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

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hello All Well I managed to find some suitable rubber tubing and glued it in place of the nasty black mess. So I put everything back and turned on. Lo and Behold LED on the board flashed once and stayed on. I had been told (Tony D I think) thats what its supposed to do. Anybody know whats the quickest way to test a TU-58? Rod

10 years, 6 months

7
9
0 0

PT-210 Serial Board

by dave＠661.org

A few years ago I entered the schematics and laid out a design for the serial board option for the TRS-80 PT-210 printing terminal using gEDA. I found the schematics in a hardcopy of the service manual[1]. I revisited the project a couple of days ago and reentered the schematics into Kicad. I remembered that the reason I never made the board was that I was unsure of its correctness. The schematics and foil patterns contradict slightly and a couple wires seem to be missing from the schematic. Does anyone here have a PT-210 with a working serial board? I would like to work with you to beep out various points so I can figure out what's wrong. I also found a Youtube video showing a PT-210 with the serial board in action. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPxpzcFXh-0 [1] Scanned and uploaded to http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/content/computing/RadioShack-Tandy/ -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

80186 multi buss system problem

by grant＠millhouseindustries.com

Hi, I?m looking for some help diagnosing a old Grid server problem,I am a hobbyist learning my way around old computer systems . The system consists of three boards labeled Diagnostic server File server Com server Each board contains a 80186 , ram and rom and are all connected via a backplane. The diagnostic server has rs232 port and a connector to a small led display. The file server has a GPIB port and a something along the lines of a SASI port The com server has what i believe to be several rs232/422?s ports at least What i know works is the diagnostics server and the file server as i can interact with the diagnostic server via a serial terminal and the file server attempts to boot from a gpib floppy but i have no boot media that will boot it. The problem is with the com server board, when the system initializes the diagnostic board does a self test then looks for other boards on the system it finds the file server board but does not find the com server board. If i remove the the file and com server and power them out of system, reset the processor?s and then probe the different signals they appear to be operating the same,clk activity , data and address buss activity is identical. When i put them in the system and watch the file and com server boot it looks like the com server get stuck when it goes to send its data to the diagnostic server. I'm just a amateur at these things, i am looking for help to point me in the right direction. i made a small video of a typical data line at boot the first is the file server then the com server where you can see it get stuck , this is typical of all the signals that i test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHftWR0Ddys&feature=youtu.be --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Random question about a Byte Magazine Cover

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

OK so this has been bugging me for a while. During a stint working at Morgan-Smith Electronics in Hatfield UK (they made diverse electronic systems including industrial PCs and radio alarms) I went through the boss's discarded vintage computer magazine collection and one particular issue I remember finding very interesting. IIRC it was a Byte Magazine (certainly the graphic was very in keeping with Byte cover artwork). I wonder if anyone recalls it - Google image searches have pulled a blank which means it either wasn't Byte (and just looked like it) or hasn't been scanned. The cover had a painted image of a white cliff face draped in vines with an 'Adventurer' in the foreground - you can imagine what the theme was. Anyone have any ideas? Maybe it wasn't Byte? Of course all this really quite irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but it would help me scratch an itch at the very least. Thanks! Mark.

10 years, 6 months

3
4
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Project Oberon and OberonStation (resend)

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

[Yahoo's webmail client garbled the last link -- resending] The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to behold.? If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic education-oriented language and operating system designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the 80's. The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an FPGA, instead of the NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations.?? Originally, it required a Digilent "Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a custom-built daughterboard providing a few additional connectors.? This board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA development board appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required. Recently, a new board, the OberonStation,? has come onto the market that was designed specifically for Oberon, and will boot up Oberon 2013 out of the box.?? It also looks like an excellent platform for other retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from complex SDRAM controllers and the caches they like to feed. My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing to see what can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small enough to actually read and understand. https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ http://www.projectoberon.com/ http://oberonstation.x10.mx/

10 years, 6 months

9
12
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Purchased a Microvax 3800

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

I purchased a Microvax 3800 a few weeks ago. I have not really had the time to really take a good look at it until now. I still do not have the needed power cord to power it Up. Looks like a standard PC power cord with a notch in it. I found a place that sells them online, still waiting for it to get here. I was told the machine was removed from working service, however it looks like it has been sitting for quite some time. The hard drive, hard drive controller, and tape controller have been removed. I purchased a m7769 DSSI controller card online, so that is one more step in the direction of getting the machine all together. Still waiting to find the controller for the tape drive and a dssi hard drive, although they look to be pretty affordable on ebay. Just figured id post about it here, to show my progress twords getting it running. http://postimg.org/gallery/fztxjqbe/ --Devin

