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

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

wow... that is absurd! $24,999 someone needs rehab... In a message dated 9/8/2015 4:57:08 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, hilpert at cs.ubc.ca writes: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-IBM-26-INTERPRETING-CARD-PUNCH-OWN-A-PI ECE-OF-HISTORY-/161725243156?hash=item25a7935f14

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

21MX proms (per request

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

>From: dwight <dkelvey at hotmail.com> >If I were doing it. >First you need to find out if it needs OC output. >There are many flash parts in surface mount that can have the higher speeds. >Add some 74LVC245 to give bus drive needed, also surface mount. >All on a little PC board. There would be a lot of wasted space in the flash but what the heck. >Put an edge connector on the board to deal with programming. >All will fit in a smaller space than the original part. >Dwight That would be great engineering fun! But at less than $4 for the blanks, using the old PROMs and the vintage programmer seems pretty straightforward, vintage correct, and low risk solution. Miraculously, my best offer got accepted on ebay, so semi-affordable vintage clunky Data I/O 29B Programmer and plenty of blanks are being shipped to me :-). I count collecting vintage tools for servicing your vintage machine as part of the fun too... Marc

10 years, 9 months

10
22
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ISO: Manual for Emulex CS21/H

by JoshD＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

Anyone out there have a manual for the Emulex CS21/H (or possibly the /U variant)? This is a UNIBUS DH11 clone. (There are also /FA, /FB, /FC, and /FD variants which are DMF32 clones - and we have the manual for these but it's of no use for our CS21/H boards :)). At the very least, if anyone has the dip switch settings for this, that would be an immense help. Thanks, Josh Sr. Vintage Software Engineer Living Computer Museum www.livingcomputermuseum.org<http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org>

10 years, 9 months

4
6
0 0

DEC 8235 IC? (repost)

by simski＠dds.nl

As something went wrong in posting this question, I try to repost it here. please don't be offended by this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi all. is there a list of equivalents for DEC ic's? I've made a mistake in attaching our BA-8 to the PDP8/f and plugged in the ribbon cable connecting connector C and D the wrong way. some magic smoke came loose and there are a few chips broken . by comparing the signals on those connectors, I made a list of suspect chips on which some pins got-15v or +15v... The M8330 board got most of the blast, resulting in 4 burned chips, but other boards could well be affected. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Met vriendelijke Groet, Simon Claessen drukknop.nl

10 years, 9 months

2
3
0 0

Wyse 370

by jan＠work.de

for both serial ports I can configure a terminal session at my Wyse 370 ASCII terminal. But I don't have any idea how to switch between sessions. Any idea or any hint where I can find a manual for this terminal?

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Wyse 370

by diegel＠work.de

for both serial ports I can configure a terminal session at my Wyse 370 ASCII terminal. But I don't have any idea how to switch between sessions. Any idea or any hint where I can find a manual for this terminal?

10 years, 9 months

2
1
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21MX proms (per request)

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Absolutely (assuming you count your engineering time as free), not to mention it feels rewarding to use clever engineering tricks to solve a problem instead of money. But I want to keep my machine original and vintage if I reasonably can. My programmer ended up very reasonably priced, and it is recognized as one of the better vintage programmers of that era. So it fits perfectly in my collection of higher end, historically meaningful engineering tools. Two birds with one stone, so it was a pretty easy decision. Marc >Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu>: >The median listing price for them on eBay for a 29B with pack seems to be around $3-400 which IMO is a little steep for a 30+ year >old PROM programmer. Hopefully your best offer successfully accepted was much lower! >I think the part cost on the PROMs pales in comparison. For the cost of the 29B, you could design a replacement for the original >PROM, have some boards fabricated, stuff them and you'd still be ahead a few hundred bucks ... >starts to make sense at those kind of prices, imo. >Best, >Sean

10 years, 9 months

2
1
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Control Data 160

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

William Degan wrote: Comparing the 160 and 160-A manuals with the 160 in the ebay auction (252070822992) Page 37 of the 160 manual from 1960 - smaller "160" marquee sign. Page 3-1 of the 160-A marquee says "CONTROL DATA 160-A" Ebay auction says "CONTROL DATA 160" So, there were two variations of the 160 marquee/sign above the numeric display. ---- Also, if a person is looking at the front of the computer, on the top left side, there is a square cut-out / slot? in the original 160 table (purpose?). This slot does not appear on the 160-A's table (from the 1963 programming manual), nor is it present on the Ebay auction. I am thinking this was originally a "later" 160 that was probably serviced well into the 160-A days. -- Bill vintagecomputer.net Only a few 160s used the 3 small inserts in the marquee. There were used to make it easier for the NCR rebrand. The later solid sign became the CDC standard. The cut out on the left was for the BPRE-11 punch. Only the early 160's and early 1604 machines had this. The punch table was spring loaded and could be raised up to the desk top to reload paper tape. Later on, the punch was mounted on a tray that slid out to the front. Another change was the replacment of the original paper tape reader with the PED 350. PED (Peripheral Equipment Division) was a CDC created company. Their first product was the 350 reader. Later, they made the 60X series of tape units and the 405 card reader. This was all part of CDC's effort to move away from other companys' peripherals. The early CDC systems shipped with Ampex tape units, IBM card equipment. The original paper tape reader was an inport from Ferranti in England. It was fascinating; used thyratrons as light sensors. I had one, but it disappeared in the last move. You can tell it from the 350 by the paper tape load arm. On the Ferranti, it is a steel rod. On the PED 350, it is a flattened V shaped plastic arm. Another way to tell early 160s from later units is the side drops. On the early units, the top formica also went down the left and right side about 12 inches. This stopped mid-life. Old memoriy says at s/n 43 but after 55 years, that is not hard data. The early 1604's also had this side drop of the desk top. You can see it in some early photographs. I did see one 161 typewriter stand with the side drop, but don't remember if it went into production. NO 160s were ever converted to 160-As. Not one. There are physical differences in the logic chassis. More cards slots were needed. The extra 4K bank of memory takes up a lot card space. The front panel would have to be totally replaced. The 160-A requires a lot more cable ports for the Buffer channel and the external memory (169). 160-A manuals would be useless for a 160. The card types are the same and about half the commands are the same. But that is it. By the way, bitsavers has an excellent description of the 160 in "System Programs For The 160 Computer". It includes a photograph showing the above differences. And pages 1 - 10 present good insight to Seymour Cray's thinking about his next machine, the 6600. It shows where the idea for the PPUs came from. The obsolete 160s were in use for many years after their demise. Usually for testing peripherals, copying paper tapes, etc. I last worked on one in 1980, almost twenty years after it was built. Billy Pettit

