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

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

The other day my RD54 just stopped rotating, dead in its tracks, while it was running. I guessed one of the motor control power transistors may have failed. I assume they are the series of 6 chunky ones attached to a single heatsink. I have desoldered them (en-masse) and tested them with a Peak DCA55 tester, and they all appear to be working. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Has anyone ever repaired an RD54 control board? Regards Rob

11 years, 2 months

11
31
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Help needed please re possible loss of a Burroughs B7800 CPU

by evan.linwood＠eastek.com.au

For those who don't know, Monash University (Melbourne Australia) has had the chassis of a B7800 CPU sitting around under a stoir case, left over from the days when a series of large Burroughs systems had been in use there during the seventies. I'm no expert on Burroughs systems, but from all the Internet based trawling I've done over the years it appears that Burroughs had a 'scorched earth' policy, and systematically reclaimed and disposed of all B5000 and onward family machines. At least to date, I haven't been able to find any other surviving example of a B5000 family machine (or major components). Naturally I'd be very happy to be proved wrong. Unfortunately all cards and power supplies had been removed but it still had the basic frame, backplane (very impressive in it's own right) and two large front control panels all in place (also very impressive). (I've been told that the front panels were pulled prior to disposal). Many of you will be familiar with Ralph Klimek and his amazing stories of life as a technician with these machines. He has some pictures of this particular frame, about mid way down this page on his site: http://users.monash.edu.au/~ralphk/burroughs.html Because I live close by, I was dropping in every so often to check up on both this frame, and a (smaller) VAX 11/780 sitting next to it. Because the Uni has quite a decent vintage computer display in place at it's Caulfied campus, I had felt comfortable that both machines were safe. On a relatively recent visit (a few months ago, late last year? I'm not quite sure as life is a bit of a blur at present) I noticed that both machines had gone, and that some renovations were taking place in the building. I felt that the machines must be safe but decided I should try and make contact to be sure (working in ICT for so long, I should have known not to trust an assumption), A few days ago I got a note back saying that the Uni had requested the builders to remove the B7800 chassis and dispose of it (the 11/780 was moved to the Caufield collection). Since then I've gone on a bit of a campaign to try and find out of the machine might still be sitting somewhere with the builder (or their sub-contracter). It's a very long shot, but in this case I think most here on the list would agree it's worth it? Apparently the scrap metal value would be quite low at the moment, and hopefully whoever has it has been too busy to deal with disposal yet (a long shot, as I said). I've managed to speak to numerous people both inside the Uni and the builder, but have realised from them that my enquiries now need to be pushed four ways - into two Schools within the Uni, and also two service departments.?My problem is that I'm attempting to get a startup software company off the ground, so time isn't something that I've got any of, let trying to push my way through contacting people within four different internal departments (and sitting through all the on-hold music, call transfers & drop outs). I don't think that the Uni wants this chassis at the end of the day.? Is there anyone who can attack this at a higher level? I'm happy to pass on relevant details to anyone who could help positively (I don't want to cause unnecessary aggravation by posting everything here, the people I've spoken to have already been as helpful as they can). If it's true that it is possibly one of the last existing CPU frames of the B5000 family, and if it went to one of the major Museums in the US as a result, that would be a great outcome (if it still exists at all). Regards Evan

11 years, 2 months

3
3
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PDP-11/04 running CAPS-11

by mattislind＠gmail.com

During approximately one and a half year I have been restoring a little PDP-11/04 computer with a TU60 DECassette drive and a LA30P Decwriter. I have followed the trail of Lou and got it to run CAPS-11 as well as CAPS-11/BASIC. It has been an interesting journey to repair it and actually trying to use it give a glimpse of what it was like to develop software 40 years ago on a minimalistic system like this. Since it only has 8kW of memory the BASIC system uses overlays. It takes at least half a minute to load the runtime environment when you hit the RUN command - and then half a minute to get back to the editor again after running. Indeed patience demanding. I put together a webpage: http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/digital-equipment-corporation/pdp-11-04 and a short video when it runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQsP444N5zQ /Mattis

11 years, 2 months

3
2
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RD54 Stopped Spinning

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> I suppose that is possible, but not sure that would explain the dead stop, although I suppose it isn't impossible. I Bad connections rarely do anything you expect :-) > was nowhere near it when it happened. Do the signals I posted look right to you? Would you expect inconsistent > triggering on the scope on just one of the FET outputs? More seriously, have you tried swapping the FETs round to see if the dodgy signal goes with a particular transistor? -tony

11 years, 2 months

4
3
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Altair Turnkey and some DEC stuff cheap

