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

40 yrs ago today, April 13, 1970, "Houston we've had a problem" by James A. Lovell

by ragooman＠comcast.net

40 yrs ago today, April 13, 1970, "Houston we've had a problem" by James A. Lovell http://history.nasa.gov/SP-350/ch-13-1.html

16 years, 3 months

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Has anyone ever heard of theProtec Microsystems PRO-83?

by Robert.Melville＠forces.gc.ca

I have a pro-83 with the power supply. You can have it for postage. The only thing wrong with it is one of the capacitors came off the board. Bob Melville 250 941-4651 After 4 pacific

16 years, 3 months

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New old products :)

by trag＠io.com

> > Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:05:41 -0300 > From: "Alexandre Souza - Listas" <pu1bzz.listas at gmail.com> > > Next time, use kicad, diptrace or something useful. Eagle sux. For Macintosh users Osmond PCB is very nice. I mention it only because Macintosh based PCB layout software is thin on the ground so Mac users might think there's nothing for their platform. The fellow who developed Osmond seems to be quite a guy. At least, during the years long (free) beta period he answered emailed questions about the software quickly, clearly and friendly, and fixed bugs. Jeff Walther

16 years, 3 months

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chips vs chad

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > >> I wonder if "chad" had origins with teletypes and paper tape, an >> industry (telephone) separate from the punched card / data processing >> industry way back when, and in which different terminology developed. > > Dunno, but either was fun to hide in a friend's drawer or light > fixture. Paper tape punches were far nastier than the ones from > punched cards. Why nastier? The card ones are thicker (7 thou) and have sharp square corners. I think the first time I heard about them (in the UK) the card ones were called chads. It in a warning from our lecturer not to use them as confetti as he knew of a case of them getting into the bride's eye and she spent the next few hours in hospital because of them. I think the holes were oblong so that the sideways on (row at a time) brushes of old IBM equipment could get through them easier. I don't think brushes would be able to read them a column at a time. By the way, I have some 80 column cards punched with round holes, two holes for each oblong one, and they were described as 160 column cards. Roger Holmes

16 years, 3 months

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Memorex 102 20MB Hard disk

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

> ------------------------------ > > Message: 18 > Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:25:09 -0400 (EDT) > From: Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> > Subject: Memorex 102 20MB Hard disk > To: Classic Computers Mailing List <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1004111405140.3802 at duo> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII > > Has anyone on the list seen or work with one of these? I received a > Morrow M-20 8-inch hard disk along with my N* Horizon and found the > Memorex 102 disk mechanism inside (what a beast!). > <snip> I worked on the 101/102 See http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/memorex/disc/112-114.60-00_Memorex112_Fujitsu23 01_jan83.pdf for the Memorex 112 Technical Manual; the 112 is a later version of the 102 and they probably have a lot in common. Paragraph 1.2.2 shows the typically current wave forms which should be the same. According to the spec the start up current is 6A peak and 1.6A running. So when running yr 10 ohm is only 1/4 watt and should be cool. The peak power of less than 3.6 watts should only last a very short time as the motor comes up to speed and it's back EMF lowers the current to the running current of well under 1.6A (the running current supplies both the spindle motor and the stepper motor). Again the figure shows a spindle motor start up current of about 4.5A and the peak 6A occurs during stepping. Good luck. BTW, if you have an 102 documents I would really like a copy, personally or at bitsavers. Tom

16 years, 3 months

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telegrams then and now

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I just discovered that Western Union's old telegram service isn't really dead -- just sold to an outfit called "iTelegram". Never having really looked at telegram services until now, I was wondering if anyone had any information on what a same-day telegram cost way back when. Nowadays, iTelegram does it for $45 + 88 cents a word. -- 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?

16 years, 3 months

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Canon PJ 1080A printer manual

by ray＠arachelian.com

Anyone have a manual for these beasties? I'm looking for the print codes for it. I've found some demo programs and a few of the print codes on the web, but nothing complete.

16 years, 3 months

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Need MK3801 datasheet

by m.jafari＠bahamadsanat.com

Dear John, Thanks for ur info at web, How can I get information about MK3801 from U? Please help me Best regard

16 years, 3 months

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VAXstation 4000 VLC Power Supply

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On 4/11/10 6:37 AM, Rob Jarratt wrote: > I have a faulty power supply in one of my VAXstation 4000 VLCs (clicks on > and off more than once a second). This failure mode of switching power supplies has been discussed here before. What was the common cause of this, Tony? The startup resistor or something, right? -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

16 years, 3 months

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Xedex Baby Blue CPU Plus ISA card

by shawn.t.rutledge＠gmail.com

I just found one of these in my pile if anyone wants it.

