of an SPC backplane are - ISTR that it has some bussing on the F section pins) would be easy and cheap. Noel

10 years, 4 months

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Programming

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

There is the software side to classic computing: Back in the early days we wrote/coded in BASIC-TinyBASIC running in 2K(talk about writing efficient code!); EASY and SmallFORTRAN. What apps/programs are written in today I don?t know. They certainly can?t run in 2 or 4 K but is the outcome the same ? make a computer or computer-like machine do what we want it to. On the lighter side: ?Computers can never completely replace humans. They may become capable of artificial intelligence(much in the news today), but they will never master real stupidity.? Happy computing all. Murray :)

10 years, 4 months

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386 upgrade board

by starbase89＠gmail.com

Greetings! I have a Televideo luggable that I have been playing with. Its a 10MHz 286 with a meg of RAM, 2 360k drives and four expansion slots. I've been trying to figure out how capable I can make this machine for the hell of it. Did anyone make an upgrade kit to go from a 286 to a 386? It would be interesting to get this thing going with that, a Hard Card and an ethernet card, somewhat capable of doing some modern tasks. Thanks! Joe <https://www.avast.com/sig-email> This email has been sent from a virus-free computer protected by Avast. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email> <#DDB4FAA8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

10 years, 4 months

3
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NiCd battery replacement in vintage computers

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

Today I discovered that I hadn't replaced the NiCd battery in time in my Amiga 3000. Pictures: https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696042894939979776 https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696050264306921472 https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696065578977472512 It's a fairly typical 3.6V 60mAH 3-cell NiCd pack, 16mm diameter x 18mm long, polarized with 2 pins on the positive end and 1 pin on the negative end. In the past I have usually replaced these sorts of batteries with new ones of the same type. This time, I'm thinking of at least installing a remote holder. Not only to prevent further PCB damage in the future, but also to make the battery easier to replace. Lots of screws need to come out to extract an A3000 motherboard: https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696047816938946560 While I begin to figure out how I'd like to perform this repair, I'm curious about what others have decided to do in similar circumstances. Many options come to mind: * Solder in the same kind of NiCd pack to keep things original. * Solder in a supercap instead. * Reconfigure the circuit to use a non-rechargeable lithium coin cell in a holder instead. I don't think I've seen one of those leak before. * Yet some other remote battery option. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

10 years, 4 months

10
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6502 CPUs

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Hi folks, Having had another bit of CBM kit with a failed CPU I'm wondering where you lovely US folk get your spares from since ebay seems a bit ridiculous for replacements at ukp8 a pop being the lowest price. They're surely not THAT valuable? I know Mouser have got the 're-released' WDC 65C02 which I may end up going for since for 10 they're as low as ukp4.37, but don't us collectors have bundles of spares? Funny when I think of the number of BBC Micros that have been tossed over the years.... -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

10 years, 4 months

1
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Master index of ICL / 3R PERQ software?

by nw＠retrocomputingtasmania.com

Has anyone made a list of all the known software for the PERQ? I'm on the hunt for a rumoured port of VAX ML (written in Pascal) to the PERQ at Edinburgh. thanks.

10 years, 4 months

2
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Tired of EVERYTHING with a gear being called STEAMPUNK? Yikes I am...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Tired of EVERYTHING with a gear being called STEAMPUNK? Yikes I am... This fun and creative video pretty much sums things up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA Enjoy - Ed#

10 years, 4 months

3
2
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Help with getting an original Altai running: 8080A clock circuitry and MITS88 2-SIO board

by robo58＠optonline.net

Hi Folks, I'm looking for some insights in getting an original Altair running again. My buddy asked for my help getting his Altair running again. He went through and replaced all the electrolytic caps, cleaned up everything and then tried to get the MITS 88 2-SIO board to run a simple echo program. It wouldn't work and now I have the Altair, I've been looking it over for about a week and I've noticed the following. 1). The 2Mhz base oscillator circuit will not reliably start up when it's hot. It's perfect when cool. 2). The original MITS 2-phase clock circuit was modified. The 74123 was replaced with a 74221 along with RC changes. 3). The MITS 2-SIO card has two Motorola 6850 ACIA's that don't seem to do what their data sheets say they should be doing. Some questions for you. (I've searched for insights on these topics and information is scarce). a). Was the Altair known for hot start issue(s) ? If so are their tried and true fixes? b). Going to a 74221 appears to be an excellent move. The RC changes were prompted by that move. There is no longer an RC delay circuit from phase 0 to phase 1, which appears to make sense. I don't see one-shots as a wise clocking design choice but my buddy wants to stay with it. Are their tried and true fixes here? c). I hand assembled some code to exercise the 6850. I know it has a software reset and then you set attributes. I tried my buddies echo program. It looks for a received character and then echo's it. I'm using a laptop and PuTTy along with an RS-232 breakout box. I can see characters going in but nothing coming out. The 6850 appears to drive the bus for a finite amount of time and then turn off its drivers. I don't have any experience with the part and I don't know if that's the way it's supposed to work or that the Altair has a bus timing issue. Any thoughts on what I'm seeing and suggestions/fixes ? Thanks Robo

