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

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Commercial scan converter that supports a few old school video inputs. It's hard for me to think of as "secret" or "proprietary" an adjustment that was made by a trimpot on a analog TV/CRT and probably even brought out to the front panel (maybe hidden by a little door). So maybe there is some generational difference. Someday a young automotive engineer will, I don't doubt, reinvent the manual choke on the dash and think it's something new :-) Tim.

15 years, 2 months

4
3
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Teletypes Available @ InfoAge in Wall, NJ USA

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

A large number of ASR 33's, and various other types of Teletypes and other brands are available for purchase. Proceeds go to our clubs' computer museum located at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall, NJ USA. This is the same location as the Vintage Computer Festival planned for this May 14th/15th. Contact me directly if interested with an offer/questions/trades/your contact info. We are a computer history group, we already have enough teletypes for our own use. Some of these look bad on the outside, but most have been found to be serviceable or good for parts at least, just a little dusty and external grime. Shipping is possible but pickup is preferred. Again, all proceeds will go to our museum budget. We need shelves and pallets, book cases, paint, display materials, printing costs, etc. We're not yet a 501C, but I hope we'll have this done by year's end. http://www.midatlanticretro.org/teletypes/ Thanks Bill Degnan V.P. Midatlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists.

15 years, 2 months

17
46
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ebay: Burroughs/Unisys B26 CPU $0.99

by alanp＠snowmoose.com

I got rid of a large quantity of B2x hardware maybe three years ago. Three CPU slices. Disk slices. Floppy slices. Monitors. Keyboards. Power bricks. Sadly no software (which seems to be the norm - wish I had known - I would have stashed away some copies with me when I left Burroughs/Unisys). I looked all over for a collector to give them to, but found no takers. I eventually put them up on eBay, where the whole lot went for $5 (plus $100+ for actual shipping costs). alan

15 years, 2 months

1
0
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Lisa sighting at Notacon

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> When pushing them for more answers on details of their hacked together > video solution, and ideas for scan converting --- they clammed up, and > said that since they will be offering a commercial product at some point > in the future, they couldn't talk about it. Weren't going to document > it publicly, post it online, etc. Did I read that right? A commercial FPGA Lisa implementation in the future? Or a commercial scan converter? Tim.

15 years, 2 months

2
1
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ebay: Burroughs/Unisys B26 CPU $0.99

by legalize＠xmission.com

Not sure if this is a complete unit or not, but perhaps for $0.99 some Burroughs collector is interested. ebay item # 280661231045 -- "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

5
7
0 0

cctech Digest, Vol 92, Issue 25

by jonas＠otter.se

> I think the mole is defined from the number of attons in a certain mass > of a certain isotope of an certain element (carbon 12 IIRC) > The mole is the amount of a substance which contains Avogadro's number (6.0225 ? 10^23 ) of atoms or molecules of the substance. Stated differently, it is the same amount of grammes of the substance as that element's molecular weight. The definition says that it is the amount of a substance which contains the same number of molecules of the substance as 12 grammes of carbon-12, which is a way of expressing the number of molecules in such a manner that the required number of molecules can be provided by means of weighing, which involves a comparison :-) I suppose Tony's teacher would have wanted him to measure out a mole of sugar by counting the number of molecules of sugar... /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

17
34
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ASR 33 - question about powering reader

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> > > > I don't have one of these installed, as I have no base: > > http://www.pdp8.net/asr33/pics/old_rdr_power.shtml > > > > I believe that reader mod or no, I need to have power to the reader. > >Yes, you do.If you don't ahve the reader PSU connectoed, I think the >reader trip coil will still work, the transmit clutch will engage and >the distributor will spin, but the reader itself will do nothing. > >I've not looked at your pictures, do you have a free cable coming out of >the Model 33 ending i na 15 pin socket to connect to the reader PSU? I got a power supply, will send an update asap. Here's to wishful thinking. I spent about 2 hours with a teletype technician yesterday, went through the whole thing. I will plug the 15 pin molex connector into the power supply for the reader, and the other two leads into pins 4 and 6 of the pdp 11 cable. Bill

15 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Epson SMD-400 drive

by jonas＠otter.se

If so, it's the first one I've heard of in a floppy drive, but anyway... >> > It is indeed a rack-and-pinion positioner. > That is unusual. I think it would be worth trying to restore this drive, > if only to have a working example of such a mechanism > Good point. I don't think they are terribly rare, they probably turn up on eBay every so often, and Atari 1040s aren't rare. OTOH they seem to have used a variety of drives. I shall see what I can do to get it working again. >>> > > You would want som way to eliminate the backlash between the rack and the >>> > > drive gear. One common way to do thsi is to make the gear in 2 'slices'. >>> > > One is fixed to the spidnle, the other is free to move by a small angle, >>> > > but there;s a bias spring forcing it in a particualr direciton relative >>> > > to the spindle. The idea is that said spring is pre-tensioned when the >>> > > mechnaism is assembled so that the teeth of the 2 gears are forces to >>> > > commpletel fill the gaps between the teeth on the rack. >> > I know what you mean. There is nothing like that here, everything is >> > probably too small. The pinion is about 2 mm diameter and the teeth on >> > the rack are something like 3 per mm... > 3 teeth per mm? That's a very fine pitch. > > Thinking about it, 3.5" 80 cylinder drives have 135 tpi. So the track > spacing is 1/135" or 0.19mm. The backlashj in the mechansim must be a lot > less than that, I guess with a 0.3mm pitch rack you can get that. > 3 per mm was a guess, but I can't see the teeth on the rack with my naked eye (i.e. wearing reading glasses only). I need a magnitying glass to see that there are teeth at all. >>> > > What I would do next is with the drive removed, try carefully moving the >>> > > head back and forth and/or rotatign the stepper motor spindle and see >>> > > what moves. If something is stripped then moving the head will not >>> > > rotrate the motore and vice versa. Of course you may find that something >>> > > is jammed solid, in which cae that could be the problem. >> > I removed the motor, it turns out the rack and the pinion is in good > As soon as you remvoed tht motor, you lost the head alighment... Any alignment must be totally lost by now. But if I do get it working I can format a disk on it and see if that works. Reading and writing files might be more of a problem, I can't remember if there is any way to create directories and files in the bare OS, or if one needs programs >from another disk, in which case I would be out of luck if it is so badly misaligned that it can't read other disks. >> > shape. What I was seeing was just a deposit of grease and/or gunk. The >> > head assembly was locked solid. It runs on a steel rod approx. 2 mm >> > diameter which goes through what looks like bushes, and it was >> > completely jammed from lack of lubrication, dirt etc. The bad news is >> > that now everything is out of alignment since the head assembly came >> > loose when I was trying to move it (it was locked really, really solid), > Provide the head is not damaged, I'd try cleaning it up, making it work > freely again, and then see if you can get the drive working. Even with > the radial alignment way off, the drive should be able to read its own > disks (ones formated in that drive). > > As for doing the full alignment, there are various ways of getting it > somehat near using a disk formatted on a known-good drive, but it's a lot > easier with an alignment disk and 'scope. > If I get that far I shall have to try something. I have a 'scope but no alignment disk. >> > and I don't have an alignment disk. Still, it was a learning experience... >> > I have ordered a new drive from a local shop, they don't keep them in >> > stock. They are only 6 Euros so replacing it will be a lot less trouble > Hmmm. I wonder if those cheap drives are ever aligned at the factory... > I've seen new drives over here that are certainly marginal when checked > against a good alignment disk. > I shall soon find out :-) >> > than making it work again. I would have liked to fix it, but that is >> > simply not practical, sadly. > I'm not convinced it's impossible. > I didn't say "impossible" :-) I meant practical given my resources. But then I may be underestimating myself. And I would of course have to be committed to taking the time to make it work. OTOH, why not? >> > Interestingly, Atari drives are sold for about $50 on eBay, with >> > shipping to Sweden another $50. I suppose they are "collectable". That >> > works out at about 10x the price of a new one. The difference is that >> > the original drive is 720K and has a special bezel and eject knob, a new >> > one is 1.44M and the bezel and knob can be transferred from the old one. >> > The machine itself works with a 1.44M drive. > Hmmm... I guess I am more of a purist, but I really don't like replacing > modules (such as drives) in classic computers with random modern units. > To me, the design of the drive is part of the design of the machine, and > it should be preserved if at all possible. > Indeed. It would also guarantee compatibility with all the old game disks I got with the machine :-) It is an interesting machine, I bought one ages ago instead of a PC. It was faster than the equivalent "turbo" PC, cheaper, the display was higher resolution and it also had very good built-in MIDI support. I used mine a lot, not only for playing games, but I also translated several books using it as a word processor, and ran accounting software on it. I think I even designed a PCB on it. There was a lot of good and really useful software for it, word processors, early desktop publishing software that was better than the PC software, CAD programs, and of course *lots* of music software. Musicians used it a lot, and I knew a chap who used his to drive a very big Roland plotter type machine that had knives instead of pens, to make signs by cutting sheets of plastic film. And GEM was way ahead of DOS and Windows at that time. I could kick myself for getting rid of my first one... Well, at least I have one again :-) /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