16 years, 3 months

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Use mini CDR for equipment info?

by dm561＠torfree.net

-----------------Original Message: Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:33:57 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Use mini CDR for equipment info? On 11 Apr 2010 at 14:40, Dave McGuire wrote: > I can't speak to the reliability of mini CDRs, but I can say that > it seems like a whole lot less trouble to have a directory structure > on a file server that's navigable by manufacturer and model number. > I maintain about 26GB of documentation that way. I don't keep > drivers or control software in there, but I could. Doing it the CDR > way seems to me like it'd be more trouble than it's worth. > > Just a thought, no offense intended of course. None taken. I find myself repeating things I've done 20 or more years ago, forgetting that I've even done them--so locating the information on a file server or in a paper file doesn't even occur to me. Then there's the awful feeling you get when you find out that you've already done something. But a CD-R stuck inside a cabinet might give me a clue. It's sort of like the situation a friend describes to me. He says "Old age is great--I keep making new friends that I've known for 50 years..." --Chuck -----------------------Reply: Oh, how I can identify with that... the other advantage is that you can watch the same movies over and over and they're always new. Re your docs: why not the best of both worlds, a label/postit/paper inside the equipment with a reminder that you've been there before and a pointer to where the machine-readable stuff can be found on your server? m

16 years, 3 months

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Wanted: CompuPro System Support 1 card

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

WTB: CompuPro System Support 1 card, working or not. Contact me off list, thanks. Bill USA

16 years, 3 months

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Desoldering Chips, was Re: Can someone, > confirm this chip equivalence?

by marvin＠west.net

From: Joachim Thiemann > Bummer. I'm not good at desoldering chips without potential damage > to the board. Joe. The easiest way to not damage the board is to cut the leads to the chip, and then use a solder sucker to remove the solder in the hole along with the remnants of the chip leads. Hopefully if one or more of the leads is soldered to the ground plane, those pads used thermal isolation to separate them from the ground plane.

16 years, 3 months

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National Semiconductor memory module for PDP-11

by steve＠cosam.org

Hi all, I'm looking for details on a 4MByte QBus memory module made my National Semiconductor. It doesn't have an NSxxx model number anywhere on it, but is simply labeled 980110014-211. I've managed to work out what many of the jumpers do, but a lot of them go straight into a couple of PALs which I'd rather not need to reverse engineer. A manual of some description would be nice although, failing that, even a summary of the jumpers' functions would be great. Even a photo of a similar module with a description of how it's set up would help at this stage. The main thing I need right now is how to configure the range of addresses the module will respond to. It works fine on one machine which has some memory on the CPU board, but another won't boot saying that there's no memory at address zero. Cheers, -- Steve Maddison http://www.cosam.org/

16 years, 3 months

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eBay Disaster

by unibus＠gmail.com

> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > I haev found it's impossible to predict the prices that things will sell... As a seller I look at the number of watchers: - 0-9 likely to go for the starting price - 10-15 likely to be one serious bidder, price tends to dribble up from the starting price. - 15+ war likely to be declared between multiple serious bidders and the price can go ballistic. A complete, untested PDP-11/10 system (eventually found my variac but too late to fire up the system) sold for ~$100 from a $0.99 starting price. In Australia just some of the parts and PCBs for a 1974 Electronics Australia EDUC-8 microcomputer (contemporary of the MARK-8) has attracted a bid at the $100 starting price while another auction for PCBs and some parts for a reproduction MARK-8 has not attracted a bid. All can be explained by the size and composition of the market. In Australia there are only a very limited number of people in my city who have an interest in a PDP-11, the MARK-8 is obscure and relatively unknown as Radio-Electronics magazine had limited market penetration, while Electronics Australia's EDUC-8 project would have been seen by Australian professionals and enthusiasts >from that era. So these auction prices are currently related to demand. I'm in Australia and there can be category mismatches between the eBay.au site and the rest of the world. So that what you an auction you think should list into an equivalent category on eBay.com appears to just disappear and searches will fail unless your buyers are searching only at the top eBay level. Most eBay.com buyers appear to be unaware of this limitation on searches. Then there is the opposite of an eBay disaster where the object is just to find homes for stuff. On eBay you don't have to wait for the end of a 7 day auction to sell something. When trying to find a home for something oddball like a core memory system from a PDP-11/20 I'd be happy to accept a $0.99 starting price bid from anybody who expresses the least interest. End result is a happy buyer and you get the cost of the eBay listing fee covered. Does surprise people who don't know this option of eBay, plus this can upset people who expect to snipe an auction.

16 years, 3 months

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VAXstation 4000 VLC Power Supply

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have a faulty power supply in one of my VAXstation 4000 VLCs (clicks on and off more than once a second). My worry is that I might have damaged it by overloading it because I know it is not that powerful. I suspect I could have overloaded it by putting in a disk that draws too much power (could that do this kind of permanent damage?). Does anyone have any guidance on what limit I should apply to the power a hard disk uses when considering what disks to put in these machines? Regards Rob

16 years, 3 months

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CompuPro format/copy utilities

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All -- Does anyone have the source to the CompuPro Disk 1 format and copy utilities? If they?re buried in a manual somewhere, I can?t find it. Any pointers appreciated. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.altair32.com http://www.classiccmp.org/cini