10 years, 4 months

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Tired of EVERYTHING with a gear being called STEAMPUNK? Yikes I am...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I am very envious of the animators skills on those singing people in the still portraits.. Heh is there any easy way to do this? Ed# In a message dated 2/7/2016 1:13:03 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, pete at dunnington.plus.com writes: On 07/02/2016 17:50, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > > Tired of EVERYTHING with a gear being called STEAMPUNK? Yikes I am... > This fun and creative video pretty much sums things up! > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA Epic! -- Pete

10 years, 4 months

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Announcing TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS

by bqt＠softjar.se

Well, about two weeks since my last announcement, but I figured I should do another one. I've cut a new release of TCP/IP for RSX, and I encourage everyone to update to this latest release. A short list of changes since my last release: Documentation: . I've worked some on the documentation, and filled out some parts that were previously TBD. TCP: . Performance improvements. In general, I've improved file transfer performance by about 20% by tuning when TCP ACK messages as well as window updates are sent. On links where packets are dropped from time to time, the performance improvements can be significantly higher. . Bugfix. Retry counter were incorrectly reset under some circumstances. . Bugfix. TCP did not resend an ACK if the same data was received twice. . Bugfix. TCP sockets could erronously be left in a closed state with no task. However, looking at the socket, it looked like a task was associated. FTP: . Size calculation for stream type files in RSX mode was done incorrectly. Applications: . I've included a precompiled version of PCL.TSK As usual, the distribution is available from: ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.dsk ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.tap ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip/tcpip.dsk The documentation is also available through ftp on Mim, or also at http://mim.update.uu.se/tcpipdoc Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

10 years, 4 months

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Oddball floppies for trade - 8", HS (outer edge), weird cutout

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I have two "flippy organizers" (that's around 20 floppies each) full of these oddball floppies. Picture at https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/22020178558/in/dateposted/ They are 8", hard sectored, and the sectors are on the outer edge rather than the hub, and there is an odd cutout on one edge that goes inside the drive. I know I don't have a machine that uses these, so they are available for trade. J

10 years, 4 months

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Calibration of 8" floppy drive?

by james＠attfield.co.uk

> Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2016 00:46:33 -0500 > From: Dan K <100dashsix at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Calibration of 8" floppy drive? > Message-ID: > <CAAQ+N0XNG=NnWGRnt8oxN4WeXTuoLCXPO9BQRn9oaSjZfVNW > 5A at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Are there any good alternative solutions I can do to replace it? I'm > sure I don't want the plastic touching the disk media. > > -Dan Seems like eons since I learned to align PerSci 299B's with Dysan alignment disks and 'cat's eyes' on a 'scope :) I echo the other sentiments here - do NOT undo or unscrew anything relating to head positions especially involving allen (hex) screws unless you have a 'scope, an alignment disk, a very good quality set of hex screwdrivers (keys will normally NOT suffice) and a modicum of experience. Granted, lead screw single-headers are a little easier to do than voice-coil double-headers but if you don't have to get into it then don't - explore all other options first. I'm afraid my TM-848's are double headers so the top head provides the pressure but back when the drives were single headed felt pads did the job of the second head. The tension was provided by the spring, the pad just prevented scoring. I do NOT speak from experience BUT if I had to use anything the kind of small felt pads you can get from hardware stores (e.g. B&Q in the UK) seem remarkably similar in composition and would be worth a try especially if you have one original to compare. Cut to shape, most are self-adhesive too - bonus. HTH James

10 years, 4 months

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Farewell and thanks!