4
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Troubleshooting a Xerox Alto: failure to boot

by IanK＠vulcan.com

I know there's been discussion in the not too distant past about troubleshooting a Xerox Alto, but I just want to add a couple of words on the subject. Ours went dead suddenly: it had been left running with the monitor turned off and, when I turned the monitor on, the cursor was on the screen in the upper left corner and was unresponsive. I rebooted with the button on the back of the keyboard and the screen went blank white. There didn't appear to be any response (seek behavior) from the disk (the Diablo 31 shakes things pretty well as it seeks). I shut down the machine and began to strategize. First I wanted to be sure the basics were OK. I used a scope and DVM to check all the power supplies, both for voltage level and noise: good. I scoped the clocks: good. Damn, nothing easy. I checked with the man who had sold us the machine (and who had originally restored it) to see if he had any advice on where to start. He wished me luck. :-) Since the Alto was a research platform, neither the documentation nor the engineering drawings were created with the idea of troubleshooting. I suspect the original Xerox repair strategy was, "Ask so-and-so at PARC." I took a hard look at the disk subsystem, since according to the documentation (AltoSubsystems.pdf) the first thing the firmware does on reboot is load a sector from the disk. I scoped signals that go into and came out from the disk and saw that a key enable line from the Alto, *RDGATE, was not asserting. The documentation for the Diablo 31 was helpful here. There were two possible reasons: it was not being 'told' to assert by the microcode, or there was a logic flaw along the combinatorial path. Recalling that the cursor was still being generated (a microcode task) when I turned off the machine, I initially figured the processor was OK. I traced through the disk controller's logic with the scope but found no smoking gun (or chip). So I reversed myself on the processor - time to get out the logic analyzer. Now don't get me wrong, I love the logic analyzer (HP 1630G). It's a powerful tool, and it's geek fun to play with one. But it's also a pain to hook up all those little leads, especially if, like me, you have "mature eyes." Further, the Alto doesn't make it all that easy: there are no extension boards available for its 122-pin backplane. (I plan to make some.) Fortunately, many key signals are present on the backplane, and the disk interface card is in the bottom slot of the card cage with several empty slots above it. It was tight in there, but I managed to get DIP clips on ICs and hook up analyzer lines. First I looked at the processor bus. In AltoSubsystems.pdf, it's documented that the microcode looks at the word coming from the keyboard to determine which disk sector to load (or whether to net-boot). At first, it looked like I had a stuck bit on the processor bus. Examining the drawings, I learned that the processor bus is a pretty conventional wire-OR design with termination on one end at the Memory Extension And Termination (MEAT) board, and on the other end on... the disk interface board! I verified the seating of pull-up and pull-down resistor packs in their sockets, tested some more - and ultimately figured out that one bit was bad on the analyzer pod! <sigh> Using a different pod, I was now seeing activity on all 16 lines (remember, bit 0 is MSB). I was able to capture the assertion of the keyboard word on the bus as well as the changing response with various key presses, giving me confidence that the microcode engine was running and sane. But *RDGATE still wasn't asserting. Damn, back into the disk board logic. >From there it was a simple but tedious matter of tracing back from the disk interface toward where the microcode was consumed to drive the assertion of the control line. With the logic analyzer, I traced the failure to A41, a 74H11 AND gate that wasn't AND-ing (output stuck low). Problem solved. So I think the takeaways are that it's important to know the processor is working, and looking for the appearance of the keyboard word address (177034 octal) on boot is one way to know that the firmware is being run. (The blank white screen is meaningless - the display controller H/V oscillators free-run until they're brought under control by the microcode.) Also, nearly every signal line is a complex combination of both active logic driven by the microcode and "control" logic representing various inputs from hardware elements that run concurrently with but separately from the microcode engine. IMHO this makes it hard to find even moderately involved failures with a scope alone. The engineering drawings (AltoIIMaintSchem_1978.pdf, for our machine) document the combinatorial logic pretty well, but the alphabet soup of the signal names may take a bit of puzzling to decipher sometimes. One critical set of signal lines is from the task priority encoder: unlike a modern system, the tasks are cooperative and are represented by signal lines that enable parts of the control logic. A particular value on e.g. the processor bus will "mean" something completely different depending on which task's signal line is asserted. The hardware manual (Alto_Hardware_Manual_May79.pdf) does contain a lot of information about this, but you need to read both the "Microprocessor" section and the "Control RAM, ROM, and S Registers" section to get the whole picture. The documents I've cited are all available on (and were retrieved from) BitSavers - thanks, Al! I hope my experience is helpful for someone out there.... -- Ian UNIX is user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are. Ian S. King, Sr. Vintage Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum A project of Vulcan, Inc. http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org

15 years, 2 months

2
1
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5.25" floppy drive cleaners

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Does anyone know who has a good supply of 5.25" floppy drive cleaning disks for sale? -- 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

3
2
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RT-11 / RX-01 issues ... "almost" boots ...