16 years, 3 months

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Interesting N* software

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

One of the diskettes given to me has what looks to be support for running the Morrow DJ controller under N*DOS. Here's the equivalent of a README: 10!"LIST THIS PROGRAM" 20STOP 30 THIS SOFTWARE HAS A TIMING CONSTANT SET FOR 40 A Z80 N* HORIZON. 50 IF YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT SYSTEM THEN YOU 60 WILL NEED TO CALIBRATE THE TIMING CONSTANT. 70 PROCEED AS FOLLOWS\ 80 1.COPY THE DOSCHG DISKETTE 90 2.POWER DOWN AND HOOKUP 8 INCH DRIVES AND CONTROLLER 100 3.BOOTUP YOUR OLD N* DOS 110 4.PUT COPY OF DOSCHG IN DRIVE 1 120 5.PUT AN 8INCH DISKETTE IN DRIVE 4 130 6. LF BASIC 2D00 140 7. JP 6519 150 8. SF BASIC 2D00 160 9. NOW BOOT THE DOSCHG 170 THE ABOVE PROCEDURE TIMES THE 8 INCH INDEX HOLE 180 IN THE DISKETTE FOR 1 REVOLUTION OF THE DISK 190 AND PLACES THE COUNT INTO THE SOFTWARE. 200THE NEW TIME CONSTANT IS AT 64E5 64E6 210FOR REL 5 8DIGIT BASIC. 220 DOSCHG IS NOT DESIGNED TO RUN UNDER THE TIMESHARE PROGRAMS 230THE TIMESHARE PROGRAMS INCLUDE THE 8 INCH DRIVERS. 240 AT THE END OF BASIC. THESE ROUTINES ARE USED 250 YOU MAY REPLACE THE DOS 260 ON THE DISK WITH ONE OF YOUR OWN BUT REMEMBER 270 TO USE RELEASE 5 DOS ONLY. 280 THE FILE BASIC IS 58 BLOCKS LONG BUT 290 AFTER BOOTUP BASIC ENDS AT 65CAH AND IS 56.7 BLOCKS LONG 300 THE OLD VERSION OF THIS SOFTWARE USED 3 BLOCKS IN 310 MORROW'S CONTROLLER RAM. REV 4 OF HIS BOARD WILL 320 NOT ALWAYS WORK WITH A PROGRAM IN THE CONTROLLER RAM 330 THE SOLUTION WAS TO MOVE THAT SOFTWARE TO THE END OF BASIC 340 YOU CAN USE THE MONITOR TO TEST THE CONTROLLER RAM 350 BY TM E400-E7FF 0 360 THE PROGRAM GCOPY COPIES 8 INCH TO 8 INCH DISKS COMPLETELY 370 THE DISK MUST HAVE THE SAME DENSITY AND NUMBER OF SIDES. 380 THE DENSITY IS SET BY THE PROGRAM 8INT. 8INT IS USED 390 TO INITIALIZE 8 INCH DISKS. 400 THE PROGRAM COPY IS USED TO COPY BY FILE FROM/TO ANY DISK. 410 LOAD AND RUN BASIC AS A PREREQUISITE TO RUNNING 8INT,COPY OR, 420 GCOPY. YOU MUST THEN GO BASIC, BYE, GO 8INT,COPY OR,GCOPY AND THEN 430 GOBASIC. 440 PGM1 IS USED ANYTIME YOU MAKE CHANGES TO BASIC AND 450 WANT TO SAVE BASIC ON THE DISK. THERE IS A JMP AT 2D00 460 WHICH MUST BE REWRITTEN BEFORE SAVING DOSCHG BASIC. 470 THE BASIC IS SET FOR 32K STARTING AT 2000. Here's a directory listing: DOS 4 12 D 0 BASIC 10 58 D 1 2D00 CF 39 6 D 1 2D00 CD 42 4 D 1 2D00 8INT 44 4 D 1 2D00 GCOPY 46 2 D 1 2D00 COPY 47 6 D 1 2D00 PGM1 50 8 D 2 INFO 54 8 D 2 CONTROL 58 4 D 2 TEST 60 4 D 2 TEST1 62 4 D 2 Does this ring any bells? Steve --

16 years, 3 months

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Intel MCS-8 cards on Erik's VC Forum

by cclist＠sydex.com

There's a fellow who's run across a few (8080 CPU, RAM, EPROM) cards for the MCS-8, if anyone's interested. http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?20071-Odd- Intel-S-100-Cards Chuck

16 years, 3 months

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N* Lives!

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Thanks to Dave Dunfield's fine work, I have my Horizon system up and running! One thing still puzzles, me though: Is it possible to create and boot SD diskettes on a DD system? When I boot at DD and bring up NST, it cheerfully writes a SD diskette from an image. However, that image will not boot. Should this work? Next hurdle is getting the Morrow Disk Jockey 8" controller hooked in. Some of the diskettes I received with the unit (none of which boot) have Basic and ASM programs that look like they're intended as support for the DJ controller. Without documentation, this is going to take a bit of experimentation, I think. Steve --

16 years, 3 months

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N* lives - Morrow DJ/DMA controller support

