> From: Mark Moulding
> Win-98 SE ... it would have been nice if it recognized USB storage
> devices natively.
There is that package you can add (my copy is in a self-extracting archive,
called "nusb23e.exe") that recognizes USB drives, etc. I run a number of USB
devices (memory sticks, mice, etc) on my 98SE's and they all work fine.
My approach to keeping my 98SE machines running is _lots_ of spares of all
kinds. They were easy and cheap to acquire a while back - they're a lot
harder to find now, those machines are all totally obsolete.
Noel
> Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 11:44:44 -0500
> From: "Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to>
> Subject: Can Windows 98SE run on an Intel I7 with SATA gard drives?
>
> I run Windows 98SE on a 14 year old Pentium III. I have
> replaced the power supply twice and all three hard disk drives.
<...>
> Aside from the daylight savings time changing 3 weeks too late
> in the spring and a week early in the fall, I really like the system
> and I would like to use it for another 20 years. Since I am
> 77 years old now, I figure that will be just about satisfactory.
Win-98 SE was definitely one of the higher points of the Windows lineage.
For most of what I did (and do, for that matter), it worked very well; it
would have been nice if it recognized USB storage devices natively.
> The Pentium III hardware is more than a bit of a concern. I would
> be very pleased to upgrade to 64-bit Windows 10, but the DOS
> variant of Ersatz-11 is not supported and I really would prefer to
> keep using Netscape 7.2 since I have over 100,000 e-mails
> and posts to newsgroups that it is important to be able to keep.
The hardware is worth worrying about. Replacement power supplies will
probably continue to be available, but those disks are likely to be
unobtanium, and are practically guaranteed to fail at some point. My
personal "sweet spot" for operating systems was Windows XP, and it was with
with quite a bit of trepidation that I eventually moved on to Win7-32.
Eventually, I needed a new laptop, and moved to Win8.1-64, which took a
great deal of massaging to make comfortable (the "Classic Shell" product is
very nicely-done, and free, and went a long way towards making things
usable). However, there were still a lot of problems:
- 64 bits absolutely breaks any 16-bit code, whether it be a DOS program or
a Windows 3.1 application. Unfortunately, I have a large industrial
application that I've maintained for the last 20 years (things last a long
time in industry), written in Visual Basic 3. Maintaining it under XP was
easy, because XP would just magically fire up ntvdm (NT Virtual DOS
Machine), then run a Windows compatibility layer (wowexec) on top of that;
this all made everything work just fine, and with almost complete
transparency. For DOS programs, it would capture any physical I/O calls
(for example, to the com port addresses) and do a fantastic job of emulating
them - again, completely transparent to the application program. Win7
(Vista, actually, but nobody cares about that) broke all of that.
- I have an application that I like and use a lot (CircuitMaker-2000) which
runs fine on every version of Windows from 98SE on up to at least Win8.1-64
bit, and presumably Win10, though I haven't tried it. However, printing has
been broken on everything since Win98SE.
- The versions of Office and QuickBooks I was using started exhibiting
numerous problems; Word continued to work "OK", sort of, but QB was
completely unstable, and I depend upon it to run my business.
- The security implementation of pretty much everything, starting with Win7,
makes a lot of things difficult; registry writes are now tightly controlled,
registering DLLs and OCXs requires elevated privileges, network firewall
functions are highly complex, convoluted, and depending upon the version
(Premium, Pro, Ultimate, etc.) the tools may not even be provided to
completely manage all of this.
My solution to most of this (except some of the network issues) has been to
use VirtualBox. It's free, and does a great job of handling XP as a guest
operating system. With XP, mouse movements, virtual disks, networking, and
even the clipboard are all nicely integrated into the host operating system,
so my XP machine is always just a keyboard shortcut away.
I also have a virtual Win98SE machine, to handle the printing issues with
CircuitMaker. This is less well integrated, in that the mouse capture is
clumsy, and the file system integration features aren't there, but that was
easy enough to get around by just creating shared folders on the host, and
setting them up as network drives on the Win98 VM.
It took a solid week of tinkering to get everything set up to my
satisfaction (I have a lot of disparate interests, and their associated
applications), but now I have a setup that I'm very happy with. (I broke
down and advanced a single version - to 2003 - for both Office and
Quickbooks, so those both run happily in native mode now.)
> QUESTION: Is it even possible to run Win98SE on a current
> Intel I7 CPU with SATA hard disk drives? I realize that it might
> be possible under a virtual machine, but I really want all of the
> advantages that Win98SE provides. One problem, of course,
Almost certainly not, at least practically. Even if you can get it to boot
and install, it will have no idea how to handle any of the modern
peripherals, and drivers certainly won't be available. So sound won't work,
the screen will be limited to VGA-16, and I'm not sure about the keyboard
and mouse (there's a reasonable chance that the BIOS will emulate the legacy
PS-2 devices, just as it's abstracting the details of the SATA disks).
I really think that your best solution would be to go the virtual route.
Get a huge monitor (mine's 28" 2560 x 1440 - I would have preferred an even
larger curved 4k unit, but HDMI wouldn't support it at full resolution, and
that's all my laptop has) - or even a dual monitor setup, a terabyte or two
of hard disk, and plan to spend that week tinkering.
As much as you like Win98SE (and I completely understand why!), you might
find that XP will still run everything you're interested in, and VirtualBox
handles that very well. There's every reason to expect that the virtual
machine will continue to be stable and supported for the foreseeable future
(like 20+ years), regardless what the host Microsoft operating system
evolves to be. Of course there's no reason not to have both XP and Win98SE
VMs, as I do - I even have a Win3.1 machine, just for the fun of it.