by mcsele＠niagaracollege.ca

Well, a few more bizarre things to report: I tried to disable interrupt sources as suggested. The only one, apparently, was the DL11-W SLU/LTC card which was set for both functions. The card was reconfigured to be "SLU Only". No change in behaviour. The DL11-W console is set for address 177560, vector 60. Next, there are three memory cards: one M7847-DJ (16K*18 MOS, MS11-JP), one "Motorola memory systems" card with 48K words, and one "MOSTEK memory systems" card with 96K words. Both the two later cards use 4116 DRAM chips. Tried to use the M7847-DJ card alone (after all, RT-11SJ should run on 16KW of memory). Reconfigured the card address to start at 0 and verified that it occupies addresses 000000 to 077777 via the front panel. When the machine it turned on, the display reads "054207" (this was not expected). Tried booting using the bootstrap on the M9301-YB card: the heads don't engage at all and the program halts rapidly displaying "173764" ... BIZARRE since that is a non-existent address. Next, tried the Motorola memory card which was already configured to start at 0. When the CPU is powered-on, displays "000002" on the display. Tried to boot the disk, heads engage, a few steps of the disk heads, and halts again at "005134". Finally, tried the MOSTEK memory card. Reconfigured to start at 0, and verified that addresses 000000 through 377777 are occupied by RAM. Powers up with a display of 000002 and halts at 005134 when a boot is attempted. The system is now stripped during testing, consisting of the following: Slot 1/2 = CPU, Slot 3=M7859 Panel interface and M9301-YB bootstrap/terminator, Slot 4=memory, slot 5&6&7 empty (with a grant continuity card in D), slot 8=M7856 SLU/LTC, slot 9=M9302 at the unibus end and M7846 RX-01 interface. Originally, had three memory cards in slots 4&5&6. Now I'm just puzzled. Question: Should the unit power-up with "000002"? As I was typing this, had a thought about slots: I recall reading something about not putting memory into slot 9. So, I moved the RX-01 controller to slot 6 (and moved the grant card in slot 9D). Now, when powered-up with the Motorola or Mostek memory cards, displays "000000" but otherwise no changes in booting behaviour. When the MS11-JP RAM was installed instead, displays "177777" once, "163776" the next time (when powered up), and still absolutely nothing when boot is attempted (i.e. no heads engaging at all). Is there something about RT-11 5.04 that I am not aware-of? An it was suggested that there is a difference between the Unibus and Q-Bus boot ... any thoughts on that one? I can't see memory being the issue anyway: sure, 16KW might be an issue (and that card might even be 'flaky'), but the other two cards are large enough. I suppose I could try an older copy of RT-11 however 5.04 is the only one I currently have which also has DX.SYS and DU.SYS drivers (allowing me to make a bootable copy on my LSI-11 system which has an MSCP drive ... I believe previous versions of RT-11 lacked MSCP "DU" device support?). Cheers! Mark >> >> Thanks for the suggestions so far. I tried a few things with the = >> following to report: >> >> I verified the copy of RT-11 on RX-01 floppy. It boots fine on the LSI-11 = >> system it was built on, tried "BOOT RT11SJ" as well as with the "/FOREIGN" = >> option and it ran fine on that system (which has an M7946 controller). = >> The drive is configured for RX-01 mode only (since these are the only = >> controllers I have in both Q-Bus and Unibus flavour). >> >> Now, put that same drive on the 11/34 CPU with an M7846 card. Checked the = >> CPU carefully: NPG jumpers are all intact on the backplane (CA1-CA2) and = >> all unused slot D's have a grant continuity card. Just to ensure it works = >> I reconfigured the console for 9600 baud (originally 300) and ran a simple = >> "echo" program loaded at 001000 which runs fine (so it can store programs = >> in memory and the execute them). The system has loads of memory - three = >> cards with 16K, 48KW, and 96kW on them - so I did a quick check at = >> locations 100000 and 700000 and memory is certainly there. >Some random thoughts >What devices do you have in the 11/34 system? An RX11, obviously. A >DL11-something (but what?) for the console port. Anything else? >Obviously the console and the RX11 must be at the right I/O addresses for >the system to get as far as it has. What about the interrupt vector >settings? Are those correct. Could it be falling over when it enables >interrupts on some device, the interurpt comes along and the vector is >not what's expected so it goes to thw wrong routine. >You have an M9301 at the CPU end of the bus. What, if any, terminator do >you have at the other end? Unibus (unlike Q-bus, normally) is terminated >at both ends. >Could it be a bad memory location? RT11SJ doesn't need much RAM to boot, >so perhaps you could try yor memory boards one at a time, each one set to >start at location 0, and see if that helps. >-tony 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

3
2
0 0

difference between Quick compilers

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

I know I have Quick Basic 3.n, and maybe even Quick C somewhere. Quick C had become popular w/developers (not for primary use) long after M$ canned it. Not sure why, maybe they just liked the IDE. And liked using it for quick and dirty tasks. I spied QB 4.5 on eBay, brand new (someone placed a bid, I won't at this juncture). Is there any big difference between early versions of QB or QC? Early version of Visual C++ for instance are doggish compared to later ones, but that's a different world. What about other M$ products, like Professional Basic (as compared to QB)? Any Borland/Turbo fans still out there? Already straying offtopic, a book I own states that Delphi could be used to write Visual Basic, but not the other way around. I'll assume Quick C could be used to write Quick Basic, but what about the other way around?

15 years, 2 months

37
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RT-11 / RX-01 issues ... "almost" boots ...

by mcsele＠niagaracollege.ca

The MS11-JP has only five DIP switches which set the starting address ... nothing about parity in the manual I pulled from bitsavers. I believe the parity control card is just an option, but not required (this machine was used for years with three memory cards but never a parity card: it had three RK-05's and ran RT-11). There is an M9302 terminator in slot 9AB (end of the run). Originally the 9302 was in an RK-05 controller backplane on the system (removed that, so slot 9 is now the end). 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 >>> Paul Anderson <useddec at gmail.com> 04/19/11 3:02 PM >>> Hi Mark, I don't remember what the difference would be, but I seem to recall the MS11-JP might have a parity enable/disable switch on it. The parity control card is seperate, and you did not mention it. Also, do you have a M9302 terminator? Good Luck, Paul On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 7:44 PM, Mark Csele <mcsele at niagaracollege.ca> wrote: > Well, a few more bizarre things to report: > > I tried to disable interrupt sources as suggested. The only one, apparently, was the DL11-W SLU/LTC card which was set for both functions. The card was reconfigured to be "SLU Only". No change in behaviour. The DL11-W console is set for address 177560, vector 60. > > Next, there are three memory cards: one M7847-DJ (16K*18 MOS, MS11-JP), one "Motorola memory systems" card with 48K words, and one "MOSTEK memory systems" card with 96K words. Both the two later cards use 4116 DRAM chips. > > Tried to use the M7847-DJ card alone (after all, RT-11SJ should run on 16KW of memory). Reconfigured the card address to start at 0 and verified that it occupies addresses 000000 to 077777 via the front panel. When the machine it turned on, the display reads "054207" (this was not expected). Tried booting using the bootstrap on the M9301-YB card: the heads don't engage at all and the program halts rapidly displaying "173764" ... BIZARRE since that is a non-existent address. > > Next, tried the Motorola memory card which was already configured to start at 0. When the CPU is powered-on, displays "000002" on the display. Tried to boot the disk, heads engage, a few steps of the disk heads, and halts again at "005134". > > Finally, tried the MOSTEK memory card. Reconfigured to start at 0, and verified that addresses 000000 through 377777 are occupied by RAM. Powers up with a display of 000002 and halts at 005134 when a boot is attempted. > > The system is now stripped during testing, consisting of the following: > Slot 1/2 = CPU, Slot 3=M7859 Panel interface and M9301-YB bootstrap/terminator, Slot 4=memory, slot 5&6&7 empty (with a grant continuity card in D), slot 8=M7856 SLU/LTC, slot 9=M9302 at the unibus end and M7846 RX-01 interface. > > Originally, had three memory cards in slots 4&5&6. > > Now I'm just puzzled. > > Question: Should the unit power-up with "000002"? > > As I was typing this, had a thought about slots: I recall reading something about not putting memory into slot 9. So, I moved the RX-01 controller to slot 6 (and moved the grant card in slot 9D). Now, when powered-up with the Motorola or Mostek memory cards, displays "000000" but otherwise no changes in booting behaviour. When the MS11-JP RAM was installed instead, displays "177777" once, "163776" the next time (when powered up), and still absolutely nothing when boot is attempted (i.e. no heads engaging at all). > > Is there something about RT-11 5.04 that I am not aware-of? An it was suggested that there is a difference between the Unibus and Q-Bus boot ... any thoughts on that one? > > I can't see memory being the issue anyway: sure, 16KW might be an issue (and that card might even be 'flaky'), but the other two cards are large enough. > > I suppose I could try an older copy of RT-11 however 5.04 is the only one I currently have which also has DX.SYS and DU.SYS drivers (allowing me to make a bootable copy on my LSI-11 system which has an MSCP drive ... I believe previous versions of RT-11 lacked MSCP "DU" device support?). > > Cheers! Mark > >>> >>> Thanks for the suggestions so far. I tried a few things with the = >>> following to report: >>> >>> I verified the copy of RT-11 on RX-01 floppy. It boots fine on the LSI-11 = >>> system it was built on, tried "BOOT RT11SJ" as well as with the "/FOREIGN" = >>> option and it ran fine on that system (which has an M7946 controller). = >>> The drive is configured for RX-01 mode only (since these are the only = >>> controllers I have in both Q-Bus and Unibus flavour). >>> >>> Now, put that same drive on the 11/34 CPU with an M7846 card. Checked the = >>> CPU carefully: NPG jumpers are all intact on the backplane (CA1-CA2) and = >>> all unused slot D's have a grant continuity card. Just to ensure it works = >>> I reconfigured the console for 9600 baud (originally 300) and ran a simple = >>> "echo" program loaded at 001000 which runs fine (so it can store programs = >>> in memory and the execute them). The system has loads of memory - three = >>> cards with 16K, 48KW, and 96kW on them - so I did a quick check at = >>> locations 100000 and 700000 and memory is certainly there. > >>Some random thoughts > >>What devices do you have in the 11/34 system? An RX11, obviously. A >>DL11-something (but what?) for the console port. Anything else? > >>Obviously the console and the RX11 must be at the right I/O addresses for >>the system to get as far as it has. What about the interrupt vector >>settings? Are those correct. Could it be falling over when it enables >>interrupts on some device, the interurpt comes along and the vector is >>not what's expected so it goes to thw wrong routine. > >>You have an M9301 at the CPU end of the bus. What, if any, terminator do >>you have at the other end? Unibus (unlike Q-bus, normally) is terminated >>at both ends. > >>Could it be a bad memory location? RT11SJ doesn't need much RAM to boot, >>so perhaps you could try yor memory boards one at a time, each one set to >>start at location 0, and see if that helps. > >>-tony > > > 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