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

>>> Next hurdle is getting the Morrow Disk Jockey 8" controller hooked >>> in. Some of the diskettes I received with the unit (none of which >>> boot) have Basic and ASM programs that look like they're intended as >>> support for the DJ controller. Without documentation, this is going >>> to take a bit of experimentation, I think. >>> >> Get docs as that will save a huge amount of time. They are likely on >> Bitsavers or other archives. > > I have the Morrow Design docs, but the software discussed is all for > CP/M. This box came with a bunch of BASIC and ASM programs that look > like they are intended to patch N*DOS for the 8" controller. Cannot > find anything out about them, though, thus the comment about trial and > error. > > Steve > > Memory says Morrow never bothered with NS*dos only CP/M but it tould be iteretesting to see otherwise. Allison ******************************************** The COMPUPRO.ZIP file at Retroarchive (that Allison referenced in her next msg) also includes some Morrow items. There is a formatdj.asm file for the DJ/DMA controller that includes a NorthStar option. At least it's a start. I didn't dig much deeper but there is definitely some more Morrow stuff there. Jack

16 years, 3 months

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chips vs chad

by technobug＠comcast.net

A friend in Buffalo insists that they are called chips there... CRC

16 years, 3 months

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DEC RPR02 on eBay

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

Philipp wrote: ... And I got some RPR schematics from someone in the Netherlands last Sunday - thanks again :-) Would be cool if the schematics fit my RP02 and RP03 drives - at least a little bit. I'll keep the stuff anyway. Perhaps there is some interest to put that to Al? Regards, Philipp http://www.hachti.de ------------------------------ The RP03 is an ISS drive and there will be little commonality in its schematics with that of the RP02/RPR02. For example, the former servos on a glass scale while the latter detents on a rack. As I recall the 660-1 (RP02) was a relatively short run product since DEC switched to the RP03. The Memorex 3660 (the IBM compatible version) was a much longer lived product so it got the benefit of many design improvements that were never in the 660-1. When Memorex refurbished a 3660 into a 660-1(refurb) I bet it got the benefit of all those improvements so it is likely the schematics are similar but different in detail. There is a 660-1 Maintenance Manual at bitsavers, no schematics. But the maintenance manual has a list of all the signals in the back panel so if you have the schematics that should be very helpful. Signals may have been added or deleted but the signal names rarely changed as the design was improved. You ought to consider posting those RPR02 schematics at bitsavers. Tom

16 years, 3 months

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Linctape reading?

by djg＠pdp8online.com

> It's probably a laughable idea but... Is it possible to read LINCtapes > with a TU56 and a TD8E > DECTape controller? I could imagine that it's possible due to the simple > design of the TD8E controller - most work is done in software... > Sort of. You will need to put an inverter in the timing track path (I put it in the cable). Discussion from when I originally worked on this. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sys.pdp8/browse_thread/thread/64889d6346… I was able to read some tapes but on the todo list is to build a better reader since many of the tapes had too many errors. http://www.pdp8online.com/images/ I can dig up the code I wrote if your interested but it will need some work since it depended on the special interface board I made for the pdp-8 I have online. Much of the work I did on the PC. I can also give you the code the web site uses to display the tape contents.

16 years, 3 months

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on and off topic magazines and journals to be gotten rid of

by starbase89＠gmail.com

I am trying to get rid of around 300 old magazines and journals for someone I know. Included are about 200 "Proceedings of the IRE/IEEE" journals varying in age from 1949 to 1970, as well as bound full-year journals from 1953, 1955, 1961, 1962 & 1963. Additionally, there are about 70 "R.F. Design" Ranging from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as well as 25 "Hewlett Packard Journal" from the early 1990s. Because the person who has them does not want to give them away, I am trying to get $0.50 per 25 journals. They are located in Wall Township, New Jersey, and are for pickup only. Thanks Joe

16 years, 3 months

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Anyone have an image of a Japanese PET chrgen ROM 901447-12?

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 02:13:20 -0400 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Subject: Anyone have an image of a Japanese PET chrgen ROM 901447-12? Hi, All, This has all been discussed over on the cbm-hackers list over the past several months, but I've been fixing a couple of Static PET boards for someone in Japan. The only thing that appears to be unique to one of the boards is a 2316B in a Commodore-built 6540 adapter board (P/N 320076) and the 901447-12 ROM that's in it. There is no corresponding ROM image on Zimmers.net (where the old funet archive lives), and this ROM reads all zeros. I have a photo of the keyboard layout for a Japanese chicklet PET, and it doesn't happen to match the map of the Japanese C-64. One interesting feature is a few Kanji characters mixed in with the Katana, specifically, "4" maps to the Kanji for "year", "5" has "month", and "6" has "day" - obviously for rendering dates easily. There looks to be 51 Japanese glyphs total (all the Katakana characters, the three Kanji, and a couple of other characters needed to write sentences in Japanese). Given that the editor ROM is identical to a standard European/US BASIC 1.0 PET, it seems likely that the character drawn on the key would be the replacement in "upper/lower case mode" for that particular symbol. It seems likely I could reproduce the general contents of the ROM following the keyboard map, but it would be great it someone out there happened to have the real thing. I already know that nobody on the cbm-hackers list has come forward with a copy, but I'm pretty sure there are PET owners on this list who are not on cbm-hackers. If anyone happens to have this ROM or ROM image, please share it with the great repository at Zimmers.net. Thank you, -ethan --------------------------------Reply: ---------------------------------------------------------- It would certainly be nice to find the 'official' ROM, but I thought that the ROM that Philip (the owner of that PET on your bench) created was pretty well complete and correct; it seems to match my Japanese keyboard perfectly except for one character, and I suspect it's the key that's wrong and not the CG. Did you try that image and match it up to your Japanese chiclet keyboard? I've been playing with the idea of having all three (four?) character sets available on screen at the same time, using the reverse video signal. mike

16 years, 3 months

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Wanted: Dead or Alive...