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: B Degnan > I have one Altair turnkey (chassis only) and a bunch of DEC components > available from a lot of computers I picked up the other day. So I wound up with all the DEC gear from this (I gather the Altair is gone too), but I'm not at all sure I want the System Industries hard drives. (I assume there's at least one controller for them there, but all I know is what's in Bill's posting. :-) Is there anyone out there who'd be interested in them, if I decide I don't want them? Free (basically) to a good home (although if you can't do a pickup, we'd have to look into shipping). Noel

11 years, 2 months

1
0
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Altair Turnkey and some DEC stuff cheap

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: B Degnan > I have one Altair turnkey (chassis only) and a bunch of DEC components > available It sounds like Bill's mailbox is exploding... :-) Apparently the DEC stuff already has several people who are willing to take it. Noel

11 years, 2 months

2
1
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Pertec OEM Sperry 1900/10 System

by ehogan＠unimetrix.com

We have the subject system in our New Jersey facility if anyone is interested. Early 1980's manufacture.

11 years, 2 months

3
2
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SGI Indigo2 graphics options

by seefriek＠gmail.com

From: Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> > Similar: We had some Indigos in indogo color but with "CDC Cyber 910" > (yes, CDC as Controll Data Corp.) printing at the Unix-AG. Ha! Memories. I have a recycler friend who called me up one day having a line on a st00pid number of "CDC computers" for dirt. He thought maybe he could make a few dollars on machines from the Center for Disease Control. I took a look and realized they were rebadged SGIs from Control Data, workstations and servers. I hooked him up with some folks into that sort of kink and he sold each one for about 15 times what he paid for them. I bought a car and a really nice grill with what he kicked back to me for the intel and the hookup. Good times.

11 years, 2 months

1
0
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hpdrive hpib

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Bob Brown wrote: >Does anyone have experience with the hpdrive project? I do. I use a small board NI PCI card. Like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/National-Instruments-High-Performance-GPIB-interface -for-PCI-Model-PCI-GPIB-/221231586346?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33826e1 c2a Works wonders. >I'm wondering if the following card might work with it: >http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Agilent-82350A-E2078A-PCI-GPIB-Interface-Card->/ 351361191725?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51cec24f2d It won't. As you can see in the picture, it's based off the TI9914 which is specifically excluded from the compatibility list. Search National Instrument PCI-GPIB on eBay and there is a ton of these. The older large ones are less expensive than the newer small ones. Jay West wrote: > I had read somewhere that most PCI cards did not [work]. They do. But you need an National Instrument card based off the chipsets that Ansgar lists, because he wrote his driver for the NI chipset series. I use the relatively recent (vintage 2002) small form factor NI GPIB PCI card. Although he doesn't have it listed as tested, it is based off the TNT5004 chipset and works without any problems with his driver.

11 years, 2 months

1
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Altair Turnkey and some DEC stuff cheap

by billdeg＠buzz1.com

I have one Altair turnkey (chassis only) and a bunch of DEC components available from a lot of computers I picked up the other day. I am looking only to recover expenses (truck and gas) and I don't want much. These are best for someone who has experience cleaning a "barn find" as this is where I got these items. The real "cost" will be the time needed to take apart these systems and clean thoroughly. I did not see evidence of any chewed wires fortunately, just nests, some urine staining, seed storage, etc. All of the computers were working maybe 20 years ago-ish but they have fallen into neglect. http://vintagecomputer.net/temp2/ Best offer for some/all, pick up only. Landenberg, PA. No I will not deliver to VCF. CONTACT ME HERE: http://vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm - PDP 11/34 #1 (no serial card but otherwise populated) * - PDP 11/34 #2 (with Hard drives, racked, no serial card but otherwise populated) * - PDP 11/44 (mostly populated complete maybe) * - Tall rack with RK05 ** and hard drive for DEC 11/34 #1 - Altair Turnkey, chassis only. * asterisk key: * items contains/contained a rodent nest. ** I tried but could not extend from rack, rails rusted? NOTE - I will keep these items outside ready to be taken. They will be tightly covered with a new tarp, the weather should be nice for a while. That said, if you want these items held for an extended period I can't guarantee that they'll stay dry forever. Act Now! Bill

11 years, 2 months

1
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SGI Indigo2 graphics options

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Amongst other things, I picked up a SGI Indigo2 system yesterday. It turned out that it had the original packaging, and that it's an Impact 10000 machine. For graphics however it has a four-board set; does anyone know what this might be? Wikipedia talks about a three-board set for the Maximum Impact, and fewer cards for lesser options, but I've not seen mention anywhere of a machine using four (unless they're just not counting the analog output board as part of the three?) I'm not sure what it has for RAM; all of the sockets are filled. Someone had scribbled 32MB and 1GB of disk on the box, but it has 2 x 4GB drives fitted, so that's not necessarily correct. I need to clean the dust out before I try powering up, but does anyone know what a minimum config would be? Can I power up with no disks and framebuffer, and expect to get a serial console? I'd like to not stress the PSU (or risk the framebuffer cards) initially if possible - the previous owner said they never ran it, although it was supposedly working when they got it. cheers Jules