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Problems with 8/A Programmer's Panel

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

>Not sure what you mean by membrane keypad. My front panels certainly >have real buttons, which makes a clicking noise and feeling when I press >them. But maybe I'm confused and there is some membrane behind the keys >or something? > >Johnny That's my mistake. I've never actually seen or touched a DKC8-AA panel, just pictures of them in the manual :) Hoping to acquire one since I am trying to do other things with the 8/A than keep debugging its hardware! (such as getting Dumprest working for RL02). >The 74f parts may be too fast. Try adding damping resistors (10 to 30 ohms) >in series with the outputs to slow things down or just switch to 74ls > >Joe Thanks for the tip. That is what I was implying, not sure I said so explicitly :) But adding twelve resistors which may or may not fix the problem, and hacking up my board is not an attractive thought... but neither is changing three 20-pin unsocketed DIPs without proper desoldering equipment. Guess I should have used sockets in a prototype! Besides, the board really does need redoing with proper power and ground plane management. -Charles

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Formatter for the EMULEX QD01 ST506 Controller?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

..the Subject says all.. I'm looking for the Formater Utility for an Emulx QD01 ..preferably for the PDP11/RT11. The Manual http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/emulex/QD0151001-C-QD01_Di… lists the Part Numbers for the Software as PX995180x-0y where x is 1 or 2 and y is between 1-4, dependig of the distribution tapei media. A RX50 Floppy with the PN VX9951804 should exist too.. Has someone images from that software handy? 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, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Control Data 160

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: Subject: Re: Control Data 160 Ebay I believe the eBay lister stated that it was a 160, not the -A. So no return jump for you... --Chuck Which would make it even more scarce. There were only a little over a 100 of the 160 models made. And 40+ of them were rebranded as NCR machines. There were 495 160-As made officially. (There were also a small number shipped without serial numbers to the good people at Langley.) I know of at least 5x 160-As still in existence, besides my own. Which should be going to a museum this week if they can sort out shipping glitches. My system includes a 161-A Typewriter in lousy shape and a 167-2 Card Reader in perfect shape. Plus all manuals, software (with listings) and spare parts. Even the paper tape rewinder! I did not know any 160 machines survived, so who ever bought it has a unique item. I have looked for 15 years for an 8092 = the first true 8 bit computer. Haven't found even a hint or rumor of one. I am working with Al Kossow, to see that this material is eventually in his archives. Billy Pettit

10 years, 9 months

1
0
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Zendex ZX-200A firmware reverse-engineered

by spacewar＠gmail.com

The original proprietor of Zendex has put the firmware of the ZX-200A in the public domain, so I've put my reverse-engineered source code on Github: https://github.com/brouhaha/zx200a-fw The ZX-200A is a single-board Multibus floppy controller intended for Intel MDS (including Series II and Series III) development systems, replacing either or both the Intel dual-board SBC 201 single-density and SBC 202 double-density floppy controllers. Since it can do both densities, it can replace both Intel controllers simultaneously, allowing the same floppy drives to be used for either density, by using different logical drive numbers. We take it for granted that "modern" floppy controllers often support selectable density, but with those early Intel board-level floppy controllers that wasn't the case. Also, the Intel SBC 202 double-density controller uses an Intel-proprietary M2FM disk format, instead of IBM-compatible MFM. As such, none of the single-chip FDCs are compatible with it, with the possible exception of the Western Digital 1781 (with a huge pile of external support logic), and (less likely) the TI TMS9909. Unfortunately the original ZX-200A manual, which contained the schematics and source code, is not available, hence my project to reverse-engineer it. I'm working on tracing out the schematic, but as the board has 82 chips it is slow going.