10 years, 6 months

5
8
0 0

double density floppy cable adapter for Intel Series II or III MDS

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Last month I made a trivial little cable adapter PCB to use with the Intel SBC 202 double-density M2FM floppy controller in an Intel Series II or III MDS (normally part of an MDS 720 subsystem). The usual SBC 202 cabling has two DC37S connectors on the MDS back panel, one for drives 0 and 1, and the other for drives 2 and 3. (There's a variant that has a ribbon cable to the internal drive as 0, and only one DC37S for drives 2 and 3.) Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22368471 at N04/albums/72157659736489274 Schematic and board layout in Eagle and PDF: http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/intel/mds/mds-fd-adapter/ The adapter has no active electronics; it just wires a DC37P to a 50-pin header for a cable to one or two normal 8-inch floppies. I just got around to testing it yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised that my SBC 202 and the adapter worked on the first attempt. The SBC 202 was of unknown provenance so I didn't actually have much expectation of it working. I haven't yet tried more than one drive on it. Intel used radial ready signals from the drives, so the drive(s) have to be configured slightly differently than the factory defaults to be fully compatible with the MDS 720. I have one spare bare adapter PCB which can be made available for $5.95 plus shipping from Colorado if anyone else needs such a thing. I am NOT willing to source the connectors or assemble the boards. You can also order them in increments of three pieces directly from OSH Park: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/AO0DZTr1 If there's demand for a few units, I can have a small run made in China very inexpensively, probably under $4 each plus shipping from Colorado. Richard Main has made fancier adapter PCBs that also support 34-pin cabling for the use of high-density 5.25 or 3.5 inch disks.

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Memory Voltage on MicroVAX II

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I finally fixed my H7864 PSU so I can now run my rtVAX 1000. However, I think the machine is damaging memory boards. I checked the ripple and 5V looks OK, but 12V looks suspicious. Is the 12V supply used by the memory? Incidentally, as I have mentioned before, I have drawn out the schematics for the H7864 PSU. The schematics are drawn illogically, with mistakes almost certainly still there, but the Primary side I think is more reasonable now. Is there a good place to post these? Regards Rob

10 years, 6 months

3
8
0 0

TU-58

by anders＠abc80.net

> Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 12:40:08 +0000 > From: Rod Smallwood <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: TU-58 > Message-ID: <565EE6A8.2030004 at btinternet.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Dear List > While the silk screeners process the panels I have a > couple of days for a little project > I have a TU-58 and yes it had gooey drive wheels. > Now it no longer has that problem but I have black and gooey fingers.!!! > > I know this issue has been addressed before. > So I think somebody must know where I can get the right tubing to > replace the degraded stuff. > The drive hub is 0.42" and the rubber bit was 0.62" o/d > A UK source would be nice, > > Rod > I'm also intessted in this. I have a dual TU-58 that belongs to my VAX 11/730 that need new capstan rubber. European source... /Anders

10 years, 6 months

6
19
0 0

I need to bring up a 11/20 shall I use a variac!?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I need to bring up a 11/20 shall I use a variac!? added core.... where can I find if I decide to add to it? ed sharpe _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org/) (resent with address corrections)

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

I need to bring up a 11/20 shall I use a variac!?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I need to bring up a 11/20 shall I use a variac!? added core.... where can I find if I decide to add to it? ed sharpe _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

PDP 11/15 or 11/20 frame powersupply and backplane

by jws＠jwsss.com

I'm looking for any of these, starting with most essentially the backplane. power supply next, then frame if anyone has one that is empty looking for some filling. Thanks Jim

10 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Announcing CBM15 V012 (new Beta release)

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

CBM15 V012 has been released to CSDB, and is currently available for download. http://csdb.dk/release/?id=143468 CBM15 is a telecommunications software, that facilitates direct two-way communications between a Commodore 64 computer and a Teletype Corp. M15KSR (or any other compatible machine). Note that CBM15 follows the 5/N/2 serial protocol, at a fixed line speed of 45.45 baud (22mS signalling period). As with any of these PC-to-TTY setups, an external RS-232 to Current Loop converter is required. This is an initial release, and upcoming releases will add new features and correct a bug or two. So.. am I the only one on the list(s) with a C-64 and an M15 on hand? If you have the required hardware, please give it a try - so far, I've had no feedback from any other 'real' M15 owner.. Thanks!

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

DEC DD11B

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

What is a DD11B backplane for? -- Will

10 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

I used my PDP-8/e at home to test the RX8E controller and the RX01 floppies that came with the PDP-12. Both worked OK. We found a bad SP380 on a M7102 board in the DW8E the Omnibus expansion chassis. This would not let the SKIP instructions work with the RX8E, RK05, or PC8E. Once we replaced the SP380 we were able to boot OS/8 from an RX01 floppy. This may be the only PDP-12 to ever do that. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

