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

by philpem＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, I'm going to stick my neck out a bit, and assume you all saw the screenshots I posted this week. If you didn't, well... you missed a treat :) I've just committed the current "development alpha" of the DiscFerret software to the DiscFerret Mercurial repository. You can access the files at the following address: http://hg.discferret.com/software/merlin/ Hit the "zip," "gz" or "bz2" link on the top toolbar and you can download a ZIP, tar-gzip or tar-bzip2 file containing all the current source files. At the moment, I've only tested Merlin on Linux (specifically, Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat"), although *in theory* it should also build on the various BSDs and Mac OS X, as long as you have a working copy of the GCC C++ compiler, and the wxWidgets libraries for your system (note that 'wx-config' must be on the PATH). At the moment, it'll only read "Catweasel IMG" files. These are basically dumps of the Catweasel data buffer, sampled at 28MHz, in the following format: File := 1 or more "Track" blocks Track := uchar cylinder // physical cylinder (track) uchar head // physical head (side) uint32le payload_length uchar[] payload // length specified by payload_length uchar = unsigned char, an 8 bit unsigned value uint32le = unsigned integer, 32 bit, little endian. Data is exactly as extracted from the Catweasel memory; 28MHz clock rate, index in the MSbit, bits 6..0 contain the timing value. Please feel free to post your comments on-list, or email me in private if you prefer. Thanks, -- Phil. philpem at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

15 years, 2 months

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New DiscFerret tool released: Merlin

by philpem＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, I'm going to stick my neck out a bit, and assume you all saw the screenshots I posted this week. If you didn't, well... you missed a treat :) I've just committed the current "development alpha" of the DiscFerret software to the DiscFerret Mercurial repository. You can access the files at the following address: http://hg.discferret.com/software/merlin/ Hit the "zip," "gz" or "bz2" link on the top toolbar and you can download a ZIP, tar-gzip or tar-bzip2 file containing all the current source files. At the moment, I've only tested Merlin on Linux (specifically, Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat"), although *in theory* it should also build on the various BSDs and Mac OS X, as long as you have a working copy of the GCC C++ compiler, and the wxWidgets libraries for your system (note that 'wx-config' must be on the PATH). At the moment, it'll only read "Catweasel IMG" files. These are basically dumps of the Catweasel data buffer, sampled at 28MHz, in the following format: File := 1 or more "Track" blocks Track := uchar cylinder // physical cylinder (track) uchar head // physical head (side) uint32le payload_length uchar[] payload // length specified by payload_length uchar = unsigned char, an 8 bit unsigned value uint32le = unsigned integer, 32 bit, little endian. Data is exactly as extracted from the Catweasel memory; 28MHz clock rate, index in the MSbit, bits 6..0 contain the timing value. Please feel free to post your comments on-list, or email me in private if you prefer. Thanks, -- Phil. philpem at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

15 years, 2 months

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Since there is no irc talk...

by vintagecoder＠aol.com

Thus spake dave.thearchivist at gmail.com on Sun May 1 19:19:04 > we are on #classiccmp om freenode....been there for years > > Dave Caroline (archivist) Thanks Dave. Probably good to send that out once in awhile for us newbies so we don't irritate Ian :D

15 years, 2 months

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Interesting device on eBay

by cclist＠sydex.com

For the wannabe spooks, a raster analysis kit: 120718150318 --Chuck

15 years, 2 months

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command line "museum"

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

(this time with a subject line!) Vince writes: > I did figure out a way that they might be getting their passwd files. > It looks sort of like they are scraping postings from the usenet > archives, and putting together login names with systems from > back in the day. Good catch, especially uucp lists and maps seem very relevant here. All paths go through mimsy :-) later mimsy.umd.edu so... a late 80's UUCP map obviously figured heavily in the simulated networking. By necessity: any retelling of 80's era networking will have so much source information available from UUCP mapping projects and Usenet and mailing lists, than any other more closed sections of the network. (BITNET and later NSFNet are also up there in terms of preserved message/map volume but by no means as huge). It's a little biased but by no means wrong (especially considering my link to the network was largely uucp back then too... I can easily dig up usenet groups from the 80's that I overlapped with, but the bitnet-based listserv's that were popular back then are far harder for me to find references to.) I suspect Henry Spencer's preservation of usenet archive tapes at utzoo will figure heavily in any retellings in the future. History is written by the victors, it seems so! If victors == usenet nerds :-) If I poke at the right places at classiccmp.org I can find archives from dewey but I don't think I can find the washington.edu/Bill Whitson era. Tim.

15 years, 2 months

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No subject

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> I did figure out a way that they might be getting their passwd files. > It looks sort of like they are scraping postings from the usenet > archives, and putting together login names with systems from > back in the day. Good catch, especially uucp lists and maps seem very relevant here. All paths go through mimsy :-) later mimsy.umd.edu so... a late 80's UUCP map obviously figured heavily in the simulated networking. By necessity: any retelling of 80's era networking will have so much source information available from UUCP mapping projects and Usenet and mailing lists, than any other more closed sections of the network. (BITNET and later NSFNet are also up there in terms of preserved message/map volume but by no means as huge). It's a little biased but by no means wrong (especially considering my link to the network was largely uucp back then too... I can easily dig up usenet groups from the 80's that I overlapped with, but the bitnet-based listserv's that were popular back then are far harder for me to find references to.) I suspect Henry Spencer's preservation of usenet archive tapes at utzoo will figure heavily in any retellings in the future. History is written by the victors, it seems so! If victors == usenet nerds :-) Tim.