For backup, I stubbornly store everything in two large directory trees:
C:\Library and C:\Data (actually, I have a C:\Music as well). The C:\Data
tree has absolutely everything that I've ever worked on: source, designs,
correspondence, pictures, taxes, email store, and the VM disks. It takes a
bit of persuading for the modern versions of Windows to accept C:\Data as
the "My Documents" folder, but it can be done.
The C:\Library tree has all kinds of documentation (PDFs of manuals and data
sheets, and lots of just plain reading material), as well as a large
sub-tree called Distrib that has the installation sources for all my
software applications. In some cases, this is in the form of ISO CD-ROM
images, but mostly it's sub-directories with the contents of all those.
Everything is there: all the Visual Basic/Studio versions, all the Office
versions, compilers, Adobe, Photoshop, PLC and other development systems,
SolidWorks and AutoCAD, and even the installation media (in both ISO and
file formats) of the Microsoft OSes as well (DOS through Win-7).
All of this fits comfortably on the single terabyte drive that came with the
laptop, and backing up is a simple matter of either just copying the two
(three) large trees, or using some difference software (I use a free program
called TreeComp, but there are many others too) to sync everything to an
external USB (3.0 strongly preferred) drive, which I keep in the fire safe.
Moving to a new computer is simply (if time-consumingly) a matter of copying
those trees to the new machine, then installing the software directly from
the \Library tree - no other CDs required.
> Alternatively, does it seem reasonable to attempt to keep a
> system with a Pentium III CPU and associated hardware
> running for another 20 years?
It's probably possible (although the weak link would probably be the disks),
but if it were me, I'd treat that more as a hobby project than as a machine
I depended upon. So far, I've successfully avoided giving up the
applications and "way of doing things" that I like and am comfortable with,
while still migrating to current hardware and software. I have to admit,
effectively unlimited speed and space are quite nice...
~~
Mark Moulding
I learned today of the passing of a true computing visionary, Marvin
Minsky He of artificial intelligence fame. We in the classic computing
fraternity, and computing in general, can enjoy our ?hobby? because of
his work.
Happy computing
Murray :)
[massive snippage, sorry]
Several folks have mentioned Dave Cutler.
There's a book called "Inside Windows NT", by Helen Custer at Microsoft Press. The aforementioned Dave Cutler (architect of software including RSX11, VAX/VMS, VAXELN, and WNT) wrote a foreword for it. There, he says the goals of NT were "portability, security, POSIX compliance, compatibility, scalable performance, multiprocessor support, extensibility, and ease of internationalisation" (p xviii in my copy). Obviously some of that list has fallen away during the NT/Gates years (portability? security? POSIX?)
WNT's kernel stuff, process architecture, etc has some VAXELN heritage. VAXELN was a not particularly well known (even inside DEC) Cutler project for a distributable realtime OS which would feel comfortable for VMS programmers without being VMS, and allow distributed RT applications to be developed without need to understand low level hardware specifics and OS kernel interface details. VAXELN incorporated early examples of a process model which also incorporated threads, and a nice approach to interprocess data sharing (a distributed naming service, transparent messaging between apps whether on the same node or separate, etc). Marvellous stuff, some of which duly made its way into NT, though many writers understandably missed the VAXELN connection (it is briefly mentioned in Custer's book).
Those who are moderately familiar with the internals of NT, VMS, and VAXELN (which probably isn't that many people) will recognise some of the VMSisms that VAXELN didn't have and which are also not present in NT. At a detail level, where are WNT's ASTs, where are logical names? And at a big-picture level - VMS is a mostly monolithic setup (one single kernel address space), WNT originally wasn't, though over time Gates forced changes towards the monolithic approach, e.g. moving assorted drivers and subsystems into the kernel for performance reasons that for security and robustness reasons should have been isolated from each other. Neither VAXELN nor NT have quotas or privileges as such. There is no meaningful security architecture on WNT; on VMS there is. And so on.
But fewer people will know VAXELN, and so the Cutler project that gets the publicity in the "where does WNT come from" context is VMS (it is, after all, still pretty close even if VAXELN is closer).
And the WNT name? Who knows.
The magic words PRISM and MICA perhaps come into this discussion somewhere too, but I know nothing about them.
Have a lot of fun.
John Wallace (not to be confused with John Willis!)
[Repurposed with minor edits from some of my occasional WNT/VAXELN/VMS ramblings on comp.os.vms]
I am still working on the Choose your own adventure game and I was
wondering it there a
code line to let the player have a few minuets to read the text before
the "make your choice " pops up under the opening text.
I know to most of you think this is a dumb question but I just can nopt
find the correct dose for this?
I bought it new in 1984 or 1985, and used it for six or seven years
until I bought a laser printer. It?s been in its original packing box
ever since. I just powered it up and verified that the line feed and
form feed buttons seem to trigger appropriate movements, and the print
head seeks over to the left margin.
First priority to someone who will pick it up in Mountain View,
California; otherwise to someone who will pay for shipping.
Paul McJones
I run Windows 98SE on a 14 year old Pentium III. I have
replaced the power supply twice and all three hard disk drives.
It is a really good system to run the Ersatz-11 emulator for the
PDP-11, specifically RT-11. Since Ersatz-11 has built-in VT100
emulation, I don't need a separate terminal emulator. I also run
Netscape 7.2 for e-mail and newsgroups. And that is all - no
surfing the internet or google of any sort. Incidentally, I use
Ghost 7.0 for backups to DVDs.
Aside from the daylight savings time changing 3 weeks too late
in the spring and a week early in the fall, I really like the system
and I would like to use it for another 20 years. Since I am
77 years old now, I figure that will be just about satisfactory.