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Problems with 8/A Programmer's Panel

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Several years ago, Vince Slyngstad and I "cloned" the rare DKC8-AA Programmer's Panel for PDP-8 with some improvements (0.6 vs. 0.3" LED displays, real "click" buttons instead of that membrane keypad, and fixed a couple of bugs in the original design). Also, since 8235's were scarce even then, we used 74F244 buffers instead to gate the input vs. output of the switch register onto the bus back to the M8316 Option 1 board. That may have caused a lurking problem, since occasionally the SR will change bits when an address is loaded. Turns out an oscillation starts on the ground lines at about 20 MHz with certain entries at the keypad to LSR and LA (I can't see an obvious pattern). This parasitic is large enough (up to 2V p-p with respect to the chassis/rack) that it's clocking the D-flops used as the physical switch register! It can be seen in the 7-segment displays as a "flicker" which will change when I touch the ground on the board... attempts to add more grounds actually made the problem worse! I'm thinking of redoing the board layout with better attention to ground planes/power buses. There's a .01 uf decoupling cap at every IC and 12 out of 40 pins on each of the two connecting ribbon cables are dedicated to ground. 7 on one, 5 on the other are for +5 volts. On the other hand, I am tired of tinkering and considering just buying a real DKC8-AA if there's one out there. Anyone? ;) -Charles

10 years, 9 months

5
4
0 0

New BBS in Maryland

by mokuba＠gmail.com

+1-410-734-6804 New hobby thing. ;) Wildcat! 4 running on it, stock out of box config. If you don't see all the menus except for help and send to sysop, wait till I validate users. When I get back home i'll set it to give non-validated users more permissions, though. -- Gary G. Sparkes Jr. KB3HAG

10 years, 9 months

12
26
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IBM 026

by misc4email＠yahoo.com

Can anyone help me to locate an old IBM 026 printing keypunch for a project on which I am working?I was an IBM Field Engineer many years ago and I used to service lots of Unit Record equipment at that time.Any help in locating a machine would be greatly appreciated.Thank you. AlEx-IBM Field Engineer

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Schematics KDJ11-A / M8192?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Holm Tiffe > Anyway, thanks for the schematics Eh, de nada. > I have the board running again. The fix was simple, the xtal was bad. You're lucky it was something so simple! (Although we've seen this kind of thing before - I had that 11/23 with a bad crystal.) I've got three dead 11/73 boards (from someone else), but none of them are that easy. Different symptoms on all three, but I suspect the State Sequencer gate array on all three. On one, at least, the ILOE latch control signal from that gate array is sitting at 2V (which I seem to recall is characteristic of a TTL input that's not being driven). Maybe it's just some corrosion, and re-seating the gate array (if I can work out how to unseat it - don't have the extraction tool) will fix it. Otherwise, I'm SOL. At least the J11 there are spares for - that gate array is surely umobtainium. Noel

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

BBC Model B with Raspberry Pi Internals

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

Bit of a tricky one to google this, so thought I'd consult the list - does anyone know of a documented project that replaced the internals of a BBC Model B with a Raspberry Pi (or MiniITX PC) interfacing with keyboard etc. to bring modern internals with a traditional interface? I don't even know if there is a word for these kind of projects? Thanks, Mark.

10 years, 9 months

4
3
0 0

A poltergeist in my machine?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I've mentioned how I've seen this wierd behaviour where QBUS memory boards that hadn't been used in a long time didn't work when first plugged in, but started working later. I just had something even weirder happen, and am curious if anyone has an plausible explanations. So I had a dead M8044 (MSV11-D), symptom was that you could write -1 to any location, it read back as 0. Quite repeatable, I can power cycle the machine, take the card in and out, etc, etc. So I throw it on an extender, and start chasing. I have a two instruction loop (write location 0, loop), and I'm watching the data going into the memory chips on the card, and it all looks good. So I add a third instruction (read location 0, after the write), and continue chasing. Data looks good coming out of the chips; then it goes to an octal latch. So I look at the latch enable, and that doesn't look so hot - just a tiny little ugly spike. So I look at the source of that, and it's a D flop. So I look at the D flop's clock input, and it's also a nasty little spike. So that comes >from the output of a triple-AND, and so I start looking at the inputs of the 3-AND. And when I put my 'scope lead on the second input... the memory suddenly starts working! Well, I could see that - the added resistance or capacitance or whatever of the probe might have had some effect on a circuit that was right on the edge. But here's where the ghost enters the machine. I pull the 'scope probe ..... and the memory keeps working! I can power cycle the machine, leave it off for 15 minutes, power it back on - and the memory still works fine! Does anyone have _any_ idea WTF is going on here?!?! I feel like I'm in some sort of AI koan... Noel

10 years, 9 months

6
5
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21MX proms (per request)

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thanks for the answers everyone, I am writing everything down... Marc

10 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

Control Data ad: Omega 480 "370 compatible alternative" on eBay

by linimon＠lonesome.com

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-197X-RARE-CONTROL-DATA-AD-OMEGA-480-370-COM… Not that I'm going to bid on it, but ... I had never heard of this CDC product before. Does anyone have any idea if this was a real product, or just a way to poke IBM in the eye, or what? mcl