15 years, 2 months

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command line "museum"

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

Check it out: http://telehack.com @ basic Darthmouth DTSS TeleBASIC (c) 1964,1966,1969,1970,1971,1979 > Blows my mind. :) g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.simpits.org/geneb - The Me-109F/X Project ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_! Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

15 years, 2 months

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FFS: 13 3m cat5 cables

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I have 13 3-meter cat5 cables by Belkin in blister packs that are just taking up room. I have plenty of cat5 already. Please take them off my hands. Free for shipping! I'm in California. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

15 years, 2 months

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Have: Control Data 8528 digital communications terminal reference manual

by alexeyt＠freeshell.org

I've found a control Data 8528 Digital Communications Terminal Reference Manual at a book sale for $1 :-) It's letter size, soft cover, about 100 pages, contains a number of schematics and is copyrighted in 1964. The 8528 appears to be a 12-bit modem that can be used over coax, microwave or leased telephone links at up to 10^5 words/sec. It comes with a telephone handset in case you want to talk to the person on the other end :-) It can be yours for the cost of media mail shipping from 27606. I see that CHM has one (but no scans posted), but I don't see a copy on bitsavers, so Al gets dibs if he wants it. I can also scan it free for anyone who's interested. Alexey

15 years, 2 months

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Tektronix photos updated

by vintagecoder＠aol.com

Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: >> I wonder if the MCAUTO label on your keyboard means McDonnell Douglas >> Automation. > Yes, I believe it is. We discussed this on the length some time ago when > I first got this terminal and that was aour conclusion from that > discussion. I haven't done any independent research on it yet, but it > seems reasonable to me. Sorry about that. I was either not a list member yet or I missed the discussion. >> I personally would love to have a 4051, does anybody remember those? > I have one 4051 that needs some keycaps and some electrical repair before > its functional. Also, I would like to create some sort of replacement > for the cartridge tape drive for loading software from disk image files. > That's a hardware project that's on my list. Yes, the cartridge tapes were really nice on those units. Somewhere I've got a few tapes with some old code on them. Good luck with all that! Really nice unit that 4051.

15 years, 2 months

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Free (Seattle) - M4 Data 9-track drive

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

I've got what I'm fairly sure is some model of M4-Data 9-track drive in a "desktop" enclosure, relabeled as an "Interface Data, Inc." drive. It's similar, but not identical, to the 9914 for which there is documentation on Bitsavers. It appears to do 1600 and 3200 BPI (not sure what encodings.) It has a Differential SCSI interface option, along with a Pertec interface. It's labeled on the back as "Model No. 9946." I have some pictures I took when I first got it (it hasn't changed much since then) at: http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/9-track/ The tape transport seems to be working fine (it loads and unloads, moves to BOT and rewinds just as I'd expect. The auto-loading procedure on these drives always seems magical to me...) but there's something wrong with the digital side of things. I've made a few attempts over the past couple of years to use the Pertec interface (with the Diff SCSI interface removed) but all reads result in parity errors. It may just be a configuration issue -- there are tons of configurable settings via the front panel -- but I lack the documentation to know what they are (they are not the same as the 9914's as far as I can tell) or to do any other testing. Picked this up almost three years ago (time flies!) and it's just been taking up space. Time to get it out of here. Anyone want it? It's free! Pickup only in the Seattle area. And if anyone in the Seattle area has a Pertec-interface 9-track drive they want to part with, let me know :). - Josh

15 years, 2 months

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H7140 PDP11 PSU

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> I have extracted the leftmost board, which is a 5413605, according to > printset that is a "bias and interface" board. Looking at where it is > mounted in the PSU, it *appears* to be connected to the fan spade > connectors, so would be involved in powering the fans (the motherboard > printset would seem to confirm that). There is a 74LS00 chip on it to which > I will attach wires to Vcc and Ground so I can test if for power. I followed > the Vcc track on the back of the board and it does not appear to go to the > boards "backplane" connectors. I tried to read the printset to see which > pin(s) on the connector the power comes in on but I don't understand the > conventions about which pin is pin 1 on the connectors, so I can't at the > moment add wires for that. I will go ahead and add wires to the 74LS00 in > the meantime. See my other messages :-) The 5V line you are interested in comes from a 7805 regulator (TO220 package, looks like a power transistor) on that PCB. I suspect it does power the 74LS00 you mention too... The ground for this supply is the same as the machine's logic ground (this will not be the case if we have to sort out the control circuitry of that little SMPSU). Yes, the fan full-H driver circuit is on this PCB, so it's not suprising it's connected to the fan terminals. -tony -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com - Microsoft? Exchange solutions from a leading provider - http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange

15 years, 2 months

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H7140 PDP11 PSU

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> I will add some diagnostic wires to the board as you suggest, I don't > remember a lot about TTL chips, is there a convention about which are the > power pins? Conventionally the corner pins (on a 14 pin device, for example, pin 14 is +5V, pin 7 is ground). But there are exceptions. A TTL databook, or a way of reading the data sheets on-line is almost essential :-) The power distribution arrangements are shown on page 11 of that pdf manual I mentioned : http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1124/MP01018_1124schem_Aug80.pdf Look at the '11/24 Power Distribution BD' part of the schematic. There's a +5V line coming from the PSU and ending up on pins 1 and 4 of the backplane sockets and a separate +5VB going to pin 12 of those sockets. Of course you need to fix the PSU before you can start sorting that out. -tony -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web LIVE ? Free email based on Microsoft? Exchange technology - http://link.mail2web.com/LIVE