The Pentium III hardware is more than a bit of a concern. I would
be very pleased to upgrade to 64-bit Windows 10, but the DOS
variant of Ersatz-11 is not supported and I really would prefer to
keep using Netscape 7.2 since I have over 100,000 e-mails
and posts to newsgroups that it is important to be able to keep.
QUESTION: Is it even possible to run Win98SE on a current
Intel I7 CPU with SATA hard disk drives? I realize that it might
be possible under a virtual machine, but I really want all of the
advantages that Win98SE provides. One problem, of course,
is that there must be a patch to Win98SE when more than 1 GB
of actual physical RAM is present. But I can't seem to find out
anything else.
What leads me to believe that there is a reasonable chance is
that the IDENTICAL 3.5" floppy media is able to boot DOS
>from drive A: and run on both the Pentium III (with a 3.5" HD
floppy drive, of course) AND on a Q9550 Core 2 quad CPU
which also has a 3.5" HD floppy drive which currently runs
64-bit Windows 7 from the C: drive, of course, using three
SATA hard drives where the C: drive has an NTFS file
structure and all the other partitions on all of the SATA drives
have a FAT32 file structure. So without really understanding
the details of the device drivers and the BIOS, it would seem
that the SATA drive hardware and software is compatible.
Ghost 7.0 is a file on the F: drive of the Q9550 CPU
(first extended partition of the 1st physical SATA hard drive).
Ghost is able to take a file produced as a backup image on
the Pentium III system (and copied over the router connecting
the Pentium III and the Q9500 systems - that also provides
internet access for both systems) and re-create the same files
on a specified partition on the Q9550 via the Ghost 7.0
program while the Q9550 is booted from the 3.5" floppy
media.
Since the SATA hard drives on the Q9550 system don't seem
to have a problem with DOS on the floppy, then I have some
hope that Win98SE could manage them as well. Has anyone
experience or knowledge about being able to run Win98SE
using an Intel I7 CPU with SATA hard drives all of them using
a FAT32 file structure?
Alternatively, does it seem reasonable to attempt to keep a
system with a Pentium III CPU and associated hardware
running for another 20 years?
Jerome Fine
So in the past few weeks I've been playing with my latest aquisition, an HP
9845A that's been upgraded at some point to a 9845B. The filter caps for the
PSU are in the mail still and I have yet to actually see the system turn on
so I've been working on other projects in the meantime like cleaning the
machine, troubleshooting faults in the floppy drives it came with and
sourcing a food dehydrator to bake the tapes it unexpectedly came with.
It's a fairly basic machine without the internal printer or second tape
drive. Only the I/O, graphics and Mass Storage ROMs are installed and
there's at least one other option ROM module not accounted for according to
one of the manuals that came with. In fact it seems the option ROMs aren't
common to begin with or at least they are not cheap on ebay. I seem to
remember a few years ago someone out further West than I am who also had a
45 discussed some sort of ROM board that acted like the PRM-85 ROM board for
the HP 85 and let you load whatever ROMs you wanted onto a modern EPROM and
do away with HP's silly modules completely however my memory is fuzzy and I
can't seem to find any mention of such a device on the internet. What I did
find was the System ROM replacement board on hp9845.net but it doesn't
mention the ability to add in images of the option ROMs he has available on
his site. Anyone else heard of this mysterious adapter?
-John
I've borrowed an HP 9000/380 from a friend, along with a 9122D floppy
drive, but no software. It has an A1416A Color VRX DIO-II "Kathmandu"
video interface, but I'm hoping that I can just use the serial port as
a console. Does the DE9 serial console use the IBM pinout? Do I have
to pull the A1416A to get it to use the serial port as the console?
Is there any software that can be booted on it from the floppy, such
as perhaps non-HP-UX BASIC?
I just received the first of the BC11A paddle boards (so that I can now create my own BC11A cables). I made two variants of the boards. One where the cables come out the ?top? and another where the cables come out the ?side? (so you don?t have to ?fold? the cable in a number of different applications such as RK05s).
The ones that arrived today are the S or ?side? variation (as opposed to the T or ?top? variation). I immediately noticed (why I didn?t see this when I was reviewing the board layout previously I?ll never know) is that one of the cable connectors is too close to the edge. It wouldn?t be a problem except that I chose to use connectors that have cable retention latches. The latches protrude from the board edge by ~0.02?. So once I verify that these work, I?ll move the one connector inward ~0.5?. I have plenty of space, I just don?t know why I put the connector that close to the edge. *sigh*. For these boards, I?ll probably just file the latch down a bit to get the appropriate clearance.
BTW, trying to get the connectors onto the board (I haven?t soldered them in yet) was tight. That?s the problem with trying to get 60 pins to all line up correctly. But they fit and are *snug*. I probably won?t go and do any testing until I get the other boards in so it may be a couple more weeks (the boards weren?t supposed to *ship* before 2/8).
For those who?d like to know, I probably will not be making a production run of these boards unless I get a *lot* of interest (100 boards or so). If you want some, let me know and if I get enough interest, I?ll do a production run.
TTFN - Guy
> From: Guy Sotomayor
> I was originally thinking twisted pair ribbon cable until I saw what
> 100' spool of that would run and decided to try just the straight
> "grey" ribbon cable for now.
That should be fine; the DEC M9042 board (basically equivalent) used three
H854 flat cables, see:
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/XD149.80
The DEC board makes every other conductor in the flat cable a ground; not
quite as good as twisted pair, but close.
> I probably will not be making a production run of these boards unless I
> get a *lot* of interest (100 boards or so). If you want some, let me
> know
I would definitely be interested in some (how many exactly would depend on
the price).