[multicians] Emacs humor

by jws＠jwsss.com

This is a funny cartoon and subsequent discussion thread from the Multics discussion group about emacs. Names and personal info edited out due to archival by unknown parties of the list and that these folks might not want names and certainly not email addresses archived. Mentioning that not as a criticism, just to explain the format. I also edited the thread back to bottom posting. Original XKCD cartoon link. https://xkcd.com/378/ >> From: Multicians <snip> >> Subject: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor >> >>> >>> >>> Thanks, Gary. As an emacs diehart, I fully appreciate that. In fact, there is a silly phrase that many emacs users use, when referring to all the obscure key bindings that you get by default with emacs, or can create. It.s called: >>> >>> Control-Meta-Shift-Cokebottle >>> >>> I believe the history (someone can correct me if I.m wrong) is that Emacs was developed at the MIT AI Lab (by Richard Stallman) and initially written in Teco. It was developed on Lisp machines, which sported lots of modification keys on its keyboard. These included Control, Shift, Hyper, Meta, Super (and perhaps more). Naturally, emacs took advantage of some of these . at least those that were available on multiple terminals or could be emulated on lesser terminals. I remember when I worked at MIT LCS (down the hall from MIT AI), we had a key binding on our Lisp Machines that called the elevator to the 8th floor. I don.t remember the key binding, but I.m sure it used a few of these modification keys (and probably .e. for .elevator. as the modified key). In any case, the class of these funky key bindings was referred to as Control-Meta-Shift-Cokebottle. >>> >>> I.m sure I.ve gotten some of the facts wrong, but I.m also sure that at least someone on this list will correct me! >>> >>> . Eric >> > > >> On Dec 1, 2015, at 11:30 AM, Ken <snip>> wrote: >> >> >> I seem to recall that one of the Lisp machine keyboard modifiers was "Top", and that the phrase was therefore >> >>> Control-Shift-Meta-Top-Cokebottle >>> >> Where, of course, you were typing the "Cokebottle" key with the Control, Shift, Meta, and Top modifier keys depressed. >> >> I think the elevator hack involved the AI Lab PDP-6 (or maybe, later, PDP-10), but I wouldn't be surprised if it migrated to the Lisp machines, too The old -6, especially, had added hardware to enable it to control the various robot devices the AI lab played with. Some AI Lab hardware guys gained access to the machinery room on the 10th floor and added some extra relay circuitry to one of the elevator controllers, and it wasn't much of a stretch to run the control wires down to the 9th floor machine room. IIRC it took a few years for whatever company was responsible for maintaining the elevators to discover the unauthorized modification and remove it. >> >> How long it stayed removed is an entirely different question, of course. >> >> Ken >> MIT-LCS '72-'80 >> Multics ARPANET software >> On 12/1/2015 11:42 AM, Eric <snip> [multicians] wrote: > > > I just knew I had that facts wrong! Yes, you.re right. I remember the Top key now. > > I do know that the elevator hack worked on Lisp machines, but I think you.re right that it also worked on some other interfaces. I remember getting frustrated when I.d be .ready to leave. (at 2am, or so), and would call the elevator, and then I.d have to fix .one more bug., and by the time I got to the elevator, I actually had to push the boring old button to get the elevator doors to open! :-) > > . Eric

10 years, 6 months

8
17
0 0

Fabritek MP-12 Loader

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

A colleague and I are working on getting our respective Fabritek MP-12s working. The MP-12 is an industrial-looking computer with a very limited front panel (deposit doesn't increment PC...gah!) but does emulate most respects of a PDP-8. So far, we've been able to find the device codes for updating the 7-segment LED displays on the front, turning on and off relays, and setting some arbitrary open-collector outputs. It appears as though there is no serial port option on ours, which is unfortunate. There are three 512-by-4 bipolar (configured as 512-by-12) PROMs that seem to override the core memory at the top of the 4k field. If the PROM's value is 7777 octal, the core memory is accessible. Otherwise, you're stuck with ROM, best I can tell. We've dumped the ROMs to verify, but here's the code I've backed out of them, disassembled and labeled where appropriate: *7756 TEMP, 7755 /NOT IN ROM CLA HLT /7602 ADDR, 7755 /7755 STARTING ADDRESS? START, TAD ADDR /1360 GET STARTING ADDRESS? DCA TEMP /3356 SAVE TEMPORARILY LOOP, RRB /6012 GET CHAR CLL RTL /7106 RTL /7006 RTL /7006 ROTATE SO BIT 0 IS IN BIT 7, BIT 4 IN BIT 11, ETC. 6015 /6015 SKIP ON FLAG? JMP .-1 /5367 SNL /7420 SKIP IF LINK IS SET (BIT 6 OF PAPER TAPE IS SET) JMP LOOP /5363 DCA I TEMP /3756 ISZ TEMP /2356 JMP 7755 /5355 7776 /NOT IN ROM JMP START /5361 $ The "NOT IN ROM" indicates that the ROM's value is unprogrammed, so that you can in fact access those core locations. The values I've provided just happen to be what's in my machine's memory at this time. It looks a lot like a RIM loader, except I can't figure out for the life of me what the format should look like. Best I can tell, if RRB ORs the read buffer with the accumulator, you'll never be able to send anything but patterns matching (data & 7737). At least, that's what I've simulated. Due to the fact that they're clearing the link after the second go around, you'd be losing one bit of data. So, maybe this isn't really a program loading routine, but rather just something to store 8-bit values in core? Any other ideas? Thanks, Kyle

10 years, 6 months

3
7
0 0

TU-58

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Dear List While the silk screeners process the panels I have a couple of days for a little project I have a TU-58 and yes it had gooey drive wheels. Now it no longer has that problem but I have black and gooey fingers.!!! I know this issue has been addressed before. So I think somebody must know where I can get the right tubing to replace the degraded stuff. The drive hub is 0.42" and the rubber bit was 0.62" o/d A UK source would be nice, Rod

10 years, 6 months

13
28
0 0

Long shot: Connection Machine board needed.