15 years, 2 months

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H7140 PDP11 PSU

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I took the plunge and put in the CPU modules (M7133 and M7134) into the PDP11/24. The machine powered up and the DC ON light came on, suggesting voltages were in tolerance. So I connected a terminal and got an ODT prompt. I then tried to run a basic diagnostic (using the ODT command 165000G). It came back to the prompt and I was just entering another command when I heard a vague click and the machine powered off. I cannot power it on now. Previously after connecting it to the mains I would hear a slight click, but I don't even hear that now and turning the key will not even start the fans running. However power is getting to the big capacitors because I can see that with my multimeter, so it is not the external fuse or the circuit breaker I think. Presumably some internal fuse has gone, I will leave it to discharge and take a look tomorrow to see if I can find an internal fuse. Any other ideas as to what this might mean? It was going so well.. Regards Rob

15 years, 2 months

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Eprom programming current...

by geoffr＠zipcon.net

Hey! Would 150ma be enough current on various voltages for programming eproms? I just got a bunch of 14 pin DIP VRMs that are rated for 150ma output without using a bypass transistor.....

15 years, 2 months

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Dummy loads (was: Re: new here)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 12:00 -0500 4/26/11, ard wrote: >One of the easiest things to sue for this are low voltage filament >lamps 12V car bulbs (say a 12V 5W taillight bulb) is fine for a 12V >supply. And probalby fine for a 15V supply too (yes, the bulb will have a >short life at the higher voltage, but not so short as to worry you). For >the 5V line, a 6V bulb is the best thing to use, many older cars had 6V >electrics nad you may well be able to get a 6V 30W bulb (which will draw >around 5A) from a vintage car parts company. I bought a couple of >headlight bulbs (each with a apr of 30W or so filaments and a couple of >stop/taillight bulbs (5W and 21W filamnets). That gives me a good >selection of laod currents (and yes, I once parallel to two filaments of >a headleam bubl to give a load drawing somewhat more than 10A to test a >large SMPSU). FWIW, bicycles use a wide variety of bulbs, in a wide variety of voltage ratings. Here's one page http://www.reflectalite.com/halogenpage.html listing a bunch of them, in voltages from 2.2 V to 6 V and wattages >from 1.25 W to 20 W. (Not a recommendation, they were just what came up first when I googled "bike headlight bulbs". I'd actually recommend your local brick-and-mortar bike shop, who could probably use the business...) I don't expect these are very cost-effective, but they should be more available (for the time being, anyway, until LED's take over there too) than antique-auto bulbs. But you may want/need to run several in parallel to add up the required power. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 2 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 92, Issue 67

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 18:09 -0500 4/27/11, ard wrote: >[1] I am not one of those. I have no qualifications in electronics or >computing. I think it would be fair to insert the word "formal". >You mean you don;'t have a bench supply??? Well, I have some orphaned in-line or wall-wart supplies intended for computers, radios, etc. that I could chop the connectors off of. But I figured the jump cables could put out more current. >H2 normally comes off at the -ve electorde too... Yes, and I do know which jump cable is negative. So I guess I shouldn't claim I was "lucky". But I was pretty prepared to be wrong, on the whole. Chemistry puzzles me. >It's not uncommon to get Cl2 at the positive electrode. Another reason to >do it in a well-ventilated area. True! I forgot about that. The chemistry book we were looking at said at a more concentrated solution of salt was more likely to produce Cl2. That was a pretty simple mnemonic for me to remember, so I didn't use much salt. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 2 months

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Dummy loads (was: Re: new here)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 18:59 -0500 4/26/11, ard wrote: >If you are really crazy, use containers of salt water with suitable >electrodes in them :-). Just don't knock them over and spill the liquid >into the machine under test. ...and do work in a ventilated area. The bubbles evolving off the salt water will be, er, flammable, yes? Did this with the kids, 12V supply = jump cables from my car, foil "electrodes" in salt water, inverted test tube on a long holder, and a candle to verify the type of gas (used the holder to move the tube over the candle). Lucked out and collected the Hydrogen on the first try (well, it wasn't really luck. The electrode with twice as many bubbles had to be the H2.) They were suitably impressed. I was impressed how fast the aluminum foil went away (into solution). -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 2 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 92, Issue 67

by technobug＠comcast.net

On Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:21:46 -0700 (PDT), ene Buckle <geneb at deltasoft.com> wrote: > On Fri, 29 Apr 2011, Tony Duell wrote: > >>> >>> On 4/28/2011 3:24 PM, Tony Duell wrote: >>> >>>> I will crtainly agree that it is possible to be self-taught, and that >>>> said 'traching' can go to a very high level. Just becase you haven't got >>>> a bit of paper saying you know<foo> does not beam that you know nothign >>>> about<foo> or, indeed, that yuou know less about<foo> than people with >>>> said bit of paper. >>> >>> Tony, >>> >>> I can usually decode your many misspellings and lysdexic-isms, but what >>> is "traching" ? Is this supposed to be "teaching?" Or perhaps some >>> British slang I'm not picking up on? >> >> No, it's 'teaching'. Hit the wrong key ('R' is adjacent to 'E'...) >> > > You might want to try using one finger from each hand at a time instead of > two. :) *gd&r* C'mon guys, ease up. Half duplex is a bitch :) ->CRC