Noel
Hi
If you have sent me an off list email in the last couple of days and
have not got a response. - Apologies
It seems I am loosing some but not all inbound email - ISP trying to
fix it
Rod Smallwood
Hi all,
Dose anybody know about Mitsubishi Apricots (1990ish)? They are of interest
to me as they were the first PC I used and I now have a few. I'm having
issues with getting them to boot from a floppy. Iv done some reading around
the subject and from what I understand I need a secure boot floppy.
Can anybody help?
Thanks
Peter
> I'm using extensivly C-Kermit on my FreeBSD host to connect to
> various serial-line-only Systems. They also have a kermit executable
> so I'm using kermit -s to send data from those systems to my FreeBSD
> system and also getting files from my FreeBSD host to the other
> systems is working fine.
>
> I'm now looking for a way to get this "kermit file transfer"
> functionality from Windows but had no luck so far.
>
> Is there free-for-use Kermit alternative arround to be used for
> Windows or an other Terminal Emulation which supportes Kermit
> File Transfers "out of the box"?
>
> Yes - I know Kermit 95, but this is not free.
>
It appears that (most of) the source code for Kermit 95 has been released now
but there is more work to done on it to make this useful.
http://www.kermitproject.org/k95sourcecode.html
Regards,
Peter Coghlan
As I mentioned some time back, I am currently restoring a VAX 11/730 system. It is the version
with the TS05 on the top, I currently have the TS05 in many bits while I sort out at least 4 faults
with it (No, I've not sorted out the TU58 console tape drive yet, I needed something else to get
on with while I was thinking about that).
One problem with the TS05 (Rebadged Cipher F880E, of course) is the mains switch. Only
one pole (double pole switch) opens, and it gave quite a nasty spark when I put mans on
the unit. So I want to replace it.
The problem is that I have never seen one like it before. It has _5_ terminals. Four of them
are what you'd expect for a double pole on/off switch, The other is for the built-in neon
indicator. Rather than just wiring it across the output side of the switch (as most do), this
unit has a neon with the correct series resistor for 115V operation wired between one
of the output side terminals and the fifth terminal. The TS05 puts the neon in parallel with
the supply for the 115V blower unit. Thus the power on indicator gets 115V no matter how
the voltage selector is set.
The switch is the stadard size for double pole rocker switches (30mm * 22mm panel
cutout, isn't it?). If I can't get the right replacement I have several options :
1) Fit a normal 230V illuminated rocker swtich, and asssume I will never change the
voltage selector setting (but I am trying to keep this machine electrically original).
2) Fit a normal non-illuminated rocker switch. It will then be OK on any mains voltage, but
no power-on indicator, and it's not electrically original
3) Fit a non-illuminated rocker switch and find a place to fit a separate neon indicator.
It is then electrically original, but won't look right
4) Try to mend the original switch
5) Try to make an equivalent using bits of switches I can get.
Does anyone have any ideas where to get the original switch from?
-tony
V05.06 RT-11 DOC Set - Pickup Required in Los Angeles to Help Jay West
An old RT-11 fellow tried to sell his V05..06 RT-11 DOC set on eBay, but
no one bid. Jay West has expressed a desire to have the hard copy set of
manuals. Is there anyone in the Los Angeles area who would be willing to
pickup the manuals (there are 14 in all) and either keep them until there is
a pickup of else ship them?
I hope we can help out Jay for all the effort over the many years!!!!!!!!!!
Jerome Fine
I still use a computer with Windows 98 SE and a native serial port for terminal emulation. The program that I use is not free but it does more varieties of terminal emulation, and does them better than any other emulator that I have used - ProComm Plus. I have owned it for about twenty years.
Dale H. Cook, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
Osborne 1 / Kaypro 4-84 / Kaypro 1 / Amstrad PPC-640
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html
> Is there free-for-use Kermit alternative around to be used for
> Windows or another Terminal Emulation which supports Kermit
> File Transfers "out of the box"?
>
> Yes - I know Kermit 95, but this is not free.
>
As Rik said, TeraTerm is very useful and also offers Tektronix emulation,
ASCII up- and download and much more.
If you search for k95.exe you fill find some ftp and web sites which also
have executables of Kermit 95.
You can also run MSDOS-Kermit in a Virtual Machine if you like.
Finally, I think you can also use the HyperTerm program from Windows XP on
later Windows versions.
Nartin
I just rack-mounted my RX02 and I have no need for the "table-top"
enclosure it came in any longer (as nice as it is). It's in good shape,
but it's missing one rubber foot.
Free to a good home. I'm near Seattle, WA.
- Josh
Anyone happen to have a spare set of outer rackmount rails for an RK05?
I have the inner rails that attach to the drive, and I'm trying to track
down the outer parts that attach to the rack, with the inner slide.
Getting very close to having a semi-respectable PDP-8/m system put
together, just need to get the hardware mounted. (And track down the
impossible RK05 cabling. And debug the controller. And probably a
dozen other things...)
Thanks,
Josh
>Message: 6
>Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2016 21:42:59 +0000
>From: Benjamin Huntsman <BHuntsman at mail2.cu-portland.edu>
>To: "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>Subject: HP 700lx
>
>Hi!
> Maybe a long shot, but does anyone on here have an HP OmniGo 700LX? And further, might anyone be willing to sell one?
>
>Thanks!
>
>-Ben
You might try asking Michel Bel at michel at belconsult.net. He repairs HPLX palmtops and is in Belgium.
Also try posting a request to the HPLX mailing list at hplx at mail.eberl.com.