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

I can say that Corvus PCs did indeed exist. I used one, and sold lots of them while working for Lawrence S. Epstein Associates in the 1980's. There were other things Corvus that never got produced, this wasn't one of them. Al On Thu, 8 Apr 2010, Steven Hirsch wrote: > > On Thu, 8 Apr 2010, Curt @ Atari Museum wrote: > > > > > Let me know if anyone has one of these or has seen one, I'm told these may > > have been done by Tandon as they bought Corvus around 1987-1988 or so. > > Heh. You'll have to beat me to it... > > Seriously, though, are you sure this was ever actually manufactured? I > have a bunch of glossy sales stuff from the early 90s that shows a number > of Corvus items made of pure smoke and mirrors. > > Steve

16 years, 3 months

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DEC RPR02 on eBay

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

TLC - tender loving care The RP02 is a Memorex 660-1 OEM'ed to DEC who resold it as an RR02. The RPR02 is made from a Memorex 3660 originally rented into the IBM peripherals market, refurbished by Memorex into a Memorex 660-1 and then OEM'ed to DEC who resold it as an RPR02 - the second R for refurbished I'm probably going to bid for it. Tom ------------------------------ Message: 11 Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:56:48 +0200 From: Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> Subject: Re: DEC RPR02 on eBay To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Hu! E. Groenenberg wrote: > Indeed it is rare. A bit of TLC and it would definitely be a nice > piece for any collection. Ed....! What is "TLC"? And what is the difference between RP02 and RPR02? They look quite similar - except the paint. And I got some RPR schematics from someone in the Netherlands last Sunday - thanks again :-) Would be cool if the schematics fit my RP02 and RP03 drives - at least a little bit. I'll keep the stuff anyway. Perhaps there is some interest to put that to Al? Regards, Philipp -- http://www.hachti.de

16 years, 3 months

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CDC 9-Track SCSI Tape Drive FREE!

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> http://www.merry-xmas.net/9track/ That is a CDC Keystone series drive. Can't really tell the model but I'd guess a 92181? The DEC TU80 is a very close cousin. It is natively "Formatted Pertec" interface, and I see the two 50 pin edge connectors for this on the back, but SCSI <-> Formatted Pertec converters do exist and there may be one bolted on the back somewhere. Tim.

16 years, 3 months

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DEC RPR02 on eBay

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

DEC RPR02 drive on eBay...This one really IS "RARE L@@K" etc. Two days left as of the time of this writing, no bids, $100 opening bid, in New Hampshire. Item #200457840777. Beautiful device...wish I had a way to grab it. I hope someone here gives it a good home. (no association with seller, etc) -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

16 years, 3 months

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Re: Reading ancient paper digital media (was Re: Hamurabi Focal source)

by dm561＠torfree.net

-------------Original Message: Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:27:26 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Reading ancient paper digital media (was Re: Hamurabi Focal source) <snip> >Watching the thing read at 1200 cards per minute is pretty impressive. <snip> --Chuck ------------Reply: Watching one *jam* at 1200 cards per minute is even more impressive, especially if the sensors are dirty or misadjusted (and *especially* if you have to recreate the damaged cards manually)... mike

16 years, 3 months

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CDC 9-Track SCSI Tape Drive FREE!

by mikelee＠tdh.com

I rescued this thing from a computer store in the area a couple years ago, and I think it's time to pass it on. From what I was told and what I can tell, this is a CDC 9-track SCSI tape drive that was removed from it's original rack/chassis. At the time, this computer store used it to do some data recovery on some 1980 census tapes from Chicago, and they had rigged this to a more modern SCSI based PC to do so. So I don't know what condition it is currently in, and no idea if it works still, but it did before it was stashed away into storage from what I understand. If you want it, I can ship it at your expense or more than happy to pass it along any other means possible, it is located in the Chicagoland area. Temporarily posted pictures at: http://www.merry-xmas.net/9track/ Mike

16 years, 3 months

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HSJ50 w/ CI interface on eBay?

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Noticed eBay auction /#/380220354709 - some collection of HSJ50 bits and what look suspiciously like some CI ports. Does an HSJ even have the capability to support CI? I never really dealt with HSCs back in the day, or the intelligent storage controllers from the BA35x era. Anyway if it does support a CI interface, I thought it might be a cheaper way for somebody with a larger VAX to get closer-to-modern storage and much lower electric bills than using SDI or HSC options. Doesn't do me much good for my 11/730, so go for it. No connection to the seller, and no comment regarding the asking price... Share and enjoy! --Steve.