11 years, 2 months

8
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Further Tektronix 4014 debugging...

by derschjo＠gmail.com

So I may have been a bit premature in my declaration earlier this week that letting the 4014 warm up for a few minutes solves the storage problems. For the time being, I have it hooked up to a Linux box (so I can 'cat' various files at it and stare in awe as it draws random things) and it seems to be performing flawlessly; everything works (including the discrete plot extensions). But I've noticed that over time as I clear the screen that garbage starts accruing around the edges of the screen -- only the middle gets properly erased. At first power-on, the area that gets cleared is a circle maybe 10" in diameter; this increases slowly over time and if I let it run for 15-20 minutes *most* of the screen gets cleared but there's always a bit on the edges that remains. I went through the portions of the alignment procedure outlined in the service manual related to storage, and all voltages were within a percentage point or two even after all these years, so not much required adjustment. There are two adjustments for the Collimation that control the size and shape of the flood that erases the screen; the service manual suggests adjusting these until the flood covers the screen. Adjusting the pots all the way counter-clockwise causes the flood to get *slightly* larger and cover more of the screen, but it's still not enough. From reading the circuit description for the erase circuits (starting on page 5-82 of the service manual), I note that the duration of the flood (as controlled by the Collimation circuits) is controlled by an RC network and I suppose it's possible that one or more of the capacitors is out of spec -- but I don't know if the length of the flood has anything at all to do with the area it covers -- can anyone shed some light on this? I suppose it's more likely that the tube's just showing its age. I suppose I should be happy it works as well as it does. At any rate, if anyone has any insight here, I'd love to learn more... - Josh

11 years, 2 months

2
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3278 tidbit

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

Having a poke around Wikipedia, I found the following interesting detail in the 3278 entry: "3278 terminals continued to be manufactured in Hortolandia, near Campinas, Brazil as far as late 1980s, having its internals redesigned by a local engineering team using modern CMOS technology, while retaining its external look and feel." That sounds right up my street. Anyone know any more? Ever seen one? 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.'

11 years, 2 months

1
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Convergent Miniframe Hardware Reference

by aek＠bitsavers.org

A copy of the Miniframe hardware reference showed up with some other paper yesterday. It's scanned now and up under http://bitsavers.org/pdf/convergent/68K/miniframe

11 years, 2 months

1
0
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Intellec MDS-2

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Dave wrote... ---- What is the symptom with the CRT? I think that was the achilles heel of the MDS. It usually was the connectors on the cable to the CRT control board. Some of the pins carry too much current and the heat made them go intermittent. The other problem that I found was on the control board inside of the CRT module. It was usually cold solder joints and a little touch up usually fixed it. ---- I'm in the midst of a classiccmp-related project with a deadline that will take many months, but eventually I'll get back to the MDS. As I recall when I pulled out the mds a few months ago, half the time on powerup there was no crt display, and when it would come up, the diagnostic firmware indicated a problem with the crt control board. Sometimes during the powerup sequence the display would work but then go blank. I also recall that maybe a year ago when I pulled it off the shelf, I could not find my diskettes for the system :( I know they were in the basement, but I looked for a couple days and could not find it. I'd gladly pay something reasonable for some 8" floppies with ISIS2, ASM, PLM, etc. J

11 years, 2 months

2
1
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hpdrive hpib

by bbrown＠harpercollege.edu

Does anyone have experience with the hpdrive project? I'm wondering if the following card might work with it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Agilent-82350A-E2078A-PCI-GPIB-Interface-Card-/3… I'm not sure what chipset it uses, and I can't find info from the project page on whether the hp card will work. thanks. -Bob

11 years, 2 months

4
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keys for HP2100A/S

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Today I mailed off a couple HP 2100A/S front panel keys (they are the round tubular "security key" type) to a fellow listmember in need. I thought I had a whole box of them, but it turned out virtually all of those were DEC keys. So I had 3 copies of the key made today (two for the listmember, one extra for me). When I tested them before dropping them in the mail, 2 worked and 1 did not (of course, I sent off the 2 that worked to the listmember). Since I have to go back to the locksmith to get the 1 key redone, I thought I'd offer to get keys for the 2100A/S made for anyone that wants them. I guess it is possible that your 2100A/S may use a different key, but at least every 2100 I've come across uses the same key. The locksmith charges $8 per key, and figure $2 bucks for shipping. I'll probably head back to the locksmith Monday so if anyone is in need, let me know. Please note - the keys for HP 1000 aka 21MX M/E/F are completely different and not what I'm talking about here. Just the 2100A or 2100S. But I guess if anyone needs keys for those, I can get some made as well. If it's for a 1000 or MX key, let me know if it's a M series (dual edge key, switch has standby position) or E/F (single edge key, not a switch just a front door latch). Best, J