Bob
and after ben gets his we would buy one for SMECC also... see
_www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)
I have an omni whatever that looks like the computer part of this but
never saw it with a phone on top!
here is a video I found of this thing on the net...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1UtCJ84Ris
weird... I must have been asleep when this came out... If I had seen
it I would have lusted after it!
Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org/)
In a message dated 1/24/2016 2:43:14 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
BHuntsman at mail2.cu-portland.edu writes:
Hi!
Maybe a long shot, but does anyone on here have an HP OmniGo 700LX? And
further, might anyone be willing to sell one?
Thanks!
-Ben
Hi,
I'm using extensivly C-Kermit on my FreeBSD host to connect to
various serial-line-only Systems. They also have a kermit executable
so I'm using kermit -s to send data from those systems to my FreeBSD
system and also getting files from my FreeBSD host to the other
systems is working fine.
I'm now looking for a way to get this "kermit file transfer"
functionality from Windows but had no luck so far.
Is there free-for-use Kermit alternative arround to be used for
Windows or an other Terminal Emulation which supportes Kermit
File Transfers "out of the box"?
Yes - I know Kermit 95, but this is not free.
Regards, Oliver
This site has a lot of interesting info on a number of fonts used in PCs
and compatibles. It looks like there was quite a bit of research
involved.
http://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/fontlist/
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
Hi there, long time viewer, first time poster. First an introduction:
My name is Joshua Stetson and I'm a software engineer by trade. My earliest
memories have always involved computers starting with a DOS based Zenith
8088 where I played some of my first games.
My first foray into "classic" computing was on a Commodore 64 which my
Uncle gave me while I was still in Jr. High. I'd already been introduced to
programming at an early age, so this machine was an absolute treat to me at
the time as it was my first step into assembly language. As time
progressed, my interests turned older and I began a collection of S-100
gear including an IMSAI 8080 and a SOL-20.
Over the past couple of years, I've managed to work back even further,
piecing together a PDP-8/e system from various parts collected over the
past 4 years and now I have a fully working 8/e including 32kw of core and
an RK05E card set. I've been running the system using Kyle Owen's
os8diskserver and David Gesswein's sendtape utilities which both work
absolutely wonderfully. It was amazing to be able to run Adventure on a
native system!
I'd like to send a shout out to Kyle for the os8diskserver, that is some
pretty awesome work there. David for his software and archive of DEC
documentation which was indispensable for helping me debug a few boards and
get everything running and tested. I also want to thank Vincent Slyngstad
for his help and support on some questions.
Now to my ask:
Recently I've found a pair of RK05J drives and a few disk packs. One of my
drives seems to be in fully working order, the other the blower is not
working, so I'm working on fixing that right now.
I'm currently missing cabling for connect these drives to the RK05E board
set. If anyone happens to have an extra cable set they'd be willing to part
with so I can bring these beasts back to life, I'd appreciate it!
Ideally I would like to find the following:
7009026 Cable which is two ribbon cables with a M933B or C flip chip on the
other end
The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
The terminator card M930
At minimum, I'm pretty sure I'd only need the first cable to run one of the
drives, but I'd appreciate any help from those who have more experience.
Also, I don't have a rack for this equipment yet, so I'm running it all
tabletop, but I'm in the market for a rack + rails (I only have the rails
for the equipment, but not the ones that mount to the rack itself. Any
leads on more 16-sector packs would also be appreciated! Also, still hoping
to get the extended arithmetic boards, RTC, and possibly a TSC8 Timesharing
option as I have 4 SLUs and would love to try out some timesharing.
On a side note, I'm looking to perhaps sell or trade my SOL-20 sometime
soon. It's 100% working as I restored it about 3 years ago. It works great,
but I'm looking to part with all of my S-100 equipment to focus more on DEC.
Thanks!
Hello readers,
I cleaned the first of my RM03 drives today. The drive is quite clean
even after several years of no attention. Just a few spiders webs and
tiny dead spiders, and little dust. I picked up this drive in Turin
Italy, together with Edward several years ago. I cannot remember doing
it, but the head lock pin was in the lock position.
After cleaning and a good inspection (I found a small metal bracket
piece next to the PSU output plugs, and have not found where it came
from!), I mounted a mains power plug to the drive cable. Massbus cable
is attached to the drive, the other end is not connected to anything.
After setting all circuit breakers ON (two inside the drive, two at the
rear side next to the running hours counter), I plugged the mains in
and switched mains on. I hear humming of the fans, so it seems OK.
However, this is my problem: the door latch stays locked, I cannot open
the lid. I want to open the lid to clean the inside of the drive bay.
After some reading (EK-RM023-TD-001_RM02_03_Tech_May78.pdf), I found
this in chapter 4.4 (page 4-7):
The initialize sequence starts with the receipt of a Massbus INIT
signal from either port A or B. This sequence is used to condition both
the adapter and drive circuits to a known reset state. The functional
block diagram for the initialize command is shown in Figure 4-5.
The Massbus INIT signal (whether coming from port A or B) clears the
AT A bit in the attention summary register in the IF module. In the CS
module, it is converted to the MBA clear signal which performs the
following:
1. Clears the enable search latch
2. Sets the on latch
3. etc.
So, do I understand this correctly that without an initial Massbus INIT
signal the lid remains locked? Or has this RM03 drive a "lock issue"?
If somebody has an RM03 drive, is it possible to open the lid without
Massbus cables hooked to the RH70 or RH11 controller? Is that Massbus
connection required + INIT command to unlock the lid?
I have not yet cleaned the other two RM03 drives, and I do not want to
apply power without cleaning and inspection! So, I cannot check whether
all 3 drives keep the lid locked.
I forgot to take the camera with me, but I will take pictures!