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I've finally had my fill of the general grumpiness and bluntly worded interactions on this list. Over the years I have learned a lot and would like to particularly express my thanks to Tony Duell, Fred Cisin and Chuck Guzis for being unfailingly polite and very forthcoming with technical advice. --

10 years, 4 months

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Mosaic 4.0 for openVMS

by rlloken＠telus.net

Gentlemen, I stumbled across a reference to Mosaic 4.0 for VMS dated 2006. I ran Mosaic on my VMS workstation around 1994 and had abandoned it long ago first for Netscape 3.0.3 and later for Seamonkey. I did not know that there was any development on Mosaic in recent decades I found Seamonkey to be glacially slow on AlphaServer 4100 "desktop" and so I have not attempted to do much web browsing on VMS in recent years. So... Is Mosaic 4.0 useful in 2016? Is it more useful than Seamonkey? Netscape? AFAIR, HP had a port of Firefox to IA64 VMS but not to Alpha, has anybody been so burdened with spare time that they have attempted to port firefox to Alpha or VAX VMS? Or any other web browser? I hope to attempt a port of the heritage version of nroff/troff to VMS some time in the next couple years (I think groff would be much more difficult). But that is a differant subject. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV, Systems Programmer - VMS : "...underneath those Athabasca University : tuques we wear, our Athabasca, Alberta Canada : heads are naked!" ** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black

10 years, 4 months

3
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Calibration of 8" floppy drive?

by 100dashsix＠gmail.com

I have two intermittently functional 8" floppy drives that I debugged to the best of my ability, and as far as I've been able to tell their problems must be limited to the circuitry that deals with the actual magnetic interface with the disk. The intercommunication seems normal and the head load solenoids fire, but after that the drive often aborts the process, presumably because it wasn't able to read data properly. I think the signal for reading the disk-rotation hole even fires correctly. The drives are Siemens FDD 100-8 drives used in an S-100 bus system, and controlled by a Jade "Double D" disk controller. The machine was in a functional state when stored, and I have known-good copies of disks that I've been able to boot from at least a few times. (Unless the drives somehow damaged them.) Can someone knowledgeable about 8" floppy drives share information about how these things were serviced and maintained, and what sort of procedures were required to test and calibrate them? Information I've picked up through osmosis leads me to believe that there's a floppy disk with a special pattern on it, and you use specialized test equipment to check the flux off the head and dial it into proper settings. I suspect there the drive has trim pots or similar that allow for this. So, how do you deal with your 8" drives, and what do you do when they don't work? Thanks, Dan

10 years, 4 months

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emergency moderation mode RE: Virtualizing AIX 1.3 - WAS::::Re: AIX for IBM PS/2

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I had already turned on emergency moderation mode to try and stem the tide of this escalating further. I had also already emailed a few people off-list about this, which is primarily how it should be handled. Those who should have been corrected... were. Quietly. I'm rather tired of (a very few) people commenting "oh, this list is so much smaller than other forums" or "there's such a low SNRatio here" or "Everyone here is unfriendly (or things like that)". Screw all of that. I submit that while this list may be small, it has the best content and expertise, far better than others (I've looked). I submit that while the SNRatio gets off track once in a great while, I've seen that happen elsewhere, and at least as often if not more. Perhaps some should use their technical expertise to study the function of the "delete" key. Quite frankly I don't think it happens here all that often. Unfriendly? Perhaps there are a few that are brisque at times. On the one hand - Guess what... that's life. In any crowd there's always a few grumpy old men (of which I am one - especially at the moment), and socially well-adjusted people should learn how to deal with it and get along. On the other hand - That doesn't mean I don't correct those that need correcting (and I did) .. but I really don't need to hear the whining. It seems that there are one or two people that state they don't want to participate because of one or more of the above... yet they stay here solely to voice that opinion. Odd. J

10 years, 4 months

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IBM 5100 - APL Only Version on Ebay

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

There is an APL-only IBM 5100 up on Ebay. Had known that these were supposedly made, but have never seen one before. Looks a bit rough, but based on the pictures boots to the "CLEAR WS" screen. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5100-Portable-Computer-Powers-On-/ 321999141713

10 years, 4 months

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VCF West is BACK ... woohoo!

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Great to hear! EK2 should make it a successfully revival.? Sellam, you helping for fun too or happily still basking in the glory of making your goal of VCF X? Glad its back though. The more the merrier for all regions to enjoy. - John <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Evan Koblentz <cctalk at snarc.net> </div><div>Date:02/05/2016 4:21 PM (GMT-06:00) </div><div>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> </div><div>Subject: VCF West is BACK ... woohoo! </div><div> </div>Mark your calendars: Vintage Computer Festival West is back! August 6-7 this year at the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, Calif., just like before). We * just * signed the contract today. I'll email again when we have the web site ready and stuff. Primary organizer out there will be Erik Klein.

10 years, 4 months

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VCF West is BACK ... woohoo!