10 years, 9 months

4
3
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21MX proms (per request)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Several people asked, here's the scoop: The common proms for HP 21MX M/E/F are 1K, 4K, and 8K. 1K are used for either loader roms on the cpu board or microcode on the FAB 4K are used for microcode on the FAB or FEM 8K are used for microcode on the FEM The manuals you'll want to print and keep handy: HP 12992 Loader Roms Installation Manual, 12992-90001 (April '86) HP 1000 M/E/F-series Firmware Installation and Reference Manual, 12791-90001 (September, '83) I believe these are both on bitsavers. They are "must have" manuals. These are all bipolar proms, and most modern prom programmers will not be able to program them. I use a Data I/O 29B (with Unipak 2B), and it can program all these parts. Those programmers appear on ebay from time to time at around roughly $400. The blank proms are not terribly easy to find these days. Ebay has them occasionally, but your best bet is sites that cater to arcade machine repair. Here's a non-exhaustive but useful list of compatible parts for each: 1K parts MMI 6301 Harris 7611 Signetics N82S129 National 74S287 TI 24S10 AMD 27S21 Fujitsu 7114 (possibly 7052 as well, need to verify that) 4K parts Signetics N82S141 Harris 7641 MMI 6341 8K parts Signetics N82S181 Harris 7681 MMI 6381

10 years, 9 months

10
14
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Control Data 160 Ebay

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Anyone here get the Control Data 160 (Ebay 252070822992)? I must admit time, money, and space aside I would love to have had this one! (I have the manuals at least) -- Bill vintagecomputer.net

10 years, 9 months

5
4
0 0

'New' PDP-11 prints

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> There are a number of things like that (e.g. the H786 power supply for > the BA11-N; [print sets] not available separately [online], but in the > 11/23 FMPS [online], if you know to look there): we ought to produce > some sort of registry, to collect such information in one place. So I have started such a registry. http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/FMPSOnline.html The concept is that eventually search engines will index that page, so people looking for, say, '"BA11-N" prints' will wind up there, and that page will tell them where to go. I went through a number of PDP-11 print sets which are online (11/05S, 11/23, 11/34, etc) to compile the initial list, but it's just a start. I will add others as I come across them; and if any knows of, or finds, any others (i.e. print sets which _are_ online, but do not show up when looked for in common search engines such as Google), please let me know, and I will add them. > I also found prints for the MF11-U, MF11-W, and MM11-Y; none of which > appear to be on-line (although the MF11-U ones might be in the 11/05S print > set, which ISTR is online). On looking at the 11/05S print set online, I think it has most of the MM11-Y prints, but some pages are apparently missing (it claims), so I think not everything is there. > I don't think the ME11-L prints are online either, but those I have in > my 11/05 print set - I'll have to see if that print set is online > somewhere, no point re-scanning them, if so. So it turns out that these don't seem to be online (in any form), but I have a set of hardcopy in my set "PDP-11/05 Engineering Drawings" (which is different from the 05S set which _is_ online), so I will scan them in and make them available at some point (especially since these seem to be the most common PDP-11 core memory boards). If anyone is desperately searching for them, please let me know, and I will accelerate that process. The situation with the ME11-L/MF11-L/MM11-L (which are all the same boards) is slightly complicated. The board set is called an MM11-L (or -LP, depending); G110+G231+H214 for non-parity, G109+G231+H215+M7529 for parity. The MF11-L seems to be a backplane, plus an MM11-L board set; the ME11-L seems to be an MF11-L in a box. Some CPU backplanes (e.g. the older 11/05's) can also take an MM11-L board set. (The _newer_ 11/05's have backplanes which take an MM11-Y - whether an MM11-L would work in them, I have no idea.) Noel

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

'New' PDP-11 prints

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> On looking at the 11/05S print set online, I think it has most of the > MM11-Y prints Err, make that the 11/04 print set. (Sorry!) The 11/05S has the MF11-U (or would that be MM11-U - I wonder if there's a system to the ME/MF/MM designators). Noel

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Reading ROMs

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

List of blank for 21MX and microcode : That would be very usefull. Thanks in advance --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier ?lectronique a ?t? v?rifi?e par le logiciel antivirus Avast. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

What kind of keyboard is this?

by wheagy＠gmail.com

I picked this up at Radio Shack about 25-30 years ago and have been hauling it around ever since. http://imgur.com/oNEcRFv,VacFqrY#0 (There should be two images...a link to the second.) It was a surplus thing that RS was selling on the parts wall and I grabbed on the off chance I'd need it someday. I lost the cardboard top to the plastic bag it came in, so I know nothing about it. Anyone have any idea? Thanks...Win

10 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

Problem with RF73 DSSI disk

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Since the capacity of 2x RF31 and 1x RF71 disks is a little bit low for VMS with some compilersi (~400MB every disk), I've looked for a bigger disk, at least for the sytem itself. (I've already relocated the pagefile to the 2nd disk). Ok, there are RF73 available at ebay US for $100, but addiotional $50 and more for shipping is to much, I have to pay additional 19% of customs VAT on top of the sum from disk+shipping.. Maybe there are people that think that this prices are ok, but not me, not for an old 2GB disk for an computer with that power consumtion and that computing "power".. In the case there is someone in europe that want to give away such a disk for an acceptable price, please mail me.. Luckily an old friend of mine found 2 Disks in his stock, another RF31 (not tried jet) and an RF73. I've changed now the working but still almost empty RF71 in my VAX4000-300 against that RF73 disk and tried to integrate it to the system. It starts with all LEDs on (as the other do), begins to rattle a little with the head assembly (as the others do) but stops then and begins to reposition somewhere in 0.5s cycles. It never finishes doing that, it is not going to ready. The ready led is blinking for a short time after every 0,5s cycle. I've tried to talk with the disk using the KA670 Firmware with set host/dup/dssi/bus:0 2, PARAMS is working and STATUS is responding, the displayed last failure was 3304(X) and I don't know what that could be.. All other commands do work, but they are aborted since the disk is busy. The available RF72DUG8 gives the hint that the error codes are listed in the service manuals, but it seems that those manuals aren't available somewhere. What could the error be? Is the disk dead? 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, 9 months