15 years, 2 months

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10base2 to 100baseT conversion

by chd＠chdickman.com

I need an ethernet converter between 10base2 and 100baseT. I am using a DECserver90TL as a console server. The DECserver is 10base2 ethernet, so it has a BNC connector and I use coax to connect to an ethernet hub. I was using a hub that had both 10baseT and 10base2 to connect it to my 100baseT network, but the hub has suddenly become unidirectional. A lightening strike killed a few things in my house and now I see this hub might be another. eBay only finds me two items like this. One seems over priced and the other says it is for parts only. Do I have any other options? -chuck

15 years, 2 months

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RT-11 / RX-01 issues ... "almost" boots ...

by mcsele＠niagaracollege.ca

In the ongoing saga of my attempt to get RT-11 to run on my 11/34 .... (I'll spare the bandwidth by not attaching the entire chain of experiments run ...) Checked my copy of RT-11 and indeed it was SYSGEN'd. In my latest attempt, I did a SYSGEN as well, this time choosing to build a very, very basic version of RT-11SJ on RX-01. No FPU support, no timers, nothing fancy. Added device support for TT, DX, and DU devices only (the 11/34 has no installed DU device at all, I wanted to add it for future consideration). As expected, it went off for over a half-hour rebuilding RT-11. Produced the expected files and I proceeded to make the disk bootable. It boots on the LSI-11 system (an 11/73A) just fine. Put that same RX-01 disk on my 11/34 via an M7846 controller and when I tried to boot it I get the exact same result as before: it starts to boot, steps four tracks or so, then halts at "005134" on the display. If I inspect that address, it contains "140000". Sigghhhhh. Any thoughts as to what it could be? Disk controller card (M7846)? Summary: Since I've first written in with the problem I think we've eliminated as possible issues: * Memory since I had previously tried three memory cards all with the same result * Basic CPU hardware (slot C and D jumpering, Unibus termination) * RT-11 version 5 (which appears to run on other Unibus PDP 11/34s) Corrected a few small bugs along the way (like the complete lack of a terminator at one end of the Unibus). The CPU runs small programs, entered via the front panel, just fine (e.g. a ten line program to echo terminal characters). Just asking for ideas on where to go next! Anything else I should be checking? Thanks .... Mark Professor Mark Csele, P.Eng. Niagara College, Canada 300 Woodlawn Rd., L-23 Welland, ON, L3C 7L3 (905) 735-2211 x.7629 E-Mail: mcsele at niagarac.on.ca URL: http://technology.niagarac.on.ca/people/mcsele Author of "Fundamentals of Light Sources and Lasers", Wiley, 2004

15 years, 2 months

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Dummy loads (was: Re: new here)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 12:00 -0500 4/28/11, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >I've found it interesting that folks don't balk at having a roof >flashed with lead or a stained-glass window that uses lead canes in >their church, but get nervous if they come within an arm's length of >the stuff. <Sheepishly raises hand> Yup! That's me! My father-in-law is a physician and also a Civil War buff. For years he carried around a lead bullet he found on a battlefield, as a good-luck charm. He showed me one time, and I asked him what he did about the toxicity, pointing out the dark stains on his fingers >from handling it. His eyes widened a little, and now it sits on his dresser. >Absent strong acids, metallic lead is comparatively safe. Yeah. But "Chemistry puzzles me" and I'm not too confident I won't inadvertently electrolyze some of the lead into solution. Nor that the kids won't do so when they try something clever out. Heavy-metal poisoning (not just lead, either) is one of those slow-acting, subtle things where you can get into a lot of trouble before you realize it. I know it's around a lot (like, the car battery I hooked up as my power supply), but ... still, I feel like minimizing exposure where I can, particularly since I don't much know what I'm doing, either chemically or biologically. Yes, I solder outside, for improved ventilation, when I solder. I'll wear the "paranoia" badge but I may not change my behavior. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 2 months

2
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Dummy loads (was: Re: new here)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 12:00 -0500 4/27/11, Chuck wrote: >In the same vein, have you ever fooled with liquid rectifiers? The >anode is aluminum; the cathode is usually lead in a soluton of sodium >bicarbonate. Have not tried it. Not crazy about fooling around with lead in general, but I might do it some time, depending on how interested in chemistry they get. Thanks for the suggestion! -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 2 months

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RT-11 / RX-01 issues ... "almost" boots ..

by mcsele＠niagaracollege.ca

Have never looked into XXDP. What I have right now: a LSI-11 system booting RT-11 (v5.04) with Kermit on the attached MSCP disk and an RX-01 controller (which works fine - I can boot the disk on the LSI system after building it). On the 11/34 target system all I have is the RX-01 controller so I have to build the disk(s) on the LSI system, then move the cable to the 11/34 to try and boot it. Can you point me to the run-down on building an XXDP disk? Thanks >> As expected, it went off for over a half-hour rebuilding RT-11. >> Produced the expected files and I proceeded to make the disk >> bootable. It boots on the LSI-11 system (an 11/73A) just fine. Put >> that same RX-01 disk on my 11/34 via an M7846 controller and when I >> tried to boot it I get the exact same result as before: it starts to >> boot, steps four tracks or so, then halts at "005134" on the display. >> If I inspect that address, it contains "140000". ... >> Just asking for ideas on where to go next! Anything else I should be >> checking? > If I were you, my next step would be to run a full battery of tests, >focusing on the CPU, via XXDP. Do you have the ability to make a >bootable XXDP disk? > -Dave Professor Mark Csele, P.Eng. Niagara College, Canada 300 Woodlawn Rd., L-23 Welland, ON, L3C 7L3 (905) 735-2211 x.7629 E-Mail: mcsele at niagarac.on.ca URL: http://technology.niagarac.on.ca/people/mcsele Author of "Fundamentals of Light Sources and Lasers", Wiley, 2004