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

The chances are slim, but someone may know someone... feel free to contact me off-list. I have a CM-200A; the smallest 'classic' CM machine. I've started a project, with some ex-TMC people (notably the designer of the beautiful chassis the CM machines came in, Tamiko Thiel) to get my machine operational next year, for the 30th anniversary of the launch of the CM. Unfortunately we've hit a complete show-stopper right off the bat. My machine has a complete set of compute node and I/O boards, but is missing the crucial 'NX' board; the board in the CM that interfaces to the front-end. See: http://www.corestore.org/cm2a.htm I need to locate one, or we're dead in the water. I *know* there are people out there who keep a very low profile and have CM hardware squirreled away in their basements. Another possibility, perhaps the best, is to *borrow* an NX board from a non-functional machine in a museum collection, something that will never be more than a static exhibit. Anyone in a position to help or advise, please get in touch. I'm reaching out to former TMC staff and customers by various other routes, but someone here may know something. Thanks Mike http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

10 years, 6 months

4
3
0 0

TU-58

by anders＠abc80.net

Great! We take it off list from here. Very nice work on the HP by the way! /Anders > Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 21:04:55 +0100 > From: Rik Bos <hp-fix at xs4all.nl> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: RE: TU-58 > Message-ID: <dc985939bd791910a6b715f873573a15 at smtp-cloud3.xs4all.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Anders, > > I can fix them, if you look at my Flickr page you can see some examples of > new capstans I made.about halfway the site. > www.flickr.com/hp-fix > And of the HP3000 ;) > > -Rik

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Help w/ HP 88780 Tape Drive

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

So I got my hands on an HP 88780 1/2" Tape Drive from list Member Mark (Thanks!). The drive physically looks to be in good shape but was pretty dirty when I got it. I've cleaned up the drive and powered it up. The good news: The drive powers up. Initially I had trouble getting it to load a tape but that seems to have been resolved.

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

PDT-11/150 Field Maintenance Print Set wanted

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I have a non-working PDT-11/150, which fails self test 7 (console USART) and when not in test mode, and with autobaud disabled, doesn't send anything to the console. I dumped the ROMs (two 82S2708 1Kx8 PROM for LSI-11 code, three 8316E 2Kx8 masked ROM for the 8085 I/O processor, and one 8316E for the 8085 floppy controller), and I've started disassembling the 8085 ROM code to figure out what the self-test actually does, but it's slow going. It would be really helpful to have a copy (paper or scan) of the Field Maintenance Print Set. Does anyone have it? Thanks! Eric

10 years, 6 months

3
5
0 0

Searching HP drivers/libraries for E2071/82341 HP-IB

by supervinx＠libero.it

Hi! I'm looking for drivers of E2071/82341 HP-IB ISA card. I think they should be contained in the WNG0202.EXE self extracting archive. Thanks!

10 years, 6 months

2
2
0 0

Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor]

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 09:18:56 +0100 > From: Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at Update.UU.SE> > Subject: Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor] > > You make it sound like someone hacked up a computer consisting of one > KL-10, one PDP-10 and one PDP-6. But I assume you mean homogenic > three-processor machines? > > Who, besides Peter L?thberg, ran threeprocessor machines? > > Also, what are you refering to as PDP-10? KA-10? > > Thanks, > Pontus. > > 1026 TOPS-10 DEC Development Marlboro, MA KL1099 Tri-SMP Scrapped 12/14/97 1042 TOPS-10 DEC Development Marlboro, MA KL1099 Tri-SMP Scrapped 12/14/97 1322 TOPS-10 DEC Development Marlboro, MA KL10 Tri-SMP Michael Thompson

10 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Oak Ridge PDP setups

by killingsworth.todd＠gmail.com

>Lots of places. The folks at Oak Ridge ("Atomic City") ran a 5-processor >SMP configuration. Rich - can you elaborate on this any? Which facility, what was it used for? I've got family from Oak Ridge, and its unusual for my vintage computer / atomic history to intersect like this. Todd Killingsworth

10 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Oberon and the OberonStation (retro-style FPGA computing)

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to behold.? If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic education-oriented language and operating system designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the 80's. The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an FPGA, instead of the NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations.?? Originally, it required a Digilent "Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a custom-built daughterboard providing a few additional connectors.? This board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA development board appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required. Recently, a new board, the OberonStation,? has come onto the market that was designed specifically for Oberon, and will boot up Oberon 2013 out of the box.?? It also looks like an excellent platform for other retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from complex SDRAM controllers and the caches they like to feed. My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing to see what can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small enough to actually read and understand. https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ http://www.projectoberon.com/ OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform --Bill | ? | | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | | OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform/*{{{*/* html .tiddler {height:1%;}body {font-size:.75em; font-family:arial,helvetica; margin:0; padding:0;}h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {font-weight:bold; | | | | View on oberonstation.x10.mx | Preview by Yahoo | | | | ? |