14
37
0 0

Fw: MITS Altair 8800b switches needed

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

Oops: http://www.dailywell.com.tw/uploadpic/file/20130914143655f.pdf ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Stein" <mhs.stein at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Monday, September 07, 2015 12:41 AM Subject: Re: MITS Altair 8800b switches needed > Anything here you like? > > Might have to hunt for a distributor/retailer > though. > > m > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "drlegendre ." <drlegendre at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic > Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2015 4:21 PM > Subject: Re: MITS Altair 8800b switches needed > > >> Since Erik brought it up.. >> >> I could also use a couple switches, but in my >> case they are for an 8800A >> model. (Well, it's sort-of a 'B' now as it was >> upgraded to the 'B' power >> supply, but it still has the original 'A' type >> D/C board). >> >> Like the 'B' it uses mostly Mom-Off-Mom >> mini-toggles, with panel mount >> bushing, and the long solder terminals that >> solder directly to the PCB (not >> the small eyelet type). But the handles are the >> standard mini-toggle bat >> handle - not the flatted paddles Erik >> describes. >> >> Any leads, feel free to mail me off-list. >> Thanks! >> >> -Bill >> >> On Sun, Sep 6, 2015 at 1:13 PM, Erik Klein >> <classiccmp at vintage-computer.com> >> wrote: >> >>> I am desperately seeking NOS, working pulls or >>> accurate replacement >>> switches for my MITS 8800b. >>> >>> These are flattened paddle switches, both >>> ON-OFF and MOM-Off-MOM type. >>> SPDT, Panel mount, solder post with a 15mm >>> actuator. This last part is the >>> pain as everything I've found is 10mm or less. >>> >>> I've checked every online source that I know >>> of plus all of the local >>> electronics and surplus shops with no luck. >>> >>> I'm sure someone here has a stash or knows >>> someone who does. I need at >>> least one of each type but would prefer a few >>> more as I do have a few >>> marginal switches to replace if I can. >>> >>> I'd even buy a complete 8800b D/C board if >>> that's what it took. >>> >>> Please email me at my webmaster@ >>> "vintage-computer.c0m" address if you can >>> help. >>> >>> Thank you! >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Erik Klein >>> www.vintage-computer.com >>> www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum - The Vintage >>> Computer Forums >>> marketplace.vintage-computer.com - The Vintage >>> Computer and Gaming >>> Marketplace >>> >

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

MITS Altair 8800b switches needed

by classiccmp＠vintage-computer.com

I am desperately seeking NOS, working pulls or accurate replacement switches for my MITS 8800b. These are flattened paddle switches, both ON-OFF and MOM-Off-MOM type. SPDT, Panel mount, solder post with a 15mm actuator. This last part is the pain as everything I've found is 10mm or less. I've checked every online source that I know of plus all of the local electronics and surplus shops with no luck. I'm sure someone here has a stash or knows someone who does. I need at least one of each type but would prefer a few more as I do have a few marginal switches to replace if I can. I'd even buy a complete 8800b D/C board if that's what it took. Please email me at my webmaster@ "vintage-computer.c0m" address if you can help. Thank you! -- Erik Klein www.vintage-computer.com www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum - The Vintage Computer Forums marketplace.vintage-computer.com - The Vintage Computer and Gaming Marketplace

10 years, 9 months

4
4
0 0

seeking Burroughs B6700 manuals and software

by nw＠retroComputingTasmania.com

We would be glad to hear from anyone who might have new material related to the Burroughs B6700. We're on the hunt for any manuals or software related to the Burroughs large systems so we can build an emulator for the B6700. This search includes the B5000, B6000, B7000 families, since there is considerable overlap across these families and collateral from one system family can assist understanding another. Example models include B5500, B5700, B6500, B7500, B6700, B7700, B6800, and B7800. We were amazingly lucky with the B5500 to have so much of the critical documentation (thanks Bitsavers!) and a complete suite of system software, but even though the B6700 was more recent and produced in larger numbers we're not having the same level of good fortune finding artifacts. What we have so far is documented here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JnMsyE8ssJi_-MUsK0rT9LPtNpeJCpTv1Qr… If you're interested in this system then you likely remember that it had a particularly impressive front-panel display, seen here: http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burroughs-b6700-mainfra… This was known as the MDL display: Maintenance Diagnostics Logic display. Because the MDL had the 4 x top-of-stack registers down to the bit-level particular bit-patterns allowed words to be displayed. The early MCPs put IDLE into the display during IO waits, and subsequent releases: B for Burroughs, but sites quickly started putting their own company initials or the time. The Danish museum is so far the only place I've found that kept the MDL: http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Genstand:11000045_Konsolpanel_Burroughs_B6700 Thanks to Finn Verner Nielsen for being so helpful and undertaking an expedition into their warehouse to locate and photograph the item for us. On that DDHF web-page you will see on the left of the picture the B7800 MDL they have too. My goal is to also construct a replica of the B6700 MDL. Steps undertaken so far: Posts to newsgroups Posts on LinkedIn, wikipedia, Yahoo groups Emails to a few dozen people who were involved with the system Trawling the Internet

