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

Classic Computing in the Southwest (U.S.A)

by tponsford＠theriver.com

Phoenix: SMECC Tucson: Biosphere The Pima Air and Space Museum and the Davis-Monthan AFB "Bone Yard" (Thousands of Mothballed planes) Titan ICBM Missile Museum Kitt Peak Observatory Kartchner Caverns & Tombstone, Arizona ( about 45 miles away in Cochise County, my neck of the woods) UofA Surplus Auction (twice monthy) SouthWest Liquidators Albuquerque: Bently Auctions, (Sandia and Los Alamos Labs) (Lots of Classic stuff Decs SGI, Suns (new and old)as well as PeeCee stuff) -- --- Please do not read this sig. If you have read this far, please unread back to the beginning.

21 years, 10 months

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OT: CRT EMI Shield

by cb＠mythtech.net

>Try a piece of sheet steel between the monitors.. You're probably >suffering from stray magnetic fields. Any particular kind of steel? Will the metal from Air conditioning ducts work? (I can get flat peices of that cheap at the local Home Depot). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 10 months

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FA: MicroVAX cards & drives, prototype Motorola PCX 7410

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I just finished listing a bunch of DEC MicroVAX cards and disk drives on E-bay including some king of SCSI converter card. Also listed a prototype Motorola.Atmel PCX 7410 PowerPC CPU. See <http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=rigdonj>. Joe

21 years, 10 months

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Mac startup and death chimes database

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 15:51 -0500 5/28/04, Chris wrote: >Somewhere I have an Apple Spec database that includes the noise each Mac >makes when it reports a problem. I don't see it on my hard drive now, so >I must have archived it at some point. I'll have to dig around and figure >out where it went. http://www.mactracker.ca/ But not all the "death chimes" are in place, in the version I have. But the IIci is. There's also a lot of other useful info about Mac Models there. -- - Mark 210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967

21 years, 10 months

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scp platforms

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 10:00 -0500 5/28/04, Jochen wrote: > > scp? Never used it. How portable is it to different platforms? >I don't know how portable a protocol specification is. ;-) >But there are implementations at least for Unix (like) OSes and M$Win. >The problem with scp is that it makes heavy use of crypto algorithms >that you usually find in quite heavyweight crypto libs. >I don't want to implement this on a PDP-11. ;-( >-- I can add NeXTStep 3.3 and Mac OS 8.6 (and OS X) and Solaris to the list of SCP-capable platforms from personal experience. I assume there are more. Most implementations of SCP that I've seen come bundled with SSH, which does Telnet-like duties in an encrypted way as far as I can see. If anyone needs pointers to any of the above software, ping me and I'll dig them up. -- - Mark 210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967

21 years, 10 months

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Classic Computing in the Southwest (U.S.A.)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 11:12 -0500 6/1/04, Jason McBrien wrote: >I'll be on a road trip at the end of June driving from Phoenix, AZ to >Houston, TX. Any interesting spots to check out on the way? I'm hoping to >hit the Johnson Space Center in Houston, but I'll need to see what my >schedule looks like (It's a business road-trip :( Electronics Plus, in Kerrville, Texas, which is on I-10 (which I assume is how you'll be driving. Contact info: Cindy Croxton, sales(a)elecplus.com, phone 830-792-3400. The dust is free. I recommend you email in advance to get summer hours and let Cindy know you are interested in classic stuff. -- - Mark 210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967

21 years, 10 months

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GE Terminet terminal

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "John Lawson" <jpl15(a)panix.com> > > > >On Tue, 1 Jun 2004, Tom Jennings wrote: > >> >> Would love to have one again, just for the noise it makes. > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > >whirrziziziziziz BRACKBRACKBRACK - BRACKBRACKBRACK - BRACKBRACKBRACK etc >etc etc... > > > Cheers > >John > > > Hi This sounds like an old belt type epson printer I have. It is missing one character print head :( I've been looking for more of these machines but it seems they are quire rare. It could really spit out paper fast. All those hammers and the band made it quite fast. I tried to contact epson about it but they had no idea what I was talking about. It seens that when they moved manufacturing to Japan, they lost most all of the old info about machines made in the US. Dwight

21 years, 10 months

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OT: CRT EMI Shield

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 1, 13:07, chris wrote: > I'm going to try swapping it for a newer monitor later today and see if > the problem goes away. I had a similar problem, and the best solution did indeed turn out to be using a different monitor. > I'm not sure where else around me to buy the stuff. I'll have to ask a > friend of mine that does metal sculptures where he buys his steel. There > has to be someplace better around here. I tried steel sheet -- ex-PC tower case, in fact, about 1/16" thick (yes, it was a heavy old one) and found that it didn't make enough difference, even when extended some way (too far for comfort) in front of the screens. And don't put a magnet close to the tube. The risk is not magnetising the shadow mask, but distorting it, and once that's happened there's no cure. Unless you hold the tube pointy end down and drop it, in the hope that the bulge will flatten out with the shock ;-) But then you might have another problem with that tube. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