Thanks,
- Henk
I am doing a bit of VAXELN programming and I am trying to get the Datagram
Service to only read packets of a certain EtherType, but unless I use
promiscuous mode, nothing is read. Here is the relevant code:
form.format = ELN$K_NI_PTT;
form.mux.ptt = 0x0360;
mode = 0;
pad = 0;
eln$ni_connect(&status, &portalId,
config.clist.list[i].control_port, &dispatchPort, &form, NULL, &mode, NULL,
NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, &pad);
Anyone know why this might not return any packets at all when I wait on the
port?
Regards
Rob
2016-01-23 13:54 GMT+01:00 Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>:
> > From: Mattis Lind
>
> > I don't have an capacitance / ESR meter so I cannot check it.
>
> If you do a lot of work with analog components (and it sounds like you do),
> it's probably worth getting capacitance and ESR meters, they can be
> obtained
> (new) on eBay for not that much. I have one of each that I got that way;
> their quality is pretty good, considering how little I paid for them (I
> didn't think I'd be using them enough to make it worth paying out a lot for
> really good ones). I haven't used the ESR meter much, but the capacitance
> meter works quite well, and has been very helpful. Of course, it can't be
> used in-circuit, but...
>
>
Yes. agree with you.I really should get one. I have been thinking I need to
get one every time I get my head into anther PSU and then everything is
sorted out and the PSU seems to work fine and I forget about it. I have
been looking at the DerEE DE-5000 which looks nice and has got good reviews
as far as I can tell. What meter do you have and recommend?
> Alas, I can't (easily) help with the VT100 question! :-)
>
That's a pity!
>
> Noel
>
/Mattis
Hi,
I've built a Harddisk-Controller-Emulator for my system which accesses
a IDE (PATA) harddisk with an ATMega in PIO mode. It works like a charm
except for one WD harddisk. The harddisk itself works fine with MS-DOS
6.22 and FreeBSD but refuses to work with my ATMega.
On reading or writing a sector, right after the command is issued, the
error bit is set in the status register, and the error register indicates
an ABRT.
# ABRT:
# indicates the requested command has been aborted due to a
# drive status error (such as not ready or write fault) or because
# the command is invalid.
Right after power up and after the disk got ready, I issue the IDENTIFY
command and read the data back which works perfectly. After that I
read sector 0 and this fails.
I use LBA since the harddisk states that is supportes LBA. Nevertheless
I also tried accessing the harddisk with CHS mode and got the same error.
I tested other harddisks which support either CHS+LBA or CHS only. All
of them work perfectly.
What happens after powerup to read block 0 of the disk in LBA mode:
- Setup AVR ports and so on
- wait until RDY gets high
- wait until BSY gets low
- issue a Drive/Head register Command with value 0
- wait until BSY gets low
- issue a Command Register Command with value 0xEC (identify device)
- *read data*
- process and print out data
- wait until BSY gets low
- issue a Sector Count register Command with value 0
- issue a Sector Number register Command with value 0
- issue a Cylinder Low register Command with value 0
- issue a Cylinder High register Command with value 0
- issue a Drive/Head register Command with 0 + 0xE0 (LBA, Drive 0)
- issue a Command Register Command with value 0x20 (Read Sector)
- *read data*
*read data*:
- wait until BSY gets low
- check ERR bit in the Status register <- set on cmd 0x20 here
- wait until DRQ gets high
- issue a Data register Command with no data
- put /RD on low
- read 512 bytes of data
- put /RD on high
- check ERR bit in the Status register
Issuing a Command works always like setting /CS0, /CS1, /DA0, /DA1,
/DA2 to low, and then set the needed signals to high so the desired
command is indicated.
When data has to be transfered with this command, the lower 8 bits
are put then onto the port, /WR is set to low afterwards, 3 nop()
are done and /WR is set back to high.
Does anyone see an error what could make the drive behave like I said?
- ATA IDENTIFY works, and the drives data can be read
- after a read or write sector command is issued, the status register
directly goes 0xd0 (busy) and with the 2nd fetch 0x59 (not busy, drq
set, err set)
Regards, Oliver
Short: R27 in my VT100 PSU is hot and smelling. Why?
Long: I think it has been 20 years since I powered up this VT100 so I did
it carefully. Used a Variac and a bench supply. It switched just fine and
delivered the steady 5V out when the input was at approx 50V (115V input).
All the other voltages looked fine at full AC input. But there was this
little smell from R27.
Then I plugged everything in and fired it up. Now there were considerable
more heat generated in R27 which is a 13W / 1kOhm power resistor. But I
still had 4.99V over a random TTL gate on the logic board so the PSU seemed
to operate just fine.
R27 is part of the snubber network on the primary side of this forward-type
SMPS PSU. But why it it getting so hot. Is it normal? I have completely
forgotten how a VT100 smell when running...
Anyone out there with a VT100 that can put his or her nose above R27 and
tell me the temperature?
One interesting thing is that DEC apparently did some kind of ECO since my
resistor is 1k while the schematic tell me 500 ohm. It doesn't seems to
have been replaced.
I checked D27 and that one looked fine. Could there be some marginal
problem in the circuit somewhere that cause excessive hearing of R27? The
primary side looks fairly simple so there are not many components that
could fail completely which wouldn't cause complete death of the PSU.
C19 is part of the snubber network and is a 0.0033uF 1600VDC film
capacitor. Can these go marginal somehow? I never heard of that but maybe?
/Mattis
On 01/23/2016 07:48 PM, Mike Boyle wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 7:28 PM, Eric Christopherson
> <echristopherson at gmail.com <mailto:echristopherson at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2016, Jim Brain wrote:
> > On 1/23/2016 2:18 PM, drlegendre . wrote:
> > >First off, my bad - I thought the OP was wanting to change the
> device ID
> > >(which is not the drive number, btw**) on a genuine 1541. I'd
> have no idea
> > >how it's done with one of the SD-based drive emulators.