15 years, 2 months

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Tektronix photos updated

by vintagecoder＠aol.com

> With the addition of two more Tektronix 4015-1 terminals, I've rearranged > my Tektronix storage tube terminals in the warehouse and uploaded some > updated pictures of "Tektronix storage tube row". (The 4015-1 is > essentially a 4014 with APL and printer interface options.) Neither of > the 4015's are reported to be in working condition from the seller, but > at least all the keycaps with APL glyphs are present. The 4010 and 4014 > are relatively simple terminals, so I should be able to restore them to > working order. They have no microprocessor, firmware code or custom > ASICs, so repairing them should be a matter of replacing capacitors or > replacing TTL or analog parts. Richard, I finally got around to looking at your pics. What a great find! I wonder if the MCAUTO label on your keyboard means McDonnell Douglas Automation. I had a friend who worked there in the 1970s and they called the DP (IT) shop McAuto. It was a huge place in Long Beach CA that handled all the data processing for the aircraft company. Lots of interesting stories. Congrats on your terminals! I personally would love to have a 4051, does anybody remember those? Hi-res green phosphor screens were made for graphics programming and came with their own dialect of BASIC. They were one piece units on heavy stands and had tape drives built into the console. Those were the days! Now to find some old pallets, a few hundred bucks, a forklift, and a place to store one.....

15 years, 2 months

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Tektronix photos updated

by vintagecoder＠aol.com

> Yeah, I've got one. Mine has no stand - unlike the 4010, the electronics > for the 4051 are in the unit itself, not in the stand. It's really not a > big device at all - very deep, but not so big that it won't fit on a > desk. Of course, the 4051 I have (as with most, I would assume), has a > faulty tape drive because the rubber driver wheel is shot. The built in > BASIC is pretty cool, and the graphic routines are fun to play with, but > without the ability to save programs, it's kind of annoying. That's interesting. It's been about 30 years but I distinctly remember the 4051s I used sitting on really heavy duty stands, either bolted together or I thought, made that way. I remember moving one across the room (with help), it weighed a ton. Must have been the steel stand. I hope you can sort the tape drive issues and get tapes as I remember the units were very reliable and quite fast. I believe it had a feature to find the file you wanted quickly and index the tape. Do you have the old golf game? It was always a favorite. -- Yes, I was there, if a little late... The good old days really were!

15 years, 2 months

1
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10base2 to 100baseT conversion

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 02:33 AM 4/29/2011, Shoppa, Tim wrote: >I have only made small efforts searching out new-manufacture hubs with BNC's but as far as I can tell, they simply aren't being made anymore. Everything new is a switch today. Keeping a few hubs for protocol sniffing etc. is still handy. Although I still keep a little 5-port 10/100 true hub in my larger to-go bag just in case, all business-class switches these days are "managed" and would allow you to reprogram a particular port to mirror all traffic for sniffing purposes. There are many managed 24-port switches in the sub-$200 range. Netgear makes a managed 8-port 10/100/1000 switch that CDW sells for $105. - John

15 years, 2 months

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Looking for PDP-8/S Owners

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 07:54:20PM -0400, Michael Thompson wrote: >> I am interested in corresponding with PDP-8/S owners. There doesn't >> seem to be very many of these slowpokes in existance. > > About one thousand made according to: > > http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dec-faq/pdp8/section-6.html > > The only one I know of is in museum storage at Tekniska in stockholm. > > Regards, > Pontus So far: Rhode Island Computer Museum S/N 517, running, PT08B, PC01, PC02, PC03 https://sites.google.com/site/ricmwarehouse/Home/equipment/pdp-8s Goodwill Computer Museum Nicely restored and running on display http://www.austincomputerworks.org/museum/index.html http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyohm/5334436698/ Ethan Dicks Needs restoration Tekniska museet in stockholm Desktop version http://www.tekniskamuseet.se/download/18.689e694f125720d4ec480001504/Datore… Computermuseum der Fakult?t Informatik Running, designing a Teletype interface http://pdp-8.de/ Living Computer Museum Two, unrestored http://www.pdpplanet.com Computer History Museum One, static display http://www.computerhistory.org -- Michael Thompson

15 years, 2 months

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10base2 to 100baseT conversion

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

What you want to do, is get a few "hubs" (90's era networking equipment) that have a mix of AUI, BNC, and 10BaseT connectors, and then cable the hub up to your more modern 100BaseT and faster switches. A hub with 4 to 8 10BaseT + a BNC was a common configuration on consumer-grade stuff in the 90's, and it was on the more industrial rack-mount networking solutions too (and there you'll often get an AUI as well). I have only made small efforts searching out new-manufacture hubs with BNC's but as far as I can tell, they simply aren't being made anymore. Everything new is a switch today. Keeping a few hubs for protocol sniffing etc. is still handy. BlackBox etc. still sell new "Media Converters" with a 10Base2 on one end and a 10BaseT on the other end but the prices are heinous (e.g. $225: http://www.blackbox.com/Store/Detail.aspx/FlexPoint-10BASE-T-to-BNC-Media-C… ). I give them credit for still selling a networking technology that isn't the latest and greatest. Tim.