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Anyone have a working paper tape reader?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi I sent Tom a machine readable copy of the 6502 a couple of years back. He later got another copy from someone else and creditted them with supplying him the data. I guess he needs yet another copy. I wonder if he is getting a little forgetful and losing things. I have it someplace and can get it to you or him. It'll take me a day or to to find it. If after a couple days, I don't get back, remind me. I'm working on a couple of other projects that have higher priority. Dwight >From: "Bob Applegate" <bob(a)applegate.org> > >I'm trying to resurrect a copy of Tom Pittman's 6502 Tiny Basic. Tom has paper tapes of >the binaries, and was willing to send me one in exchange for reading the tape and sending >him back some sort of machine-readable version of the contents. Not having a paper tape >reader, this would be a long, dragged-out process of my manually converting the entire >tape to binary by hand. > >Is there anyone in the US that could do this for Tom? He might be happy just to have the >binary version (or the raw text) emailed to him. > >If you can help, please let me know. > >Bob >

21 years, 10 months

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OT: CRT EMI Shield

by cb＠mythtech.net

>> The kind magnets will stick to. >> Hold the magnet on the screen of a CRT to see similar distortion. > >Please don't do that unless you want a semi-permanent distortion field in >the middle of your screen. Don't worry, I don't keep magnets anywhere near my computers. So I couldn't test it even if I wanted to. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 10 months

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OT: CRT EMI Shield

by cb＠mythtech.net

> As for stacking tubes one on top of the other - if it's just the one >that's causing the magnetic pollution, I'd be inclined to chuck it (at >your appropriate nearby E-Cycling facility of course!) and just get >another. They're common as dirt and as folks trade up to LCD screens, CRT >monitors are hitting the recycle streams in epidemic quantities. Nobody >wants a 100-pound 23" CRT that takes up half the desk anymore... That thought crossed my mind on my previous email. I picked the monitor I'm useing because it is old and not a very nice one. Since it will spend most of its life idle, it seemed a good task for it. But it did dawn on me that the fact that it is old may very well be the source of the problem. I'm going to try swapping it for a newer monitor later today and see if the problem goes away. > And Home Depot. Lowe's, etc are going to stick it to you if you buy such >materials there... it's unbelievably outrageous what the charge for bar >stock, angles, and sheets.... any little funk metal shop or machine shop >will have tons of this stuff lying around for cheap... I'm not sure where else around me to buy the stuff. I'll have to ask a friend of mine that does metal sculptures where he buys his steel. There has to be someplace better around here. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 10 months

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OT: CRT EMI Shield

by cb＠mythtech.net

>>Any particular kind of steel? > >The kind magnets will stick to. >Hold the magnet on the screen of a CRT to see similar distortion. I know the stuff I can get cheap is not magnetic. But Home Depot probably has something that is, so I'll look around. Thanks! -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 10 months

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Chip Design - East Coast

by allain＠panix.com

I met a real IC designer in a Job placement function located east of NYC. I thought that all such jobs in the USA would be located in IBM,Silicon Valley and the outer rings of Boston and told him he should spend a month in Silicon Valley reaclimating himself to the current state of the art. Aside from that he says he really doesn't want to move his family. I wonder if he has a choice. My question to the list is should he move to SV or does anybody know of places to go in the Connecticut area? John A.

21 years, 10 months

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OT: CRT EMI Shield

by cb＠mythtech.net

I did a bit of looking, but couldn't find a cheap home brew solution, so I'm asking here to pick the brains of the smart people on the list (or dumb ones, I'm not picky). I just added a 4th monitor to my desk. I have it stacked on top of another monitor. However, when I turn it on, the one below it, and the one next to it have their images distorted. I'm guessing it is some kind of EMI that is screwing things up. The distortion is noticeable and annoying. My current solution is to turn off the 4th monitor when not in use. However, I'd like to know if there is any kind of a cheap home brew EMI filter I can put between the monitors. Something along the lines of wrapping the monitor it foil, or putting some barrier between them. I figure people on this list may have run into this before, and/or know enough about the topic to be able to give me some decent advise. Oh and in case anyone cares: a while back I asked about a Mac keyboard/mouse tunneling program. I tracked it down, its called "Remote Mouse & Key" (go figure). So far it works most of the time under OS 9. I've noticed it sometimes fails to reconnect after a reboot (not a big deal, I just go back into the control panel for it and reconnect with the remote machine). More annoyingly, periodically, the keyboard/mouse will stop responding. I think it happens with the remote machine goes to sleep, but I haven't been able to verify that yet. Other than those issues, it seems to work fine, and with the addition of my 4th monitor, I no longer have the lag I had with Timbuktu. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 10 months

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Computer flooring/flooding/water in computer rooms