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Mark your calendars: Vintage Computer Festival West is back! August 6-7 this year at the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, Calif., just like before). We * just * signed the contract today. I'll email again when we have the web site ready and stuff. Primary organizer out there will be Erik Klein.

10 years, 4 months

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New Scans: HP Micro-Computer Interest Group

by silent700＠gmail.com

Hello all - I have uploaded some new documents related to an employee club at Hewlett Packard that sought to explore these new "micro-computers" and, given the evidence at hand, design their own (apparently a Z80-based CPU card of their own design, an S-100 backplane and an HP case.) The story as I know it is incomplete and I'm sure more details will be filled in soon by those who were there. The documents were lent to me for scanning by the daughter of an HP employee. I'll be returning them to her soon; I believe she will be offering them to CHM as a donation. http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/index.php?dir=%2Fcomputing%2FHP/HPMCIG The docs are divided into directories as follows: Micro Minutes: 30 issues of the newsletter of the Hewlett-Packard Micro-Computer Interest Group, various dates between 1979 and 1983. Some issues undated. Non-HP_Docs: Documents from other vendors that were likely used by the club. I'll place them in their own vendor directories also but I thought leaving copies here help give us an idea of what the club was working with or discussing at the time Club_Notes: Emails, memos, handwritten notes, receipts and other club-related ephemera I thought it spoke well of HP as a company at that time that they supported an employee hobbyist organization. Enjoy digging through a unique bit of early Silicon Valley history. -j -- silent700.blogspot.com Retrocomputing and collecting in the Chicago area: http://chiclassiccomp.org

10 years, 4 months

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Looking for a file

by bryan＠bceassociates.com

Does anyone out there have access to an HP-UX 11.x system? I am looking for a ROM image file for the FX-e video card to help me write an OpenBSD frame buffer driver for this platform. Thanks, Bryan

10 years, 4 months

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Looking for Heathkit H11 manuals

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? Does anyone know of an on-line archive of Heathkit manuals pertaining to the H11 (LSI-11) Heathkit computer? I haven?t been able to produce much that?s useful from Googling, so I thought I?d ask. Let me know. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

10 years, 4 months

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Bull DPX/2 and B.O.S. help wanted.

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi I'm trying to boot a Bull DPX/2 and got stuck waiting for NFS to do something, at least that is what I believe. Is there anyone on the list with B.O.S experience that could help me bring the sytem up under some kind of single user environment without network. I have a OS install kit with bootable floppies and I managed to get a prompt using the "boot_unix" floppy and following the manuals that I have. However, not even "ls" would work from this prompt, only "cat". (You are supposed to enter "os_install", but I don't want to mess up the existing installtion. /P

10 years, 4 months

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Virtualizing AIX 1.3 - WAS::::Re: AIX for IBM PS/2

by cruff＠ruffspot.net

>> https://sites.google.com/site/rhdisk0/unix/aix/aixps2 <https://sites.google.com/site/rhdisk0/unix/aix/aixps2> > > Is anyone else having issues with that URL? I get a quick flash of a > legitimate web page before the browser fills up with ASCII garbage. No, it loaded fine on my browser.

10 years, 4 months

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Mystery system

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

I'm trying to identify a system which appeared in "The Killer Elite" (1975), with a room full of tape drives and a couple of terminals: http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-1.png http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-2.png http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-6.png http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-9.png The drives appear to be IBM 3420s, but with an additional box on top, labeled "SMS". The system itself doesn't appear in any of the shots. Some sort of IBM 370, perhaps? Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

10 years, 4 months

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pdp 11/04 and dual pdp 11/73

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

The "PDP-11/04 and floppy disk" I posted already was claimed by a listmember. But after the fact, the owner sent me a picture. The listmember who is getting it is getting a pretty nice system. One of the dec mid-height cabinets that has the sloped front at the top. RX02 at the top, 11/04 under that, and dec filler panels. Nice DEC magenta insignia on the slope at the top front. Very nice. Also - the dual 11/73 rack system has been claimed by another list member. Best, J

10 years, 4 months

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DEC Dual 1173 cpu with rack available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I received the following this morning.... ------ I recently acquired a pdp11/73 with dual CPUs and am looking to sell it. Would you know anyone interested. I would like this to survive and wish to find it a good home. I live In Massachusetts. ------ The person also gave me a picture, which I posted (temporarily) at http://www.ezwind.net/pdp1173/ This particular machine is too new for my tastes, but the dual cpu (and status panel) is rather unusual. If anyone is interested, please email me off-list and I'll forward the contact details. Best, J

10 years, 4 months

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StackExchange retrocomputing forum

by lproven＠gmail.com

This now has enough followers to move on to the next stage of the approvals process -- gathering enough example questions... http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/94441/ -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