16 years, 3 months

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Can someone confirm this chip equivalence?

by joachim.thiemann＠gmail.com

Hello, I'm repairing my A1010 Amiga external floppy drive - the actual drive works (tested by plugging it into the internal A500 floppy connector), so the fault should be on the latch board inside; there are two chips, a 74LS74 D Flip-Flop and one chip (also 14 pin) with number M53238P preceded by the Mitsubishi logo. Given the required function, and connections on the adapter board, I am 99% sure that it's a 74LS38 Quad NAND open-collector equivalent - but googling doesn't turn up a datasheet, just a gazillion chinese parts vendors. Can someone just confirm this in a cross-reference? Or a A1010 schematic? Or their own drive? Thanks, Joe. PS. Symptom is that the drive clicks but never spins. I've already taken out the chips and replaced them - this time in sockets. So if I'm wrong it's a simple matter of undoing the 20-odd screws yet again (Verdammte Post mit deren entstoerregelungen von damals...) and replacing the chip. I just want to double-check before plugging it into the A500 again tonight. -- Joachim Thiemann :: http://www.tsp.ece.mcgill.ca/~jthiem

16 years, 3 months

7
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PDP5 Emulator?

by bqt＠softjar.se

Martin Goldberg <wgungfu at gmail.com> wrote: > Someone from the IGDA-Preservation group is in the process of > transferring old DEC game code printouts in to text files, and was > wondering if any one from the list knew if there was a PDP5 emulator > (as a bunch of this is PDP5 in origin)? > > He may also require assistance in checking some of the assembly, as > the printouts and copies are not always clear enough to read > accurately. > > Any help would be appreciated, and I'll pass the info on. Depending on the code, it might be runnable on a PDP8. The main differences between the PDP5 and PDP8, as far as I can remember, is that the PDP5 keeps the PC at address 0, and stores the old PC at address 1 when an interrupt happens, while the PDP8 have the PC as a separate CPU registers, and stores the old PC at address 0 when an interrupt occurs. And some (combinations of) OPR instructions don't work on the PDP5. But that should not be a problem if you just take the program to a PDP8. So, unless the program in question needs interrupts, or play directly with the PC, I believe it might run on a PDP8. Johnny

16 years, 3 months

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Linctape reading?

by bqt＠softjar.se

Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote: > Hi folks, > > it's probably a laughable idea but... Is it possible to read LINCtapes with a TU56 and a TD8E > DECTape controller? I could imagine that it's possible due to the simple design of the TD8E > controller - most work is done in software... Nothing laughable about it. As far as I know, it should work just fine. > I just stumbled across a few of those tapes with unknown content. I first thought that I got a > DECTape which was wound to the wrong side. I just tried it out. The DECTape system seemed to > recognize just something on the tape - as it "rewound" the tape just up to the "beginning". And > then it was not able to read something, of course. > Oh, it would be fine if LINCtape reading on TD8E was possible - and readily implemented... > > Best wishes, > > Philipp > > > P.S.: I probably won't be able to give those tapes away without cleaning them... So offers to look > at them for me are quite useless :-( > If I do not find means to read the tapes, I'll degauss them. Or simply reformat them. Or both for a > clean tape start. Most of it seems to be working data. And some obscure software I don't know (yet). When you need to understand is that you can't use any "normal" software to read them, and that include any device drivers. The tapes are written in the other direction. And that's something the device driver is involved in. As far as I know, you can actually use any DECtape controller to read/write the tapes, not just the TD8E. But the same problem applies to all of them. You need a special device driver. But apart from that, it should be pretty straight forward. You basically do eveything the same way you would do with DECtapes, except you set the transport direction inverted to what a DECtape would do for all operations. DECtape and LINCtape are clever in the way they identify blocks though, so that the block markers can be detected the same no matter which way the transport is moving, which is why you seem to recognize the tapes somehow. (The tape markers were designed so that the fluxes would become the same no matter which direction you read them.) One last thing. It *might* be that you'll have to do some bitfiddling after reading the tapes. A DECtape (and LINCtape) records only three bits at a time. When reading forward, you read 4 rows to get all 12 bits. And of course, they get stuffed in a certain order. Reading in reverse means you get groups of 3 bits possibly shuffled around, as well as being inverted. Depending on the LINCtape format, and how the TD8E reacts, things might end up just right, or might require the bit fiddling. You'll have to experiment... Johnny

16 years, 3 months

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Linctape reading?