> > Google is still a friend:
> >
> >
> https://www.google.com/search?q=sd2iec+change+device+numbers&ie=utf-8&oe=ut…
> >
> > There are no external switches on some of these drives.
> >
> > But, the BASIC commands used to switch device numbers on the
> 1541 also work
> > on these units, and putting an extra char at the end of the
> command will
> > make the changes permanent, as I recall.
> >
> > Jim
>
> Jim, don't you sell a device that's useful for temporarily
> switching off
> specific drives so the device numbers can be changed more easily?
>
> --
> Eric Christopherson
>
>
>
>
> --
So I guess the question now is should I change the sd drive or the
original floppy? Thank you all for all the wonderful help god bless you all!
> *
> Mike's ?
> Honda ATC 3wheeler
> ? Shop?
> for LIFE!!!*
> *
> Have a blessed day!*
I just resurrected a nice HP 2631G dot matrix line printer:
Like here: http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=316
It has 3 empty slots for extra character ROMs, so I am itching to install some... Anyone has ever made a dump of these character ROMs? Apparently these are the same as the extra character sets ROMs used in the 264x terminal. Math, Line Draw and Japanese would be particularly fun... And French too as a nod to my roots.
Marc
> From: Mattis Lind
> What meter do you have and recommend?
My capacitance meter is a Uyigao UA6013L, and I'm quite happy with it; it
seems pretty reasonable build-quality. A number of people on eBay are selling
them, IIRC.
My ESR meter is, alas, literall nameless - I looked on both the meter, and
the (single-sheet) documentation, and there's no name anywhere. (Yes, yes,
I know, I got what I paid for - which was not much! :-)
Noel
> From: Guy Sotomayor
> To that end, I've made new "paddle" board that take 2 60pin ribbon
> cables.
Guy, this is fantastic news! I have previously speculated about doing this,
but it's still on the 'someday' list.
> I'll let folks know how they turn out (ie do they actually work!).
They should. DEC made the same basic part, but using 3x40-pin cables: M9042
(half-length, knuckle-buster) and M9014 (full-length). Apparently the
characteristic impedance of N-pin flat cable is close enough to the BC11
cable that it works.
Speaking of M9014's, though, the board list describes them as "UNIBUS to 3
H854s", and also lists an M9015, described as "3 H854s to UNIBUS". Does
anyone know what the difference is between the two?
Unlike the QBUS, the UNIBUS shouldn't need two different kinds of board, since
the 'grant in' pin on one end of a UNIBUS cable is the same as the 'grant out'
pin on the other end (unlike the QBUS, where the pinout is designed to support
plugging in boards, so there are separate 'grant in' and 'grant out' pins). I
can't for the life of me think of anything about the UNIBUS that a straight
through-connect wouldn't handle - i.e. a pair of M9014's, on each end of the
cable set. Certainly, BC11 cables ends aren't marked 'in' and 'out'! ;-)
So does anyone know why the M9015 exists - what it different about it, etc,
etc? Or was someone at DEC just not thinking hard enough when they spec'd it?
> The downside is that they were somewhat expensive
Heh, they'll still be cheaper than actual BC11's! :-)
Noel
> From: Joshua Stetson
> Ideally I would like to find the following:
> ...
> The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
> The terminator card M930
The former is going to be a pain. The latter are findable on eBay. If you
can't find one, drop me a line - I may have one I can spare.
> I know it's common to run these without the top cover on for
> calibration purposes. Any tips for that? Maybe a piece of plexiglas
> over the heads to avoid any potential dust or should I not worry too much?
Don't worry about it; BITD we used to run for short periods with the cover
off, to calibrate heads, etc. The air-flow through the pack and out the head
entrance hole will keep the heads clear. I wouldn't run them without the cover
all the time, but for short periods, it will be fine.
> From: Tony Duell
> The M930 and BC11 should be easy to find, they are actually the same as
> the bits used on PDP11 Unibus connections.
The second part is correct, but not the first: BC11 cables are now pretty
much unobtainium.
Noel
> From: Mattis Lind
> I don't have an capacitance / ESR meter so I cannot check it.
If you do a lot of work with analog components (and it sounds like you do),
it's probably worth getting capacitance and ESR meters, they can be obtained
(new) on eBay for not that much. I have one of each that I got that way;
their quality is pretty good, considering how little I paid for them (I
didn't think I'd be using them enough to make it worth paying out a lot for
really good ones). I haven't used the ESR meter much, but the capacitance
meter works quite well, and has been very helpful. Of course, it can't be
used in-circuit, but...
Alas, I can't (easily) help with the VT100 question! :-)
Noel
The LogiCalc manual is here:
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/softwareProductsInternational/
anyone have the LogiQuest III manual to go with it?
Here is an advertisement for the SPI application suite that includes
Logiquest III:
http://i.imgur.com/k0D3wRX.png
LogiQuest III was a relational database from circa 1982 and appears to have
been written in UCSD Pascal although it was later ported to the CP/M.
thanks.
on moldy paper and other items....
generally we will bag it and tag it to isolate it from everything
else... check part # or document name ( in the case of printed material)
against what already exists. if it exists then the moldy nasty stuff is
scrap. If it is something that warrants preservation but not found
elsewhere then we consider moving forward on preservation efforts.
Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)
In a message dated 1/21/2016 6:57:02 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
silent700 at gmail.com writes:
I'm tossing this out here as a conversation-starter more than a
request for help, although I may end up putting the knowledge to use.