10 years, 4 months

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HP 9815

by pdaguytom＠gmail.com

I recently picked up an HP 9815s ( was originally an 'a' model but was upgraded with an 's' cpu board and the option 002 i/o long before me), that displays the "---------------" when turned on. I've scrounged through Google and learned that this particular display is generated by the display board when it has nothing else better to do to direct its attention. After checking that the power supply was putting out the recommended voltages and chasing the +5v around the cpu board and puzzling that for a bit, I've checked for activity at the cpu and found no voltage at all being applied at Vcc the cpu. I've been studying Tony Duell's schematic for the 9815(thank you Mr. Duell), but have not found a reason why this voltage might not be present. Is Vcc switched somewhere? I done some meager sleuthing of the traces around the 6800 and think I chased Vcc to a transistor close by, but need to investigate further this weekend. Anyone chased this type of failure on the 9815 or traced out wether this Vcc is applied at power on or switched by some logic at the power supply board? Puzzled, but determined, Tom

10 years, 4 months

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Can Windows 98SE run on an Intel I7 with SATA hard drives?

by radiotest＠juno.com

At 09:25 AM 2/4/2016, Liam Proven wrote: >A fair point, but then, one is not going to use MS-DOS to browse the Web in 2016, right? In my world it is impossible for any one computer to do everything that I need to do with a computer, thus my five active PCs and many spares, plus old stuff like my CP/M machines in my personal museum. I don't use an MS-DOS machine to browse, and I don't use an NT-series-OS machine to run MS-DOS programs that need UART register access that NT does not allow. Dale H. Cook, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA Osborne 1 / Kaypro 4-84 / Kaypro 1 / Amstrad PPC-640 http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html

10 years, 4 months

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.IMD diskette image file recovery

by james.h.simpson＠gmail.com

Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and recover the data? I've found a wealth of BigBoard & BigBoard II data (and lots of other stuff too) on many different sites, all saved in .IMD format. Is it possible to read these files and recover the data instead of writing a floppy disk with DiskImage? Thanks, Jim Simpson

10 years, 4 months

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Fw: new important message

by julian＠twinax.org

Hello! New message, please read <http://haruncetin.com/there.php?qcgav> julian at twinax.org

10 years, 4 months

3
2
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NeXTstation booting, NetInfo, and NTP

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

Yesterday I dug out my NexTstation (68040 25MHz slab with 32MB of 100ns SIMMs) which has OpenStep 4.2 for Mach installed. The lithium battery was flat and it wouldn't boot so I've ordered a replacement and temporarily kludged a pair of alkaline AAs to get it going. So far, so good, though it thinks today is September 6 2001 :-) Then I used SimpleNetworkStarter, set to "Use the network, but don't share administrative data". I've also edited /etc/hostconfig and reslv.conf to sensible values (eg TIME=-NO-) so it now boots quite quickly. Is there a way to disable NetInfo completely, and if so will things like DNS lookups still work? Is there an easy way to make it get its time/date settings from my NTP server? During startup it does claim to start netinfo, lookupd, ntpd (see below), then inetd, I have an SGI running IRIX which is my DHCP, DNS, and NTP server, and I plan to set up the NexT to use DHCP to get its IP address etc (it's static ATM). -- Pete

10 years, 4 months

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that pdp-11/04 with floppy disks...

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Delayed response, work has been busy. That deal was passed off to the first responder so it has likely been claimed. If that deal doesn't work out, I'll email the next person on the list :) But do not fret... I just see another user sent me an email today about wanting to get rid of a machine... will post that one shortly ;) J

10 years, 4 months

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OS help needed please

by trash80＠internode.on.net

Seems Windows 98 has got a few mentions on the list of late - must have just come into the "classic era". A while ago a good friend approached me as he wanted to get an old game up and running that he really likes - Recoil (might ring a bell with a few list folk) - wants the real experience, not the VM experience. I'd be happy to help him out anyway but he has thrown a few old machines at me from time to time rather than see them go to the tip so he definitely gets help. The game is quite particular and will only run on Win 98. I've resurrected a HP e-Vectra that I have (very nice little machine by the way) that has a serial on it for Win 98 SE but I really need the "actual" HP Recovery media for it as I'm having some dramas getting the right video and sound drivers for it. I've struck out at HP and have tried a few vendors that still list parts for this machine but no joy. Be most grateful if someone can help me out or point me somewhere please. Thank you!!! ++++++++++ Kevin Parker ++++++++++

10 years, 4 months

4
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