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, it's probably a laughable idea but... Is it possible to read LINCtapes with a TU56 and a TD8E DECTape controller? I could imagine that it's possible due to the simple design of the TD8E controller - most work is done in software... I just stumbled across a few of those tapes with unknown content. I first thought that I got a DECTape which was wound to the wrong side. I just tried it out. The DECTape system seemed to recognize just something on the tape - as it "rewound" the tape just up to the "beginning". And then it was not able to read something, of course. Oh, it would be fine if LINCtape reading on TD8E was possible - and readily implemented... Best wishes, Philipp P.S.: I probably won't be able to give those tapes away without cleaning them... So offers to look at them for me are quite useless :-( If I do not find means to read the tapes, I'll degauss them. Or simply reformat them. Or both for a clean tape start. Most of it seems to be working data. And some obscure software I don't know (yet). -- http://www.hachti.de

16 years, 3 months

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PET 4032 keyboard scanning problem / was Re: Anyone have an image of a Japanese PET chrgen ROM 901447-12?

by dm561＠torfree.net

-----------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:28:58 -0700 From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> Subject: PET 4032 keyboard scanning problem / was Re: Anyone have an image of a Japanese PET chrgen ROM 901447-12? Speaking of early Commodore PETs, I have here a 4032 on which some of the keys do not work. Some time ago I took a brief look at it and, as I recall, concluded the problem was not the keyboard but rather something was messed up with the scanning, something like not all columns/rows being scanned. I think it was a 6821 or 6822 or some such doing the I/O, but the diagnosis was perhaps more suggestive of something like a PROM bit failure causing the firmware program to foreshorten the scan sequence. Anyone have knowledge of a known failure mode of this sort with these machines? --------------------Reply: The most common problem is just oxidation and/or wear of the rubber 'contacts' and the PCB grid; if you're lucky a good cleaning will clear it up, in case of bad wear of the conductive pads you may have to recoat them with conductive paint ot glue little pads of aluminum foil or aluminized mylar on to them. Electronically they are a normal scanned matrix, driven by a 6520 PIA (UB12?) and a muliplexer; if there is a problem there then it would most likely be with all the keys in a certain row or column. I suppose it's possible, but I'd be very surprised if it were a bad ROM. Check the schematic and you should be able to jumper across the appropriate keyboard lines to test all the rows and columns. http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/schematics/computers/pet/8032/803202…

16 years, 3 months

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PDP5 Emulator?

by wgungfu＠gmail.com

Someone from the IGDA-Preservation group is in the process of transferring old DEC game code printouts in to text files, and was wondering if any one from the list knew if there was a PDP5 emulator (as a bunch of this is PDP5 in origin)? He may also require assistance in checking some of the assembly, as the printouts and copies are not always clear enough to read accurately. Any help would be appreciated, and I'll pass the info on. Thanks! Marty

16 years, 3 months

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Dayton Hamvention

by marvin＠west.net

As it is getting close to the date for the Dayton Hamvention, is anyone on the list going to be at Dayton? My plan is to be there with two selling spots (one to park in) and see what kind of "stuff" I can get rid of. If we have a few people there, it might be fun to have a Saturday night dinner at one of the local restaurants.

16 years, 3 months

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Any IBM Aptiva fans out there?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, I was cleaning out a pile of stuff left behind when one of my brothers moved to California and ran across what looks like an IBM Aptiva 2142 Media Console - a pop-top CD-ROM and floppy box with a 50-pin cable back to the main box... http://www.systemsalchemy.org/howto/aptiva/intro.html Formerly, there appears to have been a lot of Aptiva information at http://wymette.home.att.net/aptiva.htm but the site is gone (I think AT&T just stopped serving "home pages" recently) and archive.org isn't pulling up anything on that old site at the moment. Another referenced site was http://members.rogers.com/airchan/ (which is available at http://web.archive.org/web/20021213012640/http://members.rogers.com/airchan/) happens to have had a pointer to the original IBM hardware manual - http://web.archive.org/web/20021201092020/http://members.rogers.com/airchan… which at least mentions how to dismantle the Media Console. >From what I have been able to find, the CD-ROM drive in the media console is an IDE unit not SCSI, so I _think_ that while the connector may resemble a SCSI-1 cable (50-pin "Blue Ribbon" connector) it may not carry SCSI signals. There was at least one reference I found to a "host card" in the Aptiva that was not being described as a SCSI card, but I couldn't find anything that states it definitely is or is not SCSI. I don't happen to have an Aptiva, but if someone out there does, I'd rather it go to someone than get broken down for recycling at Free Geek Columbus (which is where it will end up if it's unloved). I would want 1.2X actual shipping cost from 43202 (box, packaging, incidentals, etc). I see a number of places selling them for about $30 plus S&H, but I doubt they are flying off the shelves at that price. Cheers, -ethan

16 years, 3 months

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seeking PDP-11/93 CABKIT for BA23

by bqt＠softjar.se

Nigel Williams <nigel.d.williams at gmail.com> wrote: > More details and pictures here: > > www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/members/nw-retrocomputingtasmania-com/pdp-11… > > If anyone knows the part numbers for the KDJ11 CABKIT or front/rear > plastic panels for the BA23 that would help me contact suppliers. You know, Google is really simple to use... A quick search on "pdp-11/93 cabkit" gave me CK-KDJ1E-KA. Found, for instance, on http://www.pacificgeek.com/productdetail.asp?ID=1932313. (in turn from http://www.pacificgeek.com/showallitems_bb_list.asp?Code=CK) You can probably find information on all other stuff you are looking for by using Google as well. However, finding the actual items might be another story. I wish you luck, though. > My aim is to run RSTS/E v10 on this machine so I am open to > suggestions for the simplest path to this goal. > > I have a SBOX CQD223A/TM SCSI card which I would be willing to swap or > sell for the QBUS variant or some other manageable RSTS/E compatible > storage device. That is a Qbus controller, I assume you know this? The Sbox is just a question of handles, which can be removed. Johnny