10 years, 9 months

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PDP-8 diagnostics SR settings?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Johnny, I appreciate the thought, but there are over 1500 pins on this board and soldering them all would be a major undertaking in itself... I don't have a wave soldering machine ;) The first error flagged today is on D1 CA 3, the Command Register A bit 3. Scope loops definitely identify this bus as trouble and it's part of the disk address register too. The command register is two 'LS174 hex D-flops, and it drives the input of a '165 shift register (disk address) and the input of an 8234 (2-1 multiplexer/driver) back onto the data bus, and that's it. Should be simple... ha! The voltage on that output pin will go up and down as set by the loop until the board is flexed - then it will wander up to around 1-2 volts (measured at the pin with a DIP clip). However, I measured its ability to drive a 510 ohm load to 3.5 volts, and sink at least 10 ma (measured directly) staying below 0.8 volts. And the inputs to those two gates can be pulled to 0 with only a fraction of a milliamp, and go high when the driving D-flop is disconnected! I couldn't reproduce the problem while flexing the board either, but then I'd need three or four hands. So I changed the LS174 anyway. No luck - the card passes diagnostics until the board is flexed. All three of those chips are in the same general area of the board, too. Close inspection of the driven '165 shows a lot of black oxidation on its pins... don't those tend to grow crud inside the package and cause problems too? But... read on ;) After perusing the schematic several more times this evening, I found one more place I'd overlooked where D1 CA 3 (the "flaky" line) connects... to an AND gate E96 in the center of the card, that has a solderable jumper for RL01/02. I had moved that jumper to RL01 for testing by another member (as that is the drive he has), and back to RL02 when I got the card back from him. Lo and behold, underneath that piece of wire was a tiny solder whisker, at the moment shorting the CA 3 line to (something else?) but it was definitely continuity to another trace. Don't know how long that whisker might have been there, quite possibly from before I changed it for the test! Anyway I cleared it, and I've flexed the board numerous times while running AJRLAC controller diagnostic, and made 8 passes without an error. So far so good. So I connected the drives, booted up SerialDisk and can read their directories (only C & D, but that's a PIP version problem that I corrected on my RL02 image). Drives seem to be working :) ... of course R20A: (the SYS directory) is clobbered, so I'll have to remake the pack with my known-good image, but I was able to format the pack in Drive 1 without errors. Even wiggling the board several times. Now I'm running read/write tests (AJRLIA.DG) on Drive 1. No errors so far after two ten-minute passes :) THIS time maybe I really got it... CA 3 is the 4th bit of course where all the problems were occurring. Will let it run for a while longer. David Gesswein just sent me a version of dumprest for RL that he's just written, modified for my Omni-USB port at 40/41. If that works I'll be able to upload an entire RL02 in about 2 minutes instead of 3 hours with vtserver... -Charles

10 years, 9 months

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Reading ROMs

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Jay, Mike, John, Thanks for the helpful information. It just dawned onto me that these were "write once" PROMs, not modern EEPROMs. Duh. So you get one shot at doing it right... The Data I/Os on ebay seem to be quite a bit more than $100 right now, I'll keep looking. I guess none of the modern ebay Chinese ones would do? Also where can you get the blanks? Any modern equivalents here too? Marc ------------------------- Jay West wrote: The Data I/O 29B works perfectly for those old fusable link proms. John Robertson wrote: One can pick up a Data I/O 29B and Unipak II off eBay starting around $100USD (ish). There is a very good support group on yahoo groups: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Data_IO_EPROM Mike Loewen wrote: I used a Data I/O 29B programmer to burn the PROMs, with a Unipak 2B. The blank PROMs were variously Signetics N82S141, MMI 6341-1 and National 74S474. Along with the 12821A HP-IB board, you also need a Boot Loader PROM, 12992H (12992-80004). The boot loader PROM is a Signetics N82S129 or equivalent. For installation information about the firmware PROMs, see manual 12791-90001 (HP 1000 M/E/F-Series Firmware Installation and Reference Manual). For boot loader information, see manual 12792-90001 (HP 12992 Loader ROMs Installation Manual). ------------------------

10 years, 9 months

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Data General 6050 Cartridge Disk Drive

by bcoleman3＠hotmail.com

I know this is a pretty long shot, but does anyone happen to have any service or maintenance manuals on the DG 6050 disk drive that have a procedure for adjusting the servo control circuit board? Or does anyone know anything about doing this? Thanks

10 years, 9 months

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Tu10 pdp11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > Early DMA controllers were all multiple cards, so having their own > dedicated backplanes were a pretty sane idea. Well, there was also that large intermediate generation which still had their own backplanes, but they were 'system unit' (for lack of a defined term for this form factor) backplanes (e.g. RK11-D, RH11, etc), which fit into e.g. a BA11-K, along with other 'generic' UNIBUS backplanes (i.e. DD11-C, etc). That first generation I spoke of (the one with backplanes that mounted directly in H960's) are marked by the use of lots of small Flip Chip cards, not the larger quad/hex boards that one finds in the 'second generation' (above). I guess the larger board versions were cheaper to manufacture, which is why they got rid of the first generation ones in favour of the second generation (which were often functionally identical to the first-generation ones they replaced, e.g. RK11-C and -D). Those first-generation one used very similar construction technique to the KA10 generation of machines, which also used that size Flip Chip (although a different series, mostly with individual transistors), and heavier wire on the bacplanes. What did KI10's use, does anyone know? I have this bit set that they used roughly the same kind of Flip Chips as the 'first generation' PDP-11 DMA devices, but I've never seen a KI in person. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Collection Reduction - Free for pickup