Today I received a set of original HP paper tapes for the 2115a
machine. I don't know if they've been archived or not - there are
dozens of HP tapes on bitsavers and I'll have to make a P/N list and
compare them. The real problem is they're in horrible shape. Decades
of basement moisture and likely a few critters have turned them
blackened, moldy and stuck together.
So, what to do? How to get to the data without a bio-hazardous
payload along for the ride? My thoughts go toward sunlight and/or U/V
light (like a hair salon sanitizer,) rubber gloves and a mask,
isopropyl alcohol, careful picking apart of layers, etc. I'd think
one thing in our favor is that holes in paper are going to be easier
to read than ink on paper. So Part 1 is getting them into readable
condition, with part 2 being the actual reading.
Any experience out there?
-j
I'm tossing this out here as a conversation-starter more than a
request for help, although I may end up putting the knowledge to use.
Today I received a set of original HP paper tapes for the 2115a
machine. I don't know if they've been archived or not - there are
dozens of HP tapes on bitsavers and I'll have to make a P/N list and
compare them. The real problem is they're in horrible shape. Decades
of basement moisture and likely a few critters have turned them
blackened, moldy and stuck together.
So, what to do? How to get to the data without a bio-hazardous
payload along for the ride? My thoughts go toward sunlight and/or U/V
light (like a hair salon sanitizer,) rubber gloves and a mask,
isopropyl alcohol, careful picking apart of layers, etc. I'd think
one thing in our favor is that holes in paper are going to be easier
to read than ink on paper. So Part 1 is getting them into readable
condition, with part 2 being the actual reading.
Any experience out there?
-j
Hi Everyone,
Jay West was kind enough to point me to this list and I just wanted to
introduce myself before I start begging for help. :-)
I started out life coding on a CDC Cyber-170 and from there moved up
through the TRS-80 model I before finally taking the plunge and purchasing
a very early Apple ][+. After that, I moved up through the Apple //e and
finally landed in the 32-bit world with my Amiga 1000. I had an Amiga 2000
and then finally sold out and lived in the WinTel world until being
"rescued" by a PPC32 Mac Mini. From there it's been Mac mostly but I've
always loved older, less mainstream gear.
When I rediscovered OpenBSD and the fact that it has some of these
"distaff" architectures as full tier-1 citizens, I started playing around.
At this point I have that same MacMini (macppc), a Sun Blade 100 (sparc64),
an Alphastation 500/400 (alpha), an SGI O2 (mips64), an HP C3700 (hppa) and
a VAXstation 3100 (VAX). Everything except the VAX is running 5.9-current
on OpenBSD and doing surprisingly well.
I'm trying to bring the VAXstation back to life (picked it up on eBay for
less than $30 US) and I'm having a problem (here's where I start begging
for help).
The diagnostic LEDs on the back (thanks to
http://home.claranet.nl/users/pb0aia/vax/3100leds.html for helping me
decode them) finally settle at:
1000 1010
Which I'm reading as a failed self-test in the "MM" subsystem. I'm
assuming MM=Memory Management Unit. I have also noticed it never spins up
the hard drive (that's a working drive I personally installed so I know
it's good) or tries to access the floppy.
On the advice of some of the folks on the list, I stripped the machine down
to the bare board (man there was a lot of dust in there). I found (as I
expected to) that the CMOS battery had leaked but there wasn't a lot of
corrosion on the board near the connector and the solder pads in that area
looked particularly beefy so I don't think I have any board or trace damage
>from that.
When I powered the box up with everything removed, I got the same MM
subsystem failure error so I don't think it's the memory board. I'm still
waiting on my final cable to be able to get on the serial console so I
can't run TEST 50 yet but I'm hoping someone on here can point me in
another diagnostic direction.
Or, does a failed "MM" test mean the CPU or main board are done with and I
need to replace it?
Many thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
Thanks,
Bryan
8-A boards- i found more, or most, but no FP8
Quantity of LA34, 38, 50, 100, 120 printers and parts
Quantity of DECMATE, Rainbow, and PRO units and parts
H7883 ps
H7894-MA ps
30-43120-01 ps
30-44712-01 ps
DEC PC WXE-A2 (2)
DEC PC443 DXLP
CELEBRIS 560 830WW
VENTURIS 466 854WW (2, one is very rough)
VENTURIS 575 821WW
VS42S-JC
VT1200 VX10A-AA
HP 82901M flexible disc drive
Shipping from 61853. Feel free to contact me off list with any questions
and offers.
Paul
I know some folks sent an email to me indicating their desire for a UA11
board but others may have waited until they arrived. The boards arrived
this week (I'm just getting to it because I was out of town on
business). They actually got here a week a head of schedule (yea!).
The price will be $99/ea + shipping. To make it easy, I'll be using
USPS priority with flat rate boxes, so within the USA I'll be charging
$15 for packing and shipping, so the total will be $114 (for folks that
want more than one board I can probably fit 2-4 boards in the flat rate
box so I'll only charge shipping once). I will also be including 1 copy
of printed documentation with each order (if you purchase multiple
boards in a single order, you'll only get one copy).
I accept paypal to ggs at shiresoft.com. If you don't want to use paypal,
email me directly and we can figure something out. In any case, please
email me to indicate the number of boards that you'd like and where you
want them shipped.
The folks who have emailed me previously will have priority.
TTFN - Guy
I am going to be visiting Milan in a few weeks' time.
I was wondering if there are any collectors on this list who live in that
area, who would like to show off their collection, if I can get a bit of
time away from the family? I have a particular interest in DEC machines, but
other makes also interest me.
If so, please get in touch
Regards
Rob