11 years, 2 months

3
5
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Tandy 6000/6000HD service manual has been scanned

by kelly＠catcorner.org

Does anyone want a copy? It includes the Tandon TM-848-1E, TM848-2E operating and service manual and the Tandon TM501, TM502, TM503 OEM service manual. Al, would you like a copy for bitsavers? If so, how to upload? It is about 34 megabytes and 416 pages long. It is already in PDF format. That's what my scanner produces. Thanks, Kelly

11 years, 2 months

1
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yet another object (Unibus card?) to identify

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

While sorting through some Unibus cards I've had on a dusty shelf for years, I came across a strange card (picture at https://www.flickr.com/photos/pnt103/17011635052/). It has no maker's name, but what looks like a zigzag triple S logo near the centre of the top edge, and the legends "2010-60", "2010-6001 C835" and "EM PC" next to that. Apart from 74LS series, it has the following noteworthy ICs: 10 x Texas 74S2472 PROMs on left 4 x 20-pin and 1 x 16-pin ICs look like PALs at lower right 2 x 74LS181 (4-bit ALU) near the centre, with 2 x AMD 27S03 (16x4-bit bipolar RAM) and 4 x AM2907 (quad bus xcvr) 2 x white ceramic gold-top ICs 93L422-DC (256x4 static RAM) 12.5MHz crystal 2 x 7439 (marked "SEL"), 2 x DS8837, 5 x DS8641 12 x 75452 (high current high speed dual-NAND peripheral drivers) and a 50-pin 3M IDC connector and a 2x15-way edge connector on the top edge. Any suggestions as to what it is or who made it? Being a hex-height card but having only CDEF fingers, it's the exception that proves the rule that all Unibus hex cards have all six sets of contacts ;-) -- Pete Pete Turnbull

11 years, 2 months

5
11
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RL02K Pack Reliability/Characteristics

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > The general rule of device drivers is to assume that the hardware is > misbehaving, and double check everything. Right, but it needs to _actively log_ when it has to fix something, otherwise you wind up in the situation of the semi-famous old Multics problem where (IIRC) the system was running slower and slower... finally someone looked at the Disk DIM (driver) counters, and one drive was slowly failing, but the industrial-strength recovery code in the Multics Disk DIM was masking the problem (except for the performance degradation). The DIM was thereupon modified to notify the operator if 'too many' retries had to be done 'too often'. Noel

11 years, 2 months

3
2
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SC-40: Info?

by b4＠gewt.net

Hey all, Should be a bit less silent now I guess. ;) Anyone here exceptionally familiar with the SC-40? I've completed imaging the drive (just microcode and diags, someone want to finish reversing it for use in klh10?) and doing the inspection (actually finished weeks ago but got busy) Now, I have a tape drive working and attached to it via SCSI...however now I'm lacking info on how to actually do a tape bootstrap. ;) http://i.imgur.com/gatos9o.jpg -- Cory Smelosky http://gewt.net Personal stuff http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects

11 years, 2 months

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ACT, CIT, COMPUTER CONSOLES, DATA PRODUCTS, DPD, SIMPACT, PERTEC, VERSATEC

by useddec＠gmail.com

Here are some hex DEC compatible boards that I just found. If you wish to make an offer, please contact me off list. Thanks, Paul ACT 10103-0, 10104 ON BACK COMPUTER INTERFACE TECNOLOGY CM7819 =DZ11? COMPUTER CONSOLES 34D01533 DATA PRODUCTS 257240, 257345 SERIAL INTERFACES DPD FPPA-24132M03 PERTEC GCR/PE READ 107856-02, GCR/PR READ 107861-01AN DEC # 29-23763-00 107866-01 DEC # 29-23769-00 SIMPACT ICP-1600 VERSATEC BIPOLAR ALGORITHM PROCESSOR 382441

11 years, 2 months

1
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Does anyone here have any information/docs on the Tahoe aka Power 6/32 aka Harris HCX-7/9?

by krfkeith＠gmail.com

I've checked Bitsavers. Computer Consoles Inc doesn't appear to have a presence there, and there's nothing in the Harris or ICL sections (two rebadgers). Anyone information you guys might have on this machine would be much appreciated. -- Thanks, Kevin

11 years, 2 months

1
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Manual sought - Northern Telecom Spectron D101