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

As a result of remodeling my house, I now have less space for the collection and need to thin it out a bit. The following items are free for pick-up in the Los Angeles area. Priority will be given to the first person who will take everything. Almost all of these are "portables" so it isn't that much volume. Some work; some don't and are projects. The Seequa (dual DOS-CP/M unit) and Access Matrix "Actrix" could be very cool pieces if brought into working condition. 1. Seequa Chameleon Plus: Powers up; no video - otherwise in nice condition 2. Corona ATP: Works, boots off floppy to MS-DOS 2.11 disc (included) - nice condition 3. Sanyo MBC-775: Powers up, no video; though external RCA video works - shows boot error in ROM - nice condition 4. Sanyo MBC-675: Works - missing one floppy drive - boots off floppy (not included) to MS-DOS 2.11, broken foot - rough condition 5. Access Matrix - Actrix: Powers up, video good, floppy drive B: cycles and won't boot (comes with case, manual and software) 6. Sony SMC-70G Genlocker: Works (tested RCA out), asks for system disk 7. NEC PowerMate Portable SX: powers up, no video, possible HDD crash based on screeching noise 8. Kaypro II: Lights flash on floppy drives, no video, constant beeping noise in sync with flashing floppy drive lights 9. Kaypro 2X: Works - boots to screen asking for disk (seem to recall that one of the floppy drives may need realignment) Please PM me if you are interested.

10 years, 9 months

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Cheap board guy

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ethan Dicks > That looks like a great haul. We're talking about the guy on eBay whom I posted a pointer to a couple of days back, the one with large lots of QBUS CPUs, memory, DLV11s, etc? > I hope they are working cards. All the ones I've gotten from the guy above which I was able to test (couldn't test, e.g. the RK05 cards 'cause I don't have a working RK05 yet) were OK - QBUS memory, 11/23's, etc. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Control Data 160 Ebay

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

was it a 160 or a 160A? Ed# In a message dated 9/6/2015 9:13:38 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, coryheisterkamp at gmail.com writes: I'd be curious, too. I was *this close* to throwing in a bid seeing as this turned up within driving distance...until I was politely reminded that I have a few other projects around here. The coffee can of 'spare parts' also gave me pause. -C On Sep 5, 2015, at 9:08 PM, Jay Jaeger wrote: > On 9/5/2015 7:10 PM, william degnan wrote: >> Anyone here get the Control Data 160 (Ebay 252070822992)? I must admit >> time, money, and space aside I would love to have had this one! (I have >> the manuals at least) >> > > I would not be terribly surprised if that auction result flushed out one > or two more. Ya never know. > > JRJ >

10 years, 9 months

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Schematics KDJ11-A / M8192?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Holm Tiffe > Sorry, I couldn't find a mailing about Schematics for the KDJ11-AA, http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2015-September/011849.html > I've read that you got some documentation and want to scan it, 600dpi > with some TIFF compression or so.. that's all. Well, now I'm really confused, because AFAIK the message that talked about the 600dpi and TIFF is the same one that thas the URL for the FMPS. So I don't understand how you don't have them. Oh well. > No, I'm not reading every singe mailing from that list. I don't either - there's often too much. But I do read everything that looks like it could be DEC-related, and most of the other stuff too (it's kind of fun to read about the really old machines, etc). Noel

10 years, 9 months

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'New' PDP-11 prints

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> we now have the 11/73 prints, which I will be scanning Real Soon Now. OK, done: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/MP01890_KDJ11-A_Jan84.pdf Can the appropriate people please download this to all the right places (e.g. repositories)? Don't be misled by the svelte 1.5MB size; they were scanned at 600dpi, and there is a _ton_ of resolution in there (you can go way past the '100%' setting on Adobe Reader without getting pixellation). The originals were in really rough shape (torn, written on, etc), but I think the results are fully legible. I looked quickly, and found a couple of issues, where there was writing which obscured things on the scans, and fixed the images manually to show what's on the original prints. However, I didn't have the energy to look at every detail of every page, so if something comes up un-readable, let me know, and I'll issue a fixed set. (There are some places which aren't legible, e.g. lower right pins of E9 on K3, but the original prints aren't legible there either, so there's nothing I can do about that; it's possible to work out what the pin numbers are, though.) And a _HUGE_ 'Thank You' to Paul Anderson for lending me the print set so I could scan them for everyone! > That does leave us needing the 11/83/84 CPU prints, so if anyone has a > set... Can I repeat my appeal for these? They are for the KDJ11-B (M8190). With this board being so recent, surely someone must have a set? I'd be happy to do the work of scanning them, if someone has originals but isn't up to the scanning part. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Mostek MK8022 QBUS memory repair tips