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I visited a hospital where they placed the computer room in the basement. They installed a sump pump with a battery backup and placed all of the wiring overhead in trays so it wouldn't get wet. I guess they thought the computers would run if wet. They also placed a large laser printer and 8 pallets of paper in the computer room, perhaps a slight fire hazard. Mike

21 years, 10 months

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a crate of 10 base network cards are available.

by esharpe＠uswest.net

a crate of 10 base network cards are available. various mfrs. most are new in packaging... anyone can use? trades? offers? Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC Please check our web site at http://www.smecc.org to see other engineering fields, communications and computation stuff we buy, and by all means when in Arizona drop in and see us. address: coury house / smecc 5802 w palmaire ave glendale az 85301

21 years, 10 months

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Pdp-11/60 and HP 9836 available in Houston

by dlwfanservice＠sbcglobal.net

I have a PDP-11/60 available in Houston TX along with an HP 9836. If interested contact me off list. David

21 years, 10 months

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Return of Colossus marks D-Day

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

Report on restoration work on BBC News site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3754887.stm _________________________________________________________________ Watch LIVE baseball games on your computer with MLB.TV, included with MSN Premium! http://join.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200439ave/direct/01/

21 years, 10 months

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Anyone have a working paper tape reader?

by bob＠applegate.org

I'm trying to resurrect a copy of Tom Pittman's 6502 Tiny Basic. Tom has paper tapes of the binaries, and was willing to send me one in exchange for reading the tape and sending him back some sort of machine-readable version of the contents. Not having a paper tape reader, this would be a long, dragged-out process of my manually converting the entire tape to binary by hand. Is there anyone in the US that could do this for Tom? He might be happy just to have the binary version (or the raw text) emailed to him. If you can help, please let me know. Bob

21 years, 10 months

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Brian Instruments BRIKON model 723 floppy drive tester/analyzer

by kennj＠telusplanet.net

I finally got around to fixing a Brian Instruments BRIKON model 723 floppy drive tester/analyzer I purchased (broken) some time ago. It was a pretty easy problem in the power supply (two shorted capacitors). It now powers up, lights blink, and I don't know how to use it :-) Inside the unit the EPROM stickers say "P723 Apple Dual Analog 4/29/92", so I assume that means this puppy can test Apple analog drives. Just for fun I tried plugging in an old 5.24 inch IBM-PC drive, and after moving the drive select (DS) jumper on the drive to "1", I can step the head back and forth using buttons on the front of the Brian. Ohh I'm a clever monkey! There's a lot I don't know about floppy drives, and I don't understand most of the info the unit presents on it's front panel or display. What's "Radial Select" mean? Or "Binary Select?" Or "Mux Control," for that matter? What does the following pattern mean when displayed following completion of a test cycle? --. | | | Looks like a seven, but there's an extra segment lit up! BTW, the 723 reported that my old floppy drive failed the test, which is quite possible. I was willing to sacrifice that drive in the interests of my education. :-) I would really like to get my hands on a manual for the unit. My search in Google took me to this web site, where someone way back in 2002 was looking for a BRIKON 723 with the analog/alignment attachment (option R). I don't know if that's the same as the Apple Dual Analog feature my 723 has. There's nothing on the back of my unit that says "option R" has been installed. My unit has one "free" slot inside. I guess that's for an option I don't have. Could anyone out there provide me with a copy of the owner's manual? Of course I'll pay for photocopy charges, etc. Alternately, anyone out there interested in outlining how to use this puppy? Thanks so much, Kenn

21 years, 10 months

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1802 - elf?

by ron.hudson＠sbcglobal.net

How rare are elfs? How about 1802s, could I build my own?

21 years, 10 months

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IS32 Optic RAM Datasheet and Steve Ciarcia's Micro D-CAM Artical

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

I have posted the following to my web site: http://www.dunfield.com/pub/is32.pdf <- IS32 Optic Ram datasheet http://www.dunfield.com/pub/mdcam1.pdf <- Byte "Micro D-Cam" artical part-1 http://www.dunfield.com/pub/mdcam2.pdf <= Byte "Micro D-Cam" artical part-2 I have not yet scanned the Apple code listing that accompanied part two of the byte artical - will try and do this in the next few days (it's fairly lengthy). I won't be able to leave these here forever - if anyone can take them and put them somewhere for long-term availability, that would be great! Btw, you can't access the pub directory directly, so you will have to point your browser at the specific files indicated. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 10 months

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Unisys System 80 available in Germany near Osnabrueck !