1
0
0 0

Please need your help 2003 actual answer for Power Sentry HUB

by pietrovigno＠hotmail.com

Hi Vintage Your quote : Ok, next question, I need the power supply specs for the Power Sentry USB hub. I opened it up to try to determine what it wants but am not savvy enough I guess. It has a 278R05 voltage regulator on it (listed here: http://www.lekwong.com/product_infor.htm#ic04 but no specs) but I have no data for it. What was your finding at the time for actual voltage of Power Sentry Hub a long long time ago? I have currenlty exact same question. I would appreciate answer. Thank you very much uin advance

15 years, 2 months

1
0
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DEC M8043 (DLVJ1-M) Configuration help?

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

You can find alot of documentation on the bitsavers website, though some of what you need is hidden away inside other documents. The configuration settings you need can be found here - http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/qbus/EK-192AA-MG-001_Microsystems_Options_… It's been years since I've messed with a DLV11-J, but if you have any issues, let me know, and I'll see if I can walk you through it. T

15 years, 2 months

2
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amusing letter found in a C64 box

by starbase89＠gmail.com

Hello I recently picked up a boxed C64 off the curb and found a letter inside from the owner of the machine to a repair center requesting service. I found it somewhat amusing and thought others might as well. http://img842.imageshack.us/i/img035c.jpg/ -Joe

15 years, 2 months

4
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cctalk Digest, Vol 92, Issue 39

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 7 >Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:21:15 -0700 (PDT) >From: Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com> >Subject: Re: Assembly is dead, etc. > >--- On Sat, 4/16/11, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > >> ? Those applications are widespread; there are >> considerably more embedded computers in the world than >> non-embedded.? > ?>I'd like to hear from 1 person on this list that currently owns an 80186/88 based SBC. > /raises hand/ I have an HP 200LX, which uses a custom 80186 chip and is on a single board. Bob

15 years, 2 months

2
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Where does one find small 4:3 LCD screens with composite or S-video input?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Is this a side-effect of the analog->digital TV conversion? Did > everyone, all over, crush all their non-widescreen TVs, never to be > found again? Non-widescreen name-brand (**) computer monitors (at my day job we had literally acres of 1280x1024 screens) and TV's pretty much (*) disappeared 2 or 3 years ago. (*) The exceptions I know of, are probably new old stock, and I do see them showing up in security systems and point-of-sale terminals. (**) I know Viewsonic stopped making them a couple years back because the Viewsonic reps warned us of that like 4 years ago. But if I go to Amazon I see a companies called "V7" and "Planar" selling what I think may be new 17" 1280x1024 LCD monitors. Tim.

15 years, 2 months

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Where does one find small 4:3 LCD screens with composite or S-video input?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, It's trivial right now to find inexpensive 16:9 LCD TVs in various sizes, and I'm seeing a lot of older, smaller 4:3 VGA LCD screens in thrift stores and what not, but what I'm not finding abundantly are (presumably used) 4:3 LCD screens with 15KHz-friendly inputs (composite, S-video...) I've found a few places (Amazon, uBid...) with old pages now marked "out of stock" for items I'm interested in, but as of yet, I have not found anyo able to take an order. One example part number for a product that I think might fit what I'm looking for is the Sharp LC-12A2U (12" 4:3 LCD TV). It's trivial to buy a remote for it, it's easy to find a manual for it, but nobody sells the TV itself, either as a clearance item or used. Is this a side-effect of the analog->digital TV conversion? Did everyone, all over, crush all their non-widescreen TVs, never to be found again? My interest is in repurposing these devices into traveling displays, with or without an enclosing kiosk, and since I'm planning on generating the content from older (on-topic) devices, I'd prefer 4:3 to 16:9 since that's the display "look" that 1980s micros were designed around. I have a couple of 12" 4:3 monitors already, but they are VGA-only. I was hoping to find an older device with the right inputs vs buying/finding/building a VGA scan converter since I'd been expecting a used TV to be cheaper than a new scan converter, but so far, I'm coming up empty handed. So has anyone spotted older, smaller LCD TVs anywhere on-line or in physical stores? -ethan

15 years, 2 months

2
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DEC M8043 (DLVJ1-M) Configuration help?

by captainkirk359＠gmail.com

Hello CCTech people, I've recently gotten my hands on a nice little PDP-11/23 system. The main console interface is a DLVJ1-M, that I think may not be in the correct configuration (as I think one of the wire-wrap jumpers may have come off). I can't find any manuals for a DLV11 or DLVJ1, so I'll try to explain the problem. Comparing the DLVJ1 to the DLV11-E maintenance print set on BitSavers (not the same device, but mine appears to be identical to the one in the print set), I've noticed all the jumpers are the same between both except for one block. There's a block of jumpers that looks like: Z? ?Y 0? ?W 1? ?K 2? ?V 3? ?N Which in the maintenance print set has jumpers 0, 1, 2, 3, and N connected to one another. Whereas on my DLVJ1 only 0, 2, 3, and N are connected. Having no manual that explains anything, I have no idea what the current configuration of mine is. So, my question to all of you here on CCTech is: What is the current configuration of my DLVJ1? And more pressing as a question: Does any one have a manual that explains what all the jumper settings are? I ask all of this because, I believe the jumper that connects to pin one of that block, may have come loose and fallen off, which - I'm thinking - would result in the system reaching an advanced state of non-functionality. (Then again, all it does right now, is console ODT; as I've no mass storage, but I do have an RQDX3 and 9058 distributor.) Thanks in advance for any help. -- C. M. Gauger-Cosgrove