15 years, 2 months

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Vintage Computer Festival East update

by evan＠snarc.net

T-minus TWO WEEKS until the VCF East 7.0 .... we're up to 23 exhibitors which makes this the biggest east-coast edition ever. I've heard about people planning to attend from Denmark and Australia .... so I don't wanna hear that someone can't go because they live three states away and it's too darn far. :-) Show page is http://www.vintage.org/2011/east Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/vcfeast7 Be there or miss the awesomeness.

15 years, 2 months

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Experience, Qualification, etc. (was: Re: Dummy loads)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 15:10 -0500 4/28/11, ard wrote: >What is an 'informal qualification'? Good question. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/qualification says: qual?i?fi?ca?tion ... -noun 1. a quality, accomplishment, etc., that fits a person for some function, office, or the like. ... (other definitions deleted, likely including ones Tony was thinking of). Rebuilding computers, tracing and publishing schematics, etc. etc. seems to me to fit you to comment and advise others doing same. I own at least one functional computer that would not be so without your advice. I'll admit there's not a degree, certification, legal requirement, etc. involved, thus my suggestion that we apply the "informal" specifier, but it looks to me like the description fits. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 2 months

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IBM 9000 / 9221 Mini Main Frame on eBay

by ceby2＠csc.com

Dave, It's a 9221, currently unracked... but damned if I can remember the exact model. I will have to crawl back to the furthest reaches of the spare bedroom/boxroom to find out one of these days. It was either the entry level or one level up from the bottom. 120 or 130 I think. Thanks, Colin Eby

15 years, 2 months

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DLV11-J RS-232 Cable

by mcsele＠niagaracollege.ca

The DLV11-J has a ten-pin connector. To use with RS-232, simply use pin 2 as ground, pin 3 as TxD, and pin 8 as RxD. It is also necessary to jumper pin 7 to pin 9. The reason for the jumper: the receive input of the DLV11 is differential: it could work with RS-422 as well as RS-232. RS-422 uses two wires for Tx and two for Rx and these are differential ... it is the polarity of the lines relative to each other that sets the bit (whether it is a one or a zero). These "twisted pair" signals are very immune to noise and are used industrially for long runs. I was always taught that anything over 20 feet should _not_ be RS-232 but a differential standard instead. Anyway, grounding the "minus" differential receive input makes the "plus" differential receive input single-ended so that it is now referenced to ground: a voltage on that pin "positive" with respect to ground is a zero while a voltage which is "negative" is a one. This is the EIA standard used for RS-232 ... it is bipolar (i.e. the voltage can swing negative or positive with respect to ground). So, for a small system where the terminal is close, RS-232 works fine and a simple cable will suffice. Where a system is large and terminals are placed a fair distance from the machine, RS-422 should be used. Professor Mark Csele, P.Eng. Niagara College, Canada 300 Woodlawn Rd., L-23 Welland, ON, L3C 7L3 (905) 735-2211 x.7629 E-Mail: mcsele at niagarac.on.ca URL: http://technology.niagarac.on.ca/people/mcsele Author of "Fundamentals of Light Sources and Lasers", Wiley, 2004

15 years, 2 months

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Data Scrubbing in archives and paranoia

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Cut and pasted from Wikipedia, not that it has any Deep history of the subject, but to start the conversation: * Data scrubbing?is an error correction technique which * uses a background task that periodically inspects memory * for errors, and then corrects the error using?ECC memory * or another copy of the data. It reduces the likelihood that * single correctable errors will accumulate; thus, reducing * the risk of uncorrectable errors. Some on-topic hardware relation: I first found out about data scrubbing back when it was a way to deal with flaky DRAM (what Wikipedia calls "Memory Scrubbing".) Mid-70's stuff. Later found out that the Xerox Alto had done it in that era too. Not sure where it first originated, I would be surprised if this hadn't been done back to the first storage media. In the context of large data/disk archives it is reassuring to have this done not just at the media layer, but above the transport (e.g. SATA or SCSI or USB bus) layer. e.g. I store my files as bzip2 format, and every so often not just make sure the drive thinks it can read the sectors, but that also it passes a bunzip2 -v checksum validation. This habit probably dates from flaky SCSI bus/network protocols in the past that had this odd way of dropping or mangling random bytes or sectors without any error indication. When I'm truly paranoid not only do I count on bzip2 checksums but also resort to storing MD5's or SHA-1's of the uncompressed contents. Every so often I get ultra-paranoid and worry that the file System is not mangling files but simply losing them. It's been A long time since I've witnessed this, but storing the MD5's/SHA1's In a text listing gives me some reassurance. Of course the Filesystem might not just lose the file but also hide that it lost The file by removing the file from the listing so I also print out The listing and attach it to the drive/tape/CD etc... this is getting To 2001/HAL eras of paranoia to talk about this using a Computer (never mind locking ourselves into a space pod to discuss Verbally and then finding out the computer can read lips!) It is very reassuring to me to do these validations not Just automatically but manually too. And I even purposefully Mangle some backup files to make sure my tools would kick Out a failure. Probably just paranoia on my part. Wondering if others might even be more extreme :-). Tim.