by cheri-post＠web.de

Hi all ! Who's interested in big old iron ? For the next 3 or 4 weeks, a hole Unisys mainframe will be available. The System 80 comes with several hard disks, a DCP-rack (with this thing, you can talk to VAXen), a high speed plotter and four big nine-track reel tape drives ! There are lots of terminals going with it. I defintely haven't enough space for it, you will need a truck to load this huge baby ! The mainframe will be scrapped in several weeks and it's apparently the last one in working condition in Europe (I don't know if it's right but the administrator told me so). I'll get several parts out of one reel tape drive and two HDDs, that's all. Contact me offline if you are interested. I can get more information about the model numbers of the parts. Cheers Pierre PS: I could make some photos, before it goes to the scrapper if nobody wants it. ________________________________________________________________ Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! Jetzt neu bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://freemail.web.de/?mc=021193

21 years, 10 months

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Pdp-11/60 and HP 9836 available in Houston

by nospam212-classiccmp＠yahoo.com

I have a PDP-11/60 available in Houston TX along with an HP 9836. If interested contact me off list. Looking to see if anyone is interested in them whole before parting it out. Seems most people just want bits and pieces. David ----- "When the mind is free of any thought or judgement, then and only then can we know things as they are." David Williams dlwfanservice(a)sbcglobal.com

21 years, 10 months

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selectric consoles

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

I have one of those IO selectrics from eBay too. It looks like they were pulled >from service, are nicely cleaned and lubricated but not repaired (e.g. mine has one shorted solenoid). Have gotten most of the wiring figured out, will send the documentation to any interested party -- contact me off-list. Later this summer I'll be building an interface for it, probably with usb, maybe serial also. Brian =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- _| _| _| Brian Knittel _| _| _| Quarterbyte Systems, Inc. _| _| _| Tel: 1-510-559-7930 _| _| _| Fax: 1-510-525-6889 _| _| _| Email: brian(a)quarterbyte.com _| _| _| http://www.quarterbyte.com

21 years, 10 months

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A big AT

by aw288＠osfn.org

Check out: http://users.bestweb.net/~toober/images/8232.jpg It is an IBM 8232, and the biggest damn AT I have ever seen. Basically, it is a channel to ethernet box, and contains inside an IBM 7532 Industrial AT with a bunch of Bus and Tag hardware. Just what everyone needs. William Donzelli aw288(a)osfn.org

21 years, 10 months

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DZ11 or DH11

by wacarder＠usit.net

I have my PDP 11/34 up and running and booting in RT-11 >from RL02 packs. I would like to do a few upgrades to it. I have two RK05J drives and would like to start troubleshooting them, but I need the RK11 controller in order to hook the drives up to my PDP 11/34 system. I also would like the ability to attach more than one terminal, so I'm looking for a DZ11 or (I think) DH11 multiplexer modules. Right now I have a DL11-W. Does anyone here on this list have any RK11, DZ11, or DH11 that they would like to part with? Thanks, Ashley

21 years, 10 months

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OT: Hp JetDirect 300X help question

by vcf＠siconic.com

Sorry for the OT but I'm stumped and the web has no answers for me (and neither do stupid HP and stupid Xerox). I've got an HP JetDirect 300X print server. I'm attaching my Xerox XD125f printer/copier to it to so that I can print from any machine on my network. For some reason, Xerox's driver will not allow printing from stations on the network other than the host. It will queue the job but when I look at the queue on the host it has errored out for some inexplicable reason. Also, when I print from the host, it loads down the computer for about 5 seconds until the job is sent to the printer. This is also annoying. So I put this print server in to hopefully accomplish two things: to allow printing from any station on my network and to not bog down my computer when I print. When I attach the printer to the print server it gets recognized by the JetDirect. However, if I press the test button on the JetDirect I do not get a test page printed out. That's one problem, and probably the one to figure out for the rest of this setup to work. If I setup a network printer port on a computer and then try to print to that port, it tries to queue up the job but then fails. I don't know if the JetDirect is not getting the job or if it is failing the job because it can't dump the job to the printer. I've done everything I can think of with the JetDirect. I've updated it's flash memory to the latest BIOS; I've checked all its settings and am able to connect to its web interface and all that. The one thing it really lacks is any sort of diagnostics to help figure out these problems, and stupid HPs website won't allow any sort of support questions to get asked about this product. So my only guess at this point is that the Xerox is one of those stupid WinPrinters that requires a windows box to print from. I don't know for sure. Xerox's manual is a fucking joke. So is Xerox at this point for that matter. Anyone have any clues to share? Please respond to private e-mail. THANKS! -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 10 months

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Computer flooring/flooding/water in computer rooms

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 29, 9:12, John Boffemmyer IV wrote: > Ah yes, flooding. Water and 20A 120 don't like mixing too much. [...] > You guy's stories are more interesting though as per the capability of > larger loss and a lot more water. Just thought I'd contribute my little bit. We were lucky; the concrete floor slopes slightly towards the aircon and the water level didn't reach any electrical circuits. If it had been an inch or so higher, it could have shorted all the circuits. Let's see, that's 3 phases times 8 (IIRC) dual sockets, each on a 30A 240V circuit. The UPS wouldn't have helped much, its 3-phase 6 x 30A circuits terminate in sockets bolted to the same concrete floor. Of course, the UPS won't actually supply 3 x 180A, more like 3 x 48A; similarly the raw mains isn't 3 x 240A, more like 3 x 100A. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