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I had written ---- TSIA I?m in need of an owner?s manual (and ideally, a service manual as well would be nice) for? a Northern Telecom Spectron D101. This is an RS232 serial datascope, basically a line monitor with some programmability (displays in binary, hex, ascii, or octal; start tracking on certain characters; substitute X string for Y string; etc.). I?ve googled excessively with no results, and also reached out to AEK. Any chance someone has one in their pile? ---- FYI, after posting the above I did yet another round of google searches and this time a manual popped up as the very first search result. Odd. Manual purchased, and I'll copy and send off to Al if he wants it for bitsavers. J

11 years, 2 months

2
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Wanted: ASM-48 for Intellec MDS-2

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: F. Ulivi > I hope I'm not "offending" anyone in this forum by mentioning an > emulator, it looks like you are mostly focused on real (vintage) > hardware.. Absolutely not! Although we do indeed focus on vintage hardware, I think we all understand how useful emulators can be, and many (most? all?) of us use them as a useful partner to our old hardware. I certainly do! (If nothing else, they tend to run a lot faster than the actual machines do! :-) Noel

11 years, 3 months

1
0
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Tektronix 4014-1 troubleshooting advice

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch > I finished restoring the 4014's power supply So I'm curiuous; what exactly did you do, in restoring the supply? (Given that you'd previously already turned the unit on, and discovered this behaviour?) Just adjust voltages to spec, or more than that? Noel

11 years, 3 months

1
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Tektronix 4014-1 troubleshooting advice

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Picked up a Tektronix 4014-1 terminal. It's in pretty good shape, nice and clean and it's in nearly-working condition except that the storage behavior isn't quite right. On power-up, write-through doesn't. (That is, characters don't get stored to the tube.) Clearing the display via the RESET/PAGE key clears a roughly elliptical region in the center of the display but leaves the outer edges a mess. The cleared region stores characters properly. You can see the overall effect here: http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/tek4014/clear.jpg After a 2-3 minutes of warming up the area cleared by RESET/PAGE increases. I haven't run the terminal long enough to see if it eventually completely erases the screen (while the power supply appears to be within tolerances, I still need to rebuild/reform it so I'm not going to run it too long yet). So far everything else seems to be functioning properly, the cursor appears properly (and does not write through), input is accepted from the keyboard, etc. I've been reading through the service manual on Bitsavers and it describes a very in-depth alignment procedure which I'm prepared to go through (once I've got the power supplies rebuilt) but I thought I'd ask here if this problem rings any bells and if there's anything I should immediately suspect or adjust. You guys know everything :). Thanks as always for the advice, Josh

11 years, 3 months

6
7
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HP-85A tape drive conversion

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

geneb wrote: >So it looks like he made a little cap over the top - that's a very simple >print. If you can get me dimensions I can print you a few. Yep that's what I did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IQKCiS0w2s inspiring myself from Rick's drawing (thanks Rick). It's a very small part though, not sure if you can print something that small accurately unless you have a professional printer. The cap I made was 6mm high, 9.6mm in diameter, with a cavity 3mm deep of 6.30mm diameter at the bottom for the capstan to go in. It required me to reduce the original capstan diameter to the 6.30mm so it could fit in the cavity though. That's what I was trying to avoid with my two alternate proposals (for people that don't have a lathe...) Speaking of which >I want his lathe. :) Mwahahaha. Nooooo. It's all miiiiine. Sadly they don't make them anymore, I got one of the last ones. - Marc

11 years, 3 months

2
1
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SGI Origin side skins

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Does anyone know how to remove the side skins on an SGI Origin (specifically a 2200 deskside cabinet). The manual mentions removal of the top and front, but says that the sides are more tricky and to contact SGI for the procedure. I'd like to remove them as there's some minor paint splatter on them, which would be much easier to deal with off the machine. I see there's a screw at the bottom of the machine on the rear edge (much like the one for the front which releases the front skin), but removing it doesn't seem to let the rear plastic molding drop in the same way, and I assume this needs to come off first. cheers Jules

11 years, 3 months

3
3
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R8000 Re: SGI Indigo2 graphics options

by seefriek＠gmail.com

From: Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu> > You are right, even the interactive performance of the R8K had me a bit > taken aback...But I understand in its day it really flew on the FP codes; Yup. The R8000 was pretty specifically designed to be a desktop super, for some value of "super". And for 1995, it was pretty remarkable. It was the first superscaler MIPS, and the dedicated FP unit was pretty much pushing the envelope on single chip tech. But integer performance wasn't a priority, and you could tell. > I don't know if this claim was ever really substantiated in the real world The MIPSPro compilers usually did a really good job of optimizing for the R8000, and for the jobs it was designed for (non-vectorizable floating point) it really flew (300ish MFLOPS...which for 1995 was nothing short of amazing in a desktop). I would note, however, that the common comparison to the Y/MP is pretty much pure marketing. The Y/MP and the R8K were on-par for non-vector FP problems, but as soon as the compiler could substantially vectorize the problem, the Y/MP could be many times faster than the R8K for the same codebase. In the end, we found the R8K was a nice dev machine (due to a good bit of source compatibility between the MIPSPro and Cray compilers), but not generally cost effective, and pretty much outmatched all around by the R10k and later. > But it's a neat little oddball Very. KJ