15 years, 2 months

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Old Ics...

by geoffr＠zipcon.net

Just got a bunch of IC?s from ?buy it all and I?ll throw in some connectors and other stuff? lot :) have a lot of 82-84 date code chips, and some that I personally think are kind of cool, like Signetics chips in Signetics labeled anti-static sleeves :) Although I have no idea what I?m going to do with well over a hundred 74ls164?s Got a bunch of 74S logic and some oddball chips like Mostek DTMF encoder chips, some DIP-14 or 16 Voltage regulators... A definite odd lot. Some of these are being a pain to ID from part #?s, namely the TRW SIP resistor networks, and some from a couple other manufacturers that don?t seem to exist anymore nor have I had any luck finding datasheets for... Multimeter time to ID which type of resistor array they are I guess.... Also some programmed (I presume) 68HC705 microcontrollers and some 40 pin chips from Ztec I think it was, they are upstairs and I?m downstairs.

15 years, 2 months

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FIGnition - a retro 8-bit computer

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

Hi folks, Some of you might find FIGnition interesting, it's a retro 8-bit style computer which can be built easily. It's recently been featured on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13201254 It's also available from: https://sites.google.com/site/libby8dev/fignition -cheers from julz

15 years, 2 months

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DLV11-J RS-232 Cable

by captainkirk359＠gmail.com

Hello all, I'm looking for a bit of help in wiring up a cable for my DLV11-J. I can understand the wiring for the BC21B-05 cable transmit, reciever and ground lines, however I'm rather confused by the rest of the wiring on the cable. If possible would someone be able to explain the wiring for the cable? I've attached the relevant pages from the 1983 QBUS Interfaces manual. Thanks in advance for any help. Cheers, C. M. Gauger-Cosgrove

15 years, 2 months

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salt water dimmer

by shumaker＠att.net

here are some images: see page 3: http://lordarbus.com/THEA148/6_Dimming_Color_Theory.pdf http://webferret.search.com/click?wf6,saltwater+dimmer,,www.theatrestrust.o… steve

15 years, 2 months

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Our very own John is famous

by rogpugh＠mac.com

A link to the BBC website.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13201254 roger

15 years, 2 months

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Older PDP-8 repair (was Re: new here)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From:?Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Did you have to do any work on that -8/S? ?I have one that needs a lot > of replacement bulbs and some sleuthing in the "lock" circuit (the > switch is fine, but the machine behaves as if it's always in "lock" > mode). We (RICM) were very lucky with this donated machine, and everything works. The main power supply lasted about one hour after reforming the caps. We actually had a brand-new 40 year old spare power supply for a replacement. We had to clean the switches, but they generally work OK. All of the bulbs worked, but one is bright. I have been told that we will break bulbs trying to replace the bright one so we will leave it alone. The system ran for about another 5 hours before the power supply for the PT08, PC01, PC02, and PC03 suffered the same fate and shorted the cap in the ferroresonant circuit. New caps from eBay fixed it. I am interested in corresponding with PDP-8/S owners. There doesn't seem to be very many of these slowpokes in existance. -- Michael Thompson

15 years, 2 months

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Salt Water Dummy loads

by n8uhn＠yahoo.com

Salt Water load devices were not used just for dummy loads. in the very days of live theatere (think Vaudville) the first electric light dimmers were square wooden boxes filled a water based brine with the electrodes fitted to a wood handle. the handle was moved up or down in the brine to dim or brighted the stage light! i yahoo search the info once and found it interesting and dangerous. i think the were also called "brine tank dimmers" Bill At 18:59 -0500 4/26/11, ard wrote: >If you are really crazy, use containers of salt water with suitable >electrodes in them :-). Just don't knock them over and spill the liquid >into the machine under test. ...and do work in a ventilated area. The bubbles evolving off the salt water will be, er, flammable, yes? Did this with the kids, 12V supply = jump cables from my car, foil "electrodes" in salt water, inverted test tube on a long holder, and a candle to verify the type of gas (used the holder to move the tube over the candle). Lucked out and collected the Hydrogen on the first try (well, it wasn't really luck. The electrode with twice as many bubbles had to be the H2.) They were suitably impressed. I was impressed how fast the aluminum foil went away (into solution). -- - Mark 210-379-4635 -------------------------------------------------------------------

15 years, 2 months

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uPD7220 GDC prototype PCBs

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! I am giving away the remaining uPD7220 GDC prototype boards. If there is anyone interested in working on a 7220 GDC project please let me know. These boards are designed for ECB although will interface to any Z80 quite easily. Other systems would take some work but still possible. Also, there is a page on the N8VEM wiki for the uPD7220 V2 prototype board with schematics, PCB layout, test software, etc. There will be a new board coming out soon but these prototype boards work fine with some very minor tweaks. For more details see here http://groups.google.com/group/n8vem/t/2b566d452dd7b460 Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch PS, pair this board up with an SBC-188 or your homebrew 8088 board and we could have a completely free/open FreeDOS/OpenGEM solution!