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Outbound Laptop

by vcf＠siconic.com

Here you go: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5702503936 The $250 Buy It Now price is not bad. Otherwise, the start bid is $150. Good luck! -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 10 months

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Ven-Tel autodial modem (c. 1982)

by oldbear＠arctos.com

I'm still cleaning the attic. I just found a Ven-Tel MD-212plus modem of vintage 1982 or so. This modem is unusual because it was one of the first to include auto-dialing controlled via its RS-232 interface data stream. Today, there is nothing unusual about embedded commands for dialing, but at the time, the only modems that could handle dialing were costly and bulky devices provided by Bell and requiring software support in the computer. (I believe that D C Hayes had just come out with a small 300-baud modem for the Apple II which introduced the AT-command set.) Racal-Vadic even published a "white paper" with the title: "Auto-Dialing is not Trivial" about that time. It went into detail about the various dial-tones, audible ring and busy signals, intercept recordings and other obstacles which a modem would encounter on the public switched telephone network. There is a photo of this VenTel MD-212plus 300/1200 bit/sec modem at http://www.arctos.com/misc/VenTel-MD212.jpg It's on its way to that great modem resting place unless someone wants to give it a home for the cost of postage. It would look very nice sitting on top of a PDP-8. With packing material, it weighs slightly less than 6 lbs. including the power supply (which is hard-wired to the modem.) Email me if you have any interest. Provide your zip code and preferred method of shipping (Priority Mail, Parcel Post, UPS) and I'll calculate the exact rate. First come, first served. Offer expires 6-15-2004. Void where spouse objects to any more techie junk in the house. ;) Regards, Will still cleaning the Old Bear's Attic

21 years, 10 months

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Exar 22-908-03 anyone ?

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

My Lilith workstation keyboard seems to have taken an "electric" beating, i.e. a 12 v to 5V short. The wiring inside the machine was not the best...... It took out the 8035, a 74ls373 and, much worse, an unknown to me Exar IC 22-908-03, datecode 1983 The first two are easy to replace, the Exar is much worse. Anybody have a pinout, a datasheet or an idea just what it might be ? Jos

21 years, 10 months

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Exar 22-908-03 anyone ?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 31, 7:49, Jos Dreesen wrote: > > Pete Turnbull heeft op maandag, 31 mei 2004 om 00:03 (Europe/Zurich) > het volgende geschreven: > > > > I've got an Exar databook, but I'm afraid it's dated 1992, and > > > > Could your 22-908-03 be something to do with a hard drive controller? > > It was part of keyboard matrix. Tony's suggestion seems to be spot on. > Exar seems to have had a very broad range of devices back then... Yes, I'd forgotten about those keyboard chips. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

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Switching supply expertise?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

At 21:04 30/05/2004 +0100, you wrote: >> >> SMPS are always a pain to troubleshoot, and I've always opted to find a >> replacement. In this case that isn't probably feasible so --- > >They are a pain to troubleshoot, but they're also a part of the classic >computer, and thus should be repaired and preserved. Why do people seem >to think that 'classic computer' == 'CPU only'? Agreed - I could easily put in a PC supply, and I even have a couple from "slimline" PC's which would probably fit the box - however I want the machine to be as original as possible. >> I'd buckshot the components in the switch driver, such as the IC. Sounds > >In a supply of this age, I would not be suprised if the chopper driver >was discrete transsitors. It is - the only IC is the Opto-isolator. Anyway - I found the problem - It was a shorted capacitor on the primary side of the transformer - what threw me off was it was NOT one of the electrolytics... There's another one beside it which is just like it, so I think I will replace both. Supply works fine now - and so does the entire machine. (Joy at getting an old Apple clone working somewhat overshadowed by the fact that I finally found a Kaypro today!) Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 10 months

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Exar 22-908-03 anyone ?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 30, 22:25, Jos Dreesen wrote: > My Lilith workstation keyboard seems to have taken an "electric" > beating, i.e. a 12 v to 5V short. > The wiring inside the machine was not the best...... > > It took out the 8035, a 74ls373 and, much worse, an unknown to me Exar > IC 22-908-03, datecode 1983 > > The first two are easy to replace, the Exar is much worse. > > Anybody have a pinout, a datasheet or an idea just what it might be ? I've got an Exar databook, but I'm afraid it's dated 1992, and everything in it is XR-xxx or XR-xxxx (occasionally with a single letter in front of the xxx). The XR-22xx devices are all phase-lock loops or VCOs, the XR-9080 is a "frequency synthesiser, data synchronizer/1,7 RLL ENDEC" in a 52-pin QFP package. Other XR-90xx devices seem to all be related to disk heads; they're preamps, filters, samplers, and pulse detectors. The XR-9050 seems to be an older simpler version of that. It's a 28-pin SOIC or PLCC described as a "24 Mbit/sec Data synchronization/1,7 RLL ENDEC", "faster than similar bipolar devices". Could your 22-908-03 be something to do with a hard drive controller? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