11 years, 3 months

1
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VAX 4000-300 Available in the UK

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have a VAX 4000-300 that I want to pass on as I don't have room for it. It is in a BA440 enclosure (marked VAX 4000-400). The CPU board had a couple of problems, the levers that are used to push it into the slot have been broken, however it will push into the slot OK and work. The onboard Ethernet (SGEC) is also not working, but I have included a DESQA so you can network it. It has 64MB of memory (2x 32MB). It also has a CXY08 board. It does not have any disks because I want to keep the few DSSI disks I have, however I will include two DSSI covers. You can still boot it as a satellite of course. In fact I was toying with the idea of putting a Raspberry Pi inside the enclosure with a crossover LAN cable and running if off SIMH on that. It is free, however I would appreciate a small donation, as it has cost me money to collect it to save it from being dumped. It is in the UK, in South Manchester. Although I am currently working a lot in Coventry so could bring it to that area. I will also be at DEC Legacy in Windermere 11-12 April, although I would prefer to leave room in my car for the machines I want to exhibit, if possible. Regards Rob

11 years, 3 months

2
4
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More random identifying

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

More computer-esque things looking to be identified. Some of it military, some of it not. What might the paper tape reader have come out of? The big circuit boards say "Harris" on them. http://imgur.com/a/S7dyo Thanks, Kyle

11 years, 3 months

4
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OT: For the disbelevers ;) Yoda wasn't wrong !

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2015/04/cern-researchers-confirm-exist ence-force Enjoy, -Rik

11 years, 3 months

1
0
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RL02K Pack Reliability/Characteristics

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Lyle Bickley > I have had packs on rare occasions which when I first obtained them had > a few records which were unreadable - and a clean reformat made them > 100% error free. Err, I thought RL02 packs came pre-formatted (at least, the low-level stuff like sector headers, etc), and could not be field re-formatted? Or are you simply talking of a high-level re-format (i.e. the file system), which might write all data blocks to zero or something, thereby getting rid of the un-readable contents of such blocks? > From: Mike Ross > It's high time someone collated all the 'new hardware' projects out > there ... should be a one-stop shop where info on all this stuff is > held. The obvious place to put it is on our Wiki, of course... (Hint, hint... :-) Noel

11 years, 3 months

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RL02K Pack Reliability/Characteristics

by christopher.parish＠parishcomputers.com

I've gotten my RL-02 -> USB Mass Storage controller mostly working with a few residual gremlins. Specifically, I've noticed from my testing that I have good packs, ones that read out almost the same every time, and bad packs, ones where half the bits seem to be in different states every time I read them. I've left write support untested until I can solve this problem. Right now, my working theory is that different controllers had slightly different timing characteristics, and I may need to adjust more of my DPLL parameters dynamically to deal with that (something I'd rather avoid). Of course, most of these packs haven't been put into a drive since the mid-80s, and there could be some bit rot going on. As many of you have much more experience dealing with these drives than I do, my questions are: - What type of long term reliability have people noticed from their RL02K packs? - Is garbage data sometimes normal for certain packs until they are rewritten with ?fresh? data? - Has anyone noticed pack compatibility problems between various computers/RL-02 controllers? Thanks, Christopher

11 years, 3 months

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HP-85A tape drive conversion

by Wayne.Smith＠warnerbros.com

> Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 06:20:04 -0500 > From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> > > So. two questions: What SHOULD the outer diameter of a good capstan roller > be on that drive, and does anyone have other suggestions for how to make the > capstan roller "taller"? I would try gluing an extender piece on the end of the existing capstan roller, perhaps using wood which is easy to shape. Once you wrap it with a piece or two of heat shrink tubing, I would think that it would all stay in place.