15 years, 2 months

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Nuclear Data ND 812 photos

by legalize＠xmission.com

I've uploaded photos of a Nuclear Data ND 812 system that I obtained recently. Its a little dirty, but its a rare system. It is the companion lab equipment that goes with the Nuclear Data ND 6600 terminal that I obtained earlier. I haven't reverse engineered all the subsystems yet, so some of my current understanding is guesswork. However, the system appears to consist of: - ND 812 CPU rack chassis - (2) peripheral control rack chassis - 1 dual 8" floppy drive rack chassis with drives and controller - 1 dual 8" floppy drive rack chassis containing only a power supply - (2) ND 600 data entry terminals with 4 NIM slots each Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/legalize.slc/NuclearDataND812#> Bitsavers docs on the ND 812: <http://bitsavers.org/pdf/nd/> NIM standard: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Instrumentation_Module> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

15 years, 2 months

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DEC PDP-11 weight

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

What are the dimensions and weights of a PDP-11/60 in the late model cabinet - the one that was used on the DECsystem branded PDP-11/70s? Google image search for "DECsystem 570". No drives installed. -- Will

15 years, 2 months

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Epson SMD-400 drive

by jonas＠otter.se

On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:50:53 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)wrote: > > I think you're rpobsbly right, the ST has a pretty standaed disk interface. > Connecting a new drive involved no more than jumpering for drive select 0, the disk change jumper was already installed. After plugging in it Just Worked. > It's always possibl the alignment of that old drive was a bit off, and > most of the disks youy have were recorded on a misaligned drive. In wichh > case I guess you should try to get the drive going again anf fiddle with > the alignment until it can read the disks. And then copy them to new > disks recorded on a known-well-aligned drive. > I'll get round to seeing about getting it working fairly soon. When it seems to be doing its thing I shall have to see about aligning it. > Ouch!. That's horrible. The service manuals I have for 3.5" drives (rather > better 3.5" drives than this one) say that the slide rails are matched ot > the head assembly, and you can't replace either separately. The > tolerances are just too tight. I can't believe holes in sheeet metal are > anything like accurate enough > Nothing in this drive appears to be matched in any way. OTOH the slide rail is eccentric at the ends and has a slot for a screwdriver, so it is obviously meant to be adjusted. It is supported on tabs bent up from the metal chassis, and the head slide is made from the same sheet metal. There are two wide tabs bent out underneath, with holes punched so that the metal forms a sort of bush for the slide rail. It looks very cheap I must say. How would you suggest I lubricate the slide rail? Light oil or some kind of light grease? /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

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Data Scrubbing in archives and paranoia

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

>>>> I moved everything to ZFS several years ago after looking at the >>> design. >>>> >>> >>> Unfortunately, Oracle controls it now, and there aren't a whole lot of >>> good >>> inexpensive choices for that class of scalable storage. >> >> It looks like there are several ports to non-Solaris platforms, at various stages of maturity. - Ian >besides http://zfsonlinux.org/ ? Having read up on ZFS I am very impressed with the level of paranoia. Especially its distrust of what has become "industry standard" solutions to data storage reliability. E.g.: * ZFS can not fully protect the user's data when * using a hardware RAID controller, as it is not able * to perform the automatic self-healing unless it * controls the redundancy of the disks and data. * ZFS prefers direct, exclusive access to the disks, * with nothing in between that interferes. That's the level of paranoia that I want! I was always convinced the RAID controllers are only specified to screw me over. I make the folks with tinfoil hats look like wannabes.

15 years, 2 months

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Prototype board...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

I'm trying to find a 2 sided prototype board that's got a male card edge on it with .156 finger pitch. Ideally a 2*12 (24 fingers) board would be nice, but I can cut down anything larger. Google hasn't been much help. :( tnx. g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.simpits.org/geneb - The Me-109F/X Project ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_! Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

15 years, 2 months

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Data Scrubbing in archives and paranoia

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Al writes: > Archiving on rotating rust has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the 21st century. In fact I distrust filesystems, OS's, data busses, etc., more than I distrust the rotating rust. And the more expensive or complicated the filesystems, OS's, and data busses become, the less I feel I should trust them. Many years ago I had a hard drive whose write gate failed "safe". You mean I just verified the cache instead of the media? I don't think I am putting excessive faith in bunzip2 -v, md5, and sha1, but you could try to convince me otherwise. Silent corruption of data is my worst fear of all. It's even worse than when Mr. Bemis's glasses break at the end of that Twilight Zone episode - it's more like he opened all the books and found them blank. Finding out the data wasn't there where I expected it, is far more disappointing than knowing it's there but I can't see it. Tim.

15 years, 2 months

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Lisa Office System install blues..

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I'm having no luck at all installing LOS. I've tried Lisa Office 3.0 and 2.0, but they both claim they cannot write to the disk - I tried two 5M and one 10M ProFile. To my knowledge, none of these have bad sectors. There's no sign that it's even _trying_ to access the disk. The activity light on the ProFile flickers during _detection_ and I can hear it seek. But, when I push the button to initialize it comes back immediately claiming it cannot write. I see no sign any access has occured at this point. If I try to repair the disk, it tells me to contact a service specialist and mentions error 200/662. There's no error 200 listed in the Lisa repair manual, but 662 is ProFile parity error. It's hard to believe that, since the drive passes format and certify on an Apple /// and MacWorksXL on the Lisa has no problem with it. I even tried removing the serialization on Office System disk 1. No joy. Something tells me I'm overlooking the obvious, but darned if I know what I'm doing wrong. Steve --

15 years, 2 months

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Dummy loads (was: Re: new here)

by jonas＠otter.se

> Or vary the spacing between the electrodes or the depth that they're > immesed in the brine. > > Seriosuly, such things have been used, and while they're better on AC > than DC (due to electrolytic effects), they can be used as PSU dummy > loads. But solid resistors (be they commercial wirewound ones, > lengths of > resistance wirte taken from old electric heaters, or filament bulbs) > are > a lot easier to handle. > > -tony This sounds a bit risky to me. Passing a current through brine would generate hydrogen and oxygen gas AFAIK, as well as possibly chlorine gas. It sounds like an explosion waiting to happen, unless you have adequate ventilation. Not the sort of thing I would want on a workbench. /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

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