10 years, 6 months

14
21
0 0

[multicians] Emacs humor

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

>> I think the elevator hack involved the AI Lab PDP-6 (or maybe, later, >> PDP-10) I can supply definitive bits here (I have read the code involved). The actual interface to the elevator was in one of the PDP-11 front-ends on the MIT-AI KA10 (memory escapes me as to whether it was the TV11 or the XGP11 or what, don't have time right at the moment to go look - I suspect the former). There was actually a table in the PDP-11 code that ran the Knight TV's (perhaps the first bit-mapped display system) so that one only needed to type '<Whatever>-E', and the code knew which floor that Knight TV console was on, and automagically sent the elevator to that floor (3, 8 or 9). >> I wouldn't be surprised if it migrated to the Lisp machines, too Yes, but that would have just been a network client talking to a server; the actual hardware interface remained, I am pretty sure, on the -11. Noel

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Interfacing PDP 11/05 to VT 50

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I have an 11/05 with ASR 33 for I/O. I am using the M9970 console card to make the connection. I have loaded papertape BASIC into core (16K) and it boots up from 000 000 to the TTY, I can type in programs, etc. Question - I'd like to switch over to a VT 50 in 20ma mode. Not sure if this is possible based on what I read here: http://www.retrocmp.com/how-tos/interfacing-to-a-pdp-1105/144-interfacing-w… Anyone successfully connect a VT 50 or 52 to a 11/05 or 11/10 over to the EIN M7856 for printer and typewriter only, leaving the M9970 for program i/o to save and load programs? -- Bill

10 years, 6 months

7
11
0 0

Seattle free teletype??

by jason＠smbfc.net

Check out the 3rd picture.... http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/zip/5340655886.html Someone go get this -- I'm stuck at work with no car at the moment.... --Jason

10 years, 6 months

4
3
0 0

flash (or ide) storage for unibus 11?

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Noel Chiappa wrote: > > From: Jerome H. Fine > > > both DEC and DSD needed a bounce buffer managed by software > >Love that term, "bounce buffer" (I wrote a whole package to support them in a >packet switch I did) - I'm officially adopting it, right now! :-) > > Noel > Hey - anything that anyone writes is automatically copyrighted. So first you need permission to use that! I will try and figure out who the person was that first used that phrase so we can both use it. I did not mention that the concept worked quite well with the DEC RX02 and the DSD RX03 when a PDP-11/73 was used. But when version 1.0 of that device driver was used with a PDP-11/23, the transfer rate was painfully slow because the interleave gap was not long enough relative to the time needed to bounce the buffer. Since the DMA silo had already been emptied into the bounce buffer, the solution was to immediately initiate the next READ into the silo and then bounce the buffer (for a READ request, of course). That allowed the READ of the next sector on the floppy media to be performed by the controller while the CPU was performing a transfer out of the bounce buffer into the user buffer one word at a time. I don't need to test the timing on any slower CPU since, as far as I know, none support an MMU which would be required to use a Mapped RT-11 monitor. I may have the exact details and terminology incorrect - it was about 20 years ago. Jerome Fine

10 years, 6 months

13
34
0 0

A stored collection piece is a Schrodinger's cat

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

This self-satirizing flow diagram reflecting my experiences testing computers in my collection may (or may not) amuse some on this forum. I'm sure at least some can relate to the scenarios though... http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-11-28-computer-collectors-tes… Terry (Tez)

10 years, 6 months

10
17
0 0

papertape repair tape or kit wanted

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mark J. Blair > I'm taking an eBay vacation. Which 12-step program are you in to help with that? :-) I could use a good recommendation!! :-) :-) Noel

10 years, 6 months

9
15
0 0

PDP 8 Timesharing

by rickb＠bensene.com

Hi, all, Just figured I'd post something about my tinkering yesterday. I got an M8830 from Paul Anderson. This is the crystal-contolled clock for the Omnibus PDP 8 machines. Yesterday, I had a chance to try it out. First, I checked the power supply pins to make sure no shorts or anything like that and all was good. A quick visual inspection showed no obvious issues. It was already jumpered for a 50Hz interrupt rate, so I went ahead and plugged it into the backplane. Powered the 8/e system up, and ran a few tests from the front panel to make sure the board was responding to its IOTs, and all seemed well. Booted up OS8 from RK05, and mounted up the multos8.rk05 drive via the serialdisk driver. Copied the MULTOS8 .SV files onto my SYS: volume, and although not configured exactly for my system, I figured they'd be close enough. I then stopped the serial disk server, and fired up Kermit on the laptop connected to the second serial port on the 8/e. Then, I typed R MULTOS on the console, and it said something to the effect that I needed to set the date first. I generally don't bother setting the date at boot time, so I set the date to a valid date, and tried again. This time it gave a welcome message. I checked the accumulator, and it was counting off time as it should. I checked the MQ register, and it was static, but then waited for the accumulator to overflow, and then the MQ incremented by 1, as it should. I pressed CONTROL-H on the console terminal and hit RETURN, and there was the . OS8 prompt! I went to the laptop connected to the other serial interface, and since there was no MULTOS 8 password file on the SYS: device, typed CONTROL-H there, got the login prompt, hit RETURN, and low and behold, another . prompt. I played around with it for a while, and found that because of some of the config differences in how MULTOS8 was built on the pack image, some things were acting strange but in general, it definitely was timesharing between the two users. I could run concurrent things on both terminals, and the response was quite acceptable. I intend to make a build of MULTOS 8 to match my system's configuration, and tinker with it some more when I get time. Next I want to replicate the ETOS Timeshare Board (thanks to Vince and Jack for reverse-engineering the board and making a nice schematic!) I'm accumulating parts to build one on an Omnibus prototype board. Once I get that built, then it'll be time to try out ETOS, which uses the improvements in trapping IOTs and dealing with field change instructions that really improve timesharing performance over MULTOS 8. I am also in the process of getting ready to image some old RK05 packs that belong to Paul Anderson that may hold some interesting ETOS stuff. The packs have been sitting around for quite a long time, and the platters are very dusty. They are going to require some good cleaning before they can be put in a drive, but hopefully, once I get them cleaned up, I'll find some good things relating to ETOS. I'll post updates here with my progress. -Rick -- Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