11 years, 3 months

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HP-85A tape drive conversion

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

> So the roller on my -85A tape drive is marginally ok [.]. While the >second option would work, according to the video it "just barely makes the >capstan roller contact the bottom portion of the tape capstan wheel". That >concerns me, as if it's "barely making contact" I'm concerned that over time >this would wear the capstan roller motor shaft and perhaps wear down the >wheel, not to mention potential vibration. It doesn't wear the shaft, does not cause vibrations. But it eventually wears out the edge of the rubber replacement you put over the capstan (shrink tube or surgical tubing in my case). Eventually it fails and you have to put a new one. Annoying. > So. two questions: What SHOULD the outer diameter of a good capstan roller > be on that drive Dunno. If you have a semi good capstan, can you measure it? Apparently it's not critical, since I got the tapes working OK with a thin shrink tube coating as well as a thick surgical tube coating. >does anyone have other suggestions for how to make the capstan roller "taller"? I can think of at least two solutions. Solution one is to glue a metal or plastic "puck" of the same diameter as the bare roller on top of it before recoating it. It's simpler than machining the cap I show in my video, but you still need to have someone machine a simple disk part on a lathe. That should be pretty cheap. Solution two requires someone good at making rubber. It would be to cast a rubber cap of the right diameter and thickness, and with a pocket on the bottom so you can slip it or glue it over the existing bare capstan. So you would not need to machine anything, just slip it over the bare capstan. If anyone knows about an outfit that can do this, or can explain to me how to cast rubber, let me know. Marc

11 years, 3 months

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Just a reminder

by cclist＠sydex.com

This talk of tape gear reminds me that some may not have seen the availability in Wichita of some tape gear and the like I posted back in July. Such as StorageTek 9-track, Tandberg QIC, Exabyte 8mm, Xerox-branded 9 track, at least one working 3480, Avix UNIBUS tape controller boards, etc. A couple of PDP 11/34s; you get the idea. Contact Shaun Halstead Microfilm Services, Inc. Wichita, Ks (316) 269-2203

11 years, 3 months

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Just over two weeks 'til VCF East X

by evan＠snarc.net

A friendly reminder for those who didn't get the memo about their TPS reports VCF East X: it's happening soon! The show is April 17-19 at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall, New Jersey. That's around 60 minutes south of Manhattan and 90 minutes northeast of Philadelphia. - Friday's schedule has 16 technical classes and a PDP-8 50th anniversary ceremony. - Saturday/Sunday's agenda has morning keynotes, two exhibit halls open the rest of the day, the PDP-8 Pavilion, consignment, vendors, museum tours, etc. Tickets are available online and at the door. http://vintage.org/2015/east/ http://facebook.com/vcfeast http://twitter.com/vcfeast Hope to see you there! - Evan K.

11 years, 3 months

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F, L, and M Vax boards

by useddec＠gmail.com

We just sorted and shelved the following boards, most of which I will never use. If you are interested in any or all, feel free to make an offer off list. There are a few non DEC ones I have to figure out yet, otherwise this should be most of them. If you need L boards not listed here, let me know. I have a friend who has some. Quantities available on most. Thanks, Paul F1002 F1003 F1004 F1005 F1006 F1007 F1008 F1009 F1010 F1013 F1021 L0007 L0008 L0104 L0107 L0108 L0109 L0115 L0217 L0225 M7463 M8238 M8286 M8287 M8288 M8289 M8373 X 14 M8574? I need to recheck part number on the last 2. M8576?

11 years, 3 months

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Burroughs keyboard

by ehogan＠unimetrix.com

Have a Burroughs B25-K2I keyboard for sale. Best regards, Ed Hogan Unimetrix Corporation 20371 Lake Forest Drive Suite A-7 Lake Forest, CA 92630 Phone: 949-215-2475 x101 Toll Free: 800-633-9955 x101 FAX: 949-215-2472 Email: ehogan at unimetrix.com Web: www.unimetrix.com <http://www.unimetrix.com/> THIS COMMUNICATION MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL AND/OR OTHERWISE PROPRIETARY MATERIAL and is thus for use only by the intended recipient. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the e-mail and its attachments from all computers.

11 years, 3 months

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USB --> SCSI

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

> On Mar 31, 2015, at 4:00 PM, John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> wrote: > > At 01:14 PM 3/30/2015, Paul Koning wrote: >> I think iSCSI target support is now a standard Linux iSCSI feature. If not standard, at least reasonably mainstream. I haven???t tried it, but I see plenty of references to it on the Linux iSCSI mailing list. > > Are they running old tape devices on it? Tape? Not that I know of. In principle iSCSI can handle tape, but I don?t know if it?s been done at all, never mind in Linux. paul

11 years, 3 months

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EPROM image for CMD CDU-710/M or 710/TM?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hey all -- I'm looking for an image of the EPROM on the CMD CDU-710/M or /TM UNIBUS SCSI adapters. The 720s have been archived, but only the /T (tape only) variants are imaged for the 710... Anyone out there have one of these boards and be willing to dump the ROMs? Thanks in advance, Josh