15 years, 2 months

1
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Info on QED 993 (QBus PDP-11 processor)

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Anyone have any documentation on a QED 993 processor? From what I've been able to find on the 'net (which is not much) it's a 3rd-party, Qbus-based, quad-width PDP-11 upgrade, which has 4MB of RAM onboard and is supposedly faster than 11/93. I just took a gamble on one (the seller icsscorp on eBay -- the same seller who had the CMD SCSI boards a week or so back -- has been auctioning a bunch of these off one by one) and I'm hoping to put it in my 11/73. It'd be nice to have some official documentation. Thanks! Josh

15 years, 2 months

5
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ebay: it can be yours for *only* $200,000

by legalize＠xmission.com

ebay item # 190523729625 This seller routinely lists vintage items at very high prices. (SWTPC 6809 for $2,989.99; Apple IIe $99.99; IBM external 3.5" floppy $99.99 as examples.) Now apparently he's getting out of the business. I doubt anyone is going to pay $200K for his inventory. I seriously doubt his claim that his inventory has a value of $700K. He does have quite a number of interesting systems still in stock. I believe this is because he asks too much money for them. I also suspect that he buys things from other ebay sellers and then marks them up, which is why his prices are higher than the average ebay market price for the same item. I have literally seen an item sell on ebay and then the exact same item listed on his store within a few days for a significant markup. Since he is "retiring", someone in NY might be able to show up and get a bargain. Because I am not close and had a bad experience with him before, I won't be approaching him, but maybe you'll have better luck. -- "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

8
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FWD: D.C.-area rideshare needed to VCF

by evan＠snarc.net

Carlson Stevens wrote on the VCF Facebook wall: >>> I am in search of transportation to VCF east. If anyone from the Washington DC area (or passing through the area) is attending VCF east 7.0 Saturday only and has an extra seat available, please message me. I am willing to pay all the tolls and chip in for gas. His email is carlson.stevens at gmail.com.

15 years, 2 months

1
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Control Data - TRG Division microwave stuff

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

CDC bought TRG, a company that made microwave stuff back in the 60s. CDC also branched out into medical equipment, industrial controls, art books, used cars, shotguns, and vodka. -- Will On Apr 17, 2011 6:54 PM, "Brent Hilpert" <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote: Some old microwave stuff came into the radio museum lately, probably 60/70s vintage, amongst which was a piece with a "Control Data - TRG Division" label on it. Control Data was even imprinted on the waveguide adjustment micrometers. Idle curiousity, but anyone know how CD was involved with microwave waveguide componentry, or what the TRG Division was? (Chuck?) I didn't know CD branched out into anything beyond computing.

15 years, 2 months

4
3
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Atari 800xl "translator disk"?

by dbetz＠xlisper.com

I have an Atari 800xl and a couple of 1050 disk drives. I also have two copies of the M.U.L.E. game on disk. Unfortunately, I can't get either to boot on the 800xl. I suspect that these are older games that were written for the 400/800 and may need the "translator disk" that allowed the 800xl to run games written for the older machines. Does anyone know where I could obtain a copy of this translator disk? Thanks! David Betz

15 years, 2 months

9
15
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Assembly is dead, etc.

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Assembly is dead, etc. Chris M chrism3667 <mailto:cctalk%40classiccmp.org?Subject=Re%3A%20Assembly%20is%20dead%2C%20et c.&In-Reply-To=%3C453993.9363.qm%40web65508.mail.ac4.yahoo.com%3E> at yahoo.com Sat Apr 16 15:21:15 CDT 2011 * Previous message: Assembly is dead, etc. <http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2011-April/299144.html> * Next message: Assembly is dead, etc. <http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2011-April/299198.html> * Messages sorted by: [ date ] <http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2011-April/date.html#299191> [ thread ] <http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2011-April/thread.html#299191> [ <http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2011-April/subject.html#299191> subject ] [ author ] <http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2011-April/author.html#299191> _____ --- On Sat, 4/16/11, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk> > wrote: > Those applications are widespread; there are > considerably more embedded computers in the world than > non-embedded. I'd like to hear from 1 person on this list that currently owns an 80186/88 based SBC. _____ Hi! There is an SBC-188 80C188 based SBC at the N8VEM project. It is a very popular board and there are many builders booting different sorts of 8088 style operating systems like FreeDOS, etc. I have plenty of the SBC-188 PCBs and some of the chips if anyone is interested. The original plan was to pair up the SBC-188 with the uPD7220 GDC board and run OpenGEM on FreeDOS. The good news is the SBC-188 and uPD7220 GDC boards are working. FreeDOS is working but we haven't quite gotten to OpenGEM yet. The SBC-188 with uPD7220 GDC make a sort of an "alternate universe" version of the PC using components of the period in a completely different configuration. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

15 years, 2 months

1
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ASR 33 - question about powering reader

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> > > Hi > > > > I have been able to get my PDP 11/05 to print "hello world" by > > entering a short program into the toggle switches. I can > > simultaneously get the punch to print if I enable it. The text is > > actually garbled (TE]HJVYRTD), but I assume I just have to make an > >Does the teletype print correctly in local mode? Could it be a problem >with the receive mechanciam in the Model 33? Yes, it prints fine. I have two TTY's, they both do the exact same thing when the PDP sends the text to the printer, that tells me it's a PDP transmit thing. >Can you correctly read charactes from the Model 33 keyboard on the PDP11? I have been trying to write a program that will do this using front panel switches. I could use some help. ><snip> I don't have one of these installed, as I have no base: http://www.pdp8.net/asr33/pics/old_rdr_power.shtml I believe that reader mod or no, I need to have power to the reader. >There was an 'official' Teletpye versio nwith automatic reder control. >This detected 2 control chreactters using levers in the 'stunt box' under >the platen. These operated swithc contacts (there may well have been a >latching relay involved too) to control the trip coil circuit. This >version is not at all common (at least not over here). <snip> >The first thing I would do is have the machine running in Local mode with >the covers off and a piece of tape in the reader. Press down the armature >flap on top of the trip coil. If the reader now runs (and the tape >cotnents are printed out on the Model 33), then the reader and the >mechancial side of things ae all working properly, and any problems are >in the trip coil circuit (most likely) no power for the reader. >I would invetigate thsi some more. What is the DC resistance between the >2 connections that go to the reader circuit (with those wires >disconnected from the rest of the teletpye)? If inifinite, this does >suggest a relay contact. I will check >Does anyhting happen if you apply 24V (or so) >between the 2 wires coming out of the machien from thsi device? If the >resistance drops to 'very low' then it really does sound like a relay. >Reconnect it, Apply 24V, and see if the reader runs now. The PDP is sending -15V from mate-and-lock connector 4 and 6, for the heck of it I tried this, quickly, but it had no effect. >The DEC connecotr has 6 pins used, 2 each for the transmit currnet loop, >receive current loop and reader run relay. The last will drive a small >relay coil directly. -15V? >Has this Model 33 ever been used on a PDP11? If so, it's likely to be >vertsion of the normal DEC modification and you can just connct up the >relay coil wires to the 2 remaining pins on the mate-n-lock. TTY "lineage unknown"