10 years, 6 months

6
7
0 0

papertape repair tape or kit wanted

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Anyone have a source to purchase the tape to repair a papertape, or a kit such as what they have here: http://physicsmuseum.uq.edu.au/paper-tape-repair-tool Thanks -- Bill

10 years, 6 months

5
5
0 0

Apple II+ repair details

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Speaking of Schrodinger's feline, here are details of my recent Apple II+ repair for those who might be interested: http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-11-29-more-repairs-to-my-appl… Terry (Tez)

10 years, 6 months

3
4
0 0

PDP 8 Timesharing

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

when I was young in the computer biz wanted to build a timeshare 8 system.. however ended up going down the HP route instead for the rest of my career . There was also something called TSS-8 as I remember. Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 11/30/2015 11:34:49 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: FYI - in the not too distant future I'm going to get back to my 8E rig. I'll be pulling out the TU10/TM11(unused, obviously) from the second cabinet and putting in an RX01 and RK05, and hopefully connecting up the TU56 and PC04 that are in the main cabinet. In any case, my goal is to run ETOS on the thing - so I too am closely following the progress of the group that is working to replicate the hardware board for it. J

10 years, 6 months

4
5
0 0

PDP 8 Timesharing

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Jay - yes I know and for hardware sales too..... as I sold and troubleshot what I used and needed all the time in house so it was a perfect match. eventually the only DEC stuff that was there was in museum displays in the other suite the museum occupied. Ed# In a message dated 11/30/2015 11:58:08 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: Ed wrote... ----------------------- when I was young in the computer biz wanted to build a timeshare 8 system.. however ended up going down the HP route instead for the rest of my career . ----------- You chose the better path for a timesharing system *ducks & runs* J

10 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

PDP 8 Timesharing

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

somewhere i have an edu system book. HA! yea the fixed head drives made better swapping media! for tss 8 as core was small in those days! In a message dated 11/30/2015 12:03:12 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, rickb at bensene.com writes: Ed wrote: > when I was young in the computer biz wanted to build a timeshare 8 > system.. > however ended up going down the HP route instead for the rest of my > career . > There was also something called TSS-8 as I remember. Ed# I'd *LOVE* to be able to have a real-hardware HP Timeshared BASIC system running here, but alas, those are a lot harder to come by than DEC stuff. I do have a 2000/Access system running under SimH hooked directly to an ASR-33, which emulates the experience relatively closely, but there's nothing like the real hardware. I cut my teeth learning programming on the HP Timeshared BASIC systems starting in 6th grade under the 2000C version. TSS-8 was indeed a timeshare system for the PDP 8, but it was written to run on DECs earlier fixed-head disk drives that are hard to come about today (compared to RK05's). I've heard that someone had made changes to TSS-8 to get it to run on an RK05, but the fact that it's a moving head disk drive versus a fixed head drive that TSS-8 was designed to run under, the poor RK05 gets thrashed pretty hard when timesharing. There are also the Edusystem timeshared systems that DEC developed for the PDP 8, but I haven't looked too deeply into these yet. -Rick

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Brian Brikon diskette drive tester

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I purchased one of these units on eBay and it seems to be working - modulo a few early-80s tantalum caps that went up in smoke. The tester relies on an attached printer to record test results, which are displayed only fleetingly on the front-panel display. Unfortunately it did not come with the printer and I cannot find any information on line. Does anyone have information on this? Is it serial? Parallel? The onnector is a 20-pin, 0.1" DIP header on the rear panel. The tester supplies printer power on a small 3-pin Molex connector. I can probably trace this out on the internal logic board, but thought perhaps another list member owns one of these and can elaborate. I'm also trying to find the manual appropriate to a base Model 723 tester. The one floating around on the net is for an upscale model (723-4M). While there are a number of similarities, I'm running into just enough behavioral difference to make it worth finding the correct docs. There's also a programming and setup "worksheet" document that has not surfaced anywhere. --

10 years, 7 months

1
1
0 0

HAL DS-3100 ASR

by unclefalter＠yahoo.ca

Just posting here in case anyone not on other forums I'm on sees this and knows something about these. I picked up a HAL DS-3100 ASR terminal. My understanding is these are RTTY devices intended for teletype/radio use. It is ASCII compatible and in fact I can select ASCII and baud rates from a menu. It has a 25 pin male 'MODEM' port on the back. I can't find it now but somewhere I read it complied with an RS-232 standard. I tried hooking it up to my PC with a null modem cable, but couldn't get either to produce anything on their screens. Anyway, just a shot in the dark in case any of you remember these things. I'm not really into HAM stuff, but it's a cool little terminal and I was hoping it could be used/adapted to other tasks. Brad

10 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

flash (or ide) storage for unibus 11?