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DECnet/E Version mystery

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Does anyone know what the story is with DECnet/E V4.2 which apparently dates back to late 1988 or early 1989? How does one go about getting a copy? I'm curious as it's apparently the correct version starting with RSTS/E V9.7 & V10.0, and yet Mentec only lists DECnet/E V4.1 as available. Zane -- -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

21 years, 10 months

1
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IS32 Optic RAM Datasheet and Steve Ciarcia's Micro D-CAM Artical

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>> I've just checked my archives, and I have a copy of the original >> two-part artical, called: Build the Micro D-Cam Solid-State Video Camera >> I also have a copy of the Micron Technology IS32 OpticRAM data sheet. >> If anyone is interested, I can scan them and post them for public consumption. >Wow - if they're not too difficult to scan, that'd be great. TTBOMK not even >Partminer has a datasheet for the IS32. The BYTE articles are pretty elusive >too, IME. Ok - I will try to do it soon - I know I'm going to be swamped this week, and the material is going to take a little bit of tweaking to scan - they are photocopies, which are fairly readable, but an many of the artical pages the text goes right to the edge of the page (doesn't look like any of it was lost) - so I'll probably have to do it on the flatbed and fool with the page position a bit. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 10 months

1
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Pressed Particle Board Shelving Warning

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 30, 20:11, Geoffrey Thomas wrote: > It's a tool, a lot like the ones that carpet fitters use to stretch a fitted > carpet, that has two sets of spikes protruding from the base. You grip the > carpet by hitting the tile at an angle with the tool . Surprisingly > effective. There is also a lever in the handle to put more tension in the > grip of the spikes. Haven't seen it in use for a while as there aren't any > carpet tiles with us. ( We're not posh enough , obviously.) Nah, you're just not daft enough to have dust-encouraging carpet in your machine room :-) Besides, it's much easier to get the solder splashes off a hard floor covering, and it doesn't singe when the sparks hit it ;-) I've just been reminded of a photograph I was shown a few weeks ago at a network conference. A senior manager from JANET ops (who run the national backbone) described a recent installation at a site housing one of the main backbone routers. There had been "an issue" with water leakage from the flat roof so the local staff had built protection for the backbone router and its associated equipment (several racks), right in the otherwise-normal looking machine room. It consisted of a greenhouse frame with pitched roof, complete with gutters and downpipes. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

1
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Discharging CRT anode and capacitors on a VT52 DECscope

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Tom Jennings" <tomj(a)wps.com> > >> On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 11:27:51PM +0000, jpero(a)sympatico.ca wrote: > >> > At science museum once saw a very tickish student girl walk off lexan >> > platform by the big sphere HV generator depsite tech's warnings as >> > she stepped off a looong 2 feet long arc... That 2 feet long HV arc must be really packing >> > of power. > >Merely in the interests of spawning another near-infinite regress on >electron fundamentals... > >NO, it specifically had VERY LITTLE POWER, though a lotta voltage. > > P = E * I > >E= voltage, I= Current > > >Probably as much POWER as a nine-volt battery or two. If it had much >more, it would have been an unsafe display, as it's S.K.O.P. (*) to >either not see, or ignore, or spite, safety warnings, and kid science >museums certainly know that! > Hi There is quite enough energy in a normal 9 volt battery to kill a person. It might need a little conversion but the total amount of energy stored there is quite large. I would suspect that there is several times less energy in the large arc as in a 9 volt battery. The fact is, it is the current that kills. The voltage is only needed to induce the current. Once one has enough current across the heart, it makes little difference what the voltage source was, so long as the current is sustained long enough to do damage. Sure, you might also say that it is the total energy that the heart takes in a given period of time. Still, the voltage is relatively constant across the heart for any given current. One might say there are two stages. One where the current holds the heart long enough to kill and the other where the total energy/time is large enough to damage tissue. Still, dead is dead. As far as discharging CRT, the charge can come back after some time. There are surface charges in the glass that will tend to rebuild the charge after a simple discharge. Don't trust a CRT unless a clip is connected from the second anode to the conductive layer on the back. It ain't gonna kill you >from the shock but you might find a lot of glass where you don't want it. Dwight