15 years, 2 months

2
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Fwd: [IP] Fwd: Columbia terminates Kermit Project after 30 years (fwd)

by spectre＠floodgap.com

This is sad, though the project is going open source, but it would be nice to see someone continue the Kermit name. Ed's just the messenger; don't contact him about Kermit. ----- Forwarded message from Edward Vielmetti ----- From: Edward Vielmetti <..> Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:30:29 -0400 Subject: Fwd: [IP] Fwd: Columbia terminates Kermit Project after 30 years To: Cameron Kaiser [Charset UTF-8 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...] If you know of any systematic efforts to take over orphaned projects, this would not be a bad one to scoop up and preserve (if only for the use of the name) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dave Farber <dfarber at me.com> Date: Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 8:25 PM Subject: [IP] Fwd: Columbia terminates Kermit Project after 30 years To: ip <ip at listbox.com> Begin forwarded message: *From:* Harry Saal <harry at saal.org> *Date:* April 8, 2011 8:23:38 PM EDT *To:* Dave Farber <Dave at farber.net> *Subject:* *Columbia terminates Kermit Project after 30 years* I have fond memories of transferring files from BBS's using Kermit. >From <http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/>http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ Columbia University is proud of its role in developing and supporting the Kermit protocol and software, first developed in 1981 by Columbia University to facilitate interconnection of diverse computers and transfer of data between them. Columbia has been pleased to offer the various versions of Kermit software for free or at exceptionally low fees over the years, providing what we believe has been a valuable contribution to the progress and popularization of computing over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, Columbia has determined it can no longer continue to support the Kermit Project going forward. As of July 1st, 2011, development of any new Kermit software enhancements at Columbia University will cease, as will any ability of Columbia to provide ongoing maintenance and technical support for Kermit. ----- End of forwarded message from Edward Vielmetti ----- -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- ACTUAL CLASSIFIED AD: Parachute, used once, never opened, small stain. $100

15 years, 2 months

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Columbia terminates Kermit Project after 30 years

by evan＠snarc.net

Sorry if this point has already been discussed; I'm very late to the thread and too lazy to search. :) Which * individuals * at Columbia led the original Kermit project? No names are mentioned at http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/, or on Wikipedia, etc.

15 years, 2 months

1
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Paul Allen on 60 Minutes

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Just saw this, he is on tonight Has a tell alll book coming out Randy

15 years, 2 months

1
0
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Control Data - TRG Division microwave stuff

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

Some old microwave stuff came into the radio museum lately, probably 60/70s vintage, amongst which was a piece with a "Control Data - TRG Division" label on it. Control Data was even imprinted on the waveguide adjustment micrometers. Idle curiousity, but anyone know how CD was involved with microwave waveguide componentry, or what the TRG Division was? (Chuck?) I didn't know CD branched out into anything beyond computing.

15 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

QED 993

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

You won't need documentation for this unit, if you're just going to use it. The on-board jumpers are readily decoded - Q22 C/D (For BA23/BA123 and similar) Q22/Q22 for H9275 and similar backplanes. W/BB or W/O BB - most folks won't have battery back-up for their CPU. Remove your current CPU and all memory, and install the 993 in slot one. Shift all of your other boards up accordingly. It uses the standard DEC 11/93 I/O bulkhead (which is also for sale by ISSCCorp.) It will probably start up asking for a boot device. Hit control-C twice to get to the boot menu, which will give you the option to get into the boot menu, setup menu, and diagnostics menu. You can completely configure the board from there. Enjoy ! T

15 years, 2 months

1
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ASR 33 - question about powering reader

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> > The power supply for the reader in an ASR-33 is in the base, mounted > near the top. A good picture of it can be seen here: > > http://www.pdp8.net/asr33/pics/old_rdr_power.shtml > > I gather from your pics that you're running your ASR-33 baseless? > > -Dave > Yes, but I should be able to track down the power supply in my stuff someplace. I will rejoin the base to the tty asap. bd

15 years, 2 months

1
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In Bay Area, available for drooling

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Once again, I will be in the Bay Area from the 31st through the 4th (actually morning of the 5th), and will be available to come over and drool all over you collections. I will provide the 409 and paper towels. Many of you have been very kind hosts before. Please email me off list so we can set things up. I am also interest in that pizza night things you guys do from time to time, if it is on. -- Will

15 years, 2 months

3
2
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Moving things from Seattle to the Bay Area

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

This is short notice, but things just may work out. I will have my mostly empty van available to move computer stuff from Seattle to the Bay Area, at a very nice reasonable rate (I need the money for gas!). I can probably take a single six foot rack, as long as it is not completely stuffed with equipment. That, or squatty boxes, terminals, or anything else. The catch is that the load up would have to be the early evening of the 29th of this month - just a week away or so - and would need to be pretty quick and easy, so no four hour jobs to get the things uncovered and hauled out of your cellar. Load and go. Unloading is far more flexible, as I will be in the Bay Area from the 30th through the 4th of May, and my days and evenings are mostly open. I will not be able to take large things further than the San Luis Obispo, or maybe Los Angeles with some arm twisting. If interested, contact me NOW, and please include some details of the job. -- Will

15 years, 2 months

1
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Modern source projects (was Re: difference

by jonas＠otter.se

> I pointed out I';d jsut been thrown out of the library. I am happy to say that nobody at any of the schools I attended would have dreamed of throwing a student out of the library just because they were there reading. Tony must have been particularly unfortunate. And as far as Fred's experience with college admins go, thankfully I don't think that kind of thing happens here. I would be surprised to hear that it did. I suppose I should be thankful to be where I am. /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

1
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ASR 33 - question about powering reader

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

[this is a crosspost/copy of message to greenkeys list] Hi I have been able to get my PDP 11/05 to print "hello world" by entering a short program into the toggle switches. I can simultaneously get the punch to print if I enable it. The text is actually garbled (TE]HJVYRTD), but I assume I just have to make an adjustment to the parity/stop bits or related. At least it's consistent. But the reason I am writing is to see if I can help with the reader. When I load and run the bootstrap loader the reader does not attempt to read a bootstrap tape either automatically or by pressing start. I think that's because the reader is not getting power. I can't get it to do anything in local mode or line mode. I have painstakingly traced the wires to get a good idea of the modifications made to the reader control. It appears that two of the wires coming from the reader are diverted to run through a 24V transformer (?) with a 0.5 uF 47 on top that is part of the reader control mod, and then exit the teletype . <http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/with_PandB_JR-1000_pic2.jpg>http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/with_PandB_JR-1000_pic2.jpg On the other end the wires have round screw post connectors as if they could connect to a ground post or power supply. Pics below. <http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/with_PandB_JR-1000_red-blac…>http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/with_PandB_JR-1000_red-blac… Any ideas where these would be plugged in given the photos below? I don't think the two wires are supposed to be plugged into pins 4 and 6 of the mate-and-lock connector coming from the pdp 11. I am pretty sure 4 and 6 are for a high-speed reader and have nothing to do with the TTY circuits. http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/PandB_JR-1000.jpg http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/with_PandB_JR-1000_resistor… I am working to figure this out on my own, but I don't have much experience in this area! <http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/PandB_terminalstrip4.jpg>http://vintagecomputer.net/teletype/asr33/PandB/PandB_terminalstrip4.jpg FYI - The lines for the receive/send I must be close. I read that there was a power supply for the reader on some asr 33's, Do I need a 24V power source for the reader? Thanks in advance for any ideas/tips. Bill

15 years, 2 months

3
2
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Gordon Bell paper on the history of CHM

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/147240/Bell_Origin_of_the_Computer_Histo…