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Jerry Weiss wrote: >>On Nov 25, 2015, at 10:41 PM, Jerome H. Fine <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> wrote: >> >>For example, the DSD 880/30 (from Data Systems Design of course) emulates >>3 RL02 disk drives using a single internal (non-removable) hard drive. The box >>also holds a single RX03 floppy disk drive (8" floppy disk drive which supports >>using single-sided media specified by DEC as an RX02 floppy in addition to >>media which have the same physical interface, but which are double-sided). >>For a Qbus system, the dual module controller was the interface to both the >>three RL02 hard drives and the single RX03 floppy drive. I don't know if >>DSD also made a separate controller for the Unibus for the DSD 880/30. >> >>With regard to the address support by the controller for the Qbus, the floppy >>drive definitely supported only an 18-bit address. That 18-bit ONLY support >>by DSD was identical to the 18-bit support that DEC provided for its Qbus >>controller for the RX02, so both DEC and DSD needed a bounce buffer >>managed by software to support the RX02 floppy disk for systems with more >>than 256 KB of physical memory. >> >>As for DSD support for the RL02 for a 22-bit buffer address, a quick look >>at the DSD manual was not able to say one way or the other. However, >>it seems more likely the the DSD controller for the RL02 supported ONLY >>an 18-bit address. I have all the DSD hardware, but it is not operational >>at this point. If anyone else has experience with the DSD controller for >>the emulated RL02, let us know if there was 22-bit address support for >>its emulated RL02 drive. >> >Confirming that the original DSD 880 only had support for 18 bits DMA. There are only 2 bits >in the CS register for extended addressing. I doubled checked the RT-11 handlers I had. >There was a Unibus controller for the original 7.8Mbyte RL02 reduced drive. >Google 040018-01 DSD 880 Users Manual May81 > > As I mentioned, a quick (about 15 minutes) look in the DSD 880/30 manual did not suggest that the RL02 emulation included hardware to support a 22-bit address. My first drive was, indeed, the DSD 880/8, if I remember the number correctly, which did have only the 7.8 MB RL02 reduced drive which you just specified. This reply is confirmation and a bit of clarification that the part number was the DSD 880/8 as opposed to the enhanced model, DSD 880/30, which emulated three full sized RL02 drives. Note that both the DSD 880/8 and the DSD 880/30 included a single RX03 floppy drive. And, of course, both also used a dual module as the controller in the Qbus. Also, as is noted above there must have been a controller for the Unibus. Thank you for confirming that the RL02 emulation supported only an 18-bit address. >The Sigma SDC RXV31 controller supported 22 bit DMA. >See 400255-C SDC-RXV31 Floppy Ctrl Man Aug86 > > I saw that model at one point. It was the only one I ever saw, so I did not bother to include 22-bit support in the DYX.SYS device handler - mostly because I would not have been able to test the code. >I used both, but double sided compatibility between the two products was >occasionally spotty. Never did determine if it was a controller, floppy drive or media >issue. > Both the DSD 880/8 and the DSD 880/30 supported double-sided media for the RX03 floppy drive. A check of the DSD 880/30 manual >from 1981 includes directions to modify the DYX.SYS device driver to support double sided operation with V04.00 of RT-11. Inspection of the file, DY.MAC from V04.00 of RT-11, confirms that DEC had code which supported double-sided media and even the CSR specs in the DEC RXV21 controller specifies, as far as I can remember, a bit to determine if the RX03 floppy drive has detected a double-sided floppy in the drive. Note that the DEC RX02 floppy drive did not have that electronics or hardware to detect double-sided media. It is possible that DEC did produce an in-house RX03 drive, but I am not aware of DEC actually selling RX03 drives to customers. PLUS, the code in the file, DY.MAC from V04.00 of RT-11, has bugs (at least in the distribution copy released with V04.00 of RT-11) which would prevent the correct operation of a double-sided media. One other point of interest is that by 1983 when DEC released V05.00 of RT-11, the extra code with support for double-sided media had been removed from DY.MAC. It probably should be mentioned that a different position is used for the index hole for double-sided media (about 1/2" more to the right) as opposed to the location of the index hole for single-sided media. The DSD 880/30 RX03 floppy drive has TWO detection circuits in the two possible positions to determine which media was present in the drive. Because every floppy media that I ever saw has been coated on both sides and could support double-sided operation even if the index hole was in the single-sided location within the cardboard jacket, I experimented with adding the index holes required for double-sided operation and covered up the single-sided index holes. After that worked successfully, I became disappointed that I had to deface the floppy media with the extra holes. The simple solution was to use a DPDT switch and flip the detection circuits so that the RX03 drive would signal a double-sided media what there was a single-sided index hole and the DPDT switch was in the alternate position. To add to the success of that extra switch, the DSD 880/30 supported an off-line LLF (Low Level Format) which, of course, no DEC controller ever supported for 8" floppy media. In answer to the question of support for double-sided media, there are two methods of using both sides of the floppy. One method is to read all of one side, then read all of the other side of the floppy media. The second method is to read both sides of the media for each cylinder, then increment to the next cylinder. Based on the code for DY.MAC which was present in V04.00 of RT-11, DEC choose the former method. It seems possible that if you were using floppy media written via one method and read by the opposite method, there would obviously be some confusion. The SMS-1000 (I hope I have remembered the part number correctly) includes an 8" RX03 type of drive which can handle both single-sided and double-sided media - although the built-in controller is MSCP based and both the internal hard drive and the single RX03 floppy drive are considered DU: or MSCP devices under RT-11. When single-sided floppy media are used, there is no difficulty. However, if an 8" media that is double-sided is inserted and files are written to that floppy, the results can'r be read on the DSD 880/30 using a modified DYX.SYS device driver which supports double-sided operation since it is quite obvious that the MSCP controller in the SMS-1000 wrote both sides of the floppy before changing cylinders. This might have been the cause of the problem between the two floppy drives. I agree it is doubtful, but I can't think of anything else. FINALLY, due to the 18-bit address restriction with all DYX.SYS device drivers under RT-11, I added code to support a bounce buffer that allows the user buffer to be in a 22-bit location, but still be able to support DMA to the silo on the controller. The bounce buffer must be in the first 256 KB of memory, but the device driver performs the extra transfer one word at a time between the bounce buffer and the user buffer if the latter is above the 256 KB boundary. Jerome Fine