21 years, 10 months

6
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Switching supply expertise?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi, Rescued an Apple clone from the trash yesterday (Ci Base48) - appears to be all there, but power supply is dead. I've had a bit of experience with small DC transformerless switchers, but not with mains power, transformer based switchers like this. Fuse was blown - replace, powered up through a 60w light bulb, the lamp comes on (and stays on) at full intensity - clearly excessive draw. Board bears the name "Seasonic". I have no schematics. >From what I can tell: - Mains power goes to full-wave bridge rectifier and filter caps to produce HV DC supply. - HV DC supply goes through fuse to a single heat-sinked power transistor (C2979) which drives the transformer primary. - Secondaries from transformer are recitied by big heat-sinked diodes, then filtered, and monitored by a circuit, which feeds back through an opto- isolator to the control circuit for the power transistor driving the primary (presumably this is the method of voltage regulation). Opservations: (Powering unit through isolation transformar, variac and 60w light bulb) - With fuse removed, HV DC supply apears to work fine. Filter caps charge up to in the high 100's Volts. - No light from lamp indicating very little drain (as expected). - With fuse installed, lamp lights at full intensity. No voltage measured across HV filter caps at all. - Power transistor does not appear shorted - Removed from circuit and using a diode test function, it shows two normal semiconductor junctions. Can anyone offer suggestions on where to look next? Are there any common failure modes of this type of power supply design? Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 10 months

3
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Pressed Particle Board Shelving Warning

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 27, 18:18, der Mouse wrote: > >> So I'd say that you should never use particle board to carry loads. > > Manufacturers of computer room raised floors will disagree with that > > -- all the high-load ones I've ever coma across are made of particle > > board (usually with a very thin metal cladding, which is to protect > > against moisture and impacts, and to provide electrical continuity). > > Of course, these are 35mm-45mm thick, not 15mm-18mm. > > They also are supported around the whole edge of a two-foot-square > square. Eh? They're supported at the corners only. Some do have metal cladding round the edges, but it's not very strong. > If those shelves were supported every two feet - especially if > they used that kind of thickness - I bet they'd still be just fine. > > >From an engineering perspective, I'd say that particleboard is fine for > carrying loads in the right circumstances, but it is incumbent upon the > designer to know what those circumstances are and design accordingly. Agreed. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

7
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ftp vs http vs scp

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 28, 13:34, Roger Merchberger wrote: > Rumor has it that Jules Richardson may have mentioned these words: > >On Fri, 2004-05-28 at 16:48, Patrick Finnegan wrote: > > > Personally, I rather be > > > able to press <UP> than retype a 40+ character command line that I > > > mis-typed a single letter on. > > >Doesn't that particular form of simple command line editing (eg. ^a^b) > >work in the original sh? :-) > > Yes, but <UP><DOWN> and tab file/command completion don't. No, none of those exist in the original 'sh' (Bourne Shell), not even in fairly recent varieties, such as in late-90s IRIX. However, command line editing (using a large subset of vi commands) and command history exist in the Korn Shell (ksh). You might have been confused by that, since many recent UNIXes provide an "sh" as a symlink to "ksh", just as linux provides "sh" as just a symlink to "bash". -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

1
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IBM AT Free to a Good Home

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 26, 0:02, Tony Duell wrote: > All the passengers got out of their seats and rushed to see this. > Unfortunately, the uneven weight distribution caused ther plane to roll > over and crash. > > Which illustrates that 'Too many poles in the right hand half of the > plane leads to instabilty' :-) LOL! If you've not already seen them, you'd probably be interested in two pages designed by one of my mentors, who taught me on the digitasl Filter Design course some years ago: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~fisher/lcfilter/ http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~fisher/mkfilter/ Tony (Fisher) probably knew the joke. He wrote, "I've been advised to say that, although I believe the package to be bug-free, you use the results at your own peril, and you're advised to check them for correctness before using them. Don't blame me if your aircraft falls out of the sky!" -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

1
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Pressed Particle Board Shelving Warning

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 28, 12:20, der Mouse wrote: > >> I suppose the [raised-floor tiles] I am familiar with from the one > >> job I've worked at that used them are atypical, then. They [...] > > I've worked in an office which had those too, so you're not alone. > > They were very tight fitting too, and needed a couple of big > > suction-cups to lift them up. They could take one hell of a weight > > though. > > Matches my experience on all counts. (Though if you start with a tile > with a hole cut in it, so you can get a grip by hand, you don't need > the suction cups. A screwdriver between the tiles can also turn the > trick. On May 28, 12:46, McFadden, Mike wrote: > I have a pile of computer flooring setting in the corner of my garage. > The hospital removed it and I'm hoping to set up a computer room. My > wife keeps asking about when and where. > > Tiles have a black rubber/plastic edge about ? inch wide on all edges. > Center is tile/hard linoleum. Structure is steel with an x pattern > on the bottom. Very heavy. The tracks to support the tiles are metal > channels [...] Mine are high-density chipboard about 45mm thick with zinc-plated steel cladding top and bottom (the steel is pretty thin). The top side is further clad with hard vinyl floorcovering. The sides are beveled to make it easier to lift each one in and out, and have a plastic strip bonded to them to prevent moisture ingress; each corner has a metal plate that helps locate them correctly on the crossheads on the legs. The suports are just over 1" diameter zinc-plated steel with a cast alloy crosshead on the top. They're epoxied to the concrete floor and there are no stringers or stretchers between the legs. They are similar to the Guardian range made by Propaflor, the specs for which you can see at http://www.propaflor.co.uk/public_html/gheavy.htm The ones at work are just like the Guardian Heavy range, with carpet-like material on the top. Mine (at home) and the ones at work are all fitted together so closely that you couldn't really get a screwdriver between them to prise them up. If you're curious about the translation of Newtons to American weights, the lightest range (Propadek, 30mm thick, unclad) on those pages says it can support 1500 Newtons on any single 1" square of the tile -- that's about 330lb. The 38mm version can support twice that. The middle range (Spacedek) claims up to 4500 N, that's half a ton. The Guardian range goes up a bit more, and claims to support almost a ton and a quarter (2455lb) on four equidistant points, each a third of the way in from the corners of the 600mm square tile. > The only problem with the suction cup tile pullers is that picking a > tile up at an angle can result in dropped tiles, they loose suction. If they're two-cup suction lifters, they probably need cleaned. They sometimes get like that when they get grit embedded in them. If they're one-cup versions, they're meant for pulling dents in car bodywork, not floors :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