15 years, 2 months

2
2
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cctech Digest, Vol 92, Issue 24

by jonas＠otter.se

On 2011-04-16 19:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Are you saying that this uses a rack-and-pinion type of hard positioner? > If so, it's the first one I've heard of in a floppy drive, but anyway... It is indeed a rack-and-pinion positioner. > You would want som way to eliminate the backlash between the rack and the > drive gear. One common way to do thsi is to make the gear in 2 'slices'. > One is fixed to the spidnle, the other is free to move by a small angle, > but there;s a bias spring forcing it in a particualr direciton relative > to the spindle. The idea is that said spring is pre-tensioned when the > mechnaism is assembled so that the teeth of the 2 gears are forces to > commpletel fill the gaps between the teeth on the rack. I know what you mean. There is nothing like that here, everything is probably too small. The pinion is about 2 mm diameter and the teeth on the rack are something like 3 per mm... > What I would do next is with the drive removed, try carefully moving the > head back and forth and/or rotatign the stepper motor spindle and see > what moves. If something is stripped then moving the head will not > rotrate the motore and vice versa. Of course you may find that something > is jammed solid, in which cae that could be the problem. I removed the motor, it turns out the rack and the pinion is in good shape. What I was seeing was just a deposit of grease and/or gunk. The head assembly was locked solid. It runs on a steel rod approx. 2 mm diameter which goes through what looks like bushes, and it was completely jammed from lack of lubrication, dirt etc. The bad news is that now everything is out of alignment since the head assembly came loose when I was trying to move it (it was locked really, really solid), and I don't have an alignment disk. Still, it was a learning experience... I have ordered a new drive from a local shop, they don't keep them in stock. They are only 6 Euros so replacing it will be a lot less trouble than making it work again. I would have liked to fix it, but that is simply not practical, sadly. Interestingly, Atari drives are sold for about $50 on eBay, with shipping to Sweden another $50. I suppose they are "collectable". That works out at about 10x the price of a new one. The difference is that the original drive is 720K and has a special bezel and eject knob, a new one is 1.44M and the bezel and knob can be transferred from the old one. The machine itself works with a 1.44M drive. > > have a metalworking workshop with a lathe available to me:-) ). > Also remember that if you dismantle the head poositioner, you will need to > set the radial alignment, which needs an alignment disk. Something else > you may well not have. Indeed I don't... Next time, if there is one, I shall try squirting some white spirit or something on to the guide rod with a syringe, carefully work the head assembly loose and then lubricate the guide rod sparingly. > While it certainly isn't worth getting a lathe and all the add-ons just > to repair one floppy drive, it is somethign that you may want to consider > at some point. Having the ability to make mechancial parts really > increases the things you can repair, and it also removes worry from doing > some jobs ('If I mangle this part getting it off, I can always turn > another one.'). Yes, a lathe is a very useful machine. Unfortunately I can't really see where to put one in my flat, except possibly a watchmaker's lathe. Of course one of those would have been just the job here if I needed new parts. /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

2
1
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RT-11 / RX-01 issues ... "almost" boots ...

by mcsele＠niagaracollege.ca

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I tried a few things with the following to report: I verified the copy of RT-11 on RX-01 floppy. It boots fine on the LSI-11 system it was built on, tried "BOOT RT11SJ" as well as with the "/FOREIGN" option and it ran fine on that system (which has an M7946 controller). The drive is configured for RX-01 mode only (since these are the only controllers I have in both Q-Bus and Unibus flavour). Now, put that same drive on the 11/34 CPU with an M7846 card. Checked the CPU carefully: NPG jumpers are all intact on the backplane (CA1-CA2) and all unused slot D's have a grant continuity card. Just to ensure it works I reconfigured the console for 9600 baud (originally 300) and ran a simple "echo" program loaded at 001000 which runs fine (so it can store programs in memory and the execute them). The system has loads of memory - three cards with 16K, 48KW, and 96kW on them - so I did a quick check at locations 100000 and 700000 and memory is certainly there. Tried typing-in the RX-01 bootstrap and running it: same as before, stops with "005134" on the display. Added an M9301 card to avoid having to type-in the bootstrap each time (also, slot 3AB of my system was empty ... no terminator, nothing .... should have a terminator in that slot regardless and I should have added this card long ago). Now, I can just start the 11/34, and start the bootstrap ROM (with console emulator) at 773000. I get the four registers displayed as expected and the "$" prompt. Typed "DX0" to boot from the floppy. The heads engage and I can hear the heads stepping: Step, short pause, and three more steps, and then it halts again: "005134" on the display (when that address is examined, the contents are "000400"). Any further thought on how do diagnose this one would be appreciated! Jerome: this is my personal "baby" which I have owned even before I went to engineering school. Now just part of a personal collection of interesting technology. I _had_ three RK-05 drives on the system at one point but those drives were stored very improperly and were completely destroyed (the system worked about 20 years ago with those drives and oddly, never had an M9301 installed - that slot was always empty). Now, I am just salvaging what was left working ... in my case I was very lucky that the CPU seems unscathed by the ravages of time! The RX-01 controller was picked-up a few years ago in the hopes I could make a basic system again with an RX-01 drive. Cheers ... 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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mockups?

by tim.newsham+cctalk＠gmail.com

Is anyone selling working mockups of early model PDP-11s? Ie. something with console switches and blinkenlights that runs a simulator or uses a fpga implementation of a PDP11 and interfaces to some modern hardware like SATA drive..

15 years, 2 months

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Looking for Multibus parts.....

by wgungfu＠gmail.com

Have a friend looking for Multibus parts, told him I'd post here in the hopes that someone here might be able to help it out. Here's his request: "I need an extender board for a system that uses a multibus backplane. (Multibus I, MBI, whatever you want to call it) I have a system that I need to work on and obviously need one of these to work on the boards while they're in the unit. Here's a link to a pic of one similar to what I need: http://www.vectorelect.com/Product/Extenders/Multibus.htm If anyone has one available, I'd be happy to hear about it and they can email me at sexsymbol at execpc.com." Marty

15 years, 2 months

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Woz + VCF East

by evan＠snarc.net

Nah, that subject line was just a teaser, Steve isn't coming to VCF East -- this year -- but he does like our t-shirt! Check out this screen capture of a Facebook exchange from just now: http://www.snarc.net/woz2.jpg ..... come to VCF East and get your own! (Irony: the VCF site is down tonight. Sellam is working to fix it pronto.)

15 years, 2 months

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Syquest SQ52xx failure modes?

by chrise＠pobox.com

I was given a Syquest 200MB (I believe model number SQ5200) the other day along with a pile of cartridges... some 200 MB and some 44 MB. I knew of these drives in the day but never played with one so it's an interesting exploration. I was considering hooking it to my PDP-11/34 via CMD SCSI controller except... The drive will mount most of the cartridges although it seems to take a while. I hear a loud clunk, like a head load sound every few seconds as the orange LED on the front runs through a cycling pattern of blinking fast and then slower. After a few cycles of this, the green LED comes on and then I can sometimes read some data from the drive. I've got it hooked to a Linux box currently and I've seen a Mac partition table go by (which makes sense as this stuff was used in a print shop with a Macintosh). But after a few seconds of spinning, the drive appears to fault and goes back to the blinking orange LED again. After a little while of this, then it seems to just lock up... you can't eject the cartridge with the front panel button and the SCSI interface pretty much goes dead as the drive can no longer been seen by the host. I suspected the power supply in the enclosure it is mounted in so I have swapped that but no improvement. The original was drooping a little on +12 (down to 11.5v) and although that didn't seem like a huge issue, I have lots of supplies to substitute so I did. So, are there any common things that go wrong with these drives-- that were easily remedied? The heads look extremely fragile with a very tiny wire looped around the outter edge so I am not so excited about trying to clean them. The drive otherwise looks pretty clean inside... and the fact that I can read _some_ data suggests that there is life and something may just need cleaning, aligning or stopped from slipping. On the other hand, I am not so sure these drives were designed for field repair or service... Chris -- Chris Elmquist