10 years, 7 months

6
8
0 0

ISO: DEC M8320 (KK8E, PDP-8/e/f/m Bus Loads)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I inherited a PDP-8/m awhile back. Actually, I inherited a mostly empty chassis, which I've been slowly populating. I now have everything I need for a working CPU except for an M8320. Anyone have one going spare for something less than eBay prices (or for trade)? While I'm wishing, I could also use a pair of the "top block" connectors for the CPU if anyone has any lying around... Thanks, Josh

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Vaxstation 4000/60 DECwindows

by marco＠familie-rauhut.eu

Hello list - I have a Vaxstation 4000/60 running VMS 7.3. DW-MOTIF is installed, TAILOR=on, License OK... @SYS$TEST:DECW$IVP say: Copyright Compaq Computer Corporation 1988, 2000. DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS Installation Verification Procedure (IVP) This IVP is intended to test some of the functionality of DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS and to provide a quick method of verifying the installation. This machine is not a workstation. Please provide the nodename of a workstation on which to display the IVP tests. You must be sure that this account and node have security access to the display node, or the IVP will fail. To skip the display-oriented tests, press Ctrl/Z at the following prompt. Why IVP detect the Vaxstation as not a workstation? Serial Console is off... Any ideas?

10 years, 7 months

2
3
0 0

DEC H745 regulator common failure modes?

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Hi folks, I've begun repairing my PDP 11/40 and have tracked down the first major issue to the H745 (-15v) regulator. Before I dig into it, I just wanted to see if there are any common known failure cases... Otherwise I'll just dive into troubleshooting it. :) Thanks as always- - Ian Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 7 months

6
10
0 0

DEC Papertape Readers

by holm＠freibergnet.de

..a friend forwarded something that look very similar to them, looks as if DEC cloned them in some way .. https://www.facebook.com/Excite.Espana/videos/10154330747448032/ :-) Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

10 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

flash (or ide) storage for unibus 11?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jerome H. Fine > both DEC and DSD needed a bounce buffer managed by software Love that term, "bounce buffer" (I wrote a whole package to support them in a packet switch I did) - I'm officially adopting it, right now! :-) Noel

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

classiccmp work

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I'm doing some work today and possibly over the next few days related to ftp services on the classiccmp server. Expect some squirrelyness over today and/or through the weekend. Also, since semi-retirement is now here... there will be some work finally getting started on things related to classiccmp. That long-discussed wiki (in some form) may be at the top of the list ;) I have a pretty long laundry list of things I'd like to add, but if anyone has any features/functionality they'd like to see added to classiccmp.org please email me the request off-list. Best, J

10 years, 7 months

3
5
0 0

Flash (or ide) storage for HP-2000?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

not me write it.. have not coded in years... now like my car.... I want to just turn the key and make it go. Ed# In a message dated 11/27/2015 9:19:51 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: Ed wrote.... ok pretty interesting but no driver for access-2000....unfortunately ! ------- You could write it..... The paper tape emulator there needs no drivers. I have one, and it works incredibly well (on HP2000 as well as every other environment). As to the ide disk emulator... there are solutions out there for HP that require HP-IB. That's of course not supported by HP2K, but that is "on my list" to enhance HP2K to support that. Could always toss in support for the ide disk board.... J

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Flash (or ide) storage for HP-2000?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

ok pretty interesting but no driver for access-2000....unfortunately ! In a message dated 11/26/2015 9:08:52 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, glen.slick at gmail.com writes: Some people have built their own. Some information here. http://newton.freehostia.com/hp/

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

PDP11GUI 1.47

by j_hoppe＠t-online.de

Folks, a new version of PDP11GUI is online. It fixes some errors, including "Error 103", which occured when running MACRO11 without administrator privileges. There were also problems under Win10. Download from http://retrocmp.com/pdp-11/pdp11gui Bug feedback is necessary! Enjoy, Joerg

10 years, 7 months

3
5
0 0

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