1
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IS32 Optic RAM Datasheet and Steve Ciarcia's Micro D-CAM Artical

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

I've just checked my archives, and I have a copy of the original two-part artical, called: Build the Micro D-Cam Solid-State Video Camera Part1: The IS32 Optic RAM and the Micro D-Cam Hardware - Sep 1983 BYTE Part2: Computer interface and Control software - Oct 1983 BYTE I also have a copy of the Micron Technology IS32 OpticRAM data sheet. If anyone is interested, I can scan them and post them for public consumption. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 10 months

2
1
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Pressed Particle Board Shelving Warning

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 29, 22:58, Ethan Dicks wrote: > On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 03:41:50PM -0700, Ron Hudson wrote: > > How do you lift the carpet covered ones? Hook velcro on handles? > > I've seen a tool that resembles the suction-cup lifter, but instead of > rubber cups, there are square plates with tiny metal hooks, rather like > velcro. You place the tool on the carpet and slide it in one direction > to snag the carpet, and slide it in the other direction to release it. Ours are a bit like that; there's a lever on the top to slide the two plates apart. The spikes are about 1/4" long. They all seem to be like that; one of ours recently went missing and I contacted a lot of companies to get a replacement. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

1
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Computer flooring/flooding/water in computer rooms

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 29, 11:09, Patrick Finnegan wrote: > Hmm, this is turning into "who's computer room hasn't flooded?" :-) > Anyhow, > we've had similar problems with the drains from our Leibert A/C units > getting clogged and overflowing Hmm, ours is a Liebert too... -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

1
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Somebody just got a steal - PDP8a and ASR33

by wacarder＠usit.net

Look what somebody got for $50 on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4193&item=4134523032& rd=1 - Ashley

21 years, 10 months

6
6
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Pressed Particle Board Shelving Warning

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 27, 8:54, Paul Koning wrote: > I have had a particle board bookshelf come apart. The blame was in > part on incompetent design ("scandinavian design" pretty looking > stuff) -- the shelf was "supported" on a groove milled in the edge. > That means the load was carried on less than half the thickness of the > shelf. Presumably it sagged, and the ends came away from the sides? I've seen that happen. Bad design -- either an inappropriate design for the material, or an inappropraite material for the design, depending on your point of view :-) I think US building rules say that particle board (or its various > analogs, such as OSB -- I still call that particle board) are not > allowed for load bearing applications such as floors. Those must be > plywood. And personally I view any house built with particle board > *anywhere* (even where it's permitted) as cheap construction. > > So I'd say that you should never use particle board to carry loads. Manufacturers of computer room raised floors will disagree with that -- all the high-load ones I've ever coma across are made of particle board (usually with a very thin metal cladding, which is to protect against moisture and impacts, and to provide electrical continuity). Of course, these are 35mm-45mm thick, not 15mm-18mm. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 10 months

4
3
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Computer flooring/flooding/water in computer rooms

by technobug＠comcast.net

Back when I was running a ground station using a Modcomp, the Modcomp tech came by for scheduled service and told me about a service that he had just performed at an aluminum smelter. Seems they used the beasties for controlling the anodic smelting process and placed the computer right next to the smelter. Inorder to protect it from the heat they put the crates in a large NEMA box and piped cooling water to a radiator in the box. When he arrived he sucessfully ran the system checks from the console and then opened the box to find the entire thing was full of water. Seems they were very concientious about using deionized water in their cooling systems and no harm was done. Other than having to dry everything out, he had to replace forty-some fans in the unit, reseat all the chips (hundreds - everything was socketed) and of course repair the cooling radiator. CRC

21 years, 10 months

1
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