15 years, 2 months

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IOB6120 Anyone?

by v.slyngstad＠frontier.com

I have recently completed testing of some IOB6120 boards, and I've sold a few in the Spare Time Gizmos group, but now I'm offering them for sale here, too. This isn't related to the earlier group buy (which, as far as I know, folks are still waiting for), and in fact isn't a group buy at all. I've already bought the necessary materials, assembled, and even tested these things. (I have no bare boards or unassembled kits available.) According to my email archive, $215 was the asking price for similarly configured boards back when, and that still seems reasonable to me. A little more for international shipping. (Feel free to donate additional funds, of course :-).) There are some minor variations between the units -- most have box headers for the (untested) digital I/O interface option, but a couple have bare male headers. All have box headers for the serial ports, and on the bottom all have a bare 50 pin male header, a two-pin female header (for CPREQ), and a bit of purple electrical tape to protect the +3V poles of the batteries >from bumping up against stuff. These have been assembled with no-clean 63-37 tin-lead solder (and will still have residual flux on them). If you want one of these, please contact me off-list: v.slyngstad at frontier.com. Here are the particulars of the testing I have done: Each of the four ram-disk has passed the "RF" pattern test. The CF interface has performed a "DF" command on even and odd numbered partitions, and booted OS/8 successfully from a bootable CF. The flash responds to commands and has been programmed. It should be noted that these boards have 29F400 flash instead of 28F400 flash installed. This means you'd need to get new firmware for the IOB6120 to be able to reprogram the flash with the "FL" command. I can probably provide a pair of 27256 EPROM programmed with unofficial firmware for about an additional $10 , but I have only so many chips, and would rather not unless you actually plan to modify the flash. The FLASH extension ROM is recognized and correctly initializes the FPGA, which then passes the self-tests. The clock/calendar has been set (PDT) and keeps the date/time and partition map settings for days at a time, so the battery and battery back-up seem to be working. The VT52 terminal emulation has been tried and works. Right-CTL-G generates a "beep" from the speaker as expected. The 3 serial ports all independently display characters and accept input at 9600 baud. I am prepared to throw in a single serial cable -- with a 10 pin header on one end, and a male DE9 connector on the other. The printer port is capable of individually lighting LEDs from each of the 7 data pins. (Data pin 8 is actually masked off in the FPGA, so it's obviously set up for 7-bit ASCII.) (I don't have a proper working parallel printer to hook up for actual printing.) Vince -- o< The ASCII Ribbon Campaign Against HTML Email!

15 years, 2 months

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Epson SMD-400 diskette drive

by jonas＠otter.se

I finally gave in and got an Atari 1040ST, I used to have one but foolishly got rid of it a long time ago. However, it has a problem reading diskettes. It can read the root directory and at least one subdirectory and display a file from a diskette with text files on it, but what it prints is completely garbled. I have taken it apart and taken the shield plate off the drive and cleaned the heads with alcohol, but it still won't work. I suspect the problem is with the stepper motor drive. It makes a rather nasty noise when trying to seek; I remember it was fairly loud but this one makes a sharper noise than I remember. Looking at it trying to read a disk, it looks as if the heads don't move at all. As far as I can see, the stepper motor has a cogwheel on the end of the axle, which moves the heads via a rack which meshes with the cogwheel. It looks to my ageing eyes as if the rack has chewed a slot round the middle of the cogwheel, which would explain why the heads don't move. Somehow I don't think the cogwheel should look like that. If the cogwheel is broken, I shall have to get a replacement drive, fortunately they seem fairly common on eBay. Making a new cogwheel and probably a new rack is completely out of the question for me, and replacing the motor and rack doesn't seem like a particularly viable or economic option for me (it probably would be for Tony, but then I don't have a metalworking workshop with a lathe available to me :-) ). Any thoughts? Am I right in supposing that the cogwheel shouldn't look as if it had a slot round the middle? /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 92, Issue 21

by jonas＠otter.se

On 2011-04-13 19:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >> On 06/04/2011 19:04, Tony Duell wrote: > In case anyone's wondering why I've been silent for almost a week, it was > due to problems with some modern equipment between me and this list. That > is to say my ISP had routing problems (or so it appears). The ancient > parts (my PC) worked perfectly. Something like what my ISP did to me a while ago. The web/mail/database server they provided decided to self-destruct, taking down among other things, email for the whole family. It took them about a week to find out that the server was beyond repair, and transfer all accounts to a new machine - of course they changed its name at the same time. I asked them to restore all mail from the old one, goodness knows what would have happened to it otherwise. It turned out that "restoring" mail meant dumping a gazillion files with strange names in some directory structure specific to the old mail system. The databases ended up as SQL scripts. Of course I changed providers, and had to spend a couple of weeks downloading the mail files, importing them into Thunderbird and moving them to the new server. Thankfully all the files were RFC-822 format, but I still had to rename them all. Thank goodness for bulk renaming utilities. I didn't want to rename them in place in case I messed up so I had to do it all in Windows. All this work I would still have had to do if I had stayed with the old provider, of course. Obviously, paying a provider to manage a server and do backups etc doesn't necessarily mean they do it very well. /Jonas

15 years, 2 months

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Prosser/The Art of Digital Design, Laboratory Notes

by oe5ewl＠gmail.com

Hi all, I'm currently enjoying to read Prosser and Winkels Book "the art of digital design". Currently I'm right into the last sections. Every now and then theres a "laboratory manual" referenced which should contain more technical stuff about the 2 designs (one is more or less pure ttl and the other is a microcoded design). It would be very interesting to look into this laboratory manuals (I can look up the correct name of the document, don't have the book handy at the moment) as the book itself only contains the basic design ideas and stuff. I'd greatly appreciate any hint where to get this manuals in print or pdf. Regards, Wolfgang -- Wolfgang Eichberger - OE5EWL Operating System Collector Blog: 5ewl.blogspot.com Homepage: www.eichberger.org

15 years, 2 months

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HP LaserJet 4100 rear cover

by jdbryan＠acm.org

On Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 23:33, I wrote: > My only concern is that the description shown is "Duplexer cover - > Covers the duplexer on the back of the printer" ...but this printer has > no duplexer (it's an option). The cover I need actually covers the > end of the paper tray. Aha! I see from the "Advanced" view on the PartSurfer page that the part description is different; there, it's "Cover, tray 2," and that is indeed what it covers. Thanks again, Steve. -- Dave

15 years, 2 months

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HP LaserJet 4100 rear cover

by jdbryan＠acm.org

Hi folks, I just acquired an old HP 4100N laser printer that is missing the rear dust cover. A drawing of the missing cover from the user manual is here: http://home.earthlink.net/~jdbryan/dropbox/hp4100-cover.png This cover attaches at the bottom of the rear of the machine and covers the back end of paper tray #2 and the fuser assembly. It's present if the printer does not have the duplexing attachment. Could someone who has one of these printers please let me know the part number that's molded into the inside of the cover, so that I may locate a replacement? The cover number probably will be of the form "RBn-nnnn". Beware that there will also be part numbers present for the plastic resin used in making the cover (e.g., "Cycoloy C6600-GY8070" or "HP Material PN 4093-2825"), at least based on the other covers on the machine. Thanks! -- Dave

15 years, 2 months

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