11 years, 3 months

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USB --> SCSI

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

> On Mar 30, 2015, at 1:23 PM, John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> wrote: > > At 11:47 AM 3/27/2015, Liam Proven wrote: >> On 27 March 2015 at 17:36, Bob Brown <bbrown at harpercollege.edu> wrote: >>> Does anyone know if a usb --> scsi adapter might allow me to connect an hp 9-track tape drive (7980s) to a computer running windows-7? > > Hasn't someone somewhere created an iSCSI stack that would let > an old PC run Linux and use an old SCSI card (of appropriate > interface) to talk to old hardware, but speak to the > new PC and new software over the network? I think iSCSI target support is now a standard Linux iSCSI feature. If not standard, at least reasonably mainstream. I haven?t tried it, but I see plenty of references to it on the Linux iSCSI mailing list. paul

11 years, 3 months

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Sperry MainFrame Liquid cooled memory card 1986 vintage

by ehogan＠unimetrix.com

Looking for offers on the subject item. Best regards, Ed Hogan Unimetrix Corporation 20371 Lake Forest Drive Suite A-7 Lake Forest, CA 92630 Phone: 949-215-2475 x101 Toll Free: 800-633-9955 x101 FAX: 949-215-2472 Email: ehogan at unimetrix.com Web: www.unimetrix.com <http://www.unimetrix.com/> THIS COMMUNICATION MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL AND/OR OTHERWISE PROPRIETARY MATERIAL and is thus for use only by the intended recipient. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the e-mail and its attachments from all computers.

11 years, 3 months

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Identifying a magnetic recording head

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

Any idea what this came out of? I was thinking some fixed head hard drive, but I'm not sure. It looks new. The coil resistance is about 4 ohms and >from measuring it, seems to be center-tapped. http://imgur.com/a/mHZS4 Thanks, Kyle

11 years, 3 months

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Wanted: PDP-11 Unibus Ethernet interface from Xerox, c. 1981

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > I have several of them. Wow. I'm totally stunned! Do you have any 3-Mbit transceivers to go with them? If you (or anyone) need, I can provide old code for an IP/PUP router to connect a 3-Mbit Ethernet to a 10-Mbit (if you want to put, say, an Alto on the Internet - not sure if they ever did a 10-Mbit card for the Altos). It would need either a UNIBUS 11, or a QBUS 11 and a QBUS->UNIBUS converter. (The DEC one is UNIBUS->QBUS, so would not help us.) > Anyone still have Unibus Chaosnet cards? Another rara avis! (I don't remember if they ever made any QBUS ones.) Noel

11 years, 3 months

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Wanted: PDP-11 Unibus Ethernet interface from Xerox, c. 1981

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Rich Alderson > SAIL .. did not use the MEIS (Massbus-Ethernet Interface Subsystem) for > Ethernet connectivity, but rather a Unibus card from Xerox (apparently > used to hook -11s to D-machines) which went into the front end 11/40 on > the KL-10. If this is the card I'm thinking of (we got two as part of the Xerox donation of Altos, a Dover, etc to MIT, BITD), it's to a 3-MBit Experimental Ethernet, not to a 10-MBit Ethernet, and so won't be much use unless you have something else with a 3-MBit Ethernet (and of course you'd also need 3-MBit transceivers, etc, etc). And of courset those cards were made in very, very limited numbers; if any survive to this day, I will be absolutely astonished. If you have a pointer to the PDP-11 code, I can take a look at it and confirm if it's a 3-MBit card. (The hardware packet header format is completely different from that for a 10-MBit.) Noel

11 years, 3 months

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Old ALR, Unisys, Burroughs equip

by sales＠elecplus.com

I just got off the phone with a gent who has a 7,000 sq foot warehouse in NJ. He has old ALR, Unisys, and Burroughs servers, terminals, keyboards, and storage (9GB drives). If you are interested, send him an email at ehogan at unimetrix.com. His name is Ed Hogan. Cindy Croxton

11 years, 3 months

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Wanted: PDP-11 Unibus Ethernet interface from Xerox, c. 1981

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > There was a 10mb card Xerox made [later] > There never was a 10mb card. ?? > I would be interested in the code for an 11. Alas, the CGW code online at MIT: http://web.mit.edu/afs/net/project/cgw/ doesn't contain the PDP-11 version (or the Experimental Ethernet drivers, etc). I have the hardcopy of the PDP-11 version, and somewhere on the MIT V6+ Unix tapes that I'm currently trying to excavate, there will be machine-readable, but I've been trying to get to those for some months now... too much else to do! :-( If you get to a point where you need it, let me know, and if I don't already have it done, I'll move it up the priority list. Noel

11 years, 3 months

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