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I have one of these Mostek memory cards, and it was non-functional, and a Google didn't reveal _anything_ online about them. The fault was a couple of picked bits, so I started off tracing the signal paths for those bits from the bus fingers, to the transceivers, to an octal latch, etc - and then it dawned on me that this card has two banks (i.e. it has a 9x4 array of xx64 64Kx1 chips; i.e. to provide 16 bits wide plus byte parity, there are two groups of 18 chips), and one bank was picking, and the other was not. So that meant that data paths were all OK, it was a simple matter of finding some bad memory chips. (It turns out that diagnostic heuristic is quite useful, since many PDP-11 semiconductor memory cards have two banks of xxKx1 chips; so if you have dropped/picked bits, look to see if both banks have the same fault. If 'no', it's pretty much guaranteed to be a memory chip, and it should be easy to find. I just fixed for someone an M8044 with this failure mode, without doing any hardware debugging at all; the symptoms, and the prints, were all I needed.) There was nothing to indicate which banks/bits were where on the MK8022, but by pulling memory chips (luckily, they were socketed, so this was pretty painless), I managed to work it out (unlike many memory cards, it's not semi-random). For reference for others, here it is: Low bank: 01 - H1 ... 0200 - H8 0400 - E1 ... 0100000 - E8 High bank: 01 - F1 ... 0200 - F8 0400 - D1 ... 0100000 - D8 D-H9 seem to be parity. If anyone has one of these cards, and it's busted and they're not up to dealing with it, let me know. Depending on the failure mode, I _may_ be able to help (no documentation of any kind, after all...) Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Tu10 pdp11

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Reading docs on DEC TU10 for pdp 11 one makes a serial connection, right? Not sure because I found little about baud, etc. I did not see any definitive controller card for UNIBUS pdp 11. Maybe I am missing something..can anyone share experiences? Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net

10 years, 9 months

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PDP-8 diagnostics SR settings?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Looks like I spoke too soon. The dreaded RL8A failure has returned! I made a new OS/8 RL02 pack on vtserver (took the expected three hours at 9600 baud console speed). Booted up the 8/A, so far so good. But then Drive 0 faulted and OS/8 crashed... restarted and it crashed a few seconds later again. I flexed the middle of the RL8A upwards and the system worked. For a while. Then it crashed and wouldn't reboot. Back to where I was earlier in the week - won't even allow SerialDisk to boot if the RL8A is in the backplane. OS/8 on the SerialDisk virtual RK05 works flawlessly if the card is removed. Obviously there is still an intermittent which has come back. Maybe there's a tiny thread of something conductive stuck under one of the IC's and I managed to temporarily clear it as I described. Anyhow I am resuming my search for a good RL8A. I have wasted enough man-hours on this flaky board. thanks Charles

10 years, 9 months

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Tu10 pdp11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From william degnan > I was looking to see if references to the tm11 were "module/card" or > backplane interface. I think pretty much all that earliest generation of UNIBUS interfaces were stand-alone backplanes (i.e. 19" wide things that went in an H960 in a fixed location, and were filled with the small Flip Chip modules); the RK11-C, RP11-C, RF11, and TC11 all are. > I surprisingly found little commentary or threads about the TU10 / > TM11, other than DEC docs. I guess these are not super common Yeah, I think they were the first PDP-11 tape drives - not as rare as RF11's now, but pretty rare. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Control Data 160 Ebay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jay Jaeger > I would not be terribly surprised if that auction result flushed out > one or two more. Well, auctions like this are hopefully getting the word out that many of these old computers are worth a lot more than scrap value. Yes, it will cause some people to ask unrealistic amounts for them, but better that than the other way: someone's who's asking too much can always come down to reasonability, but someone who's scrapped a machine, well, it's gone forever... Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Schematics KDJ11-A / M8192?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Holm Tiffe >> Not reading the list much, are we? :-) > Huh? Have I missed something in the near past? That would be the implication, yes... :-) But yes, you're in luck. I'm scanning them as we speak. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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8 inch floppies-Wang, TRS80, Peachtree, perfect software, much more. Some 8 inch drives also.

by useddec＠gmail.com

If interested, please contact me off list. Thanks, Paul

10 years, 9 months

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Burroughs A 584 card reader available

by useddec＠gmail.com

If you are interested, contact me off list.

10 years, 9 months

1
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George!

by evan＠snarc.net

Here's a new picture of "George" -- aka the Philbrick analog computer that MARCH rescued two months ago. It was used at M.I.T. from 1958-1970. http://snarc.net/george.jpg

10 years, 9 months

8
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Tu10 pdp11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: David Gesswein > I have a working one on an 8. It took a lot of work to get it to that > state. > > http://www.pdp8online.com/tu10/tu10-repair.shtml Wow. That is a really awesome repair job you did there. My hat is off... Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Possible road trip....Illnois, Canada, Maine and back

by useddec＠gmail.com

I'm looking into a road trip from Champaign to Maine via Indy, Detroit, Windsor, Niagra Falls, Buffalo or 1000 Islands, Syracuse to Boston area, and up to Maine. Not sure about the return Route. I'll be leaving late Sep or early Oct. I have talked to a few list members about dropping off/picking up items. If anyone wishes to buy/ sell/ trade along the route, please contact me off list. I have a good size minivan and am trying to keep things down to a BA11-K or FL02 size, but that can change.I do have a few 42 inch cabs with q-bus boxes i could part with. I have a lot of 8A, 8E, qbus, unibus, VAX, boxes and parts, and LAXX, VTxx and VR units and parts. Thanks, Paul

10 years, 9 months

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