16 years, 3 months

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Desoldering Chips, was Re: Can someone confirm this chip equivalence?

by marvin＠west.net

Another thing that works (but you have to be careful) is to use an xacto knife to cut the leads using the uncut leads as a "stop". At the point most of the leads are cut, you can use a standard cutter to clip the last lead on each side. (Still trying to figure out how this is related to chip equivalence.) > If I slip, that would be no good... nevertheless, that's probably > what I'll end up doing (the cutting, not the slipping part!) > > Joe.

16 years, 3 months

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I'm,looking for PDP-11 CPU tests

by brain＠jbrain.com

I sent the DEC ROM info to the VT220 Font author, and he responded with thanks and also wanted to know if anyone had PDP-11 CPU tests. I noted he might want to join here, but I thought I'd start the ball rolling on his request. Jim -- Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X) brain at jbrain.com Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Home: http://www.jbrain.com

16 years, 3 months

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eBay disaster

by trag＠io.com

> > Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 19:54:27 +0100 (BST) > From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > I haev found it's impossible to predict the prices that things will sell > for on E-bay. Several times I've seen things with an opening bid of > perhaps $5. I've thoguht that it was a rare an interesting item and put > in a bid of $100 for it (and ecpected it to go for a lot more), only to > find I end up winning it for the opening bid. Conversely there have been > times when I've thought 'nobody will want that' and put in a sensible (if > somewhat low) bid, only to find it sells for much more. Time also plays a part, as in, who happens to be looking for that type of item and how many. What sells for very little one month may go for hundreds a month later. I designed and ran off some circuit boards for 16 MB Macintosh IIfx SIMMs and offered sets of four (64 MB RAM total) on Ebay. The first set sold for over $270. As one would expect, the price declined from there until it went under $50 which was about what I felt was my minimum considering the effort to assemble them. The second to last set sold for about $50 and the set that made me quit went for about $25. Then I waited a month or two, offered them again with exactly the same auction listing and the price was back up over $120. It's like there's a customer-base refresh function at work or at least a time variant demand function. Jeff Walther

16 years, 3 months

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eBay disaster

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, could someone please explain me THIS? http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190385486840 I don't sell on eBay very often. And from time to time I see people paying astronomical sums for more or less junk. But this time it was me offering stuff - and what did I get? I have no clue who would sell me a used RK05 disk pack in unknown condition for that price. But this was a new in a box one....! What did I do wrong? Was it the winner of the auction who has 0 eBay points? There was absolutely no trace of fraud on my side. I did neither bid with another account nor did I even ask someone to bid on my auctions to drive up the price. That's what I got from it. I hope that the lucky 0 points high bidder on my pack is someone who really exists... Regards, Philipp -- http://www.hachti.de

16 years, 3 months

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Are QIC 1000 tapes rare?

by teoz＠neo.rr.com

A few weeks back I purchased a Tandberg TDC 4120 drive at a recycler.For some reason I like collecting different tape drives and removable media, maybe just incase I find media with data I want to restore. Browsing ebay I found 6 new QIC 1000 tapes for it starting at $1 with $5 shipping "IMATION MAGNUS 46165 QIC 1000- 1.2 GB-B NEW" and put in a bid thinking nobody uses this stuff anymore. With 30 minutes currently left it has hit $117.50 and all the bids are users with 2000+ feedback. So are these things that rare, or do people snag it up to keep the prices expensive for corporate users who need tapes? I can't really see a company needing new tapes (1.2GB) these days, drives maybe to restore files but not new tapes.

16 years, 3 months

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eBay disaster

by ken＠seefried.com

Philipp Hachtmann wrote: > What did I do wrong? When offered in an open market with asymmetrical information and indeterminatedesire, if an item sells for more than certain people on this list think itshould, the people who spent more are idiots/clueless/scum/damaging the vintagemarket. When offered in an open market with asymmetrical information and indeterminatedesire, if an item sells for less than certain people on this list think itshould, the people who spent less are parasites/snipers/scum/damaging thevintage market. This is a once a month or more thread. Seriously, do we really need to rehash it? KJ

16 years, 3 months

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Terak Variable Density

by cclist＠sydex.com

I may be asked to handle some Terak 8500-series "variable density" floppies. The documentation isn't very specific about these and since I don't have them in hand, I'm guessing that they're really just FM+MFM and not actually zoned bit density floppies. Do I assume correctly? Thanks all, Chuck

16 years, 3 months

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IBM 51TD Floppy Drive pinout

by cclist＠sydex.com

This would be IBM P/N 4240513; apparently a 36-pin header on the 8" floppy drive. Anyone know what the signal pinout is? Thanks, Chuck

16 years, 3 months

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